Scarlet Sister; Red Apples

Few U. S. families are so steeped in tradition as the Barrymores, whose eighth theatrical generation consists of John, Lionel and Ethel (the onetime Mrs. Russell Griswold Colt). One part of the Barrymore code is that to any member appearing in a Manhattan premiere, another member sends not a basket of roses, but a big red apple. This autumn Ethel Barrymore has been gallantly struggling for big red apples--some for herself and some for her daughter Ethel Barrymore Colt, 19, who is making the ninth generation's debut with her mother in Scarlet Sister Mary.

Ethel Barrymore has had trying times before. Fitted by appearance and temperament to play drawing room drama, almost every time she has attempted something more pretentious she has met with a setback, e. g.: The Shadow (1915), Rose Bernd (1922), Romeo & Juliet (1922), The Kingdom of God (1928). Even a Barrymore can fail, critics remembered, when Scarlet Sister Mary opened in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 22. Up to last week the closest she had gotten to Manhattan was Washington.

Audiences in Columbus were not particularly warm toward the play. Adapted from Julia Peterkin's Pulitzer prizewinning novel, its first drawback was that the dialog was in Gullah.* And Actress Barrymore's facial expressions, under cork, were hard to see, especially since the sets were made too dark. But Actress Barrymore was not downhearted. She had the kind of a part which is every actor's dream: when she was not holding the stage all the other actors were talking about her.

Her role was that of Sister Mary (Si May-e), a noble, impetuous Negress whose first husband leaves her for his side woman within a year of their marriage. After that she becomes notoriously promiscuous, tenderly raises a brood of illegitimate children. After 20 years her husband, whom she has never ceased to love, returns. Sister Mary scorns him. Then her firstborn, Unex (so named because he was unexpectedly born in the middle of a road), dies and in a loud wail, as the curtain falls, Sister Mary finally makes known her contrition. Ethel Barrymore Colt, as one of Sister Mary's daughters, makes four appearances, speaks a few lines in the last act.

From Columbus the piece journeyed to Cleveland, to Pittsburgh, to Washington where it again swung into the Western circuit under playdoctors' orders. Meanwhile it was receiving either awed accolades because Actress Barrymore was in it, or courteous, unimpressed reviews. It was clear that it was not yet fit for the big time and Actress Barrymore repeatedly refused to have her picture taken in blackface. This was probably due to the fact that she was fussing with her makeup, making it lighter and lighter, going from minstrel-show black to high brown. Also, the dialog was being freed from much of its unintelligible verbiage.

From Cincinnati the play moved to St. Louis. Here an enterprising cameraman from International News Service slipped into the theatre to get Actress Barrymore's picture. He was caught, thrown out. Likewise in Kansas City an I. N. S. photographer was discovered, evicted. In Minneapolis no attempt was made, but last fortnight at Detroit a Candid Camera clicked twice, one clear photograph resulted (see cut).

Four days later Actress Barrymore collapsed. Announced cause : laryngitis, conjunctivitis. She and her pressagents said she would surely fulfill her Manhattan engagement. Hard-boiled theatre folk remarked that red apples, the Barrymore badge, are, nowadays, the stock-in-trade of Manhattan's unemployed, but the demand for Scarlet Sister tickets was tremendous.

* A coastal Negro dialect of South Carolina, part Huguenot, part English, part African. Sample: W'en oona duh de-dey, duh dee' duh un de-dey (When you are there, the deer is not there).

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