The San Francisco call., 1898-10-09

4 something the matter with the
 Alhambra, particularly the stock A holders Whether from bad loca-
 tiOn, bad mana agement, bad shows or plain ''hoodoo" the Alhambra does N.ot succeed. Wild thousands do not -cramble for seat space in front of its attractions. The other night there were perhaps 400 persons concealed about the house, and Harry Jackson, the new manager, told me that they represented the banner audience of the week MT. Jackson took the place in hand last Monday. He is an old snowman. but his methods are new. He seems to make a speciality of telling the truth no mat ter how painful, and he avows no objec- tion to others who do likewise. Roast us" he said cheerfully, burn us black; write anything you believe. It cant hurt this business, and it may let a few people know that there Is such a place as the Alhambra out at the corner of Eddy and Jones.
 Look at these he said, opening his desk and holding up a file of bills and another of letters and telegrams- that's the way my predecessor kept books That's all the record have of the business and contracts of the house. l haven't slept ten hours in as many days for trying to find out just who holds contracts to play here and what the dates are. Specialties have been trustfully engaged to come some time In October. December, the nineteenth century. One week we may be without 6 single new attraction, the next We may get enough to stuff ten theaters. And four weeks time for every turn! And such turns as some of them arei"
 MT. Jackson wiped his brow and of fered up the cigars.
 of course I've kept the wires red en- gazing new people. the people I know, but that is only a detail What keeps me from my dreams Is breaking off these old contracts. In a week I've be- come the greatest contract breaker on earth I've reduced 1t to an absolute science. I telegraph first one condi- tion,' then another, then another a lit tie more impossible, then a corker, until l get this sort of answer: Better ar engagements or will cancel contract Then l wire back cancellation accept ed, and wait for the next
 
 I left MT. Jackson with his troubles
  Some of the acts, especially the Four OLfans, should never be exposed out side a tent, but others were quite good vaudeville. and I was impressed by the number of Legitimate" turns on the bill. There were Will s. Rising and a company of two in condensed comic opera, George c. BOniface and Nonna Ferner in desiccated farce. and fO Trn " And the latter was an act worth any body's twenty minutes. At the Or pheum Downing would be the talk of the town. I have always cOntended that three hours of him are too much for this world but taken in lightning vaudeville he is an invigorating shock. And really it Is better that MT. Down ing should be on rather than off the stage. When off, you know, he con- ducts an academy where the young Thespian is taught how to strut, and he has the reputation of being an in- fluential instructor. Imagine the re- suit were Robert Downing to repeat himself broadcast throughout the land. Imagine thousands of young Robert Downings turned loose on the Ameri- can stage. The size Of theaters, of ears ana eyes would needs De increased to accommodate the new species of actor. The fragile geniuses who now obtain in favor would be unheard and unseen in the survival of the fattest. Even three hours of MT. Downing were bet ter than the Calling fire of his acad- emy. And twenty minutes in the arena scene of "The Gladiator" is well within every ones capacity. It Is remark able feat in stout passion and ferocity. Everything about MT. Downing's art is stout His gestures. his step, are thick and fieshy; his voice, which seems to come from the lowest layer, is richly larded; and he plays con- sistently in a corpulent key. You may have predilections for sinewy gladiat- ors, and at a frs glance take this one to be undertrained; but in twenty min utes MT. Downing will convince you that his is the only kind. If there is any man in the world who can make a go of vaudeville tragedy his name is Downing They were made for one another.
 The operetta act, based on Offen- bach's Rose of Auvergne," Is very taking in the trios, and while the comic