The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-05-14
REVIVAL OF "TRILBY''
SUCCESS. By Franklin Fyles.

| OO(CEoO.
Anew YORK, May 12.-Wilton Sven
IN gall Lackaye is hypnotizing NiT-
ginia Triby Harmed, after letting
her alone these ten years. His eyes are
as wild as before, and his whiskers as
scraggy. Her feet and ankles are
again bare and fair, and she gets spell
bound in the same old way. Burr Taffy
Mcintosh and John Laird GIendiunins,
of the three musketeers Of the brush,
remain constant in their love of the
model, but Alfred Little-Billee Hick-
man, their chum and rival, is one of the
several missing from the studio COM
munity Of a decade ago. Hickman went
from Miss Harmed to Blanche Walsh,
when that StalWaTt acTess made a tour
with the mesmeric drama, and one day
Miss TIilby Walsh took her nice little
Billee Hickman out from fiction into
fact and married him. That change OF
Climax from a funeral TO wedding
wasn't meant for the public to know OF,
and the secret was kept until two
years ago, when tina actress divulged II
in a decree Of divorce. So the private
effort at happy ending for one Triloy
and one B}llee was failure. Hickman
is still playing youthful parts, but Miss
Harmed hasn't taken him back for the
present reproduction In his stead We
have William COurtenay, who is as
much too tai for the Du Maurier pic
lures of Little Billee as Miss Harmed is
too short for the typical Du Maurler
girl-a creature as long and thin as the
Gibson girl.
The f1rst-nighters had a hullaballoo
time over this recurrence of "Trlfby,
and their applause went far beyond
that which had greeted any new play
this season. They came ready to be
hypercritiCal, but as soon as 1t was sure
that the piece hadn't become obsolete,
and that the actors had gained pro-
hciency during ten years, they let
themselves go wild with delight The
curtain had to be raised fourteen times
after the scene of TriIby's collapse and
SvengaH's death I say had 70 be
raised. not merely that il was raised,
because there was no need TO play first
night tricks with the curtain. The
usual process is to have the clacqUe,
Of friends in the audience re-
by the Ushers, incite and
maintain the applause until signaled
to stop. The signal consists of turning
AON II Llit AVtlilSnLS anu lul illitS w lAAN
lights throughout the house But here
the honest applause kept on after the
signal was given, and wouldn't cease
even when the band began to play. A
speech was demanded of Lackaye, and
for a wonder he made one without
cynical whack at anything or anybody.
He is Mansfield for oratoriCal eX-
PLOTS before the curtain
The uncertainty whether sfT'riIbv.'
would be regarded as preposteroUs. aft
er a decade of dramatic progress, was
small by comparison with the dread of
ridicule at the original production The
late A. NJ. Palmer had lost prestige and
fortune al the theatrical game of
chance, and was ready to try almost
anything for a change of luck; but
Paul PUtter's idea of a 'TriIby" dra-
seemed d play that could
hardly win. Making d great singer out
Of an unwilling novice by keeping her
in Il hypnotic trance might be amusing
as joke on mental phenomena. but
could il be made a sane proposition in
d serious drama?
Very we'll" said Eugene PreSbrey
who was Palmer's stage director.
when Laura Don. playing what had
been intended for an emotional part in
a new piece with John r. Raymond.
was laughed at in a scene which struck
the audience as absurd, she instantly
took her cue for a change of manner
to buTlesque and so saved the piece.
Now, we viii have LaCkaye and Miss
Harmed ready TO do just that same
thing with SvengaH and TTiIby, if it
becomes necessary.
Presbrey was to give the word to
turn the tragedy into a comedy if the
audience began to laugh at the hyp-
1Otism, but no such course became nee
eSSary, and the experiment enriched
Palmer sufficiently to postpone his
bankruptcy several years. He decided
10 reap the harvest before the grain had
time to spoil in the field Who knew
how short the TTilby fad might be?
Within month twelve companies were
on as many routes, every one connected
with the affair prOfted richly. The
royalty paid by him was 10 per cent of
the gross receipts, of which 4 went to
the publishers of the novel, Harper &.
Brothers, and 3 each to Potter and Du
I don't suppose that as much
money has ever been made with any
other play in a single year
At a spring bargain sale of Shakes
peare we get Romeo and Juliet for
seventeen cents. marked down from
seventy-five. About the quality. we
have to take Il ''as is" and in quantity
we must buy tickets in punches of six
for a dollar OF course, that's too
cheap to be very good. Percy Has
well is the fiTst-rate Juliet. but the
Romeo is much the worst l ever saw.
and the mounting is no better than
that which Edwin Booth once gave to
Hamlet" That aspersion on the MEM
DRY Of Booth demands explanation.
After the great tragedian had bank
ruDted himself with magnificent pro-
auctions at the theater bearing his
name and when his artistic ambition
was utterly crushed. he went on
tour for revenue only, with a COM
pany of lncompetents and scenery on
a par with what 1t enclosed. Even
Booths own Hamlet was dcteriorated.
The venture was a sorry incident in
the portion Of Booths career between
his decline through his own lack Of
the commercial instinct and his rise
again through Lawrence Barrett's
business shrewdness combined with
liberaiity. So both Booth
and Barrett died wealthy and at the
height Of a joint fame
We have a reminder this week I'm
The Blot in the 'ScutcheOn. - that not
all Of Lawrence BaTrett's brave risks
were wisely taken There is no safety
IN BrOwninS's tragedy even I'm this late
day IN dramatic advancement. The
story Of the proud Tresham' daughter.
who falls from virtue with the Gaul
who asks her hand, and thereby brings
death to nearly all concerned. is full
or poetcal thoughts and theatrical i'm
possibilities. Mildred faints at her
DrOtherS accusation. wheTeupOn her
loving cousin pays no attention to her
plight but delivers a long
harangue on the subject OF mercy in
such a case of immortality as hers
Hau OF the fourth act passes between