San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW Margaret Anglin and Her Around the World Trip Margaret Anglin will this season be seen in a new play, her first production since her return from a tour of Australia. It will be seen for the first time in this city at the Columbia Theatre for two weeks, commencing Monday, June 20, and is entitled The Awakening of Helena Richie, an adaptation of Margaret • Deland's novel by Charlotte Thompson. In talking of her trip around the world, Miss Anglin said in a recent interview : "I'm very glad I've been around the world, if only for one thing, which is that I know now that the most beautiful place on earth belongs to the United States, I mean Honolulu. I sailed from San Francisco early in the spring of 1908. The first stop, of bourse, was Honolulu, and none of the places I have visited since can compare ^vjth it in natural beauty. The natives come down to meet the incoming steamers with wreaths and boas composed of the most lovely blossoms, and these they throw over the shoulders of the passengers as they land. Our next stop was at the Fiji Islands. You get the impression that Fiji is peopled for the most part by convicts, for you see hardly anyone but convicts in the streets, natives wearing a single white garment ornamented with one or more stripes which is the only indication of their servitude. The only way apparently that they are able to make a Fijian native work is to convict him of something. The prison dicipline is very lax, I was told. There is one jail, and if all -the prisoners are not back by nine o'clock at night, they are locked out until next morning. One night the jailers went to a hall, and as they were not back when the curfew rang the prisoners locked them out and attended to the jail matters themselves. After Fiji we stopped at Fanning Island, a cable station in the Pacific Ocean, solitary and alone. It is merely a coral reef with a lagoon in the center. Fanning Island has a population of six white men and two white women, officials for the cable company, and the two white women are not on speaking terms. I had expected when I reached Australia to have to tell people about myself. I never dreamed they would have heard of me. But it seems they read all the American magazines and newspapers, much more, indeed, than they read the English periodicals. It was very flattering but, of course, not personal to me. The names of Maude Adams and Ethel Barrymore are just as well known in Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide as they are in New York. Audiences are more emotional in Australia than they are in America. They adopt a much more intimate attitude towards one. They don't leave the theatre immediately after the performance, but insist upon a speech. Boys in the gallery call out compliments, or the reverse, and if you are at all diffident about talking, they call out 'Come on, now, don't be afraid.' I never missed a performance in seven months, but on matinee days I could not leave the theatre for dinner because of the crowds that beseiged the stage doors. They had all sorts of things they wanted to give me — flowers, of course, and, of all things, a woman once handed me a medal that had been blessed. One old man, after seeing my performance in Adelaide, walked fourteen miles into town to give me a portrait of myself that he had executed in ». two-pound pat of butter. I was also presented with a baby kangaroo/but it didn't like me and died — or perhaps it had a presentiment as to' the popularity of kangaroo s^eak in New York. Australian roses are the most beautiful m the world Roses are raised of dark purple, also of flame color. On the nigh*' of my last performance I was presented with, a number of boomerangs made of flowers. The boomerang is the native weapon, and when a floral boomerang is sent it is a symbol that, like the weapon, yoir must come back. The Australians dress for the theatre more than we do. The woman dress as for the opera. All the best people come to call on you and entertain you in their homes. They like Americans and admire our institutions. There was no election while I was there or I should have seen how the Australian women vote. I am not a suffragist, though I'm not opposed to women suffrage, but Australian statesmen who discussed the subject with me say it works very well. I was sorry to leave Australia and the Australians. In Ceylon I had a startling experience, for I discovered something that was not afraid of an automobile. We were motoring from Colombo through the mountains to Kandy to see the temple of the Tooth, named for a tooth it contains, said to have belonged to Budda. It was quite dark, when suddenly, what seemed like two moving mountains loomed straight in the path of the automobile. They were two elephants, paid no more attention to us or the machine than if we had not been there. I suppose there must have been a herdsman somewhere, possibly asleep in the bush. The elephants stood right in front of us showing no inclination to move. We couldn't move, for the best car in the world isn't guaranteed to charge two elephants. Eventually we turned out of the road for them and just managed to squeeze by. They didn't seem to care one way or the other. From Ceylon we went to Egypt, where I was much impressed with the native women. One sees them driving through the streets of Cairio, always in black and always alone, for it is not considered proper for men and women to drive together. They wear, of course, the yashmak or face veil, which shows only their fathomless black eyes. The ladies wear white yashmaks, the poorer women black ones. Someone in Egypt told me the Mohammedan women would never change their religion if they had to sacrifice the yashmaks with it. They know how beautiful it makes them seem. I went up the Nile to the first cataract, and leaving Egypt went to the Riviera and from there to Paris and London. In Paris I visited Sarah Bernhardt, still as wonderful as ever, with the complexion and hair of a sixteenyear-old girl. And now here I am, I've been around the world and am a year older." Dates Ahead ALCAZAR STOCK — San Francisco. AMERICAN MUSICAL COMEDY CO. — San Diego, indefinitely. BELASCO STOCK CO. — Los Angeles. BISHOP'S PLAYERS— In stock, Ye Liberty Playhouse, Oakland. ECKHARDT CO. (Oliver Eckhardt. mgr.) — Castar, June 10-11; Lacombe, 13-15; Edmonton, 16-18; Camrose, 20-22; Wetaskawin, 23-25; Edmonton, 27 to July 2. KNOWLES BENNETT STOCK — Wm. Menzel, mgr.) — Lompoc. June 12 -and week ; Santa Maria, 20 and week; San Luis Obispo, 27 and week. MOROSCO'S B U RJJA N K STOCK— Los Angeles. — ' SANFORD DODGE— (B^. Ford, mgr.) — Durango. Colo.,Jujf? 17-18 ; Maneos, 20-21; Telluride, 22-23; Ouray, 25. SCOTT LYNN STOCK CO.— Santa Rosa, W ednesday and Thursday, San Rafael ; Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Petaluma : Monday and Tuesday each week. THE THIEF — (Gustave Frohman, mgr. back with company ; Chas. MacGeachy, • bus. mgr., in advance) — Livingston, June 10; Billings. 11. WILLIAM COLLTER— (Charles Frohman, mgr.) — San Francisco, Cal., June 6-18; Los Angeles, 20-25; San Diego. 26; Redland. 27; Riverside. 28; San Bernardino, 29; Bakersfield. 30; Fresno. July 1; Stockton, 2; Oakland, 4-6; San Jose, 7; Sacramento. 8 ; en route, 9 ; Portland. Or.. 10-13; Olympia, Wash., 14; Tacoina, 15-16; Seattle, 17-23 ; Spokane, 25-26; Wallace. Idaho. 27: Missoula. Mont.. 28; Butte, 29-30. June 11, 1010 Mamie Duncan WiJ! Get Her Le gacy Mamie L. Dunean. who was declared legally dead by Judge Gra* ham a few weeks ago, with a proviso in the order giving her 12 months in which to appear and prove that the court was mistaken, has shown her* self " to be very much alive since the fact was published that $1800 wag coming to her from her mother's es* tate, and on Wednesday a letter from the supposed decedent was received by Judge Graham. Miss Duncan proved to be an actress living at 100 West Forty-fourth street, Netf York, and she writes as follows: "f have just learned about the sum of money awaiting me in .your court. Is it absolutely necessary that I come out there? The reason I say this is that this is just the time of the yea* that I should be trying to secure a fall engagement. But of course if it cannot be settled by answering questions through an attorney, I most certainly will come. I may be taking a great liberty in writing to you in this way, but if I am please attribute it to my great lack of knowledge 9$ court. affairs. I have never seen the inside of a courtroom, so you see iff is not to be wondered at. I could leave here about July 1st : about that time I hope to be settled for the next season." Miss Duncan is supposed to be a daughter of Mrs. Mary Com don, who was a sister of Mrs. JohanJ 11a Wahl. Mrs. Wahl applied fo| the money in question as next of kin and would have received it if the heiress had not made herself known. Miss Duncan, as she is called, waf adopted while an infant by a Ml and Mrs. Duncan in this city, he» mother putting $500 in a local ban! to the child's credit at that time! All -trace was lost of the parties ami for 22 years Mrs. Wahl never heard of them. News was finally received from a Mrs. F. B. NeXVell, from Sft Helena, that the child had becomi an actress, and an investigation soo£ disclosed her whereabouts. COLUMBIA THEATRE Two .Weeks Starting Monday, June 6. Matinees Wednesday and Saturday Charles Frohman Presents a ?% n <n m n &a K9 William, Collier In His Greatest Farce Success A Lucky Star By Anne Crawford Flekner, from C. N. and A. M. Williamson's novel, The Botor Chaperone YOU LAUGH EVERY TIME THE CLOCK TICKS