Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-17
SignOr Liberati's Season at
the Los Angeles.
Miss Clara Morris Comes to the
Same House NextsWeek.
Some Points on the Plays and Players
From Many Lands and Times.
Negro Minstrelsy Past and Present-Pat-
tbs Synagogue-Minor Notes of In
terest to the Playgoers.

LaSC nlgnU lIlDoTdCl anu his Dduu gave
another concert at the Los Angeles.
The programme appeared in the HERALD
of yesterday. A fair audience was
present for town like this, where Sun
day night plays are not frequent. To-
night very excellent programme will
be rendered, and the same is true of to-
morrow, the end of the season.
Manager Wyatt, OF the new Los
Angeles theater, announces for next
week the engagement of Americas fore
most emotional actress, Clara Morris.
Miss Morris will appear in a repertoire
of her powerful portrayals, consisting of
"Camille, +" miss Milton" and "Renee
DE Moray" The name of Clara Morris
is familiar to every one who attends
the theaters. The position she has won
as the greatest exponent of histrionic
art has been accorded her strictly upon
merit. There are but few who have not
witnessed her phenomenal ability and
wonderful realism, and her many
friends have only to be told that she has
entirely recovered from her long illness
to feel assured the performances she
will give in Los Angeles will equal, in
fact surpass any she may have been
seen in for years. Miss Morris is just
concluding her two weeks engagement
at the Baldwin, San Francisco, where
she was accorded an ovation that taxed
the capacity of the house nightly. The
press is unanimous that the best per-
formances of her life are being given.
The advance sale of seats begins at the
box Office of the New Los Angeles
theater Thursday morning at 10 O'Clock.
Due notice OF the arrangement of the
repertoire will be given.
A New York paper in an elaborate
article on negro minstrelsy, past and
present, says this among other things:
''Negro minstrelsy is not what it
used to be, and let me add that do not
think it is quite SO popular as it was in
olden times. Still, George Thatcher is
playing to large audiences, who seem to
like his work and to want more OF it,
which confirms me in the belief, long
fixed in my mind, that it is not the old
its grip upon the public, but the new
form which does not please.
Thatcher has gone backward like
giving us more of the olden phases of
negro minstrelsy. And l do not hesi-
tate to say that l am convinced that
genuine old-time minstrel company,
like that which sang at Bryant's,
Woods, Hooley's, Christy's and the
San Francisco's would establish itself
permanently in New York City if it
were properly conducted and managed.
''My idea is that the public does not
want to see variety sketches or ballet
and patter songs done in black face.
The public go to see and hear these fea-
lures where they can be and are done
best. The mere travesty of them by
a lot of less expert comedians with
blackened faces does not charm or sat
isfy the men or women who love that
form of amusement.
''The minstrel cannot be anything
but minstrel when he is made up with
burnt cork for the end the circle
or the 'olio.' And those who pay their
money to go and hear negro minstrely
want this and nothing more.
''The successes achieved by George
Christy, Birch and Backus, Kelly and
Leon, the Bryants, Wood, Hooley, Sam
Sharpley, Swayne Buckly, Ben Cotton
and men of the same character and
guild, have never been equaled by any
other minstrels. Primrose and West,
Barlow and Wilson, Cleveland and Hav-
erly and George Thatcher have been,
and some still are, itinerant minstrels.
ITO become permanent, the minstrels
opening for season in New York city
must confine their performances to the
methods and realms of the old-time
negro comedians. Plantation scenes
can and should be revived with all their
quaintness and tunefulness. Senti-
mental ballads of the war and ante-bel-
lum days should and must be sung.
Melodies of southern days and homely
camp-meeting choruses must form q
staple part of the entertainment, and
whenever local or New York sketch is
put upon the stage, the performers must,
as negroes, either ape the manners of
their superior white brethren, or sec
tions of the city in which the colored
people dwell must be transmitted to the
stage with race and local fidelity
The performers must aim to be ne
groes in voice, gesture, method of
thought and expression. And they must
never forget, when playing sketch of
local life, that they are personifying the
funny negro's,ss not the funny white
mans treatment and views of it.
"Mr. Charles Hoyt has captured and
placed as stars in his different comical-
tiles many of the best known lights of
the burnt cork drama. Charles Reed
was and is held by Mr.. John Russell,
and now we learn that Messrs. Gilmore
and Comstock have designs upon the
future of Bob Slavin and Barney Fagn,
two of the reigning nebue in the
atmosphere Of modern negro min
strelsy."
The writer has hit on the two causes
for the downfall of minstrelsy, the alb
sence of the plantation scenes and melo-
dies, and the presence on the stage of
the farce comedy with its pretty girls
and broad vein of comedy The farce
comedy, to hold its place, must
be held up to high level,
and is in danger of losing it's
hold on the people because OF the very
poor plays being palmed off on the peo-
pie. But in any case, it is doubtful if
negro Ministries is ever to obtain the
place on the boards it once held. "Uncle
TOMS Cabin" and "Away Down on the
Swanee River" were great attractions
to the public mind. The plaintive notes
and songs of "The Old Folks at Home"
were powerful from the thought OF the
negro in bondage. With Sambo and
Hannah free, dudes in ebony and chip
pies in saffron, it is very doubtful if there
is any more pathos in the African men