The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

THE SAN' FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW June 6, 1914 Correspondence SEATTLE, June 3.—Chauncey Ol- cott and company charmed with their tlelijihtful presentation of Shanieen Dhu at the METROPOLITAX. week of ^lay 24. Business was good. ^\r. (^Icott w as presented with a huge cake on the opcninp^ night by tlie superin- tendent of the Xorthcrn Pacific dining- car service. It was suitably inscribed with some of the notes and words of My Wild Irish Rose. House dark this week. Lyman I I. Howe's motion l>ictures jiroved so popular week of May 24 that the engagement was ex- tended another week, and large at- tendance continues. The Passing Show of 1913 comes 8. The Sells- Floto Circus had a profitable engage- ment. 28-30. The show otTers a num- ber of new attractions this season and continues its jiopular-priced admission feature. Dainty Marie and Laddie Cliff share headline honors at the C)R- PHEL'M. 'i"he former has a unique and ))Ieasing aerial act. and Cliff's comedy and eccentric dancing are as delightful as on his previous visits. Jackson and McLaren skilfully demon- strate feats of woodcho])ping. axe throwing, etc. McMahon, Dia-nond and Clemence. in The Scarecrow ; the Ricci Trio, instrumentalists; Lancten- Lucier Co., comedy sketch, and the Renter l>ros., in posing and feats of strength, com|)lete a diversified bill of nuicb interest. The current P.A.X- TA(II'"..S bill offers exceptionally ex- cellent acts, musical ones predomi- nating. .Mia Zandoff, violinist, dis- ))lays marked talent, and is ably assist- ed by Helen I'radford on the piano. Leona Guernex- displays a voice of wide range and appears to advantage in selections from popular operas. The Pollards, with Teddy McXamara, pre- sent .scenes from the Mikado. Chas. Kcnna's monologue is funny, and Kalinowski P.ros. have a good strong- arm act. Frank Morell, Lyric Tenor, Marie Stoddard, comedienne, Scheck- D'.Arville and Dutton. Torreli's com- edy animal circus, and John T. Doyle & Co. in The Police Inspector's Sur- prise, as the added attraction, make up the EMPRESS bill. The .\venue Players are well cast in The Littlest Reliel, this week's offering at the Se- attle. Jimsy ^lullally, a clever child actress, assumes the title role. Dwight IVIeade, James Guy L'sher. ]\Iax Steinle, E. Loring Kelley and .\llyn Lewis carry the male parts admirably, and .\uda Due and Xina Guilbert in- terpret the female roles with distinc- tion. All-of-a-Sudden Peggy, with Auda Due, week of 8. The Annual Convention of the International Alli- ace of Theatrical Stage Employees for the district comprising Oregon, Wash- ington, Idaho. .Montana and P>ritish Columbia and .Alberta. Canada, was held in this city May 27-28. Frank Lemaster of Xew York ])residcd. Geo. J. MacKenzie, Xorthwestern represen- tative of Klaw & Erlanger, and man- ager of the Metropolitan, announces the addition of the Eugene Theatre. Eugene, Ore., to the list of Klaw & lirlanger houses in the X'orthwest. I'^xtensive alterations will be made to make the house modern in every re- spect. It is expected it will be ready for occupancy September ist, next. Maud Leone, whose appearance was announced for next week at the Se- attle Theatre, has undergone a second operation at Vancouver, V>. C, and will be confined to the hospital for some time. G. D. HOOD. SAN JOSE, June 4.—The event of the week was the reajjpearance of the Ed Redmond stock in this city Mon- day night at the \ ICTORY Theatre, in The Littlest Rebel. .\ packed antl enthusiastic house was present at the op&iiing and large audiences have con- tinued all week. Mr. Redmond gave an excellent production of the war play, and there was a series of ova- tions during the opening evening whenever an old favorite made an ap- pearance. In addition to Ed Red- mond, who played the old darkey, there was Roscoe Karns, in the role of the young officer ; Hugh Metcalfe, por- traying the (ieneral; Edith Ti as the "littlest rebel," Rose Merrill as the negro girl, and Maurice Penfield as one of the junior .soldiers. .\11 were under the watchful care of Lorinian Percival, the director, who excelled anv of his previous efforts at produ- cing. MARKET STRl':i-:T: The Eniil Clarke Company is .still popular, with Eildie Leonard and George Slo- cum heading the company of musical comcd\' people. Pills are changed twice a week. The chorus is sprightly and good looking. Harry Pollard is one of tiie ]X)pular members of the company. .After the performance this evening, (ieorge Slocum and Dorothy Kaymond, who had secured an annul- ment of her marriage with Jim Ala- grath, were married on the stage, be- fore a crowded house. Eddie (iilbert and Lorraine Crawford stood up with the happy couple. On behalf of The Dr.\m.\tic Rkvikw, the San Jose cor- respondent ol'fers congratulations and best wishes. JOSE: Pert Levey vaudeville at this house is prospering. The Legend of Leonora .sir J. .M. I!arrie'> deligiuful an I ]nizzling iilaw The Legend nf Lecn- ora, in which .Maude .Adams is acting the title ])art with characteristic charm, has been the .subject of more dinner-table conversations and more friendly debates lietwcen husbands and wives, iierha]is, than any other play of the time. Professor Belle- sort of Paris, in a recent lecture on the modern French theatre, said that the merit of a play may fairly well be determined l)y applying to it the standard of measure included in these three ciuestions: Is it refreshing? Is it entertaining? Is it .stimulating to thought? Judged by this standard, Leonora is one of the best of the cur- rent comedies. It certainly is refresh- ing and entertaining, and if debate, discussion, difference of opinion, are symptoms of thought, it has set those who have seen it to thinking in a somewhat lively fashion. The able editor of Harper's IFcckly, for in- stance, cannot even agree with him- self as to the meaning of the play. He published an '"interpretation" of the play, and then proceeded to take it all back in the ne.xt issue of his journal. Perhaps Leonora's feminine p.sychology proved too contagious. Is Leonora then a mere whim.sy. a fan- tasy, a gentle satire, in which Barrie goodnaturedly laughs at the essential foibles of women and at the equally essential foibles of men? Or is there underlying it and in the back of Bar- rie's mind a more serious purpose? One of the best philosophical inter- McClellan- Tarbox Inc. AGENTS, MANAGERS PRODUCERS ARTISTS' REPRESENTATIVES Musical Comedies fur- nished and rehearsed. SKetches, Songs and Mon- ologs written and booKed. Panla^es Theatre Building INTER-MOUNTAIN WAGON SHOWS—PRESENTING Girl of Eagle Ranch CHAS, F. HEI.TON, MGK. A 1 )cH.c}itf 111 SiinunPi- in tl)0 Mnuntains Panama-Aero Film Company M. B. DUDLEY, General Manager 562-564 Pacific Building. Telephone Douglas 5405 pretations that we have seen of what ma)- be imagined to be Barrie's own explanation of the amusing and yet complex ])sychology of his play comes to us in a communication from Her- bert L. Satterlee: "There is a basic mental and temperamental difference betw ecu man and v.'oman that gains or loses nothing by education or environ- ment. It has always existed, and will last as long as the human race sur- vives. It is one of the never-changing trufhs of nature, but until this cen- tury it was not known or even recog- nized. L'ntil women attained a great- er freedom they gave no signs ])oint- ing to its existence that men could un- derstand, but now the ferment of their striving and the variety of their effort make it i)lain. .\nd ]\Ir. Parrie. with his super-normal sympathy and his genius for interpretation, has put it into a play ! I mderneath the delight- ful comedy of the Legend of Leonora lies this basic difference between men and women. In line after line of the brilliant dialogue it is di.sclosed. Air. liarrie knows that man is essentially conventional and is the creator of forms and rituals. He is the organ- izer, and by his power of organization he multiplies the advantage of his physical superiority. From the brain of man alone have sprung all systems of government, commerce, jurispru- dence, the administration of justice— all the things by which we measure civilization and progress—and, until very recently, all systems of education, creeds and rubrics. Alen idolize con- ventionality. Whenever a portion of them break away from the established order of things, it is only temporary and an expression of discontent at a particular .system. But the sex sweeps on through the disorder of rearrange- ment to new forms—always forms. \s man has worked u])ward through the ages, his road has been through colon- nades and courts and peristyles of his own building. Woman has walked with him—at first behind him, then at his side—up the vista of human relation^ that man has made for him- self and for her. His physical strength, •his passions, and his weaknesses de- mand that he should be hedged by conventions. Eternal Wisdom has decreed it. .\nd woman? She has accepted these forms and conventions, but they are not the essence of her life. Closer by intuition to the truth of things, more sensitive by tempera- ment to causes, and more responsive by nature to impulse, her path through life runs in and out among the formal .settings of man's construction. She follows the light—call it 'instinct,' 'sense of duty,' what you will—that leads her on in the fulfillment of her purpose in the world. And to this ])uri}ose the formalities and conven- tions of man are not necessary. When she is primitively and instinctively woman, she does not break them if need arises—they simply do not exist for her. So, in the course of fulfilling one of her duties of motherhood, Leonora commits what every genera- tion since Cain has recognized as the gravest of crimes, and she ignores the conventions of organized society. Even more, she ignores the conventions of that citadel of formal procedure—a British court of law! In all this she shows the fundamental difference in the mental attitude of man and woman. .A.nd when confronted with the evi- dence of her guilt, like Eve, she tells the exact truth. .\nd then man's chivalry comes to the rescue, Leon- ora in herself explains every heroine in history, every woman Socialist, every mother in the workhouse for stealing for her child, every suffragette —every woman who has dared. Her legend is the story of womanhood. She is the incarnation of the spirit ot woman's rebellion at man's conven- tions." Sid Grauman. of the Empress Thea- ' fre. de])arted Wednesday for New York and Chicago. He will be gone several weeks.