The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-11
"REMINISCENCES OF 4
-
VAUDEVILLE MANAG GER
Manager Raymond Of the Ortenm Tells Some Ger True
Tales Of Funny Stunts BY Woatld Be VasdeOiHe Per-
formers at the OLdEnbiye IHeater IN CleOeland .
A ESQ., Pound Angeps Aeria1 Flight.

to appear at the Empire theater. In
casting about for assistance [ naturally
sought Jim;
How long can you amuse an En-
pire audience?' I asked.
can make them scream for twen-
ty minutes, and can easily stay on for
half an hour he answered confidently.
So while we We're setting the seen
cry for an act in full stage, we sent him
out in front of the olio drop to mako
the Cleveland crowd laugh.
:" There's fifteen minutes of respite,:'
said to myself, for those were siren
uous days. And / give you my word, 1
hadn It been back there minute before
he was at my side.
90 What the deuce are you doing here
why aren't you out in fronts' 1 de-
q 'They don't like me out there he
faltered.
g well, go out and make them like
YOU. Give us a few minutes to set this
stage, anyway l answered. We grab,
bed him by each arm and fairly showed
him out again, and 1t was pltlfui. me
head and his tongue clave to the roof of
his mouth He told one little story,
and the silence that greeted him was
lev. Then he fairly broke and ran
off the stage, thru the back alley up
around the front Of the theater, and SO
even came back for his money, and 1
haven't seen him to this day. 1850
The Elimination of the Angel.
s'Did ever tell you about the elm
ination Of the angelo That was the
richest thing ever connected with tha
trying out of an amateur act In Cleve-
land. 80.
sThere lived in Cleveland at that
time an estimable lady with histrionic
aspirations. She had seen THE Girl
with the Auburn HAIR and, like many
other persons in vaudeville and out,
got an idea from it. This idea she
proceeded to elaborate. She had the
transparent front drop picturing
rough and storm bound coast. Then the
lights came on and she was discov-
cred clinging to cross with the wav-
ing sea all around her, she giving voice
to Rock of Ages and songs of that
"She must have invested $4,000 in
that act. She had all kinds Of wave
cloth, and rain pipes, and scenery, and
she called the act 'The Storm, which
wasn't bad name for it. When that
wave cloth was surging up and down
around the stage, the property men
robes and the rain pipes were dropping
water enough to float ship, the effect
was great. That was where she took
| the curtain and where she should have
stopped ped .,,o 10, . en.,. +s.+ NO. IN.
mense. She had cloud machine and
practical moon, and the act showed
the storm breaking away, the moon
over her. Fine, eh' Only she insisted
on working her sister into the act to
do the angel part, and sister weighed
$50 pounds Can you beat that?
"Well, she had been after me for
/ weeks trying to get me to put her on,
and finally, patience having given way
to desperation, l consented. She opened
on Monday afternoon with hundreds of
enthusiastic friends in front and, like
all amateur acts, things went wrong
from the first. She had five of her
own men working the act and they
wouldn It let our men touch anything.
And, my, but she was a bad singerl
But her friends stood for her singing
and gave her plenty of applause, and
she took the curtain. Then it really
i began to commenced
"The waves subsidized, the clouds
broke away and the moon came out
and stuck, and no power behind that
scenery could move it. So they aban-
doned the moon and started sister down
in her angelic flight.
i "Now, even with a big bull wheel,
such as they use on the gridiron to
; raise and lower people during such acts,
280 pounds is something more than a
full-grown joke. Sister began to de,
, scend. But sister had her troubles
One wing was tapping gently and bean
tifully as she made her aerial journey
but the other wing hung Imply at he1
!. side, in spite Of her valiant efforts to
keep it going.
fThe stage hands got her down into
3 position all right, and then tried, tc
l start her on her return journey. But
she wouldn't move. 1t was On the bill
: that the curtain should not be lowered
Z until sister had risen into tho flies
: So she stuck, and the stage hands pulled
! with might and main, and there was
! nothing doing.
!. :" 'Take her up! Take her up!' the
lady on the rocks began to shout OF
the aside.
"sLet me down, Let me down.
shouted sister, beginning 70 feel tn,
one wing still Tapping while the othel
; hung idly at her side.
"That was the most polite .audienc.
{ I ever saw. It was q home act AM
they meant to stand by it to the bite
end. A few Uttered; but the mob wa
. restraining its mirth marvelously-unti
! one kid in the gallery shouted: Hull,
n geel They we winged de ANGEL
S Down came the curtain, up wen
} the stepladder, down came sister-an,
n the act was over for all concerned. w
kept the first part of the act on tina
e week. but sister never appeared again
y and that is the true story of the elimi
It nation of the angel.''