box 9/4
4.9. Anat
Zyklu-

Its Pays and Its People
latol at the Lyceum
Schnitzler, Author of Anatol,
Likes America, but at a Distance
By Henry Albert Phillips
US as it is used to be the informed me that he had heard
ambition of every young English the name somewhere, he thought.
and American actor to play Ham, but had no idea where this person
lived. I arrived nearly an hour later
let, in like manner it is the dream of
than the appointed time.
every young Viennese thespian some
Awaited Author in Fear
day to appear as Anatol." These are
Dismayed and with fear and trem¬
vital statistics of the stage.
When that brillant young Viennese, bling, I followed the housemaid into
Joseph Schildkraut, reached the age of the house and upstairs. I wondered
just what was going to happen to me
twenty, he told his father, "Now I shal
play Anatol." To which that parent, for thus practically insulting a great
mellowed in the theater-Jacob Schild man by keeping him waiting an hour
for an appointment he had never
kraut replied: Listen and mark well
my son. Anatol is a sacred tradition, wanted to make. I sat there in his
among us. Anatol was a mature man Biedermayer parlor conjuring up
of the world. The first requisite is that visions of this creator of so man
the actor at least appear to be the heroes of wild escapades and heroines
man. How can you, therefore, with of so many pitiful tragedies and of
the first down scarcely shaved from the famous Wiener Suesse Mad."
your face and with all the appearance thought of "Cassanovas Homecoming
of untried youth, dare to essay the and of The Affairs of Anatol and at
part of a worldly fellow who has had a once conceived a daredevil swaggering
galaxy of artful women under his away? sort of adventure. I remembered now
No, my son, go backstage and cool your that I had seen Schnitzlers photograph
heels and your ardor for another ten once with a long pointed beard that
somehow gave me the impression that
years then we shall see.
Ten years passed that recorded the he would be a tall man and elender,
pyrotechnical career of the younger with twinkling eyes.
Then he entered the room or rather.
Schildkraut on the American stage,
winning the required spurs and years he peeped in first and then tip-toed in,
that should prepare him for the role half fearfully it seemed. He was
that he had envied at twenty. Now, nothing I imagined him to be. I was
at the precise age of the celebrated wrong in everything but the beard. He
Anatol himself thirty Joseph Schild was shortish and a bit roly-poly in
figure, a little hunched. His clothes
kraut steps into the role.
were no more stylish than his manner me
Legendary Figure Even in Vienna
Since "The Affairs of Anatole was was dashing. His coat was too amply o¬
cut and he was gemutlich, which
produced in 1912, with John Barmore re¬
in the title part, until the present re¬

vival, shortened to "Anatol by the be translated at all. He was gentle
sweet natured and every remark he
producer, Bela Blau, much has been
written in books and elsewhere about made was characterized by charity, or
the play, but the author has remained hastly revised for fear that I would
Light. In the cant are Joseph Schildkraut, Miriam Hoplina,
think he was calling things or people
more or less of a mythical figure.
und Anne Forrest.
names. And above all, he seemed more
worthy of note that another piece by
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler, "The Green scared than I was. The task before me
Cockatoo is being staged by the Civic seemed one of assuring him that there
was nothing to be scared about, and I
Repertory Company.)
Arthur Schnitzler is somewhat of a set about it by abjectly apologi ing for
legendary figure, even in his native my being so unpardonably late and ex¬
Vienna, except among a small coterie plaining how it came about.
I write many things at once," he
of friends, mostly writers, to whom he
was soon telling me, one moment as
is very real and human. Only the
other day was the chain of happy cir¬ solemn as an owi, the next with a
cumstances that led to my meeting twinkle in his eyes that never quite ap¬
Arthur Schnitzler recalled, when I met proached merriment. He showed me a
little room in which he sometimes
the young director of the present Bel¬
Blau production, Herr Beer-Hoffmann, worked, although for the most part he
wrote standing up before a little old¬
Richard Beer-Hoffmann, a major poe¬
in the German language and father of fashioned slant desk that stood before
the present director of "Anatol," is a a broad by window looking out into
neighbor of Dr. Arthur Schnitzler, live his gardens, from which he seemed to
ing in the outskirts of Vienna. One derive no end of inspiration both from
day when I was taking tea with the working in them and looking down
Beer-Hoffmanns I was asked if I had upon them
I asked him to explain how he could
met Schnitzler. I said "No," but
would like to meet him, although I had write more than one thing at a time.
Writes Play and Novel Together
been told generally that that was im¬
possible. Herr Beer-Hoffmann assured
like to write a play and a novel at
me that it was not difficult at all. He
the same time. By that I mean when
went to the telephone and called
I am tired of writing one I turn to the
the doctor. A ten minute talk followed
other and find it refreshing. The style
and he returned saying he was sorry
of writing the two are so very different.
but Dr. Schnitzler was averse to meet
I find fiction is more confining and I
ing strangers.
feel the dead weight of it after I have
en el a las pe¬