The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-26


Property Man to Save Her Bones.
One Sensational Act That Used Up
Three Soubrettes In a Season-HOw
Projected Rescue Was Turned
Into a Train Wreck-COIlapse of a
Living Bridge, Leaving the Escap-
ing Soubrette Suspended in Mid
air.
New York, May 24.-With the microbe Of
organization working through the veins
of the theatrical profession, with the
Actors Society, the Managers Associa-
lions, the White Rats with the strike fea-
ture as the leading item, and the White
Mice the avowed object of which is the
aiding of the members of the chorus who
are stranded out of town, through the
failure of some company to continue, it
would seem that the next combination
should be of the soubrettes of mefodrama.
When that organization is formed it
will undoubtedly include an accident fund
as the chief feature, for the melodramatic
soubrette is heiress to all the perils of
life and limb to be found between the flies
and the basement, not stage perils. but
real ones
To the public mind, all soubrettes are
clasesd under one head. The public rec
ogpzes as a soubrette only the short
skirted young woman who shriekingly en-
treats patient public to Break the
News TO Mother" while on her own ac-
count she is engaged in rupturing the ear
drums of her hearers with voice best
suited to the vending of vegetables from
a wagon. The dramatic manager recog-
nizes half a dozen sorts. There are well
defined boundaries between the several
kinds, well understood in theatrical cir
| Giles.
The melodramatic soubrette is the more
or less young person who goes out at night
without a chaperone, filling, in the
pay, the position of an unrecog-
nized life-saving service. With
out her the hero would be killed at the
end of the first or second act and the
play would not proceed. She transports
| herself to far distant countries, while APP
parently not in possession of either cash
or pass She has the entree to the homes
of the rich. She is the guest of honor
| in humble fats. BY the grace of the au-
thor, all times and places are her own
| to be shared with the, hero. She is the
feminine melodramatic IT. Even the he
rome bows before her. She has voice
sometimes-knows how to dance is an all
round athlete and an expert marksman,
and some of the stunts required of her
I in her various roles would make a flying
! trapeze performer pause to think.
| Writers of melodrama appear to imag-
| inc that a sensational incident gains in
effect through the employment of a SOU
| brette as the central figure Her endeav-
ors are largely confined to preserving the
life of the hero. 1t is a very poor play
which does not give the soubrette an OPP
portunity to save his life at least three
times out of the five acts. For this rea-
son the ingenuity of the play constructor
is devoted to the invention of new forms
of life-saving devices, such as would
hardly be regarded with favor by coast
guardsmen.
AS an example of how this trend Of
modern melodrama affects the soubrettes
THE Tide of Life" which started out
last fall had a soubrette slide down a rope
from the second story of a warehouse in
the first act, make her escape from a
burning building in the second act, and
Jump to the roof of a rapidly moving
freight car in the third. On the opening
night the manager suggested to the young
woman who played the part that she try
had been no complete dress rehearsal of
the piece The property man had provided
a braided bell cord, which, while possess
ing the necessary strength, was hardly
| larger than lead pencil The slide was
accomplished, and the soubrette arrived
on the stage with the skin torn from her
fingers owing to the fact that the rope
was not large enough to be properly
grasped.
Almost fainting from the PAIN she had
the injured hands hurriedly dressed while
the overture was being played. Twenty
minutes later a second descent had to be
made, with the result that the wounds
were torn still deeper. In spite of the
agony she was enduring, she was forced
to cross the stage, climb a stepladder to
the deck of a scenic ship and save the
life of the secondary hero. AS the cur
tain dropped she tainted. being saved
from falling off the platform by the viii
lain she had just subdued. At the close
of the third act of the play she tumbed
off the platform on which she was sup
posed to ride across the stage. She
promptly handed in her two weeks, notice.
The present soubrette uses a rope big
enough for a ships cable.
In 1.-The Bowery Alter Dark" in which
Terry McGovern, the pugilist, is starring,
most of the work originally fell to the
soubrette. The soubrette had a compan-
ion in the shape of a newsboy, who as
sisted her in her efforts at rescue. When
McGovern took the piece the situations
were reversed, the pugilist becoming the
central figure. In the western company
the soubrette is still the life-saver-in-gen-
eral to the entire company In one scene
she is let down 20 the stage at the end Of
a rope, and last season a broken strand
deprived the company of the services of
one of the best players of the part When
she left the hospital she decided to take
her speciality into peaceful vaudeville. let
ting the risky legitimate severely alone.
The part of Madge in I'm Old Ken
lucky" contains two scenes which
threaten the safety of the life-saver. One
of these is that in which she swings
across the ravine at. the end of a rope
ia order to save the life of the hero, who
lies helpless on the ground, a dynamite
cartridge securely tucked between his
feet. This act used up three soubrettes
in one season, after which the property
man was informed that the next time the
: rope broke he would lose his job. After
this the slaughter of soubrettes was con-
Quoted exclusively by the press agent.
This worked well for a season, then. In
/, the following year, the press agent had
the horse which Madge is supposed to
ride to victory in a horse race regularly
bolt. AS a matter Of fact, the horse grew
fractions on several occasions, bad
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