Variety (December 1907)

10 VARIETY NEW ACTS NEXT WEEK Initial Presentation, First Appearance or Reappearance in New York City. NEW AGTS Or THE WEEK Trizie Friganza, New York. Hardeen, New York. Horace Goldin, New Colonial. Laddie Cliff, Colonial. Zamloch, Pastor's. Lyons and Parks, Union Square. Potter and Hartwell (New Act), Gotham (New York). Louis Mann and Company (7). "All on Account of Eliza" (Comedy). 40 Mins.; Four (Special Set). New York. After a while out of town Louis Mann is at the New York this week for his vaudeville showing with "All on Account of Eliza," either a condensed version or one act taken out of the Leo Dietrichsteiu play, which Mr. Mann starred in. He is "starring" in the sketch as well. It is the "school-room" scene, where the citified school teacher is accused of unbecoming conduct, and a trial held before the School Board, Walter Hochstule (Mr. Mann), president. When the German co- median presents himself, and thereafter, there is continuous fun, but before that point of the sketch is reached Albert Meyer makes love to the pretty teacher, and it was a tough thing to sit through. Muriel McArthur is a winsome teacher, having a short song and dance, which she is unable to make anything of. Exception- ally good work is done by Kathryn Carroll and Louise Sydmoth as the up-State fe- males who lodged the complaint against the teadier. They both looked and played the parts of "grouchy meddlesome old women" to the minute. William F. Car- roll was the village druggist, which he originated in the play proper, and M. B. Pollack, the town "sport," while Sydney Atchison, in an attempt to appear like a farmer, seemed to be a female imperson- ator with a bunch of chin whiskers. Mr. Mann is giving a fine performance, and his "Dutchman" Is genuinely funny. That "makes" the sketch. Sitne. Gould and Suratt. Songs and Talk. 19 Mins.; Four (Interior; 16); One (3). Hammerstein's. William Gould and Valeska Suratt are back again in vaudeville at Hammer- stein's, having played the Orpheum, Brooklyn, last week, for their first ap- pearance since leaving the Weber show "Hip, Hip, Hoorah." With the exception of the former encore, the songs and talk are from the Weber production, Mr. Gould and Miss Suratt singing the numbers al- lotted to them in that piece, with one other, and also "Philadelphia," seemingly new. Mr. Gould's "Put Me Among the Girls" is tuneful, more so than Miss Suratt's "You're the Girl for Me," which may have been a series of imitations by the striking Valeska as far as any one could discover. Miss Suratt wears her stunning gowns, a feature of the act, as the act is a feature of the Hammerstein bill, attesting the drawing power of the pair by the capacity audience which filled the theatre Tuesday evening. Sime. Josephine Cohan and Company (a). "The Girl of 'The Times'" (Comedy). 22 Mins.; Four (Interior). New York. "The Girl of 'The Times,'" Josephine Cohan's latest sketch, written by Fred Niblo, is the best Miss Cohan has had in a very long while. It is amusing, and is carried along without horse-play or the usual ingredients deemed necessary for a "comedy piece." The unavoidable mis- step is when Miss Cohan, entering an apartment late at night, intent upon burg- lary for the fulfillment of a commission to write a "burglar" story for "The Times," stops operations long enough to sing "There's Nothing New Under the S*un," concluding with a dance. It rather breaks up the story, but Miss Cohan should sing—but not this song of her brother's—and Miss Cohan should dance— as much as she likes of both. Some of the dialogue in the scene where Harold Square (Hall McAllister), owner of the bachelor apartments Jane Scribbler (Miss Cohan) invades, speaks to her in the belief she is really upon stealing bent, while Miss Scribbler in her answers refers to her newspaper profession, is strikingly fa- miliar. An excellent finale has been se- cured by the woman handing the man over to the police. Mr. McAllister made an acceptable foil to Miss Cohan, but it is just Josephine Cohan—and her new styled tailor-made dress, with braided edges, a "different kind" of a cut, and it made an equal ten-strike with the women present. Sime. Starrett's Military Horses and Ponies. 16 Mins.; Full Stage. Keeney's. The small stage at Keeney's interfered greatly with the proper showing of Star- rett's Military Horses and Ponies. It will require an average sized platform to show the act off. Four ponies in a drill were the best liked, and there was other good training of this sort. A buck dance by one of the horses also received much ap- plause. Adelaide Starrett attempts some high school work, with an over-large horse, which might be shown to better effect by more complete training, dropping the trick until that shall have been accom- plished. Also before an engagement on a larger stage is played, Mr. Starrett should look to the grooming of his ani- mals. This is a most essential point. On Monday evening it could not be deter- mined whether the animals were not good looking or had been poorly groomed. Dash. The Sandwinas. Equilibrists. 10 Mins.; Full Stage. Colonial. This is The Sandwinas' first appearance in America. The novelty of the routine consists in the work of the woman as understander in a series of balancing feats in which she displays considerable strength. The man is slighter in stature and the woman handles the balancing with an attractive appearance of cer- tainty and ease. Both dress in tights, the costume being severely plain but neat. They passed nicely. Rush. Dorothy Howard and Company (2). "Man, Woman and Auto" (Comedy). 18 Mins.; Full Stage (Interior). Keeney's. "Man, Woman and Auto." Well, there are a man, a couple of women and any amount of dull, uninteresting talk about millionaires and autos. Little is left in the auto field not covered by the humorist, the playwright or the sketch writer. Charles Horwitz, responsible for this playlet, if anything, has fallen below the general run of stuff dished out in this line. Aside from the familiar "machine" talk, the sketch itself is along conventional lines. Xucullo Aubrey (Dorothy Howard) and Mary Western (Kitty Cameron) are half- sisters. Both return from summer vaca- tions engaged, and are expecting their future husbands to call. John Hager's (George W. Scott) automobile breaks down in front of the girls' home. Some- one must have left the door open, for the man enters the house, and is mistaken in turn by each girl for the other's fiance. Some little fun is derived from £he mix- up, although there's not a real laugh until one of the girls poured ice water down the man's neck, a bit of business account- ed particularly funny nowadays in the better houses. The one redeeming feature of the act was the work of Kitty Cam- eron. She is a nice looking girl with a pleasing personality, and handled the in- different material admirably. Dorothy Howard, the star, dressed the part more lavishly than it called for. Her makeup and hair dressing were nothing short of barbarous. George W. Scott answered the purpose nicely. He doesn't weigh very much, and as the part calls for a quantity of mauling around by the women, it could be done without much effort on their part. The sonjr-and almost dance finish was alto- gether out of place. Dash. Prince and Virginia. Songs and Talk. 15 Mins.; One. Pastor's. Prince and Virginia are showing for the first time this week at Pastor's a comedy singing and talking act that should at- tract attention mainly through the dress- ing of Miss Virginia. The woman is showing three of the most attractive cos- tumes that have been seen at the house in many a day. She is also possessed of an engaging ]>ersonality, and sang two songs pleasingly. Mr. Prince works in a "Dutch" makeup, faultlessly clean. His dialect is good, but he has a quantity of poor material. The talk and. the paro- dies are below the standard. Miss Vir- ginia makes her first change on the stnge, the lights being lowered for about five seconds. It is complete, from a neat walk- ing suit to a dainty creation of light blue fluffy material. The pair have the right idea, and with the proper material, should be able to walk in on the big time. Dash. Jay W. Winton. Ventriloquist. 18 Mins.; One. New York. * For his American reappearance .lay W. Winton, billed as an English ventrilo- quist, made a very favorable impression at the New York Theatre Monday even- ing. He was recalled three or four times. The audience seemed to find much humor in Mr. Winton's ventriloquial work, "dum- mies" and imitations. Mr. Winton imi- tates by whistling, birds mostly, but in- serts a steamboat whistle, for which one of the "dummies" "roasts" him. Winton is a first-class manipulator of the wooden figures. He carries two, one resembling "Sunny Jim" and the other the usual miniature block, named "McGinty." "Sunny Jim" is not enticing in appearance, but he has the most natural laugh, and the only one, as far as can be remembered, which a ventriloquist's "dummy" has shown. Besides, the "dummy" is worked to go through natural actions, removing his hat, replacing it, striking a match with one hand against a match box held in the other, and so on, ad lib., continually query- ing of the audience "Ain't it natural?" Mr. Winton also has a habit of informing the house what he considers a good joke, remarking "that went better before" and other like speeches, not considered good vaudeville form over here. Technically, the ventriloquist is short, but the general run of the number brings it to a success- ful close. Sinn. Moving Picture. "Laughing Gas" (Comedy). 3 Mins. Colonial. A flimsy idea unmercifully padded out into a series of rather less than regula- tion length. The first scene shows the laboratory in which the "laughing gns" is manufactured. A youngster tries the ef- fect of the gas, experiences its hilarious effects, and steals a small tank. The rest of the reel shows the boy administering the gas to a miscellaneous collection of persons. Each time the victim goes into transports of merriment. The laughter was all on the sheet. The mischievous youngster—a woman in boy's clothing - does some very fair pantomime, but the film is a frost. Rush. The Crane Brothers were engaged for three weeks of United time this week be- fore going West to play for the Western States Managers' Association. The latter engagement starts in January. Moving Picture. "The Pearl Fisher." 10 Mins. New York. The moving picture this week at the New York runs ten minutes. It seems more like thirty. The picture is French, and "faked," but not in an attempt to deceive. A diver goes to the bottom of the ocean, and, guided by French fairies, is taken over the bottom to finally receive a large string of pearls, with which he returns home. Through this drawn-out procedure there are extravagant and highly colored scenes, the inevitable bal- let, indispensable from Frenchy subjects, making an appearance. The series might interest children not out of the "fairv • story" age, but for the New York it gave an extremely poor finish to the show. Sime. ]ji Petite Adelaide opens as a perma- nent feature of the Hippodrome ballet Monday.