The only artist of her kind in the world: Gay MacLaren

              Figure

The Only Artist of Her Kind In the WORLD





Gay MacLaren



I'll be interested to see how she interprets these characters,
 I said to my friend, 
for I saw the original production …




Oh,
 said my friend, 
you miss the point.  Miss MacLaren doesn't create or interpret any character.  You see, she isn't just a 'reader of plays'.  She reproduces the original performance with all the accuracy of a Victrola record …




I can only say that the reproduction was perfect.  It was not a reading.  It was not an impersonation.  It was a RE-CREATION.  The original cast lived and acted again.




— Gleen Frank


Former Editor The Century Magazine President University of Wisconsin



Figure
Gay MacLaren



Questions Often Asked About Gay MacLaren

Who Is Gay MacLaren?
(See 
Who's Who in America
)


SHE
 is the young woman who gives entire plays in the voices and actions of all the players of the original cast.  She has often been called, 
The One-Girl Play Company.



In her childhood, she displayed an amazing talent for mimicry, and astounded her teachers by reproducing an entire play after sitting in the audience, seeing the play several times and then reproducing the words, gestures, and voices of the players without ever having seen the manuscript.  Her teacher took her to New York, where she was presented before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and created a sensation.  Mark Twain became interested in her, and had her reproduce his play, 
Pudd'n-head Wilson,
 in his home down on Tenth Street.  The newspapers called her 
phenomenal,
 and declared her a 
genius
.  Clubs and Societies heard of this 
Girl with the Camera Mind,
 as the New York World called her, and invited her to appear before them.  Mrs. Thomas Edison became one of her patronesses and attended her recitals.  Owing to her ability to memorize a play and give it after hearing it four or five times, she soon developed a large repertoire of plays, which she could give at a moment's notice.



When the Panama Canal was in the course of construction, the United States Government sent her down to entertain the employees of the 
Big Ditch
 at the Government Clubhouses.  She was still in her 'teens, but had already mastered twenty of the most popular plays of the day.  She was contracted for one tour of the Isthmus to give seven plays.  So great was her success that she made four trips and gave one hundred and eight recitals.  The Panama Morning Journal called her 
The Idol of the Isthmus,
 and she was given a Roosevelt Medal.  The only time General Goethals ever set his foot inside a Zone Clubhouse (he being opposed to the management) was to hear Gay MacLaren on the occasion of her one hundreth[sichundredth] appearance at Culebra.




How Can Gay MacLaren, Without Scenery, Costumes or Cast, Make an Audience See an Entire Play?



THERE
 is the wonder of Gay MacLaren's performance.  She is not a 
reader,
 
monologist
 or 
impersonator.
  She is an actress who plays every part.  She creates an illusion so perfect that audiences see the play enacted.




She has an almost ventriloquistic power of changing her voice to portray a seemingly unlimited number of characters.  She acts the entire play, portraying each character with such remarkable distinctness as to cause her hearers to mentally witness the play enacted by a full cast, and forget, for the moment, that they are being entertained by a single artist.  It seems as if she has a large number of players at her call and as if, by magic, they enter, render their lines, and exit at her command.
  So the Brooklyn Daily Eagle characterized her work.





Can Gay MacLaren Create as Well as Imitate?



DAVID BELASCO
 said, 
When I saw how cleverly she could imitate, I knew that she could create as well.
  He was speaking of one of his famous stars, 
Cissy
 Loftus, one of the world's greatest mimics, who became the leading woman for E. H. Sothern and created the role of 
Ophelia
 with conspicuous success.  Ina Claire, one of the outstanding stars of the dramatic stage, won her first fame as an imitator of stage people.  Gay MacLaren first demonstrated her ability to create when, at the age of seventeen she gave Shakespeare's entire play of 
Romeo and Juliet,
 creating all the roles herself.  The performance was given under the auspices of The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.  Later, she gave a more elaborate production of the same play at the Playhouse in Chicago, of which it was said by the Chicago News, 
Actresses consider enacting the role of Juliet an outstanding achievement, but Miss MacLaren, incredible as it may seem, is not only a very lovely Juliet—fresh, girlish, responsive—but a petulant and aged nurse; not only a romantic Romeo but a fiery Tybalt, a philosophic Friar Lawrence, a cringing apothecary, a lordly Montague and all the rest, including the attendants.




And Miss MacLaren is now making a new fame for herself by writing and creating her own plays.  Robert Davis, playwright and former editor of Munsey's Magazine, said after hearing her in recital at the Belmont Theatre, New York, that he 
wouldn't be surprised if she wrote her next play.
  This is exactly what Miss MacLaren has done.  When the wave of sex plays engulfed the American stage, she wrote and acted 
Father and Dad,
 a wholesome play of modern home life that has been received with equal appreciation to that which has greeted her portrayals of plays by other dramatists.






Where Has Gay MacLaren Appeared?



BEFORE
 distinguished audiences in every city in the United States.  New York's most critical audiences in the Belmont Theatre.  Representative audiences at the Playhouse in Chicago.  The leading Women's Clubs.  The great Universities.  The most exclusive private schools.  The Teachers' colleges.  The Artist Courses.  Clubs and Societies for the advancement of Art, Literature, Music, Civic Welfare and Social Activities throughout the United States and Canada.  As this circular goes to press she is leaving for a recital tour in England.





Does She Return to the Same Audiences?



IOWA STATE COLLEGE
 has returned her fifteen times.  The University of Utah seven times.  The Boulder, Colorado, Women's Club accepted her first as a substitute on their Artist Course for a singer who was ill; the following season they booked her for three recitals; the year after for four.  The high school of Carbondale, Pa., announces this season, 
The Thirteenth Annual Recital by Gay MacLaren.
  St. Stephen's Men's Club of Wilkesbarre, Pa., has had her four times.  Columbus, Ohio, has booked fourteen engagements with various clubs and societies.  Norwalk, Conn., has heard her ten times.  The Assembly at Winona Lake, Ind., has presented her fourteen times.




Early in her career the Assembly at New Albany, Ind., rather reluctantly placed her on their program for a matinee recital.  She so electrified the audience that, by universal demand, the concert scheduled for the evening was cut to half an hour so that she could give another play.  The following Sunday she gave two more plays, and two weeks later, after the Assembly had closed, the park was reopened and she appeared in the auditorium for seven successive nights, giving as many different plays, for which special trains were run from Louisville, Ky., and neighboring towns.




Gay MacLaren's greatest demand develops where she is best known.  Her record for return dates has never been equalled by another artist.





What Noted People Have Praised Gay MacLaren's Art?



A FEW
 of the long list of eminent people who have endorsed her work are:  Mark Twain, Glenn Frank, Clarence Darrow, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mrs. Thomas Edison, General Smedley Butler, Samuel Shipman, DeWolf Hopper, Richard Herndon, Robert H. Davis, Dixie Hines, Mary Shaw, Terry Ramsaye.





Have the Magazines Recognized Her Art?



THE SATURDAY EVENING POST
 recently carried a story of her career.  The American Magazine gave her a two-page story under the heading, 
The Star in a One-Girl Show.
  Munsey's Magazine covered her New York recitals in a brilliant review by Matthew White.  Bruce Barton's 
Every Week
 gave her a special feature article.  The Green Book Magazine published a story of her work entitled, 
She Puts It Over All By Herself.
  The Stage and Screen Review captioned their story of her, 
The Wonder Woman of the Dramatic Stage.
  The Woman's Home Companion published two stories by Gay MacLaren in recent issues.




Among many other magazines that have discussed her unique work at length are all the music, dramatic and platform publications.





Have the Newspaper Syndicates Featured Gay MacLaren?



ALL
 the important syndicates that supply the thousands of publications with human interest features have carried stories about her.  The New York World Syndicate featured 
The Girl With The Camera Mind.
  The Hearst Syndicate broadcasted her throughout the United States under 
Personality
.  
The Girl With a Thousand Faces,
 was the Underwood story.  
Train Your Eye to Picturize,
 was Zoe Beckley's story that the Enterprise carried.  
The Most Marvelous Memory Known,
 was the International's contribution.





What Have Recent Books to Say About Gay MacLaren?



A Million and One Nights,
 the two-volume history of the motion picture by Terry Ramsaye, characterized by Thomas A. Edison as 
a monumental work,
 devotes space to a description of the art of Gay MacLaren and pays her high tribute.




Once a Clown, Always a Clown,
 the book by America's great comedian, DeWolf Hopper, tells a striking story of her power of mimicry.




Forty-Minute Plays from Shakespeare,
 by Fred G. Barker, published by the MacMillan Company, describes Miss MacLaren's work in detail, showing the difference between her and a 
reader
.




Who's Who in America,
 the national encyclopedia of America's notable men and women, includes the name of Gay MacLaren and a sketch of her career.






Some Plays In Gay MacLaren's Repertoire
Re-Creations of Famous Plays and the Stars Appearing in Them


Helena's Boys



AN
 imitation of America's foremost dramatic star, Mrs. Fiske.  Presented by special arrangement with Charles Wagner.



The Characters
:  Helena Tilden, a widow — 
Beansey,
 a boy of 16, and Henry, a 
man
 of 23, her sons — Morseby Gerard, a parlor radical — James Truesdale, Mrs. Tilden's fiancee — Tot and Ann, friends of the boys — Tibby, the housekeeper — Mr. Parr, a workman, and Lucy, a mid.



Synopsis
:  Act I. A late winter afternoon.  Act II, Scene I.  After luncheon the next day.  Scene 2.  Half past six o'clock the same day.  Act III.  An hour later.  The action all takes place in Mrs.  Tilden's home near New York.




The exquisite satirical genius of Mrs. Fiske, the most famous woman of the American stage, is brilliantly reflected in Miss MacLaren's sparkling re-creation of 
Helena's Boys
.  In this play we see the 
parlor radicals
 and the 
advanced thought of the younger generation
 debunked deliciously with a devastatingly penetrating humor.  The play is the essence of timeliness.  It pictures the conflict of the 
Mauve Decade
 and its standards against the assertiveness of the alleged 
flaming youth
 of today.  It is an argument for the soundness of true American ideals, but an argument without preachment, rippling with incisive humor, smiles, now and then a heart-throb, and a joyous climax.




Enter Madame



ON
 a sweltering evening in mid-August, this comedy called 
Enter Madame,
 written by Gilda Varesi and Dolly Byrne, slipped quietly into New York and in spite of its inopportune debut, immediately established itself as one of those plays which cause stampedes at the box office.




Gay MacLaren at once seized upon the opportunity this joyous comedy offered to add to her repertoire an imitation of the brilliant Italian actress, Gilda Varesi, in the role of the dazzling prima donna, who enters and exits like a disturbing comet.




The Characters:
  Madame Lisa Della Robbia, the prima donna — Gerald Fitzgerald, Madame's American husband — John, Madame's son — Aline Chalmers, John's fiancee — Mrs. Flora Preston, a widow — Bice, Madame's maid — The Doctor, Madame's personal physician — Miss Smith, Madame's English secretary — Archimede, Madame's chef — Tamamoto, Mr. Fitzgerald's servant.




Synopsis:
  The three acts take place in Gerald Fitzgerald's bachelor apartment in New York.




In the part of Madame Lisa Della Robbia, the temperament-ridden prima donna, as well as that of Mrs. Flora Preston, the entertaining widow, the interpretations of Gay MacLaren were such as might afford instruction to the members of the original cast,
 says the Chicago Evening Post.




Gay MacLaren gave Chicago theatre goers a new thrill,
 says the Chicago Daily News, 
when she presented 'Enter Madame' without cast, without change of scenery or costume, successfuly[sicsuccessfully] imitating the original cast.




The Columbus, Ohio, State Journal declares that 
Miss MacLaren's performance of 'Enter Madame' before the College Women's Club will hereafter represent perfection to all who heard it.





Merton of the Movies



As long as the movies draw crowds and young people adore movie kings and queens, 
Merton of the Movies
 will continue to delight audiences.  It swept the country in book form, and then becomes an even greater success as a stage play and as a film.  Miss MacLaren makes her audiences vividly see Merton, the movie-mad country store-clerk trying to be an actor; then haunting Hollywood lots; then getting his chance, his crushing defeat and his screaming triumph.




The Characters:
  Amos Gashweiler, proprietor of Gashweiler's Store — Merton Gill, his clerk — Tessie Kearns, the milliner — Harold Parmelee and Beulah Baxter, movie stars — Flip Montague, a movie extra — Bert Chester, the crosseyed man — Sig. Rosenblatt, a director — Mrs. Patterson, Merton's landlady — Other characters.




Synposis[sicSynopsis]:
  The scenes are laid in Gashweiler's country store, and in Hollywood.




Gay MacLaren's 
Merton
 will bring laughter, tears and cheers from any audience.  Says the Cincinnati, Ohio, Enquirer:  
Alone she peopled the stage with as many as six or eight people at a time, and kept the illusion intact for almost two hours.  Those who heard her feel indeed that they have heard and seen Merton in his struggles to reach the heights in the movies, have wept with him in his despair, and have at last gained with him the rational view of the whole situation in which he found himself.  Miss MacLaren's Montague girl was particularly well drawn, and so clever were all the characters that, altho in reality the stage settings never changed, yet in the mind's eye it shifted from scene of the play.  It was a fascinating re-creation.





Jimmy


(For the 
Tired Business Man
)


THERE
 is a growing demand for entertainment at Business Men's Luncheons, Banquets, and other meetings of various sorts.  Miss MacLaren's imitation of Frank Craven as the 
dub
 who is always looking for a 
raise
, as she presents this famous comedy, 
Jimmy,
 is a riot of laughter.  Business men particularly enjoy 
Jimmy,
 because they have met him face to face many times in their own careers.



Miss MacLaren recently appeared before the Ad-Sell League of Omaha.  She scored such a hit that the League yielded to the general demand for her return and broke its rule against returning attractions.  On her second appearance she gave 
Jimmy
 before a packed house, 700 business men, who roared from start to finish.


 It created a sensation.  In the language of Jimmy, 
It was not only a victory, it was a landslide.




Her success with 
Jimmy
 has been equally pronounced in other places.  One reason why 
Jimmy
 is so suitable for business men's gatherings is that the play can be presented within an hour.




OTHER PLAYS



The plays listed here are only a few of the many that Gay MacLaren gives, and she is constantly adding to her repertoire.  She is now engaged in writing another new play to be presently announced.





Gay MacLaren's Own Play



Robert Davis, dean of American magazine editors, after hearing Gay MacLaren in one of her Re-creations in the Belmont Theatre, New York City, said:  
It wouldn't surprise me at all if she wrote her next play.




AND SHE DID!
  Here it is—
Father and Dad.





Father and Dad



THIS
 is Gay MacLaren's own play, which Richard Herndon, one of New York's best known producers and the manager of the Belmont Theatre, pronounces 
A perfect piece of playwriting.




The Characters:
  Harvey Barton, a young lawyer — Marion, his wife — Aunt Elsie — Curtiss Rutledge, a collector of antiques — The Rutledge children, Phyllis, Stanley and 
Junior
 — Judge Griswold, a friend of the Rutledge family — His son Terry, and Ingie, the old housekeeper.




Synopsis:
  Act I. Kitchen of an Iowa farmhouse.  Sixteen years pass.  Act II. Living room at the Rutledge's on Long Island.  An afternoon late in October.  Act III, Scene 1, Library at Harvey Barton's, New York, Christmas eve. Scene 2, Living room at the Rutledge's two hours later.




Out of the richness of her experience and observation, Miss MacLaren has written the sort of play she believes the American public wants.  The success with which the play has been received proves that she was correct in her estimation.  There is no more vital problem confronting the American home today than that of parents and children and their relation to each other.  A crisis has come in the American home.  How can fathers and mothers retain the love and interest of their children in this jazz-mad age?  In her play Miss MacLaren sets forth a dramatic demonstration of the difference between a neglectful flesh-and-blood 
father
 and a 
dad
 who, with no blood tie, 
lays the foundation for love in later years
 through long and tender devotion to step-children whose real father has deserted them.




The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader says:  
'Father and Dad' is a great story-plot, and the climax is wonderfully conveyed in a scene of strong emotional acting.




The Houston, Texas, Post-Dispatch says:  
One of the most delightful characters that has ever been created on any stage is that of 'Aunt Elsie' in Miss MacLaren's own play, 'Father and Dad.'  Funny, pathetic and utterly loveable[siclovable], Miss MacLaren makes her live in definite memory.  Surely Miss MacLaren must have had an 'Aunt Elsie', or known one.  Almost equal to 'Aunt Elsie' is 'Stanley', the sixteen-year-old jelly-bean.  Careless, reckless and old beyond his years on the surface, but underneath just a little boy trying to act grown-up.  The play moves quickly and smoothly.  It is absolutely up-to-date, and discusses many of the problems that confront parents today.  But there is no moralizing, no saccharine touch.  It shows a keen understanding of modern youth.





Gay MacLaren's Own Production of Shakespeare's 
Romeo and Juliet



DAVID BELASCO
, America's foremost dramatic producer, in speaking of one of his stars said:  
When I saw how cleverly she could imitate, I knew that she could create as well.




At the Playhouse in Chicago, Miss MacLaren achieved a life long ambition when she gave her own interpretation of Shakespeare's 
Romeo and Juliet
 with specially designed stage setting, costume and musical accompaniment.




Her inspirational gifts are legion,
 says the Chicago Music News, 
Put to the severest test of all in this Shakespearian production in which Miss MacLaren's success was as decisive as it was supremely brilliant.




All the Chicago papers were unanimous in their praise of 
this great actress and re-creator.
  Especially enthusiastic was the Chicago Daily Journal, which says that 
Shakespeare's magic was felt,
 and that 
words set like jewels in an endless row, enchanted the ear with their poetry and their sufficiency.
  The review ends by declaring that 
Had all the local playgoers been aware of the beauty of Miss MacLaren's performance, the Playhouse couldn't have held the audience.




The Post declares that 
Miss MacLaren's performance rose above all standards of stage acting.
  The Tribune says that 
Miss MacLaren has an undeniable gift of sustaining the interest single-handed throughout a long performance.




In describing Miss MacLaren's costume, Mollie Morris in the Daily News says, 
Miss MacLaren wears a Juliet costume of cream Italian lace with a pearl headdress, and makes much use of a purple scarf.  Thrown rakishly over her shoulder, is a cloak for Mercutio, held in front of her it shields Romeo, and allowed to fall away from her figure there stands the girlish Juliet.
  Of the great potion scene, one of the most taxing ever written for an emotional actress, the reviewer declares, 
Miss MacLaren's acting of the potion scene is as dramatic as any of the great Juliets have shown.






Gay MacLaren Is Not a 
Reader



IN
 the book 
Forty-Minute Plays From Shakespeare,
 by Fred G. Barker, published by The MacMillan Company, New York, the author devotes a chapter to 
Dramatic Presentation of the Plays,
 and describes Gay MacLaren's 
re-creation
, giving it a place by itself.




In this chapter he describes eight 
delightful ways of sharing a play with one's friends or an audience.
  They are as follows:  1. 
the realistic dramatic presentation
; 2. 
the curtain stage presentation
; 3. 
the Elizabethan stage production
; 4. 
the outdoor production
; 5. 
the formal group reading
; 6. 
the informal group reading
; 7. 
the re-creation by a single actress of all the acting roles in a play is the recent achievement of Miss Gay MacLaren
; 8. 
dramatic reading.




Here is the reproduction of the pages:



Figure


Gay MacLaren's 
Re-Creation
 of Plays Described on the Above Pages



7. The re-creation by a single actress of all the acting roles in a play is the recent achievement of Miss Gay MacLaren.  This young woman, by becoming each of the players in the dialog in turn, exactly as he looked, spoke, and acted in a notable stage production of the play, marks one of the most interesting developments in the presentation of plays.  Miss MacLaren does not 'make up,' of course, nor use costume, and she approximates the stage movements, but as she turns from one impersonation to another, her whole personality and attitude on the platform change.  This is a part of the dramatic reader's art, tho the reader does not act out stage business.  The reader creates a speaking manner for imaginary characters; Miss MacLaren reproduces the acting conduct of a real company.






A Few of Gay MacLaren's Appearances
Women's Clubs


The New York Mozart Society.


The New York Business and Professional Women's Club.


The Evanston (Ill.) Woman's Club.


The Chicago Drama League.


The Oak Park (Ill.) Woman's Club.


The Indianapolis Woman's Club.


The Des Moines (Ia.) Woman's Club.


The Sioux City (Ia.) Woman's Club.


The Omaha Drama League.


The Seven Arts Society, Long Beach, Calif.


The Ebell Club, Long Beach, Calif.


The Columbus (Ohio) Woman's Club.


The Mary Craig Class, Dallas, Texas.


Women's Club, La Jolla, Calif.


Departmental Club, Terre Haute, Ind.


Tacoma (Wash.) Women's Club.


Cincinnati Woman's Club.


Catholic Daughters of America, Youngstown, O.


Marlboro (Mass.) Woman's Club.


Concordia Club, Little Rock, Ark.


Zonta Club, Utica, N. Y.


The College Woman's Club, Columbus, Ohio.


The Century Club, Scranton, Pa.


Minneapolis Women's Club, Minneapolis, Minn.


Woman's Club, Cedar Rapids, Ia.


The Century Club, Dover, Del.


Amherst Woman's Club, Amherst, Mass.


The Teachers' Club, Cleveland, O.




Special Engagements



The Belmont Theatre, New York City.


The Playhouse, Chicago.


The Evanston Parent-Teachers' Association.


The Art Institute, Chicago.


The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, N. Y.


The Pleaides Club, New York.


The Barnstormers Club, Philadelphia.


The Euterpean Club, Fort Worth, Texas


The City Club, Washington, D. C.


University Club, Erie, Pa.


Teachers' Association, Atlantic City, N. J.


Teachers' Association, Seattle, Wash.


Ingleside Club, Detroit, Mich.


The Country Club, Bradford, Pa.


Parlor Lecture Club, Fresno, Calif.


New Century Club, Wilmington, Del.


Schubert Glee Club, Asbury Park, N. J.


Concord (N. H.) Teachers' Association


Classroom Teachers' Association, Colorado Springs, Colo.





Universities and Colleges



The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.


The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.


The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.


The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.


The University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.


The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kans.


The University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.


The University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.


The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.


The University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wy.


The University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.


Iowa State College, Ames, Ia.


State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash.


St. John's Military School, Manlius, N. Y.


Culver Military School, Culver, Ind.


DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.


Berea College, Berea, Ky.


Penn Hall School, Chambersburg, Pa.


Fairfax Hall, Waynesboro, Va.


Stuart Hall, Staunton, Va.


Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, Va.


Florida State College for Women, Tallahassee, Fla.


Whittier College, Whittier, Calif.


Limestone College, Gaffney, S. C.


Converse College, Spartansburg, S. C.





Men's Clubs



Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, Mich.


Buffalo Athletic Club, Buffalo, N. Y.


Knife and Fork Club, South Bend, Ind.


Ad-Sell League, Omaha, Neb.


Masonic Club, Dayton, Ohio.


St. Stephens Club, Wilkesbarre, Pa.




Artist Courses



(On these courses Miss MacLaren was the only dramatic artist, appearing with Jeritza, Kreisler, The Chicago Grand Opera Company, Schumann-Heink, Rosa Ponselle, Galli-Curci and Tito Schipa.)




The MacDonald-Mason Series, Dallas, Texas.


The Alice Seckels Musicales, Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco.


The Edna Sanders Artist Series, Houston and Galveston, Texas.


Ivanhoe Concert Series, Kansas City, Mo.


The Civic Artist Series in cities throughout the Southwest.


The Portland (Ore.) Celebrity Course.






Some Opinions of Gay MacLaren's Art
From Noted People


MARK TWAIN,
 
Dean of American Humorists
—
I would rather hear Gay MacLaren than go to the theatre, because she gives me a chance to use my imagination.



CLARENCE DARROW,
 
Eminent Criminal Lawyer
—
I saw your play Tuesday and was delighted with it.  It was really a wonderful exhibition.  It was as good as if all the characters had been on the stage—probably better because every part was well done.  You certainly deserve a great deal from the public.



MARY SHAW,
 
Famous Ibsen Actress
—
I consider her versatility and her ability to enact all the characters in a play so convincingly, to be an extraordinarily clever feat.



GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER,
 
Commander U. S. Marines
—
To the people in the 'bushes' who have no opportunity for theatre-going, [General Butler was writing this from the Panama Canal Zone] your recitals are only exceeded, in the fervor with which they are looked forward to and enjoyed, by orders 'HOME'.



SAMUEL SHIPMAN,
 
Noted Playwright, Author of 
Friendly Enemies
 and 
East is West
—
Her impersonations are marvelous.  I consider her one of the most gifted actresses of the American stage.



MRS. THOMAS A. EDISON,
 
Wife of American Inventor
—
Gay MacLaren is most remarkable in her ability to make her characters live, and in holding one's interest from start to finish without the use of stage setting in any particular.



ROBERT DAVIS,
 
Dean of American Magazine Editors
—
Aside from acting every part and making the whole production live, it wouldn't surprise me at all if she wrote her next play.  With her gift of mimicry, her marvelous memory, and inexhaustible freshness and vitality, she is practically the whole show—with a perfect cast.



DIXIE HINES,
 
Famous New York Dramatic Critic
—
I consider Gay MacLaren one of the really remarkable personages of the dramatic field.  It would be quite extraordinary for any actress to impersonate cleverly a single character in all the plays she does, but to impersonate all the characters cleverly in all the plays, leaves one speechless in surprise and admiration.



RICHARD HERNDON,
 
Manager Belmont Theatre, N. Y., and Producer of Many Plays
—
Her performances at the Belmont Theatre will linger in my memory as the greatest achievement in its line it has ever been my pleasure to witness.




From the Magazines



Saturday Evening Post


—It was remarkable—an extraordinary piece of acting.  She was Jane Cowl and Florence Nash to the life.




American Magazine


—Gay MacLaren added another profession to the list of things that 'women can do'.  She is the star in a 'one-girl' show.




Green Book Magazine


—There is not a state in the union—and scarcely a city—where she is not known.  Her audiences have included miners of Arizona and Alaska, fashionable clubs in the large cities, special recitals before theatrical organizations and artists courses.  A lot of folks throughout the country for one reason or another do not see Broadway every season.  But through the new profession Miss MacLaren has created, these people have had the latest Broadway successes taken to them.




Munsey Magazine


—Matthew White, dramatic critic, says:  
She gives an entire play without any other aid than her marvelous memory.  She is so clever at it, that I can think of no better substitute for the real thing, especially in places where the high cost of travel makes the screen the only form of drama available.




Stage and Screen Review


—New York heralded Gay MacLaren, 'the girl with the camera mind,' and pronounced her, if not exactly the eighth wonder, at least one of the wonders of the stage.  The girl is a 'whole show'.




Woman's Home Companion


—My largest audience [this from an interview with Gay MacLaren] was made up of student officers at Fort Benjamin Harrison during the World War.  Standing on a brilliantly lighted stage, built in the open, I faced 14,000, the flower of America's manhood—a sea of olive-drab, it seemed.  I count this the greatest experience in my career, and also the greatest privilege I ever had in my life.




The Platform World


—She is the original Little Theatre of America.  She is the human paradox—the mental sphinx—Gay MacLaren!  That is the mimic machinery.  She herself is the most charming, vivacious, enthusiastic young woman who ever studied a railroad guide.  Her round face, set rounder with black hair, flashes the animation as she speaks.  And her eyes!  What movie eyes—big blue ones that dance with merriment.  If she were not an artist, she could just as well be a social queen.




New York Dramatic Mirror


—If Miss MacLaren ever gave up imitating, she could be a success in creating dramatic roles as well.




The Billboard


—Gay MacLaren is really a dramatic medium thru which every type of character from 'Juliet' to 'Simon Legree' can speak and act with perfect freedom and uncanny reality.  No artist in recent years has had the phenomenal success achieved by Miss MacLaren.  She is considered by many the most unique artist presented to the American public.






As the Newspapers Have Told It

A REMARKABLE PERSON



Stephen Rathbun in the New York Sun


—After watching and listening to Miss MacLaren's performance at the Belmont Theatre, unassisted by any 'props' aside from a simple stage setting, we came to the natural conclusion that Miss MacLaren is a remarkable person.




THE WHOLE SHOW



New York World


—She can produce the whole show from the leading actor or actress right down to the bellboy or doorkeeper.





ALMOST UNCANNY



New York Journal


—The star of the afternoon was Gay MacLaren in her unique role of impersonator of the entire play, 'Enter Madame', followed by a short imitation, by request, of Sarah Bernhardt.  Miss MacLaren has a repertoire of sixteen entire plays, which she gives all by herself without any scenic or other assistance.  Her powers of imitation are almost uncanny.





INDUBITABLY, AN ARTIST



Sam Putnam in the Chicago Evening Post


—The audience at the Play House yesterday afternoon liked Gay MacLaren in her unaided 're-creation' of Gilda Varesi and Dolly Byrne's comedy, 'Enter Madame'.  Miss MacLaren is, indubitably, an artist, who may be said to have discovered something in the way of a novel medium.  Without the assistance of other histrions, stage settings, props, or even costumes, this young woman establishes her ability to reproduce with photographic and phonographic fidelity, not merely the millieu[sicmilieu], the emotional mise-en-scene, but the most fugitive nuances of an entire production.  * * * Miss MacLaren's voice is an admirable one.  Her stage presence is faultless.




SHAKESPEARE'S MAGIC WAS FELT



Chicago Daily Journal


—Shakespeare's magic was felt at the Play House yesterday afternoon when 'Romeo and Juliet' was performed by the unique Gay MacLaren, who impersonated all the characters.  Words set like jewels in an endless row, enchanted the ear with their poetry and their sufficiency.  * * * Miss MacLaren's performance rose above any standards of stage acting.  Her sense of posture was remarkably suited to the flowing speech.  The setting was suggestive and the costume was adroit.  * * * Had all the local theatre-goers been aware of the beauty of the performance, the Play House could not have contained Miss MacLaren's audience.





AS DRAMATIC AS ANY OF THE GREAT JULIETS



Molly Morris in the Chicago Daily News



—Any actress who moves gracefully through the taxing scenes of Shakespeare's Juliet and reads her speeches with correct emotional stress and poetic ardor, is acclaimed an artist.  She generally feels that she has fulfilled the expectations of the management if she knows her own lines, even though she remains oblivious of the other tributary roles, except of course, for a fair recollection of cues.  Beyond this necessary attention to her fellow players she concentrates on the fair daughter of the Capulets.  Ask Ethel Barymore, who has recently renounced the role; ask Jane Cowl, who is still delighting New York with it, if Juliet is not enough to keep any one actress busy for an evening.


But consider Gay MacLaren, who has just given Chicago a remarkable performance of the whole romantic drama of 'Romeo and Juliet', speaking the lines and impersonating all the principal characters.  Incredible as it may seem, she is not only a very lovely Juliet—fresh, girlish, responsive—but a petulant and aged nurse; not only a romantic Romeo, but a fiery Tybalt, a philosophic Friar Lawrence, a cringing apothecary, a lordly Montague, and all the rest, including the attendants.




* * * It is a marvelous bit of necromancy, for so perfectly are the different voices produced, the gestures made, the carriage of the body changed to suit the characters, that the stage is peopled with Capulets and Montagues, and the dead lie strewn under foot.  * * Miss MacLaren exhibits talents most unusual, and holds her audience in breathless silence thru the entire play.  Her acting of the potion scene is as dramatic as any of the great Juliets have shown.






PLAYS 15 IN 1



Chicago Evening American


—What becomes of all the prodigies when they grow up?  Gay MacLaren, who appeared at the Play House today, is one answer.  Unlike memory prodigies who repeat catalogs, time tables and other difficult meaningless things, Miss MacLaren exhibits a memory to make Mr. Roth jealous with the perfected art of Emma Dunn.  It was Miss Dunn, in fact, together with nine other actors and actresses, whom she imitated in her re-creation of 'The Governor's Lady'.  This 'girl with the camera mind' (with dictaphone attachment presumably) re-creates a play exactly is it impresses itself in a few hearings on her brain, and so perfect is the reproduction that, with closed eyes, it is difficult to believe that one woman is the entire cast.  She takes her ten roles so well that she brings not only laughter, but—supreme test—tears.





NO ORDINARY ENTERTAINMENT



Pittsburgh Dispatch


—This is no ordinary entertainment, but a really interesting and effective representation by one person of the full cast, well imitated as to actions and words.  With the present high cost of theatrical productions, especially on tour, Miss MacLaren promises to become a prime favorite.





THREE REMARKABLE THINGS



Salt Lake City Telegram


—There were three remarkable things about 'Father and Dad'.  One was that Miss MacLaren wrote it herself.  Another was that the play was presented minus the usual stage settings, and the third was that she enacted all the ten important roles of the drama herself.  * * Until she began to speak the first lines of the play, it seemed impossible that one woman could make ten characters actually live before one's eyes.  Before many minutes, however, so vivid and so real was it all, that one forgot the practically bare stage and saw instead the homely kitchen of the farmhouse with all the characters moving about, enacting their roles * * * It was more than remarkable, it was utterly fascinating, the dramatic power of Gay MacLaren.  * * * The play itself, despite its pungent humored lines and ready wit, was a thought-provoking study of modern children in their love relations to their parents.






WE WILL BE THERE



Editorial in the Columbus, O., State Journal


—A charming personality and a great artist.  She has appeared in Columbus several times.  Whenever she comes we will be there.





ONE OF THE BIG EVENTS



New Haven, Conn., Register


—Beauty, charm of personality, and great talent have been given to Gay MacLaren.  Her recital was one of the big events of the winter.





MRS. FISKE MATERIALIZED



Tacoma News-Tribune


—A large Celebrity Course audience saw Mrs. Fiske and her whole company materialize on the stage Wednesday night, when Gay MacLaren reproduced the great Mrs. Fiske presentation of Helena's Boys.  Elsie Janis won fame by impersonating prominent stage characters individually, but Gay MacLaren placed the whole company on the stage.  And those who are familiar with Mrs. Fiske forgot the young lady who was giving the presentation, and saw again their old favorite.  Her face, her carriage, her quick, nervous movements, her voice, all were there in a battle of wits against the other members of the cast, which Miss MacLaren impersonated in turn.





REVIVES MEMORIES OF DAVID WARFIELD



Houston, Texas, Post-Dispatch


—The tear-choked tones of David Warfield in his beloved 'Music Master', filled the ballroom of the Rice Hotel Wednesday afternoon, and the audience marveled that they were looking at Gay MacLaren and not the master himself.  Or rather, this thought came to them after the play was over, for Miss MacLaren held them spellbound for two hours with never a thought except for the play.  Miss MacLaren has brought to Houston something entirely new, an art which has as its basis the world-old instinct of the human race for mimicry.  She has been called a reader, an actress, a mimic, an impersonator.  She is all of these, but more completely the actress and mimic.  For her impersonation is not her own, her voice is not her own—these things belong to the ones who have made the roles famous * * *'I once thought that I would never see Warfield again, but I have now.'  This was one of the many similar remarks heard at the conclusion of her performance.





ATTAINS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE



Fort Worth Star-Telegram


—The large crowd which heard the 'Governor's Lady' as presented by Gay MacLaren, under the auspices of the Euterpean Club, was no less surprised at her proficiency in a seemingly impossible feat than it was pleased with her ability to impersonate, to pantomime, and to maintain emotional tension.  * * * Miss MacLaren's acting in the crisis of the play in which the governor's lady finds that her husband has dishonored himself and her, is superb.  The audience demonstrated unbounded appreciation of Miss MacLaren's art in unflagging attention and hearty applause.





A CHARMING MRS. FISKE



Wilkes-Barre Record


—Mrs. Fiske's diverting yet thoughtful comedy, 'Helena's Boys', was the vehicle for the dramatic re-creation chosen by Gay MacLaren for her fourth annual appearance under the auspices of St. Stephen's Men's Club last evening.  Miss MacLaren subjected herself to a test which she has not undergone in previous appearances, for the star, whose acting she re-created, was a woman well-known to Wilkes-Barre theatre-goers, and the audience had an opportunity to make a critical comparison.  The fact that her rendition of the leading role was in the manner of Mrs. Fiske, was not only easily recognized, but it was amazing in its completeness of personality and its fidelity to detail in phonetics and mannerisms.





MOST DELIGHTFUL PROGRAM THIS SEASON



Omaha World-Herald


—Gay MacLaren appeared before 800 members of the Drama League at the Fontanelle Hotel yesterday afternoon.  It was the general concensus[sicconsensus] of opinion that Miss MacLaren's art provided the most delightful program given this season.





EXHIBITION OF MORE DIFFERENT FORMS OF GENIUS



Palm Beach, Fla., News


—The presentation of a play by Gay MacLaren is an exhibition of more different forms of genius than are often combined in one personality.  Her skill in the differentiation of the many characters she assumes is most remarkable, and leaves no confusion as to the identity in the listener's mind.  Her movements are distinguished by an airy and birdlike grace that is enchanting.  We cannot conceive of her being guilty of an awkward or gauche action or gesture.  Her changes of voice are marvelous.  We have seldom seen a more rapt or attentive audience.  The proverbial pin would have sounded like a clap of thunder as long as the artist was on the stage.





DEMANDED FIVE CURTAIN CALLS



Washington, D. C., Herald


—An audience of several hundred City Club members and their families demanded five curtain calls from Gay MacLaren when she had finished her remarkable presentation of 'Enter Madame' last evening.  For an hour and a half Miss MacLaren held the big audience fascinated with her brilliant presentation of this popular comedy, re-creating not only the exotic character of Madame Della Robbia, the temperamental opera singer, originally played by Gilda Varesi, but also all the other characters.





BEAUTIFUL, GIFTED, MAGNETIC



Youngstown, O., Vindicator


—Beautiful, gifted, magnetic and having what is popularly ascribed to her, a 'camera mind', Gay MacLaren literally held her audience spellbound last evening.





THE IDOL OF THE ISTHMUS



Panama (Canal Zone) Morning Journal


—Gay MacLaren is a little wonder.  She takes the clubhouse stage with a commissary rug on it, a bachelor rocker that has been freshly varnished, a quartermaster's center table and another chair like the odd one every Zoner has in his dining room set, and then sets her stage with invisible dummies, and steps into them and out of them again, makes them talk, walk, laugh and cry.  Miss MacLaren is the idol of the Isthmus.  She is an institution.  Uncle Sam sent her down to give us 7 recitals and we have kept her to give 108.  This is her fourth 'missionary' trip to the Isthmus, and each time she has brought to the exiles here the best plays of the New York season.  There is one bet that Col. Goethals has overlooked.  He should have subsidized Miss MacLaren and retained her services for the Canal Zone.  She has helped to dig the canal in her own way.





STARTLING



Brooklyn Daily Eagle


—She acts with an authority and conviction, and a fire and intensity that are startling.






Glenn Frank Writes About Gay MacLaren



Let's see Gay MacLaren's presentation of 
Bought and Paid For,
 said my friend.




Oh, the impersonator?
  I asked.




No,
 answered my friend quickly, 
the woman who has invented a new art form.




I went in a skeptical mood.  I left the theatre in the mood of enthusiasm that now impels my pen.




The curtain rose upon a stage bare of scenic effect.  Here was a stage upon which imagination could play unhindered.  Could Miss MacLaren, unaided by scenery, call the imagination of her audience into play?  Could she make all the characters of the play live again with the rich personality they had in the original New York production?




At best, she will do a good job of reading, a vivid bit of impersonation,
 I thought.




Miss MacLaren entered—a dainty, very feminine person.  I had visions of her having laboriously memorized the lines of the play.  But my friend reminded me that Miss MacLaren never sees the manuscript of the play she is to present; just attends the theatre a few times and the play sticks in her memory—not alone the lines of the play, but each intonation, gesture and mannerism of every member of the cast.




I'll be interested to see how she 
interprets
 these characters,
 I said to my friend, 
for I saw the original production.  I wonder what she will make of 'Jimmy'.  Will she have the same conception that Frank Craven had when he created the role?




Oh,
 said my friend, 
You miss the point.  Miss MacLaren doesn't create or interpret any character.  You see she isn't just a 'reader' of plays.  She reproduces the original performance with all the accuracy of a Victrola record.  It isn't Miss MacLaren's 'Jimmy' you are about to see; it is Frank Craven's 'Jimmy'.




This dialogue took less time in the talking than the writing, but it made us lose the brisk and workmanlike introduction that preceded Miss MacLaren's plunging into the play.




I can only say that the illusion was perfect.  It was not a reading.  It was not an impersonation.  It was a re-creation.  The original cast lived and acted again.




Miss MacLaren goes back from these Belasco days, when little room is left to the imagination of the audience, to the simpler days of Shakespeare when, under the stimulus of good acting, the audience could have the pleasure of building its own scenery with the delightful fabrics of its imagination.




From Two Notable Books



TERRY RAMSAYE'S
 
two-volume History of the Motion Picture, 
A Million and One Nights,
 describes the art of Gay MacLaren.  Discussing certain phases of the function of memory in art, Mr. Ramsaye thus refers to Miss MacLaren in this work.




This motion pictorial element is astonishingly revealed in the memory feats which are incidental to the work of Gay MacLaren, dramatic recital artist.  Her unique performances consist of giving entire plays, in the voices and actions of all the members of the casts, attaining a high degree of stage illusion.  Her repertoire includes some eighteen plays, and she sometimes adds two a season.  The process of acquisition requires merely that she see five performances of the play as a member of the audience.  No conscious memory effort enters into the process.  The essence of the feat appears to be a recording of the stage picture, a function of what is termed her 'camera mind'.  With only a setting of a table and two or three chairs, she reproduces that entire stage picture, down to the most inconsiderable detail of action, by the sheer perfection of pantomimic reproduction of that action.




Any of these eighteen plays, many of them full two hours in length, and including perhaps fifteen or twenty characters, is available in Miss MacLaren's memory at an instant's notice.  The entire play with its infinity and pantomimic details and rapid fire of spoken parts, so essential to the multiple character delineations, flows on through a single personality with all the ribbon-like continuity of a film.  Her memory is a motion picture.




The veteran comedian,
 
DE WOLF HOPPER,
 
in his autobiography, 
Once a Clown, Always a Clown,
 tells an interesting story of Gay MacLaren.  In discussing the private charities of the people of the stage, Mr. Hopper says:




Someone among his callers spoke to Billy Judson [a well-known theatrical 
first-nighter
, now confined to his bed with paralysis] one day of a Miss Gay MacLaren, who had the remarkable gift of being able to reproduce a play line for line and character for character after watching it three or four times.  'Within the Law' was the show of the moment.  Judson was frantic to see it, and Miss MacLaren was reported to have added 'Within the Law' to her repertoire.  When the situation was explained to Miss MacLaren she offered at once to reenact the play at Judson's bedside.




Winchell Smith brought along Dodson Mitchell, who was playing the male lead in 'Within the Law.'  Mitchell was skeptical of Miss MacLaren's or anyone's ability to do more than memorize the lines, if that, and Judson, anxious to believe that she could do all that was claimed for her, bet the actor a box of cigars on the outcome.  A stipulation of the bet was that Miss MacLaren was not to know Mitchell's true identity, and that he should be introduced to her as Mr. Dodson.




She came and Mitchell lost the bet.  Without scenery or costumes, without ever having seen the script of the play, and before that curious little audience she gave the drama letter perfect and with amazing mimicry, the paralytic devouring it all with his glowing eyes.




'I had expected a memory stunt,' Mr. Mitchell told me.  'It was remarkable enough as that, but it also was an extraordinary piece of acting.  She was Jane Cowl and Florence Nash to the life.  Her men were not such exact copies, of course, but they were amazingly good.  I had no difficulty in recognizing myself.  And when she had finished, she turned to me and asked, 
Well, Mr. Mitchell, how did you like it?
  She had recognized me from the first'.




Miss MacLaren's 'Within the Law' was Judson's last night in the theatre.  He died during the winter, and Broadway has long since forgotten him.  She continues to earn her interesting and unique livelihood as a one-woman theatre.  She is on the road six months of every season, giving her re-creations before schools, clubs, Little Theatres,


 and as a part of the Artist and Lecture Courses supported by every self-respecting American community.  Unfortunately, there is only one of her, or she might solve the great problem of the road.



Originally, she set forth each season with three or four of the reigning successes, but last season, and here is a commentary on the present state of the drama, there was no play on Broadway fit for her use.  The available successful plays were either too frank or too indecent for her audiences, the available clean plays were dull.  And Miss MacLaren was reduced to writing a play of her own and using 'Romeo and Juliet' as the balance of her repertoire.





From Leading Women's Clubs



THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF EVANSTON




Evanston, Ill., Nov. 26, 1928.




My Dear Miss MacLaren:




I wish to express our appreciation of the splendid program you gave us last Tuesday afternoon.  It was most unusual and beautifully done.  The play itself, 
Father and Dad,
 is well worth attention for the lesson it so painlessly brings, and the characterizations were startlingly real.  Our large audience enjoyed you exceedingly, and many have told me that it was one of the best programs ever given in our clubhouse.




Most sincerely yours, 
MARY H. WESTCOTT
 (Mrs. James B.), Chairman of the Program Committee




THE OAK PARK CLUB OF OAK PARK, ILL.




Oak Park, Ill., Nov. 11, 1928




Dear Miss MacLaren:




Let me tell you again how much the women of the Oak Park Club enjoyed you in your play, 
Father and Dad
.  It was one of those rare occasions when not even the busiest person found it necessary to leave before the close of the program.  I hope you will come again.




Sincerely,

LOUISE N. HAFNER
, Chairman of the Program Committee


THE MARY CRAIG CLASS OF DALLAS




Dallas, Texas, Jan. 30, 1929



The members of the Mary Craig Class wish to express their appreciation to Gay MacLaren for giving them one of the most delightful programs the class has ever had.  
Father and Dad
 is not only a charming play, but presents the problems that daily confront the parents of modern youth, and gives an interesting solution.  Miss MacLaren's performance of the play was almost uncanny, it was so naturally presented.  She is a wonderful dramatic interpreter, a real artist.



ALICE L. SPEER
, Director Mary Craig Class




NEW YORK MOZART SOCIETY




New York, Feb. 3, 1923



It is quite impossible for me to tell how surprised I was to see Miss MacLaren give an entire play and take each part perfectly.  It was one of the greatest evidences of genius I have ever seen in my life.  Miss MacLaren should have a theatre of her own.




MRS. NOBLE MCCONNELL
, Pres. New York Mozart Society



THE DRAMA LEAGUE OF CHICAGO




Chicago, Ill., Dec. 7, 1927




My Dear Miss MacLaren:



I want to thank you on behalf of the Drama League for the charming afternoon you gave us on November 21st at the Congress Hotel.  It was unique and something we have not had.  I know it was greatly enjoyed by every member.




Cordially, 
MRS. SAMUEL NEWTON.



THE INDIANAPOLIS WOMAN'S CLUB




Indianapolis, Ind., Jan. 10, 1929




My Dear Miss MacLaren:



May I say that your appearance before the Woman's Department Club of Indianapolis furnished us with the most delightful and fascinating entertainment we have ever had.  
Father and Dad,
 your own play, is brilliantly written, ultra modern in its scope, and seems to include all of the more serious problems that present day parents have to contend with.  Your skill in transforming yourself into the living, breathing characters of the play, as each recites his or her lines, was marvelous.  You made them so real that with you we laughed and wept.  You also encouraged us to believe that our hope of the future, not our menace, lies in our children.



We shall hope to have you before our club again next year.  With sincerest wishes for your welfare, I am




Very truly yours,

MRS. WILLIAM DOBSON
.


THE EBELL CLUB OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA




My dear Miss MacLaren:




The president and officers of the Ebell Club wish me to tell you how much we appreciated your re-creation of 
The Enemy
.  It was most artistically done.  Your work is beyond that of a 
reader
, in that it makes a play live before us without breaking the act to explain some action or thought in your own words.  Each act is a complete whole as you see it on the stage.  Having heard you before, I know that your plays contain a thought that is a part of all club ideals, and to such artists we wish all joy and success.



Most sincerely,

MRS. N. C. BURSON
, Program Chairman.


THE CINCINNATI WOMAN'S CLUB




My dear Miss MacLaren:



Thank you very heartily for a wonderful entertainment.  It was so much more than that!




Sincerely yours,

ETHEL C. SHATTUCK
.



And She Did 
Associate with the President



She Mimicked Everyone About Her Until the Public Acclaimed Her Genius and Artist — Gay MacLaren's Surprising Career as 
One-Girl Show
 — Now She Turns to Writing Her Own Plays — 
Father and Dad
 a Success




(REPRINTED FROM THE PLATFORM WORLD)




THE
 Minneapolis Sunday papers of last December 2 transferred Gay MacLaren's publicity from the usual dramatic pages to the society pages.  Large pictures of the 
Girl with the Camera Mind
 smiled out from them along with accounts of reunions, teas, dinners and parties in her honor.  Because she happened to drop in to visit her mother and sister there, Flour City seized upon the occasion to celebrate.




It was all because a little round-faced girl had told a Minneapolis school teacher something so ridiculous that the teacher laughed and her classmates jeered.  For days afterward the little round-faced girl was laughed at, but she kept on telling it.  She had been slipping off to a theatre downtown where an English company was giving 
The Sign of the Cross.
  Night after night she saw the play, thrilled by its dramatic power, and then found that she knew it.  She made a Roman gown like the heroine in the play wore, made herself a cross and mimicked the whole cast of actors as faithfully as a movie film can do it.




So when the teacher in the Manning College of Music and Drama was slating the senior pupils for recital programs, this girl just entering her 
teens,
 said, 
I'm going to give 'The Sign of the Cross'.




You mean some scene in it?




Oh, no—the whole play!




Her calm assurance convulsed the class.  It couldn't be done.  Nobody had ever done it.  When Louise Jewell Manning returned from California, the teacher in charge during her absence said, 
You better do something about that little Gay MacLaren.  She says she's going to give a whole play for her graduating recital, and a terribly tragic play that a little girl doesn't know anything about.




Gay, if you can give a scene from 'The Sign of the Cross,' go up on the stage and give it now,
 said Mrs. Manning next day in class.  While the other girls giggled, Gay immediately went forward and gave the entire first act.  In a minute it seemed as though the company were playing.  The class gasped in admiration, the teacher was astonished.  When she finished the act, nobody could speak.  A miracle had happened.




Know any more of it?
  Mrs. Manning finally found her voice.



Figure


Gay MacLaren


The Human Speaking Movie



Yes, all of it.
  And she gave it all.  All that terrific Roman orgy, and that terrible arena scene, the little girl reproduced without knowing what it all meant.  The Manning school turned jeers into cheers.  Gay MacLaren became the sensation of Minneapolis.  The papers carried long stories about her, and she was kept busy giving 
The Sign of the Cross
 to astounded audiences.  She had never seen the book of the play.



When a child tells you its dream, listen and don't laugh.  It is prophecy.




RAISES A FURORE IN NEW YORK



After graduation Mrs. Manning hastened with her girl prodigy to New York.  Brookly Institute, where genius was wont to disport itself, wasn't interested in juveniles.  But it happened that Leland Powers, master monologist, was there giving 
Twelfth Night,
 and after he had finished his performance he said he would listen to the girl from Minneapolis.  She unhesitatingly went upon the stage just vacated and before Powers, Director Franklin Hooper and the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle she gave scenes from the play.




Phenomenal!
  exclaimed Powers.  
By all means put her on the Institute program.  She is the most unusual girl I have ever seen.  She is an artist.




And they put her in Brooklyn Institute, repeating the performance to audiences that overfilled the auditorium.  The Brooklyn Eagle front-paged her, the other papers featured her as a discovery.  From that day to this Gay MacLaren has been in the papers and magazines as what General Smedley Butler called her, 
The One-Girl Show Company,
 and has been busy before audiences marveling at her unique gifts.  Powers lived his characters.  Readers, impersonators, actors create their parts.  Gay MacLaren does none of this.  Her peculiar mentality photographs the play, the words, tones, movements, personalities, all that the audience sees and hears on the stage, on a memory film.  Then when she goes on the stage she reproduces all this from memory.  She hasn't developed this art; she was just as perfect a play mimic as a child as now.  If the play is splendidly acted she gives a splendid reproduction.  If the actors are 
rotten
 she gives a rotten photograph, of course!  That is her art.





But it is work!  When she is through giving a play she is about 
all in.
  She sees the actors on the stage, hears their words, reproduces all just as she sees and hears (never seeing the book of the play!), but she herself may be thinking about what she had for dinner or where she will go tomorrow.  She doesn't 
feel
 the play any more than a movie camera, and sometimes is surprised when the audience roars with laughter or swims in tears.



The first time I see a play, I see it just like anybody else in the audience.  I go back and see it again and again.  I make no effort to remember it, but when I have seen it four or five times I find that the pictures, action, dialog are all there permanently in my mind.  Sometimes one actor doesn't register as quickly as the rest.  When I was hearing the 'Music Master' I couldn't get the lines of David Warfield.  I went again and again and got none of them.  Then suddenly I got it all, every accent.




The play stays with her.  Ten years ago a great audience gathered to hear her give for the first time 
Out There,
 the war play.  A guest with her suggested that she go away so she could rehearse the play.  
Oh, no!
  Miss MacLaren replied.  
I don't rehearse.  It will come when I get on the stage.
  A few minutes before she was to give Channing Pollock's 
The Enemy
 by request of a university, the committeeman asked the same question, 
Do you want to be alone to get ready to give the play?
  She hadn't thought of this play for months, but she said, 
No, I'll get enough rehearsing on the platform.



The day the Brooklyn Institute managers were to present her they nearly had a fit.  They couldn't find her after advertising their prodigy.  An hour before appearance they were scouring Brooklyn.  She wasn't at the home of friends of Mrs. Manning where she was stopping.  Where do you think the little minx was?  Down street window-shopping!  The sights of the great city were overpowering.  A few minutes before the time to begin she jauntily walked into the Institute ante-room for her portentous debut the calmest one there.  She slipped on her Roman gown and announced, 
I'm ready.



She is courage and self-confidence incarnate.



MARK TWAIN PREFERRED HER TO THEATRE



Brooklyn Institute did an amazing thing for that day—gave the child a check for $200.  And what do you think she did with it?  Went down street the next day and spent it all in a chiffon splurge.  She had never seen that much money before and for once she proposed to have all the chiffons she wanted.  And she bought a $25 hat.




Then wearing that $25 hat she went up Tenth Street to call on Mark Twain, who lived there at that time.  She wanted his permission to give 
Pudd'nhead Wilson
 as a play.  Mark had a lot of fun with the strange child.  It never once occurred to him that she meant anything when she was in tragic earnest.  He pulled the ribbons on her $25 hat, played with her curls and told her she was a fine kiddie.  He liked her enormously, she was such a different girl, and told her to come back often.




She did come back a little later on.  Major Pond had discovered her genius and he brought her to the great humorist this time.  
Mark, this girl is a wonder.
  There in Mark's home she gave the play version of 
Pudd'nhead
 as she had seen it given in a theatre.  The author, a child at heart himself, became enthusiastic.  
Why, you wonderful girl!  I didn't know anybody could do that.  I want you to give 'Pudden'head' and any other story of mine.  I'd rather see you give 'Pudd'nhead' than to see it played on the stage.  You give me more chance to use my imagination.
  Mark Twain was one of her great admirers after that.




Pond had planned to put her on the stage under Frohman's management, but he passed away before doing it.  She did play in stock a year, and when William A. Brady saw her give 
Way Down East,
 he offered her the place of leading lady in his company giving that play.  But the joys (and fees) of being a whole show company herself pulled her back to the art she had created, and she declined.  She did do a year of Keith vaudeville, giving imitations of Bernhardt, Warfield, Nazimova, Anna Held, Eddie Foy, Trixie Friganza, and other headliners.





EVEN GENERAL GOETHALS ATTENDED



The thousands of Panama Canal diggers wanted entertainment from the homeland.  The Y. M. C. A. brought it and staged it in the seven clubhouses of the Canal Zone.  They asked Gay MacLaren to go the seven clubhouses in company with a fiddler and pianist and other trimmings.  She declined; she couldn't give a play that way.  The 
Y
 declined to send a slip of a girl to give a whole evening program.  The Panama crowd would get up and walk out on her.  But Zone secretaries heard about her and asked that she be sent down.  She was sent on suspicion.  The crowd stayed.  After she had done the seven club houses the yell went up all along the Big Ditch, 
Send that one-girl show back here pronto.
  She made four voyages to the Canal Zone and gave 108 performances!




The occasion of the 100th performance was made a gala night there at Culebra, and all officialdom of the Zone attended and cheered the appearance of 
The Idol of the Isthmus,
 as they called her.  General Goethals himself attended that night, the only time he ever entered a Y. M. C. A. clubhouse in the Zone, he being bitterly opposed to the Y. M. C. A. supervision of the clubhouses.




Could you imagine a city park opening and excursion trains running a week to see a one-girl show?  It happened at New Albany, Indiana, in Fountain Park, across the river from Louisville.  The assembly in this park had put Gay MacLaren on their program for the afternoon.  They suspicioned all 
elocutionists
 as bores, not big enough for evening crowds.  She came and gave 
Within the Law
 that afternoon.  Before she had left town that afternoon audience set up such a clamor to hear more of her, that the committee induced her to stay that night and give 
Peg o' My Heart.
  They had engaged a grand opera company for the evening, but they had the none-too-pleased company give a 15-minute prelude, and then the one-girl show came on.  More calls for MacLaren!  The Assembly closed, but the committee brought her back the following Sunday for two performances—
Rebecca of Sunny-brook Farm
 and 
The Sign of the Cross,
 in the reopened park.




Interest ran higher.  
Get her back!
  A little later the park was again opened for a week of MacLaren plays.  Seven nights she appeared, giving 
The Man from Home,
 
The Man of the Hour,
 
Daddy Longlegs,
 
The Music Master,
 
Bought and Paid For,
 
The Governor's Lady,
 and 
Romeo and Juliet.
  The crowds grew all week, special trains carrying the people from Louisville and other parts of the valley.




There are communities and universities where she has been appearing each year for ten or fifteen years.






GIVES HER FIRST 
SHOW
 AT TEN



Gay MacLaren's career from the cradle has been a continuous performance.  As a little child in Howard, South Dakota, and afterwards in Escondido, California, she mimicked sounds and people.  Nothing delighted her mischievous mind more than to hide where children were playing and then imitate their mothers calling them:  
Jimmie-e-e-e-e!
  
Rosie-e-e-e, come right here!
  The children would run to their mothers, and then little Gay's sprintship only saved her.  She would go to an entertainment and then for days she was reproducing it at home.  She went to 
Uncle Tom's Cabin,
 and the MacLaren house was full of Little Evas, Toms and Topsys.




When she was ten years old she decided it was time to start her professional career.  The people of Escondido were surprised to see handbills announcing that Gay MacLaren would give an entertainment.  She had engaged the town hall herself, had made her own program, and then she went on the streets and sold the tickets!  The hall was jammed and she made some money.  She gave the pieces she had heard the entertainers give — gave 
Bobolink,
 
Adam's Fall
 and other classics, gave some of her own inventions, and even gave the 
Maniac
 when she didn't know what a maniac was!




Daddy, I'm going to be an actress when I grow up.  I'm going to associate with the president.
  This little round-faced girl in pigtails kept announcing this, associating with the president being her highest idea of earthly attainment.  She always declared that she would do great things.  There were years of grinding work.  In New York she traveled many miles back and forth to her evening engagements, but was determined to hear the stars in the metropolitan theatres.  She would get ready for her own evening performance, then go to some matinee in the city, hear part of it and rush to her own engagement.  Thru years of overwork, strain and sleeplessness she was buoyed up by faith and unquenchable ambition.  Actors play their own parts and lean on the company, but she plays all the parts and has no rests.  She has done this in at least fifty plays.  After the reception to President Taft on his visit to the Canal Zone, when she, likewise a guest of honor on that occasion and occupying the adjoining box, was presented to him, she wired back home, 
Daddy, I have been associating with the president.




Recent years have had her on artist courses from coast to coast, under the various managements.  Her offering fits in well with the musical stars, and on many courses she has been the only non-musical number.  She made some recent unusual appearances in New York and Chicago, showing that she can create as well as imitate, when she presented her own interpretation of 
Romeo and Juliet,
 with her own scenery and costuming.  In her Chicago presentation the Steindel String Quartet from the Theodore Thomas Symphony Orchestra accompanied her acting with music.  The dramatic critics were extravagant in their commendation.  She was invited to give this portrayal in the Shakespearian Memorial Theatre, in Stratford, England, which she yet expects to do when this theatre is restored, it having suffered from a fire.




Dramatic critics cold?  They have excuse for being blase in seeing so many plays.  But when she was giving 
Friendly Enemies
 in the Belmont Theatre, New York, Matthew White, dramatic critic for Munsey's Magazine, cried 
Bravo!
 from his box.  That was a memorable occasion, for Samuel Shipman, author of the play, and Louis Mann, star in it whom she was imitating, were absorbed spectators.





MRS. EDISON RESCUES HER



One night she found herself in East Orange, New Jersey, to give a play in a church with a pink chiffon dress and black street shoes.  She had forgotten to bring her pink slippers!  What to do?  A kind-hearted lady in the audience came to her rescue, by sending home for potted plants which she placed in a row on the rostrum.  Her black shoes hidden behind these, she went through with the performance, and as she thanked the lady for 
saving her life
 she asked the name of her benefactress.




Oh!  I'm just Mrs. Edison.  I got so absorbed in the play I forgot all about the shoes.




The wife of the great inventor became one of her permanent patronesses, and attended her performances whenever possible, always sending her flowers.  At this Belmont Theatre appearance Mrs. Edison occupied a box with six guests.  As Miss MacLaren appeared on the stage and recognized Mrs. Edison, she instinctively looked down at her slippers, which convulsed the hostess of the box.




Gay MacLaren has been good 
copy
 for the newspapers, magazines and bookmakers.  She has written much herself.  The American, Munsey's, Everybody's, Saturday Evening Post and many other periodicals and press syndicates have featured her uncanny powers.  Terry Ramsaye in his epochal history of the movies, 
A Million and One Nights,
 has described her as an animated movie camera.  DeWolf Hopper gives her pages in his book.  Glenn Frank, May Stanley, and other writers have discussed her.  And 
Who's Who in America
 lists her.





NOW WRITING HER OWN PLAYS



But she says she is only beginning.  She has turned to writing her own plays.  Her first is 
Father and Dad,
 a cross-section of real modern home life that has rung the bell before very critical audiences.  It will soon be produced on the stage.  She is hard at work on other plays.  She plans ere long to quit acting or to limit her engagements and give more time to writing.




And to give more time to homemaking and the quest of early American furniture, which is her hobby.  She is more interested in home than stage.  In private life she is the wife of Ralph Parlette, the lecture and writer man who formerly edited The Lyceum Magazine.  And he will tell you that Gay MacLaren can cook as fine a dinner, if the necessity arises, as can the exotic chefs of the Loop hotels.  Their home is in Chicago, at 70 East Walton Place, and Chicago is giving her a warm welcome.  The Drama League, the Women's clubs and various other organizations are filling up her calendar.




Some world travel is planned, too.  Some English speaking colonies in South America and the Old World are already asking for the 
Girl with the Camera Mind.




Clarence Darrow, so much just now in the public eye, recently attended one of her performances in Chicago, when she gave 
The Governor's Lady.
  This is the type of play Darrow abhors.  So this note in Darrow's handwriting and spelling came to her next day:




Dear Miss MacLaren:  Your acting is wonderful and your play is wrotten.