The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-21
From the Baltimore Herald.

From the Baltimore Herald
Twenty-one years ago last month the
Alhambra Theatre of Varieties in Lon
don was destroyed by that natural enc
my of the playhouse-flre. 1t was a time
of high excitement, for It was understood
that a lady distinctly tall and most d.
vinely fair lived ION the premises and
great satisfaction was felt when 1t be-
came known that Maid Marian was
safe. The public cared little that
Strauss comic opera, 1.-The Merry War"
had persisted in it's prime, but the giant
ess was subject of distinct general con-
Germ. and the rescue of this lady-still
growing-from the burning building was
an event for congratulation. Since that
date the number of giants and giant
esses seen in London has been remarka-
bly, small, and the craze for natural phe-
nomena common to a former generation
has certainly died out. Giants and
dwarfs and similar small deer are hard
to find and difficult to import, and their
introduction into England or this coun-
try cannot be expected unless a profit
may be reasonably anticipated from the
transaction. At the Pavilion Music Hall
of London a few years ago an elongated
specimen of humanity-IIerr Winkel-
maier-ambled among the audience
shook hands with visitors in n manner
which must have bored him very much
and had a brief sketch of his career in
Dictated by kind preceptor on the stage
Occasionally the appearance of a giant
has been eked out by the gentleman
l,af l,fct l.
life to the spectators, but the fact that
he is usually unable to 40 anything in
the entertainment line has rendered his
turn a very perfunctory AFFAIR. The
dwarf and the midget are much more
adaptable mortals. and though Maid
Marian. the giantess, was a young peas
ant without any pronounced bias of
skill. she served some useful purpose
by taking the part of the queen of the
Amazons in the tableaux from "Babil
and Bijou," which the Alhambra man
agement gave as an addendum to its
programme. The exactions made by such
a duty were not heavy. nor were they
performed with any remarkable distnc-
ton. Giants and giantesses are normai-
~ endowed by nature with top-heavness
and an uncomfortable disposition to be
a little over at the knees" The last
giant at the Pavilion took his walks
abroad at night mime, much to the graf
ification of belated wayrarers who en-
joyed cheap view. In the case of mer-
rymakers who had been looking on the
wine when it is red, the vision of an I'M
accustomed monster was calculated to
produce effects eminently bewidering
to muddled imaginations. ssmt
The Giant in Pantomlme.
Even for the traffic of pantomime the
giant is a declining attraction. The
property" article is so palpably made
up that little boys of average lntelli-
gence refuse to be taken in by the ogre.
and. while managers can always con-
trive to furnish him with fitting topboots,
a convenient club, and more or less
convincing outward semblanoe they
are always perplexed by the niceties of
TINT difficult science known as voice
production" The giants vocal notes are
usually muffled, and struggle feebly
forth through a mass of padding We
expect something sonoronsbet and get
something tremulous. Yet, in this re-
gard. the pantomime giant approximate
very naturally the real article, which is
generally langrld of limb and reticent
of voice.
The Chinese giant Chang and the
American giant Anak are the two best