The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-12
TRAGEDY UNDER. THE FLOOR,
ACTOR "JERANDE COLLARS Hrs
MANAGER AND PRESS AGENT.

BiJOu Audience Enjoys an Echo Of the Joys
OF the COulisses Before Les JOles
du Foyer Comes to Ttme-Hcnri
MaIlIard Intervcnes rs Peacemaker.
The audience at the Soiree Concert at
the Bijou we're all in their seats last night
waiting for the performance of Les Joies
d. Foyer" to begin. But instead OF a per-
Torrance on the stage they were treated
TO hat sounded like the rehearsal Of a
French melodrama.
"Sacre crapaud de poltron" was followed
by some scufiing and heavy stamping in
hi depths below the parquet. After an
interval the voices rose again and the au-
dience heard somebody cry: -Je ne signerai
pas les papiersl"
There was more scufling.
The gsmins in the gallery caught the
spirit Of the performances and applauded
wildly. In the midst OF the general commo-
ton, with stamping overhead and rImb-
lings underground. while the chandeliers
we're jingling, Louis V&rande rushed out
upon the stage, and began to explain what
the matter was.
He told the audience that he had origi-
mated the idea of the soiree concerts last
season. His partner, Louis Coblentz, had
financed it in part. But last season the
scheme lost money. Verande was $500 out
Of pocket. When it started up again this
season and the show began to pay Coblentz
tried, said Verande, to put him out with
only a 10 per cent. share in the profits
Verande said that he would not play on
that basis. just to oblige the audience,
he added, he would play this once, so that
they wouldn't have to ask for their money
back. Only the Coblentz faction would
have to agree TO turn the proceeds over
to the Societe de Renaissance F~rancaise.
The audience here took a HAND in the
doings and 80 loudly that the speech could
not go on. The gallery cheered the idea Of
turning the proceeds over to charity with
disinterested enthusiasm; the orchestra
Henry Maillard. who was in the audience,
went behind the scenes to try to make
peace. He finally returned above stairs
with sweat on his brow, but announcing
that the show would go on for that night
only. Verande and his wife, who also
plays in the company, had insisted on
resigning on the spot; Coblentz, who was
nursing a mangled collar, insisted that they
must leave the company forthwith. On
that understanding, then, the Verandes
went on the stage for one last performance.
|erande, who plays the bearded French
man in The Music Master" surpassed
himself in the play, despite a rather warm
and tousled surface. The old stAgers
whispered that he had never acted with
more spirit. He evidently put hid best
into his swan song.
Vt the washstands below. Coblentz and
jules Louis ElsOn, the ger and the
press agent, were applying hot water to
their bruises The bruises we're got in the
preliminary arguments which the audience
had heard through the floor.
When Coblentz had said that he would
not sign the papers Of a new contract that
the dissatisfied actor held before him,
Verande seized him, and they rolled around
in a tangle of costumes and scenery until
the cast pulled them apart. Then Verande
got at Elson. the press agent. and rolled
around in the spare scenery with him
When the cast got these two separated
It split up into three detachments to keep
the three principals apart. After cooling
down a little VHrande ran up on the stage
and addressed the audience.
As for the treasurer, Campbell. when
he heard the word "~rembourser" uttered
sew eral times in the course of the speech
he locked up the box Office safe and went
away.
h cast say that only blood will wipe
out the dishonor to the various rumpled
collars.