Maude Adams: Book 2 – A Kiss for Cinderella

This is the second book in my series on Maude Adams and is about the play she was in that was titled A Kiss for Cinderella. In this book I have included the entire play from the original book copyrighted 1920, along with various articles from newspapers and other sources about the play. Although it seemed to have been a popular play and a success for Maude Adams, there didn't seem to be very many articles or other materials on the play for some reason.

In the play Maude Adams played the part of Jane Thing. The play opened Christmas night, 1916, to mixed reviews, although the critics loved Maude Adams part of it. The play ran 152 shows. She did a summer tour of the show (also including The Little Minister and Peter Pan), and traveled some 18,000 miles during that tour. At one point she collapsed during a performance from the effects of influenza.

All articles, scans, and the original book are from original materials dated before 1923.

My Writing

I. Kindle books:

All three of these books deal with the interment camps for Japanese Americans that were run by the U.S. government during World War II. I examined literally thousands of newsletters from the various camps and extracted articles from them that I felt were particularly important, then wrote the following books about what I found.

From the Inside: Illustrations and photos used in Internment Camp Newsletters

From the Inside: Articles relating to Violence from the Internment Camp Newsletters

From the Inside: Articles relating to Prejudice from the Internment Camp Newsletters

The rest of the books will deal with Maude Adams. A complete list is at the end of this book.

II. Non-Kindle books

I am the co-author of a book entitled Thunderhead: A New Age Life and Times, which I wrote with Medicine Hawk, a half-breed medicine man. I have also contributed poetry to the books Golden Harvest and Timeless Treasures.

Articles About the Play

Evening Post, December 22, 1916: It is extremely unlikely that any other living actress would have carried the part of Cinderella as naturally and effectively as she did. 26 Dec. 1916

New York Evening Post, December 26, 1916: Her artifices never vary...but they never grow stale. There is a bubbling vitality in her that gives an aspect of freshness to manifestations which have been familiar for years.

The World, December 26, 1916: There is delicacy, variety and animation in her performance, and there are also just the graduations of wistfulness, pathos and humor which the role requires. 26 Dec. 1916

Lincoln Daily Star, December 31, 1916. Maude Adams completes the trio who brightened up the hasty exit of the old year and in J. M. Barrie's comedy, 'A Kiss for Cinderella,' she adds very materially to the past theatrical season.

The play is a fantasy of the 'Peter Pan' variety and in its quaintness lies its charm. The first act is full of comedy and as Cinderella Miss Adams' work is, as usual, effective.

The dream element of the play is decidedly a Barrieism and the love scene in the last act is done with such rare grace that it is just possible that, in itself, it will bring the offering to the stage of popularity reached by 'Peter Pan.'

The slightest suggestion of the war is evidence in the fantastic wanderings of Barrie's mind, which is evidently intended to keep the audience alive to the fact that although the play is a dream, there is still a material portion of the drama that actually takes place.

It is a delightful play, well acted, and with the added advantage of the infinite charm of Maude Adams.

Lincoln Sunday Star, April 29, 1917. Maude Adams will close her season in 'A Kiss for Cinderella' on (?) The Barrie fantasy has proven one of the foremost attractions of the year, and from a financial standpoint fully justifies the confidence placed in it by the producer. It is the type of play that every once in a while takes New York back to the days of its childhood, and for that reason is successful.

Journal of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae: .Sept. 1917-June 1918. Our College Night benefit performance-Maude Adams in A Kiss for Cinderella at the Detroit Opera House on February 20-was a great success in every way, in spite of the number of difficulties which arose.

The performance netted between $900 and $1000.

The Tacoma Times: May 14, 1918: RUSH FOR SEATS TO SEE MAUDE ADAMS. The sale of seats for 'A Kiss for Cinderella,' in which Maude Adams will appear at the Tacoma theater Wednesday matinee and night, opened Tuesday morning with an almost unprecedented rush at the box office.

The mail orders for seats to see the favorite actress in Mr. Barrie's new play have broken all records, and it is predicted the entire house will be sold out early for both matinee and evening performances.

In getting Barrie's new play ready for the public, it was Miss Adams' ambition to make the staging and the interpretation of the characters absolutely flawless. She called to her aid the best brains to be had and the consensus of opinion after the work was publicly given was that the little actress had admirably succeeded in her aims.

The success achieved by the play in the hands of Miss Adams is already known. This success was expected, for those familiar with Mr. Barrie's past work were certain that in modernizing the story of Cinderella he would have such wonderful opportunity for exercising his fancy droll quaintness and wealth of whimsical humor that the effort could not fail in winning much favor.

Apart from the worth of the play itself, the most gratifying thing connected with it is that it gives Miss Adams a role that she molds into one of the most charming creations that she has shown the public.

The Oakland Tribune, June 2, 1918. There is an importance attached to the engagement of Maude Adams at the Auditorium theater (part of a line I can't make out) to the fact that the play in which she is to be seen is 'A Kiss for Cinderella,' the latest long work from the pen of J. M. Barrie to reach this country, and one that is to afford the charming actress the first new role she has had in several seasons. Barrie calls his modernized version of the oldest of fairy tales a 'fancy,' and scornfully sets down his heroine as Miss Thing. The latter is the housemaid in the studio of an artist. She spends her nights in the shanty she calls 'The Penny Friend.' There she does all sorts of odd jobs for others as unfortunate as herself, for the sorry little one has a sad time of it trying to make both ends meet. There is in Cinderella a brand of patriotism that would put that of many a strong man to shame.

The incidental music was arranged by Paul Tietjens, who will direct the orchestra. The company surrounding Miss Adams is made up of well known players.

The Oakland Tribune: June 5, 1918. Maude Adams Coming in New Barrie Play. There will be a welcome for Maude Adams and the play she is to present; J. M. Barrie's new work, 'A Kiss for Cinderella,' at the Auditorium theater tomorrow night. This is to be expected for the actress is immensely popular, and the genius of Barrie has long been recognized.

The demand for seats has been such that there is sure to be a large audiences to view the dramatist's treatment of the oldest of fairy tales in a modern setting.

'A Kiss for Cinderella' is in three acts and opens in a modern studio of an artist where the heroine is the little housekeeper, the artist and the policeman who turns out to be the hero.

The cast is large and the production elaborate.

Essays on Modern Dramatists by William Lyon Phelps; Books for Libraries Press, 1921. In A Kiss for Cinderella ( 1916) we have one of the lesser [Barrie] plays, but for all that a thing of beauty. Here he returns to favorite ground, representing life through the imagination of an elementary mind. The old charwoman attends the royal function, where the king and queen are sitting in rocking-chairs and eating ice-cream cones. Lord Times is even higher, as the Quiet was above Setebos. This play indicates that the tenderness in the author's heart cannot be killed by circumstances; in the scene where the charwoman is taking care of the babies, one of them happens to be German. "I couldn't help taking her!" In her poverty and in her charity is there not a rebuke both to those who had much and gave little and to those who foamed at the mouth with indiscriminate hate?

A negative review:

Mr. George Jean Nathan Presents (1917): Barrie's 'A Kiss for Cinderella,' Miss Adams 1917 offering, though not without its several typical Barrie conceits and lovely touches, fails to arouse my enthusiasms. On all sides I have read and heard tell of its 'unalloyed charm,' its 'gently pathetic fancy,' its 'heart-warmed, moist-eyed delicacy,' its 'wistful loveliness' and all its winsome et ceteras, but I am unpersuaded. At no points save in its first act does it approach to the stature of Miss Gates' 'Poor Little rich Girl,' which it in content closely resembles.