The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-28
Julia Dean as a Demonstration
Salt Lake Girl In New Play. BY FRANKLIN FYlEs'

sic Janis in 1.-The Vanderbilt Cup
motored into theatrical Broadway last
week. Ellis Jeffreys does the same
thing in 1.-The Fascinating Mr.. Van
derveldt'' this week. To further con-
fuse the public as to who is who and
what is what, the automobile carries
the plot in both productions. NOW,
these ventures are handled by the
same manager, and presumably he
weighed the question whether the re-
semblanee in nomenclature would help
or hurt. Undoubtedly, a failure or the
first would have damaged the one that
came second. The decision seems TO
have been to take the risk, and 1 pre-
sumo the man who decided is pleased
with his shrewdness, or rather that he
guessed right-though not you, nor /,
nor anyone care, for the manager is
the last person whom we consider at
the theatre. Elsie Janis and the
Vanderbilt Cup come out Of the race
with a bigger prize than Ellis Jeffreys
and the "Vanderveldt" fascinator. so
the help is where the hurt might have
been. for last weeks E. j. and V. rec
ommends this weeks E. j. and V.
The automobile in ''The Fascinating
Mr.. Vandervelt'' is heard, but not
seen, yet the interest which slows UP
at the middle of the play, is then put
aboard the invisible motor-car and
speeded to the end. Vanderveldt IS an
Englishman with an American way OF
hustIing for the thing he desires. He
sets his heart on a Lady Clarice,
merry widow and epigTammatic hu-
morist. Applicants to be her second
husband are a judge, musician,
colonel and Vanderveldt. The lady
gets a lot of fun out of the quartette
of wooers by encouraging all and
choosing none. Besides being the
cheeky liar that we are apt to like on
the stage, if only he is good-humored,
VanderveIdt is q notorious rake, and
he resolves to utilize his bad reputa-
ton to win the widow by trick. He
induces her to go motoring with him
of an afternoon and contrives that the
/ car shall seem to break down at night
| fall fifty miles away, so that she Will
! have TO stay out with him until next
morning. He calculates that to avert
/ the scandal of an all-night escapade
with a famed fascinator of women, she
will become his fiancee.
The American Alfred Sutro, who
/ broke into London celebrity by throw
/ ing down ''The Walls of Jericho" has
written The Fascinating Mr.. Wander
veldt" to be a comedy of wits-the
woman's wit against the man's-and
| the writing is in the English, not the
/ American, manner Of witticism. Ellis
/ Jeffreys is a London Coincidence, and
! all of her companions have come over
with her, excepting Frank Worthing,
/ whom Augustin Daily brought to New
York many years ago, and who now
/ looks exactly as Daily did then. But
/ Sutro has been loyal to his native land
! (Which refused to make acquaintance
until he came back with an English
/ introduction for there is an American
/ girl in this comedy of manners among
English gentlefolk and she is not the
/ usual hOyden mink, but a nice, bright,
refined maiden.
The main oddly in Sutros play, how
ever, is rather risky. He doesn't LET
the audience get an inkling of Lady
! Clarice's choice of a husband though
she says she will take one of the four
candidates. until within five minutes OF
the final curtain. She laughs at them
all, and won't get very angry at the
wicked autoist. She doesn't indicate
an atom of sentiment, but only a
desire to amuse herself-and the audi
ence-with her seemingly heartIess
raillery. We are rather inclined tC
name Vanderveldt to win, as he surely
would if he were in a play Of Ameri-
can life. But at the tag she gives her
self, as though on a sudden impulse
10 the colonel.
Washington life in a boarding house
for minor employees of the government
Lady" and one Of its showings is how
q girl clerk from the treasury depart
ment goes to bed. The demonstrated
is a Julia Dean, who looks and acts
like NIaUde Adams, which is to say
that she is sweet and, dainty. Julia is
in her bedroom. Eva Davenport, as the
landlady, with her fat Embossed in {
gossip. Julia pretends to be sleepy anC
takes off her collar and belt hintfully
That's right" says Eva; "get into
something CONFERENCE.-The me-
Will Julia kindly oblige us? We are
much interested. She goes to a close
and takes a fiImy robe from its peg OF
the inside of the door. Will she pleas,
| let us see her get out of her daytime
frock of plain gray and into the whit
: nightie? The men in the audience ar
) hopeful and the women apprehensive
She disappears into the closet, anC
when she comes out she wears a nigh
gown so thin and a kimono so opel
, that it seems impolite to look at her
, But we do it. And isn't it odd tina
the women use all the opera glasses
: leaving the men to get along with eye
unaided? But Julia is modestly tricky
Her ankles are in sight through tn
gauzy fabric. and her calves even ar
5 discernible. but upwards the covering
is Opaque. Confound that petticoat!
Julia, soon rids herself Of Eva, an
t thinks she is alone, for she doesn'
, know of the thousand Peeping Tom
and Tables in the audience. In 81
lence she unbraids her bair an
e punches it snUglv. Will she take OF
, her slippers and stockings next? TIL
suspense Of uncertainty is tense. ]
this were a special request perform
r ance, probably she might denude he
o tootsies. AS it Is, she proceeds to lie
down a folding bed, turns back tn
{ coveTIid, places the pillow, and-squat
= on all tours to look under the bed.
is a folding bed, remember, and
man can't have got under it since sh
e let it down. but feminine timidity pre-
s walls. What if she should glanc
G across the footlights? Then q rap g
the door is heard; also, the voice of he
recreant lover; and when, with maiden
ly dcmur, she lets him in, the play be