The San Francisco call., 1899-07-27
THE POSSIBILITIES
OF VAUDEVILLE

@RHE stage that is yet to come con-
tains our chief interest. This has
been said before, but will bear
repeating, for it serves to intro
duce the subject of vaudeville
and it's patrons; The vaudeville horizon
is so rapidly widening that the possibili-
ties of its future sweep are limltless.
Tony Pastor was perhaps the first to OTTER
the public what is now common enough
in our midst, the first class attraction.
STARS" of undisputed cleverness, of ac-
knowledged and applauded dramatic abil-
ity, forsook the legitimate and other
fields at his beckOning and trod his stage
to the horror of critics and the despair OF
their admirers. But one can't live on ad-
miration, and many of the stars VINO
were crowded out of the dramatic heaV-
ems by the elbows of more pushing but
less gifted twinklers answered the beck
for need. The success of the venture
was instantaneous, and managers with
an eye to the future heeled him closely
thus raising salaries and bidding efteCtu-
ally for the best. Patrons of the hlgh
class drama shivered and drew back their
skirts from the doors that led to beer and
pipes and vulgarity and the ultimate de-
terioration of the stage. Drew back their
skirts is the needed phrase, for the
trouser legs of man and boy walked in
and on till the seats were filled, and II
there We're some dull spots in the evening
they were well chalked out by artists
who "sketched'' with power. The trouser
legs found it good, and the skirts that
ventured were not much soiled after all.
But they were soiled a little, and ihc
better class kept away and the evolution
of the vaudeville went on. A few years
ago one could not go to the Orpheum
without in the course of the evening feel
ing a blush of shame mount to her cheek,
but now if things are ever a little on
color the tint is such that the young and
pure in heart know naught of its miNnSs
and hence are not stained.
Attractions are now so worthy so en-
tirely good and clean, that the most con-
seryatiye are Yielding to their influence
This is a century of specialists from
the highest profession to the lowest. and
through all the world of artisan skill as
well. If You are particularly adapted to
some special stage work, if cultivating
that speciality to the utmost yields
large weekly salary in return for tWen-
ty-minute performance, will you choose
instead the drudgery of stock work, with
seldom part to your taste? Indeed you
will not. The soul of true artist would
cry out against forsaking a fine company
with a powerful managerial hand work
ing its issues, and we who love what is
best and worthiest in the world dramatic
would take UP the cry and echo it to
finish. But many a knOcked-together
stock ship, launched upon this town with
a mighty flourish, had better be broken
sections, small and great, and. with our
blessing, may the small slip through the
cracks in the stage and strike oblivion
with a killing whack Yes, the stage of
the future contains our chief interest,
and in the realm of vaudeville as well
as any other realm we shall make of it
what we will. Applaud the best, encour-
age the artistic, refuse the coarse and
vulgar, but remember the while that the
vaudeville stage is a big world to be TAX
en- hold of with many hands, and the fact
1
evidence of natural limitation. However
we can all recognize the fit and decent
and let us give the sanction of our ap-
proVal to nothing else.
The star among the new people at the
Orpheum this week is unquestiOnably
Miss Elizabeth Murray. In a very sweet
mezZO soprano voice with a sympathetic
contralto quality, she sings negro melo-
dies and copies the coon walk so per-
fectly that one imagines she went to the
source for instruction and is not surprised
to learn that she was bred in the sunny
South. Her Irish dialect is musical and
not overdrawn and her stories good and
simply told. Her stage presence is
charmingly refined. La Fafalla, the lotus
flower, was conceived in the bud with
clumsy intentions but born amidst such
spectacular surroundings that grace al
most-but not quite-became her god
mother. The spectacle is what we are
charmed with and what We applaud
Why must we be forced to look at a
woman with a cigar in her mouth? Hor-
rible! Her sketch is well constructed on
old lines and the curtain fail is a clever
stroke of playwright skill. When Phil
slaps Polly on the back once it is funny,
but when he does it thrice it is about as
humorous as the same joke printed three
times in a column.
The Phoites / cannot criticize for /
don't understand them. l am in the con-
dition of the art critic who was looking
and perhaps tomorrow he would see
Next week [ shall try again. The noise
is jolly, The Eldridges are good, but we
are a little tired of them. The old peo-
pie have new specialties and continue to
please because they are clever.
CHARLOTTE THOMPSON.