Variety (Jan 1906)

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VARIETY. ■ . ■ < "• ,■■/■;■ .. •«<■• ' ., ■ .■ ■ '. . ' '.■ -■-■/:; ,'•■*; ',:>-\ v.." ;>?•''■' HURTIG AND SEAMON'S. There is a brisk little show and good business up at Hurtig and Seamon's, where Louis Hurtig writes passes on the dead-head's hands to save the trou- ble of filling out a blank. Nellie Sey- mour and .losie Allen very nearly start something with a change specialty. They start in with colonial dresses, and while Miss Seymour works forward to a Bowery tough girl. Miss Allen looks backward until she arrives in ancient Greece in clinging robes over starched petticoats, a luxury probably from the original Troy laundry. Miss Seymour's tough is about all there really is to the act. and that is staler than last year's egg. The act lacks balance and sym- metry of form. Lizzie Evans and Harry Mills in 'The Old Love." pleased more because of their work than the dialogue furnished. The idea is good— a divorced man who stumbles upon his wife while looking for board, effecting a recop.ciiiation. but the text is not smart. The Four Emperors of Music matle a good article of music, but the comedian is little more than fair, in spite of the fact that he works harder liian a truck driver. Were the will laivcn for the deed, he would be a fine citmedian. As it stands, the work needs pointing up. Walter Daniels imitates Mansfield as Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and does some other things which seem to please the audience. He makes up on the stage and Alls in. the time while he is changing his face with a rather poor quality of talk. He had to come back three times after his last imita- tion, which is a very good piece of work. Emma Francis could have billed herself as "imported" had she wanted, for she made the Frenchie^t little figure in a spangled dress of red and white, doing her acrobatic work in bloomers to match the skirt. The spangles keep her work down but she has two of Hassan ^Bgh All's boys to help her out, and they ha\e Fomc of the best tumbling that ever bore that well known trade mark. Miss Francis has taught them to dance, too, and the act frames up in splendid shape. The Olifans offer all the trick work they ever did, and have to work in pairs in order that they may not have to lose time in the changes. It is me- chanical comedy for the greater part, i»ut it had some appeal. Billy Singleton Clifford seemed to have an idea that he was a one-man show, but he remem- bered a supper date in time to let the iest of us get across the street, too. He sang the three or four songs that were in his act, and then he had a man out liack to ask him for others. With "Everybody Works but Father," he had father working, too. Those who could not sing whistled, and those who could nut even pucker stamped their feet. It reminded one of the summer days when Harry Bulger used to sing "Mr. Shake- speare" on the New York roof. Some singers are able to reach the gallery, but Clifford had ihe whole house help- ing out. Ke has no new monologue ma- terial, but that did not appear to mat- ter. The Ftrl Sisters had their singing and dancing to fair effect, and there wert pictures to close the show as us'jrI. T - - Bl) 6lll6flt J PASTOR'S. Kleih, Ott Brothers and Nicholson head the bill at Pastor's this week, and by tempering the wind brasses to the small house get through without misun- derstanding with the audience. It is one of the good points of this act that they do not blow their biggest, whether the house be large or small. They are giving their usual finished performance and please the Pastorites mightily. Dix- on and Holmes made more of a hit than their material would indicate. It is a pity that they do not devote more thought to their offering. With better stuff they could double their importance, but they appear to be content to get along with an ancient offering which does not give scope to their cleverness. Another man with old material is James B. Donovan, who, if he depended upon his talk, would never happen. He has a personality of the largest dimensions, and what he has to say seems funny until you think it over after you have left the theatre. He has Rena Arnold with him because he Is lonesome work- ing alone, and he thoughtfully provides a boy to talk to instead of the orchestra leader. Others who make the leader act as a partner would do well to follow his example. Miss Arnold Is dainty In appearance and works well enough, hut his personality is ;the real star and gets Donovan several recalls. He has a Broadway drop almost as funny as Cres- sy's and he has a bad trick of, recalling his former partnerships—matrimonial and profesional. It is In bad taste. The Three St. Felix Sisters sing and dance. They are better when they dance. Jeanne Ardell has four small blacks to furnish the ginger she lacks. The chil- dren are badly dressed, one of the girls the other afternoon having a rip four or five Inches long on the knee of her stocking. The act offers some good dan- cing from the children and In an unas- suming way pleased. Edgar Forman would (}f> better with cleaner costumes. The day of the filthily dressed tramp Is gone, and with it those who will not re- form. Forman will tag on to the pro- cession If he will not be warned. His material Is only fair and he spoils It by forced laughs in which the audience does not join. Le Smyth and Abacco have some barrel Jumping that is worth watching, and the Burkes have trick piano playing and singing. The woman sings well but is ill at ease. With great- er confidence in herself she would be better. She should realize that she has liothing to be ashamed of and brace up. Janet Barrington has Illustrated songs with some motion pictures that do not enhance the value of her work. She should stick to the slides and leave the films alone. Elizabeth Miller is another vocalist. She should never again wear red gloves with a white dress, and she needs arm shields. Her voice is not bet- ter than fair and she is somewhat out of place here. Ben Meyer does a little very good hand balancing and some juggling stuff that is not good, and Villiers and Lee make an unnecessary fuss over some very ordinary dancing and acro- batic work. The Marriott Twins will be found under the New Act heading. EIGHTH AVENUE. There is a burlesque company over at the Eighth Avenue this week that is worth noticing for several reasons. In the first place, they have two burlesques that are funny without being filthy, and again, when they they have a lot of girls on the stage wearing pretty cos- tumes (and they are pretty) the lights are not hidden behind a smoked glass masquerading as a "light effect," but the spot light is kept burning brightly that they may be seen. The Whallen Brothers and Martel, who own the show, should feel proud of themselves. An- other Innovation is the hiring of a woman who has had real ballet train- ing; not in a place where they teach toe dancing, but in a real ballet school. She Is BartolettI, and she has put on some good effects for the chorus, in which she takes a part. The girls are for the most part good looking without being heavy enough to be too much of a good thing, and there is some idea of comedy to the two plays. The first part is one of those running-for-oflice things with a comedy relief in an idea borrowed from an old English farce—the discovery in his pocket of an article stolen from a man found dead by a roisterer who does not remember the happenings of the night before. In this case It is a watch, which serves as a basis for a practical joke. There is another practical joke— this time on the aiidlence—in Grace Patton, who can neither sing nor dance, and yet who is made a soubrette. M. J. Kelly, who has the chief comedy role, plays with a fairly certain touch. He Is broad in his effects, but not the crude burlesque Irish comedians too often are. The others serve to fill the stage, but do nothing to make a name for themselves. In the afterpiece things are different, for Dick Brown and Tom Robinson have some good comedy work His a pair of Rubes, but spoil it by mak- ing this the excuse for a rural band; an Idea done to death In and out of bur- lesque. Alma Kelly plays a tough girl without unnecessary toughness, but the rest still have a cipher after their rec- ord. Brown and Robinson will never get past a big stage manager with their present offering. Jokes dating back to the Spanish and Boer wars are not up to date. The parodies they sing are as poor. Strouse and Young have a sing- ing act that is just good enough not to be called bad. The hit of the act is Miss Young's appearance at the close of the act in white tights. The gallery called the tights back twice. The Exposition Four wfre a strong hit. The comedian Is tempting fate by trying to imitate Tenny. of the Waterbury Brothers and Tenny. It is bad. The music is good, though they do not want choir boys in burlesque houses. Sherman and Fuller would do wj'll to cut out tb<''r very weak imitation of Rice and Pievo.^t and stick to their own ideas. They have som*^ good ones, which n«H'(l toning down for the straight houses. The en- core j.s capital; quite the best thing they do. CORKS ON IMITATORS. "How's the materialized Booth ?'■ asked the head of the table as the Hu- man Corkscrew drifted in and took a place in the circle. "All off." replied Corks. "I could drown my sorrows in drink—if I had it." Acting on the hint, arrangements were made to insure the suicide of sorrow and Corks went on: "The trouhle is that Fischer is in Eu- rope. He's the boy with the nerve to land that sort of thing. I went over to Billy Morris and offered him the chance, but he gave me the hoot and said the houses he booked for didn't like to have their scenery splashed with eggs. "All the same. I'd bet there's some scenery in some of his houses that would look the better for a touch of color of any sort, but Bill says 'no/ and I'm going back to the Garden of Eden act until Fischer gets back. Maybe he'll book me on the other side where they don't know Booth's dead yet. "Mebbe, though I can't get the girl back and I'll have to do imitations. That's the peachiest thing I know about. All you have to do is to pick out some of the best things that the other fel- lows tell. Then you pretend to change your voice and reel it off and you have a lot of better stuff than you can afford to buy and you don't have to pay for it, either. .•.■•;',. •■;.-• "Of course the other fellow may not like it, because sometimes you get Into a town before he does and the audience has hoard his new stuff and thinks he's stale, but If you're big you can fight and if you're little you can nin, and anyway you've got the stuff and argue that you are advertising him. . "That's a josh, of course. If the orig- inals are like some of the imitators I'd stay away from a house where they were playing. I don't mind the fellow that says: 'I will now Impersonate Mr. Jamed ^^. Hearne In the lighthouse scene from "Shore Acres." Hearne Is dead and It don't hurt him any. but when they stick to the live ones in vaudeville and pull down the best things from Charley Case, Jim Thornton. Jim Morton, Fred Niblo, Jack Norworth and the rest, it's grand larceny and nothing less. "Just because it's a habit to do the stuff the managers let It past, and tben they argue that they're getting the cream of about a thousand dollars worth of acts for fifty or sixty. "I can't think up a new joke to save my life, but I've got a good memory and some professional cards. If I lay around for three weeks and deadhead my way into the theatres I'll have an act that will be most as good as the Booth idea and cheaper, because I'd have to buy a wig to do Booth in and for imitations I only need to muss up my front hair a little." Then the fresh seidls came and Corks subsided. Emma Francis lias changed her mind about the Wintergarten In Berlin, pre- fi'iTing to play tbo Folles Bergere In Paris for four months, commencing April 25, at a monthly wage of 7,500 francs.