The San Francisco call., 1898-03-27

Often it has been submitted by the friends of Gustav Walter of the Or pheum that he has more daredevil en- te-prise than any other manager in the town. And as things have been run ning along rather internationally at the Orpheum these several months past. I should like to see Mir Walter put his nerve to the test Let him give IS a season of legitimate drama The Orpheum needs something different and SO do We. By the time you have gone to the Baldwin, the Columbia, the Alca- gar, the Tivoli, even Mnlosco's, and got various doses of the variety in every one of those theaters, the Orpheum has lost its distinction. And since Messrs FTiedlander, Gottlob 6 Marx and the lesser managers have made such a complete jump into a field which MT. Waiter, in his heart, must hold to be his very own, I see no reason why he should not indulge in little retalia- tory rivalry and give us in the Or pheum what the other theaters neglect to provide, and with profit to himself and to us. I do not mean that MT. Walter should abandon the kicker, the juggler and the comic singer at a single -OAAN A@A vaudeville houses of New York, Boston and other places of size and circum- stance, and in homeopathic doses reac- quaint us with the drama It is a poor variety bill in the East nowadays that does not include condensed Car men" or canned Camille or some boiled down version of a real play played by live actors. This system of saving off masterpieces and telescoping the genius of the ''pur- fesh'' may not be the noblest way of uplifting the stage, nor one that would be wholly satisfying to persons of nor nal dramatic appetite; but at least it would be better than going without plays and playacting altogether, which is what we have been doing for the most of season,
 I hope MT. Walter does not think that he has given the condensed drama and the lightning 'Iegit" fair trials in such skits as have been presented at the Orpheum by such people as Ed mund Hayes and Emily Lytton, Patrice and "Alf' Hampton, and the present Mir. and Mrs. Charles T. Ellis. These people are not representative and their iu-arranged skits have no association with the playwriter's craft. In fact, it was the enthusiastic approval given by the clientele to Patrice's piece, "A New Years Dream" that at the time made me skeptical of the success of really good dramatic act at the Orpheum. But with his nerve and enterprise Mir. Wal ter might at least try one. He could cheat the warm Sabbath gallery of it's hoots and misses by introducing the new turn on a Monday night. Sunday night would never do now that the pie ntc season is about to set in. I have watched the Sunday gallery at the Or pheum for several years and it is never so dangerous as after dancing on Fl Campo steam and dining on Davis street red.
 Any way I wish that I might publish !, MT. Walters announcement of Minnie Seligman, Maurice Barrymore or any of the many decent actor folk who have been doing their little turns in the vari- ety this season-if only to frighten the other managers into booking something strong and sensible. If all the vaude- vile farces which have rlayed here in the last year had been first class, we still should have had too much of a good thing; for I fear that lots of quiet cultivated persons who used to include the theater among their pleasures, and now make a speciality of avoiding it, will require unusual persuasion before becoming playgoers again. If I could only bring myself to believe that ''AF' Hayman and Charles and Daniel Froh- man and the other brothers of the thrifty blood and the syndicate have really retired from theatrical business in San Francisco, I should say that their revenge has been gloriously com plete As it is we have more than ex- plated our past fastidiousness in see ing the shows of this season.
 An audience such as any manager might swell himself to entertain may be seen in the Tivoli every other Thurs