The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-01-13
AN ACTORS GOOD JOKE.
How "Fritz" Emmett Played It on an
. Audience That Thought He
4 Was Drunk,

them, according to an. exchange. "A
man, who once gets a reputation in the
theatrical profession as an occasional
ro1sterer and date breaker is never able
OF retrieve that reputation, no matter
how many years of sobriety he puts in In
the effort to live down his record.
Some actors suffer a great deal from
this sort Of thing. No man in the bust
ness, however, ever got it coming and
going so badly as did Fritz Emmett on
account of his jamboree record.
Il was member of Emmet's company
for number of years, and know that
there were many times when, without
having taken a drop for months, he was
too i'll to 60 on, from natural causes, but
did go on. for the sake Of preventing the
word to be flashed over the country
that Joe Emmett was on another drunk.
"One night. nearly 20 years ago-it
was on March 31-Emmet was booked
for Kansas City. He'd been on the wa
ter wagon for many nom his, but he was
Ill that night from an attack Of malarial
fever and he positively couldn't raise
his head 1t was out of the question for
him to 60 on. He wanted to In spite of
his wretched feeling, but even his man
ager wouldn't stand for it.
Fritz went to bed, took hot lemon
ade, swaddled himself up in the bed COW
erings and slept of his mean feeling.
when he got the papers the next
morning he found that he had been so
unanimously drunk the night before
that he hadn't been able to keep his en-
gagement. 1t wasn't the newspapers
fault that this story appeared. The story
had been given out that way from the
theater.
"Emmet's feelings were lot bruised
up by that story, and we all figured thai
he'd 60 on bat then, anyway.
But he didn't He got on the train
with us and went up to Leavenworth
where we were booked to play tina:
night-April l.
THE manager OF the theater where
we We're to play was surprised to see
Emmett in first rate trim, so far as sobri-
ETY. went, and he sent out handbills that
Emmett would positively appear, despite
the story that had come from Kansas
City. There was an overflow audience,
yet l don't suppose that half the people
in the audience really expected Emmett
to show up.
''They were skeptical and silent until
the rise of the curtain. You remember
how Emmett used to make his first ap-
pearance in Fritz with lot of little
children tagging after him?
well, the moment for his cue arrived,
the orchestra struck up the opening mu-
sic for his entrance-and on came EN-
met, Keeling and apparently spif1icat-
ed and googley eyed and picked to the
gunI. He seemed to be barely able to
keep his feet. Instantly the long hiss
ran around the theater from the orches-
ira to the pit.
Fritz essayed to sing his opening
song, but the words died in his throat
drunkenly, as it certainly seemed. At
this the hiss became like the music of
10000 cobras.
Suddenly Fritz Strengthened himself,
and became as erect as spear. The
Dutch grin spread over his features,
and he made a gesture with his arm for
quiet. The house instantly obeyed.
'Vell,' said Emmett, supporting his
chin with his left hand in his character
istic fashion, I fought We could some
April Fools hat alreatty yet, nod?' and
then he leaped into the vortex OF his
singing and dancing with charm and
enthusiasm such as his company had
never seen him display before.
'Ill bet you could have heard the
cheers that rang around the house for
entrance or exit after that"