Chicago's Amy
When Chicagoans trooped down to the South Side to witness the wrigglings of Fatima ("The Seventh Daughter of the Seventh Daughter") on the Midway, to gasp at gorgeous pyrotechnic displays, to parade through the handsome plaster buildings of Messrs. McKim, Mead & White at the Columbian ("World's Fair") Exposition, Reporters Lillie West Brown and George Ade shared a desk in the city room of the Chicago Daily News. Reporter Ade rose to be a special writer, then dramatic editor, then conductor of a column, finally a free-lance humorist (Fables in Slang) and playwright (The Sultan of Sulu). But Mrs. Lillie West Brown—who preferred to be known as "Amy Leslie"— stayed on at the Daily News as dramatic critic for 40 years. Last week, with fanfare and accolade, the Daily News announced the retirement of the oldest U. S. woman theatre reviewer. "Think of a woman," marveled Author Ade, now aged 64, "going to the theatre several times a week for at least 40 years and keeping her girlish enthusiasm for the drama and retaining her eager interest in play actors and lavishing upon a languishing art a glittering and figurative vocabulary that was always ebullient and never seemed to repeat!" Said Producer George M. Cohan: "Amy Leslie may retire 1,000 times but she will always be a part of the American theatre. ... I have personally known Amy Leslie and have been proud of her friendship for 30 years."
"Amy Leslie," said Producer Morris Gest, ''whom I have known for 25 years, will carry with her in her retirement . . . the admiration and sincere regard of all stage people."
"I have heard of her in every country I have ever been in," wired Producer David Belasco.