The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-13
FRANKLIN FyE R R:s' Sa,s This p,ss" mss.

( oommotion. is known no more in. Broad
way.
Perhaps there Is no annual show that
clears up more money than that OF
Max and Gus Rogers. Although its
3 expenses are heavy owing chiefly to
the number of its women in frequent
changes Of costly costumes. the divi-
bends among the brothers Rogers and
their managers last season are said to
/ nave been expressed in six figures.
That Is why we have them again at
/ the Broadway theatre hardest for COM
I pInicS to get into / make note Of the
/ BUSINESS done by the Rogerses because
/ their entertainment has no artistic ele-
nent 90 consider. Nor am I i'm the
/ least inclined to berate 1t as vaudeville
ODtruGiug itself on the dramatic stage.
4 It's tremendous popularity is harmless.
even beneficial. TO those who laugh at
it, The first audience for The Rogers
Brothers in London was as big ana
fine as the most legitimate dramatic
/ performances draw in that same fash
iCnable house. one man near me suf-
fered intensely from what ne called the
idiOcy Of the jokes and antics, ana
denounced not only the idiots who
mOnkeyed on the stage. but still more
vehemently the idiots in the auditorium
who liked the fOOlery. But his wife
and daughter. dressed like fashion
ner Of society laughed right out loud
at the things he frowned on particu-
larly. It was on this same stage. only
few years ago. that these Rogers
chaps were permitted to come out OF
vaudeville and interpUlate their Ger
man English dialogue in an extrava-
ganza which, excepting their quarter
Of an hour. was a complete failure OF
course. they never went back to the
variety shows.
The elements in THE Rogers Broth
ers in London" are carefully the same
as those of previous Rogers eXtraVa-
ganzas. yet there is no actual use OF
old matter in John J. McNally's writ
ing. Young women are brought on the
stage in relays till the spacious stage
Is crowded by them; and that is done
over and over again with a change Of
fantastic costumes in each exhibition. /
IneSe signify phalanXeS sing. dance
and pose in fresh variations of the old
ways, and the living pictures they
make are brighter in shifting COlOrs
than the bits of glass in any kaleidO- [
scope you ever looked into. The method /
OF making this entertainment is bust /
neSs-like. Many Of those women have
been trained in Klaw & Changers own 1
chorus school, the costumes have been /
made in klaW & Changers own dress !
making shop, and the directors all be- /
long to Klaw & Changers own staff [
r. Ut III ali OF the making or the snow {
the fact is never belittled that the 9
ROgerses are what the people pay their /
money for. The goose that lays the /
golden eggs is not killed, but carefully /
injured In the new piece. as in each 4
OF its predecessors, the two comedians /
do the three things that they did when \
they were in Vaudeville-that is. sing
parOdies of popular ballads. read dou- /
bic meaning lines from newspaper ad- +
vertsements. and hold colloquies OF /
repartee And the seeming ease Of 4
those three things must conceal deal 4
OF clever hard work, else a dozen Ger
man dialect teams would speedily rise I
out Of vaudeville as the Rogers broth
ers did.
Nobody would laugh during the first i
performance of the new farce. "Per- /