Daniel Frohman, who has been around the Broadway show shops for so many years that a diminution in enthusiasm would seem to be a normal expectation, was as worked up Friday afternoon as a youngster at the circus.
“She’s good,” said Uncle Dan, who is going on eighty-four and wears the same old high starched collar. “She’s fine.”
Mr. Frohman was referring to little Ida Miller, who is only ten. Ida is coming up from 96 Stanton street, where she lives with her widowed mother and an older brother and sister, to appear Sunday night in the title role of “Editha’s Burglar” at the New Amsterdam.
DIGNIFIED YOUNG LADY
“She does not run about like a child,” said the dean of theatrical producers, the man who gave Maude Adams and Julia Marlowe to the world. “She is dignified. She has the carriage of an empress.”
Mr. Frohman had a right to be proud, for in a sense he discovered little Ida. She came to his studio with the University Settlement Players not long ago to do Shakespearean scenes for the D’Oyle Carte Company of London.
Uncle Dan was captivated at once by the child’s beautiful diction, large, serious eyes and a hard – to – define sobbing timbre which she manages to get into her voice. And so he took her under his wing, and Sunday night will find her playing the central part in the one-act comedy which was popular several decades ago. The performance will be for the benefit of the Actors’ Fund. When Mr. Frohman gave the play at his old Lyceum, years and years ago, the late E. H. Sothern was in it.
LOVES EMOTIONAL PARTS
Discovered Friday at her East Side home, Ida revealed the poise of a grown young lady who has been around, although as a matter of fact her engagement Sunday night will bring her into a Broadway playhouse for the first time. She is a dark-haired child with an intense {SPAN}f###{/SPAN} and expressive hands, and she considers Lionel Barrymore and Greta Garbo “the top.”
“I love emotional parts,” she explained.
Ben Remo, director of “Editha’s Burglar,” praised Ida for the rapidity with which she learned her part. Given her lines one day, she had them all memorized perfectly the next. Miss Regina Brown is Ida’s coach at the Eldridge Street Settlement house.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
