Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-14


THE DrsAPPEARANoE OF THE BRITISH BLONDE
BURLEsQUK-THE AMERICAN STAGE IN NEED
OF TALENTED AND ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMEN.
Comedy il q very pleasant line Of business"
said Joseph Jefferson, the nestor of American
comedians, as he sat with me one night last
week at the Arch street theater. Philadelphia,
in his dressing room while filling an engage
ment at that house. Audiences like to
laugh" he continued, land it is usually very
easy to make them do so. In fact, a comedians
greatest annoyance is that Ms auditors will
persist In thinking that every thing he says or
does Is funny, and in laughing at it, just as
English society used to laugh when the late
Sydney Smith asked some one to pass the mus
| tard.
I'm that scene Of rip Van Wrinkle in which
poor Rip. after returning from his long sleep,
reveals himself to his daughter Meenie, which.
to my thinking is indescribably pathetic, /
| have heard people laugh though it were the
funniest thing in the whole play. am con-
WINGED that this ill-timed mirth is not due to
any lnsensbility to the pathos of the situation,
but to the fact that the people who give vent
| TO 1t, having come to see a comedian. think
| that his every word and action must necessarily
! be funny and that if they do not laugh others
| around them will do SO. while they will be
thought ignorant and stupid by reason Of
| their silence.
| A comedian should always derive his humor
from the character he is playing and not from
| himself. Ii his humor is developed from him
self it Is always the same if from his characters
1t will always be in keeping with the spirit of
| each.
| RIP AND CALEB PLUMMER.
"Thus the humor of RIP Van Wirkle and that
of Cahb Phtp,p,er are widely different, yet, in
| han1l of rbn
own humor and not that of his part, both
| characters would be presented in precisely the
same humorous aspect. OF all modern humor
think that of Charles Dickens the best and the
most lnsting. 1t will never lose its charm.
| Like Shakespeare. he wrote for all time The
| oftener you read him the funnier he seems
He grows upon you. That last phrase, by the
| way, reminds me of capital thing heard
once at dinner party in London. 1t was dur
| ing rage for false hair among the ladies and
| one gentlemen was speaking to another Of the
hair of a female friend. She has the most ex-
qulslte hair. but beautiful as itseems, when you
| hrst see 1t 1t grows upon you 'Ah, said the
| other, but does 1t grow upon herP"
| ''One OF the most humorous burlesques ever
saw was one produced in London called
Broken Hearts and Cracked Heads The
| heroine OF the piece was in love with the town
| pump. and when she implored it to wear one of
| her rings as pledge OF affection the pump re-
piled: Put it up the spout For broadly hum
|
than burlesque, yet it is a form of entertain
| ment, which, in this country, is entirely dead.
| The kind of burlesque which l mean-that
| which really does burlesque some serious pro-
duction-has been dead for number Of years.
| but what old theater-goer does not remember
| Stuart Robson's capital burlesque of Hamlet;
| or, The Wearing OF the Black" and his equally
funny "Black-eyed Susan; or, The Little Bill
That Got Taken Up?" This admirable style of
| burlssque died out, however. and was succeeded
m lnulp ayfr hnr nt,i,,
| nothing and serving merely to introduce pretty
| girls in handsome costumes and songs and
! dances, together with any nonsensical dialogue
! or ridiculous, grotesque actions that might
| suggest themselves to the performers. This
| style OF burlesque was first made popular in
| this country by Lydia Thompson, and for a
| long time it seemed as though American theater-
goers would never tire of it, but at length they
| did. and it now seems to have lost all attrac-
ton for them. striking proof of this is afforded
| by the fact that during the past season there
was but one such burlesque company playing
In hrst-class legitimate theaters in this country
| Doubtless one reason of this is that the per-
| Torrance of the less Objectionable French and
| German comic operas-so general of late years
has taken the place Of burlesque. 1t has all
| the features that make the latter attractive
| beautiful women, broad fun, rapid action and
| rich. picturesque costumes, while the infinitely
better quality of its music draws class of
| patrons who found nothing to interest them in
burlesque. The place of the latter is also partly
| supplied by the so-called farcical comedies now
| so popular. Their generic title Is misnomer,
| as they are mere meaningless absurbities, per-
formed for the most part by song and dance
| men and serio-comic singers who have gradu-
| ated from the variety stage.
| WHAT THE STAGE NEEDS.
"One of the greatest needs of the American
stage at the present time is young. talented
| and attractive women-such women for ex-
/ 10 AID
shall never forget the first time l ever saw the
| former. 1t was in one Of the parlors Of the
| Fifth Avenue hotel. She had just returned
| from the theater on cold winter night, and
as she came into the room, with her eyes spark
| ling aud her checks all aglow, her beauty
| about her head, l thought her the very embod-
iment of womanly loneliness and purity.
| annie Pixley first saw while playing in
| California. There was q stock company at
| tached to the theater at which Was about to
| commence an engagement in San Francisco
| and was not quite satisfied with the lady who
| was cast for Gretchen in Rip Van Wrinkle
| While l was anXiousy wondering whom
| could obtain to replace her CHANGED to see
Miss Pixley play part in The Danites' and
was at once convinced that she possessed great
| ability. At my suggestion she was engaged to
| support me, and during my San Francisco en-
gagement she played not only Gretchen but
| also Lydia Ldnguish in The Rivals and Cicely
Ho1nespun In The Heir-at-Law' surprisingly
well. / advised her to visit the east, and sub
sequently meeting the late John Z. McDonough,
who was in search for some one for the role of
MLiss, l recommended Miss Pixley In the high
est terms. He engaged her and the result was
| as everybody knows, that she became success
full star.
II have often been asked what effect the con-
slant repetition Of one part has upon an actor
There is one curious effect it has, and that is
that after playing one part for a great length
of time an actor is apt to forget his lines and
take up wrong cues. A story is told of an En-
glish actor, who, after playing one part for a
very long time, forgot his lines one night. Its
very strange said the stage manager when the
actor came off, that you are not perfect in that
part by this time. You have been playing il
for two hundred nights WELL said the actor,
do you expect me to remember il foreyer?'
l think one part cannot be played too often il
the actor does not lose his interest in it. It is
just as it is with our age. We are old accord
ing to our feelings not our years. You know
Sam Weller says of Mr.. Pickwick, sBlest if his
heart weren't born five and twenty years arter
his body Thus it is with many men who are
younger at sevehty-fve than many others at
sixty.
OVER FIVE THOUSAND TIMES.
SIT was in 1865 that I first appeared as Rip
Van Winkle, and have played that part over
5000 times in the quarter Of a century that has
passed since then. cannot claim to be the
original Of the part My kinsman, the late
Charles Burke, was the first to drsmatize