The San Francisco call., 1904-09-20
WIZARD OF OF" Is MONARCH
IN FAIRY LAND OF NONSENSE
The Courteous Cow and Cowardy Lion, a Kan
sas Cyclone and Lmber Scarecrow Are New
Joys for Silly Season Audience at Columbia

Those that like that kind Of thing will
like THE Wizard of o." with which
the silly season was pleasantly in
augurated at the Columbia last night.
Doubtless we should have liked it bet
ter with the original cast. We're spoiled.
We are beginning to forget that San
Francisco was ever on the map or the
road show. The Columbia manage
ment must take the consequences or lts
late brilliant dramatic campaign. IL
has given us the best, and less than the
best will not content us.
The piece itself see that Hamlln
& Mitchell decline to catalogue it's
fascinatingly funny and attractive.
Scarecrows and mooley cows furnish
new joys in the cast. There is a re-
alistic Kansas cyclone that makes one
glad to live in California, and fine ad-
Venturing of a Kansas motor man, an
arm and check" syren, a small girl
and COW, in the enchanted realm OF
or. Then there is a chorus, mostly
girls" that lives up to its description
of having been chosen for its youth
and beauty. The costumes are stun
ming. The scenery, transformation
scene and ALL is sumptuous. The
music-oh, we'll, the music doesn't
matter. The people-well, some of
them matter. Vocally the cast has
about a voice and a half among them.
Blanch Powell Todd has most of it,
and Mildred Elaine and Florence Sim
not divide the rest. Not that any one
Of them worries much about using the
voice, but in this kind of thing only
a Tfyoli-goer is unreasonable enough
to expect that
The way of the substitute is hard.
So much one has been led to expect,
for example, of the Tin Woodman,"
as done by one Montgomery. John
Swor's tin man came as woodenly
last night as the figure should have
done and did not. On the other hand,
1t is difficult to imagine that Fred
Stones scarecrow could have been
any better than Bert Swor's. He is
more like an animated dishclout than
it is possible to imagine without see
inc even three-foot hatpin
finding the bottom of his
straw stuffing. You wonder what he
has done with his bones-the limbs
bend like indiarubber-and with the
other part of his face. besides the
mouth. Makeup and acting, it is
the cleverest sort of work. This unc-
George Wilson with the Haverly Min
strels interlocutor. He cannot come
too often. The other men make one
banker after Teddy Webb and Simms
except L. j. Wyckoff and Fred
Woodward, as the courteous cow and
the cowardly lion, respectively. They
are the noblest beasts that were ever
lost to the zoo. Right here one may
say that no child should miss The
Wizard" any more than the circus.
Blanch Powell Todd leads the ladies.
Miss Todd as Dorothy Gale from Kan
sas is a demurely pretty little person,
who sings prettily and wears satin knee
breeches as daintily as Alice Nielsen.
She dances well-everybody dances well
in THE Wizard"-and is altogether en-
gaging. Florence Sinnot as the waitress
is a dancing marvel. She is the most
featly- footed creature that has dawned
here for long. Miss Sinnot almost
sings. and has song, Sammy" that
is going to fill the right-hand stage box
nightly. The song was directed thither
last night. to the obvious embarrass-
ment of the Sammy addressed. May
Taylor has the part of lady lunatic,"
a comedy Ophelia, and is sometimes eff
fective and always pretty. Those that
like that kind of thing will like THE
Wizard of Or
RIANCHE PARTTNGTON