San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

2 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW May 5, 1900 Injury to Dal^id Belasco Friday of last week in London, David Belasco met with an accident that for a time alarmed his friends and promised fatal results. The accident occurred at the Garrick Theatre. The lights were dim at the time, and Belasco was going along a dark hallway. He made a miscalculation and fell down a long flight of stone steps. When he was picked up he was insensible, and was covered with cuts and bruises. From the theatre he was taken to the Hotel Cecil. There was a long consultation and a thorough examination of the injured man was made. The doctors at first feared that the American playwright had suffered fatal internal injuries. He had severe hemorrhages and relapsed into a state of coma again and again. After working over him for a long time the physicians at last came to the conclusion that, while very painful, his injuries were not necessarily fatal. The above report was cabled to America. Mark Thall, of the Alcazar, who is associated with Fred Belasco, who is with his brother in London, told a Review reporter that the accident was greatly magnified and all there was to it was a sprained leg. Way T>o%)n East a cMoney Coiner A little more than two years ago the manager of a New York theatre on Broadway was chatting with a number of friends in an adjoining cafe, when William A. Brady entered and engaged in an urgent exhortation to the manager to go or send out to Chicago and see a play he had just produced there under the title. Way Down East. Mr. Brady wanted to pay all the expenses of this investigation, with a view to securing a metropolitan opening for the rural drama if it should pass the ordeal, but the New York manager did not display an even languid interest in the proposition. So he lost one of the most remarkable theatrical properties of this period, and its promoter secured a hold upon both ends of the profits for an extended term by taking a partnership interest in the Manhattan Theatre and making the production there. Way Down East has cleared so far at the Academy of Music during the present season, $61,000, and the road company is just about $35,000 to the good. Last Autumn Brady thought the profits of these two organizations would amount to $75,000 or more before the 1st of June. It now seems a sure thing that they will reach or even exceed $100,000, going to show that a really first class stage attraction is a very good thing to have around the house. If the editor of The Review remembers correctly, this same popular rural drama came very near being credited to San Francisco. Just before its Eastern production, Lottie Blair Parker made several attempts to have it produced at the old Bush Street Theatre. A date was set for the performance, but somehow the necessary money did not show itself and so the play was taken East, where it eventually fell into the grace of a manager with nerve and money enough to bring it out. Zaza and the Censor The reports of the suppression of Zaza by Censor Red ford are absolutely false. He saw the play on the first night and found nothing to object to. To him as to the public it did not seem to be an immoral play. He did, however, receive many letters of complaint from "crank religionists," as they are called by some of those interested, and he asked for the manuscript so he could read it. This was simply as a matter of form, and he still finds no objection to it. It is said, however, that the censor does object to the production of The Girl from Maxim's, and that it will not be seen in England. Melbas Denial Mme. Melba has published through Herr Wolf, the impressario, a statement that all reports representing her as contemplating marriage are entirely without foundation, including the report that she would marry Haddon Chambers. The statement concludes: "Any further tales of this kind will be equally unfounded, even if the most prominent newspapers should publish them." Ten Twenty Thirty On Broadway Corse Payton, the actor-manager of "ten, twenty and thirty cents" renown, announces that he is going to build a new theatre on Broadway, New York City, for the production of repertoire drama at "popular prices." He is said to have interested one or two capitalists in the scheme, and is now negotiating with a real estate dealer for a site. Payton is reputed to have made more than $100,000 playing repertoire drama, interspersed with vaudeville specialties at cheap prices throughout the country. Seven or eight years ago he was clerking in a grocery store in a little Western agricultural settlement. One night he went to see a show in the town hall and came away determined that he would himself become a real play-actor. So he gathered together his savings and went on to New York. He called on Simmonds & Brown, who were then the leading dramatic agents, and informed them of his intention to go into "the business." They looked him over, concealed a smile and advised him to go back West. "There are too many in the business now," they said. But Payton was not so easily put oflf. If they wouldn't give him an engagement he said he would enter the profession on his own account. He had saved a little money and determined to take out a show of his own. So he induced a few actors to join him, and started West with his "10-20-30" enterprise. He still sticks to that scale of prices, has three or four companies out, is a hustler and a bouncer, and if he doesn't contribute much to the cause of art, he apparently prospers more and more. Montaine's Lament Its astonishing the number of things that will cause a man to rush into verse. Clarence Montaine, the clever Frawleyite, has been a sufferer in fair Los Angeles. Read the following and convince yourself : Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Oh ! I do naught but cough and sneeze, I'm e'en afraid to sniff 'the breeze, Oh, give tne Frisco's fogs and fleas, Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Since I arrived upon this coast, It's been my constant daily boast. That in thy genial clime I'd roast, Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Since living in this wild, wild West, I never had beneath my vest Such a lacerated chest Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! I whoop and wheeze and cuss and swear, And shiver in this "eager air" I tell you what, it isn't fair Los Angeles ! Los Angeles ! Another Novel Way Langdon Mitchell has dramatized his father's, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's, latest novel, The Adventures of Francois, for production next season. The story is laid in Paris during the French revolution, and the principal character is a foundling with a remarkable voice and a funny face, who begins life as a choir boy. He runs away from the school and becomes a street gamin, falling in with thieves, who teach him their trade, in which he becomes an expert. Then he forms a partnership with a strolling showman and gains popularity as a juggler and comedian. Being adopted by a fencing master, he becomes an expert with the small sword and makes the acquaintance of many of the nobles of France, some of whom he is enabled to help during the dark days of their persecution. Eczema Positively Cured Cr no charge. Consultation and one treatment free. Prof. R. K. Shipley, specialist skin diseases and tape worms. 1206 Market street, opposite Sixth. <A Letter From the Litchfields "Still at it and doing extremely well"— Mr. and Mrs. Neil Litchfield and their rural comedy sketch, Down At Brook Farm. They play Tony Pastor's week of June 4, with Keith and Proctor circuits to follow.