Daily Alta California, Volume 83, Number 54, 23 August 1890 — ANECDOTES OF MARY ANDERSON. [ARTICLE]

ANECDOTES OF MARY ANDERSON.

Tickling an Actor on the Stage— A Pillow Fight. .

Kern York CorrettHmdence Boston Herald. : Apropos of the marriage of Mary Anderson,, the American actress, to Antonio de Navarro, in London.some of the aneodotes that illustrate a few phases of her character are at this moment interesting. I am not sure if that one has yet been told which concerns her. in that period in her professional career when it was her delight to chew gum and to stand in the wing of the theater and to do what she could to "break up" the actors who were on the stage. Mary was playing Juliet to the Romeo of a man whom she valued as a friend, but wnom she loved to worry. In the last act of the drama, when Juliet is writhing over the body of Romeo, bewailing his death, Mary, on an important first night in a certain city, tickled the Romeo in a . way that threatened to galvanize the corpse and ruin the scene. In vain did the actor plead for mercy. He brought every whispered argument to bear upon Juliet to make her desist in her playfulness, assuring her that in another inBtant he would have to squeal, and so bring ridicule upon them both. The actress did net heed his prayers, however) and continued to tickle him, as she recited the heartrending lines of the bereaved Juliet. Suddenly the actor changed his tactics, and, under his breath, he uttered a string of curses. Juliet stopped short in her lamentations, and trembled. Then she went on, and Romeo was saved. After the performance it was very difficult for. the actor to convince the inturiated queen lof tragedies that he was driven to the heroic measure of Bwearing by her own.devil- . try. j She finally decided that her mischief was more serious than she had fancied, but she declared that the oaths were unnecessarily violent. • . .

On another occasion Miss Anderson was living at a private house with some friends in one of the towns where she was playing, andit washer regular custom each morning upon rising to indulge in a pillow fight with the two young ladies of the house. During one of these battles, when the pillows were the thickest, Mary threw her missile at the head of one of the girls, but the latter, being agile, dodged, and it sailed through an open window, lodging among the telegraph wires that ran in front of the house. The passers-by were attracted by tue strange eight, and aa they glanced up they discovered the tousled heads of three pretty youngwomen peeringover the window-sill,look-ing somewhat frightened at the ridiculous work they had accomplished. The prettiest of the beads was that of our own Mary.