Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-11-21
BEHIND THE SCENES.
Some Of the Theatricai Fads Of New York;
-Four Hundred.

/ EOuT f1uuurcO.
LILLIAN RUSSELL AND MAaafE cLfyF-rHR DIR.
FERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO srARs-wHAr
CONSTITUTES THEATRICAL FAD--srUARr ROB.
soS's RoMANcE-THs SAD DOWNFALL OF A ORA.
MAT1o oRITfC.
| Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
New YoRK, November 81, 1891.
THE ULTRA-FASHIONABLE PEOPLE OF
! New York constitute the most uncertain
element in successes and failures with which
| New York theatrical managers have to deal.
There is absolutely no telling what the Four
Hundred will accept or reject. Days The
alter has enjoyed their favor in one season and
| their neglect in the next. The Kendals mad 9
their fortune by it in two seasons and have lost
| it even more suddenly. It is q matter of whim
purely. 'Society' must have its fad. We are
having singular illustration of this subj ect
just now. The exhibits in evidence are Lillian
Russell and Maggie Cline. Lillian Is at the
front Of the stage in gorgeously reduced
light opera at a distinctly modish theater. 1t
was calculated carefully that she wonld be the
fashionable rage this winter. Now, very won
derful in her loneliness is Lillian. She made
her stage start in variety show about If
teen years ago and developed herself into
light For the present performance she re-
duced her too-fattened figure to the most SYM
metrIcal proportions imaginable; she prepared
her voice to sing better than she had ever done
before, and she assiduously learned to act
little; and the result is that a songstress her
notes are as sweet. fresh and clear as an eigh-
teen-year-old girls. and her face is beautiful to
look upon. But. strange to say. our laboriOusly
fashionable folks decline toadmire her enthu-
siasticalIy This is not saving that she is other
f,,no Ir<
simply that the McAllister eoterie does not care
anything about her. This course on their part
arises from their desire to be always separate
and different from the rest of refined and we'll
to-dO New Workers. So much for the first ex-
hibit. The second is a much more curious
proof OF the Four Hundred 8 freakishness.
THE CLINE FAD.
The newest fad in this city of changeful ex-
elements is a woman, and not pretty woman,
either. Moreover she is just coarse singer in
variety theater, where song and dance and
noisy wit are her natural surroundings. In
foolishness this fad has never had a counter
part since New York began to cultivate fads.
II beats the Carmencita Stiffness. Maggie
Cline is the fads name. Everybody who has
gene to a variety theater a few times has surely
seer Cline during at least one of his visits.
That is because she has been constant traveller
hard worker and very vigorous self adver-
tlser, but now, after having worn herself out
with ordinary variety audiences. she is taken
up by the Four Hundred. She has been sing
ing several months at Tony Pastors. Her
turn comes on the program about 9:3
o'clock. At 8 o'clock the house is generally
not more than half filed. At there are solid
black rows Of '.standees" back of the orchestra
and in both balconies. And at 9:15. lust be-
fore Cline comes on, there isn't breathing room
scarcely in the little theater Ii is the clothes
OF the late arrivals that tells the silly story. They
come In carriages, until Irving place presents
spectacle such as was common in the golden
days when the old academy had the flower Of
the worlds opera singers on its boards They
hustle into the house in frivolous excitement,
taking possession of rows of seats previously
reserved for them. Section after section of
the smart set have come to wildly applaud Mag
gle Cline night after night. To see her is the
caper. She is food for repartee in many
gilded drawing room. The bands play strains
OF her vociferous songs at all the cotillons. In
Delmonlcos gay diners exchange her latest
lests. Three or four nights ago James Gordon
Bennett paid for a dozen orchestra seats and
led into them the jolliest party of notable men
and women that this theater has ever cont tanned
They came in just before Cline appeared. They
watched her with uDfeIgned curiosity. and they
applauded her, Bennett with the rest, AZ voeif-
erOusly as if she was Bernhard or Patti. And
when, from exhaustion, she ceased accepting
encores, Bennett and all the others went right
out of the theater. That is the way the faddist
patents himself.
Cline's age may be thirty-fve and it may be
more. A dozen years ago she was what is
technically designated as a '.chair warmer in
the cheapest of the variety theaters.. Her life
was not radiant with hope Perhaps she earned
S25 week. Sometimes she worked for less
But she kept at it, because she had to live. She
was no fad then, In the female minstrel first
parts she helped to FILL up" Dudes never
bothered her. Her masculine frame and her
Milesian features were her safeguards. But one
day she sang song written by an Irish
bohemian-Casey his name was--and from the
moment she emitted the chorus there was a
new future for Maggie Cline. The song was
Mary Ann Kehoe " The echoes of it still resound
| in the variety halle of America, for Maggie has
never ceased TO sing it. 1t is the song that has
reached the faddist S heart 1t ia the song that
now earns for Maggie Cline s275 week. She
has bought few houses On its pl ofits and she
will buy few more before II wears out. There
are other tender things in her repertoire, like
Throw Him Down. McCloskey,'' for instance;
but the first of her encores means MARY Ann
kehoe. and if she didn't sing it the faddist in
swallow tails would unite in a common cause
and moi her. Nobody can define her voice.
1t is not a conservatory voice nor is it a voice
of the baby soubrette. 1t il q good old Irish
organ. though. and it is full of force. Nobody
ever heard any woman make more noise than
Cline does with this voice. She wears good
clothes-the best her dressmakers can get up
and she affects to despise them, often telling
her audience a confidential way that these
Astor dresses break her back. 1t is Cline's off,
hand talk to her fascinated hearers that tickles
them almost as much as her songs do. Lately
she has been invited to sing in some swell mu-
sicales in 9Th avenue, and now she is, to use
her own words, 'in the procession and keep
ing step with the drum ma o1." Is she in it?
Well, rather!
POETS DOWNFALL.
The downfall of once dramatic critic makes
good total abstinence story. George Edgar
Montgomery set out to be professional poet
three years ago. and at PRESENT. he is in private
asylum for inebriates. There is a sad and
serious story lying between those two facts
Mr.. Montgomery was a highly educated and
Intellectually brilliant Young man. He mar
ried into the -Four Hundred" his wife being a
much-admired belle. He had done some lit
| erary work as an amateur, and about that time
he got the place of dramatic critic of the New
York Times. His work in that department was
careful conscientious and of q good general
quality. But there arose a sort of family quar-
rel, his wife being connected by marriage with
the late George Jones. the proprietor of the
Times. The upshot was that NJ r. Montgomery was
dismissed. Then he announced that he would
enter upon the career OF poet. He had al
| ready written many pleasant verses, and had
the gift Of smooth rhyming, but he was no gen.
| Jus at it and his acquaintance smiled when he
| told them that he not only meant to make fame
| as a poet, but would depend upon the money
earnings of his poetry for living. 1t WAS not
1 lnt,.r haf Ia frtx la LII