Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-08

NOTES BY THE
MATINEE MAN

| turned on national airs of all countries,
and some one recalled that Sousa had
compiled the best existing collection of
such airs.
What is the Japanese national an
/. them, Mr.. Sousa?" inquired one of the
| ladies present.
II would play it for you on the
piano" said Sousa, 'if there were some
one here who could sing the vocal
| part"
! An amateur tenor volunteered, and as
he made his way to where Sousa sat
| the latter leaned over and whispered
| something to the lord mayor and lady
mayoress which seemed literally to con-
vulse them with laughter.
Sousa wrote the words of the text on
a piece of paper and explained aloud
that the time of the Japanese anthem
was the same as that of the English
God Save the King" and that all the
singer had to do was to sing that
melody and pronounce the Japanese
words precisely as they were spelled.
| Accordingly, up rose the willing war;
bier, and burst out with the following
lyric:
30 wa ia ma syam, An sy-a-a-am."
i He was only stopped by roars of de-
lighted laughter, led by that of the
lord mayor for of course, the luckless
tenor had been singing: 'Oh, what an
ass am;"
Letters from New York to the Be
lasco tell me that David Warfield is
gripping the public there hard. War
field has played Herr Won Barwig in
1.-The Music Master, in New York
more than 500 times.
+, The haf-thousandth performance by
the popular Belasco star was celebrate
ed at the Bijou theater. The theater
was tastefully decorated, bower of
| fragrant flowers against background
of flags. A number of distinguished
personages were present. 1t was a
memorable night in every way. Mr..
Warfield and his colleagues. imbued
with the spirit of the OCCASION threw
themselves into their work with un-
usual vigor. Speeches were made by
Mr.. Beasco and Mr.. Warfeld and
there was reception on the stage
| after the fall of the final curtain.
There is no lessening of interest in
this sympathetic play 1t will run in
| New York until hot weather makes it
impossible to continue any longer, and
it's third year in the metropolis will
begin in September.
Press Agent Bartlett of the Orpheum
has advices from Denver that Ruth
| Bryan Leavitt, daughter of the Ne
braska politician, has become a dram
atist. 1t became known that she had
written a one-act sketch entitled Mrs.
| S. Holmes. Detective" which will be
produced on the Orpheum circuit at
Salt Lake for the first time April 16.
/ 1t is now being rehearsed in Denver
under the auspices of Mrs. Margaret
Fealy.
/ The sketch was written on dare six
/ months ago that Mrs. Leavitt could not
write better play than they were wit
| Messing The dare was taken up and
| as a result Mrs. Leavitt has produced
a sketch which looks so good to her
friends that she has refused to sell the
rights to it.
Mrs. Leavitt married an artist few
years ago and lived for a time in the
i Ozarks in Missouri and in New Orleans,
and at both places accumulated ma
terial for sketches, her intimate friends
say.
The hackneyed question, Do man.
ayers really read plays submitted by
an unknown writer? was put to me
again, and 1 got Manager Oliver
| Morosco to answer it for me. Here is
what he says:
"That question might be paraphrased
into Does the manager know good
thing when he sees it?' We all make
mistakes of course, but the yarn that
i a manager won't look at play writ
ten by an obscure author is rot. L
am reading plays all the time, and SO
are other managers In the east they
have even play readers. Even these
are not to be depended upon"
Now what Mr.. Morosco says is what
YOU could get reliably from any other
of the local and other managers
Il From upstate a letter has reached
i Manager Seamans of the Hotchkiss that
Frederick Warde's lecture tour has
come to an abrupt end. Differences be-
/ tween Mr.. Warde and his manager were
i the principal reasons, but bad busi-
ness had much to do with it. Mr..
Warde was booked to play at the
Victory in San Jose. He Cancelled.
/ claiming his manager had no right to
book a Sunday night lecture. Later in
Monterey Mr.. Warde's receipts were
! attached by the Victory management,
who refused to pocket the costs of adj
vertising and printing all alone.
Marion Brooks, head of the Kentucky
I homegoing exodus in Los Angeles, and
Manager John Blackwood of the Be
lasco were discussing blue grass state
affairs the other day. Lawyer Brooks
thinks there are no songs like Ken
lucky songs and pointed out two of his
favorites, "Mollie Darling and 1.-THE
Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"
| These songs were written forty years
| ago by Will S. Hays, the river poet of
Louisville. Mr.. Blackwood has scrap
book of songs and southern ditties are
numerous in the collection.
/ A very rocky time it was that Little
Johnnie Jones" had before he began
a tardy engagement in the Mason last
week; rather very wet one, though
rocks lin tunnel, not the box office)
caused it. I'm reminded of Charles
Hanfords experience a year ago; he
likewise was marooned somewhere
beyant the Tehachapi. If we are not
| careful that Tehachapi will become q
hoodoo to the travelling companies
booked for Los Angeles. Too bad for
"Johnnie," but he was worth waiting
for, after all.
Miss Constance Crawley, whose i'm
personation of "Everyman" and whose
acting in many Shakespearean roles
have made familiar to Los Angeles