Los Angeles herald., 1890-12-22

SCCiiofy anu accessories nave been
mounted in good shape. The olio of
specialties, in addition to the pantomime,
embraces several new performers,
who do their several specialties
in satisfactory manner. and
are cordially received by the large
audiences. There is clever juvenile
soubrette, Bessie West, whose singing
and dancing is very good; burlesque
skater named Joe Adams who keeps the
audience convulsed with his antics;
Robert E. Price does some good charac-
ter limitations, and Bentley, thorough
musical genius, juggles and plays ban
loes. ETC., in pleasing manner, and the
Roy sisters sing motto and descriptive
songs very acceptably. Then, in the
museum department, are several start
ling illusions, capital ventriloquist,
magician, ETC., altogether making a most
varied and meritorious bill for the mod
crate cost of admission.
The performer in Cleopatra, next to Sara
Bernhardt herself, which attracts the
most attention, is undoubtedly the SER
pent. His actions have certainly the
attraction of the unforeseen. Philippe
GARNER and Mile. Fleur, and the rest of
the actors and actresses, have not only
the words they are to say set down for
them, but their gestures and movements
and stage business are all carefully reg
ulated and rehearsed beforehand. But
his snakeship is always indulging in
wild and wonderful gyrations, neither
set down in the manuscript of Sardou
nor prescribed by the stage manager OF
the Porte st. Martin. His appearance,
when Cleopatra first draws him forth
from the conical-shaped basket in which
he lies concealed all through the COM
mencement OF the fifth act, is always
anxiously anticipated, and causes a
thrill OF interest to pervade the audi
ence.
The other evening he positively re-
fused to be incarcerated in the pocket
cunninglv arranged in the breast of
Sara's tunic to contain him, but wrig-
Cling forth, head foremost, he encircled
the actresses neck with his green shiny
length. Sara tried very hard to persuade
him to enter his usual prison, but in vain,
so she was obliged to go through her
death scene adorned with that strange
necklace, and clutching tight to the rep
tiles slippery tail, to pre-, ent his getting
away altogether. When she was called
out at the close OF the drama, she came
forth still holding onto her asp and with
it still coiled around her throat.
On another occasion his conduct was
even more trying. He would not be
persuaded to enter the pocket at all,
though Sara, rendered wise by previous
experience, tried to put him in head
foremost. He resisted all her efforts,
the long, supple green coils writhing and
wriggling over the front of her white
robes in the liveliest possible fashion.
Whereupon the gallery gods waxed
hilarious, and set up the traditional roar
of Les Lampions, to the words, EN-
trera-Entrera pas?" Will he go in
won't he go imp stamping their feet in
cadence. The wrath of Sara can better
be imagined than described, particularly
when one spectator, more audacious
than the rest, cried out, ''See here, Sara,
your snake is running away. Send him
back to the stable" Altogether the
live serpent, though very good adver-
tisement, is a serious blemish on the
artistic qualities of Cleopatra's death
scene, which should have been pathetic
and poetic merely, but which is, by that
adjunct, rendered sensational and at
times ridiculous.
How did you become a theatrical man
ager?
''Drifted into it." That's the way the
majority of successful New York man
ayers entered upon their life-work.
Augustin DAILY was dramatic critic
and playwright before he became the
manager of theater.
A. M. Palmer was a librarian twenty
years ago.
E. q. Gilmore was in the hotel bust
ness, and will be remembered by the
older patrons of the St. Nicholas and
metropolitan.
L. Henry French is now and was al
publisher of plays before his name be-
came connected with the management OF
companies.
Daniel Frohman was a newspaper
writer, who went on vacation fifteen
years ago, and has not yet returned to
his desk.
Frank w. Sanger was in wholesale
business until he was thrown upon the
cold world through a failure.
j. M. Hill was in the retail clothing
business, and was forced into theatrical
management to protect himself from
loss.
ii. g. Miner was a prescription clelk
in a drug store before he ever thought OF
theatricals.
Tony Pastor was clown in a circus
before he made his popular hit as a
singer on the variety stage, thence to
success and management.
Rudolph Aronson was musician and
leader of an orchestra before the Casino
was what it is.
Long have silken tights been identified
with the realm of burlesque. Sur
rounded by an atmosphere of audacity
and Bohemianism, there have they mer-
rily disported. But from strutting
through the mimic world these siken
vagabonds have gradually become civil
lied, have been admitted to good So
ciety, and now their apotheosis is at
hand. Step by step the evolution has
come about. For some time tights have
moved under smart riding-habits and
lace petticoats. We have known they
were there, though we have not seen
them. Now they are to be sublmated,
idealized, surrounded by culture and
estheticism, ushered into the service of
sweet charity with no less sponsor
than Robert Browning himself.
The really latest and sweetest effects in
silken tights are imported, not as here
tofore from London and Paris, but from
Boston. This is new idea-that in ad-
dition to being the greatest living au-
thority on pugilists, "culchaw" and
baopu tho p,OIory, Athapo cbopld +aool,