Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-21
RARcE-CoIEDY'S MISSION.
WHAT EXPERTS LIKE JOHN RUSSELL
SAY OF PIECE AND PLAYERS.
Plays That Become instantaneous Sue
cesses-Horseplay at a Discount
What is Coming in the Future.

making lot of money and playing to an
average weekly business of over $4,000.
John is a man who has made more sue
cesses with me- American attractions, the
products of unknown authors brains, than
any two or three other business managers
in America. He has always taken out un-
tried things and starred men and women
who never had been heard of until he un-
earthed them, and for time made the
public believe that they were ''the greatest
on top of the earth.'
OF all managers of this period, John
Russell has figured most successfully on
the road without the assistance of others,
and, as he said the other Light, be could
always obtain time" from almost any
house in the provinces
In Mr.. Russells experiences with Jennie
Winston, Ned Thorne, William Mestayer,
Donnelly and Girard and other persons who
enjoyed temporary comet.like distinction
on the road, the amusing features predom-
mated, happily for those concerned.
From them can be learned the vicissi-
tudes that must be expected in the efforts
and sndeavors to star unknown artists and
to create successes out of unknown dra-
matte quantities. Probably The City Di
examples of the difficulty which attends
the creation of new craze in the farcical
line.
1t was produced first in Chicago, with
Donnelly and Girard in the cast, believe,
and was one of the most colossal failures
ever witnessed in that best of show towns
on the margin of the lake, known to the
ribald as the "City of Sin." Referring to it
some time ago. Mr.. Russell said that the
nf Nil 1ol
by the critics of Chicago as one of the best,
or worst, practical dramatic jokes of many
seasons.
Yet we all know now what the piece is
doing, and the very same critics "who
ripped it up the back" as they say on the
Rialto, now eulogize it as one of the fun
niest and most financially successful pieces
in the wild comedy wonders.
This was all due to putting the proper
people into the organization, and also to
Mr.. Russells judicious manipulation of
the whole affair. His outfit was completed
with pains and the exercise of sensible lib
erality, and the performers were 'cut
loose in the text" so to speak, and Just
played duck and brakes with the book
until the result was an entirely new piece.
This is the inside history of "The CITY
Directory" and it is being repeated in
Miss McGinty of the Theater Franchise"
of which much is expected later on through
the combined efforts of Miss Fay Temple
ton and Dan Daily, who has shown his
great aptitude for the sort of eccentric
work needed in such pieces.
2 Speaking of Miss Templeton the other
: night, Mr.. Russell said that she was the
strongest woman he had had in farce
comedy" and he also slated that he had
seen so much merit in Dan Daily, who has
only Just joined the organization, that he
felt called upon to raise the actors salary
without being asked to do SO. Here is
another reason for Russell's good fortune
He knows how to appreciate talent.
Next season he will have Schoolcraft, the
most natural negro comedian in the world !;
Billy Emerson and Billy Sweatman, in
farce-comedy. They will literally make
Rome how'll when they are introduced to
worth seeing. and am sure that it ought
to be great winner.
The other day read an interview with
Charlie Hoyt, in which that gentleman
pretends to tell lot of his stage secrets
about his methods of constructing his
-'plays." He spends time and exercises
patience upon them, and he does his level
best to test their efficacy on several mem
bers of the bucolic CANNES before he
Springs his latest on the dear, delightful
public in the great cities.
am sure that this is true, for recall
the day several years ago. the Rag Baby
was being played at Tony Pastors Theater,
when Mr. Hoyt told me- in the cife of the
Union Square Hotel, that he had written q
piece called "a Texas Steer" which was to
be satire en- things in Washington. And
he mentioned the dinner party scene,
which he then claimed was to become one
of the funniest bits ever witnessed on the
stage. He certainly succeeded.
at the same time he told me of his
piece, " a Tin Soldier" which he claimed
at that time was to be a cartoon on the
militia craze. But he did not carry this
idea into practical shape. The piece was
dedicated 10 the plumbers.
l cite these instances merely to show
how long it takes to evolve successful
arce-comedy. At the same time l would
mention examples of the sudden and al
most instantaneous triumph of other
farce comedies which have held the popu-
lar will captive for several years because
they contained ideas.
Take a Parlor Match /" for one. 1t
caught on almost the first night it was
presented, and it has been drawing large
audiences ever since. A great deal of It's
good fortune has been due to Messrs.
Hoey and Evans, who were long known
as musical, minstrel and variety men, and
had in the organization billed as Niles,
Evans, Bryant and Hoey, given much
pleasure in the variety theaters by their
vagaries, and also in a sketch known as
"The Book Agent" which must be re-
garded as the germ and foundation of "A
Parlor Match"
1.-The Skating Rink caught the public
fancy week after it was first seen in Buff
falo, and although the critics very Justly de-
scribed it as a nightmare, Messrs Good
win and Sanger made a fortune out of it
inside of a year. The Skating Kinks
claim to respectaoiiity was due entirely to
the fact that it embodied an idea then
prevalent, and exploited its humorous
aspect.
"The Kindergarten" was one of the other
kind. remember distinctly its first per-
formance at South Norwalk on Christmas
Day, 1854. 1t had been written for Stanley
Macy, the Deayes sisters, Annie Granger,
Dan Williams, young Archer, the English
tenor, and James McCaffrey. There were
only seven persons in the cast at that first
performance-the matinee-and l was one
of the seven.
The President of the New York Musicians
Society was the pianist, and the piece was
designed to satirize public humbug by
means OF object lessons as they are taught
in the kindergarten schools. 1t is needless
now to go into the details of the represent
alton, which attracted only four people and
q boy-gross receipts 81 50-buf will say
sionals who had been brought up to see it
and to give advice as to its future conduct
pronounced it worse than a nightmare, and
not to be tolerated east of Dakota.
This verdict, rendered by the profess
sionals after that matinee, was set aside by
that of auditors who attended the evening
performance, by which S47 so profit on the
days expenses, salaries, printing and rail-
way fares included, was realized.
That same night the manager of the com.
pany VAS waited en- by the Executive Com
mittee of the striking hatters of Norwalk,
and arrangements were completed for a
series of performances to be given for the
strikers fund through Connecticut. The
popularity of The kindergarten" was
then unquestionable. The vox populi had
proclaimed 1t spontaneously; but the ALI.
ance with the strikers nearly proved fatal
to it in business way. The strikers
wanted money from the show, SO could
not be expected to purchase seats; those
who had the money to do so were the capi.
talists and the foes of the strikers and all
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