The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

4 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW June 27, 1914 INTEB-MOUNTAIKT WAOON SHOWS—FBESENTING Girl of Eagle Ranch CHAS. F. HEI.TOV, MGB. A Delightful Slimmer in the Mnuntains State Rights Buyers Take Notice! The Feature Film Sensation of the Century. To be Released About July 1st M. B. DUDLEY AND G. F. COSBY PRESENT Panama and the Canal From An Aeroplane 6000 feet of thrilling action. Taken from the aeroplane of the noted aviator, Bobert Fowler, by Bay Duhem. Nothing' like it ever before attempted. Most ilaborate line of pictorial printing ever used for a motion picture. Everything from twenty-sheet stand down. At cost to State right buyers. Address, Panama Aero Film Co. 562 Pacific Building, San Francisco Telephone Douglas 5405 Correspondence NEW YORK. June 21.—Una Cav- alieri appeared in the movies last week at the RepubHc Theatre. Mine Cav- alieri has been seen here before as this same Manon on the stage of the Mct- ropoHtan Opera House, although the sorrows and joys of the frail licauty were then illustrated to the score of Puccini and not Massenet, who was the composer of the music wliicii ac- companied the films. Never in any of her previous incorporations of the Abbe Prevost's heroine has she looked lovelier than she did when these pic- tures were made. As it is her beauty which is the explanation of her selec- tion as the interpreter of this cnarac- ter. it is important to recognize its present state. The Roman singer's earlier style was more like her appear- ance than when she herself came here first. Increased plumpness has restored to her the freshness of her youthful looks and the result is an improvement over the attenuation which later was characteristic of her appearance. The Lina Cavalieri of the '"Manon Les- caut" pictures is much like the young woman whose rare physical beauty conquered the world. * * The opera season of the Century Opera Com- pany will begin on September 14 with Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. During the first week this will be given Mon- day, Wednesday and Thursday nights and Saturday afternoon. The alter- nate performance that week will be Carmen. As soon as the season is well started each opera will be sung eight times and will be distributed over two weeks, alternating a different opera each week. La Iloheme will be given with Carmen the second week. In the third week La I'oheme and William Tell will be given four times each, and the latter opera will share the fourth week with La Traviata. The other operas for the first ten weeks are Lo- hengrin, Lucia di Lammermoor, Pa- gliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana. Faust, Tannhaeuser and Tiie Barber of Se- ville, to be sung in this order. Dur- ing these first ten weeks there will be 12 performances of operas in their original language—two of La I'ohcme in Italian, two of La Traviata in Italian, two of Lohengrin in German, two of Lucia di Lammermoor in Italian, two of Pagliacci and Cavaleria in Italian, and two of Tannhaeuser in German. .All other performances will be given in English. The repertoire for the second half of the season has not been definitely decided, but it will be selected from Madame Butterfly, The Jewels of tlie Madonna, Louise, Thais. Aida, Martha. The Tales of HoflFman, La Gioconda, II Trovatore, Rigoletto, Haensel und Gretel, Sam- -son and Delilah, The Secret of Su- zanne, and the International Ballet. * * * Bigger than The Whirl of the World was the word in the foyer of the Winter Garden last Monday after first act of The Passing Show of 1914. Although the present performance was simply put forward as a summer pro- duction, when not nearly so much is expected as in the good old winter time, the Shuberts' new production fairly .staggered its first night audience by its huge proportions and the mag- nificent scale upon which it had been presented. Fortunately, however, for the Shuberts and for J. H. Huffmann. who produced it. this "Passing Siiow" did not depend for its success upon either its pageantry or its costumes. I'licse were, to be sure, (|uitc incom- l)arable in their way, but back of this for once in a way there was more or less of a burlesque of nearly all the big successes of the season, and some of the second-raters too. from "Kitty MacKay" to "Tlie Yellow Ticket" and from "Panthea " to "The Crinoline Girl." Harold .Atteridge had tipped tiie foiljles of these plays off exceeii- ingly well and lie was lucky to have two such irresistible interi)reters George Monrtie and Harry h'isher ti> keep his audiences in roars of laughter. Mr. Atteridge, no matter what else happens to him, will go down into his- tory as the only author who ever wrote a new role for Mr. Alonroe and suc- ceeded in making the play on its mer- its alone. What he did for ^Ir. Monroe he did equally well for Mr. Fisher. The result was that wiien they were on the stage no one stopped to think how many thou.sand dollars the pro- duction must have cost—tliey couldn't, because they were laughing too hard, liernard Granville was another of the big hits of the night. As Omar lie presented a picture of grace and dis- tinction. This young man is an artist in every sense of the word. Jose Col- lins's lovely voice still stand her in good stead, and she acted the role of the Princess in "A Thousand Years .Ago" very charmingly. But it was little Miss Elsie Piker who proved the piquant sensation of the night. She pranced about after somebody else had danced a mediocre solo dance, and in- side of thirty seconds had the huge audience at her feet. Her face was a sort of cross between Marie Tempest and Charlotte Walker, but her grace, her youth, her delicacy were all her own. Hers was a genuine little triumph. F^rances Demares, too, was seen in a role which gave her more op- portunities than she had had for a long time. Her first act song she rendered flelightfully. The scenic sensation of the new play was discussed at full length in all the newspapers, but frankly they are no longer the things tiiat count in a summer musical com- edy. If you can't give the public some real fun for their money, neither all the scenery nor all the lack of cos- tumes will prove of real avail. George Monroe, as the proprietress of an em- ployment agency, lures poor Harry I'islier, who has been cursed into pos- session of a yellow ticket, into his—or her—employment den. .After regard- ing Mr. Fisher through her pince nez, the proprietress remarks: "Do you know it's the hardest thing in the world nowadays to secure a really re- liaiile \N'hite Slave ; none of the hussies will work after 6 o'clock." The flight of the Zeppelin airship almost took tlie edge off this slightly raw but ex- ceedingly apropos remark. Later, of course, there was the view of San Francisco, the Sloping Path, an ex- tremely effective illusion, and the finale. "The Dawn of the New San . I'^ancisco"—a magnificent spectacle, which brought the performance to a late close, In spite of the frightful heat there was not a person in the au- dience who did not only get ten times his money's worth but, what is not the same thing at all, had a jolly good laugh into the bargain. Oscar Radin led the orchestra on to victory, and from first to la.st "The Passing Show" will go down into history as the most extravagant production outside of the Hiii])odrome tiiat the Shuberts have ever made. But the best thing about it is that it makes you laugh, * * * Summer visitors to New A'ork can still find some of the most successful plays of the winter on the boards. They are: Potash and Perlmutter at the Cohan Theatre: amusing dramati- zation of Montague Glass's stories of commercial life in the sphere of wom- en's garment manufacture; continu- ously entertaining and always drawing large audiences to the threatre in which it was fir.st acted last August. Seven Keys to Baldpate, at the Gaiety Theatre; George Cohan's delightful play from the novel of the same name, a puzzling and diverting farce which plays havoc with the old theory that an author should never deceive his pub- lic, but Mr. Cohan has a habit of being iconoclastic in his plays. The A'ellow Ticket at tiie Eltinge Theatre com- bines old fashioned melodrama mould- ed in the Sardou form and combined with some modern views of the treat- ment of Jewish women in Russia; dramatic interest, however, much stronger than the ethics, which serve to add flavor to the old ingredients. Kitty MacKay at the Comedy Thea- tre; sprightly comedy of Scotch life with a story as small as the bottom of an old fashioned strawberry box, Init filled with quaint wit and whimsi- cal humor; there are occasional sug- gestions of the genius of P)arric in the author's viewpoint. Tlie Dummy at the Hudson Theatre iias been so suc- cessful tliat a second company is soon to be organized to go to Chicago; amusing detective comedy, with its principal novelty in the humorous rather than the serious treatment of the life of crooks; authors manage to derive much fun from it. Too Many Cooks at the Thirty-ninth Street The- atre ; Frank Craven, who wrote the play and acted the leading role, want- ed to show just what would happen when a man allowed the relatives of liis wife to interfere too much in his affairs; very ingeniously applied to the building of a country house when all hands are eager to express their oi)inions as to its construction; simple things are made the basis of genuine fun. The Things That Count at the Playhouse deals with such elementary emotions as the love of a proud old woman for the child of her disinherit- ed son, and it contains all the old tugs at the heartstrings, with some of the A Positive Hit Just Out I Love You, San Francisco and the Dear Old Golden Gate Iiyricg by WALT WAY Music by HOMES TOUBOAE A WINNEB FOB EVEBT SINOEB Most lir.scriptive sxuti of the ilay. with a swinK in every line. Arranged for chorus if desired. Professional copies furnished. .•\ddress Walt Way Box A, Monrovia, Cal. old laughs to alternate with them. So it is destined to long popularity, es- pecially as the .scenes were arranged witii the adroitness of an actor. A Pair of Sixes at the Longacre The- atre ; tomorrow to be seen for the one hundredth time; two partners quar- rel, one is put into a position of sub- jection and is made to feel his inferi- ority in many humorous ways by the man who won the bet by which their fortunes • were decided; there are to be companies for Chicago, the Pacific Coast and Boston ; the present players are to remain at the Longacre in- definitely. * * * Announcements of the plans of theatre managers indicate an unu.sually early opening of the theatre .season in this city. A. H. Woods, who brought out many successes last sea.son, is to begin his New York pro- ductions as early as July. Today he will begin rehearsals of He Comes L'p Smiling. l)y Byron Ongley and Emil Nitray, in which Douglas Fairbanks is to be the .star. .Associated with him will be Patricia Collinge, Geo. Backus, (ieo. Hovell. Edward R. Mawson. Harry Harwood. Robt. Kelly, luluard Durand and Re.xford Kendrick. The first performance of this play will be given in Atlantic City on July 6. It will be given at a New York theatre soon after. Mr. Wood's second pro- duction will be Lew Fields in The High Cost of Living. It will be acted outside of New York on August 10 and will be seen here soon afterward.