Theatre: Chicago’s Amy

Chicago’s Amy

When Chicagoans trooped down to the South Side to witness the wrigglings of Fatima (“The Seventh Daughter of the Seventh Daughter”) on the Midway, to gasp at gorgeous pyrotechnic displays, to parade through the handsome plaster buildings of Messrs. McKim, Mead & White at the Columbian (“World’s Fair”) Exposition, Reporters Lillie West Brown and George Ade shared a desk in the city room of the Chicago Daily News. Reporter Ade rose to be a special writer, then dramatic editor, then conductor of a column, finally a free-lance humorist (Fables in Slang) and playwright (The Sultan of Sulu). But Mrs. Lillie West Brown—who preferred to be known as “Amy Leslie”— stayed on at the Daily News as dramatic critic for 40 years. Last week, with fanfare and accolade, the Daily News announced the retirement of the oldest U. S. woman theatre reviewer. “Think of a woman,” marveled Author Ade, now aged 64, “going to the theatre several times a week for at least 40 years and keeping her girlish enthusiasm for the drama and retaining her eager interest in play actors and lavishing upon a languishing art a glittering and figurative vocabulary that was always ebullient and never seemed to repeat!” Said Producer George M. Cohan: “Amy Leslie may retire 1,000 times but she will always be a part of the American theatre. … I have personally known Amy Leslie and have been proud of her friendship for 30 years.”

“Amy Leslie,” said Producer Morris Gest, ”whom I have known for 25 years, will carry with her in her retirement . . . the admiration and sincere regard of all stage people.”

“I have heard of her in every country I have ever been in,” wired Producer David Belasco.

Although ailing of late years and compelled to use a cane, Amy Leslie still bristles with nervous energy. She appears at first nights gowned in brilliant reds and greens, frills and feathers. Her critiques can still be as caustic as complimentary. She travels only in taxicabs, often taking the cab driver in with her when an important purchase is to be made. She admits any age up to 85. Although she is reluctant to discuss her history prior to the publication of her forthcoming memoirs, these facts are known of the life & times of Amy Leslie: She was born at West Burlington, Iowa, in 1860, one year before the Civil War began. Dramatically she has suggested her early martial impressions: “Before my ears were attuned to music or my eyes keen for sunshine, the muffled throb of drums and shuffling feet beating time bore strange wonderings to my small, eager mind.” After she was graduated from St. Mary’s Academy (South Bend, Ind.) in 1876, she took to the light operatic stage, appearing in La Mascotte, Fatinitza, Erminie, The Mikado, H. M. S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance. During this period she married Harry Brown, musi-comedian, by whom she had a son who died at the age of four. About that time she left the stage, joining the staff of the Daily News in 1890. Her second husband, one Frank Howard Buck, divorced her in 1916 on the grounds of cruelty. Most fantastic occurrence of her life, she believes, happened during the iSgo’s. For eight years she had been driven to and from the theatre in a hansom cab operated by a hackman known as “Red.” One night, during a snowstorm, Red’s cab was late coming for her. When it did appear she got in, was taken home, shouted goodnight and ran for her door. An hour later Red’s employer told her that the driver had died w:hile she was in the theatre; unguided, the horse had found the way home. Her friends believe that the most accurate description of Critic Leslie was written by Ben Hecht, long a fellow member of the Daily News staff: “She is the Spring Song by Sousa’s Band. . . . She is as bouncing, effervescent, indomitable, cyclonic, ululating and incredible as her literary style. . . . There is a high wind about Amy that blows your hat off.” Her successor is Lloyd Lewis, author of Myths After Lincoln, publicity director for Balaban & Katz cinemansion chain, co-author—with the Daily New’s Managing Editor Henry Justin Smith—of Chicago: The History of Its Reputation.