Variety (December 1908)

VARIETY THE WOMAN IN VARIETY. BY ANNA MARBLE. Paquita is her first name—as for thetion of double-chins, wrinkles and other other, I never could spell it even if I re- membered it, which I do not. If you had a composite photograph of Fay Temple- ton, Lotta Faust, Sara Bernhardt, May McKenxie and an Indian, you might be able to see how she looks. If you can think of a chanteuse who has a little of the talent of each one of these, you may be able to imagine something about her talent and personality. She is a West Indian, so she declares, and she entertains with 4< ragtime" and other songs at din- ners and receptions. She wears a simple \riack cloth gown with white lace at the throat; and her long, slim arms are en- cased' in mousquetaire gloves of black glace kid. Her hair is worn low in the nape of her neck, after the fashion of the great French tragedienne, and the color of her complexion is that of an octoroon. She sings and acts her songs in a most remarkable fashion. She is daring, yet subtle; intense, yet controlled. Wonder why Mr. Willie Hammerstein doesn't con- sider her as a roof-garden possibility T One of the week's prettiest debutantes in vaudeville is Miss Florence Jerome, the young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Jerome (Maud Nugent). Little Miss Je- rome, who is only just turned sixteen, is an attractive feature of the act of Jerome and Schwartz at Hammerstein's, making her appearance in a pretty gown of pale pink, ankle length, with her hair worn "down her back" in a girlish arrangement of soft pompadour and curls and carrying at her entrance a huge bunth of pale pink roses. A very dainty picture she makes. Her hair is dark brown and her eyes aro one, or perhaps I should say "two" of her most attractive features. Miss Jerome has a voice with a mezzo register that will undoubtedly develop splendid quality when she becomes accustomed to using it in a large auditorium. She was a trifle nervous on Monday, as was to be ex- pected, for one does not make a real stage debut every day, and one is not alas, al- ways sixteen and charmingly shy! Irene Franklin has added to her act a very delightful recitation, with soft piano accompaniment, of the famous child classic "Seein' Things At Night!" She tried the new "piece" on the Monday afternoon audience at the Colonial this week and it went very well indeed. I was surprised and mighty glad, for its reception of the new offering may induce the clever little woman to add other juvenile bits from Robert Louis Stevenson and the im- mortal 'Gene Fields. In a little shop not a stone's throw from Sixth Avenue and Twenty-second Street there is displayed a most formid- able looking bust of papier mache, with a fearful poultice of rubber tissue fast- ened across its pale forehead and a similar disfigurement bound underneath its chin. This is in fact the advertising sign for a beauty parlor wherein are to be had va- rious "secret" appliances for the oblitera- blemishes to feminine loveliness. In the show-window wherein these weird devices are displayed there are also to be seen several letters recommending these prepa- rations and signed by some well-known New York society women and some of our best-known actresses, at least two of whom are stars in vaudeville. I met one of the girls whose testimonial is being thus betrayed to an interested public. "Isn't it dreadful 1" I cried. "Surely you will not allow the complexion doctor to display those instruments of torture with your signature beneath in large, saucy let- ters?" But the beauty laughed amusedly. "I don't care a bit," she replied. "It may do Madamoiselle some good and it can't do me any harm." After all, one can afford to be philanthropic when one is assured of one's beauty! Jane Gordon, who has been appearing with Leo Dietrichstein in "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?" is ill of typhoid fever in a Cleveland, Ohio, hospital. Miss Gordon was stricken very suddenly one evening after the performance. She was hurried to the hospital, and her sister Margot (luckily playing the same town in the support of Virginia Harned) was hastily summoned. The one pleasing in- cident that occurred as a result of Miss Gordon's attack was the fact that it re- stored to mutual friendship the invalid and Miss Harned, who had fallen out over some trifle that disrupted a long-time af- fection for each other, several months pre- vious to the fair Virginia's vaudeville tour. Be it said in praise of Mrs. Sothern, that immediately upon hearing of Miss Gor- don's plight, she hurried to the hospital and ordered the authorities to provide every comfort for the sufferer, and both she and Miss Gordon's sister were daily visitors to the invalid until they were com- pelled regretfully to leave the city at the week end. Miss Gordon is now on the road to recovery and she and Virginia have "made up" for keeps. TIPS: To Miss Harris of Cartmell and Harris.- Your "Dancing Sue" costume is all very attractive except the hat. Why don't you have a chapeau trimmed with sequins to match your costume or else try substituting gold and silver pheasant feathers for those which now adorn it? To "Inquirer."—Certainly, send along the samples of material and I will be glad to furnish my humble opinion as to their suitability. To the "Red-haired Girl."—You can cer- tainly wear an evening gown of pale coral color. I can't think of any more becoming shade for the Titian-topped, especially as you have brown eyes. Brindamour, "the jail breaker," opens at the Mozart, Elmira, on Monday. Colby and Sullivan have a new piece named "The Jockey and the Tout." Lillian Harrison has replaced Pauline Moran with "The Blue Ribbon Glris." Mrs. (Mother) Lloyd returns to Eng- land to-day with Daisy on the Cedric. The Morris office has engaged Walter Le Roy and Co. in "Hogan's Millions." P. F. Nash's daughter, Mary, is leading woman with Andrew Mack this season. Jenie Jacobs has been confined to her home all week by a slight nervous attack. Josephine Branta says the statement that Max Ihmsen is her father is incor- rect. S. Miller Kent has been placed to open in the west during February by Pat Casey. Maurice Freeman and Co.. opened at Hoboken Monday in "Tony and the Stork." Cal Stewart is at the Orpheum, Yon- kers, this week, having other United time to follow. This is the second and final week of Morris vaudeville at the Academy of Mu- sic, Montreal. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lakola have an addition to their family. A son waa born to them Nov. 25. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Truesdell are "breaking in" a new sketch at Auburn, N. Y., this week. Quinn and Mitchell play the Fifth Ave- nue next week, their first United house in their latest sketch. "Stranded" is the title of a comedy musical act to be produced by the Frank- lin Klein Company. Leona Wayne, of "The Fads and Fol- lies," has been granted an absolute divorce from Frank Heinz. "Wireless," the sketch played by Leander de Cordova and Co., opens at Chicago next week. Dave Weiss has taken the Majestic Theatre at Waycross, Ga., and will in- stall "talking" pictures. Thos. E. Shea opens on the Poli Circuit for three weeks, commencing Dec. 14. Pat Casey did the booking. Mr. and Mrs. Lucas, with an English comedy sketch, sail for New York Jan. 17 to open for Morris. Mile. Martha, the gymnast, and her hus- band, Max Aldo, the bar performer, sailed for England "on spec" Saturday. Last week was the record one in point of receipts so far this season for Percy G. Williams' new Greenpoint Theatre. If some of the "Pat Casey Breadliners" don't take a tumble, Mr. Casey is going to lose the best cook in New York. Caswell and Arnold are back on the European Continent, having completed their engagements in South Africa. Zelma Rawlston has retired from the Eddie Foy show "Mr. Hamlet of Broad- way," and will return to vaudeville. Mrs. Spooner may place the first act of "Aunt Cynthy's Homestead" in vaude- ville with one of her daughters featured. Lida McMillan played a new sketch at the Grand Opera House laat Sunday. It waa Miss McMillan's debut in the va- rieties. Tom Miner returned from a fortnight's hunting trip through the South this week. During his travels he bagged 72 quail and 30 rabbits. The Boganny Troupe of Lunatic Bakers leave on Tuesday for England. The Bellatzer Sisters go Europe ward on the same day. Mabel McKinley opens on the Morris Circuit at the Fulton, Brooklyn, Monday, closing her United tour at Poll's Wilkes- Barre, to-night. Dennis Mullen left "The Big Review" last Saturday. He returns to vaudeville with Stella Gilmoure, formerly of "The Wise Guy" Co. Grace Tyson and Arthur McWatters are considering an offer for a legitimate pro- duction, having left "The Mimic World" two weeks ago. For the first time since their original appearance together in Brooklyn, Jeanette ]»wrie and Kego are playing at Kernan's, Baltimore, this week. It has not been decided yet whether Pat Casey or H. H. Feiber will collect commission upon Bernar's Marionettes, when that act plays over here. The Four Riegos, who played the Hippo- drome, New York, last season, sailed Tuesday on the Amsterdam for this side, booked by the Marinelli office. Lewis Hooper is engaged in putting on two new acts, slated for presentation shortly. One is a Jesse Lasky number featuring Ruth Allen and her Six "Lon- don Johnnies." The other is lx'ing pro- moted bv J. llirsch. The latter is a musical piece with twelve people and is called "The College Inn." Jerome and Schwartz were visited in their dressing room at Hammerstein's this week by a person who introduced himself as the Viscount llollemler. lie inquired the salary asked for an engagement at the London Palaee. No ligurc was given. The Viscount stated he would like the boys over there next summer. The name of llollcndcr ha* always been connected with the Palace. Count llolh-nder having )>een one of the largest stockholders in that houxc. Tlir Viscount represented himself as the son.