The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-29
BIG new HIPPODROME SHOW.
yONDROIS SPECT ACLES AMAZED
AND MYSTIFIED AUDIENCE.
Ncrmalds and Men DIspOrt In the water
~ II Born to n N Compressed Hun alo
Hills WIld West With Real indians and
war Dance-Ncw Circus Acts.

NhNh = w. WV
n war Dance-Ncw circus Acts.
The HippOdrome made a new recor for
scenic and mechanical effects last night.
The audience which turned out there to
$40 The new show were treated 20 a series of
spcctacles made possible only by such a
gigantic playhouse. Indeed, it made many
wonder if the limit has not been reached
IN such displays.
For most of the time last night the audi
ence was alternately holding its breath and
breaking into wild applause at the sight Of
mernaids and men popping full arInC d from
the sea and disappearing again without any
more difficulty than so many sea monsters
would nave in disporting themselves.
The new show has three parts to it and
some Of the parts have several scenes.
Consequently, it took a long time for the
whole to be revealed in all its variety. Even
the circus acts which came in between the
twu spcctacles was composed almost en-
tirely of new acts.
tor the first part of the show a piece
called Pioneer Days" was presented. This
was a sort of compressed Buffalo Bills
Wild Vest. Put o IN a stage with Indians
and all the gunpowder Accomplishments, il
was a thriller in more WAYS than one In
the first place there were forty real Sioux
indians who seemed to feel as much at
ZONE on the stage "a in the arena OF the
Garden or on the plains.
The first scene of this piece was a frontier
encampment. and then there followed a
scene in the mountains where the Indians
execute a war dance and wait for the stage
loaded with white squavs and gold to ar
rve. The stage artist had done his best
Ia make the setting wild and weird for
the dance of the redskins. They were all
m it. even TO Miss Rose Sitting Bull, aged
? months. She didn't do the war dance.
but Master George Spotted Weasel, who
wasn't "A great deal older, did IL hanging
on to his mother in a way to bring forth
cheers. which he probably didn't care a
hang about.
some of the bucks had speaking parts in
This. The audience didn't quite grasp what
they had to say, for it wars in Sioux. There
was a weird chant in the ann strange
tongue, which the cultural voices of the
Indians sent rolling out over the seats in
front, and sent chills along spines at the
thought Of what they might do If they
weren't friends of the white men of the
wild riot Of color, combined to make it all
that the small boy might picture in his
dreams, Last night 1t had the old men en-
thralled. too.
The Indians disappear down a road, the
stagecoach rolls onto the stage, and there
Is a battle which finally ends when the
soldiers come and dispense the Indians after
more gunplay than the ~Hippodrome has
ever ratified with before. In this battle
and in the events leading up to it horses
galloped about the stage as freely as il the
mountains we're real and the turf was the
turf If the plains.
But il was the piece that came later that
perhaps woke the audience up 10 what
the Hippodrome and its water tank could do
in the hands of stage mechanicians, who
in tbfa ,aaa unltaf haua dana a kffla IN bu-
draulic engineering, too. In +Neptune's
Daughter there were novelties that made
the ~plunging horses and the previous
aquatic events soem tame.
The piece Is by Manuel Klein and Edward
p. Temple and the water effects are the in
vention of II. L. Bowdoin. The programme
didn't explain how Mr.. Bowdoin turned
show girls into the real thing in mermaids,
but suffice it to say that il was done some
how, and the audience, to Judge from eN-
pressions, would like to know how.
In the first act a village in Brittany ia
shown. While the fisher folk are merry
making a storm comes. 1t Is such a storm
as makes you van to turn up your coat
collar. The whitecaps come tumbling in
on the beach and in the midst of il all a
hip comes ashore. There is a rescue by
the fishermen, which paves the way for
the next act.
The village il seen again, this time with
the tank in front. The lover of the girl
lFoNhCu al NtlC BNOAA II 10 NJCN1NN VAAAA u
holiday is on and calls desperately upon
Neptune TO help him. Then from out
the green depths between the audience
and the players there arises a mermaid
clad in scaly raiment. She doesn't seem
a bit out OF breath, either.
For a second or two she seemed a little
unsteady on her pins, but that was all.
As she invites all mortals to descend with
her beneath the waves another and another
mermaid appears. In fact the water seems
10 be popping up mermaids in all directions.
They don't have a soaked appearance.
either. The fishermen plunge in after
them, but they come out soused, while the
mermaids ave disappeared beneath the
waves again without one lone bubble to
show where they had been.
Next there rises in the same miraculous
manner a barge c~aptained by old Nep
himself and filed with me II comes
up as easily as a submarine. The village
maiden is taken aboard and down goes the
boat. As they go those mermaids smile
at you as IL they were taking the easiest
dip in the world and the ocean depths were
a. pleasant to breathe in as the lobster
palaces above.
The last act OF his piece is more wonder
ful. with feats performed under the water,
even to a wedding ceremony. The aquatic
stunts were sufficiently novel TO make peo-
pie sit up late, for it was almost midnight
before the show was over.
There were some tuneful musical num-
bers, but it was to the eye rather than TO
the ear that the show appealed. Some OF
the new circus acts last night were the
CurzOn sisters, who did gyrations in the
air hanging by their teeth; the four Hollo-
ways, who do some marvellous work OF
a tightrope, and some performing stations
that do all but talk.