(My Travels with) Agnes Moorehead – The Lavender Lady by Quint Benedetti Read Free Book Online

honored and in awe. Little did I know that her son Sean, a foster son, had run away from home. In other words, it all sounded good, but it hadn’t worked. More reason for her to concentrate further on her strict rules for life. Then she became herself, facing that interference righteously. “My son has been trained that way, I tell them, and I’ll thank you not to break his training. Now he does it and people like it. They do. They do,” she asserted, as if trying to convince herself. “It beats a man not holding a door for a girl and then telling her, ‘What’s the matter with your arm?’” she nudged sleazily, “‘can’t ya’ open a door?’” She took a breath and thought again. “I am an idealist, “she stated. “I believe that, in the course of living a life of embarking on a goal and the certain truths that go with honest living, after these precepts have been formulated, then one must set out alone, single-handedly, uncompromisingly in these tenets. No one else can do it for you.”
    Her intensity was an inner fire that flowed out to us through her incredible animation. Her school was not to teach acting, but to teach living. I was aware of that from the very beginning. She wanted to teach us how to be good, successful human beings and to enjoy life and, yet, to live by strict rules. “I try to transmit this to others. Truth and faith are the cardinal rules for life and for the theatre, and one achieves them only through discipline. Because of this discipline and its guiding light—prayer—I am not afraid of anything.’ That wasn’t exactly true. She was absolutely terrified of flying. I didn’t find that out for a long time.
    ‘The religious upbringing I got from my parents gave me dimensions and direction, a heritage more meaningful than a legacy measured in dollars. And this is something I’ve carried into my professional life. The theatre and the stage is a church or a religion to many fine actors, “she told us, “and we must regard it with a certain reverence.”
    How happy I am today that I took a tape recorder to class and captured all those words. It was an indication of the kind of a person she was. It was all good advice. Maybe she didn’t follow it completely herself, but it worked for those who did follow it. She was a fine, strict, stern woman. A perfect woman to serve as an example for the young. “For me, the stage was like a church’, she said. “It is the responsibility of the theatre to widen the sympathies and broaden the intellect and sweeten the heart. As actors, you must surround yourselves with beautiful people, music, art, and you will become beautiful. Elevate your minds and beings. Remember that we are ladies and gentlemen.” I thought, “Yes, Agnes, I’m with you.” Oh, she sang those grand words. I haven’t kept track of her students and what has happened to them. I’m sure that every one of them had a richer, better life for taking those classes with her. That is whether they made stardom or not. It certainly helped them through life.
    “The easiest thing in the world’s to drop down into bad manners and sloppy speech. You must learn the manners of ladies and gentlemen and how to speak well. An unpleasant voice has probably been an underlying cause for many marriage break-ups as well as lost opportunities and careers. It does bad things to you to have to listen to a voice which splinters the ear. Speech is not as obvious a type of beauty as that which reaches the eyes, but its impact is powerful. Then you put speech together with appearance.” Mauve glaring above her eyes, she fixed us with a heavy-lidded stare like a snake hypnotizing its prey, rendering us impotent. “The theatre is like a church and I don’t have actors in this class who need haircuts, and the girls dress like ladies. I cannot bear a slovenly, careless person. Careless people think they’re free. They’re really slaves to themselves. The only free person is a disciplined