San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

Sir Henry Irving has contributed $100 to perpetuating the Dewey Memorial Arch in New York. Fred Valmore, the instrumentalist, is said to be dying of rapid consumption in Washington. Stockwell and his company received much praise from Seattle papers for their work in In Paradise. M. B. Curtis and his old friend, Sam'l of Posen, go out for a limited tour about April 17th. Charley Warner, who went north with the Frawleys, returned to San Francisco Monday. Max Hirschfeld, the popular Tivoli baton wielder, is actively at work with Oscar Weil on two comic operas. Virginia Harned will play Ophelia to Sotheru's Hamlet next fall in New York. Edward Morgan is to play the King. Andrew E. Thomson, manager of Lyceum Stock Company, visited the Dramatic Review office on Saturday last. Frances Joliffe, in the cast of Naughty Anthony, lost her mother recently. The family home is at 2015 Pacific Avenue, this city. Will CurTin, once of the Alcazar, is now playing with the recently reorganized Battle Scarred Hero Company. Ethel Brandon is leading lady of the Schubert Stock Company, playing at the Bastable Theatre, Syracuse, N. Y. Tom Greene, the popular tenor of the Tivoli, is a Virginian, the son of an Episcopal clergyman of the old Dominion. Clara Morris, whose reputation as a fictionist is becoming more pronounced, will soon bring out a new book of short stories. Henry Miller came near to closing his season prematurely last week in Boston, owing to trouble with his eyes. Maud Berri is making a short stay in Oakland, having accompanied her husband's remains to his home for burial. A new star next season will be Maclyn Arbuckle. Mr. Arbuckle will play in a new piece which Augustus Thomas is now writing for him, to be called The Member From Texas. The two sterling players, Charles Walcot and Mrs. Thomas Whiffen, will return here with Henry Miller and his special company. Charley Thall goes East in a couple of weeks to join the business staff of one of his uncle's companies. Charley is a youngster in years, but has got an exceptionally clever head. Edith Cooper, the clever little daughter of Georgie Woodthorpe, who has been very low from an attack of heart trouble, is slowly improving, though not yet out of danger. Mme. Modjeska intends sailing for Europe in May, and if the Russian ban is removed, will play in Poland. Bad management lost her money on her recent toui to the East. Dan Halifax writes from New York that Madame Butterfly, by David Belasco, is great and puts the First Born in the shade. Fred Belasco has secured it for the Alcazar Stock. W. M. Gray is doing advance for Willie Collier, on his eighth trip to the Coast. He says his star has been doing a large business on tour. Frank Worthing and Blanche Bates have made pronounced personal hits in David Belasco's new one act play, Madame Butterfly, at the Herald Square Theatre, New York. Wm. West's Big Minstrel Jubilee is to follow Willie Collier at the Columbia Theatre. Dick Jose and Carroll Johnson are among the star performers with the company. Minette Barrett has shown improvement during the engagement. Portland people will take a lively interest in her future career. — Portland Oregonian. George H. Broadhurst is in and out of San Francisco working upon a new musical piece, the score for which will probably be furnished by A. B. Sloane. Gretciien Lyons, who will be pleasantly remembered by Alcazar audiences, is one of the prosperous colony of ex-California players in the metropolis. Miss Lyons is doing excellently well in Ben Hur. LEE Farnham and Mrs. A. C. Farnham are in town forming a company to take the road with a farce comedy. Mr. Farnham is a wellknown specialty artist with an Eastern reputation. Clarence Montaine, that exceedingly clever actor who went North with Frawley, has made a very fine impression on Portland and Seattle audiences. Mr. Frawley himself is very much pleased with Mr. Montaine's good work. Carroll Johnson has received the manuscript of a new song which promises to be a sensation. The comedian sings it for the first time during the engagement at the Columbia Theatre of Wm. H. West's Big Minstrel Jubilee. Helen Bertram announces that she will leave the Bostonians and sail for Paris about the middle of June and study for grand opera. She may sail for Paris, but its dollars to doughnuts that next year will see her wearing tights in comic opera. Will J. Irvin, who came here with London Life, is now playing at the Alcazar. Mr. Irvin was formerly stage manager of the Grip of Steel Company for W. T. Fielding, and was also a member of Charles Blayney's forces. The appearance of Burr Mcintosh as Pudd'nhead Wilson recalls the fact that Theodore Hamilton's hasty departure from In Paradise and his trip East, were for the purpose of assuming Frank Mayo's famous role. But — he missed connections. Nat Goodwin received half a dozen curtain calls at his last performance of When We Were Twenty-one. He responded with a neat little speech promising to return to New York in the near future prior to which he is going to make a western tour. Helen Young, daughter of Fanny Young and property master Morrison of the Tivoli, is a young California actress who is winning favorable comment on the road. She is playing the ingenue role in Other People's Money Company, which has just toured Texas and the Southwest. Leslie Morosco is winning golden opinions rat the Bastable Theatre, Syracuse, N. Y., where he is the juvenile man of the Schubert Stock Company. The Syracuse press highly eulogize his performance, and declare him a young actor of exceptional promise. Chas. H. Jones, stage manager of the Grand Opera House, has received a flattering offer from the Castle Square Opera Company for next season which he has declined, preferring to remain where he is and to avail himself of the greater scope offered for magnificent productions. Phil Hastings, who has had the management of the Symphony recitals, suggested and made the arrangements for last Tuesday Symphony, and the result proved his sanguine claim that San Francisco can furnish as large and as brilliant an audience as any ciry in the country, when the occasion warrants it. The Union Male Quartet Company, of which Chas. Henley is manager, has been booked to play at 5 Martinez this evening. Besides the Quartet, the company includes Charles Dillon, a versatile comedian, Miss Mary Madeline Beckhusen, violinist, and Miss Edith Basford, soprano. Messrs. Curry and Jones, proprietors of the opera house, evinced good business judgment in securing this company. Its work is first class. Giacomo Mincowski, a former resident of San Francisco, whose opera, The Smugglers of Badayez, is now being sung by the Bostonians, is in San Francisco. He is to be married to Miss Wanda Galland, a native San Franciscan. The young lady is of musical and artistic tastesand first met Mr. Mincowski when he was her vocal tutor. The wedding will take place April 15th. Mr. Mincowski has written a later opera, The Broidered Belt, which he expects will surpass The Smugglers. In honor of Mme. Gadski-Tauscher and Messrs. Damrosch and Bispham, a farewell dinner was tendered by a number of prominent citizens at the Palace Hotel Thursday night of last week. On the menu cardswas written 'Farewell banquet to Gadski-Damrosch-Bispham group of artists, tendered by friends and admirers in San Francisco March 20, 1900." There were thirty-seven guests present. Owing to the sudden illness of Lewis Morrison, brought about in great measure by the harrowing experience at the time of his car burning the company has disbanded in New Haven, Conn. Mr. Morrison will take a sea voyage to San Francisco, while Mrs. Morrison, Florence Roberts, comes directly across the continent, arriving here April 5. The Morrisons will make San Francisco their home for the coming year, at least. Alice Nielsen came very near ending her operatic and earthly career at Indianapolis last week. She was hurrying to a depot to catch a train, when her carriage collided with another conveyance. Both rigs were smashed up pretty badly, and it was thought for a time that the young lady could hardly haveescaped being killed. She was extricated from the wreck, however, and, aside from a bad shaking up, was uninjured. She also caught the train. Friends of David Bispham, the well known operatic baritone, now creating so much enthusiasm with concert goers, assert that he has decided to abandon the opera and concert stage for that of the legitimate drama. That he has the necessary qualifications has been made potent by his work in the acting roles of opera — Kurvenal, Alberich, Terramund, Beckmesser and many others. Mr. Bispham is an American. He is a native of Philadelphia, and commenced his stage career in London. During the past three seasons he was connected with the Grau Opera Company. This year he is devoting himself to the concert stage and is at present on a tour through the West.