The Theatre: Grandma Writes a Book

The U. S. theatre honors two First Ladies—Katharine Cornell and Helen Hayes. The two are very unlike in appeal.

Yearning, slightly throaty Cornell, with her great eyes and grand manner, is chiefly a personality; Helen Hayes, deft and versatile, is every inch an actress. Cornell, in a sense, never seemed young; Helen Hayes rose to fame in girlish and flapper parts, came of age as Maggie Wylie in a revival of What Every Woman Knows, slowly gained enough poise and stature to triumph thrice as queen—as Cleopatra, Mary of Scotland, Victoria.

Last year Actress Cornell—slightly the older of the two—told her life story;...