St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-19
DAY OF YAUDE1ILLE
HARRY MORRIS, A PROMINENT
COMEDIAN, SAYS 1T HAS
COME.
PEOPLE DEMAND NOVELTY.
ARE NO LONGER SATISFIED WITH
THE OLD-TIME VARIETY
SKETCHES.
THE EVOLUTION OF BURLEsaUE
Toward a Higher Plane the Feature
of Stage Development in the
Past Decade.

l have been asked to write something on
the trend of vaudeville, and l gladly comply,
because think that there is great deal to
be said on the subject Just now. For many
years the tendency of this once supremely
popular form of entertainment has been
downward. OF late, however, there has been
a marked demand for something better The
patrons of the variety theaters are no longer
satisfied with what would have been consid-
cred few years ago an acceptable show.
The perfunctory series of turns, technically
denominated the olio. has begun to pail upon
the appetite of the regular habitues, for the
reason that the vaudeville patron usually goes
to the current entertainment at his favorite
house every week, and before the end of the
| season he will have seen everything that is
worth viewing in vaudeville. Naturally,
therefore. when the following season he be-
gins his weekly visits and is again treated
to the same specialties, that tired feeling is
apt to come over him to very great extent,
and he will be more than human if he should
not transfer his allegiance to some other form
of entertainment.
AS to what has brought about this unuues
tionabe demand for something new in the
vaudeville world, 1 should say that there
were several elements conspiring to the same
result. First and foremost, it must be con-
1essed is the disinclination of the artists them
selves to change their acts and thereby make
themselves of new value each year. Then.
again, there is also, of course, the natural
| tendency of the amusement-loving public to
demand more for its money with each sue
ceeding season. The manager who does not
meet this desire when it becomes too mani
| fest to be ignored is very foolish and in the
end must pay for his stubbornness in the
| way OF decreased attendance at his perform
ances, for it is impossible in the show busI-
ness as In any other to force upon the peo-
| pie that which they do not want Give them
! something which they like, and they will
| pay we'll for it, but try to compel them to
attend an entertainment which does not suit
them, and you will speedily find that you
| are on the wrong track, even though you
should go to the length of offering them ad-
| mission free Of charge. 1t is human nature
nothing more.
Up to a very short time ago the usual
variety show consisted of a lot of turns
| following each other indiscriminately If
the audiences had not seen these people be-
fore, all well and good, but if they had, as
was more than likely, there was dissatis-
faction. great many shows, it is true
opened with first part" in which an
effort was made to tumble a lot of sense
less stuff together through the medium of
execrable rhyme. which was innocently
supposed to constitute the principal ele-
ment of burlesque. The music was gen.
orally taken from wherever 1t happened to
suit the fancy of the builder Of the enter
tainment, and it was of course promptly
recognized as having been stolen by every
person who happened to hear it. That
| would naturally not tend to increase the
pleasure of the auditor, either. But that
was not the worst Of 1t, for at the end of
this style of vaudeville show there was
what Is called an afterpiece, and 1t was
usually regarded by the regular patrons as
being Just what its name Indicated
thing which came after the show and was
not worth staying to hear and see. Thus
at the end Of the olio there was a mighty
exodus, and the performance was finished
before an audience at least 80 per cent
smaller than it was at the rise of the cur
tain.
1 am not critlcising, brother managers or
performers, because until the present season
was doing all. of these things which have
just pointed out as tending toward the un-
doing Of the vaudeville branch Of the amuse-
ment profession. I might add too (strictIy in
confidence), that it has cost me good many
thousands of dollars to learn what later ex-
perience has warranted me in assuming to
be fact Last season., toward the close
made up my mind that If I intended to con-
tinue in the vaudevilles 1t would be neces-
sary to improve vastly upon what had gone
before. Not wishing or, in fact, daring to be
too radical at the start, concluded to make
a qualified departure, keeping the main old
lines in view constantly-in other words, to
build up the original style of entertainment
to the extreme limit of it's possibilities. This
did by having written really funny and
bright first part, which is a burletta and
I also put together a burlesque Of the then
popular "Trilby." / confess that I felt an
almost uncomfortable desire to omit the olio
altogether and to introduce the specialties
by means of appropriate illusions in the
burlesques. but I reflected upon the well
known fate of reformers and refrained. The
result of the departure which I did make
however. with my Twentieth Century
Maids company has been eminently salts
factory. and shall stick to these lines IN my
Offering for nett season, only shall then do
| Napoleon instead Of Svengali. I shall leave
| it to others to go still farther along the
paths which I have bIazed out.
That there will be those who will do this