Jean Aylwin (1885-1964)
Jean Aylwin (1885-1964)
(The Daily Mail [London, UK] - 29th December, 1906)
MISS JEAN AYLWIN
If Miss Jean Aylwin of the Gaiety Theatre fulfils her promise that her present performance as Jennie, the Scottish Maid, in "The New Aladdin" gives, she has a future before her as character actress that can best be described as a particularly bright one.
It is about two and a half years since Miss Aylwin, who is a native of Hawick on the border, made her entrance into the theatre, and the way in which she managed it poroves she can think for herself.
"I was living in Glasgow when Mr. Forbes Robertson and Miss Gertrude Elliott were appearing ther in "The Light That Failed," she says "and one night when I went to the theatre to see that play I became so infatuated with the idea of going on the stage that I wrote the next day to Miss Elliott asking her to help me get on it. She very kindly allowed me to come to see her, and was awfully good to me, and eventually gave me a letter to Mr. Dion Boucicault, in London."
Mr. Boucicault saw the would-be beginner, but haf nothing to offer her, and told her, what she now admits was quite true then, that none other than a Scotch part would suit her. "To tell the truth," said Miss Aylwin, "you could cut my accent with a knife at that time, but I did not beleive it."
"My disappointment was very bitter, and I went home to my boarding house in Bloomsbury where I was then staying and did as I have often done since - cried my eyes out. However, as luck would have it, there was a country manager staying at the same house as I, and he, for a premium, got me an engagement with a touring company playing drama in the smaller towns. The dramas we played were 'The Red Coat' and 'No Cross, No Crown.' I began at once playing the part of a Spanish girlof eighteen years, and was soon promoted to play a woman of seventy. It was a character part and I liked it."
STABBED WITH A PAIR OF TONGS
"I remember a little Welsh town where we nearly killed our play through the mistake of our stage manager. It was part of my business in 'No Cross, No Crown' to stab one of the characters with a dagger, but on this night, quite unintentionally, I was handed a curling-tongs instead of the dagger. In my excitement I rushed on, stabbed my victim, and then - standing over his body - held the curling tongs aloft. Well, as you can imagine the audience shrieked with laughter, and I dropping the pair of tongs as if it were red-hot, bent my head to hide my confusion."
After melodrama. Miss Alwyn went out on tour in one of Mr. George Dance's companies as a shop assistant in "The Girl from Kay's," and then got an engagement in the chorus at the Gaiety Tieatre. In time she got an understudy, and with "The New Aladdin" came her chance. Mlle. Gaby Deslys was engaged to come from Paris to play a French maid, but on arrival here other ideas for her suggested themselves, and Miss Alwyn was allowed to play the maid. Mr. Edwardes did not want two French maids, but Miss Aylwin pleaded that no change should be made, and so it remained until the changes were made in the second act.
Then she became a Scot, with the result that on the second Press visit she was acclaimed a great discovery, an almost brilliant young actress who might in her own way yet rival Mr. Harry Lauder.