The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-30

GO to the Orpheum nowadays
about once in a fortnight, partly to
see the show, and partly to bask in
the sunshine of prosperity and
pleasure. That the Orpheum pleases
most of the people most of the time
has ceased to be a question: it
is a large opulent fact, the sor-
row of all the other managers in
town, and the delight of the great care
less public. While the other managers
are parting with their hair and their
diamonds the vaudeville enterpreneurs
on O'FarreH street grow sleeker and
more besparkled every hour; and even
when the other theaters are booming
il is the same old case of sardine space
and standing room at the Orpheum.
Haven't you noticed when people are
IN doubt where to go that they gem
orally turn up at the Orpheum? The
disadvantages are so few; one grows
accustomed to the unbeautiful audi
forum, the scUrrying walters with the
beer; and man who is properly armed
can give back as much bad smoke as
he gets. I love to go there and lounge
and imagine that / am not working.
Vaudeville exacts the minimum of
attention from the auditor, and, when
he Is in the right vaudeville mood, gives
him the maximum of comfort. And
there is something restful in the COM
mercial security of the house, and the
unpretentious good nature Of the crowd
All sorts Of people go to the Orpheum
now; none are too swell and respectable
to deny themselves that dissipation:
and while you see everybody there,
from your. employer to the foreign
-1,A oh hoe
yet the audience has but two very dis
unguishable dentities-downstairs and
the gallery. The crowd is so big that
individuals do not seem to count, and
the veil of smoke helps out the family
q. resemblance. The Orpheum audience
has been the same composite for sew
eraI years. But the shows have
changed. The little sawed-off comedies
that at one time had to be fierce and
vulgar or else unheard are now the
crack items of nearly every bill; and
the less Legitimate" turns are of a
softer nature than before. A few years
ago who would have believed that the
Orpheum crowd would have stood for
Miss Mary Norman and the clever
mimetic feats which she is pleased TO
call society caricatures"; or for Mr..
and Mrs. Royle IN thirty-seVen minutes
of farce which is almost pure comedy?
In fact who would have believed a few
years ago that Mr. and Mrs. Royle
would ever play in the Orpheum or any
other vaudeville house? Mr.. Royle is
a Princeton man, the author Of
charmin~ American comedy, Friends"
an actor of peculiar idionatic force.
fieet-witted, natural and possessed of
graces and culture that practically
would have cost him his life with the
Orpheum gallery of a few years back.
Mrs Royle (Selina Fetter> is a Ken
lucky gentlewoman and a distinguished
actress. Her personality is to me ir'
resistible: she has the May Irwin mag
netism Iegitimized and sublimated. Her
voice is full and free, and she acts with
real Southern hospitality. Having once
seen an authenticated lord on the stage
Ywho played the part absolutely without
conviction, I am not a snob in the mat
ter of play actors; but 1 do ask as
plausible a presentment of Well-bred
character as Of any other sort, and am
not particular whether the player is
being natural or affected. 1t is not to
the disparagement of the ROyles that
their manners are not professional
disguise: the principal point is that
they fix the play.
A cIubman from New York, who
makes a speciality of enjoying life, was