Behind the Footlights

by Mrs. Alec-Tweedie

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MISS CONSTANCE COLLIER AS PALLAS ATHENE IN “ULYSSES”	[Frontispiece]
From a sketch by Percy Anderson.
MRS. KENDAL AS MISTRESS FORD IN “MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR”	To face p.	[20]
MR. W. H. KENDAL	„	[32]
MR. J. FORBES-ROBERTSON	„	[36]
From a painting by Hugh de T. Glazebrook.
MISS WINIFRED EMERY AND MR. CYRIL MAUDE IN“THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL”	„	[48]
MR. AND MRS. SEYMOUR HICKS	„	[64]
DR. HENRIK IBSEN	„	[76]
MR. ARTHUR W. PINERO	„	[84]
DRAWING OF COSTUME FOR JULIET	„	[112]
By Percy Anderson.
MR. GEORGE ALEXANDER	„	[128]
MADAME SARAH BERNHARDT AS HAMLET	„	[152]
MR. BEERBOHM TREE AS FALSTAFF	„	[176]
MISS ELLEN TERRY AS QUEEN KATHERINE	„	[184]
MR. W. S. GILBERT	„	[192]
SIR HENRY IRVING	„	[224]
MR. ANTHONY HOPE	„	[248]
From a painting by Hugh de T. Glazebrook.
MR. WEEDON GROSSMITH	„	[264]
MRS. BEERBOHM TREE	„	[288]
MRS. PATRICK CAMPBELL	„	[312]
From a painting by Hugh de T. Glazebrook.
MR. GEORGE GROSSMITH	„	[336]

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BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS

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CHAPTER I
THE GLAMOUR OF THE STAGE
Girlish Dreams of Success—Golden Glitter—Overcrowding—Few successful—Weedon Grossmith—Beerbohm Tree—How Mrs. Tree made Thousands for the War Fund—The Stage Door reached—Glamour fades—The Divorce Court and the Theatre—Childish Enthusiasm—Old Scotch Body’s Horror—Love Letters—Temptations—Emotions—How Women began to Act under Charles I.—Influence of the Theatre for Good or Ill.

“I WANT to go on the stage,” declared a girl as she sat one day opposite her father, a London physician, in his consulting-room.