The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-04-30
cbedfricaI Opfimisfs us. Pessimisfs
BY FRANKLIN FHLEs

and stayed there with ''Bedalia." Upon
her Te-entTance. after two years alb
sence. she tries to repeat those tri-
umphs- She nearly does il. too, with
another "Bedalia" called My Irish
Molly o. helped by a string of chorus
girls, that winds its way in and out
and round about, without entaRgling
itself with a string of chorus boys sim
Hariy meandering- The other song hit
the first-nighters peculiarly. After two
verses the FOUNDERS sneered among
themselves at what a mere echo the
tune was. Then out came the breezy
Blanche and sang their own criticism
TO them in a stanza, in which she said
she would tell in the chorus where the
air came from: and she did it by sing
ing to almost the same notes the re-
frain of the new ballad. a comDosite
waltz song, with old Annie Rooney
Two LITTLE Girls in Blue and The
Good Old Summer Time dovetaued In.
IL was case OF putting into practice
Robert Hitchin's famous advice: Reg
gle was very frank. When he couldn't
be witty. he often told the naked
truth; and truth without its clothes on
frequently passes for epigram."
Charles H. Hoyt had a knack of
nndlng in obscure places exactly the
KIND OF actors he needed for his farces.
FRANK Daniels, who had been an in
conspicuous negro minstrel. was Hoyt's
selection for the rural sporting enthu-
siast IN "a Rag Baby'-the fellow
VINO was proud TO grasp the hand that
mad grasped the hand of John L. Sui
ivan Hoyt had the popularity, rare
among the people of the stage, Of lack
ing confidence in his work. His method
OF making a play was to first write il
out roughly, send a company on "A tour
OF one-night towns with it alter If
daily until he got it into a satisfactory
hui,
York-but never until then, no matter
II he spent a whole season on the road.
which therefore was a hard one for the
actors 70 travel. His farces seldom
tailed under this slow process. So
everyone concerned in one of them felt
sure of it's success by the time its travel
and travail brought it at last to Broad
Way-everyone but Hoyt himself His
courage usually failed on the day of
the opening. and he tried to brace it
Alphabetically, but pouring spirits down
didn't send his spirits up. and during
the first performance he paced the lob
by, conhding to his friends-sometimes
even to newspaper critics-his dis tits
faction with his chief actors.
In the case of Frank Daniels and "a
Rag Baby" he struck his finger
through a buttonhole of my coat and
put his lips cOnfdentially close to my
ear.
L told 'em So he whispered. with
upsy tears in his voice, L told 'em So
and his face was a study of woe.
The play was doing well, however,
ana next day l met HOyt and Daniels
in Broadway. Their faces were ra-
ulant. The author introduced the actor,
slapped him admiringiy on the back
and exclaimed, with laughter this time.
In his still tipsy voice: Didn't 1 say
d told EN- SOP" What he really had
told them 1 didn't find out.
My account of THE Freedom of SUI
zanne" last Sunday lacked the foot of
and as the foot was bare, it
was too Saliant a novelty to belt out
The play was brought out before an
audience so late in the week that I
couldn't wait. but went to dress re-
hearsal. At the end of the piece, after
Suzanne has tired of grass widowhood.
ana returned home to her husband at
she puts, not her hand in his.
but her foot, as a token of fond recon
In the rehearsal that was no
more than indicated in the action, but
IN the full performance it is the thing
most talked of, and / feel I ought to
make the difference clear TO you. In the
previous act, the divorced two have
met accidentally at a summer hotel.
where the woman finds out through
,>-dIOcy that she wants to get the man
back; so she impUlsively chases him
and girl companion to London in an
automobile When we see her next in
his apartment. she is a funny figure in
the get-up of a chauffeur. with the
skirt OF her dinner gown fastened up
under the coat and her stockinged shins
In view below. She and he warm up to
each other on champagne. but one of
her feet remains cold, because it has
been wet by rain. He removes the shoe
and stocking, and she rests her bare
foot in his hand
'Oh, you tickle" she exclaims, but
when he let's 90 she says. mot that If
is unpleasant and puts her foot back
IN his hand.
Now, the author of the play is Cosmo
and the actress is
Marie Tempest He knew that she had
Shapely little feet, and it is reasonable
to suppose that he was glad of them,
but Notwithstanding that. he is the
cousin of an English duke, some of US
are in doubt as to the good taste Of his
dramatizing one Of those feet for public
exhibition However. there is no IN
certainty as TO the business value of
the exposure 1t makes the fashionable
town talk about the play, and the the
atre is hlled by people whose carriages
line Broadway as on q grand opera
night Marie Tempest is a neat actress
and her feat with her foot is nicely
nome But the assistant actor. Allen
AyneSWorth from London, is to be
Ditied-sO I think-for the service he
has to render. He can't like to do that
sort of thing before folks The text
compels him to discover that her feet
are wet He offers TO strip and drv
them She demurs at first, for they
are no longer husband and wife but at
ength consents. He removes one shoe.
she pulls off the siIken hose, and the
audience focuses its glasses on the foot.
which Is left on view long enough for
4 critical examination. The foot 10
good, but is the feat?
By putting her boIdest, if not her
best, foot forward, Marie Tempest gets
a long step ahead of her countrywo-
man, Hilda SpOng. 1t chances that
Marie and Hiida are simultaneously i'm
persOnating giddy wives. The one that
Hilda stands for in The Firm of Cum
the new comedy by Willis
steel, is less courageous than the other.
She is making "a collection Of boys"
but doesn't desire to exhibit her young
lovers; and she is delighted when Jo-
Seph ChOate bushes up the scandal and
fOrestalls divorce. When 1 say that
the advising lawyer is our former am
bassadOr at the court of st. James. I
repeat what the theatre manager said
the diplomatic friend
would be in the writing and in the act
Ing study of Mr.. Choate. The SINH
arity isn't discernible. And, while the