Chaliapin Flayed

Chaliapin Flayed

At Moscow the Soviet press roundly scored famed basso Feodor Chaliapin for having "forsaken" Russia to "sing in the lands of Mammon." Numerous Soviet journals gave space to the following "confession" allegedly made by M. Chaliapin to "a member of the Moscow Theatrical Guild, who interviewed him recently at Paris before he left for New York":

"I have concert engagements in America and Australia for several years, and am obliged to carry them out. I left Russia without a cent and found it necessary therefore to sell my soul to the devil. Yes, I sold it, and it is not my fault. As soon as I fulfill these contracts, I hope to be able to accept your invitation to come to Moscow and Leningrad."

During the week additional developments concerning noted Russians often seen across the footlights included a report that Constantin Stanislavsky, Director of the Moscow Art Theatre, had been stricken blind in Moscow.

For a day the more cultured organs of the U. S. press carried lacrimose editorials. Then correspondents cabled from Moscow that M. Stanislavsky was "working as usual" and by no means blind. The original report was traced to Morris Gest, subtle Manhattan showman, under whose banner Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theatre toured the U. S. amid fashionable acclaim two seasons ago. In its pristine form, the rumor had it that the great Director "was stricken while rehearsing . . . The Girl of the Golden West,"