San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

July 1 8. 1908. THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW NeW Leading Men and Leading Women are Absorbing Attention in LOS AngeleS Los Angeles, July 16. — Several things have "dropped" here since my last communication. Jack Blackwood has resigned horn the management of the Belasco to assume the direction of the Lewis S. Stone companv. which will open an indefinite engagement at the Auditorium, August 31. Mr. Stone will, of course, be at the head of the companv and holds a considerable interest in the organization himself. Mr. Blackwood and two prominent Los Angeles financiers being the "and company." So far as the business end of the deal is concerned, Mr. Stone left the Belasco last Sunday night and early in the week departed with his wife and daughter for an Eastern trip. In New York he will be joined by Mr. Blackwood, and together the arrangements for the actors and actresses who will compose the company will be selected. The new company will present a diverse line of plays, for many of which arrangements have already been made. Mr. Blackwood is succeeded at the Belasco by Captain Jones, who has purchased "Dolph" Ramish's interest in Belasco, Mayer & Co. Fred Belasco will hereafter spend alternate weeks in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The most cordial of relations exist between the new Auditorium company and the Belasco interests, and hence it is positively announced that the new company will not carry a single name on its payroll now to be found jat the emporium of Frederick & Co. The opening bill at the Auditorium to be presented by Mr. Stone and jhis associates is A Shepherd King. |Mrs. Fred C. Andrews, whose Kate jShannon was the success of the last Ferris season at the Auditorium, Ihas returned to Minneapolis from New York, where she was in conference with Harrison Grey Fiske over the play she is writing for Bertha Kalish. Mrs. Kalich, who is one of Fiske's stars, is to appear in the new play in the early fall. Kate Shannon ps to be given a Broadway production by Virginia Harned in the fall, the Washington presentation, planned as a try-out for Miss Harned this spring, having been perforce postponed through the illness of the star. Myrtle Selwyn, formerly of the Ulrich stock company and more recently a survivor of the How Baxter Butted In organization, has been showing us the value of a 'quick study" this week. Tuesday she was called on to learn the title role in The Girl from Yonkers at the Orpheum, succeeding Mae Ellwood, who was suddenly taken ill. Miss Selwyn learned the part and :he almost endless '"business" between breakfast and matinee, and icquitted herself with decided credit. The Campaigners, which is to open 1 brief season of musical comedy at he Auditorium next week, is being staged by Sedley Brown, formerly lirector of the Ferris stock company. Numerous changes have been made n the cast of the company as first mnounced. the list now including Wis Lobdell. Genevieve De la "ouer, Anna Darling, Ynez Dean, Lillian Leighton, Theo. L. Kimball, Fritz Fields, W'illard Clawson, Nigel de Bruiller, Al G. Flournoy, Phil Brook and Wayland Trask. The chorus of sixteen is under the direction of Florence Leslie. John Cort has confirmed the story about the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville at the Los Angeles, and architects are now making plans for the material alteration of the old People's Theatre, where the Stair & Havlin attractions will be played. Charles Yorke, last season manager of the Cort house here, will be the general manager of both houses, his probable managerial assistant being a well-known newspaper man locally. The Los Angeles is dark again, Harry Reid's abortive attempt at a vaudeville season having proven unprofitable and a failure. Eugene Topping and his fellow players enjoyed but a brief season at the Bently-Grand, Long Beach. Their first week was unprofitable, and the company was disbanded, its individual' members returning to Los Angeles, "at liberty." While definite information on the subject of the Belasco's new leading man is unobtainable, I venture to predict that A. H. Van Buren, who is at present playing leads with Amelia Bingham in St. Louis, will be the man. "Van" is a big, handsome chap, with a world of ability which commends him highly. Versatile, popular with the press and public, he would seem to be just the type of actor needed as successor for so clever and popular a leading man "as Lewis S. Stone. And this brings me to the matter of Blanche Hall's successor as leading woman of the Burbank stock company. She is picked out and arrangements are closed — so much I know. Just who she is is a question, but a little bird whispered to me yesterday ' that Dick Ferris and Oliver Morosco are such good friends that the auburn-haired actormanager has consented to have Mrs. Florence Stone-Ferris assume the position for a considerable time. I am unable to obtain confirmation of this rumor, as Morosco is away on a hunting trip, but my source of information is fairly authentic, and I do know that Mr. Morosco's proposed trip to New York in search of a worthy actress for the place was recently called off. BELASCO — The second week of The Rose of the Rancho is doing a capacity business, despite the hot weather, and all day long the boxoffice force is busy taking in money on advance sales. A third week is practically assured, and it would't surprise me a bit to 'see even that run badly eclipsed before way is made for another production. Little Jane Grey is firmly enshrined in the heart of her public, and is giving an extremely finished and enjoyable interpretation of Juanita Kenton, the Rose of the Rancho. Hobart Bosworth has succeeded Lewis S. Stone in the role of Kearney, Government agent, and acquits himself with all due finish and credit. The balance of the cast remains unchanged. BURBANK— A Strenuous Life, as depicted by the Burbankers this week, is a most amusing affair. The comedy, by Richard Walton Tully, has been seen locally before, but it loses nothing in the production given it by .Morosco's forces. The plot of the piece, as you may know, hinges about the prevaricating propensities of a young college chap, who gets himself into all kinds of trouble by his inability or disinclination for the truth. W illiam Desmond plays the youth whose mendacious habits cause all the trouble, and does it well. Marry Mestayer is the lisping freshman who poses as a "prof" to help him out of trouble, and A. Byron Beasley, the real member of the faculty. Gerald Harcourt is the liar's roommate. John Burton is Harrington, pere ; H. J. Ginn is a Japanese house boy ; Blanche Hall, naturally, is the girl to whom Tom Harrington makes love; Elsie Esmond is his sister; Louise Royce is the boarding-house keeper, and Margo Duffet is her niece. -The play is well mounted, and just the enjoyable type of summer entertainment that one can appreciate without too much effort. GRAXD OPERA HOUSE — There are thirty thousand men in Los Angeles who will swear that the Bathing Girls in Gayest Manhattan at the lower Main Street house this week are the real, real thing. Of course, there are other "real" things in the production, and equally, of course, they are more "girls," for the Grand show, be it known, is a "girl" show. You go there to see girls, and you see 'em — a lot of 'em. What Gayest Manhattan is about I won't attempt to tell you. There's no use. It's a merry conglomeration of girls and songs and music and girls; it begins and ends with girls. True, there are the comedians, but they are only incidents, although they are "incidents" who do good work and who evoke much laughter. There's a disrobing scene by four of the comely chorus girls, brought off behind screens which provide for the "shadowgraph" of their actions, that is surely startling. Also it's drawing the big iron dollars into the box-office, and the bald-headed rows are working overtime. That's all — except for a bunch of specialties. Perhaps the best number on the program is a doll specialty by Elise Schuyler. The same thing has been done here before, but never so well as Miss Schuyler does it. Edna Sidney has a telephone duet, the man in the case with his phone occupying a seat in the audience. The thing is well done. Libby Blondell contributes When the Moon Makes Goo-Goo Eyes, That's Why I Never Married and the bathing girl song. Aubrey Carr sings The Pride of the Prairie, which is good, though somewhat hackneyed ; Mandy Lee, and is also heard in a duet with Miss Sidney and a trio with Miss Sidney and Harry WardcII. The show is excellently mounted, and is doing, as' I said, a rushing business. It runs a fortnight. MASON OPERA HOUSE— Extended mention of The Thief, with Margaret Illington in the title role, is hardly necessary after the extended reviews of the play already printed in The Review during the run in San Francisco 'and Oakland. It has but improved in the interim, and Miss Illington and her support and deserving of every praise. The star's work in the title role is little short of wonderful, while Bruce McRae in the role of the husband, presents a strong, virile interpretation of the part. Edward R. Mawson acts with dignity the part of the father. Mr. Ide as the son, Mr. Herbert as the detective, and Isabel Richards as the young man's' stepmother, all contribute their full share to the best acted performance of what is, in many respects, the finest play Los Angeles theatregoers have seen this season. ORPHEUM— Bert Levy at the Orpheum this week is the best stage cartoonist I have ever seen. He draws pictures on glass discs and projects them on a large screen provided for that purpose. His subjects are diverse, artistic and pleasing, as well as excellently executed. World and Kingston present rather a mediocre sketch, although Miss Kingston, most attractively costumed, proves herself the possessor of a pleasing voice and sings several bits from familiar operas. Sager Migdley and Gertie Carlisle offer a sketch, After School. Miss Carlisle is a real soubrette, but the sketch don't amount to much. Jabes S. Devlin and Mae Flwood present The Girl from Yonkers. The girl is a thief and the man is so easy that she has no trouble in getting away with everything she happens to want. Holdover acts from last week include Zeno, Jordan and Zeno ; The Seven Hoboes, Sadie Sherman and John and Mae Burke. UNIQUE — An American Princess heads the bill at the Unique this week. It is well staged and sung. Maude Beatty as Princess Bonnie, Olga Stech as Kitty Clover and Eldrie Gilmore as Donna Pomposo, receive well-deserved encores nightly. Millar Bacon as Roy Stirling, W illiam Onslow as Admiral Pomposo, George Rehn as Shrimps and Walter Fredericks as Captain Tarpaulin complete the cast. My Uncle's Return, by the comedy company, is full of laughs. James P. Lee as Uncle John O'Brien and Maxie Mitchell as Clarice are good in their respective parts and the balance of the cast is eminently satisfactory. C H RON O PH O N E — This week's program at the Chronophone Theatre is well diversified. Comedy motion pictures, pleasing illustrated songs and a goodly selection of singing and talking pictures, presenting both operatic and popular numbers, are provided. EMPIRE— Stuart Kollins and the Carmen Sisters, "International Banjoists," who head the current olio at the Empire Theatre, give a startling exhibition of digital dexterity as well as displaying a commendable musical ability. The selections, all well rendered, range from popular numbers to operatic and sacred music. John Max, a monologist of German extraction, has a string of jokes, some new, supplemented by wooden shoe dancing. The cartooning of "Tracy" is not only an entertaining exhibition of clever drawing of its kind, but carries with it much comedy of a surprising nature. New motion pictures, illustrated songs by Mere and Nellie Hill and the Empire stock company in Al Franks' comedy, The Wrong Senator, complete the bill. Continued on Pige 12