STAGE SUPERSTITIONS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1407, 6 April 1912, Page 11

STAGE SUPERSTITIONS.

"Pardon, Monsieur J., never walk under a ladder," said a pretty actress, as she was coming o|it of a theatre near the Boulevards. I (tho Paris correspondent of tho "Daily Telegraph") had just passed under tho same ladder without even noticing it. A man was hanging something from a balcony which looked very harmless. "Why do you not want to walk under a ladder?" I asked mndemoHslle. Sho replied, laughing. "It is bad luck, that is ull." Everybody smile*. Sho is not tho only one with a superstition. Theatrical peoplo generally, and Parisian actors and actresses in particular, all have a superstition of some kind. M. lleriz never has a bill printed for the Porto Saint Martin Theatre without inserting (he name of if. Totah. We see it in the play "Flambee," whero M. Totah is supposed to play the part of a domestic servant. There is no such servant in tho play, nor was there ever a M. Totah; but. the manager (If. Hsrtss) will not post up a play without M. Totah. It would bring him bad luck.

31. Antoine has another siinerstition. Ho carries with him a little leather purse, which contains nothing but the decree appointing him director of the Odeon. If ho did not carry that decree with him every day woo would surely befall him.

There have been innumerable jokes about M. Samuel, the director of the Varieties. He is always seen in a straw hat. He goes,.summer and winter, to rehearsals and premieres in a straw hat. If he did not wear n"straw hat, all his plays would go smash. The day the "Vcine" was given for tho time lie wore a straw hat. He thought the piny would not last many weeks. Hβ said he would not change his list till it ran ,'fOfl nislit?, and he was -bound to wear his straw hat the whole yoar. Tho result is that he is wearing a straw hat still. Great actors and actresses in the past also had numerous superstitions. Jl. Jean do Ifeszke will never hear a word said about bad luck without catching hold of his chair or laying his hand on a bare table, to touch wood. Touching wood, it is well known, breaks bad luck. Rachel, it is said, never entered the stage on a first night without first touching wood. Mdllo. Madeline Brohan never appeared on a first night without a blue dress, a bluo bodice, or at least a blue ribbon. Jeano Samary would never hear of a number that ended in seven. Even M. Massenet, the composer, has his little superstition. When ho writes the scores of a now opera he will never mark a page "13." it is always pencilled off as "12bis." Mdlle. Blanche Toutain, who is now appearing at the Eenaissance, # always wears an amulet, which she received in Enme, and Mdllo. Eenriette rtopgers never plays a nart withoui: an opal ring. Somo of tho leading actors and actresses have another superstition. You must nover. wish them good luck or success on the night of a dress rehearsal or a premiere. If vou do. you are told to hush ud at once. To wish" them success on such a nifht is a bad omen, and they will not thank you for it.