The San Francisco call., 1896-03-28
Tn Which Mrs. Tunnel Will
Also Appear as DR.. Browns
Friend.
CONTRACTS TO BE SIGNED.
Richard c. White Writing Play
That Will Eclipse the Interdicted
Durrant Case.

A play is now being written in
which Matte Overman and Mrs. Tunnel
are TO have the star parts. OF course the
play will follow very closely the rather
dramatic incidents of the recent careers OF
the Rev. Charles o. Brown and Mrs. Mary
A. Davidson.
Richard C. White is the author of the
play. He saws it will eclipse even the IA
nous Durrant play.
Billy DALEY has gone to Mexico to bring
back Matte Overman and Mrs. Tunnel.
They will be the neroines OF the play. The
hero will pose as DR.. Brown, the wronged
pastor. while Mrs. Davidson will be the
arch villain of the plot.
1t is only the other day that the Su.
preme Court, in its own legal way of ex-
pressing things, said, practically, that Su-
perior Court Judge Murphy had no right
TO go and interdict the production of that
great play, "The Crime of a Century" a
lyric gem, based on the murders of Blanche
Lamont and Minnie Williams by Theo-
dore Durrant.
The play, written by Richard c. White,
the veteran actor, and promoted by Billy
Daley, who tried to produce it on a stock
company basis, was staged at the Alcazar
on Monday night, July 10, 1895.
The house was crowded with people,
whose morbid curiosity had been aroused
by newspaper reports of the Durrant trial,
then in progress. Hundreds of people
were unable to secure seats or even stand
ing room, and season of unusual pros
periry was promised.
White, the rising playwright, saw him.
self as a Hoyt, and Daley, why-well.
Abbey or any OF the greatest would not be
in it with him. Daley felt assured of this
because he had once managed the great
James J. Corbett in the latter's initial
stage venture, and he knew what was what.
1t was at this iuncture that Judge
Murphy did what the Supreme Court has
said he should not have done and caused
the Sheriff 10 step ON the stage during the
second act and stop the performance.
Manager Daley was angered, that goes
without saying. For months he fumed
over his and his friends arrest and threat
ened all kinds of suits for damages, which
he claimed had been caused by the un-
timely interference.
Still, when THE CALL correspondent in
terviewed Mr.. Daley in Los Angeles the
day the decision was rendered, he was in
most pacific mood. Judge Murphy had
done him wrong, he said, but he rose
above that; he scared, in fact, and said he
forgave the man who had prevented him
from making a fortune.
II am sorry" he said, "that I ever
went into a venture calling upon me the
disapproval of the public. l do not want
to engage in anything more of the kind,
hence I will not attempt to again stage
The Crime of Century, Anyhow it is
too late now, and the public are no longer
interested
"Dailey is all right" asserted one of his
friends in Morosco's Theater last night.
"He's just pulling some body's leg. He
doesn't want it to be known that he is
having Richard C. White writing a play
on the evidence and story from the case
OF DR.. Brown and Matte Overman.
"Dailey has been in comm unication
with Matte Overman ever since she dis
appeared from this City for fear of having
to testify at the Davidson trial. She went
to Tia Juana, across the border into Mex
leo, and then she went to Ensenada, where
Mrs. Tunnel joined her by steamer from
San Diego.
"The last 1 heard from Billy he had ar
ranged to meet the ladies in San Diego
a day Or two after Mrs. Davidson would be
acquitted, and they were 70 arrange then
on what terms the two stars would con-
sent to an engagement.
miss Overman especially, Daley writes,
is anxious for the engagement, and she has
won over Mrs. Tunnel, who was diffident
at first. They are both clever women, with
much self-control, good voices and they
are intelligent. There is no reason why
Daley should not have trump cards in
that kind of material.
DALEY proposed that Mrs. Davidson
should also be engaged, but it did not meet
with the approval of the other ladies. 1t
seems they are at outs. i did not follow
the Brown scandal very closely. SO / can
not tell exactly where the hitch comes in.
1t Is too bad, however. Mrs. Davidson,
and in fact DR.. Brown himself, could not
be brought into the cast with Overman
and Tunnel. Mrs. Davidson, hear, will
49, IN kar arrr orconpt - .otr. a.,