The San Francisco call., 1895-12-01
Fashionable Women Do Not
Intend to Lay Aside
Their Hats.
MANAGERS ABANDONED HOPE.
The New Olympia Theater Reigned
Supreme During Last
Week.


one thing. Not even for grand opera
occasion do the women of New York in
tend to lay aside their hats. 1t is a pity
that women claiming to be metropolitans
should persist in this provincialism, for
the effect of so much top-story millinery,
while specta cular, utterly ruins the gen.
eral effect which the house should present
on an opera night Managers long ago
abandoned all hope of persuading New
York women into removing their hats
at the theater, but never until this year
was there such a general influx of hats
into the orchestra chairs of the Metropoll-
tan. At the opening performance those
hats were the one iarring note in what
was otherwise a spectacular symphony.
There were those long tiers OF boxes
filled with women more or less
beautiful, bediamonded and magnificently
dressed, and then below them in the or
chestra chairs sat droves and droves of
women with their heads logged out in the
same headgear that they would wear to
church or the sewing society. Outside OF
the boxes the only part of the house where
the women ha6 their heads uncovered was
the dress circle. Here you could count
the bonneted women on your fingers. Ii
q woman's escort were to accompany her
to the opera in q sackcoat perhaps he
wouldn't hear of it-oh, no! But the
New York woman fails to see that
her bonnet at the opera is hopelessly
out of the picture. When one remem-
bers that we have even such right
authority as the Scriptures for the state
ment that q woman's crOwnlng glory is
her hair, it beats me how here in New
York the women try to obscure their
1. H., r$rYIN
There was one man in the opera-house at
the opening performance who took those
bonnets very much to heart. He was old
Signor de Vivo, the operate conductor,
who on Broadway is better known as the
seer of the opera-house. What old De
Vivo does not know about the operate
events of the last 100 years is not worth
knowing. Not only was he the musical
conductor at PATHS first performance,
but according to the rumors which circu-
late IN the corridors of the opera-house, he
ran string orchestra in the Babylonlan
roof gardens and led the orchestra for the
grand march when Noah's Stock Company
emerged from the ark and played their
cele ebrated engagement on Mount Ararat.
lit is too bad, too badl" exclaimed
Signor de Vivo, as he leaned on the railing
of his dress circle and looked down upon
the bobbing sea of furbelows; "you would
think they would have learned better sense
by this time. / believe the average New
York woman would rather lose her da-
monds than her hat" OF the artists who
took part in the first weeks performance
it is only necessary to say that Calve is
still the bright particular star. Her recep-
ton in Carmen" was an ovation with
large o.
Jean de Reszke is fatter than he was last
season. He must have gained at least
twenty pounds in weight. Jean should
consult Miss Amelia Summerville at once.
l dare say that Amelia would gladly give
him her infallibie recipe for acquiring
thinness. 1t is pleasure to record the
great success which another San Francisco
girl has scored. l speak OF Frances Saville,
the new prima donna. She resembles
Emma Eames absurdly, and, although as
yet she does not sing as well as the Maine
songbird. she can give both Eames and
Melha many points as an actress. Nine.
Saville has plain sailing at the Opera
house Just now, as Eames is not in the
company, and Melba does not join the
organization until after Christmas. She
is singer of which any country might be
proud. and with year or two more OF
operate experience she will develop into
one of the worlds greatest stars.
But enough of this opera! This week
Olympia reigns. 1t can be said without
exaggeratlon that never were so many per-
can playhouse as were present at the open
ing OF Hammerstein' theatrical mart.
Mart is the only word which describes this
building properly. New Workers really
forgot their dignity for once and INDUCED
in enthusiastic obs! anu abs as they OBJ
tanned their first glimpse of this immense
playhouse. 1t was as much as ones life
side the doors after O'Clock. Every sort
OF world was represented there, from the
fashionable, the commercial and the
theatrical, down to the half.
Excelsior Jr.," Rice's new burlesque,
which was produced in the theater, will
certainly "catch on.'' 1t needs little
cutting and its dialogue might be burn
of its success as a whole there can be no
question. Fay Templeton jumped into
immediate favor again, and wonderfully
droll little chap named Arthur Dunn drove
the old Rice favorite, Walter Jones, into
temporary eclipse.
There's moral attached to this little
sermon. 1t was announced last week that
Julian Magnus, the man who made Marie
Wainwright star, had resigned his posi-
ton as her manager. One of the excuses
given for his resignation is that business
on the road had not been good. But why
hadn't it been good? Was Marie Vain
wright to playP Personally, no; from a
managerial STANDPOINT, yes. MISS w ain
wright is handsome woman, of excep-
tional intelligence and exceeding grace
She has magnetism and beauty. In many
legitimate roles she is altogether charm
ing. When some four years ago. supported
by Henry Miller and Blanche Walsh, she
presented Amy Robsart" in first-cass
fashion, she at once obtained the standing
of a first-class star. But since then what
has Miss wainwright dore? She engaged a
man named Hasting, one of the weakest
leading men that ever made protestation
of love to stage heroine, and she was
transformed through the continent with
company that for rank incompetency
would have put Gustave Frohman to the
blush.
And yet if you talk with Miss VAIN
wright you will discover that she lays all
the blame for her failure at the public's
door. In not going to see her with the
companies that have supported her during
the last three years the public has merely
shown its good sense.
Miss Wainwright is delightful actress,
and l wish her, personally, good luck, but
/, like the majority of theater-goers, have
been unable to stomach those wretched
supporting companies.
/ heard good story about David Be-
lasco yesterday. Years ago. when Mrs.
James Brown Potter was being initiated
into the mysteries of amateur theatricals,
BeIaScO was her coach Edward Eales