San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

4 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW January 16, 1909. What Arthur C. Aiston Thinks of the Coast Arthur C. Aiston will shortly start on a Western trip which will take in. before his return to New York, most of the big Western cities, including Seattle, Tacoma. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City. Denver, Kansas City, etc. Regarding this trip, Mr. Aiston writes: "You can figure what I thought prospects of business were, when last year I had out three companies and this year T confined myself to one. I went abroad last summer for the first time, feeling that I was losing nothing if I sent nothing out this season at all. However, I intended to open my new play. As the Sun Went Down, in November, and had the models, scenery, estimates, etc., made for the attraction, which will be a splendid one when I start it. Oil my return from Europe, I found that many of my old At the Old Cross Roads people were sort of waiting for me, so in twenty-four hours I had my company engaged, and in a week had twelve weeks booked for a starter. I intended at the termination of the Cross Roads time to transfer the same people to the new play. I later found that I could fill Cross Roads to my satisfaction in promising territory up to about Christmas, so I delayed the opening of my new play until that day. After the first few weeks of the season. I found the general condition of all kinds of business so bad that I decided I could not produce my new play until next season. In coming to this decision, I used not only my own judgment in the matter, but delayed it on the advice of a friend, who pretty nearly knows what the theatres are playing to all over the country. Understand. I don't mean by that that no attractions are doing business, but the ones that are making money are the exception. As Cross Roads is now in its eighth season, and, as 1 figure, exhausted its territory, I am closing it at Belleville. Illinois, on January 10. It has played most of the big cities five or six times, so I figure that it has no more territory. I shall start soon on my trip to the Coast, and shall be gone from eight to ten weeks. I have not been out there for over three years, and I have several reasons for going. If they develop, 1 will let you know. If they don't, I will say nothing. One thing, however, I know is that the trip will again get me in touch with the best country I know of — the far West, where I wish I had settled down ten years ago. On my return I shall immediately start preparations for the production of As the Sun Went Down, which will be open by the middle of August. The Largest Salary in the Show Business These are the days of big things, in the show world as elsewhere. The largest salary ever offered by a theatrical manager was made by Henry B. Harris to H. B. Jones of No. 215 Monroe Street. New York City, which was prompted by the following letter received by Mr. Harris from Mr. Jones: Mr. Henry B. Harris. Hudson Theatre Building-, West 44th St., near Broadway, New York City, Dear Sir: I have the ability to choose for you the plays which will make a success, before production. Also, whether your new play will make good with the public. And Imw to clianne a failure into a success; also a weak play into a strong one. 1 am ready to demonstrate to you now. Vours respectfully, (Signed) H. B. JONES. No. 216 Monroe Street, New York City. .Mr. Harris answered the letter and informed the gentleman that he would be pleased to see him at his earliest convenience, and, if he would demonstrate that he could do the things that he said he could, Mr. Harris would give him One Hundred Thousand Dollars a year. This letter is merely a sample of the hundreds of letters received daily by theatrical managers, covering every imaginable subject under the sun. A man who can successfully read a play and predict its success or failure, would soon make for his employer a fortune in which that of Rockefeller would fade into insignificance. "Link" Plumer Arrives With A Stubborn Cinderella "Link" Plumer. who has been one of the successful "Coast defenders" transplanted to the vigorous East, returns to his home town on February 7 with A Stubborn Cinderella, one of the most entertaining and successful musical comedies of the past few years. A friend of The DRAMATIC REVIEW, writing from San Antonio, gives a few particulars of the show and mentions Mr. Plumer's good work. The writer says: "I met 'Link' Plumer, a coast defender (who is proud of the title ), in this city, where he was playing one of the principal parts in A Stubborn Cinderella, lie made a pronounced hit. The public and critics took most kindly to his work and one of our local papers in an enthusiastic review of the show, said of "Link": 'Lincoln Plumer, without any acting on his part, was one of the best amusers of the cast. He filled the role of the fat boy. and the comical simplicity of his pudgy face and the expression of his blue eyes, that wallowed upward most effectively, were something great.' Another San Francisco favorite in the company is Jack Raffael, the old Tivoli favorite. A Modern Cinderella is one of Mort Singer's attractions and is positively the biggest thing on the road." There is a little mixup in the dates of the Arizona Company, and consequently that show spent the greater part of this week in San Francisco, laying off, pending a readjustment of its time. Orpheum The program for next week will be headed by Julia Heme. Miss Heme will present a sketch written by herself and George D. Parker, called A Mountain Cinderella, which depicts a thrilling incident in the Tennessee mountains where the moonshiner is ever on the alert for the visit of the sheriff. Jewell's manikins will contribute an act called Toyland Vaudeville, in which the puppets impersonate the Teddy bears, Madame Renz, Vesta Victoria and other famous stage folk. Bert Howard and Effie Lawrence will be guilty of a farce called The Stage Manager, which provokes the audience to screams of laughter. The Chadwick Trio, which includes Ida May Chadwick, the champion female buck dancer of America, will appear in a farce entitled For Sale, Wiggins' barm. The Josselin Trio, aerialists. will introduce a novel and attractive act, called Pictures in the Air. That delightful monologist. Edwin Latell. will return for next week only, which will be the last of those wonderful acrobats, the Three Yoscarys, and those admirable comedians, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Hughes. The latter will be seen in a new farce, called A Matrimonial Substitute. A new series of ( (rpheum motion pictures will conclude the performance. Valencia Prince Hagen will receive its final presentations Sunday afternoon and evening and on Monday night that gripping and fascinating tale of detective life. Sherlock Holmes, will receive an elaborate production. The story, in brief, concerns Miss Alice Faulkner, who is kept a prisoner by James and Madge Larrabee in order that they may secure a package of letters written by the heir apparent of one of the principalities of the German empire to Miss Faulkner's sister. The German government has secured the services of Sherlock Holmes to locate and restore these letters, and when the Larrabees find the famous detective on their trail they secure the services of Professor Moriarty and his crew of thieves and cutthroats, that are designated the most infamous gang of lawbreakers in London. Moriarty has had bitter experiences with Holmes and decides to put him out of the way, so he enters the combat with great zest and earnestness. The fight between Holmes and the gang is a desperate one. but he easily outwits the men pitted against him and emerges the personification of coolness from every trap laid by the professional scoundrels. Robert Warwick will have one of the opportunities of his career. He is admirably adapted, both temperamentally and physically, to live the part, and promises to surprise his most ardent admirers. Thomas MacLarnie should be perfectly at home as Dr. Watson. Holmes' friend and coun selor, and Charles Dow Clark will be Benjamin Forman, the detective's "understudy." Darrell Standing will be Professor Moriarty. Gerald Harcourt will be cast as Sidney Prince, the cockney. Blanche Stoddard will be in her element as Alice Faulkner, and Lillian Andrews will be the mother. Helen Lackaye will essay the role of the villainess, Madge Larrabee. George B. Baldwin, Jr., Robert Humans and others will complete the cast. Pretty Peggy will follow Sherlock Holmes. Alcazar A second week of Sweet Kitty Bellairs is announced by the Alcazar management, supplemented with a statement that the advance demand for seats is so heavy as to make a third week of the P>elasco success not at all impossible. Sweet Kitty Bellairs is one of the most pretentious offerings ever undertaken by a stock theatre, with more than half a hundred people employed in an acting capacity, with a series of stage pictures that appeal by their elaborateness and beauty, and with a musical setting that is at once appropriate and pretty. David Belasco's adaptation of Egerton Castle's charming story of old Bath is surely well treated at the Sutter street playhouse. Evelyn Vaughan's impersonation of the quick-witted, big-hearted Irish widow will long remain a memory as one of her cleverest achievements, for the warmest admirers of her art are folk in whose veins course Celtic blood and who are inherently qualified to grasp the subtleties of Hibernian humor and all the other principal players are equally well cast. Bertram Lytell's good looks are enhanced by his scarlet uniform, and Messrs. Walling, Hickman, Glendinning, Wesner, Webb and Whipple, and the Misses Barriscale, Bond, Brownell and Belgarde also contribute to the beauty of the stage groupings. To hear the prologue, which is a pretty feature of the play, the audience must be seated before 8:io o'clock . vNNUAL COAST TOUR OF AMERICA'S GREATEST EMOTIONAL ACTRESS FLORENCE ROBERTS In the Success of Her Career The House of Bondage By SEYMOUR OBERMER Remarkable Cast, Including ARTHUR FORREST, THURLOW BERGEN, ANN WARRINGTON, HALLET BOSWORTH. MARY BERTRAND vnd HARRY GIBBS ITINERARY — Portland, Ore., Jan. 7-10; Salem, Ore., Jan. 11 ; Eugene, Ore., Jan. 12; Medford, Ore., Jan. 13; Chico, Cal., Jan. 14; Marysville, Cal., Jan. 15; Stockton, Cal., Jan. 16; San Francisco, Cal., Jan. 17-23; Oakland, Cal., Jan. 24-27; Fresno, Cal., Jan. 28. Hanford, Cal., Jan. 29; Bakersfield, Cal., Jan. 30; Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 3 1 -Feb. 6.