Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-28
WILL WE HAVE Ilfr RALLOI2


 Women without stockings can make trouble just as well, if not better, than
 women in stockings, and the barefoot ballet in the Lillian Lewis production of Cleopatra" seems to have corner on the trouble question The manager of
 the company had an idea that barefoot ballet in Cleopatra" would be big nov city and a bigger sensation, and after convincing Miss Lewis that dancers in Cleopatras time wore their feet and limbs bare, he obtained her consent to
 have a barefoot and barelimbed ballet (as high as tha knee) in the third act of "Cleopatra.' Now it seems that the nov city as we'll as the sensation of the bare foot dancers has assumed greater pro- portions than the fair Lillian calcula d on, and correspondence of peppery
 temper has passed between Miss Lewis and her manager. The difficulty began on account of the method of the barefoot ballet announcements, to which the ac-
 tress objected, but her objections are
 now centered on the ballet itself T. H.
 Fitzpatrick, the advance agent of Miss
 Lewis Is in the city today billing Miss
 Lewis in "Cleopatra" at OBrien's opera
 house, matinee and night, Monday, Feb
 ruary 3. MT. Fitzpatrick received the
 following letter from Miss Lewis, which
 explains itself:
 Your announcements regarding the
 barefoot ballet in the Lillian Lewis pro-
 duction of Cleopatra do not meet my
 approval at all. l recognize the fact that
 barefoot dancing is characteristic of
 Cleopatra's time and In keeping with
 the voluptuous sensuousness of her char
 acter. It is not, therefore, the barefoot
 ballet itself that I object to. but your
 manner in announcing 1t. l cannot see
 why you should advertise the barefoot
 ballet at all; if 1t is in the production that
 seems to me enough. You know and I
 know that barefoot dancing was in vogue
 In Cleopatra's time; that it Is the Orien-
 tai custom et the present time to dance
 in bare feet and that these Oriental
 dances are worship, a sort of religious
 eloquence, if I may say a class of pray
 ing with the feet, which the dancers do.
 But your announcements seem to me to
 convey the idea that there is Trilby dance in Cleopatra, and that is what l object to-in fact. do not wish 1t done. My production of Cleopatra is a grand dramatic spectacle. You have surround ed me with truly a star cast of classic artists, for such actors as Edmund Col Her in Mark Anthony and George Wes-
 sells in Enobarbus may be surely termed star artists, and there is no need
 of these announcements of the barefoot ballet. I wish you to conform to my wishes.
 "I would be better suited if you would not only discontinue announcing it. but eliminate it from my production of Cleo patra. I concede that 1t is a novelty and 0 sensation but as stated before I can not see the necessity of this eXtraneOuS sensation. My chief reason for this re- quest is that this sensational novelty has had such an extraordinary boom, and has been so much advertised, that the audience Is in a state of anticipation about the barefoot ballet. and that very fact makes it so much harder for me. Cleopatra is a very difficult character and must have the absolute and undi- vided attention of my audience. Then, nl altnppthpr' has hppn pXnlOited to such an extent that I don't care to | have your barefoot ballet in my third act although I admit that 1t is delicately refined"
 Mrs Fitzpatrick said: Manager | Thess insists on it's production in it's en- | tirety--the same as presented in Cincin- nati Chicago, Boston and San Francisco and if the barefoot ballet is eliminated Manager Thiess will have cause for ac- | tion against Manager Marks. I shall not discontinue announcing the barefoot bal | let in the Lillian Lewis production of | Cleopatra and I shall not eliminate It. l In the first place, the putting on of this | barefoot ballet involved quite an ex- l pense for costumes and for ballett mas | ters In the second place, I have en- gagged these barefoot dancers for sea son. and in the third place it's the most pronounced novelty and sensation of the season. and as such is a drawing card. | The propriety of these barefoot dances | in 'Cleopatra' cannot be questioned. In | the Paris production Bernhardt had the l modern Egyptian dance. and the bare 1 foot dance Is certainly more attractive.'