The Billboard 1911-11-11: Vol 23 Iss 45 (1911-11-11)

The Billboard $4 NOVEMBER 11, 1911, WILL ROSSITER NOTES. (Continued from page 12.) Clark and Bergman are also mecting with mor: than passing success with Mammy’s Shuffiin’ Dance. The Church City Four are singing the callad beautiful, Love Me. Let the World Go By. Harry W. Spingold’s Three Dixie Girls ars taking nightly encores with Let’s Make Love While the Moon Shines. Sylvia De Frankie bas a big winner in Let's Make Love While the Mvon Shines. Diamond and Nelson are delighted with the behavior of I'd Love to Live in Loveland Wit! a Girl Like You and Let’s Make Love While the Moon Shines, Sam J. Harris calls himself the Rossiter Boost ing Kid, as he is s'nging a complete Will Ross: ter repertoire, including his supreme hit, When I Woke Up this Morning, Mammy’s Shufflin’ Dance is a whirlwind hi‘ with Wells, Holm s and Finlay. Belle Dixon is singing Let’s Make Love While the Moon Shines and Mammy’s Shufflin’ Dance. Those Four Entertain rs are entertaining audi ences with That Carolina Rag, PARIS LETTER. (Continued from page 13.) Constantin, Monsieur Piegois, etc.. are among the pieces he appeared in, and the authors of these are demanding of M. de Rosa, his manager, their full royalties for each presentation. De Rosa has offered two per cent, which has been indignantly refused, and a joint lawsuit will probably be resorted to, There is some criticism as to M. Guitry’s attitude. some saying he is indifferent which way the thing goes, and has strangely left the au thors fight it out with the impresario. LE BARGY AGAIN. Some monts ago much was printed in these columns concerning the possible, or probable, resignation of M. Le Bargy from the Comedie Francaise. The question of leaving this play heuse has come up again, and with it the tempest-in-a-teapot is sizzling worse than ever, The thing is now certain. The famous actor will leave the Comedie-Francais@# in January. He will go to the Port Saint-Martin Theatre, replacing, in a way, Lucien Guitry, who -fn a buff, went over to the Vaudeville. M. Le Bargy is to get $25,000 a year, plus a percentage— which is going some better than the $8,060 or $9,000 he drew down as salary and profits from the Comedie-Francaise. Also he is to tour America. He will play Cyrano de Bergerac and Le Marquis de Priola —probably. “Probably” is correct. For it is said that an injunction will be secured to prevent M. Le Bargy appearing in any other playhouse other than the House of Moliere. The moment his name is pasted on qa billboard, bing! The blew will fall. Also it seems doubtful If he will be allowed to play Le Marquis de Priola outside the Comedie. Apropos of this Henri Lavedan wrote the following to M. Jules Claretie, director of the Comedie: ““Saint-Cere, 17 Octebre. “The statement that I have given the right to play Le Marquis de Priola to «2 Bargy at the Porte Saint-Martin is net exact. Priola continues the property of the Comedie-Francalae. “LAVEDAN.” SOME NOTES. De Max has been engaged to appear at the Chatelet Theatre in the production of La Course aux Dollars. During a performance of The Bluebird at the Rejane Theatre. M. Delphin, the yourgster who plays the part ef Tyltyl, the boy, in the piece. fell thr.ugh a trap door and was painfully injJured about the head and back. His understudy Was sent fo., and bevond a somewhat lengthy wait, no noticeable damage was done to the performance itself. Pelphin is improving rapidly. Nicod, a seventeen-year-old French bov, in a twenty-four-hour roller skating contest’ this werk, came first with 468 kilometres (about 393 miles). The record established last spring by Jesse Carey, the American champion, is about five miles father than this. The youngster did not leave the floor once, though he started to lie down on the track twice, and had to be apurre! on by his trainers, LONDON LETTER. (Continued from page 13.) on business, but in reality to Lucerne on pleasure and with a former love. At the end of five weeks he returns. But in the meantime his wife has not been idle. The little country mouse has become acclimatised. She js now a gay and giddy weman ef the world, Althourch still fond of her husband, she feels that the best way to bring him back is to carefully refrain from showing it. And when Roger discovers that the dowd, gorgeously plumed, has become a glory among women, he is stirred by an instinctive desire te run after her. But by this time Fernande looks with favor on another—a young man of handsome looks, who makes the of course, Fernande comes along with the suggestion of the conventional cure of jealousy. Vareine rings her up on tre tele phone late at night, and asks her to go off with him Of course, the husband arrives on the scene in time to hear her hesitatingly agree. In a blaze of passioz he nearly strangles his wife, and at the same time convinces her that he has some affecton for her. By the next morning, hewever, Roger is in a very differert frame of mind, and talks to his wife about his desire to make her happy and his readiness to go away to Spain if necessary in order to smooth the ath for the hepeiness of her and her lover. earing this Fernande is on the point of flying headlong Inte his arms and beseech him to do nothing of the kind. But the wise old nncle intervenes in time, and persuades her to keep up the pretence of Indifference to the last. She does so. and In the end the hushand finds that he just can’t leave her, and #0 all ends hapni': It wonld he difficult to call the play a good one, bnt it is anite redeemed from any chance of failnre by the wonderful acting of Hare as the old uncle, an. Marie Lohr as the wife The latter practically has to carry the play on her back. and her sneceea. for go young an actress. is eomething remarkable. On the first night | both of them received a great ovation from | the andience. The other parts are also exceedingly well handled. Arthur Wontner has a thankless part as the husband. but he makes a ~ showine with it. Godfrey Tearle, as the ver. was a6 ardent as @ lover should be. And. even if the play itself should not last, Hare's study of the old man will long be remembered. Two good musical comedies have recently seen the light. One is The Love Mills, which has bad a considerable run in Belgium, and has besn put on here at the Globe. The book is by Frantz Fonson and Fernand Wicheler but it has been adapted—an) very considerably altered— by Leslie Stiles. The idea of the piece is that in inkeeper, Claes, has such supreme cenfidence in the faithfuln:ss of his wife that he signs an official document that he will allow any man in the town who gets possession of the “aper to make lov: to his wife. Of course this soon happens and then there is trouble at once, for Claes immediately gets insanely jealous of his wife—entirely without cause, as it happens, and it takes a lot of artificial stage work and makebelieve before the two in the end are reconciled. The music, however, is first rate and there are some rattling good songs. One song. written by Louls Hillier, called The Queen of Hearts, is one of the best walttz songs I have heard for a long time, and should be all the rage when the pantomime season starts. Nan Stuart, a pretty, vivacious actress, makes a great hit as the wife, and Leslie Stiles plays the husband in the most breezy manner. The other characters don't cut much ice but the whole entertainment is exceedingly ‘“‘merry and inight.”’ and looks like runniig for some time The other departure in musical comedies is Ponita, by Wadham Peacock and Harold Sim son, both strangers to the stage. Not that this appears to be any disadvantage in the present ‘nstance because there is a vein of freshness sunning through the piece that gives it consid erable attractiveness. One new feature is that Portugal is the scene of the action, and also that there is quite a tragic prologue before the first act. In this an incident of the Peninsular War is portrayed, in which the grandmother of Ronita, then a young wife, sees her husband shot dead. The rest of the piece follows much on the usnal lines, The principal character is a lawyer, Frederico, of the villainous type, who unblushingly de clares himself the biggest rogue of the island where the scene takes place. One of his practhees is to open and read all letters that arrive in the island, and by this means he discovers that Bonita is an English heiress, with estates and a title coming to her. And, of course. ae the villain should. he decided to marry her. This little scheme however, is somewhat frus trated by the arrival of Bonita’s cousis, Lieut Arthur Mannerton, who has come, along with his company of hussars, to search for Bonita Having found her, he promptly proposes The rest of the story is taken up with her accept ance of her lover and the way in which, in th« end they defeat the deen and dark machinations of Frederico. The end is reached by the latter and Mannerton submitting theif claims on Ro nita to be decided by a prettily conceived trial by fire. each lover placing a flower on an altar on which a fire has been lighted after an invo eation to St. Anthony. : The piece lends itself to burlesque to a large extent. and as the lawyer, Lionel Mackinder does s»me splendid fooling. Clara Evelyn makes a very satisfactory Bonita and sings most charmingly. The music is very well written and is both easy and melodious. One of the great features is the handling of the crowds Under the direction of Granville Barker. who produced the play, some entirely original effect« have bern reached in this direction—such, for instance as giving each of them a distinct ex elamation of his own, instead of all shonting the same thing, and the result is very striking The piece did not go well when it was first put on, but it has been considerablye remodeled since, and now ought to go very well Indeed. WITH EDGED TOOLS. (Continued from page 8.) opinion of a production as a whole, but unite in pronouncing it unsuitable for the American taste. Frederic Hatton, in the Post, said: ‘‘The sent! ment with which England invests these who are carrying the nation’s mission of world power t far corners of the earth, isn’t well understood iy America, for most of us leave native sod only for pleasure. With Edged Tools may be de scribed as a study of the Englishman in the bush of the African west coast. That sanguinary en vironment makes a beast of one Briton and a man ef another. The human items in this story are familiar in British fiction. There is a prond Sir John, whose harshness sends his son to Africa the Belgravia beauty who is unworthy of the latter, and the simple Loango girl whe is. Th young man comes back to England with the righ: girl in prescribed play fashion. She, however has an admirer in Africa, who makes all sorts of trouble, until he is tortured and mutilated by his own slaves, and then sent back to climax the fourth act, with a terrivle death by way of the sleeping sickness. “With Edged Tools is the other sort of British play. the one we rarely see over here. It places small emphasis on brittle banter, and tea is server only once. The average American audience wil! view it with at least curiosity.” Ashton Stevens, in the Examiner, considers th play archaic: “A curiosity in play and plaving is afforded by the Whitney Opera House, wher: an English company anpears in Henry Seton Mer riman’s book-play, With Edged Tools. I do not know whether the performance or the piece is the more archaic. The book is not a thenusand years old, and there are in the company fairly young actors, who have given only 1,079 presentationof the play in Great Britain. “They are a curious, belated little band of Brit ishers, and very far from their native provinces Their acting is the pretentious. elaborate. stage fied acting of a day long dead. but they go about it so earnestly, with such perfect team work for snch imperfect efforts that one can not but b kindly disposed. They are as strange in a Loop theatre of Chicago as they would be In a Wear End theatre in London. Their innocence of the moving hand of time is almost pathetic. “Good English acting most Americans are ac quainted with, since a third of the casts of enr princinal prodnctions is reernited from Tondon Prt this kind is new. An American ‘road’ com pany in ‘St. Elmo’ would not be more strange to London. There is snch a trustfniness In the en terprise. The company might have worn its cos tumes over the water and carried the scenery In ita tronks.’” 7 The Inter Ocean considers the comrany ex cellent. but criticises the plar: ‘‘Not half a dozen examples of finer acting have been seen in Chi cago in recent rears than that submitted by a company of English players at the Whitney Opera House last evening. A vivid. frequently wordy melodrama was the subject of their efforts, and it was performed under difficulties that to play ers leas sincere and leas expert would have ap peared almost insurmountable. A cramped stage. scenery pitifully frayed and worn by long use, a futile and uncertain orchestra frequently depend ed on to create atmosphere, lighting and scenic effects of the crudest sort-—all these seemed in league against the littl company, yet by the sheer force of their artistry 1° actors wove their own spell, drove hose situation after situation, and tlung a ‘big’ scene in the faces of thelr audience like a red sear across ‘the fabric of the appealing love stery."’ WITH EDGED TOOLS, Henry Seton Merriman’s book-play, made from his novel of the same name. Presented by an English company iu the Whitney Opera House, Chicago, Oct. 31, 1911 The cast: Sir John Meredith Jack Meredith Richard Hicks -Hamilten Dean Guy Osecard Stanley Bedwell Maurice Gordon Charles Hartopp Victor Durnovo ... Campbh ll Goldsmid The Doctor ... Graham Pockett Footman Arles Conway) Servant ..... Wentworth Graem Lady Cantourne Alice Maude Millicent Chyne Marguerite Cellier Jocelyn Gordon Marie Leonhara Lady Herries ... Nora Craigh Marie _ Florence Dulbunty STAR AND PLAY DELIGHTS. (Continued from page 8.) to this star. A happy combination still is thiof Fiske and Mitchell—that of pleasant mem ory in The New York Idea and Becky Sharp No other American who writes for the stag has dared to so fully understand the high Strung, nervous, alert, intellectual women of these United States as has Mr. Mitchell, ax no actress realizes them so successfully as Mis Fiske.”’ Aston Stevens is perhaps guilty of the severest criticism. His remarks in the Exam iner accuse the new play of being ‘‘all words:"’ “It is brilliant, but it is all words. To be sure, the actin of The New Marri like a French farce, precisely like a French farce, for the action is movem:nt rather than real action “You are eternally bewildered, but seldom satisfied There is such a restlessness, such a shrilling of the nerves. “The very placidity of the trained nurse in that nevrasthenic environment becomes a nervousness perverted. Oh, for one human comic figure to ‘have and to bold,’ as the sellers say “Mrs. Fiske has given her own nervous best and an almost faultless production Langdon Mitchell's new play it is exquisitely set Its manners (and she is the artist stage manager of modern marners) flatter even the high social order that Mr. Mitchell draws from and on. “There are moments of wonderful situation: flash after flash of wonderful line.” 0. L. Hall in the Journal also finds occasion © complain of the play's talkiness. He prefaces is review of the production these words: “Whoever would hear all there is to say about marriage and the things which make it happy or otherwise should take himself to the Grand Opera House, whereat Mrs. Fiske began her engagement last night by acting a new comedy written by Langdon Mitebell and ‘alled The New Marriage. This new play reveals th secret of Mitchell's long abstinence from anthor ship; he has been hoarding his vocabulary for this new periphrasis. The new play is very smart as to dialogue, and it is exhaustive No one in it uses one word when ten will an swer the purpose just as will The characters all know all the standard aids to circumlocution The play begins very well and keeps a gentle grip of interest through two of its four acts. It then becomes tedious, partly because it con tinues its torrent of speech, and partly because it turns out to be a warming over of old mater ial. It drives one’s memory back to Divorcons, Mrs. Partner, Penelope and Sauce for the Goose Wilmer Brimley Agnes Bromley ...... Mrs. Ellicot : Blanche Ellicot Mrs. Cantrip . Horace Byethorne Leona Byethorne John Goodloe Jane Goodloe ee Professor Luke Hornaby Jennie Gunn : baenene Joseph Kilgour Minnie Maddern Fiske ; -Elizabeth Fagan ..»-Anne Bradley ... Hattie Russell soem Shelley Hull ..Gladys Manson Edward Donnelly Edwalyn O'Connell Douglas Patterson Helen Van Brughb Koskosura ......... ..T. Tamamoto Antoine ....... J. T. Chaille EN +iwid Cu wisksninstaleiesuee ...Gilda Varesi HANKY PANKY. (Continued from page 8.) “At any rate, Mr. Suitch has stated tangs at the right pace. E. Ray Goetz has provided jingle that fits the hour. And A. Raldwin Sloane has written some music that would net have shamed old Stromberg himself. “One of Sloane's airs is unescapable. The keys on my typewriting machine are dancing to it now. It’s an alr that’s in the air. The whole town will know {it in a couple of days It is already doomed te a glerious chestnuthood.”’ The Journal devotes a negligible amount of space to criticisms, but reviews all the acts. The Tribune summarizes the production tn these words: A Hanky Panky, it seems, is something with girls, music and jokes, which follows a vande ville prologue. After Miss Mabel RBunyea’s lover had shot her husband to much applause and Mr. De Haven had sung of wine and wom n jocularly, there was an intermission Hianky Panky was then introduced This was a rem iniscence of the old Weberfields entertainments, with a wisp of a burlesque and a stage Jew coming into dramatic conflict with two comic Teutons. Mr. Harry Cooper took the place of Mr. David Warfield, and Mr. Gus Rogers and Mr. Bobby North imitated Messrs, Weber and Pields They were very funny for a while. As evidence. Mr. Rogers’ definition of a quartet may be sub mitted ‘A quartet,’ sald he, ‘is composed of three men and a tenor.’ Mr North, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Cooper indulged In fest for a time, and then Miss Gertrude Quinlan appeared and innowunced a song entitled She is More to Be Pitted than Smallpoxed “A song or-two followed, one of them en titled Where the Edelweiss Is Blooming, offered by Mr. North, Mr. Rogers, Mise Mona Desmond md another young woman, so gracefully and rhythmically that many encores were the re sult Somewhere in Hanky Panky there was supposed to be a burlesque of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, the most fertile field of burlesque that the American play offers. But Mr. Edgar Smith, the Lbrettist, fell by the wayside and failed to puncture that stuffed prophet of o popular plays, There were many handsome you; women in the chorus, and, strange to say, th. were not intrusive,’’ , The News prints the most complimentary not of Hanky Panky, excepting the American. which latter sheet Jack Lait speaks most kin of the new production Heading its revi “Lew Fields to Rescue,’ the News said “Lew Fields has come to our rescue a) guessid what Chicago wanted all these yea and if Chicago has its blinders off, the n | Lew Fields American Music Hall will be the mediate goal of the weary one, the blase pl man and the charming matinee woman who ne a change. “Somehow, the old music hall becsmingly and held its big, happy audier joyfully and handsomely The entertainment js when jt is finisked—to be rather nearcr re French vaudeville than anything else, althouy those whe reveled in the original Weber-Fie shows of many years ago will recognize form and the ireesistible varicty in the affair given as a promise last evening Always t! sort of a show must have time to study audiences, to quiz the locality, to sniff at t heels of the town a while and learn its @y ground thoroughly Last night things were |n the fidgets and many of the best departures were smothered by nervous troubles and the evitable mechanical and decorative shudders separable from a notable biting off of the ola ends of worn thread and spocling along with new. At that, the spirited show pranced t in trig step, with so much which will be better next time, that it came almost as ap invitation to buy a second batch of tickets just to prove the certainty.’ Thus wrote Lait “Chicago shook hands with its old pal, the American Music. Hall last night; threw its arms around Hanky Panky and hugged to its laughter-shaken bosom a new style of enter tainment—a breezy, crackling creation illumin ated with the genius of Lew Fields, America’s foremost figure in the gentle art of making wholesale laughter and metropolitan frivolity “It was really Halloween-—not an April Foo! All the rosy promises held out for the Field size music ball and its show were fulfilled, an a bit of lagniappe, “The house, aglow in its new decorations, was packed with enthusiasts who drank ip every iine and gesture, and applauded the travesty in the a. m. part of the calenderic division Then they went away happy And the men and women whose hearts and souls and ambitions ave been wrapped into this pretentious reinaugural of a house which In its brief career has founded itself upen a loyal affection of its followers and has become an institution of nation-wide fame, were happy, too. “The first half of the entertainment is ao sort of latterday vaudeville. It looks like vaudeville, it acts like vaudeville, yet it te more pleasing.’ THE CAST. Cutie Wriggleey .Miss Mona Desmond Dopie Wrigzgle F Misa Myrtle Gilbert Ruby Jewell . saseeeeees Miss Ada Christie Pudgy Plumpers lona Carr . primped ...Miss Ethel Sherwin .....Miss Jean Calvert Hugh Cameron Gilbert Coleman Sir J. Rufus Wallingford ebsites -Harry Tighe Herman Bierheister ...... ‘ .Max Rogers Wilhelm Ransmitt tobby North Solomon TRumpski asuse Clorinda S ribblem ..Miss Gertrode Quinlan Rlackie Daw ~.+.-+.-Carter De Haven Cleopatra —— } Miss Adele Ritchie Malbelie Whitney Miss Flora Parker Dustin ree te Chester Burhaus M. GRACE WILSON Late of the WILSON SISTERS Now playing in the Orient. Permanent address, Savoy Hotel, Shanghai, China, Harry Cooper EVA UNSELL & CO. PRESENTING THE COMEDY DRAMA The Girl and The Ruby United time. Permanent address, The Billboard. New York City. NOTHING TO DO ’TILL TOMORROW oTis FRANCES KNIGHT and DEYER ORPHEUM CIRCUIT Lytton Dramatic Company In a repertoire of high-class atandard plays, ¢® Tvate. Permanent address, 220 W. Liberty S'.. Cincinnati, O, WANTED Colored rformers who can double ip brass. Need two good cornet players We never close. Money sure. Show billed strong. No boozers. Travel ip own cars. THE GREAT SPIEGEL, S. G. Paris, Mer., 249 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind. If You See It In The Billboard Tell Them 8.