Billboard advertising (Sept 1910)

6 Ttue eillboard SEPTEMBER '8; ^910,. r. DOG DOC a The Great American Play ByVHARTWICK 80UTHGATE. i^^MT^iitS^iJZ^^^l^ DOCZJ DOC 30C 'Tbs .Great Amerieaa Plar ^atf> not yet ap- peaied^ Kor Is it among the coming events wblcta cast their shadovs-before.- -Many'liave borne > Oe title—fetr bare carried any substance war- ranting any approach to th%~caption. Dramatizing: an episode or staf^lns an offense la not pruiuciu); tlie iliiug wblvli ■ball appfal to tbe American iwoplc • —" and to the world as that which sets - forth and symlMjlizt*» onr ppople anil : gnr< Institutions. The plaj- will have, most have, not only streni; b anci vigor, bnt breadth and life. It must .'tiave' a scope commeusarate witli n territory which strt'tclii-!* throngh GO degrees of longitude aiul euibraces three zones^ It mtuit reilf>ct a ct>iu' noslte. or a coofclomerate people flruwn . nom every country on the globe, a people;witboat racial trait or national characteristics, with little history and no tTadltlon. It mi»t depict that vrhleta touches the masses, the ■common pe«ii»le whom Uncoln / said God loved because He made so many o( them.. It may be .a.s th; "blne- blood** .said in Tile I'arisians. that "the. history of France is the history . «( Its iwldes.'Vb'nt no portrayal of the TJBlted States canDe complete with, out the record of the.common peoide, sweat-reeking thoogh they . be. ' : ::. --'^Ufe at the peak mir- in the cellar : ls ::iiot typfcal. and The Third Fluor Back Aam not strike ^he -average. . which Is the chonl to be stmck and V held in the .play which is to endore ttw holdlng-'lhe mirror np to Ttatnre as she manifests herself under our skies. Back of it must He the in- teileet to conceive and tbe genius to - ■execute—a requisite, not a detelU Some have come forward with pre- tentions, not to say portentious. clam- our; and announced tbe arrival of tbe ■ play which the American people would adopt as Its own. in much tlie same manner as it fathered the na- tional air when laid on its doontep. But'the i>eople came. saw. and went - away nncouqueretl. An«I It will be essayed many times and yet more times before the final advent at the rrhinK which shall be Tbe Flay. Boildlng a drama around an In- ■■ «ident. the chief feat of the play- wright Is 'the habit of the day. and With a liberal portion of: the press ■ jufent,'tlie people are Inrlted to wit- ness themselves reproduced behind tlie crescent flare- But they go away tmeonvihced. There Is no dearth of plays nor of playwrights; no lack of themes. Bnt. nntil the show house can deal in elemental things, nntn fundamentals can be shown with tbe vivldupss ■ of the motion ^pictures, the nnbllc will make Its kfmltless trips to:■See:The^ Play- Most plays brought from abroad have to be adapted. Those wg in- troduce to foreign audiences have to be adapted. With the Mce|>- tlon of some of the Shakespearean plays and one. or possibly two, of the older masters*.'none have the elem^tal touch ■■•which can dispense with the local color, at- mosphere and surroundings and still coavey sense to the auditors.; In the Merchant of Venice Por- tia is not blind to justice,' but deals it out open-handed and idear-; eveil. Tbe theme is fundamental; that which la right, ethicall}-, and. in consequence, the locale matters little. Tile love^ of Borneo and Juliet is elemental, and whether the scene Is set- under Mediterranean skies or a London fog. the effect is essential- ly-the same. Hamlet is Retribution, aforetime called Nemesis, and the unhappy Dane is not the unconscitms, but the aub-coascious agent. He % Ictor Bugo came fatally near the supreme Ideal when L<es Uiserables came from his pen. Analyzing tbe triple fatality which weighed men down and against which they struggled, he arrived at Nature; Ueilgton, and Society, as manifested in its political institutions. And the greatest of these was Society. Nature was l>e- Ing curbed and conquered, her frontier-was re- ceding and Religion was hecoffllng civilised. But Society- waS 'passing^ from::the slaaplo ^to the complex and mnltlplying her probleos; I<ea MIsenbles' Is : an Attempt'to ; brine order ont of chaos and tbongh'-U Talis ^In tb!sf .It>doe■ llrlng a ^■caw ■■ man '< ftomr the'- ensdble - .wttb-:. the ■■-dross burned oat. Hugo here toaehed C Tltal nerve of existence, not B passing phase of the eos- mogony. He grasped a fundamental proposition and sought to ■woA lt~'oat from premise to con- clusion. In like manner, the'Great Play .most seize on elemental things, perliap* primitive Transient events and minor incidents have grace of picture or a Salome i.ance Interpolated to ginger it up. Yet Huzlcy made economics entertaining leading, as did ttenry Qeorge. They Invested the dry details with the same charm BIdpath throws around history. One need not stage a theory In, Political Economy .vet the forces of the struggle are here. They have been shaping since the earth was nebnloa* mitt and the; are here tOHlay.: Here Is the fundamental which toochea every-hnman being and will continue to be in eoatiet with them so long^ as some men have'money and others mocsls. Mooe ire sg- empt from this decree and thla mnat be the foena toward which will converge the power of TBB PLAT when It Is wrinen. and inrodneed.' Jnit is the PhtiosoplMr's Stone:-th* Onlvcnsl Bolvtnt, the ShutUe in whirii will be.vroven tte fabric of the life story which will be a .leOn^ ex- istence. '• It will neither lag nor drag and It will con- tain the touch, of huaoi.. which Is '.the' savlag ~ all peoples. Pathos wiu mingle her tean : with the smiles as the rsin taus on a day la Avr^-t^ Ana it wilt present It so that each indlvldnal see- tog the;Thing: will nU sty f'ls It posaIbIer> bnt "Is It ir* ^ ■ The Great Thing will not pollute tbe andicnce with tbe sewer of Babylon nor offend It with the terels of Bacchus. It will not be a Tehlde for The Girl From BectOT*s to. sbow- The Easiest TTay to exploit the Jew- eled Tenderloin. Bnt the soul of a people whose heart ' la ^ ancbrmpted will shine through the Inrestttnre of the artlBclal stage and show aboi-e the Joinery of the mechanic. It wilt people the stage with men and wom- en who shall be eleetrotypea of n. and who shall behav* as Mmaa be- ings do, Madame Xmlghf happen, but the tidngs shown In: the : Beaf One' -*n thcce- which hamicn, 'they are here and now and Will'remain. To the one who will reproduce them with (he B de l lty of t"Se camera generations yet unborn will rise np to call great, HMagh»hi»> habitation in lite be the attic and his name, nnremembemi among men. America, with her polyglot peoples, her dIversIBed iuftltutlons. her im- mense resource*, her resistless ener- gv has never been portrayed on the stage. With all the attribute* oC the greatest the. world- kaosr* Vns tut from a study of the mimic: world. Bnt- sometime, somewhere there will arlae to min's estate the One who will show: OS as we are to a gaping w<r-ld. and when that time comes It will be seen that the Great American Pl«r la not Amerleaa. bat .Casmopel- llan. LOLA ED MOND8 COMPANY. ^Ol is one of those pieces described by Omar: ■•Bat Helpless Pieces of the Game He plays _1Ipon this_Cheqner-hoard of Nights and Days Hither and TUther mores, and checks and slays . And one by one back In the Closet lays:" CHAS. MARKS' CHORUS OF CULTU RED HEIRESSES, In the Musical Corporation. f:i.O00.0O<i. t>een drawn uiioo to furnlifb forth tbe stalking horse to parade a brief moment tiefore oblivion seized it. $:agrcraft has become a fine art and mechanics a handmaiden to bolster op the falfric of -the play, and yet, the iwst of them are but Seetlttg. Plays dealing with sex and Its problems have a nauseating frequency, the greatest of them, Pericles, being onplajmble; Mary Mannerlng shows the siandard-of.morals as made by ■ the man In A Man's World, and Bobert: HUllard counters vrlth A ' Focd: There -Was. i'/ EHgena Walter shows bow a man. tor hla misdeeds, is Paid In Full, and Bematein reconciles this with 'tne Thief. A flight into the mystic Is es- sayed and -The Watcher comes forth at The Witching Hour to see The Climax. The harvest Is small. None of them rise to any degree of greatness In theme or presentation. - iNo great thought lies behind them, however much the press agent may lie before them. The Battle Is bnt a ten-mllllon-dollar attempt to civilize tbe East Hide, and Strife gets yon nowhere. The Great John Oanton ahowed symp- toms which were encouraging, but It soim Ispsed into the desuetude. Henry Miller's claim for tbe Moody show. The Great Divide, as entitled to The Great American Play, must be backed by something more substantial than the meeting of a decayed Bmersonlan mysticism and a - van. Med Porltanism with the Spirit of the West, which has already departed. The Great Play will deal with things as they are and as they are apt to linger for some time, - In the way Uncle Tom's Cabin, the only great play pro. dnced in America, dealt with a condition wnleb bad obtained from the lime the -revolt arose anent making bricks :'Witboat straw. The theme of the Greet One ls< Men and Mor- als. It began In. tbe childhood of tbe world. !• with us now, and will continue to the end of time. Its epitome is Economics. Don't get frightened. No one expects to see Adam Smith or Herbert ■ Spencer dramatltcd. , If It. wera Doaalble- some alant-braw would: wane ft llvln* ' The Xola Ed Moods Mntleal Comedy Ominany has engaged O.'A. B. Ball on West Sixth street. Olaclnoati, and - : : has now liegun mbearaing In eameat. Lola Ed Mondi Is to be (eatntcA and _____ all know Juat what that means, .by Judging her by the abUity ahe dis- played while a member of the inocodora Oom- paoy. Her son, Barry Ed Monds. Will; alao apiH-ar In tbe east, which Is to Include a nnmMr of names that have made their marks: in the profession. The company Is under tb« ^pinoaal direction of Bobert lMimoBd.< fatlAr of "Boater.*' and the Orat dancing master of Kva Tkngosy. ABORN'8 ENTERPRISES. New York. Aug. 2T.—Tbe present .plans of Milton Ai i Sargeant Aboro Include threa targa oiganlsatloaa for the coming aeason: Tha Ahom English Opera Company, tonring with abant- seventy-Sve people to open at the Boytl Alex- andra Theatre. Toronto. September 6; a spec- tacular revival of The Bohemia «irl, with about 160 persons, opening at the Boston Opera Rouse for two weeks, beginning September 19. and playing only we<tk ■ stands or longer in opera honaes with very Isrge stagea. coming Into New York later In tbe soasoo for a run. The Aborns.wlU also send out the Ahem English Grand Opera Company of about 100. to open In November.and play extended iingageiaenta In pcrioire In tbe largest llientres. , BRIOOEPORT THEATRE CHANGES. Bridgeport, Conn., Aug. 27.—Deeds were flied at Bridgeport; whereby Spits ft Nathansoa Amusement Co., of Providence, It. I., bnlldera of new theatre at Brldgrpori representing an outlay of $40,000, and wblrb Is nearing comple- tion, bavo leased same to Frank A. Keeney, at Brooklyn, and.P. Maban of N. Britlan. Owa.i for a term of three years, with option- of four more, at •7,800 annnally, combining .SS. psr cent of Brst year's nrollta to o«nen, Tanda^ vllle and pictures.will ntedomiaata. :.Xh».aaai>.. ■MB will JWUMI flA T.«liM Ha». - - -