Evening star., 1901-08-31

Joseph Hart and Miss Carrie De Mar.
From all accounts this has proved to be
one of the greatest and most substantial
musical comedy successes OF the present
season. The first weeks business OF this
attraction at Atlantic City. n. j., was close
to $500 while the second and closing week
bids fair to outrival that of the first. Foxy
Grandpa" seems TO be literally I'm the air"
Perhaps no piece of modern times has been
so condemned previous TO this production
as was Foxy Grandpa" Thus its success
is all the more strong. Joseph Hart and
Carrie De Mar have the greatest parts in
their entire stage career. Conservative eS-
Inmates place the profits of Foxy Grand
pa to reach 500 200 the coming season.
Harry b. Smith. the author of The Lib
erty Bellies is said to be responsible for
the display of feminine beauty that will
be seen in this new musical comedy to oe
presented by Klaw & Erlanger at the CO.
lumbia Theater. September ~. To him
was delegated the task of selecting the six
teen young women who play schoolgirls In
this new piece. Mr.. Smith wrote the play
on the theory that the public has W >aried
somewhat of automatic chorus work and
with the further idea that sixteen hand.
some and clever girls are preferable and
more attractive to the eye than sixty plain
and stupid ones. Therefore, the array of
beauty and talent in The Liberty Bellies"
is expected to be something except onal.
Mr.. Smiths idea of feminine beauty IS
somewhat lofty and with newly acquired
disposition of a Captain Kidd, he de-
scended upon all the companies and or
ganizations in New York and ''cut ou,"
the prettieSt to be had. For example in
the Pretty Maiden sextet in ''Florodora."
he saw one girl who approached the "Liber-
~ Bellies" ideal This young woman was
Mo- wat H. H..
cued from the chorus to play the part of a
sentimental school girl Pauline Chase. the
most photographed young woman on the
stage at present, whom Charles Frohman
took to London with The Girl From lip
There, was another result of Mr.. Smiths
piratical pillaging. Edna Hunter. the prize
beauty OF the Foxy Quiller' company last
season and who made a hit in The Stroll
ers' at the knickerbocker this summer,
was captured without any apologies. and
Will play a school girl devoted to French
| novels in THE Liberty Bellies" Weper *
Fields are generally supposed to have
very attractive chorus, but there vas only
one member to be found in it by Mr.. smith
who was up to THE Liberty Bvlies' "
esque Violet Jewell. The two star chorus
girls from THE Stroliers" in The persons
Of Laura Stone and Elsie Ferguson were
also annexed. The former bears
markable resemblance to Edna May and the
latter is typical Scotch beauty.
The possibilities of an untried play is
something that those who attend the thea
ter little dream Of The uninitiated would
imagine that were an obscure author to
seek an audience with a manager of high
repute and lay before him a manuscript of
his endeavOrs the chances are that not enc
in hundred would take the trouble to
read it, and yet in that untried manuscript
might be contained one of the few big
financial which on
up in a season. 1t remained for Joseph
Hart and Carrie De Mar to see the poss-
bilities Of the sketches that have been so
successful in the New York Herald called
Foxy Grandpa" for stage purposes, and
the more they thought of its chances for
success as stage production the more
convinced they were that at last an oppor-
tunity had presented itself to take them
away from the realms of the vaudeville
and place them again on the comedy stage.
He confided his ideas to Mr.. r. Melville
Baker, a rising young dramatiSt, who
agreed with Mr.. Hart that Foxy Grand
pa in the flesh would certainly have
| unusual chance for recognition. Mr.. Baker
thought out a sceneario and submitted 1t
to Mr.. Hart, who made several chang
and suggestions. and when it COM
pleted Mr.. Hart placed ii under his arm
and took it to the leading theatrical mana
gers. 1t is not necessary to state the names
of those who could not anything in
Foxy Grandpa" and a last resort re
sought an interview with Mr. VIM. A.
Brady. Brady, in his calm, dignified way,
was convinced from the start that the
piece. If properly produced, and making it
a musical comedy and putting the best of
everything in it in the shape of costumes.
music. girls. specialties and original busi-
ness, could not fail. The result was the
piece went into immediate rehearsal. and
was really rehearsing before any idea of a
route was thought Of 1t was then given a
trial performance at Asbury Park on Au-
gust z, and then transferred to Atlantic
City. N. j., for two-weeks' stay, COM
mencing August 3. where its business has
been the most phenomenal ever known in
that theater Strange to say. until the ar
rival of Foxy Grandpa" the business at
Atlantic City was very. very bad. The re-
suit is that today Foxy Grandpa" can lie
easily put down as success. Mr.. Joseph
Hart and Miss Carrie De Mar are being
cor gra tulated by their friends.