The billboard (Sept 1910)

40 Tttc BIllboaFd SEPTEMBER 24, 1910. CRITICS INCENSED. (Contlimed from, page 4.) harlot lt8 own dramatic critic: "As an old foBhloned farce, this play might pass muster, but the laaghs hardly come thick and Cast enoogta for Broadway of this date." The Tribnne was more pnneent: "If anything could be sillier than the title to the piece It was the piece Itself. Time was when farces were made to laugh'at. This one brings tears of Sity. Perhaps It was thrown together for ntte, Mont., or Slipap, Tex., or Three Stomps Golch, Colo., and other distant centres of sweet- IIS8S and light: It will be welcomed there. The program says that-Welcome to Onr iClty-Was "adapted from^the German." If any ray of light from the original penetrated the dark ioy vt the adaptation It mnst have been the feeblest ■of glimmers. But when a German farce has to be expurgated for the protection of the dell- •cate iiercepUons of Broadway It Is pretty sure to deeenerate into drlTel. That Is a mild word Zm the play that was presented last night." And the Sun: "Welcome to Onr City, which George Hobart made oat of a German farce, like so many German farces of its type today, evidently had its origin In Paris. It does not depart from the general style of Its kind. The chlTalry of a Southern Colonel on a visit to New - X^ork with bis family leads him to respond to tlie casual .greetliiK of a woman be meets on Broadway. She is the agent of a reform loelety, has the -visitor arrested bnt not taken, to conrt. He idates Us misfortune to his son-In-Iaw. who Ksponda to this confldence with a recital of his own worries from fear that a shop girl, to whom he bad once been attentive will carry ont ber threat and dalm a ^10,000 forfeit from mm now that he has taken advantage o< her ab- sence to Baiope to mar^ another." ' THE PRINCESS OPENS. (Contlnoed from page S.) and personally mentioned publishers and ed- itors of St. I«nls newspapers to whose support h» said lie attrlbnted hla noteworthy achieve- ment. . . _ , ^, "We liaven't a smoklns room for ladies," Mr. Flshell explained facetiously. But the new Princess has a soond-prooC nursery, where ba- bies may be checked with nurses while moth- ers laugh at the antics of principals In The Barnyard Eameo. FisheU pleaded for patronage that woold iustlty the highest class vandeviUe. oaien he Introduced Building Commissioner SmItb,.^who declared the danger of. loss of hnman Uie . ln the new playhouse bad been reduced to a mln- '"•^hls big building Is a criterion for theatre builders," declared Mr. Smith. "The residents of St. I.011IS are to be congratnlated that a theatre has been brought to flie people, in- stead of the people being brought to a ISe- atre." From the applause It was apparent ffle Building Commissioner had voiced" the aenu- meats of the enthnsed flrst-mghters. FIsheU then Introduced former Circuit Judge O'Nell Byan, wlio said the beantlfnl women before him bad explained to blm the real rea- son for the policy of the management in call- ins the hew honse The Princess. "By seeing so many princesses of American blood. in ■ this brUliant and lieantlfal audience. I am sure It Is a tribute to our American womanhood," Ryav declared. One of the most, appreciated featnres was a handsome drop curtain, showias Broadway, look- ing north from Times Sqnare. The St. IauIs Times Bnlldlng is is the foreground. The and- ience applanded tor a. long time when this , enr- taln -was brongbt to -view. It is a remaAably good example of tlie icene paJotei's nt. QUEEN CITY NOTES. (Continued from page S.) Walter S. Beemer and Jnggling Girl, opened the blU at Boblnsmi's last week.- He has sold Us ranch at San Diego and returned to the stage. Walter has come to the eoncInslCHi that InggUng is easier than plowing in the Callfomla orchard. He Is to be ready to Introdnce a new feature, a bowling alley scene in his act. liOla mierrl, blgh-daas singing and dancing novelty act, featured the bill at Boblnaon's last week. liOnlse Taylor la no longer in the act, having started out for herself. Her place is being filled by Edw. Campbell, wtio Is taking care of the alTiglng. Ix>la has purchased some elegant new -wardrobe, whieb wHl make her act a stunner the coining season. Evenr one knows that she has the ablUt;^—so watch, out. CHICAGO VARIETY. (Costluned from page 9.) BUSH TEMPLE TBY-OUTS FOB THE W. M- T. A.. SEEK EVENING. SEPTEMBER 15. 1— STATYBA BEACH. Singing and dancing. Did very well in opening of act, bnt cali- bre of whole makes it only a small house feature. 2—BEBNABD AND WABNEB. SlnginK and Talking. Two clever chaps with material ancient and manner a little awkward. Newer lines would give them a much bet- ter chance. 3— CLABE DUNCAN. Impersonations. Only two impersonations were given, both long and fairly good. 4— XHB DAWSONS. Musical act. Pleasing appearance; selections wen lendered on Tlcdln and piano. Act went good. 5—SOSS BIGEIiOW. Singing act. Went very good singing suCh songs as Ideal of My Dreams and Last Bose ol Snmmer. Bier voice, which Is a'high soprano, seemed to please Immensely. 6—MB. AND MBS. JAMES 0*DONNBL. Dra- matic sketch. Very jxwr, the dramatic 'lines assuming almost' a comedy hne, and the ability almost in the-same class at the offering. 7— HIIJ>A AND ESTBIiI,E. Singing and danc- ing act; Neatly, dressed, and -with the ex- ception that one of the girls can sing, there Is little mote to be said. »—ANITA XA3IAO0. Violinist. Bather Clever in all nrobabili^, bnt an attempt on her part to moiotmiize her eccentric playing, made the ;act a fallnre. So exit was made until- the very last. _ 8—WILLIAM MAUBEST. - Kagldan. A Ger- man witli a French name aad Halsted street triCkK Stage presence, a new name, and a new ae t necessar y- 10—KMAFB AND Cnsnss. BnrleaqDe'jlketeh. If I nioagiit Yoa Wooldn't TOI. a mos- leal Biimter Imdesqaed, was fbe «mlr n- dfemlag featnre.. 8lih«igli the a]>iUty of the male member of the combination looks favorable toward better material. 11 —^PEABCE AND- ALWABD. Singing and talking act. Very bright in spots, the acting of the Hebrew messenger being ex- ceptionally good, as was also the singing of the soralght. 13—JAS. W. HOWEI.I.. Wire Walker. Worked too long, although the work without a bal ance pole Is to be commended, 13—EDITH KLEIN. Fashion exhibit. Sings not as well as she dresses. Act not ready to revie w. ll^HOWEIiL'S DOGS. Mal-treated dogs, and won Immediate disfavor. THE ABUSE OEJ DRAMATIC CRIT- ' 'ICISM. (Continued from page'IS.)- jfEW YOBE TBIBDNBil, ' "An audience- half -wild' with excitement roared its approval last night. The applause of hands was drowned in the tremendoim cheering that swept from orchestra to - balcony. It is long since such a demonstration has taken place in a New York Theatre. The audience ex- hausted itself with cheering. And the cheers were deserved. They were earned by the power of the playwright and by the power of the act- ing. It seems tame to say merely tbat the play is strong^ tor in its strongest, scene it Is tremendous. The play is strong as a raging bull, an dephant in passion, a hniigry qser; strong as man the animal Is strong, not with the strength of man In the balanced exercise of bis faculties, capacities and powers. "In The Ulty, Clyde Pitch tnmed from his pbotographic-pbooographlc reproduction of amus- ing superaclaltles of life, which had;brought him fortune, and from fame that would quick- ly die. He seems to have resolved upon the prodnctiou of -a great play—^If he could con- struct it—or. at any rate, npon a play of great power. He has prodnced the latter. If not the former. All Hie rest of his life's work—a life,. alas!, too short—could not make up the sum of this one play. "This play is cruel, as truth is often cruel, bnt it does not depress. And in that fact is testimony of something like genius. If it be said that what the audience took home from the performance could not have been elation, could not have been contentment, bnt mast hare been such a feeling as spectators have when sen- tence is pronounced upon a prisoner after a long trial for a major crime—^if this be said, then it , mnst be said in error. For If the aud- ience does not carry ]oy from a perfonnance of this play, and Is not overwhelmed with a con- clonsness of its own righteousness, yet it de- parts as a crowd does after the playing of some great tragedy which has moved the mnl- tltude; it has looked upon life and death and heartbreak has kept its hope." NEW TOEK WOEIJ). "The Irony of Clyde Pitch's untimely death was never really understood until last night. For years lie had been celebrated as the most acute observer of feminine character among our dramatists. His stock in trade was mainly Intrigues of the drawing -room and women's wiles. He treated them -wittily. Quizzically and in a satirical vein. With few exceptions among his plays he dealt with zephyrs, not tempests; with ripples, not waves. It was Of- ten said Of lilm tbat he could not write a 'man's play." "Last night, at the Lyric, was prodnced The City, wliicn Mr. Fitch completed only a few weeks before his death. In it were actors of his choice. They played their parts according to explicit directlona'which he had left. "For the flrst. time In many a day in New York, women In Tarlons parts of the house screamed In hysterical excitement. One box was depopulated of five occupants, unable to stand the pressure of the deftly arranged scene. Even the men gripped tlieir seats in tense Inter- est. And when the curtain fell and Tully Mar- shaB, who had played a half-demented, degen- erate youth, emerged as. an actor of wondrous and proved power, the shouts of the aud- ience were the londest and most prolonged that have been heard in a playhouse in a year. "Not. everyone can genuinely admire this great scene In The City, bnt of its wonderful skill and stIU more wonderfnl Tivldoess there can not be a particle of doubt. To reach it. 3fr. Fitch rode rough-shod over probabilities. He put expletives and profanities in the months of his characters such as have not been heard across the footlights before. But be landed squarely at the goal be had set for him- self. It was at once the most repellant, most daring and most successful work." NEW YOBK M0BNIN6 SITN. "Not long before Clyde Fitch died, last sum- mer, lie declared to a friend that The City was the finest play he had ever Written. At that time he had only ]uat completed the manuscript and -with him the mamiscnpt was bnt flie bare bones of the play as it snDSeanenOy' stood re- vealed before the eyes, of a llrat night andience. "Fbr Mr, Fitch has been for years bis own stage manager and every piece tbat bore his name gave evidence of countless personal touch- es achieved In process of rehearsal. The City, which was flrst seen in New York last night at the Lyric Theatre, where it ought to stay for many months to come, was deprived of those intimate bits of individualism which the play- wright was accnstomed to bestow npon hln plays; but for all tbat its flrst hearing amply justified Its author's confidence. The last thing that Its author ever did, it is also far and away the most powerful. "It has been a long time since any such scenes of enthusiasm have been enacted in any Broadway Theatre as were observed In the lar- ric Theatre Ust evening after the second act of this play. There were ten, twelve, fifteen, oh, as many curtain calls as yon like to say. Hen and women stood up and cheered and shouted and waved their hands and their lundkerchlefs until they were tired. "Mr. Fitch la said to have deeiared that he set out to write The City as an answer to peo- ple wbo had said that he was all very well as a student of femiaine foibles, but that he couldn't -write a "man's play." Now if by this he meant a play whose principal act is a mas- terpiece of suspense, piling elimaz on climax,- a play In which even the shooting of a girl by a man who has married her an hour before and now finds out that she Is bim; own half-^lster, is made the dlmaz tbat is tlitee or four climax- es below the supre m e cllmaz. then Hr. ntch's last play Is snrely a "man's play." Thrill fol- lowed thrill, gasp crowded hard npon tbe heels of gasp until, when the enrtaln at last fell, th e re snltant Imig-pent entbiislasm: wu Ninr a tumult." '' NBW YOBK EVENING POST. rtlTKnlH.* Rl!' S!£I tompleted by tbe late Clyde Fitch, The City, was presented publicly for the first time here In tbe Lyric Theatre last evening, and made a popular hit of the most emphatic kind. Such spontaneous, enthusiastic and prolonged applause as greeted the swift succession of eensatlonal luddents leading up to the climax of the second act. Is very seldom heard in a playhouse. And -without doubt the piece Is a remarkable and exceedingly effective one of Its kind. Whether or not the author was removed by death before Imparting to It the last finishing touches which he bad in bis mind. It is a perfectly characteristic and very strik- ing specimen of his work In comedy and melo- drama. It exhibits all his old, skilful mimicry of actual life, his facility In wrltng expressve and realstic dialogne, his neatness in characteri- zation, his Ingennlty in building and stage man- aging a plot, and Us quick apprehension of the popular mood. Tbe appetite for raw sensation, which grows by what-it feeds on. is just now voracious, and Sir. Fitch, In the ripeness of his experience, prepared a rich morsel for its delec- tation. As a mere thriller The City is as potent as any of the purple imaginings of his more youthful competitors, while in dexterity of mechanism and freshness of Idea it distances them all. "In short, this dying effort of the most suc- cessful of modem American playwrights is like- ly to prove.: one of his greatest popular trl- nmplis.'^ ., NEW YORK EVENING GLOBE. "A typical Clyde Pitch play, filled to the brim with surprises, crammed with Incidents, shot throughout with homely humor, InEonlous, dar- ing and powerful is The City, which was pro- duced at the Lyric last night. The City Is the last play of the dead author that the public will see. bnt sentimental curiosity will not be the motive which -wlU draw audiences to hear this last word of a versatile and prolific playwright If the entliu^asm of last night's audience may be taken as an earnest of what Is to be expected at fntnre performances, the play will probably draw crowded houses for months to come and an extra staff of maids and strong-armed ushers -will be needed to look after tbe fainting -women at the matinees. "The big- scene In this play is worked up bit by bit, steadily, uninterruptedly; incident Is piled npon incident, each adding to the stress and tension of the situation until, like the flash and damor of the' first outburst of an electric storm, the climax comes, leaving the andience gasping." NEW 70BK TIMES. "To say that Tbe City, acted at the Lyric Theatre last night. Is the most important play that Clyde ntch ever -wrote is not to pc beyond the mark; to say that it contains thi strongest scene in any of his plays, a Fc-ene Indeed, which for sheer power, intensity and cumulative eCTect has seldom tieen excelled. Is well -within tbe facts. "The City is a play, too, which the play- -wrlgbt might well have been glad to leave beblnd him as his valedictory. More than any play of Mr. Pitch's that can be recalled. It Is free from those artificialities whidh the playwright so often introduced merely for their moment- ary effect. It Is, In fact, a logical and convinc- ing structure on the foundation of a good Idea, and from first to last It moves consistently and directly to its point." NEW YOEK EVENING SIAIL. "To all who knew him and his ambitions, it should be a matter of intense 'regret tliat Clyde Fitch could not have lived to see and bear tbe reception accorded to the first Nevv York pro- duction of his last play. The City (really a posthumous work), . wliich. was' given at the I^ric Theatre last evening. "For The City Is really-big. Intensely un- pleasant in theme, bringing ont the lowest and meanest qualities of human nature, the lower and the meaner because they are covered with the veil of hypocrisy, the play nevertheless has a strong appeal to make, and makes it in the dramatlat's best-style. "Mr. Fitch was not always sincere; be aimed too often at mere effect; he was: too easily satisfied -with being only witty. That vras not true In his -writing of The City. "The effect, the -wlttlness and the cleverness were all there and in much evidence, but nnder- neath them all there was an evident serious pur- pose to show what Influences for evil or for igood life In a great cent» of population can bave upon a given man or woman. "Just as you allow it to affect you, it will bring out and accentuate tbe Inherent good or bad in you. This idea Mr. Fitch has developed with skill and strength. His lines, written often in the flippant atyle of many of his plays, are frequently mordant and always telling. And there is scarcely a wasted word In any of them. Every bit of tbe dialogne counts. One can hardly afford to miss any of it. "The City Is almost always melodrama in Its action, and that waa to be expected from the nature of its story. Bnt Mr. Bitch -was always addicted to the melodramatic form, which, as a matter of fact, enters into almost any play not pure faree. He had It strongly in The Climbers and In The Way of the World, more or less In Her Great Uatdi and In varlons forms in many of his other plays and adaptations. And melodrama as well conceived and carried ont as it is in OSie Clty is very well worth while. The story may lie briefly told." Now vbatever qoallOcatlons J. Herman Thu- man may have for criticising a theatrical per- formance they are not snflicient to Jnstlfy blm la flying In vthe face of these metropoltan re* viewers whose experience is almost wltboot ex- ception greater than his own. The matter may not be of very much sig- nificance but nevertheless the receipts at the Lyric Theatre are about four thousand dollars less than they would bave lieen if Tbe En- ?ulrer (not J. Herman Thuman), had spoken aa aTorably of the performances-As tbe consensus of (minion among other reviewers, the mani- festations of approval on the part of the aud- ience among which J. Herman xhnmaii (at, and tbe expressions of all others wa hm seen who witnessed the production lead es to Iwlleve The En^oteer (not J. Herman Thuman) should have GEO. S. LAUDER Wanted One or More Trained Goats state lowest cash price. Will trade the fol- lowlBg Aow property for small trained ani- S;""' JH"«' 30x40; ^wer** Macbloei, FOm, Slides, etc. T. T. BVLOSB, Veeedah Wis, The Australian ventrlloauist. who has toured the country and met with the Indorsement of all who saw him. Lauder is considered among tbe top-aotcbers ot the Anstralians In this country. . $54.00 The Record of tiie GIMEU-SCOPE And wa can pma It. Any one can operate it. Makes • Halahed button pbotograpbs a min- wta. Slice of Cam- era-Scope, with snpolies for mak- ing SOO pietnraa (enough to pay. Cor the complete ont- fit), — «S6.00 — Extra buttons, ft per hundred: extrk (rames, 91-80 par gross. Be indepen- dent 'and make money for yonr- seU. Writ e toj a^. -W. a.- MOwntfeid. 190 -MaUen XWMw Hew Toik. V. T. Over 500 Performen Pelttfhted.witli JONES "Make Up" Ligbts Makes "maUiig up" a pleasure. . Gaia be used any iilace where fhere is electrici^. Attached in a second. Absolutely, safe; not bulky to (sucty: takes up but little space in jrour grip or trunk; can be used in hotel as well as in theatre. Indispens- able to vaudeville performers. Price, 92.50 per pair. Weight 1^ pounds. Sin- gle Lights, $1.50. Mdlw MitCo^ StitiM E, OL CONCESSIONS WANTED For big two-day Booster event at Wabaab, Ind.. Sept. 28-30. igiO. Folly 30,000 people expected ta witness aeroplane flights and other big at- tractions. Ten big bands. Coneesslon prleM reasonable. Address F. E. OBAITZ, Wabash. Ind. WANTED PLANTATION SHOW A5S,.2SE.«2?. "^""y Show: other Tent Shows and CONOBSilONS of all kinds, for our CiOBN SCBOOI/ WEEK, Oct. 8-7. Jj. N. UTMAN, l4iOrange, Ind. WAVTED—Full acting Co. for BOSS OF BAB Z BANCB Co. No. 8, Show booked solid for winter through 111., Mich., Ind.. Ohio. Show opens 85 miles from Chicago. Chataeters are females. Juvenile, Ingenue and old lady. FMPto for ten-piece band, must donble stage and or- cbcstra. Show opens Not. lOtb near Obleago. Hotel show; pay . your own. Male characters are^ Mexican heavy, light comedy Mia JUfMllI* lead; Plu>o^ player that doubles bud wilta. Address A. O. NORWOOD, Mgr., Boss ot Bar B Bench, CBNTBAMA, ItlL - ™^ AT LIBERTY brodie: The High Diver BellaUa F^r and Carnival Managers write er SlSi J,"^Btstes Tent and Awning 0*. 22-28 N, Desplalnes St., Chicago, III. If yon see it ia Xbe BUIbsatd, UU tham to.