Articles
New York Times, Sept. 20, 1908. BARRIE'S NEW PLAY WITH MAUDE ADAMS.
It was, of course, practically a certainty that Maude Adams would be selected to play in the United states the part of Maggie Wylie in What Every Woman Knows, Barrie's new play given here with such tremendous success at the Duke of York's Theater, but definite arrangements to that effect have only just bee concluded by the three parties most concerned-that is, Mr. Barrie, Miss Adams, and Charles Frohman.
Mr. Barrie has been in Scotland, but was up in town this week, and yesterday afternoon intimated that the matter was settled. Maude Adams has now returned to a cottage in the neighborhood of Dublin, where she is passing her vacation.
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New York Times, Oct. 17, 1908: What Every Woman Knows, the new play by J. M. Barrie, with Maude Adams in the leading role, had its first presentation her (Atlantic City, N. J.) to-night at the Apollo Theater. There was a crowded house, and Miss Adams was well received.
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University Missourian, Oct. 23, 1908: MISS ADAMS WINS IN BARRIE COMEDY. In What Every Woman Knows She Excels Past Estimates of Merits.
Maude Adams scored a distinct success in the first American production at the Azpollo Theater of J. M. Barrie's comedy What Every Woman Knows.
New Yorkers in the audience found the actress in her new role of Maggie Wylie,k spinster, under contract to wed John Shand, a poor youth who becomes an M. P., more of an artist than in any of her previous successes. She appears to special advantage in the second act, which ends with a mob scene that is very effective.
Miss Adams' role is that of the daughter of a Scotch quarry owner. Her father and her two brothers are self-made men with great respect for the learning of which they themselves possess so little. The brothers esteem it something of a disgrace that Maggie has not been sought in marriage by any of the young men of the neighborhood.
She does not see any disgrace in this, last when her brothers catch John Shand after he has entered their library like a thief to make use of the books he is too poor to buy and offer him freedom and money to finish his education if only he will marry her, she willingly consents. Shand also consents after due deliberation, and sticks to his bargain even when Maggie, seeing his reluctance, refuses to hold him to it.
The marriage takes place and then comes the story of the making of a man by a man's wife, told in Barrie's best manner.
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The Bourbon News (Paris, Ky.) Oct. 26, 1908.
Maude Adams will be seen at the Lexington opera house Thursday evening, October 28, in J.M. Barrie's comedy, What Every Woman Knows. This is the play in which Charles Frohman presented the actress last season and which had such a phenomenally successful engagement in New York. It is the fourth play from the pen of the gifted Scotch dramatist in which Miss Adams has appeared and it is destined to become a more enduring success than any of these which had preceded it. Since its production What Every Woman Knows gives just the type of play that every woman wants to see Miss Adams in. It gives the charming actress a fine opportunity for the display of her talents and furthermore while it is delightfully amusing there are periods when it takes a tight clutch on one's sympathies.
Barrie might have laid the plot of 'What Every Woman Knows' anywhere in the world where there are stubborn husbands to be managed by clever wives. Being a Scotchman, however, and never quite so happy as when he is poking fun at the Scotch. He made his characters Scotch and placed most of his scenes in 'the land o'cakes.'
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New York Sun: Dec. 24, 1908. The play was received with many curtain calls and Miss Adams, visibly moved by her enthusiastic greeting, barely managed to stammer out her thanks.
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New York Times, Dec. 24, 1908. “But she seemed for a part of the time to be laboring under a great nervous strain, and her identification with the role was not so complete as might have been desired. In the first two acts especially she seemed overwrought almost to the point of hysteria, and the suggestion of character in speech and action was lacking.”
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The Outlook, Jan. 9, 1909:: Perhaps she would better fit Mr. Barrie's conception of his heroine if she could make herself less charming.
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The Theatre, Feb. 1909: “If one may be permitted to criticize any part of an impersonation that was wholly satisfying and delightful, it is that Miss Adams makes too charming a Maggie. The logic of the plot calls for a homelier heroine. It is impossible to conceive that John Shand, no matter how egotistical, could be so blind to the worth of the gentle creature who was the Svengali of his success.”
New York Times, April 20, 1909. “Miss Adams was most enthusiastically greeted after each act, and once she came forward and thanked the Yale men for inviting her to appear here. As the curtain fell on the last act the entire audience arose and cheered. The ascending curtain then showed that great masses of flowers, in which violets were conspicuous, had been rushed in from the wings, the gifts of many friends. Max Perry, president of the Dramatic Association, stepped out of a box and, addressing Miss Adams, announced her election as an honorary member, and he presented her with the medal of the association. then from the footlights Mr. Perry led Yale men in the long cheer, with three “Maude Adams,” and as this died away the Glee Club sang 'For God, Our Country, and Yale.” Miss Adams thanked the audience, and for several minutes there was cheering.”
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New York Times, Dec. 16, 1909
The genuine holiday spirit prevailed at the Empire Theater last night, as well it might in the presence of so popular a favorite as Miss Maude Adams, renewing the pleasures which she has previously given playergoers in Mr. J. M. Barrie's charming play, What Every Woman Knows.
One of the things they know, and a knowledge that is shared by mere males males as well, is the ingratiating charm of Miss Maude Adams, again conspicuously in evidence, despite the fact that Maggie Wylie's brothers persist in a delusion in regard to it. Since her earliest appearances here in the role Miss Adams ha splayed it many, many times, but her performance seems to have lost nothing of its freshness and spontaneity. It certainly continues to give keen pleasure to those who see it.
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The Pacific Monthly July to December 1909
Miss Maude Adams, who began her season at the Empire Theatre on Christmas Eve, 1908, in 'What Every Woman Knows', closed it with the same play, on June 5, 1909. That favorite actress has never acted better-with more sincerity and more charm of quaint character-than in this semi-satirical, semi-fantastic and whimsical play. miss Adams should be welcomed wherever she appears and doubtless she will be. Mr. Barrie's play is replete with striking incidents, and, though the conduct of its central character is, in some respects forced, it is almost continuously amusing, while at some points it touches the chord of pathos; and the spectator is happier for having seen it.
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The Salt Lake Herald Republican, April 22, 1910. MAUD ADAMS AVERTS PANIC IN A THEATER.
Kansas City. By her coolness in an emergency, Maud Adams, the actress, prevented what might have been a panic in a local theater tonight, following the blowing out of a fuse in the footlights.
Miss Adams, who is appearing in What Every Woman Knows, had just entered the stage at the opening of the second act when there was a flash and a puff of smoke arose from the footlights.
Twenty men started for the doors. Every woman in the house kept her seat. Miss Adams ordered the curtain run down and then, coming forward, assured the audience there was no danger.
The second act was started all over again.
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The Colorado Springs Gazette, May 3, 1910.MAUDE ADAMS JUSTIFIES WIDESPREAD REPUTATION. Shows rare talent in What Every Woman Knows. Supporting company splendid.
When people advertise in the papers that they will pay $10 for two seats to a theatrical performance it is pretty good evidence there is something on hand worth seeing. In the case of Maude Adams it is always the actress rather than the play. probably the greater part of Miss Adams' artistic career has been devoted to the production of J. M. Barrie's plays, first The Little Minister, then Peter Pan, and now What Every Woman Knows-and the plays are always far above the level of present-day dramatic writing, but to Miss Adams' following it would make little difference whether the play was good, bad or indifferent. The charm of her wonderful personality would make any role fascinating, and the certainty of an unusual treat fully justifies the sort of enthusiasm which brings people out on a stormy night and packs the house to suffocation, even at advanced prices.
It is useless to attempt to analyze the charm of Maude Adams' acting. It defies analysis and criticism alike, for it does not conform to any established rule. It is made up chiefly of personality, but this certainly does not mean that her art is in any sense lacking, for every movement and gesture, the delicate shading with which is given to every line, even the effective 'little catches' in her voice, are the expression of her finished art. She does not possess the physical charms which add so much to the effectiveness of most successful actresses, but the strange thing is not that she succeeds without them, but that one feels instinctively that if she had them they would actually detract from her power. Her art is so spontaneous, so unobtrusive, so free from any suggestion of 'staginess' that the memory of it lingers long after the play which formed its vehicle is forgotten.
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The Tacoma Times June 17, 1910: MAUDE ADAMS DRAWS MONSTER HOUSE.
Every seat was occupied and every available spot of standing room was sold out and occupied at the Tacoma theater last night when Maude Adams presented Barrie's great play, 'What Every Woman Knows.' And at that hundreds had to be turned away unable to gain admission.
The production was up to the usual Maude Adams standard.
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American Magazine, July 1910.
“In the opening act of 'What Every Woman Knows,' for example, Miss Maude Adams, most popular of players, acts very badly. She strives by every little trick at her command to be charming; and the part distinctly calls for a complete absence of charm. Awareness of Maggie's charm should come gradually, not only to John Shand, but to the audience. A large conception of the role of Maggie, which saw it firmly in relation to the entire play, would bring about quite a different impersonation and a better one. ...But Miss Adams has a witchery about her which makes it doubly difficult to visualize a character she is playing apart from her impersonation. It is doubly difficult to convict her of error before the jury of the public.
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The Twentieth Century Theatre: Observations on the Contemporary English and American Stage by William Lyon Phelps; The Macmillan Company, 1918
Suppose some Briton writes a first-class play; I suppose a Briton, because he is more likely to perform such a public service than an American. Let us take a fine example -- What Every Woman Knows, by J. M. Barrie. This is a drama full of thought, full of action, full of charm -- a great play. Every city and town in the United States ought to have the opportunity of seeing and hearing it, and it would be an enormous gain if we could all see and hear it at the same time. What are the terms by which an American may be permitted to witness it at all? It is produced at one theatre in one town by one company. The management hopes that it will run there at least a year. During that year if any person in Cleveland or Buffalo or St. Louis or Chicago or Salt Lake City happens to want to hear this drama performed, he must journey to New York, and succeed in the endeavour to buy a seat at the particular building where it is being produced. After the lapse of a year, or perhaps two or three years, it may be taken on the road, and it may or may not come within the range of the people living in the towns I have mentioned. Americans endure this situation in dramatic art without a protest; whereas if the case in question were some physical luxury, they would not endure it for a moment.
In some European countries, when a new play is produced in one of the large cities and the thing is successful, within a week every other city and many of the small towns are enjoying the same piece. This means that everybody in the country is talking about the same play at the same time -discussing it, arguing about it, reading criticisms of it in the local papers. The new play is an educational force; it is really a part of the national life. Europeans have often the same curiosity in dramatic art that we have in mechanical inventions, devices to lower expenses and increase profits, or a new system of dieting. A significant play in Europe is discussed with something of the same general eagerness that Americans talked about the book Eat and Grow Thin. It is a national sensation.
Now Americans by nature are not one whit more materialistic than Europeans. We simply are not informed as to what ought to be the condition of dramatic art. I am certain that if we had the opportunity we should take advantage of it. There is an immense amount of intellectual and spiritual hunger in America. The so-called "practical" and shrewd theatre-managers who are the shepherds of our souls have a lower opinion of our intelligence than the facts warrant. Over and over again they decline to give us good music and good drama, because they are so cocksure we do not want it. When John Galsworthy's new play Justice was brought to America it was offered in turn to a succession of dramatic managers, who contemptuously rejected it. The American people will never stand for that high-brow stuff." Finally one person was found who was willing to risk the venture. To the amazement of the "practical" men the play turned out to be an enormous financial success; night after night the house was crowded.
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Essays on Modern Dramatists by William Lyon Phelps; Books for Libraries Press, 1921
For sheer audacity, it would be difficult to parallel the opening of What Every Woman Knows ( 1908). The curtain rises and not a word is spoken for seven minutes. To conceive and to insist on such a situation is an indication of how much confidence the playwright had in himself, and in his audience. His confidence was justified, though it would be foolhardy for another to imitate it. I remember hearing of one play, where the curtain rose on an empty room; a dim lamp was burning; a woman in black entered, took a seat at the table, and gave vent to a long sigh. Some one in the gallery said kindly, "Well, don't let us keep you up," and the audience went into such hysteria that the play could not go on.
In the beginning of this play, one sees that the author's silences are as impressive as his dialogue--in fact, it is dialogue, a kind of song without words. Silence is used for comedy, as Maeterlinck uses it for tragedy. The two men at the dambrod, the alternation of triumph and despair, were greeted by the audience with every indication of joyful recognition; and at the pat moment, in walks David, and removes his boots. You can hear the clock ticking, and when the silence is finally broken by David's voice, not one guess in a million would have predicted what the granite-like Scot would say -- it is a quotation from Tennyson Maud!
This is one of the masterpieces, in the same class with The Admirable Crichton and Dear Brutus. The construction of the piece is as near perfection as the human mind can make it; the unexpected happens in every scene, just as it does in history. The surface caprices and quiddities of human nature are all accurately charted, and the depths of passion--love, jealousy, ambition--are revealed. If the dramatist had written only this play, we should know that he was a man of genius. No amount of toil can turn out work like this; it is sheer revelation; it is, as Turgenev wrote to Tolstoi, a gift coming from that source whence comes all things.
The scene in the third act is a scene of tremendous passion--the air is tense with it; and yet, with keen excitement, there is not even a penumbra of melodrama. It is as though the suffering were so intense and terrible that we can have no smell of the theatre in these flames; that we can have only reality, too harsh and bitter--and too infinitely tender--for any play-acting. Then we suddenly remember, after the scene is over, that it was "only a play." Just that: "only a play"-only a great work of art, only a profound revelation of the evil and of the sublimity hidden in every man and woman.
Here is a decisive battle between love and lust--between the grace of God and the power of the world. Maggie says to her brother, "I'll save him, David, if I can.""Does he deserve to be saved after the way he has treated you?""You stupid David. What has that to do with it?"
In the published version, two passages are omitted, both of which made a palpable hit in the theatre. I do not know why Mr. Barrie cancelled them, but it is fair to guess. The first is in the great scene in the third act: Maggie's father and two brothers pass by the self-condemned and yet defiant John Shand: every one of the three brands him with a monosyllabic epithet; I remember only the third. Let us suppose the first man hissed "Scoundrel!" the second, "Traitor!" now the third, with terrific emphasis shouted "ENGLISHMAN!" At the London performance, this word drew more delighted laughter and applause than any other speech. Is it not possible that in some ways the English have a more acute sense of humour than the Irish? This speech is one of Mr. Barrie's greatest audacities, but he knew his audience; he foresaw the result. Suppose a similar scene was presented with the Scotsman shouting Irishman! He would be mobbed.
Perhaps in print the author could not be sure that the reader would hear the proper tone of the voice, nor that he would understand it. Furthermore, the play was published during the dark hours of the war, and he could not bring himself to say that word in that way, even in jest. This, anyhow, is my guess; but I am sorry for every one who did not hear the original version.
The other omission is just before the click of the final curtain. This is what happened in the theatre. "Oh, John, if I could only make you laugh at me!""I can't laugh, and yet I think you are the drollest thing in all creation.""We're all droll to them that understand us, and I'll tell you why; Eve wasn't made out of Adam's rib; she was made out of his funnybone." Now I think the reason why he left this out is because it is not good enough; it is good enough for most dramatists; it would make the fortune of some; but it is not good enough for J. M. Barrie. In my opinion, the printed version gains by its omission.
Oh, John, if only you could laugh at me."
"I can't laugh, Maggie."
(But as he continues to stare at her a strange disorder appears in his face. MAGGIE feels that it is to be now or never.)
"Laugh, John, laugh. Watch me; see how easy it is."
(A terrible struggle is taking place within him. He creaks. Something that may be mirth forces a passage, at first painfully, no more joy in it than in the discoloured water from a spring that has long been dry. Soon, however, he laughs loud and long. The spring water is becoming clear. MAGGIE claps her hands. He is saved.)
Never shall I forget that Monday afternoon in the spring of 1909 when Maude Adams presented this play in New Haven. She presented it in every sense of the word, making an outright gift of the gross receipts to the Yale University Dramatic Association. She hired the theatre, paid the salaries of the actors, paid for the transportation of the company and the scenery from New York and return, so that every cent taken was given to the beneficiary. The performance began at one o'clock, as the play had to fill its regular date in New York at eight. The theatre was jammed; and the special occasion put both actors and audience on edge. There was a tenseness in the atmosphere that it is impossible to describe--the actress and her company fairly outdid themselves, and everyone in the house, from President to sweep, was melted --I remember one grey-bearded professor sitting near me, who, as the tears coursed down his whiskers, exclaimed, "I thought you said this was a comedy!" It was impossible to restrain one's emotion; and that it reacted on the stage may be surmised from the fact that in the last scene both Miss Adams and the leading man were so overcome that they could scarcely articulate. After a score of recalls, an undergraduate, representing the Dramatic Association, stepped on the stage, announced that Maude Adams had been made an honourary member, and presented a medal. She was both laughing and crying, and it seemed impossible that she could make a speech. But she did. She surprised us even as Maggie surprised John Shand at the end of the second act. With an affectionate gesture that embraced the audience she said:
My Constituents!
It seemed incredible that the third act could be anything but an anticlimax; but there is no surer proof of Barrie's genius than his last acts, the final test of constructive power. I will go so far as to say that even in most successful plays, the last act is either a downright failure or at best a falling away. But in Dear Brutus, as in The Admirable Crichton, in What Every Woman Knows, and in all Barrie's plays, the last act crowns the work.
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My Written Works
My Internment Camp Series
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. All three are available only in a Kindle edition.
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
My Maude Adams series (also available only in Kindle editions)
BOOK 1: MAUDE ADAMS: AS OTHERS SAW HER. A book containing a lot of information about Maude Adams. This includes Chapter 1 (Basic information); Chapter 2 (family news); Chapter 3 (her avoidance of publicity); Chapter 4 (illness); Chapter 5 (fashion); Chapter 6 (money); Chapter 7 (her return to the stage); Chapter 8 (movies); Chapter 9 (teaching); Chapter 10 (as an inventor); Chapter 11 (her personal life); Chapter 12 (her statue); Chapter 13 (death notices); Chapter 14 (plays she was in); Chapter 15: Conclusion; Appendix A (books about her); Appendix B (books with some information about her); Appendix C: (longer magazine and newspaper articles about her); and Appendix D (radio programs she did).
BOOK 2: MAUDE ADAMS: A KISS FOR CINDERELLA (Scan of the original book of the play along with articles about the play.
BOOK 3: MAUDE ADAMS: CHANTECLER (Scan of the original book of the play along with a scan of a booklet of the play plus articles about the play.
BOOK 4: MAUDE ADAMS: L'AIGLON: (Scan of the original book of the play, plus scan of the original souvenir booklet, plus articles about the play.
BOOK 5: MAUDE ADAMS: THE LITTLE MINISTER (Scan of the original book of the story, scan of the original souvenir booklet, plus articles about the play.
BOOK 6: MAUDE ADAMS: THE JESTERS (Scan of the original book of the play plus articles about the play.
BOOK 7: MAUDE ADAMS: JOAN OF ARC (Scan of the book Maid of Orleans along with articles about the play.
BOOK 8: MAUDE ADAMS: OP 'O ME THUMB (Scan of the original book of the play plus articles about the play.
BOOK 9: MAUDE ADAMS: PETER PAN (Scan of the original book plus articles about the play.
BOOK 10: MAUDE ADAMS: THE PRETTY SISTER OF JOSE (Scan of the original book of the story plus articles about the play.
BOOK 11: MAUDE ADAMS: QUALITY STREET (Scan of the original book of the play, scan of the original souvenir booklet, plus articles about the play.
BOOK 12 MAUDE ADAMS: ROMEO AND JULIET (Scan of the original book of the play plus articles about the play.
BOOK 13: MAUDE ADAMS: WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS (Scan of the original book of the play plus articles about the play.
Non-Kindle Books
Gentle Slopes and Lofty Tower (printed version, 1996)
Thunderhead: A New Age Life and Times (co-author with Medicine Hawk)
Golden Harvest and Timeless Treasures (poetry contributed to these two anthologies)
Other Books
Spirituality Without Fuss or Mess
Transgenderism: A Short Essay
