The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

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6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW May 9, 1914 Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired ^ THEATRICAL CATALOGUE •! She« Print- MAGIC' PRINTING. Hypvatlun, JIlHt^n*, ing. Rapertoiro. Stock. Circut, Wild Mind Rstdinq, Etc. W««t, T«nt Shows, ElG. MINSTREL PRINTING. White tr Cclorcd, FAIR PRINTme. Fairs. Rac«. Aviation, W""* »' W'thoui Title. Etc Auto. Horse. Stock Shows. Etc: MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLaYS, Etc. FOLDERS of Non-RoTalty Plays with Printing: Show and Tlnatrical TVsJ^5f^r»i Sloek Hangers an< Poste'. Printers . "jTim^™" . on Haid for ever) Kind of Lithographers, Engravers '^^a Amusement EBterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM STS. Correspondence NEW YORK, :\ray 3.—In order to found a fund for the purchase of new scenery and costumes for the Irving Place Theatre now that the playhouse has entered on a new era of artistic activity, Rudolph Chris- tians last week gave, with the Ir- ving Place Theatre Co.. a perform- ance of Oidipus Rex in German at the Metropolitan Opera House. Adolf Wilbrandt's translation of this drama of Sophocles, which has been highly praised on account of the ex- tent to which it preserves the classic purity of the Greek original, was used. Mr. Christians selected this tragedy for the gala performance be- cause its style is better suited to the Metropolitan Opera House. He has often played the famous role with success in Germany, and Agathe Barsescu, who was Jocasta, has won fame in that part at the Ilofburg in Vienna. It is a singular coincidence that the last preceding performance of this tragedy was given at the Ir- ving Place Theatre. But it was acted in English three years ago at the beginning of John E. Kellerd's .season of drama there. Until that time there had been no representa- tion of the play here since ^Mounet Sully, in the early '90s, acted it at the present Knickerbocker Theatre. Mr. Kellerd's performance was, of course, in English, in spite of its frame, and Mounet .Sully acted in French. There is no record of any previous production in the German language. German theatregoers have been interested for a long time in the effort to make the performance a huge success. * * * Probably the big- gest scoop in securing world-re- nowned artists for the moving-pic- ture world has been accomplished by that wonderful little man, Adolph Zukor, president of the Famous Players' Film Co. Miss Adams will start to pose for the camera within a few weeks, and in the fall lovers of motion photography can witness America's greatest legitimate artist for prices, ranging from 10 to 25 cents. Maude .\dams has been ap- pearing in a world of her own. The world that can afford $1 and $2 for a seat. But the millions and mil- lions of poorer people have only been able to know this artist by the news- papers, which reach their homes for a cent. Adolph Zukor is accom- plishing the greatest things imagin- able for the poor and the medium- salaried people of the United States. His company does not take pictures of this, that and the other subject, but only takes famous players in famous plays. Adolph Zukor is do- ing more for the good of the coun- try than he himself knows when such stars as Maude Adams, Mary Pickford, James K. Hackett, Bertha Kalich, Marguerite Clark, May Ir- win, Henrietta Crosman, Guy Stan- ley, John Barrymore, Olga Nether- sole, Blanche \Valsh, Florence Reed, Mary Nash, Robert Warwick, Blanche Bates, David Iliggins, Rob- ert Edeson, John Mason, Pauline Fredericks, Bruce McRae, Maclyn Arbuckle, and the greatest known— .Sarah Bernhardt—can be seen in the greatest plays of their lives for prices within the pocketbooks of all. Today Adolph Zukor is a great man, and he is growing greater every day. His subjects are clean, wholesome and, as he himself said, "I would never permit a hand to turn the crank of a picture machine for any picture I would not allow my own children to see." Connected with Zukor are such men as Chas. Froh- man, David Belasco, Henry \\^ Savage, Daniel Frohman and Edwin S. Porter, his technical director. Be- sides having a tremendous studio in New York City, Zukor has a great big plant in Los Angeles, and is jiow building plants in London, Paris and Berlin. Ground will be broken in Long Island City within the next few weeks for his local plant. * * * Cohan & Harris produced a new three-act farce, entitled It Pays to Advertise, at the Apollo, Atlantic City, April 27. The play is by Roi Cooper Megru and \\'alter Hackett, who have constructed their story around the adventures of a young man, whose father, a rich soap man- ufacturer, by threatening to disin- herit, coerces him into entering up- on a business career. The success- ful result is quickened by the co- operation of a pretty private secre- tary. The hero conceives the idea of promoting a new brand of soap and "bucking" the trust, of which his father is the president, and is so successful, owing to an aggres- sive advertising campaign, that a demand is created, which the young man, owing to a lack of ready money, cannot supply. How the pretty secretary, in the confidence of both father and son, tricks the older man into financing his son's scheme, which he eventually has to absorb to protect his own company, is told in three sw'iftly moving acts. The company includes Ben John- .son, Thomas Emery, Ruth Shepley, Louise Drew, Ethel May Davis, N'ivian Rogers, Helen Crane, Will Demniing, M. ]. Sullivan, Daniel Day and Grant Mitchell. * * * When The Lure was produced here last summer and the fragrant news of its first success was wafted to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, The Traffic was sent East, arranged by Rachael Marshall and Oliver P.ailey. It has been moving eastward more or less steadily ever since. It stopped in Chicago, lingered a week in I5rooklyn, on the edge of the me- tropolis, and last week landed in the heart of the Bronx. It is almost as direct a statement of certain social conditions as some of its predeccs- .sors. A girl has a consumptive sis- ter and small wages. W^e think we know that sister and indeed remem- ber meeting her in The Escape. It seems as if we had also seen her since, but at all events she was at the Royal last night. To help this sister the heroine, with the tempta- tion at hand, goes the way of her predecessor at the Royal, one Hagar Revclly, who had no sick sister and poverty to excuse her social wan- derings. In the four acts she is seen as the passive victim, later as the assassin of the man who, having brought her into social slavery, also seeks to incriminate her sister, now restored to health, and finally she is seen as the acquitted murderess who is presumably to die by her own hand. The i)lay follows its prede- cessors in seeking to set forth in the simplest terms the phases of the so- cial evil that has lately attracted the attention of playwrights who sud- denh- feel on their .shoulders the added responsibility of acting as re- formers as well. It is in its exposi- tion of conditions and its discussion of causes that the present play is l)cst. The Traffic was well played by an excellent company. * * * Ed- ward Abeles, who acted in Brew- ster's Millions for a long time at the Hudson Theatre, was on the screen at the Strand Theatre last week. The four acts of the play which Win- chtll Smith matle from the novel have been elaborated in this version until there are more than 200 scenes, showing the hero from his birth, which is more than any play would lie likely to do in its compass. By Brute Force and The Strand Topical Review are other features of the program at the Strand, as well as the music by the quartet and the .soloists engaged from week to week. The Strand is establishing a new record in moving-picture theatres. * * * .\n April Monday without a first night attached to it is, from the dramatic reviewer's point of view at least, almost as raw as a day in June. Consequently those conscien- tious members of the critical band who felt it was their duty to go to a theatre or else die in the attempt, went to Wallack's, where, if they know Grumpy too well to witness it*throughout again, at least had the advantage of looking at one of the biggest audiences which ever assem- bled at Wallack's Theatre. Man- ager Charles lUirnham asserts that it was the biggest, and we must con- fess that our own private opinion coincides with his without any re- sort to hyperbole. It really w^as an extraordinarily large and represen- tative audience, and as all its mem- bers had paid their way in, it was a sight to make any metropolitan manager lick his chops at. At the end of the third act, Mr. Maude, in response to no end of curtain calls, stepped forward and made a few cordial and fairly well-chosen re- marks. He thanked everybody in America—with one exception. Fie praised the historical theatre in which he had had the honor of ap- pearing to the skies, in spite of the fact that one of the original rows between Mr. Maude and the Liebler Company was his virulent objection to playing in a theatre so far down- town and so completely ob.solete as Wallack's. As a matter of percent- age as well as fact, if George Tyler had listened to his arguments and presented him in a small uptown theatre Mr. ■Maude, in spite of Grumpy's great success, must have returned to London with at least twenty thousand dollars less of .American mone)' in his possession, for the very simple reason that no one of the modern uptown theatres could have held more than one-half the money which did that "obsolete and out-of-date playhouse," as jMr. Maude was pleased to call Wallack's when he was playing to half-empty benches the plays of his own choos- ing. It is a question in our mind if, after hearing his speech, Mr. Maude realized in the least degree what a narrow escape from failure he had had. All the artistry, of which, in a sense of characterization at least, he is a past master, availed him nothing until, through the gen- erosit}' of Mr. Tyler, he obtained a ])o])ular play. Against the advice of Manager Tyler and everybody else, Mr. Maude would insist upon mak- ing his delnit here in The Second in Command. Then came other re- vivals, extremely well acted, artistic in almost every sense, but none of which, even with Mr. Maude's name at the head of tlie bill, could draw a corporal's guard. And the major share of all this loss, mark you, was falling on the shoulders of George Tyler, who had taken the Maude tour on his own shoulders, quite apart from his interests in the Lieb ler company. There was a dark hour or two at this period, when Mr, Maude was all for returning to Eng- land forthwith and with posthaste. ])Ut Tyler, who happened to have a manuscript which he owned up his sleeve, said: "Don't do that, old man. Let's have another shy at it I've got a play here which I own and if only you can make a success of it, it's yours. I'll give it to you. It's name is Grumpy." The rest is history, even including the state- ment which we now append. The one man who had anything to do with his success in Grumpy was George Tyler, to whom, outside of his great personal powers as a char- acter actor, he owes really every thing which has made his appear- ance in Grumpv such a phenomenalj success. GAVIN DHU HIGH ALBANY, Ore.—W^eek of Apri 2r,-Aray 2 —ALBANY OPERA HOUSE (II. R. Schultz, mgr.) Home talent production by ovei three hundred shcool children wa; presented here Friday and Saturdaj to capacity business. ROLFE (Geo I'volfe, mgr.): Feature pictures, in chiding The Adventures of Kathlyn to good business for the weel IUTViH (Frank D. Bligh.rcs.mgr.) I'irst half—Exclusive Mutual pro gram, including the Mutual <iir Wednesday and Thursday. I^s half—The Waltmeyer and O'Conno riayers in a return engagement c tal)loid comedies and dramas. Goo company of six players and played t good business. Open in Sherida Monday. Coming: Harry Laudt talking and singing pictures. Ma 3-4: The Traffic, May 7; O. A. ( Glee Club. 19; New York Opei Co.. 20. HUB (Searls. mgr.): Wa ner's I'eature and Universal pn gram.