Omaha daily bee., 1906-08-19
Gossip About Plays, Players and Playhouses

teaching Of the Puritans, which forbade
earthly JOY, considering IL q Zoe 20 saliva
ton. is a thing Of the past Modern chris
tianity does not stand for repression. and
does not oppose the pursuit OF pleasure
within legitimate bounds. Still the play Is
an interesting experiment, and. especially
for its open air setting, decidedly worthy
OF notice.
where Celebrities Fail.
The hit which Pincus, a fat newsboy, has
Just made In an extravaganza in New York,
in which he simply plays himself. draws at
tention to the fact that, although an au-
thority Of no less weight than Shakespeare
advised players to hold the mirror up to
nature, few actors really have succeeded
who have played themselves.
To play ones self successfully, OF course,
presupposes that there IL something OF
worth or interest to be played Managers
who know we'll the value Of the addition
to one of their companies OF a well ad-
vertised celebrity time out OF mind have
been placing upon the stage pugilists, d.
vorcees and other persons whose activities
outside the drama have made their names
familiar to the public. The manager rea-
sons about like this:
THE people Know all about So-and-so. II
would cost me thousands of dollars to make
any one else even half as widely known.
BY paying the celebrity a big salary
will got my money back many times over
from the curious, who want to see what
the celebrity Ia like"
.
In all but unusual cases the celebrity
merely is a stick so far as stage purposes
GO All that Is demanded of him or her
is that an appearance be made upon the
stage. John, the Orangeman," familiar
to every man who ever attended Harvard.
was placed In the drama, Brown in Har-
ward" and was greeted with great APP
plause He had been advertised heavily
But to show how carefully the line must
be drawn II must be remembered that when
John led a Harvard cheer the Harvard
men In the audience sat silent as stones
They had applauded John on his entrance,
but they refused to be led into enthusiasm
when he was trying to lead cheer.
Pincus was a newsboy IN front OF New
York theater, and was and is as tough as
any newsboy can be and remain within the
law He appeared as himself In the ILL
fated Fritz in Tammany Hail. and now
is coming success as himself in another
musical play. The Cherry sisters played
themselves with great eclat. They per-
formed 30 successfully that when their tour
OF the vaudeville houses was ended they
had money enough laid away to go back
to Iowa and invest In almost any old farm
that looked good to them.
Edward Harrigan of the old Harrigan and
Hart team was trotted out few seasons
ago to play himself after long period of
retirement. There was selected for him
one OF the best of the old Harrigan and
Hart successes. 1t failed to hit the ad-
vanced taste Of today's theater- goers, al
though later Mr.. Harrigan re-established
himself as a star Of some merit.
James ]. Corbett Is the man who preemi-
nently played himself with success. He
was placed in the drama merely as a prize
fighter. He drew large money for W. A.
Brady. Grace Georges husband, who had
the sagacity to put him on the stage. But
he refused to be walking -stick He
went from "Gentleman jim" 'The En-
sign" and other melodramas into musical
comedy and thence into vaudeville, where
he does an act that is 30 cleverly put to-
gether and so well rendered that 1t would
command big money even though Corbstt
had not his prize ring fame to fall back
on. Clara Morris was persuaded to leave
the lecture platform. upon which she
had been appearing for several years. and
to reappear in emotional drama. A small
part was given her. but she did not make
that great success that was expected Of
her. The sudden death of that fine actor,
e. J. Morgan. made 1t impossible for
Miss Norris to play herself into drama
in which he was to be starred. 1t had
been arranged that Miss Morris work was
to be made as easy for her as possible
Her managers figured that she would
draw the money" through ner name alone
seotty the Spender who made q stir
some months ago by spending a lot of
money in a short time, played himself in
a wild melodrama called "Scotty; or, the
King of the Desert Mine" He was fierce
The luckless Evelyn Nesbit was placed
upon the stage to play herself 1t was
thought that her marvellous beauty would
help her out. Il didn't. She ogled her