The San Francisco call., 1905-03-12

"Impersonator? Oh, another one
what bore" That was what one said
last Sunday night as willy thinner
man walked on the Orpheum stage
Neither was there any reason, only
from the gentleman's exceptionally un-
assuming appearance, to expect any,
thing different from the usual gallery
Of grease painted, chromo-li photographic
caricatures Of Mckinley, Sousa and
George Washington that the usual i'm
personator deals in.
I shall attempt to initiate Richard
Wagner" Mr.. Zim-lerrnan modestly
announced, and then as ne walked off
Stage Director Rosner struck up
wonderful imitation of a 75-man ar
chestra doing the Flying Dutchman."
IL was, by the way, one Of the best
limitations ever heard at the Orpheum.
And then Mr.. Zimmerman, or nay,
Richard Wagner himself returned to
the footlights. One may not have seen
Wagner, but one knew irresistibly. as
one knows Of a Franz Halls Laughing
Boy" that the very substance and
spirit OF the man was before one. And
then the impersona tor bored one sat
up and decided that the matter was
not with representations but with i'm
personators. With nothing but a wig
and z new eyebrow or two came Verdi.
Liszt. Metra, Won Suppe. Oscar Ham
merstein, each in his ha Dit as he
lives or lived, and when ones mouth
was not open at the uncanny life
likeness Of the limitations it was
stretching earward at their Attic
humor. Liszt's warts alone brought
Mr.. Zimmerman 10 the paint-pot He
drsEs OF the wig and eyebrow after
each portrait TO show only his own
round, blue-eyed. simple, rosy counte-
nance. Remember that he has been
looking. as Lawrence D'Orsay would
say. like a boiled owl" as the dissi-
pated Metra: sallow and sturdy as
Hammerstein; round and rubicund as
Verdi; ivory-pale and asistocraticaIly
time-scored as Liszt. and you viii
understand something Of what Mr..
Zimmerman does.
] wondered If he knew any better
than most geniuses how he did the
thing. He doesn't. 1 went to ask
him
1t is the little things that make up
the big thing" he tried to explain Of
his methods. And Mr.. Zimmerman
really thinks so. He really thinks that
the dropped eyelid, long inqulsitive
chin and the thousand other little
tricks Of appearance and manner that
he has observed and reproduced make
up his startling portrait Of Richard
Wagner. Not any more, Mr.. thinner
man, than ten syIlables TO a line, and
f. IN lines automatically rhymed
make uD a Petrarch sonnet,
I met the actor at the Orpheum in
the boardroom. He had a dog that said
How -dye-do.' and a cane. I hadn't
time for the dog. though Mr.. thinner
nan gave me almost two hours. He
could have given me two weeks and not
have repeated himself. Zimmerman on
Russian conditions, on the American
vaudeville stage, as raconteur Of stories
Of the composers he has met-one is
simply in despair at the amount and
choice Of material.
The cane must be mentioned though.
though il is only one of scores of royal
souvenirs that the actor has in his pos
session. II is a fat. silver affair. COW
cred with signatures in gold and royal
crests Such names as Won Plehve,
Duke Sergius, Nikolai Mikaelovitch-
the 'wickedest man in Russia"-nOt
10 speak Of Maxim GOrki's, crowd one
upon another. The cane is q reminder
from the Car Of Russia of the pleasure
he took in the Zimmerman limitations
al Revoel on the 22d OF June, 1902.
when he and his brother Of Germany |
were solemnly entertained.
You noticed the big watch 1 took
out as Metra? ?" the actor asked me In
2 bv-the-Way sort OF manner.
] had.
Duke Sergius gave me that" he