Time, Oct. 28, 1935

Before a rustling audience of 75, oldtime Actress Maude Adams (Peter Pan, The Little Minister) swept into a Manhattan courtroom to defend herself in a prosaic $200,000 lawsuit. Carried away with the scene, the World-Telegram reported: "The courtroom was crowded with staidly gowned women and mustachioed old gentlemen. . . . On November 6, 1905, Peter Pan's cue line, spoken in the nursery, read: 'Dear night light, that protects my sleeping babes, burn clear and steadfast tonight.' . . . Today an attorney said: 'Miss Adams, will you take the stand, please?' "

Among the audience the newshawk located "an elderly man in a blue suit, with twinkling eyes" who reminisced: "When I first saw her I remember she wore a long grey coat trimmed with black fur. I remember her eyes looking out from the fur. . . . She is quite as beautiful now."

Similarly moved, the Herald Tribune: "She wore a brown coat with a mink collar which she held up around her face continuously, and a small brown hat, almost tricorne in shape, similar to her headdress in Peter Pan. . . . She walked gracefully to the stand, stood erect for a moment, then turned and bowed to Justice McNamee . . . another bow to the jury . . . she seated herself."

Actress Adams was being sued by a promoter who claimed to have engineered her "comeback" in The Merchant of Venice, which toured the U. S. in 1931, never reached Broadway. The American: "Miss Adams was at ease in her new role, smiling frequently and injecting bits of unexpected comedy into her lines." Witness Adams testified all day "in a clear, modulated voice heard throughout the courtroom," exchanged more bows with judge and jury, made her exit. Four days later the jury, unmoved by Miss Adams' performance, awarded the suing promoter, one John D. Williams, $25,000.

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