The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-20

heiress kidnapped by a gang of crin-
 inals, Fritz appears in the disguise of a bibulcus woman tramp, and shifts the drugged whiskey which has been prepared for the girls ruination. so that the several scoundrels dope them
 selves with it. Thereupon Fritz sings
 a ballard, with the refrain, I'm So
 Sleepy, Sleepy Now" The tune and
 the voice sound like hush-a-bye-baoy. but the luAed ones are the drowsed
 sots. and the words tell both the heir- ess and the founding how to escape
 Strolling Broadway in quest of nov city, I find the names of Rose Cogh- Ian. Marie Dressler, Ethel Levy and Russell Brothers lit up on the fronts
 of vaudeville theatres. Jimmie Rus sells health is so bad that he can't act
 throughout a long play any more, and it is a pity that John isn't the one to
 give out. Not that John may not be a
 better fellow than Jimmie, but 1t Is Jimmie who makes folks laugh with his screaming Irish servant girl. That caricature was transferred, severaA years ago. from a sketch into dramaS with Jimmies screams so much louder and longer that they brought on bron- chitis. After a rest, he and John have returned to the vaudeville, and on go- ing in to see what they are doing find that 1t is "The Irish Servant Girls" in its old-time version. And ev- cry scream that hurts Jimmie tickles the unknowing audience the same as ever. Stage fun is serious business. sometimes.
 Ethel Levy is another proof that comedians don't always smile because they can't help it. George Conan and his wife, Ethel, sang and danced 5oI- lily together in his extravaganzas. ana
 he wrote songs within the small com
 pass of her voice, giving her things to
 do that reached tho utmost of her ability without going beyond 1t. Yet suddenly she quits his company, sues for divorce and becomes a vaudeville | top-liner, with fifteen minutes of sing | ing and dancing taken from the roles
 she has acted in his plays. That seems to open up a cross account of royalty and alimony, doesn't 1t?
 Marie Dressler's vaudeville outbreak Is with burlesQues of Louise Leslie Carter and Blanche Bates in characters which David Belasco prepared for them.
 Marie no moro than initiates Miss aBtes
 as the Darling of the Gods, and the Girl of the Golden West; but her fun
 with Mrs. Carter's Du Barry Is a tra-
 vesty of the bedroom scene, with the I OSAf operating a wooden image of her wounded lover as a ventriloquist does
 a dummy, and finally hiding him from
 his enemies by amply sitting on him. | Marie is the coarsest actress that ever
 was so funny that you can't blame her. l The other woman emblazoned on the | vaudeville signboards. Rose Coghlan,
 compels me to remember that she
 played in Forget -Me-Not" so long ago
 that Lester Wallack was alive and she
 was the feminine leader of his com
 pany. Her present piece, "rhe Ace of
 Trumps," is a condensation of the dra-
 ma that stirred New York and Lon | don thirty years ago. The details are
 so altered as to be wholly different:
 yet their trend is absolutely the same. l The notorious adventuress has become | genuinely repentant and desirous of leading a virtuous life. Her adver- | sary in the verbal duel Is not a former | lover, fighting for his sweetheart sister, but the son of the woman's dead | lover combating her demand to meet
 his fiancee in reputable society. The | twenty minute limit prevents the sub
 plot of the fierce foreigner, lurking in
 shadows, thirsting for Roses gore; but | 1t permits the effective climax of the beaten sinners equalization. with its
 showy manifestations of horror. This
 crouching, trembling exit of the van
 ouished adventures was the talk of | the theatrical town in Wallackian days,
 and. reproduced by this still splendid actress, it thrills vaudeville audiences. One of New York's handsome thea
 tres was built by the millionaire Goe-
 lets right alongside their own fashion able part of the town, almost within
 snifing distance of Astor and Wander bilt residences. and meant to. be tenn,