Actress Who Will Have Stellar Role in
"The Little Cherub" First Saw Thespian
Light as a Chorus Girl.
When "The Little Cherub" is brought over from London to New York, in this
month of August, and installed at the Criterion Theater, on Broadway,
Hattie Williams's name will go up over the doorway in electric brilliancy
as the star of this musical comedy from the Prince of Wales's Theater. She
has won this distinction at the hands of Charles Frohman by the excellence
of her work in the support of Sam Bernard during the exploitation of "The
Girl from Kay's" and "The Rollicking Girl."
I called on Miss Williams the other afternoon and found her not in the
least exalted in mind over her approaching launch into stellar spaces.
Indeed, seldom have I encountered in the ranks of Thespis a more modest
young woman.
Although she has been in musical comedy almost continuously throughout her
career of thirteen years, she admits quite frankly that she cannot sing,
and that she has placed herself in the hands of a good master to learn
how. You see, she sets her standard of vocal attainments considerably
higher than do those who talk their songs in the musical plays.
At Fifteen Dollars a Week.
"Yes," she said, in answer to my reminder about her start, "I began in the
chorus of '1492,' at fifteen dollars a week. How did I get the job? Why, I
was simply stage-struck. I saw in the newspapers that Mr. Rice wanted
chorus-girls for his new production, so I went to the theater and asked
for him. He saw me at once, and engaged me.
"You see, I was a Boston girl, and knew something of the show, as it had
been given first by our crack regiment, the Boston Cadets. I remember
among the girls with me in that special chorus group, which afterward made
up the Daily Hints from Paris, were Grace Rutter (now Grace Elliston), who
is the _Mouse_ in 'The Lion and the Mouse,' and Minnie Ashley, who married
Mr. Chanler a while ago and left the stage.
"When the show was brought to New York, the management gave me, in
addition to my chorus specialty, the small part of the _Infanta_, and my
pay was advanced to thirty-five dollars. Then A.M. Palmer, in whose
theater we were having our long run, offered to make me the dancing girl
in 'Trilby,' and I accepted. After that I went into the Hoyt farces and
got up next to leading woman. And this reminds me of a funny
experience--funny now to look back on, but rather exasperating at the
time.
"I had been understudy to the lead in 'A Day and a Night' one season, and
was getting fifty dollars a week. The next year they wanted me to go out
as leading woman in the same piece, and offered me the same money. I
naturally thought that I ought to have more, and told them so.
Those Elusive Sleepers.
"'Look here, Hattie,' said the manager, 'I tell you what we'll do. I'll
make it fifty-five a week and your sleepers. How does that strike you?'
"I was delighted. With my sleeping-car berths settled for by the company,
I stood to save a good bit at every jump, which was just like putting so
much extra money in my pocket. I accepted, and, will you believe it, we
never used sleepers once during the whole tour, for we did all our
traveling by daylight. The joke was on me, all right, that time."
When "The Girl from Maxim's" exhausted its drawing power after a long run
in town and was sent on the road the lead was awarded to Miss Williams,
who acquitted herself so well that she was put into "The Rogers Brothers
at Harvard," and played for the first time as a real principal on
Broadway. Her imitations of different types, in this show were extremely
clever, and she was engaged again for the Washington experiences of the
Rogers Brothers the next season. In short, Hattie Williams had "arrived."
She has most peculiar views on applause.
"People come to the theater," she told me, "for relaxation and amusement.
I do not see why, after they have paid to be entertained, I should expect
them to go to the exertion of applause in tight gloves. If I have
satisfied them--made them feel that they have had their money's worth--I
should be content to let it go at that. Their being willing to come to see
me again is the real test of their good opinion."