Eagels' Wings

"Ill" with "ptomaine poisoning" Jeanne Eagels, actress famed in Rain and of late on tour with Her Cardboard Lover, failed to put in an appearance in Milwaukee, last week, where the play was scheduled to run. Previously she had failed to appear for an entire week in Boston; often before that she had been haphazard in her attentions to business. Because she is undeniably a talented performer, Producers Gilbert Miller and Albert Herman ("Bedroom") Woods had hitherto overlooked the flighty and eccentric behavior of Actress Eagels; but when, after her absence in Milwaukee, she failed to appear in St. Louis, they lost patience with her fragile explanations. Future engagements of Her Cardboard Lover were cancelled; Messrs. Miller and Woods made out charges against their star and referred them to the Actors' Equity Association.

It was rumored that Producers Miller and Woods with their complaint had furnished the Equity Council with affidavits, signed by observant hotel employes, physicians, theatre managers and fellow players, asserting that Actress Eagels' persistent ptomaine poisoning was caused by drink. The Actors' Equity Association asserted that it would punish Actress Eagels with becoming severity should the charges against her be proven true. Becoming severity in such a case might conceivably mean expulsion from the Equity Association, an action which would be sufficient to clip the wings of her stage career.

Threatened with this immediate possibility and with damage suits impending from her producers, Miss Eagels gave no indications of alarm or even of concern. She stayed in Manhattan at the smart Hotel Elysee and paid a day's visit to the country place which belongs to her husband, Edward Harris ("Ted") Coy, one-time Yale football back.