The San Francisco call., 1897-03-16
At the CoIum bIa.

San Francisco will certainly earn for itself
the credit of nurturlng none but good young
men. Cissy Fitzgerald opened at the Colum bia
last evening, and there was not one chappie
present 10 give her a hand, not one baldhead
in the front row to take unto himself her elo-
quent, much advertised wink. Cissy came over
from Lunnon Town with that aggregation of
blonde beauties that sang and danced, and
carried away the big American dollars, on the
pretext of presenting farce-comedy called
1.-The Gaiety Girl"
Cissy's role was a prominent wiDking part.
with high kicking accompaniment And she
winked. Winked with one eye-the left eve
and i'll svch manner that every chappie in
the house felt that that wink was directed to
him-and every baldhead was covered, not
with beads, but regular buttons of perspira-
tion.
Then she was no longer called Fitzgerald,
but just Cissy. Cissy, short and snsppy as her
wink, sharp as the click of her pearly teeth
ere her lips parted in her all enyel oplng smile
and twinkllng as her black satin shod ,lC ng and
slender loot, as 1t coquetted with the chande-
Iier.
Then la Cissy opened her big blue eve, ran
her slender fingers through her fluffy blonde
hair, rufffed that complacent miik-white brow
of hers and decided she must be star. Like
one of those happy condolences that bring q
tangled comedy TO a happy, all-satisfying con-
clusion, the same thought flashed at the very
same moment through the thinking-ca OF the
NAPOLEON of managers, Charles Frohman He
a play that would fit nicely round her twin
king toes and starred her for 200 nights at
Hoyte's Theater in Lestocq g. Robson's three
ac farce, 'sIhe Founding"
1t was this same treme ndous New York
success that la Cissy opened at the Colnm bia
last evening. packed house, staid ana
sedate in character, sat through the rather
dreary lever de rideau "Chums" and waited
patiently through an act and q bali of the
farce for the star to materialize.
Cissy came, swift and sure as an arrow
came saw and wiD ked, winked her advertised
wink with her advertised Ielt eye, raised her
twlnkling toes and disclosed billow upon bill
low OF lace and frills and rosettes OF pink baby
ribbon There IS no gainsaying the fact
Cissy's lingerie, and she leaves nothing to the
imagina ton, is smashing"
And she can dance. She sways her long sup
pie body with sinuoGs grace, manages grace
fully her yard upon ward of heavily flounced
skirts and comes up calm, smiling and Sc
rene, without one little blonde ringlet mussed
or out of place and her impossible feather
decked hat secure and set at the proper angle.
'.The Founding" belongs to that large fam
lily of French 1arces IN which the seemingly
sim plest m Misunderstanding leads TO innumer-
able and far-reacning en,anglements. The first
two acts are spentin weaving the knotty web,
and the last III explaining TO those on the
stage what all along has been so obvious to
those IN the audience. There is the tyrannical
wife, the henpecked husband with his PEN
chant for actresses. the lovers parted by
senseless ENHANCEMENT, the austere maiden
and the low comedian, with loud clothes and
a cockney accent.
The people who labor with the intricacies Of