The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-08

.AS the green room vanished fro
II the earth?

HAS the green room vanished from
the earth?
The question was asked by a
disiilusioned young man who stepped
into the world behind the curtain at
the Salt Lake theatre last week. So
far as Salt Lake is concerned, the
question must be answered in the af-
firmative. There is no green room
here in the old acceptation of the term.
That is to say. there is no place behind
the curtain where the actors and ac-
tresses gather to chat with each other
and with callers while they await their
cues.
Was there ever a green room?
Well, yes. The green room was once
one of the most important adjuncts to
the theatre. Nearly a century ago
Theodore f. Hook, an English humor-
list, wrote:
THE Friday came: and for the first
time in my life 1 found myself in the
green room of a theatre-it was liter
ally a green room. into which light was
admitted by a thing like a cucumber
frame at one end of it. 1t was mat
ted, and round the walls ran a bench
covered with faded green stuff, where
upon the dramatis personae deposited
themselves until called 10 go upon the
stage; a looking glass under the sky
light and a large bottle of water and d
tumbler on the chimneypiece COM
pleted the furniture of this classic
apartment
That doesn't sound very inviting, does
it? But it is a lot more inviting than
the world at the back is today. There
is nothing but business on the other
side of the curtain. Men in oVeralls
Vey. The girls who looked like queens
from the front OF the house are only
very ordinary women with inches more
or less, of rouge and grease paint dis
figuring their cOuntenances.
The star is in his dressing room, OF
her dressing room, as the case may be
and the rest of the people are scattered
through the various little coops pro-
vided for the hoi pollOi of the stage
No chattering, no merry laughter, nc
airy persihage, no wine drinking with
the chapDies, no anything but work
work. work. SO those who prefer tc
cling 20 their idols will do well to stay
in front of the curtain. People who are
tempted to go back" find, almost with
out exception. that the feet of the idols
are clay or nose putty ar paint OF
something horrible of that sort.
The green room is not IN it's deca-
dence. IT is just plain dead, that's all.
From that fountainhead of theatrical
intelligence. New York City, comes the
report that certain ambitious play
wrights are engaged in dramatizins
Eugene Fields pathetic poem. Little
Boy Blue" To those who are familiar
with this classic. the idea that it can be
dramatized is simply blasphemous. One
would as soon think Of dramatizing the
Lords prayer or the ten command
ments. Listen to the poem:
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands,
And the little tin soldier is red with rust
And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was
And the soldier was passing fair:
And that was the time when our Little
Kissed them and put them there.
Now don't you move till come" h
And don't you make any noise"
THIN he toddled away to his trundle be-
To dream of his pretty toys.
And while he was dreaming an ange
Awakened our Little Boy Blue.
Oh. the years are many. the years ar
But the little toy friends are true.
Aye. true to our Little Boy Blue the,
stand.
Each in the same old place.
Awaiting the touch of little hand
The smile of little face.
And they wonder. as passing the lonl
years through.
IN the dust OF that little chair.
What has become of our Little Boy Blue
Since he kissed them and put them there
Isn't it sacrilege TO think of dramatic
Ing anything like that2
-
Thursday night. for the first time q
fifty-five nights. the Grand was dark
Yesterday another long series bega
with the matinee production of 9Th
Peddler's Claim" The Grand will no
be dark again for long time 70 come
The Salt Lake theatre will be dar