Firmin G

By the express invitation of Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes, acting in the name of the U. S. Government, M. Firmin Gemier, who has for many years been the director of Le Theatre National de I'Odeon of Paris, arrived in the U. S. to produce some of his famous plays. The invitation was not merely a courteous act toward M. Gemier, but a gracious recognition of France as

Mere des passions, des arts et des talents;

Qui, penplant I'univers de fantomes brillants,

Et d'espoir tour a tour et de crainte suivie,

Ou dore ou rembrunit Ic tableau de la vie.

For the first time M. Gemier comes to the U. S. and in Manhattan is producing and acting plays by Lenormand, Frondale, Berr and Verneuil, Gorsse and Forest, Moliere, Beaumarchais, Fabre, Shakespeare.

M. Gemier was born in 1865, was a young lad when Germany laid seige to Paris. He was brought up to be a parfumeur, for, as his parents remarked, il y a la beaucoup d'argent a gagner. Unfortunately for the perfumery business, and fortunately for the theatre, the youthful Gemier developed an immense facility for mimicry. Once he imitated his employer so successfully that the latter, arriving inopportunely, became angry and instantly discharged him.

As an actor in the provinces, he gradually built up a name for himself, always breaking away from the harsh, mechanical traditions of the Classical Age and reserving to himself an intelligent freedom of interpretation. Finally recognized officially, not so much for his acting as for his ability to produce and manage, the Government made him directeur du Theatre National de l'Odeon.

Although he is almost famous at Paris, this French Max Reinhardt is unfortunately comparatively little known abroad. The reason for this is hard to find; but it probably is that France has recently produced nothing of moment, while Germany has provided, for example, Masse Menseh.

In the French estimation, to be director of La Comedie Francaise is to reach the pinnacle of the theatre world. But many there are who prefer France's second national theatre, the Odeon; for, in spite of its less famous history, it has managed to retain a certain air that is pure to all ages. Perhaps that is due to its surroundings rather than to its associations.

Start, say from the Musee de duny, and stroll up the "Boul Mich" as far as the Jardin de Luxembourg. On the left is the Pantheon, proudly bearing its inscription Anx Grands Hommes la Patrie Reconnaissante. With these thoughts the boulevard must be crossed ; and down the Rue de Medicis, past the famous fountain of the same name, the massive square Odeon looms up across the intersecting Rue de Vaugirard. Along the near side runs a colonnade under which the booksellers still have their stalls as they used to long ago when the Odeon was called the Theatre de la Nation. Here in the Quartier Latin is the Paris which lives in intimate acquaintance with the past. And in the Odeon, the fertile mind and the strong voice of M. Gemier resurrects that past in a spirit that is psychologically human. T. J. C M.