The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW Tunc 13, 1914 Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired THEATRICAL CATALOGUE of Show Print. ing. Repertoire. Stoclc. Circus, Wild West, Tent Shows, Etc. FAIR PRINTING. Fairs. Races. Aviation, Auto. Horse. Stock Shows, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING. Hypaotisiq, IIIusSm, Mind Reading, Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. While or'Colored, With or Without Title. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc? i WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS of Non-Roralty Plays with Printing. Show agd Thiatrical Printers Lithographers, Engravers National stock Hangers and Posters on Hand for every Kiid of Amusement Eaterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM STS. Correspondence NEW YORK, June 7.—To a bi.^ section of this populace summer tills year dated from last Monday. One*. ui)on a time the season when every- one who can gets out of town was es- tablished by the thermometer, but now it is settled bv The Follies at the .\ew Amsterdam Theatre. So if you've seen The Follies in the new edition that Florcnz Zicgfeld. Jr., brings out each year, it's summer, no matter how much the thermometer may disi)ute it. The eighth in the succession of these tyi)ical liroadway shows, designed for the ])iiilantiiroi)ic purpose of keeping left-behind hus- bands from becoming lonesome, glori- fied feminine beauty to the same extent that all its seven predecessors have done. There were men in the cast, and some very clever ones. There was music by Raymond Hubbell that tin- kled pleasantly in the ears. There v.-ere lines and lyrics by George \'. Ilobart that you could laugh at with a clean conscience. But, after all, it was }^irl —girl in all her moods and tenses, girl with dancing eyes and hair of every rainbow hue, girl in costumes generous and scanty—principally the latter—that made the success of thi^ year's Follies. As this is a year of feverish absorption in the dance, The Follies was largely a dancing show. -\o song was too good or too bad— there were surprisingly few of the lat- ter—not to be followed by a tango 01 a trot or a maxixe. Everybody danced, and the more they danced the more delighted was the audience. The good behavior of the New Amster- dam's new show is also worth noting. In other years the sprites whom Mr. Ziegfeld picks from the beauty mar- ket of the world used to skate on thin ice. But this time it's different. If you don't balk at the artistic undres.. of it all—and, seeing that it's summer, you won't—you will find little or none of the studied suggestivcness that has marred some of the shows. Tiiere are two jjarts to the jjerformance. and each ])art is divided into eigiit scenes. The l''ollies do nothing by halves. .So every time there was a new song, a specialty, there was a new scene to go with it, and many of them were ambitious and beautiful enough for an entire musical show. It was the cos- tumes, not the scenery, however, that made Hades, which began the show, most effective. Arthur Deagon, who was presently due to i)erform much clever work, sang My Little I'et Chicken. Everylliing went with a rush and a laugh. If you like acrobatic dancing, you iiuist have enjoyed The Tango Lesson which Leon h'rrol danced with the chorus. ( )r perhaps you ])rcferrcd The Tangomaniacs. which he performed a little later with .Stella Chatclaire. Both stood out as features of the night. If, however, you have a fancy for genuine drollery, the sable Bert Williams nuist have been the big hit of the show. 1 le ap- peared among the snow piles shovelled high in front of the Public Library, and told of his tribulations as a mem- ber of the Alimony Club. ()n tiie 1313th floor of a skeleton skyscraper, high above the lighted city, he de- scribes the woes of a ground-aiul- lofty steel worker, and convulsed his hearers. A little later he convulsed them even more with one of his in- imitable monologues. Gertrude Van- derbilt sang Springtime in an orchard, the trees of which were heavy with human peaches. .Miss Meyers trilled Prunella in a really poetic Dutch Gar- den. Presently she again cajjtured the audience with Notiiing to Wear, a ]xirody of Raymond I litclicock's song at another theatre. Because of its severe color scheme of black and white, with costumes to match, the Mansion a la Mode scene was the most effective of all. And here Vera Michelena, who had been much in evi- dence with the chorus, sang The Fu- turi.st Girl, one of the best songs of the night. Then Herbert Clifton sang amusingly and Eltingely, and little .\nna Pennington proved that she is one of the most fascinating little dan- cers on Broadway. One mentions these few specialties at random. There were plenty more, and collectively they made The I'^ollies one of the very best shows of its kind—one that easily will run all summer. * * * Cabiria, the moving picture play which Ga~ briele D'.\nnunzio, the Italian dra- matic poet, wrote for the films, was given its initial public exhibition last week at the Knickerbocker. .A few people saw a i)rivate display of the pictures at the Hotel .\stor a month ago. but to the audience that filled the theatre the pictures were novel and deeply impressive. This impressive- ness was increased by an orchestra and a choral accompaniment of forty voices. The Cabiria pictures about mark the dividing line between motion photography as a science and as an art. In tlieir imaginative quality and dramatic effectiveness, no less than in their pictorial beauty, they are the mo.st ambitious that iiave been dis- played in New York. They are repre- sented in colors and their duration, di- vided into three parts, is about tht length of an ordinary dramatic per- formance. The largeness and beaut) of their conception is perhaps their most striking (juality. D'Annunzio has taken as his theme the struggle of Rome against its powerful rivals in the third century I>. C, and Cabiria is an epic picture of that ])eriod. Some of its remarkable ])ictorial effects are the destruction of a Sicilian village by Mount Etna, the siege of Carthage and the march of Hannibal's army over the .Mps. The thread of a ro- mantic, semi-hi.storical .story runs through the exhibition. Cabiria is a Sicilian child who is saved by her nurse on the day that the eruption of the volcano destroys her village. They are afterward taken ])risoners and are about to be sacrificed to the pagan got' Moloch, by being thrown into the burning pit, when they are rescued by a young Roman, Indvio, and his ser- vant, Maci.ste, a giant .\frican. Their adventures continue until the end of the tale. Cabiria will have a protracteci stay, with matinees daily, at the Knickerbocker, which has never be- fore been used for moving pictures. * * * Margaret Anglin has concluded an arrangement with the Cniversity of California, and will present at the Greek Theatre, during the Panama- Pacific Exposition one or more re- vivals of the (ireek classics on a scale hitherto unattemi)ted in this country or abroad. Prof. William Dallam Amies of the department of literature and chairman of the musical and dra- matic committee of the L^niversity, has been in New York for several days in consultation with Miss Anglin. -Negotiations are now under way with a famous luiroi)ean composer to make a musical setting for the Medea of Euripides, which will be the first jilay of the series to be produced. The score will be interpreted by one of the great orchestras and a classic dan- cer of international repute will ar- range the dances and perform the solo numbers. The sco])e of the work is so vast that it will take more than a \ear to pre])are it, and it is hoped that the production will surpass in magnitude, dignity and theatrical im- portance any stage presentation ever made in America. Professor Amies has sailed for Greece, where he will make some researches for Miss Ang- lin, and she herself will vi.sit the scenes of the original drama next spring fot the purpose of ac{|uiring data and at- mosphere. Before sailing. Professor Amies said: "Although we have re- ceived requests from a number of prominent stars, we have wished to confer the honor upon Miss .\nglin of being the sole producer of the classic Greek drama during tl>e period of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in aj^pre- ciation of her already great achieve- ments in the presentation of .Vntigone and ,EIectra. .After witnessing the Electra at the Greek Theatre at Berke- ley in September last, among the 10,- 000 spectators—the largest audience ever assembled in the vast auditorium —a visiting Scandinavian connected with the Royal Tiieatre of Stockholm cabled to the authorities to issue an invitation to Miss Anglin to. repeat her performance there. The enthusi- asm on that night was unparalleled in the history of the Greek Theatre." It is Miss .Anglin's intention to present the Medea immediately after the Cali- fornia performances in Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, France and Italy. .\sked how she felt concerning so large an undertaking, Miss .Anglin said: "The honor has, of course, made me very hap])y, and I hope that with fifteen months in which to prepare and the inspirati(jn and iielp I will get from the great score that is to be com- posed for the Medea, that 1 may prove worthy of it. They have also asked me to repeat the Electra, and if I feel able to do so I will, but I will have a special musical setting written for that also." •'■ * The Legend of tiie Ring is the title of the new two-act bur- lesfjue which was presented last week at the Columbia. It was written by I'Vank iMiiney, who is also the star ol the Trocadero Burlesquers, the organ- ization tiiat will appear with him. The first act shows tiie lawn of a fashion- able home at Newport, and the second act shows a wharf on the River Gan- ges for its first scene, and the .second scene is the market place of a popu- lar city in India, .\mong the prin- cipals in the company, besides Mr. Finney, are Sam J. Adams, Florence Mills, Minnie I'urke, Lillian luiglish. John P. (irifiilli, George lirennan, Rita Lorraine, Helen Russell and Les- lie 1 larcourt. * * * The management of the Winter Garden produced the annual summer production, The Pass- ing Show of 1914, for the first time last Saturday night. The Winter Garden was closed last week, to allow for rehearsals, day and night, with the entire organization of principals and chorus. The Passing Show of 1914 is a review of the kind which was first seen at the Winter (iarden and since has been copied by the European ])roducers both in London and in Paris. Nearly every popular scene and effect used in former Winter Gar- den reviews was copied and u.sed six ! months afterward by the managers in England and in France. In this year's ' l)roduction the moving-picture indus- 1 try was satirized and burlesqued in a spectacular manner, and travesties on the following New \'ork successes in- 1 troduccd during the performance: A Thousancl Years Ago, Omar the Tent- maker, Panthea, The Yellow Ticket, Too Many Cooks, Kitty MacKay, The Things That Count, Help Wanted and The Girl on the Film. .V novelty was The .Sloping Path, a feature of the new revue at the .\lhambra in London which Lee Shubert bought for this year's production. In The Sloping Patli, from below the stage reaching uj) to the fiies, are a number of slop- ing i)latfornis, up which march the fancifully-dressed chorus, until the en- tire proscenium is filled with a dan- ^ cing and manoeuvring crowd. The | book ami lyrics have been written by j Harold .Xtteridge, who so far has j seven Winter Garden shows to his I credit. The music has been supplied j by Harry Carroll, the composer of I The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and . On the Mississippi. This is Mr. Car- roll's first chance to write the music for an entire production. Jack Mason has arranged the dancing and ensem- ble numbers of this summer jollity. Melville Ellis has supplied costumes and gowns, and the scenery has been painted by five different artists. There were i8 scenes in the revue, and a larger number of principals than have ever been employed in a Winter Gar- den are seen in this year's production. This is the list of the women: Josie Collins, Prances Demarest, .Adelaide, Ethel .\morita Kelly, Muriel Window, I)essie Crawford, June Eklridge, Le ona Wilkins. Elsie Pilcer, Marilynn .Miller and Girlie. The list of men includes fiernard (Granville, Geo. Mon- roe. T. Roy Barnes, Harry Fishet, Johnny Hughes, Robert Emmett Keane, I'Veenian and Dunham and liankoff. * * * Margaret .\nglin con- tinues to present Laily Windermere's Van at the Liberty Theatre. At the l>(X)th Olga Petrova is appearing in i