Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-14
BEHIND THE SCENES.
News Of the Stage and Gossip About Things
Dramafie.

BEHIND THE SCENES.
News Of the Stage and Gossip About TAi,ss
Dramafie.
xAR FALUnH or oREAr SPECTACULAR pnoppc-
r1oSs-LIoNs eoISe OCT OF TINE THEATRICAL
BUsrxKss-fuR SAD IxPKnuxcs or TIE Lotus
CLUE vrTn orKno.
NEW YolK, Feb. "a, 1891.
OK TRAINED LIONS ARE IDLE IN THEIR
~ cage, awaiting shipment to Paris. That is Q
situation which they don't mind, for they are
well fed and comfortably CHARTERED any way.
Sixty trained ballet girls are unemployed, too,
but they do mind their plight for they are not
assured Of bed or board Both these parties of
stage performers are thrown out Of engagement
by the fact that Niblo's Garden Theatsr has
come TO the end Of its long career. This Oldest
theater in New York city save one is not de-
stroyed nor going to be soon; but the decision
has been made today that the house shall no
b longer used for what in the theatrical BUSH
ness are called productions" It will become
instead Q combination" house, in which travel
ing companies viii play engagements Of q week
or two. Original ventures, meant to occupy
the stage for good portion Of the season, will
not be undertaken. How much Of q change
and ON abandonment this means may be compre-
hended by recalling the fact that for more than
quarter OF century every winter season has
witnessed at Niblo's one or more spectacular
shows Of the largest dimensions and most re-
spiendent sightliness. II was here that The
Black Crook' had its first memorable per-
Torrance and many subsequent revivals; that
the Lydia Thompson burlesques had their ear
lieS successes; that a succession of scenic and
ballet achievements, too numerous for recapit-
ulation here. has lasted until this weeks deci-
sion to use Niblo's for such ambitious purposes
no more. Two financially disastrous failures
ton. ''Claudius Nero" was brought out
costly that months Of full houses were neces,
sary in order to reach satisfactory profit. The
trained lions we're feature, and, despite the
almost invariable falsity Of theatrical figures
(arithmetical ones, not human, here mean,
there is no doubt that the owner and operator
of the lions got $500 week for their services.
This show crowded the theater for two weeks
and then the audience fell OF and the venture
entailing heavy loss on E. G. Gilmore, the
lessee. With the beginning of the new year
1.-The Babes in the Wood was placed on the
capacious stage, lavishly embelfished beyond
its condition as performed in the west. The
audiences were assembled for two weeks, but
after that the attendance dwindled and last
Saturday night the breakup came, with salaries
unpaid and everybody loser. That is why the
lions and the ballet girls are idle and Niblo's il
abandoned as a place Of elaborate productions.
ANOTHER KIND OF FAILURE.
That is merely money matter after all, for
Niblo's Theater belongs to the enormous Stew
art estate and the managers Of the place and
the two shows mentioned are wealthy while
the lions and the ballet girls will get along well
enough, no doubt. But one stage failure, publicly
considered this week, is pathetic matter of life
and death. The gentlest, daintiest and most
fragile actress in all our stock companies, An
ME Russell, is dying OF an incurable disease.
Perhaps the most memorable of her exquisite
performances was that Of Elaine, in produc-
ton of the Tennyson poem. and the manner in
which she pinned and died of her love of Sir
Launcelot was an ideal achievement. In real
life Annie Russell is the wife Of an ordinary,
every day stage manager and their apartments
are curious exhibition Of the helter-skelter
Bohemian life led by most theatrical
folks No aspersion is meant. The young
lady bears an exemplary character. Even
when she impersOnated Elaine she was marked
for death, soon afterward she had to stop acting
and now her days are numbered. 1t was upon
her earnest solicitation and after she had SO
well prepared herself in the role as to demon
strate how well she could do it that the risk Of
placing 20 entirely literary play on the stage
she told her friends that her histrionic ambi-
ton was satisfied and that, even if she could
live long, nothing that she would ever do in her
profession would satisfy her SO we'll. The i'm
preston which she made on the public was
proven last Tuesday afternoon, when a big
Broadway theater was crowded at benefi. en-.
tertainment given in her aid. The yield Of
money was sufficient to last her until she goes
where money will not buy anything.
SOCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
The booming Of actors by means Of social
exploitation has reached q climax in disas-
ter and some time must necessarily elapse be-
fore that method Of advertising can be used
again with any success in this city. The usual
plan was to give supper at the Lotus Club,
Chauncey Depew or some other table celebrity
as the chief orator. Each affair Of that kind
would get news paragraph in all the daily
journals and the idea would be conveyed
70 the public that Mr.. Shakespeare
It was osero, the spanish dancer, Who
kicked the system into hopeless wreckage.
On a ladies' day at the Lotos Otero was intro
duced there among the invited guests-not to
perform. bnt in the guise of private lady,
She was SO handsome in person and dress and
SO graceful in manner that all might have gone
quietly well but for two reasons. One was that
the gentleman who stood sponsor for her.
and who is financially interested in the resort
where she dances. received her at the entrance
with gift Of flowers and q general showiness
celebrity of the assemblage. The way seemed
clear to q valuable paragraphing of Otero in
the next mornings papers. But before the
publication q second reason for q catastrophe
arose. That night the notorious annual French
there that otero grew wildly convivial,
slapped o mans face, ran fren-
ziedly around the great Madison Square
Garden, and was carried out by main strength.
So it CHANGED that her visit to the Lotos and
her exploit at the ball were published together,
and now the Lotos directory has formally re-
solved that the club shall no longer be made
use of to boom theatrical people.
After that the very jocose Tenderloin Club
gave final and fattening blow to the practice
by inviting the freaks" from the three big
dime museums to a reception and supper.
Dwarfs and giants, living skeletons and fat
wonders besides u wild man of Borneo and q
bearded woman Tin trousers) were among the
guests. So the ridicule of scandal and the
satire Of merriment have combined to abolish
the club booming of actors.
But the actresses suffer, IL seems BY the
fraudulent self-advertising Of some other
women. well-known actress went to Police
Inspector Byrnes yesterday to complain that
an outright adventures had boldly and sue
cessfully unprecedented her as an object of a
scheme Of blackmail Tho truth of the case,
as repeated by the actress, Il indicated by the
fact that she positively prohibited the dis
closure OF her name in the matter, and when
the inspector investigated, through two ex-
perienced detectives, it was learned that
the impostor had presumed upon some-
what striking resemblance between herself