Radio revue (Dec 1929-Mar 1930)

F EBRU ARY , 19 3 0 have material for a thousand characterizations. But still you ask: "What character do you love most to play?" Let me see — I have played some sixty-five roles over a period of two and a half years. Perhaps if I review some of them I may discover preferences. Marietta, in Naughty Marietta is dear to me because of her mischievous fiery Italian temperament. Her moods are as scintillating as the stars. She is April, laughing one moment and weeping the next. Her personality is all bright darts until, slowly and like a flower unfolding, you see her romantic nature bloom. Cannot Part With Angele Angele, in The Count of Luxembourg, is very different. She is French and her flashes of personality contrast markedly with the little Italian girl. Angele is taller and more beautiful. Besides, Marietta has a title and Angele ismarrying for one, so . . . being an actress her charm is heightened ten times. She is graceful, poised, gay and subtle. She has humor, too — and a certain good sportsmanship which she adequately displays in her beautiful opening aria "Love, Good-Bye!" No, no, I cannot part with Angele! Do you remember O Mimosa San, the dainty fluttering little creature in The Geisha? And Kafhie, the blonde, vital, laughing barmaid in The Student Prince? From her first rippling laugh in the first act to her "Good-bye Heidelberg" tears in the last, I love her. Then there are Babette, Zoradie in The Rose of Algeria, Gretchen and Tina in The Red Mill; Elaine in The Debutante; Mary and Jane in The Babes in Toyland; Vivien in The Enchantress; Greta in The Singing Girl; Irma in The Fortune-Tcller, Seraphina in The Madcap Dutchess; Eileen and Rosie Flynn in Eileen — all of these are beloved Victor Herbert roles — Flora and Janet, so sweet and heathery in de Koven's Rob Roy; Anitza, thoroughly Americanized by George Cohan, in The Royal Vagabond. Princess Pat, a girl to dream about, poured forth her romantic soul in some of Herbert's loveliest music, "Love is the Best of All"; "All for You," and "I Need Affection, oh, so Much!" Ottilie of the Mauve Decade Ottilie, in Maytime is American, quaint and of the mauve decade. She is the girl who tells her lover in the first act "Your arm is like a pumphandle, — there's no cuddle to it!" This same girl grows older and older throughout the play, until she finally appears as a grandmother. Throughout the whole time and space of the play she has never forgotten the words of "Uncle Bob" Sherwood, last of Barnum's Clowns, Congratulates Jessica on her recent Debut as exclusive Soloist on the Cities Service Hour, NBC. Conductor Rosario Bourdon seconds the Motion. her lover, and they echo from generation to generation "To life's last faint ember, will you reme m b e r? Springtime! Lovetime! May!" I could go on and enumerate still more characters, all dear to me. They pass the horizon of my memory like delightful dreams each leaving a familiar footfall. The business of the artist, whether she be singer or actress, is to transf e r feeling. A great many people think that, if an actress is to portray anger, she must do it with contorted face, clenched fists shouting and armwaving. Yet we readily admit that in real life the greatest emotion is expressed with the least vehemence. We read that Wendell Phillips (who probably had a greater effect upon his audiences than any other orator of any age) seldom made a gesture and seldom raised his voice. On what, then, did his success depend? I believe, in his ability to project feeling, which at once becomes the absorbing problem of the radio artist. Must Transfer Feelings to Listener The dramatist or musician has woven certain feelings into character, incident, scene or story. When these feelings in their utmost power have been transferred by the artist to the listener, so that he, too, is infected with them, the cycle of art is complete. Which role do I love most to play? I really cannot name any one. I love them all — but principally the one I happen to be playing. As Fifi, in "Mile. Modiste.'