Variety (Jan 1906)

VAftlfitY. ■I their polite training and a decided lack of the vaudeville appreciation of thf value of time, working up to their points too slowly and often failing to make them tell. The sketch itself is by Campbell McCullough and gives prom- ise of developing into an acceptable act when the dialogue has been pruned and made crisper and the comedy business worked out. The lines are bright at times, and the story, although ham- pered by superfluous talk, adapted to vaudeville purposes. The plot details the experiences of a husband, the vic- tim of a too solicitous wife. He brings home a skeleton, the property of a^ med- ical friend. The comedy develops in the ; efforts to keep the knowledge of the hprror's presence from his wife. The comedy is perhaps too polite and dig- nified as the work now stands, and the pair should "clown it." Coke. BILLY JOHNSON. U.%.NOINO AND SINGING. KEBBTBY'S. ~" The ex-member of the Cole and Johr- son combination is supported by four colored girls, two of them'T>6ing very light and the others of the medium shade, and of distinct negro type. The act opens tn a jungle scene, the girls being robied in rather inappropriate Ori- ental garb, while Johnson wears brown tights. Johnson next does a plantation song before a cornfield drop, followed by a military number by the girls, the drop being shifted to a war scene. A ball- room scene closes the sketch. Johnson \f in evening clothes and the girls in multi-colored princess gowns. "Evolu- tion of the Negro" is the title. ' In Its present stage the sketch lacks Fnap and smoothness, but may work down into a fairly acceptable offering. Johnson's plantation song is the best o^ the act. Coke. CAPRICE, LYNN AND FAYB. DA NCI.^G AND SINGING. H A MNERSTEIN'S. A sumptuously dressed and altogether Acceptable act of its sort, with the ac- cent strong on the dancing. The girls are all three of attractive appearance, shapely and can dance more than a lit- tle. Their singing, while by no means of extraordinary merit, is up to the in- considerable demands made upon it. In the important matter of gowns Agnes ' Lynn carries off the palm with a short skirt creation of black velvet puffed into crinoline shape by a billowing cloud of light blue chiffon. The effect of this combination and Miss Lynn's blond com- ' plt^xion is striking. Mss Faye and Miss Caprice wear pink. Coke. I'OriSE MONTROSE AND AVTG GIRLS. \0%ELTY ACT. AMKRICAN. Very good of its sort was the new act Khown at the American Sunday evening. The opening is an auto song, appropri- ately costumed, in which the four girls assist. While they are changing their costumes Miss Montrose fills in with imitations. The girls come back in the rolling chair song from "The Belle of Avenue A" and go to a cowboy song in which they are dressed as cowboys and girls, finding opportunity for the effec- tive use of lariats. Miss Montrose should sing the second verse of this song as a solo, she should further plan the act to permit her to regain her breath between numbers. One of the girls spoils the balance of the choruses by seeking to emphasize the fact that she is an alto. She should be restrained. Otherwise the tonal volume is good and the chorus is willing to work. It is a very good act of its kind; one of the best, in fact. J. R. 1/ MADELINE DISTON. ''TUB GIRL. ^VITH A SPECIAL.*' AMIERICAN. One of the novelties on the Sunday night bill. The opening is an unneces- sary announcement by the stage man- ager, who reads from a telegram that Miss Diston has missed her train but that she has hired a special and will ar- rive in about thirty seconds. The house is darkened for the moving pictures, which show a train arriving at a sta- tion. Miss Diston is seen alighting, and as the lights go out the picture is con- tinued by her appearance through a slit in the drop where the pictured artist was seen a moment before. The con- nection was not made closely Sunday and the idea was lost to some. She hands her music to the leader and goes into a singing act which is only fair. J. n. ^VHITE CITY QrARTET. SONGS. AMIERICAN. This is all that is left of the James T. Powers' act, these men having been as- sociated with that dolorous comedian. They suffered from nervousness and were amateurish in their work through- out. George Donaldson, the comedian, has borrowed plentifully from other acts lor Jokes, which he spoils, but the four managed to please the audience. The best thing in the act was the coon song sung by the baritone. , J. R. MARY DUPONT A COMPANY. ♦•LEFT AT THE POST.'* JAC^IBS, WATERHIRY, CONN. Mary Dupont presented 'for the first time her new sketch by John W. Cope this week. It deals with a bride who has been deserted at the altar, and who in her scorn of all mankind announces her intention of marrying the first man she sees. He happens to be a messen- ger from a millinery establishment who <alls to deliver a new bonnet, played by Willard Hutchinson. At the first per- formance the playlet abounded in vul- garity, which was displeasing, the house manager ordering much of it cut. After this the effect was better, but there is no dramatic possibility, the whole affair being a hodgepodge of horse play. The final scene where Miss Dupont is crawl- ing along the floor clinging to the mes- senger's legs is anything but funny or edifying. Monday afternoon Miss Du- pont missed many of her lines, and was constantly asking for cues. Miss Dui)ont is far too clever an artist to try with an art of this nature. It is not suiterl to her at all. The l)est part of the iday let was that taken l)y a local young woman who accepted tlio role of servant girl. Arthur H. McKechnie. MATTIE KBENE & CO. *'BAMiBOOZLE.** GLOVERSVILLE, N. \, Mattie Keene and Company presented for the first time on any stage Ella Wheeler Wilcox s new comedy playlet in one act, "Bamboozle," at the Family Theatre in Gloversville, N. Y., Thursday afternoon, Jan. 11. *'Baml)Oozle" is the name ot a gold mine supposed to be lo- cated in Arizona, but the action of the play takes place in the office of the Ari- zona Blade, where Miss Keene presides as editor. The plot briefly stated is this: Miss Keene (the editor), having formed an attachment for a Westerner (Percival J. Moore) and about to be compelled by parental tyranny to marry a preacher, has come to Arizona and started a news- paper. Having been unable to attract her affinity's attention by fair means, she resorts to a public roast through her pa- per regarding the recent discovery of a valuable gold lode, in which she refers to the innocent miner, John Welsher by name, as a "piker," and also adds that, "since the new mine has not been named we shall call it the 'Bamboozle.' " This article has the desired effect. The •piker^calls to make the editor "eat his words,'Nnever suspecting that the editor is a womUm. This is her opportunity, and she seiz^s4t^^e falls in love with her on the spot, and aTter things are run- ning smoothly she tells him who was re- sponsible for the article and is forgiven. The sketch is straight comedy with no thing cheap, on the one hand, nor any pathetic "relief" Upon the other. Mr. Moore as "Welsher " is fairly successful in his interpretation. J. H. Phillips and Miss Lawson in minor roles, made the most of their opportunities. Miss Keene fits a very difficult role to perfection, in- deed it would appt'ar to have been writ- ten around her personality. The play is a go from the start and is the brightest sketch of its kind ever seen here. With it Miss Keene and company can monop- olize the black type on the two-a-day cir- cuits. Wilfred Mowers. II. W. TKEI<i:\I('K AXDTEKLA FAILM. '*1M MIMTES OF COMIC OPERA.** Cn.OVERSVILLB, N. Y. \i The initial performance of this act was given here on Monday. January 8, at the Family Theatre. H. W. Trede- nick. the comic opera baritone, and Miss Tekla Farm, late of Mme. Schumann- Heink's company, were heard for the first time in an oddity entitled "18 Minutes of Comic Opera." The act is constructed on the lines of a travesty on modern comic opera, and during its action Miss F'arm has ample opportu- nity to show a very pleasing soprano. Mr. Tredenick looks after the comedy, and proves himself capal)le of bringing a laugh at any time. He plays the part of a member of the ballet, and his make-up reminds one of Rose Snow as the Fairy Queen in "The (iingerl>rea<l Man." %. Altogether Mr. Tredenick and his comedy ard Miss Farm, with lier voice and reeal b»*a'ity. liave a most entertain- ing act. Durinu; the action of the piece selections are rend»T«d from "Olivette " ".Mascotte" and "Oirofie C.irofla." Wilfred Mnirrrs. UP TO THE fVIANAQER. The leading vaudeville managers of this country have large incomes derived through the employment of vaudeville artists; some of them are quite wealthy from the same cause and have chains or circuits of vaudeville theatres, besides having attained positions of prominence in the theatrical and business world through their vaudeville Interests. Rut what has one of these managers ever done for a vaudeville artist? The manager employs the artist to appear at his theatre because he Is compelled to. hut has he ever attempted to belter the aitist in his conditlou. position or workT The manager is so engrossed with thp liuslness end of his enterprise that he has thoroughly overlooked the artist, la fact. In one or two known Instances a manager has thought himself so far su- perior to the people who are his main «»upport that personal Interviews with the "high mogul" have been denied Vaudeville has been pushed forward so rapidly, at risk of Its own welfare, that it behooves the managers to take heed. It Is not a question of whether an act is good enough to play his house, hut what can he do for that act and all acts looking towards imnrovement and the stabllitv of the businest* ^ An "Uncle Tom's Cabin" company car- ries a stage manager to overlook th«» oerformance. even a burlesque show haa a stage manager, but who supervfset the work of a vaudevllllan? The housa' manager who sits out In front Monday afternoon, looking for faults to help out a Kood looking report to his superior* Why don't the leading circuits employ a traveling stage manager, to go each week from house to house, looking over the acts, suggesting here, cutting t.her*» and giving the artist the advantage of advice by competent persons- It will help the artist, it will help vaudeville. The picayune argument that others who do not Join in the cost will receive the benefit likewise cannot pre- vail, for the reason that the vested In- terests of the larger managers demand that Romp attention of this sort ba given. The managers must give more atten- tion to the artists. Without them their theatres must close for vaudeville. "We must have acts." It's an old cry. Instead of wasting your money on "gold bricks'* devote some of it to the betterment of the acts you now have at your commana. Therese Dorgeval and Blanche Char- meroy are having an act put together for a Joint apparance after Mile. Dor- geval closes an engagement over the Keith circuit commencing Feb. 12. Both have appeared in the French capital and Intend to have an act away and alto- gether from what are known as "sister turns." 8. J. «. •'4V GRATITUDE. Percy O. Williams received a cable- gram on the ir.th from Albert Ch^ya*,^,.^. li<'r in (ommenioration of his opening d;'.t»' at Mr. Williams' houses one year ago. and told tiie manager that himself and wife vveie at that moment drinking. his healtli at llexhill on Sea from the lovltig cup rf'ceived l)y C^hevalier while liere as a souv»'rii»' of his visit from Mr. Williams. .*4—t. Aa^^J*. V_4_ _ 3.