Variety (September 1908)

VARIETY 13 £dna May Spooner and Company (3). Tbt Ptvfl." ad Mine.; Fall Stage. 185th Street If Henry W. Savage and Harrison Grey Fiike had not locked horna on the ques- tion of ownership of the Hungarian exotic "The Devil," to the great advancement of that play's fame, vaudeville would prob- ably never have heard of it. Miss Spooner't "Devil" and "Runner" Hayes both on the same bill have a good deal In common, although both would probably be loath to admit it. They are the crea- tures of transitory public interest, a mani- festation of the showman's instinct for "drawing cards." Certainly the pair should for once satisfy the public appetite for novelty. P. T. Barnum could have done no better, and the results as evi- denced at the Tuesday evening perform- ance justified the means from the man- ager's view. If one may judge from the printed reports of the legitimate produc- tions, the original text has been followed fairly closely. A fairly complete sketch of the narrative as far as it concerns the artist and his ex-soul-mate is presented, and at the same time a good deal of the glittering epigrammatic dialogue is pre- served. A play may talk in parables, but a sketch must talk in terms of action. And so when the "Devil," as represented by Miss Spooner, gives herself over to speee ch es as long as a sleepless night and as complex and subtle as a French pun, the best trained audience in the world is going to feel itself oppressed. Beside vaudeville does not concern itself with the niceties of allegories of "The Devil" sort. So the best that Miss Spooner got for her epigrams and tall acting was the impression that the sketch was a bit naughty and very vague, but interesting because the newspapers have talked so much about it. The names of the support- ing actors are not given. They are not important anyhow, except to furnish Miss Spooner lay figures to talk through, for she does not talk to or at them. Rather she delivers a lecture to the audience. One speech that Miss Spooner could cut is the final one. She has the last word any- how, but insists upon speaking quite a piece after she has had her final say and the play is all over. Anybody but a con- firmed star would see that the speech "And so it goes" is cynical and devilish enough without piling up more moral—or immoral —reflections. The uptown audience lis- tened to the pay in stony silence, but at the finish came splendidly to the surface, with applause. Ruih. ALI A "NATURE FAKER." Scran ton, Pa., Sept. 10. George Ali, who plays the part of "Tige" in the "Buster Brown" sketch in vaudeville, went the limit of stage real- ism while the sketch was at Poli's last week. In company with local Manager John H. Docking he journeyed to the City Hall and took out a dog license in regu- lar form for "Tige." Ali described himself as a "male brindle bull, 109 years old." He paid the fee of $1.50 and in return received the tag num- bered 2,503. So now "Tige" is immune from seizure by the dog-catchers, while Ali and the Poli vaudeville theatre is the richer by a good deal of newspaper publicity. John J. aayta. Marathon Race Victor. si Mina.; Open One (Pictures); Close Full Stage. 125th Street Quite setting aside the point of sports- man ethics involved in the public appear- ance of an amateur athlete dragging one of the most highly prized international amateur trophies in the world before a vaudeville audience, there is no room for discussing the merits of Hayes' offering. It will last as long as the newspapers keep alive interest in last summer's Olympic games. Undoubtedly it drew business to the uptown Keith-Proctor Theatre, par- ticularly in respect to the upstairs portion: Tuesday night every gallery seat was oc- cupied before the curtain arose. The or- chestra did not seem to be so well patron- ized. The arrangement for which Hayes offers the excuse opens with a series of moving pictures showing the start, progress, and bits of the finish of the big Olympic Marathon, accompanied by running comments by apale youth who seems to have acted as Hayes' manager in London, since he appeared in the pictures. The pictures occupy about 12 minutes. Then Hayes is introduced, seated on a platform borne by four young men dressed like Hayes in running suits decorated with the American emblem. Hayes goes into a six-minute monologue from this point, handling his talk with a rather engaging awkwardness, and finishes with a demon- stration of the stride used by long-distance runners. He runs three or four laps around the stage, making a. quick exit at the finish. The applause was more than gen- erous during the turn, and Hayes re- sponded with another bit of talk, and finally took half a dozen bows. Rush. Alex. Can and Company (a). "The End of the World." 28 Mina.; Three (Parlor). Lincoln Square. "The End of the World," as played by Alex. Carr and Company in the burlesque show "Wine, Woman and Song" stood brightly out in the olio of that piece. Burlesque is not burdened by over-artistic numbers for the vaudeville portion of the program, and Carr attracted considerable notice on the burlesque circuits. But in vaudeville, where the sketch is again pre- sented for its first time this week at the Lincoln Square, "The End of the World" is no startler, being simply a well-written sketch with some fair comedy in it. Aaron Hoffman, the author, is not given the credit upon the program. Carr, as the aged Hebrew who believes in "Toblitzky," is not the brilliant performer upon the vaudeville stage his burlesque showing, with the surroundings as an aid, made of him. Harry Franklyn, as the son, and Ruth Hayes, "Esther," his financee, did very well, Mr. Franklyn especially. "The End of the World" will just perform the mission of any similar sketch in vaude- ville. That is to provide a likeable '•sketch" number for the program. Sime. BothweU Browne and Company (a). "Winning a Gibson Widow" (Pantomime). xz Mina.; Three (Special Set). Fifth Avenue (Sept. 6). ''Winning a Gibson Widow's" ohief ob- ject is the introduction to New York of Bothwell Browne as a female imperson- ator. Mr. Browne, a Californian, plays the "Gibson Girl" in the pantomimic sketch, the mode for the reproduction of the several poses familiar from Charles Dana Gibson's sketches. Something of a story is founded upon the setting, a draw- ing room, with a page in attendance. 'The Gibson Man" is Ernest Young, an excel- lent type. The page (Myrtle Guild) is afterwards a very tall "Cupid," who shoots the love dart joining the pair. One must be versed in the history of "The Gibson Girl" to follow the pantomime, and must have a knowledge of the Gibson sketches to grasp the poses, which by themselves can not be expected to hold a vaudeville audience for eleven minutes in addition to the small pantomime. As a "Gibson Girl" Mr. Browne, while large, wearing a wig tending" to throw his face into bolder relief than his feature natu- rally are, is perfectly deceptive. Not a layman in the house suspected his sex, and upon Browne's disclosure at the finale the audience seemed still puzzled, the ap- plause being intermittent for a few sec- onds, then bursting into a solid round. Mr. Browne indicates a decidedly clever female impersonator, but has still to be judged by more than one character. The "Gibson Girl" might be made a bit in a regulation change act. It now drags some- what, with no apparent way to shorten the act unless some of the poses, held too long, are curtailed. The regulation im- personation act for Mr. Browne would seem to be the best if he can maintain a series of impersonations. Sime. Laiayette-Lamont Troupe. Acrobatic. 17 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). Henderson's. A pretty opening makes a good im- pression for the Lafayette-Lamont Troupe right off the reel. A special set is used showing a huge clock in the centre of the back drop, out of which the young woman of the troupe pops. Two men compose the remainder. One works "straight" and, with the woman, shows several striking feats in the hand-to-hand balancing. The woman is full of ginger and possesses a pleasing personality, be- sides being an equilibrist of uncommon skill. The comedy is the weak part. The comedian has no special method, and his efforts are for the most part forced. He is, however, one of the best ground tumblers that has been seen, and the time wasted on comedy could be better employed in straight acrobatics. The act runs about seventeen minutes. With judicious cutting of from four to five minutes, it will be in shape to play the best time. Dash. Ed Wynn, formerly of Wynn and Lewis, was recently offered comedy parts in "Al- geria" and the forthcoming Alice Lloyd production, but was forced to decline both, having previously entered into agreement v/ith C. L. Waterbury & Co., Inc. Edgar Bixley entertained Dr. and Mrs. H. S. Colding, Winona Winter, Mr. and Mrs. Banks Winter, Hugh Comer and a number of other notables on his beautiful yacht "The Wanderer" last Thursday. Mr. Bixley with his wife are guests of The Columbia Yacht Club during their stay on the Hudson. The Kellinos (3). Musical Acrobatic 14 Mina.; Full Stage (Special Setting). Fifth Avenue. There have been some pretty good "Rialey" acts around New York in the past, but not one touches The Kellinos. That act lives up to all the glowing ad- vance reports about it. They do what others have done, and they do what others have never done—at least in New York. A Venetian setting, with a bridge effect at the rear, surrounds the acrobatics. Four men, two boys and two girls com- pose the troupe. At the opening, a young woman sings "Love's Roundelay" from "The Waltz Dream," accompanied by the remainder upon string instruments. Fol- lowing is a quartet dance, then the "Ris- ley" exercises start in, never ceasing un- til the finale, swift sure work being gone through continually. The "bridge" con- ceals a bounding net, made use of in the finale for a series of difficult feats, the most striking appearing to be a forward somersault from the net, quickly made, trliv turner alighting with his feet upon the upturned feet of the understander or whatever the one in the brace is called. Another deft and showy trick was a two- high on the feet-to-feet balance, the top- mounter being swung into position while the first man was balanced. The act la "circused" throughout, and perhaps a "circus drop" would set it off to better advantage than the Venetian background and costumes. The two women fill m, and are probably used because they are carried. The entire opening up to and In- clusive of the dance could be easily dis- pensed with, although very well in ita place, taking up the fourteen minutes, an Unusually extended time for a number of this character. The Kellinos is an act which can stand any kind of billing, and it is an act which should be heavily billed. Sim*. Princess Rajah. Dances. 10 Mins.; Full Stage. Henderson's. Princess Rajah wears fleshings, and of course that lets her out of the Grand Bare- skin Order of Salome Dancers. She does use the head of Poor John though, but in an entirely different manner than the other dancers. Rajah has the head pasted to the seat of a chair, and when tired of wiggling around it, she picks up the chair, head and all, in her teeth and gives John's upper extremity a merry-go-round. The trick itself isn't at all bad, in fact, the dancing tnroughout is very good, but why drag the head in at all? If she were do- ing a burlesque, fine, but there is no at- tempt at that and the idea becomes ridicu- lous. The Princess was well liked at Henderson's, and was evidently a drawing card, for many left as soon as she had finished. Doth. (Continued on page 18.) E. C. Lilly, manager of "The Australian Tree-fellers," at the Lincoln Square, has issued a challenge, with a reward of $00 to any person who may defeat either Har- ry Jackson or Petor MaeTiaren, his two prize choppers. The winner will also be entered, with transportation prepaid, in the national competition to be held at Mel- bourne in November.