The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-20
Furnishing of Old Plays
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

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4 copyrighted in England. he declared
that he would kidnap the Scarecrow
and the Tin Wo0dman from il for his
next Christmas pantomime, as these
annual shows are still called in Lon
don. he did 1t, toe, and they were
incidental figures in Humpty
Dumpty" over there. OF course the inn
porterss klaW. Tcrlanger and Brooks,
couldn't and Wouldn't bring them back
with the rest or the material. They
have John j. McNally Americanize
these pieces anyway, though he has
done less this time than hitherto. BE-
cause "Humpty Dumpty' is given with
the English pantomime left in and
American monkeyshines left out. 1t
was thought that a revival of the har-
lequinade, with clown and pantaloon.
harlequin and columblne, after its long
absence from Broadway, would be a
welcome novelty. So the Americanizing
process was restricted almost to the
introduction of native songs and cho-
ruses given pictorially in the American
manner.
In the lobby on the opening night. as
white folks were pouring in, 1 saw
three negroes, StwO men and a wo
they witnessed the performance from
somewhere above the color line. They
were tho Johnson, Cole and Johnson
who write rhymes and melodies for
many extravagaHZas. and they had pro-
vided nearly all the new musical ma
terial for this one. The best three
Of their contributions were Down in
( Mulberry Bend" I'm which Nellie DAILY,
( a young debutante from the dancing
3 81,
I a accompanied by children in similar
/ guises; ''Sambo and Dinah." in which
I John McVeigh and Lillian Coleman
were coon-iike lovers with darkeyism
I by grown-uD chorus girls behind them;
! and Mexico, in which Maude Lillian
Berri, the big wife OF little Frank Mou-
Ion, led calamity, in her first tights,
a band of very picturesque saunterers
in Spanish costumes These songs were
delivered with all the aids of dressing.
lighting and action that are now in
stage vogue. The black authors of
them. though. excluded from the lower
/ part of the theatre. no doubt, enjoyed
the white applause beneath.
! Frank Moulan is woman in
"Humpty Dumpty' and Mrs. Moulan is
Z 4 man. Her outlines are too cuvvili-
I near to deceive. but he, upon his en-
B trance as a cook lady, might be mis-
taken for the real thing until he speaks.
7 His is the principal comic character.
/ The manners and traits of the kitchen
/ boss. as we in New York knew her,
have been written ipto the part and he
does rather we'll with them. He is the
che grotesque figure excepting a funny
old king, If the many demons, mon
sters and beasts of the pantomime are
! left out Of the count
And Arthur Conquest, son OF the
George Conquest who. for years and
years was the disappearing demon
in Drury Lane pantomimes. has been
brought over TO do the same things
that his father used to do and in the
same remarkable way He is the evil
genius of the fable. Powerful springs
shoot him up through traps TO height
of fifteen feet and he drops among the
good folks time and again. but his dew
[ iltry is always mOmentary and sud
/ denly he sinks through the floor. He
broke a trap on the opening night.
wonder that he hasn't broken his neck
ere this.
The clown is but one in the multitude
of this 'Humpty Dumpty," the latest
extravaganza from Drury Lane. Just
as in London it was the finest pictor-
iai exhibition ever given in a theatre,
so here it exceeds all preceding plays
! in the really high grade of art in its
/ specacles. AS much in quantity has
been shown before, and its scenic set
/ tings have been surpassed in cost and
| gOrgeousRess. but nothing like the
/ tasteful richness or pFodigal variety in
/ costuming has been displayed. These
results are accomplished by all man
ner Of fantasticsl garments as to
shapes, from those of court ladies tC
symbolic birds and from peasant
maids to fishes. But none of these
| guises is wrought cut IN cheap fabrics
/ or gaudy eolors. Every stageful OF
ballet and chorus greets the eye with
more celors than could possibly have
| been put into Joseph's coat, but every
group of costumes is a study in shades
| OF single hue, and the assemblages
| give never any offenSa by Jared har-
mony. ] suppose that the cloths were
! dyed and stained for the purpose. A
ransaek Of all the shops and factories
on earth wouldn't have discovered
them ready made.
The time has come TO make a new
Irish star comedian. Andrew Mack is
| here this week with his annual play
| Of song and sentiment, perennially
emerald, yet he is fat now and 49, and
well on toward the sere of his sham
rock. Chauncey Olcott has come and
gone with his yearly show of Old Erin
| and he is still wearing of the green
Place God, yet he, too, is on the final
slope Of his stage career. Neither
Mack nor Olcott has relaxed his grip
on Irish American popularity. and both
are making money hand over fist for
the managers who originally brought
them out
greatest of all the Irish comedians But
he had no singing voice, and one of the
I boldest of stage fakes that l remem-
! Der was his dramatic delivery of the
insurrectionary ballad of The Wearing
I Of the Green" at the barn gathering OF
! rebels i'm The Shaughraun."
| Perhaps it was the success of the
! elder Joe Emmett in German song-and-
dance characterization, however, in
| stead of BOucicault, that suggested to
Augustus Pitou the project of putting
an Irish singing and dancing actor into
the theatrical market. Anyway, Pitou
looked in the variety shows for a suit
/ able fellow with whom to make the ex-
! pertinent. His choice fell ON William
j. Seaman, then a partner with limo
! thy Cronin in Irish dialogue and ditty
Seaman had been born and bred in the
I Bowery district, and rather roughly
/ but he had an innate sensitiveness and
! tenderness of romantic fancy that
wasn't short Of genius. He wrote the
/ words and music of his songs, and his
engaging personality made him a most
winsome Irish hero. He felt sincerely