The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-22
THE GRAND.


 THE GRAND.
 Wednesday, naatinee and nlgAt-fThe
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 THE MAJESTIC.
 Renned vaudeville and moving ple- tures entire week.
 For the first week this season the theatre was without an attraction. the only one being booked for The Grand last week falling to show up. 'Dr. Jekyl and MT. Hyde" was billed to ap- pear last Wednesday night but failed 10 show up, and so far the manage ment has heard nothing from the show. t
 Five attractions were booked for this week. but one of these cancelled. The remaining four. however, are excellent organizations and will make up for the dark nights during last week. John Grtflth, who was billed to play Rich ard IT," cancelled his engagement here.
 ~The Great Divide.
 The long awaited great American play as The Great Divide" has been called by many critics, will be present. cd under the direction of Henry Miller Wednesday at The Grand (Christmas) matinee and night, with Mir. Miller's magnificent production which deeply impressed New York audiences for over 500 performances during the past two seasons at The Princess and later at Daly's Theatre. Playgoers will see this virile, moving. picturesque drama, with it's sweep of passion and depth or sent iment. exactly as it was given in the metropolis, with the entire original pro- auction and a superb company of ca- pablo artists. The Great Divide" was written by William Vaughn Moody. the distinguished American poet and pro- lessor of English Literature. In this play MT. Moody put blank verse and rhyme behind him, writing in unctious. vigorous prose. proving himself as much a master of direct human dis course as of fanciful utterance in dac- tyls and spondees. Notwfthstandfng that .The Great Divide" is prose. a true poets imagination and feeling is perceptible in it's conception and treat ment. The play takes its name from the section of the country in which the first part of the play Is represent ed as taking place, the Rocky Moun- tains--nature's great dividing line be- tween the East and the West There is deeper significance than this in the title. however The play presents a struggle between the Spirit of the East and the Spirit of the West, fight Of tradition as opposed to unfettered na- ture The great division between the conventionality. prudishness and false pride of the old restricted communities and the blunt chiyalry and honesty of the plains and mountains forms the keynote. Ruth Jordan, descended from a long line of New England ancestors whose lives and thoughts are reflected in her goes to Arizona and there meets Stephen Ghent, of no lineage but with innate nobility of manhood and sound- ness of heart. Their meeting Is strange. their romantic wooing more strange. and their embittered life and antagonistic marital relations stranger still. The purpose of the drama is to reconcile these antithetical natures through combined logic and 1ove-the latter of course being the main decid- ing factor. Thus the play is pure dra- ma; the struggle of man and woman, and the triumph of love over birth. en- vfronment, custom and all other show of discouragement. News Of the tri- umphs won by the author and producer of this truly great play has been her- aided by the dramatic reviewers throughout all America. It is admitted beyond question that no American drama ever produced has achieved so great a success. That great demand to see this typical American drama IS unprecedented may be understood when one realized that over half million people paid to see the drama during the New York run.
 ~A Message From Mars"
 "A Message from Mars" which will be presented here again at the Grand Thursday night tells the story of Hor- ace Parker an Englishpan. upon whom fortune has bestowed some of it's most substantial blessings of life. He has youth, health, wealth, pleasing exterior. a charming sweetheart, to whom he is engaged to be married, but he is beset by two vices. which are by no means uncommon in the general run of mankind He is richly endowed with seIf-conceit and a selfshness that seems without limit. At the beginning of the play his supreme indifference to the happiness and comfort of those about him nearly costs him the love of his betrothed who is a sweet, innocent, patient and self-sacrificing maiden. She is his opposite in every way She is angered at his indifference at a re- quest she has made of him to order for her cab on stormy night to drive to the home of a friend. She leaves him in anger and he coolly sits down to read an essay on the planet Mars. when he is visited by one of its inhab- itants, whose mission to earth Is to re- form the most selfish man alive and this is Horace Parker. Mir. Parker is at once subjected to heroic treatment. The messenger first reduces him to complete tameness by means of potent electric currents. then takes him around town In the snow. shows him