San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

March 3, 1900 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW get an engagement, a man must be an all around entertainer, and the experience has fitted him well to judge and select. He seldom starts a local or new attraction here, being averse to putting next year's peaches on the table and asking us to enjoy their flavor. He makes no excursions — knows his goal and heads for it as straight as he can. And we demand a great deal for our fifty cents. People like Camille Darville and Felix Morris have pointed out what may be, and shall be is only a change of mood. We should starve on the primitive banquets of other days. We must have a royal feast of snatches with no dull overdone courFes. Nothing else is digestible and we are not slow to say so. Imported dishes we rather favor and our stage is trod by the heels of London boots and the toes of French slippers, to the time of the best music in vaudeville. The management claims this for Mr. Rosner's orchestra, and the artists when questioned, substantiate the claim. There is little in the entertainment to stagger us into hard thought and if at one moment we are bored, at the next we are ready to swear that the occurrence has not occurred. All ages and conditions are amused at prices quite within the reach of any man who earns a wage. Amused too in a decent, honest way. Women with proud eyes and clean hearts walk up the aisles and applaud, for the Orpheum management bids for and gets much the same patronage as the Columbia and other theatres. The founders and promoters of such an enterprise, should, like the founders of families, be properly valued and painted life size. There are local applicants galore, aged anywhere from six to sixty, all sure they have a special gift lying fallow, and Mr. Morrisey lends a kindly ear and hears many strange noises. Many ills are his portion, but sorrows of this kind do not bear him down. Though he has been standing for five years between us and the unworthy, he can still tell the tale of it with a wide smile. He won my heart the other day when he said that personally he had had more than enough of the coon specialty and thought that very soon the only thing in that line that would go, would be an Ave Maria with coon interludes. Of course he has found many good things of local growth and believes with you and me that San Francisco is a prolific producer of genius. Take Etta Butler, for instance. She is his by right of discovery and she, you know, stands a healthy chance of soon being able to make almost any terms. The gallery was his one time greatest sorrow. It was so full of howls and stamps. But he found a way to silence the roar in it. A band of stalwarts on the watch swooped down upon the worst offenders one night, promptly arrested them and bundled them off to jail — where Chief Crowley stood ready to put the fine and imprisonment sentence into speedy execution. Repeated at intervals, the treatment had the desired effect. Now the audiences are altogether proper in attitude. If they are not entertained they withold applause and are quietly bored. Harry Orndorff, the stage director, practices a nice discrimination to please all the artists and set the olios without friction. Frank Damon, the master properties, has made himself indispensable alike to the management and the gallery. The latter would, I believe, give a bad quarter of an hour to any one bold enough to appear in his place — unless, perhaps, it were Mr. Holden the stage carpenter. I think he is quite as solid with the patrons as Mr. Damon. There is nothing so tenscious of its rights as a gallery and it likes not change. A hundred things must be looked into to make an enterprise of this kind successful and a floor of offices is the scene of activity from nine o'clock until five. Charles Schimpf, the secretary and treasurer, De Clairmont, the auditor, the press agent, the stenographer and the clerks find little time to be idle, for if you would score in the vaudeville field you must be up and doing. Just the little matter of getting out weekly posters is a tax on thought and intelligence. If you do not believe me, watch them — their catch lines and their arrangement, and you will know there are tricks in all trades but yours. And low as are the prices, there are yet peculiar demands. "Are your seats upstairs, ten cents?" "Yes." "Do you give three for a quarter?" C. T. cA Cane Presentation Charles H. Jones, the popular stage manager of the Grand Opera House, was the pleased and unexpected recepient on Sunday evening of a very handsome malacca cane heavily mounted in silver. It bore the following inscription: "Presented to Charles H. Jones by the Hawaiian quintette." The date on the top was beautifully chased with the arms of the late Hawaiian Monarchy, and on one side was tastefully engraved the American and Hawaiian flags entwined. It was an acknowledgement by the quintette of the many kindnesses received by them from Mr. Jones during their engagement at the Grand Opera House. The receipts for the first ninety-two performances of "Ben Hur" at the Broadway Theatre, reached the enormous aggregate of $184,829. "The Children of the Ghetto" seems to be winning success on the road, despite its adverse New York reception. ORPHEU/A THEATER IIOKTOLULU II. I. THK ORPHEUM CO., (Limited) Lessees. J. C. COHEN, President and Manager Professionals intending to visit Australia, Japan, China or Manila are invited to communicate with us for dates and appearances, address The ORPBBUM Co., Ltd., Honolulu, H. I. P. O. Box 400 Or, L. F. STONE, I.angham Hotel, Sole San Francisco Agent. Pacific Coast Managers, Send Your Open Time, Quick for Here's Our Paper (Wp have got it. ) 8 kinds of stands 4 3 sheets 18 " Lithos 2 Snipes 2 " Cloth Banners Cards, Heralds, Novelties Mr. Plaster of Paris The Laughable Cyclone Making Merry Millions of Men. AN ALL-STAR CAST Breaking Records from Maine to Oregon. Seven days behind three advance men and an ocean of the flashiest seven-color Lithograph Paper ever turned out. For Terms and Information, Address, WALTER LINDSAY, DRAMATIC REVIEW OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL THfy^pDFRN High Art |uii*>mvroiisor Amepjga American "•prdCBssf ngravin| (o f'fo, AalfToije. specialty' . iZ3 JHQTi 304 BATTERY STREET. San Franc/sco. ARCHIE LEVY'S Amusement Association The Theatrical Exchange of the Pacific Coast. Booking for Thirty-Eight Houses. Rooms 116-117-118-119-120 No. 6 EDDY STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 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