San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

2 December 2nd, 1899 Advance Agent's Trying Ordeal 1 4 T1 he most trying experience in my 1 career," said Hank Johnson, the veteran theatrical advance man, ' was a season I put in with a new author, who was taking out his own piece. He knew nothing about the details of the business and was as fearful of being buncoed as a green farmer on the Bowery. As a natural consequence he was continually upsetting the arrangements along the route and made our tour about twice as expensive as it really should have l)een. Finally I got tired of his nagging and made up my mind to get even. Among other eccentricities he had a morbid passion for seeing his picture in print, and I carried along three cuts of different sizes that I paid to get into the papers whenever I could. He paid me Sio every time one appeared, but, as he was comparatively unknown and not a thing of beauty, the papers would very seldom consent to use them. One journal, however, printed all three at the same time, giving him a scathing roast for notoriety seeking and I immediately bought 200 extra copies. After that whenever I struck a new town I would cut out one of the pictures, paste the heading of the local paper across the top and mail it to the boss. I collected $300 on the scheme l>efore he happened to turn over his assortment of pictures and look at the backs. He found the same section of reading matter on all of them, and concluded, to quote the letter he immediately wrote me, that that he 'had been basely betrayed by one in whom he had trustingly confided.' He also said that he had 'taken a serpent to his bosom.' The serpent, otherwise yours truly, was told to consider himself fired. No, my conscience never bothered me any. You see, I gave him at least $10 worth of pure joy with each of those fake clippings." cAkvays Playing Poker Now that the original Bostonians are gradually losing member by member, as did the Boston Ideals from which they sprang, it might be interesting to recall how that organization became famous as the most noted card-playing organization, from a theatrical point of view, in America. Mr. and Mrs. Barnabee, Tom Karl and his wife, McDonald and Marie Stone were the heavy weights, and there were always sufficient small fry and outsiders on hand to make the game interesting. Twenty-five cent limit was the Boston Ideal game — no more, no less. No possible circum stance could achieve a variation of this rule. So at twenty-five cent limit the Boston soloists spent their spare time morning, noon and night— after the theater. They played in hotels, on the cars — everywhere in fact. Karl, Barnabee and McDonald have been known to finish a game on the way to the theater in a hack by the light of lucifer matches and flaming cigars. There was absolutely no end to the ideal poker-playing. Marie Stone used to tell an entertaining story of how she prevented a game on a train. Every one had been up late the night before, and she wanted her husband to get some sleep. Barnabee had purchased fournice new decks of cards, and while they were setting the table in the smoking-room of the sleeper, she asked the old gentleman to let her look at them. He did so, willingly enough, for he suspected nothing. Marie was in bed — that is, in her berth — and she monkeyed with the four decks awhile, and then handed one of them back to Barnabee when he came for it, and said she hoped they'd have a pleasant game. The gentlemen retired and commenced operations. To every one's astonishment the first hand was what is known in poker parlance as a corker. Everybody wanted to raise, and when the preliminary raising was all done, Barnabee prepared to help the cards; nolxjdy wanted any; everybody stood pat. There was general consternation, but every one had l)et all he had. When it finally came to a show-down the strange fact was developed that everybody had a club flush. Tom Karl's was the biggest, and he wanted to take the pot, but a general kick was made and a further investigation instituted. Then the discovery was made that the entire deck was composed of clubs. Marie had taken all the clubs from the four decks. Barnabee went back to the sleeper and in a whisper asked the lady what she had done with the rest of the cards, to which a sleepy voice responded: "They're out on the beach, twenty miles behind by this time. Don't bother me now, I'm tired." And the gentlemen of the Boston Ideal Company had no poker game on the cars that night. "Dan" Godfrey, who has returned to London with his band from a tour of the United States, is quoted as saying: "We played lots of good music, but what Americans really want is some catchy tune with a swing. We would give Georgia Camp Meeting or a 'rag-time Cakewalk,' and they would nearly tear down the place." Lederer's Quintonica will keep the hair healthy. Some Prominent Actors THE New York Journal gives this list of actors, and tells what they were doing twenty yeais ago: Ada Rehan appeared as Big Clenience in Augustin Daly's production of L'Assommoir. Francis Wilson, then Frank Wilson, appeared as Tufts in An Unequal Match at the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. John Drew was a member of the newly-formed Daly's Company. May Irwin and her sister Flora were doing songs and dances at Tony Pastor's Theater on Broadway. Stuart Robson and W. H. Crane were appearing in Our Bachelors. Annie Russell went to the West Indies, where she played ingenue roles in a company that included Felix Morris, J. H. Gilmour and Tommy Russell. Jennie Veamans was the Topsy in a revival of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Rose Coghlan was appearing in Boucicault's drama, Rescued, at Booth's Theater. Charles A. Stevenson, now Mrs. Leslie Carter's leading man, supported Kate Claxton in The Two Orphans. Henry E. Dixey was seen as Tom Bowline in Pinafore. Mrs. Minnie Maddern-Fiske was playing the soubrette part in The Messenger from Jarvis Section. Thomas Q. Seabrooke appeared as Bertie Cecil in Cigarette. Lillian Russell was singing ballads at Tony Pastor's Theater. Richard Mansfield played a part in Les Manteaux Noir, at the Standard Theater. Maurice Barrymore was a member of the stock company at Wallack's Theater. Nat Goodwin made a hit in Hobbies, at Haverly's Fourteenth Street Theater, with his impersonations of wellknown actors. Hffie Shannon had been playing the part of Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin. E. M. Holland was at Wallack's. E H. Sothern was a member of his father's company. Modjeska was drawing big houses at the Grand Opera House in East Lynne. Charles Coghlan appeared at Wallack's as Felix Featherstone in Sydney Grundy's play, The Snowball. Sol. Smith Russell began his starring tour in Edgewood Folks. Louise Beaudet was a member of Maurice Grau's French Opera Company, headed by Capoul, at the Fifth Avenue Theater. Roland Reed was seen at Seraph in The Magic Slipper at Haverly's Fourteenth Street Theater. Julia Marlowe was with a juvenile Pinafore Company. Robert Mantell was in England, playing the leading roles inacompany headed by Miss Wallis. Cora Tanner appeared in The Danites. De Wolfe Hopper was playing a comedy part in Our Daughters, which was presented by the Criterion Comedy Company. Otis Skinner was seen in Bronson Howard's Wives. John E. Henshaw, now with The Man in the Moon, was in Princess Carpillona at the Broadway Optra House. His wife, May Ten Broeck, was a member of the same company. John T. Kelly was at Tony Pastor s. Digby Bell appeared in Charity Begins at Home at the Bijou. Joseph Murphy was making his last appearance in Kerry Gow at the Grand Opera House. Joseph Jefferson was, of course, p'aying Rip Van Winkle. The Play Makers Hugh Conway was an auctioneer, and he wrote Called Back. Therefore the fact that Michael Morton pursues the same delusive calling does not necessarily check any good opinions we may entertain about the play, A Rich Man's Son. Neither vocation nor avocation has anything to do with dramatic genesis. Margaret Merington was a school-teacher, yet she enriched our stage with Letterblair, and Love Finds a Way. Henry Arthur Jones was a "drummer" in the boot and shoe line, yet he evolved from Oxford ties and patent leathers, those worthy pieces, The Middleman, and Michael and His Lost Angel. William Shakespeare was a hostler, and he did tolerably well on the stage. — New York Press. fatal Shooting Robert Alexander Simpson, better known as Professor Simpson, was shot and mortally wounded late Thursday afternoon, Nov. 24, at St. Louis, in his dramatic agency and school, 1520 Olive street, by James T. Roberts, a lawyer. Roberts' wife, from whom he had lived apart for the last year, was taking lessons in stagecraft from Simpson. Roberts tried in vain to persuade her to give up her lessons. Mrs. Roberts said that she had separated from her husband because of his extreme brutality. Simpson was the manager of half a dozen one-night stand dramatic companies. The Dramatic Review, per year. Subscribe for it. 00