The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-30

W ASh Gang W III III ldleu OtlliuIc'l
of the Ghetto" was produced ir this
country Richard Garlic now leading
comedian of THE Storks,' was cast
for the part of SshosShi Smendrick. lie
was hard driven to dress the part
properly. He wanted an outfit which
was full of the real Ghetto character,
and though he looked through all the
second hand stores he couldn't find
just what pleased him.
Finally the first rehearsal was called
and still earle was without Il cos ,Ulrc.
1t happened that for this rehearsal the
manager had engaged typical cid
Hebrew chorister from the Ghetto TO
come to the theater md drill some Of
the extra people in some Hebrew
chants. The minute earle laid eyes on
the picturesque old man he declared to
himself that the clothes the old fellow
wore were exactly what ne wanted 20
make his part realistic.
They We're wonderful" says earle
in telling the story. THE very bags
in the knees of the trousers were MS
picturesque as a Swiss landscape. and
the tremendous wrinkles and folds IN
the baggy old coat would have been
the despair of an artist. In my life
never saw such character costume.
l could hardly hold myself after ] laid
eyes on that old man. | should have
been willing to pay almost any price
for he outfit and l was ready to have
him held up and robbed if he Should
refuse to sell 1t.
II waited until he got through with
his rehearsal. Then l approached him.
How much will you take for that
slir of clothes you have on?" l asked
him. I sell him for S. he answered
without a moments hesitation. I got
Out a s. bill so quickly that l almost
tore it and forced 1t into his hand
:" Go right home, take 1t off, and
send 1t to me here at the theater,' l
said.
The old man agreed and started
off. I waited in patience for almost
two hours. Finally a. small boy APP
peared carrying a bundle neatly wrap
ped up in a clean sheet of paper.
grabbed 1t out of his hands and start
ed to open it so that might goaI over
my prize. Quickly l tore off the pa
per- Then l almost tainted. The old
man had taken off that wonderful suit
and carefully cleaned and pressed il
before sending 1t out to me. All the
picturesque wrinkles and folds were
gone; every bit of the delicious dirt
was washed off. l had only a nj ELY
cleaned and beautifully pressed suit OF
second hand clothes. There were ac-
tually creases in the trousers where
those 1narvelously picturesque bags
had been. 1t was nothing less than
sacrilege, and / coud have wept at
the sight. But the old man had done
1t with the idea of pleasing me; besides
he hao my S.. so there was nothing
in the world for me to do but to take
up again the search for properly
picturesque costume"
Charles f. Evans of the famous old
firm of Evans & Hoy is a witness of
the fact that styles in comedy char
| acter old clothes are just as changeable
| as in women's gowns
I'm The Parlor Match says Ev-
ans, II played the part of I. McCorker
the book agent. You remember in that
| part when / threw open my frock coat
| and displayed a shirt ornamented with
| half inch red and blue stripes I all
ways got loud laugh from the audi
ence as they caught the first glimpse
| of its glories.
| when we took The Parlor Match
| off the stage ! saved that shirt as one
of the choicest of my possessions. I
| considered 1t a sure laughmaker. FL
nally after the passage of several years
we decided to revive The Parlor
Match and I dug up that shirt, GER
tain that ] would get at least one
laugh in the old part.
well, the opening night came.
When the time came l threw open my
coat and displayed the old reliable.
| But got not smile. In fact, nobody
in the audience paid the least atten-
| ton to its stripes, which were just as
| large and just as vivid as in it's palmy
days. / was dumfounded, but finally
1 figured out what was the matter.
You see when we retired The Par
Tor Match nothing but white shirts
I. -.
retirement fancy colored negligee
shirts came into style. And when we
revived the play and l revived the
shirt the old garment had lost all its
| startling qualities. l suppose most of
the men in the audience the night of
the revival were used to wearing shirts
even louder than my old pet. Conse-
quently it never occurred to them to
notice it.
But 1 was bound to get back my
old laugh at that particular point. So
l put on a white shirt and called on
a sign painter of my acquaintance. He
did a little fresco work on the white
shirt front with whitewash brush
and succeeded so we'll that thereafter
my shirt was one of the hits of the
play. But the experience certainly
proves that even a comic character
actors best clothes are likely to go out
OF style with the passage of few
years"
1.-TWO years ago." said Henry Nor
man, who in his time has played many
character parts and who this summer
is playing in THE Storks," at the
Dearborn, II had three trunks full of
fine old character clothes destroyed in
a railroad wreck. / wouldn't have
taken $500 for the stuff because 1t rep
resented lot of hard work in collect
ing it. to say nothing of the money
investment.
After l discovered that my trunks
had been burned up I made a claim on
the railroad for $3.50 for the damage.
They wanted to know what was in the
trunks, and / told them the trunks
were full of dirty, ragged, old clothes.
Then the trouble began. l had to get
all sorts of expert testimony before
l could convince the claim agents that
rags and tatters of that kind had any
value. But when / offered to produce
the affidavits of all the character act
ors in the business that often old,
worn out clothes are worth much more
to an actor than new garments he
finally caved in and I got my check.
But he probably thinks still that l am
affected mentally.
Artists of all kinds have a fondness
for old ruins, you know and it is hard
for the average Philistine to grasp the
idea"