The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-01-20

weeks new plays in New York; yet 1
have amused myself uncommonly In
fooling around with their unimportant
saliences, and maybe l can write read
ably about them. Two yawp and kick
shows are THE Mimic and the Maid
and 1.-THE Girl From Broadway" They
are funny by intention and otherwise.
Allen loves scheme for THE Mimic
and the Maid" was to give a show
within q show. A professional COM
pany quits work when a new piece is
about 10 be produced, and the director
employs a VillS IS amateurs instead.
The action shows n rehearsal of these
novices. Now, it mischances, really,
that the actual company has been
brought into Broadway TO stop gap,
and with insufficient preparation. Thus
we have professional actors making be-
lieve that they are amateur actors, and
at the same time they are as raw in
fact as they mean to merely pretend
to be. There is, therefore. one play
within another play, and that other
play is within still another play.
Lillian Russells daughter Do
rothy's debut will serve as an Illus
.stration of the unreadiness. Dorothy
had sung in vaudeville on trial, and at
a charity matinee with mamma, and
all of the theatrical knowers were cu-
behave as an actress. Dorothy has
rome of LilIian's beauty, and not much
of her voice; yet she is a comely girl,
and-I give 1t as a guess-she will de-
velop more than Lillians dramatic
talent. However. she made a bad be-
ginning. In her vaudeville essay she
had been charmingly apologetic in
manner; in her legitimate effort she
seemed saucy to the point of impu-
dence. Dorothy is too self confident =
said enc "She is scared out of her
wits" said another. The girl was
striving to delineate a brash amateur,
and, being an amateur i'm fact, her ner-
vous energy made her oveTdo the as
SUMPTION.
No dramatist has ever yet made Of
fectual use OF our first president on the
stage: but lots of stuff derived from
the present president, i'm one way or
another is of more or less theatrical
value. Dorothy Russel's best five
minutes in The Mimic and the Maid
were those ir which she led chorus
OF girls with Teddy bears" No mU-
steal farce nowadays tries TO do with
out two sets of young women-tall
ones I'm the gowns and drawing room
department and Gibson girls and
short ones in the frocks and frisks of
nursery children. 'Roasts" and "broil-
ers'' are those birds" in the parlance
OF the stage Dorothy and the "broil-
ers" come out with Teddy bears in
their arms, ooddle. caress and coo To
them like doll babies, and finally. set
ting them on their hind legs-the
stuffed cubs hind legs-dance to them.
Then occurs the dramatic surprise, the
sensational wonder, the marvel or real
ism. The TEDDY bears" each show
/ In &c IN
dance with the clockwork that has been
wound UP within them. And the mu-
sic of the ambitious A. Baldwin Sloana,
under the baton of a highly impressive
director. times itself to the hopping of
dozen mechanical Teddy bears"
While Dorothy Russell led the
''broilers.'' Janet Melville led the
"roasts;" that is, the tall contingent
of Gibson girls. Could this Janet be the
Melville Of Melville and Stetson, the
vaudeville team? Yes. There was the
fat Evie Stetson, as a wardrobe wO-
laan, butting funnily into the rehear-
sal. and it really was her longtime va
riety show partner who, as society
woman. displayed with seemingly eff
fortress ease the quite correct aspect
of a STnart-Set belle.
This account of the birth Of 1.-THE
Mimic and the Maid" is also its Obit-
uary record. for it is dead after two
performances. Extinguished are the
lights that lettered it's title among
Broadways fiery promises of pleasure.
Pasted into scrap books are the adver-
Using agents tales of Dorothy Rus
sells personal doings, including some
of her taking Mamma Lillian Russells
toy terrier out for a walk, on encoun-
tering a bulldog, and having an ear
bitten off the little dog by the big dog
i'm spite of the girls fearless attempt
at n rescue. Why, yes-there are
newspaper jays right here in fly New
York to print such rot-sometimes
" it'll joke marks, yet sometimes with
no indication that the editor isn't q
chumD.
To half-price theatre off Broadway
comes 1.-THE Girl From Broadway" She
might as well hail from the Strand OF
London, the Champs Elysee of Paris
or Under den Linden of Berlin. as snC
has no characteristics local to any
where on earth outside Of Stageland
The actress is pretty Grace Esmond
who may have brought her niceties OF
charm from Fifth avenue, so inbred dc
they look. The character is a runaway
rider from circus. Her author, Her
bert Hall Winslow, says she is a lost
heiress, with a birthmark on her ell
bow: and it might me. discovered ear
lier i'm the play, as her gown IS sleeve
less. but for the fact that her knees are
more actively in sight. She is but one
Of three soubrettes in the company
which has also five comic comedians
with an aggregate of talent sufficient
If concentrated i'm one, TO make an
actor worth the five salaries. This is
far better show than the one thai
died in the borning, and is going to live
vigorously enough to make a round OF
the lower price circuits, although there
is nothing uncommon in it,
y
David 3. Hill, former governor. and
aspirant to the presidency, is proud to
own and live in Wolfert's Roost, once
the costly home at Albany Of Joseph
h. Emmett. the actor. Emmett was a
sweet-singing and neat-dancing negro
Minstrel when Charles Foster pro-
life writer of plays, hearing him speak
and yodel with German accent. con-
ceived the idea of Fritz, Our Cousin
German" Out of Joe Emmets result.
ing fortune came Worfelts Roost
There were many imitators of Emmett
hut no one duplicated his charm OF
singing to the hearts of audiences
Chauncey Olcott and Andrew Mack
warbled their Irish way into the vogue