The Billboard 1905-10-07: Vol 17 Iss 40 (1905-10-07)

m the fortheoming fortnight. The Billboard OCTOBER 7, 1905. \ (Broadway “. Topics New York Office, 1440 Broadway. ia BY WALTER K. HILL. RESPECTS LITT HE death of Jacob Litt, which eccurred Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 28, in Dr. G. F. M. Boud’s Sanita rium, in Yonkers, removed one of the best known and most influential theatrical managers in America. Out of respect to his memery there was no performance of The Pearl aad The Pumpkin at the Broadway Theatre, evening of Friday, 29, funeral servfces having been privately held in this city om that afternoon. CORINNE IS HAPPILY CAST The crowds which flock to the Liberty Theatre, attracted by the Klaw & Erlanger production ef the Rogers Brothers In Ireland, ere singling out Corinne for the bestowal of appreciative applause. The Rogers’ Brothers are fortunate in having the services of this clever young woman, for she keeps the enteriainment going at high speed during the time they are not upon the stage, and when they all three are in evidence at the same time she makes the Rogers Brothers work with a vim te sustain their end of the fun. There is much to entertain in the current production, and the Rogers Brothers are seen at their best. The scenic equipment is lavish, the company numerous and exceedingly clever, and the costumes are beautiful in the extreme. There is more of a plot than has been usual with the Brothers Brothers’ plece, and there is a sustained interest in the outcome of events. Gus and Max Rogers have some clever new material, and they are assisted by Corrinae, as has been said, with an artistie success resulting. Bessie De Voie shows her prettiest dance steps, Josie Intropidi makes a hit as Anastatia O’Hooliban, and the chorus of men and women is a destinctive feature of the production. These supernumeraries are a lively lot, and all can dance and dance well. Their ensemble uumbers are encored with vigor, and their work stands out as a salient element of benefit to the entertainment. There are several song hits, noticably The First Time We Rode on The Cars, in which is introduced a novel train effect, the girls climbing into trunks which suddenly are transformed into diminutive railroad cars, and roll off the stage with the occupants singing the chorus of the song. The Irish Girl I Love, sung by Corinne and Maurice Darcy, is also a pretty hit. SOME IMPORTANT CHANGES Some important changes in attractions are announced at local theatres within The Prodigal Son will be withdrawn from the New Amsterdam, and, with a new leading woman replacing Charlotte Walker, will go upon the road. Miss Walker was loaned to Leibler & Co. for the New York run of The Prodigal Son, and her services have been reclaimed by Charles Dillingham for a role in The Embassy Ball. The Prodigal Son will leave the New Amsterdam on Oct. 14, and Lulu Glaser, in Miss Dolly Dollars, will move over from the Knickerbocker to continge her New York engagement at ‘“‘The House Beautifwl.’’ The Sothern-Marlowe combination will succeed Miss Glaser at the Knickerbocker. When Raymond Hitchcock leaves Wallack’s Theatre, Oct. 7, he will be succeeded, 9,, by Thomas Jefferson who will play Rip Van Winkle for a_ brief engagement. Ther Otis Skinner will come to Wal lack’s for presentations of His Grace de Gramont. GEORGE ADE’S NEW PLAY Just Out of College, the newest George Ade play, was locally introduced at the Lyceum Theatre Wednesday evening, Sept. 27. The newspaper critics gave complimentary reviews of the play, and reported pleased audiences have filled the theatre ever since, Joseph Wheelock, jr., comes into stardom with the new play. Later on a review of the piece will be given in this department. HOPPER IN HAPPYLAND The most important theatrical event | the presentation | of the current days will be of Happyland, by De Wolf Hopper, at the Lyric. On Tuesday evening Henry BE. Dixey will present The Man On The Box at the Madison Square Theatre. AL, LAWRENCE Homer Mason and wife, Miss Keeler, of the Mason-Keeler Co., in vaudeville, came in from Springfield, Mass., last Sunday, with Al. Lawreace as a passenger in their automobile, making the run of 152 miles from 9 A. M. eu 6:20 P. M. It was a record trip ‘in many respects. Lawrence was lashed to the back seat, which he occupied in frightened loneliness, and vows that he shall never again give his life into the keeping of Mr. Mason, the automobilist. Their casualty record for the trip was one dog and two chickens, and several bottles of Guiness’s stout. They struck the dog between Meridan and Hartford, a previously undiscovered vital spot in a canine’s organism. LILLIAN RUSSELL OPENS AT PROCTOR’S Monday afternoon, Oct. 2, and will sing twice a day, including Sundays, for several weeks to come. The Twenty-third Street house has been renovated and put in a condition of special preparation for the event. General Manager J. Austin Fynes, of the Proctor Enterprises, is authority for this statement concerning Miss Russell's engage ment with Manager Proctor: *“‘We now present the highest class vaudeville entertainment ever offered for the delectation of New Yorkers. Miss Russell will appear at every performance in the Twenty-third Street Theatre, which means twice a day including Sundays. She will sing three new songs which have been written for her use by famous composers and lyricists, and will delight the hearts of the women in her audiences with three elaborate gowns at each performance and the worldfamed jewels. Eighty-two gowns of the modiste’s art have been built by Worth, Paquin and Mrs. Osborn for this engagement. After playing for an extended period at the Twentythird Street Theatre, Miss Russell will make a tour of the other Proctor houses, including Fifty-eighth Street, Harlem, Newark, Albany and Troy. At the end of this tour it is probable that Mr. Proctor will organize, with Miss Russel at its head, the greatest road company of vaudeville stars ever gathered together. The entire Russell engagement is for thirty-three weeks, and the compensation for appearing twice a day, seven days a week, is to be one hundred thousand dollars, or three thousand dollars a week. This is by long odds the greatest salary ever paid to a single performer, or even to an act including a number of performers, in vaudeville.’’ A REMARKABLE RECORD Mile. Ani Hill, wife of Harry Hill, the clever road manager, begins her vaudeville bookings this week at the Gotham Theatre, Brooklyn, where she will be seen in her impersonations a la Vesta Tilley, and the late Bessie Bonehill. Miss Hill has a tour of the Keith Circuit booked to follow her time at the Perey Williams houses. From a_ trapeze artist to a singing character impersonator is a far cry, but Miss Hill has made the transi tion in a remarkably short time, and has established herself. by her art, as worthy of the place she has taken among vaudeville headliners. CHARLIE STEWART CHANGES Charles connection with the firm of Bellowes & Gregory, and has associated himself with Darcey & Wolford, the play-agents. Mr. Stewart retains his affiliations with Chas. A. Taylor’s Enterprises, of which he is the general manager. LILLIAN SHAW ESSAYS NEW CHARACTER Lillian Shaw, who has won deserved renown in vaudeville, has heen given a part in the Hurtig & Seamon production of In New York Town, which will call for a marked display of her versatility. She will play an Italian character, whereas she has won her spurs in vaudeville as a delineator of Hebrew characters. GEO. STARR RETURNS George O. Starr, representative of James A. Bailey, arrived in New York from London, Sept. 25, and departed the same evening for California, to meet Mr. Bailey; a continuous traveling tour, from London to Los Angeles in fifteen days. PROCTOR’S TWENTY-THIRD STREET Lillian Russell makes her vaudeville plunge at Proctor’s Twenty-third Street, Oct. 2-7, where she will remain inde‘initely as the feature of a series of strong bills which becin with Josephine Cohan & Co., Fred Niblo, The Crane Bros., Macart’s Dog & Monkey Circus, the Vernon Troupe, Delmore and Lee, Bellman and Moore, and Kennedy and Quatrelle. BILLY CLIFFORD IN VAUDEVILLE Billy §S. Clifford, by special ar rangement, and for one week only, doffs stellar honors as The Jolly Baron, and dons the cap of vaudeville as the feature of the bill at Proctor’s Fifty-eighth Street, Oct. 2-7. The others at this house for the current days are H. Stewart has severed his Staley and Birbeck, Chas. Sweet, Henry Taylor & Co., the Golden Gate Quintette, Baker and Lynne, Ephe Thomson's elephants, and Deltorelli and Glissandro. MARGARET ANGLIN’S EMOTIONAL HOUR In the presentation of Zira, at the Princess Theatre, Margaret Anglin displays emotional powers of electrifying and intensely dramatic quality. For nearly an hour, through the entire third act, the lines and action are hers; and, yet, so great is her talent, that one forgets that the scenes are little more than a monologue. In that hour she discloses the deepest agony of a woman's emotion; she lays bare the yearnings and longings, the mistakes and the misfortunes of a wretched woman’s lifetime, and brings into the glare of a focused light of dicovery the anguish of a woman's deceit, confessed, and, at last, unhidden. Unless one had seen every actress act every part she had ever played it would be useless to write that no other woman could enact these scenes with a deeper feeling; but it is certain that Miss Anglin rises to a mastery of the situation with an artistic conception which fairly stuns the observer and makes one, for the hour, feel that they are in the presence of an unspeakable sorrow; that they are witnessing the actual portrayal of one of the many tragedies in life which we know exist, but with which we, happily, are seldom brought into close touch. It is not for me to say that such scenes might better be left unacted; for Zira is a great play, during Miss Anglin’s emotional hour, and the multitude clamors to have its heart-strings knotted and its emotions stirred to extreme depths. But it is the mission of the theatre to make the auditor feel, at the end of the play, that ten days of hard labor have been consummated in an hour; to go home with the emotions seething, the nerves unstrung, and a mighty weight pressing down upon them? Miss Anglin’s hour is like an evening of Belasco’s melodramas; it’s a hardworking proposition for everybody. But it is an evening of art, and real art, too. If there are in this world many e¢reatures with a heart of stone such as Beverly § Sitgreaves, to strengthen the contrast, makes of Ruth Wilding, it would seem a great blessing that they are seldom pictured upon the stage. For the word ‘‘woman’’ comprehends all that is admirable in humankind. Miss Sitgreaves most admirably holds up the mirror of art in her performance, for she wakes the character a most utterly heartless and thoroughly hated creature; the only sort of a woman who would press down the relentless yoke of unforgiveness upon the shoulders of one who had, selfishly, designingly. and, yet, in human weakness, wronged her. Frank Worthing gives a_ fine the clergyman, and performance of scores again in his long record of artistic achievements. Jameson Lee Finney stands next to him in the order of merit, and skillfully handles ai role which, with different treatment, would be devoid of sympathy and might be distasteful in Itself. Mrs. Thomas Whiffen brings an admirable shading to bear upon the character of Lady Constance, and there are others in the support who justify their position in the company. | Finally. let it | Miss Anglin may | upon the stage. i ' be written, that whatever have achieved in her career or whatever honor may still t fall to her, she may well look upon her triumph in Zira as an artistic accomplishment which ; She may ever view with just pride; a piece of jacting marvelous in its intensity and sur|passingly artistic in its display. TONY PASTOR’S BILL Tony Pastors’ vaudeville bill for the week of Oct. 2 calls for the services of Martint and Maxmillan, Westen and Raymond, Estelle Wordette & Co., Dorsch and Russell, the Chadwick Trio, Taseott, Brown, Harrison and Brown, Frank Le Dent, Delmore and Darrell, Naomi Ethardo, Golden and Hughes, and Huston and Dallas. IRVING PLACE OPEN Heinrich Conreid’s Irving Place Theatre, devoted, as usual, to the German drama, reopened for the season Saturday evening, Sept. 30. Two plays a week will be staged thronghout the season, save in the case of extremely popular selections. HARLEM MUSIC HALL Hurtig & Seamon’s Harlem Music Hall, during the week of Oct. 2-7, will present Hallen and Fuller, Howard and Bland, Hoey and Lee, Ziska and King, Theresa Dorgeval, Hayes and Healey, Niblo and Riley, and Cook and Sylva. THE VICTORIA Hammerstein’s Victoria has Adele Ritchie as its topliner for the week of Oct. 2-7. Others in the bill are Ye Colonial Septette, Merian’s dogs, Reno and Richards, the Four Fords, and Winona Winter. KEITH'S Kern’s mimic dogs, an animal act new to America, opens at Keith’s Oct. 2. Others in the bill will be The Three Seldomes, Bloome and Cooper, Geo. W. Monroe, Rice and , Cady, Stuart Barnes, and the Three Keatons. CHRISTIE MACDONALD In the new comic opera, 2-9-0-5, which was written by John Kendrick Bands and Manuel Klein. PINK TEA AT THE HIPPODROME Phoebe, the pig, and Dick, the goose, entertained their human and animal friends on the Hippodrome stage after the matinee Wednesday. The occasion was in honor of Miska, a Russian sheephound, who acts the lion of the Hippodrome Show. He was six years old that day. He is so formidably home: that he is without friends or admirers, and the birthday would have passed unhonored and unnnoticed had not Clyde W. Powers, who owns Phoebe and Dick, arranged a function. The Hippodrome caterer spread a table on the broad stage when the curtain descended on The Raiders, and the pig and the geese were installed at one end. Miska was placed on a decorated pedestal at the other end, and a Hippodrome baby elephant, and ome of Albert Carre’s Shetland Ponies were other invited guests. They browsed on animal tidbits, while the human ‘“‘freaks’’ an elaborate menu. of the show discussed The dog-faced boy, the bogie man, the skeleton, the fat lady, the electric lady, the snake charmer, the tattooed man, the Circassian lady and the wild man of Borneo, were all there. Powers made a speech in which he told of Miska once having saved Dick from the clutches of a sneak thief, and Dick quacked long and loud, as if he appreciated the marrow escape and was grateful. The “only trained goose in the world,”’ he said, was thirteen years old; had marched in three Presidential inaugural parades; had swam in rivers in eyery state in the Union, and would be taken to Burope in 1906. It was his consuming desire, the animal man said, to have the goose paddle in the Dead Sea and in the River Jordan. Queen, Margaret Powell's Arabian horse, who is suffering from an incurable disease and must be killed in a few days, was led to the scene of the festivities for a few minutes. Miss Powell said she was sure {it would cheer her pet’s declining days. AMERICAN THEATRE For Ted Marks’s Sunday concert at the American Theatre, Oct. 1, these names are announced: Empire City Ouartet. Reno and Richards, John Bernard Dyllyn, Harrigan, the tramp juggler; the Chadwick Trio, Irene La Tour and Zaza, and Harry Wise. AT THE ALHAMBRA The Alhambra vaudeville bill for Oct. 2-7 names Valerie Bergere & Co., Flosele Crane, Ernest Hogan & Co., Ryan and Richfield, Rice and Provost, Chas. F. Seamon, Al. Lawrence, and Marcel’s living art studies. COLONIAL Houdini, the handcuff expert, heads the bill at the Colonial Theatre week of Oct. 2. The others in the show include Mary Norman, Shean and Warren, Bruna and Russell, Sydney Grant, Foster and Foster, Las Mas Andores, and the Three ‘Yoscarrys. Mabelle Adams, Nano Jaques. HAS LEASED OLD ARKANSAW Victor FE. Lambert has leased Fred. Raymond’s Old Arkansaw, the melodramatic suecess of several seasons, Mr. Lambert has #¢ cured all new scenery for the production, and is putting on the plece in first-class style, managing it himself. The company is now playing Iowa. James Donnelly, formerly come dian with the King Dodo Co., is playing the leading comedy role, He is ably assisted by Grace Lambert, Virginia Elwood, Mabel Hayes, Jas. Harrington, A. Sims, Jack McDonough and Fred. Marvin. Mr. McDonough is stage manager, Mr. Marvin is electrician and Gilbert | Green is in advance.