The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-03-13
HAMLEL 7LtAStS BROADWAY.
By Franklin FyIes.

Time" from a French comedy located
newly IN England. It's characters were
a gay actress who had many admirers
to make rich gifts. a poor fellow who
could offer nothing but honest love, and
a player of the time and type of Gle
opatra. who. being reincarnated by an
experiment in spiritualism. told about
her experience with a lot of afIiuent
Egyptian sensualists, and the tragic
fate of a chap who wooed with full
hear. and an empty purse. This-was
deft though fanciful composition. with
a jolly ballad for the English actress,
a dramatic recitation for the Egyptian
and a good lesson. which was to keep
away from sirens OF the stage.
You will believe that such entertain
ments as are given annually for the
Actors Home by volunteers couldn't be
made by any expenditure or money.
when / tell you that In the short casts
Of those three brief plays were William
II. Thompson, Hattie Williams. Dor
othy Dorr. Elsie De Wolfe and Robert
Edeson, who are, or have been. stars
besides Joseph Wheelock, Marie Doro.
Richard Bennett and May Robson. all
of whom had studied and rehearsed Ia
boriously for the single occasion. There
was also "a buriesque called ShylOck
Before the Court Of Appeals" which
was fatty stupid, though another set of
stars" in il were Lawrence D'Orsay,
Alice Fischer, Eugene O'Rourke and
Edwin Arden, and The Holidays a
hardly more amusing sketch. by. seven
members OF the Twelfth Night club.
But the bill included also monologues
by five heads of companies now in
town, Kyrle Bellew. Richard earle.
Sam Bernard. Raymond Hitchcock and
William Nortis. and show girl scenes
or song and movement from five extra
vaganzas. How 10 that for an Occa-
sional afternoon? And is it any won
der that a big theatre was crowded at
prices which yielded $4,000?
The most memorable American per
Torrance of Hamlet" was given to
save Lester Wallack from poverty 1t
earned every dollar Of the twenty thou
sand that, through donations and an
auction sale, We're put into the genial
old sDendthrift's pockets. His vogue
was gone and he had saved no money
from it. Albert NJ. Palmer and Augustin
DAILY had been his rivals for a decade
and neither had yet arrived at the end
OF his own prosperity. DAILY had ever
declined to affiliate in anything what
ever with Palmer or any other man.
ager. His charities, like all his other
/ concerns, had been absolutely isolated
But he accepted Palmers invitation to
join in an endeavor to save the brief
remnant of Wallack's life from poverty.
So a remarkable presentation of Ham
let'r was brought about. / saw it and
my recollection is vivid. Edwin Booth
who usually played as though he were
working, calmly and coolly reused him
self to an exceptional effort His art
this time glowed warmly. instead of
shining coldly, in its bTilliance But it
was Helena Modjeska who both sur
prised and delighted us, because none
Of US had ever seen Ophelia embodied
by an actress of her grade. We had
been accustomed, as you have, to pref
ty, plaintive, appealing Ophelias. and
so an achievement of genius in the
character was a revelation. Here was
q woman who. though two or three
times too old, and with a speech maIred
by a Polish accent, applied great gifts
and accomplishments to a portrayal OF
the pitifully loving and dying maid of
Elsinore.
But there was a disappointment quite
as positive in John Gilbert's Polonius
This mainstay OF the Wallack- company,
with his Sir Peter Teazle and his Sir
Anthony Absolute, had long been the
standard OF best quality in stage old
men, and by that We gagged our ex-
pectation of what his Polonius would
be. 1t was an amazing display of bad
elocutiOn, of lacking humOr and even Of
intelligence. There were such full COM
pensatiOns as the Gravediggers by Jo-
seph Jefferson and William J. Florence,
a king and a queen by Frank Mayo
and Madame Ponisi, a ghost by Law
renee Barrett and cast which did not
contain a name not well known. All,