The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-24

III play of the best talent we have seen
 It also affords the scenic artists a chance to present four beautiful pic- lures. First there is the North Caro-
 lima hotel with its background of pine trees and forest stream: second, a nat ural and artistic picture of water tank station on a railroad; third, the woodlands of North Carolina, and
 fourth the drawing room of a New ! York mansion of wealth and breeding. It should be said right here that the man with whom the audience fell in | love with was Frederick V. Bowers one of the really great entertainers of the American stage. Mir. Bowers play ed minor part, that of breezy l American drummer whose fortunes were temporarily linked with others ir the story. Of course this character was introduced to give Mir. Bowers a chance to sing. He sings q song in robust and mellow baritone, but 1t was his method of action that caught the audience. He was so spontaneous, so obliging and so natural that the great audience figuratively took him into US arms and hugged him 4n> its satisfac-
 tion. ''Sweethearts in Every Town" stirring march song, accompanied by twelve beautiful sweethearts in ray- lshing gowns was so captivating that
 Mir Bowers and the girls responded to at least six encores. Then when he sang 'NfOOu-bye lSlSp dS- sisted by the whole chorus, the audi ence was wildly enthusiastic. He was recalled at least a dozen times and had to stop through sheer exhaustion. Mir Bowers has the good sense to real | ize that audiences away froms New York have tired of dear old Broad l way and so he extemporized at least | five verses in which 1t was made to 1 appear that everything in Montgom-
 cry is all right. Aren't we glad lie thinks so?
 | It is a pity that Mir. Bowers dir.'t ] baVe a song in the last act. There was great disappointment when he appeared
 in the audience at its beginning.
 If there had been but two actors, Mo- | Intyre and Heath, on the stage last
 night, the audience would have gotten it's moneys worth. They stand alone | in the procession of minstrelsy. They had new jokes and they were told in such an indescribably funny way that there were men in the audience who
 never stopped laughing at any moment during the entertainment. Their
 show" is great in its artistic environ
 ment, but Mcintyre and Heath are Still greater as entertainers, and the audi l ence did not have enough of their fun | albeit there was much of it.
 Jobyna Rowland, said to be the tall- est woman on the American stage, was l the Mrs Nickelbacker of the cast. She l Is graceful, gracious and pretty, too pretty and too young fin fact to appear as the mother of Carolyn Gordon, who played Tessie. But we uncover to
 Misses Rowland and Gordon. They flled in every bit of the picture. and it
 was a picture that all of us will re-
 member.
 Mir. Field, q comical juggler, and an exceptionally clever comedian, had part similar to that of The Unknown" in George Cohan's Little Johnny
 Jones'" He was cast as Sherlock Raf- fles, an ubiquitous tramp chap" sort
 of person, who was always present
 without apparent reason. The audi
 ence took to him nightly and he sup
 piled his share of the diversion. Mir Fisher in the straight comedy
 role of Mir. Nickelbacker, MT. Huff as
 Everhart. the manager of the min
 MT. Johnson as Ponson6y' valet. and maid in love with Alexander Hamble- tonian, filled every requirement. Miss
 Gold. was especially successful In por- traying an octoroon maid.
 But The Ham Tree" will be record
 ed in our minds with especial tender ness because of its beauty department.
 There were thirty girls in the chorus.
 We confess to lively interest in them and we counted them. They ranged
 from the tall and statuesdue to dear little darlings with brown curls. As for cuTls there were peroxide blondes, and there were girls with hair as black as the ravens wing. There were girls in the double row whose tresses were too red to be classed as auburn and there were girls of brown tresses. They are pretty every one of them and they went about their work just like 1t was pleasure.
 The girls were helped along in their
 deviItry by twelve handsome youths
 who are we'll trained and whe stood in
 the background and lifted their voices
 while the female department was
 lifting it's skirts nearer the footlights.
 The men and women of the chorus
 changed their costumes some ten or
 twelve times, and each time the audi
 ence gasped at the revelation of raj
 ment.
 One could fill every column in this
 newspaper with praise of "The Ham
 Tree" but presses and fast mall trains
 are waiting. and we must content our
 selves with congratulating Klaw and
 Erlanger on assembling so macy
 worthy players together. They have
 done better than Weber and Fields and
 others who exact more money from
 the public.
 Mary Marble in Nancy Brown" at
 A..a +hoo4rn tbfs and t0nInhf