ACTRESS WHO SHUNS HOLLYWOOD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 151, 14 July 1937, Page 12

ACTRESS WHO SHUNS HOLLYWOOD

Katharine Cornell to Visit Dominion PLANS WORLD TOUR It is a curious fact, judged by any other than purely stage standards, that Miss Katharine Cornell, who ranks among the foremost present-day American actresses, has never appeared in films and never broadcast by radio. It represents, though, the sharp distinction that ardent stage devotees the world, over draw between their art and Hollywood's. The Lunts — Alfred Lunt and his wif e Lynne Fontanne — made only one film, "The Guardsman," and then withdrew to the stage; Helen Hayes made a few films and then she, too, returned to the stage and to the success of her ' ' Victoria Regina." Hollywood has offered Miss Cornell lucrative contracts, but she has persistently refused them. The reason was explained in Hastings yesterday by Mr Ray Henderson, representing Miss Cornell, who is planndng to make a tour of New Zealand next year. ' ' They don 't like Holly wood4 ' ' he told a Herald-Tribune representative. "Hollywood gets hold of our playwrights as soon as they begin to make a name for themselves and — well, it epoils them. Clifford Odets went to Hollywood. So did Maxwell Anderson, the author of ' Winterset, ' but he came back; he didn't like it." Mr Henderson had some interesting comments to make about the past Broadway season. Miss Cornell, fie saiu, ■ had b?en playing Oparre in "Wingless Victory," Maxwell Anderson 's poetic drama, and later had revived "Caudida," a play in which she had earlier scored a fine sliceess. She planned to tour Australia and New Zealand in June of next year with five or six plays and a company of 30 or 40 members. The plays, Mr Henderson said, would probably be "Romeo and Juliet," •Shaw's "St. Joan" and "Candida," "The Barretts of Wimpole,Street" and "The Ivory Fan." "'The Ivory Fan' is interesting," Mr Henderson said. ' ' It hasn 't been produced over in the United States yet — it is to have its premiere in Washing ton, D.C.^ next spring. The author is Gustav Ekstein, of Cincinatti, who published recently a biography of Nogouchi, the great Japanese soientist, I suppose you could call the jilay a Japanese 'Camille.' The theme? It's about a Japanese scientist who falls Ih love with a geisha girl. You have the Camille struggle in a newer idiom— not, the old social problem, but the struggle between the scientist 's duty and the human emotions. It's a new play and an anteresting one." "What," he was asked, "did you think of the Hamlets this year?" "They were splendid," said Mr Henderson. "Miss Cornell 's husband, Guthrie McClintic, brought over Johtt Gielgud from Londofi, and he gave us a magnificent Hamlet. Far Detter, I thought, than Leslie Howard 's. Howard 's was a wonderfully thought out Hamlet — he had given it an immense amount of thought and he gave it a very fine production — but I dofi't think he touched Gielgud." Mauriee Evans — "a very fine actor," Mr Henderson called him — nad made a very fine King Riehard II. in the Shakespearean play. Evans^ he said, originally went over to New York to play Romeo to Miss Cornell 's Juliet. "The British actors are having great ■-uccess dn America. Here's a strange uxing: the British people have the actors and we have the actresses. At least, " he amended with a smile, "we like to think so. And I think we have. ' ' Of the W.P.A. — the Federal theatre project — Mr Henderson said that it had not yet produced anything first-rate except that it had given a very fine performance, of Marlowe 's "Dr. •Faustus." One had, however, to remember that it was a relief measure to absorb out-of-w,ork theatre people. The W.P.A. groups were therefore not able to engage front-rank actors and actresses. Reverting to Mdss Cornell, he eaid that except for her first successful performance, which was in London, she had not. acted outside America. He thought that she should respond to the stimulation of new audiences. Her first success had been in London as Jo in "Little Women." Other plays in which she had appeared early in her career were "Bill of Divorcement" and Somerset Maugham's "The Letter." Mr Henderson at present ds engaged in a preliminary isurvey of the countries and cities in which Miss Cornell proposes to appear, and it was for tHat purpose that he visited Hastings yesterday. If, in the Iight of Mr Henderson 's investdgation, Miss Cornell decides to make the world tour which she has in mind, her company will probably open in New Zealand in May or Jime of next year, going on to Au'stralia, Japan, Cliina Manila, Tlidia, Egypt and finally to London.