Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-11-16
, DEsERET EVENING NEWS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16 1907

b. staged without no many poinstaking
dataiie without great labor. sud q num-
bar nf neoplo There are is pieces OF
bacgaae to a. and whom ready for the
transfer van the equipment wcghe
2 ZOO pounds. In The act eight different
people appear and some oi ihcm do 20
little that one wonders how tho artistic
gonse of the author could huvc td-
up,uhed over the business sense 0f the
management 20 such am extent that the
company was made so large to add
it, Anal touches OF excellence to au
nct that would be good without them.
THE answer was easy. ouco Air.
Reeves had been made q party OBJ the
query.
,'You gco" be said while tho patoI
OF the clog dancing echoed through hi-
little dressing room "tho author nf tnI1
pieces Is william McCsllum. He le not
a literary man-thnt is in reputation.
he is thcgtricul manager and Ni.
atand H. at the Cook Orcw House. To
owns in addition a number of plays
one of them is the sunny South that
was here lately. Tic loved Riley. that
is I .rposo be must hoVc--auI went t1
work with years OF theatrical eNrer-
cnco to express this love Doc l'lC act
into which he could throw OFFS heart
much more completely IMAM one doc.
into ordinary business
And vou-are YOU just o. reader ou-
ploycd for this actor do You take t1
Riley more than the staso'
NEPHEW OF SINS REEVES.
"Thc stage end is mime J guess"
came the reply. almost % surprise 20
the listener. II have been on ino stage
an my life ] happened t0 accept au
offer 10 read this part whi'o the act
was being tried out ON The dogs as
we call IT, and when the reader who had
been engaged TO come from London are
rived HIS Impression was so poor on the
audience that I was sent Tor again, and
have been with the act since. $50. ] am
not readcr-but an actor Sims Reeves
If YOU are acquainted with iloatricals
across the water. you win know him
was my uncle. Our family 81 an old
theatrical one.
Thon the stage was ready for the
Riley act. The curtain went up ana
with soft lights through the room. Mir.
Reeves began 90 read the beautiful limos
OF one Of Riley's children poems. The
silence from the front became deeper
with each verse. ana hunting around
The scenery az the rear the man with
the electric lights was encountered.
'I can't trust this work TO am assist
amt ~ explained. AS the whole effect
depends on keeping close harmony be-
tween the reader and the light effects
MI COddingtOn had a lot 90 do manipu-
laung a dozen or more switches with a
large DINNER controlling them dll-the
whole apparatus being boxed in d way
to be- carried along. Ike every other
feature OF the act.
Mr. Coddingtou is the personal repre-
sentative Of the author and he is man
aver Of the act. His booking list shows
that DO has "a steady run ahead OF it
without utermissious until the week Of
June s. 1909 lie was present when it
was first brought out last February,
and he told of how 60 was tried out in
Lynn Mass. and developed Tor three
weeks. then taken down Co New York.
where it's reception was so good that &c
was Immediately taken hy the Keith
and Orpheum circuit ion Two rum sea-
sons OF bookings
LIVED IN SALT LAKE
An interesting feature 90 Mr. Cod
dington's lifc is that his boyh0od was
spent Ia salt Lake. and hc got his
grammar grade schooling in the old
Fourteeath ward school, the first of the
modern schoOlhouses Miss Carney 3hd
Miss Straup being tho teachers Dee re-
members among those who read him
the rules OF spelling and assigned him
arithmetic lessons
His father came here iu 1891 as west
cru representative OF thr Tobacco
trust Ten years later. after the son
had gone tD Now York 10 begin a. ca
reer. the father was taken seriously ill
here and died Boz 1901 young Codding-
ton being informed of the death by wire
at Laramie as he was coming west on
the Overland. Tho funeral was held
here. and the father now lies buried I'm
the Masonic plot ~ the cemetery.
Since then the son has worked his way
up through the chorus or the stewart
Opera company 90 leading parts, and
thau jumped from these 10 the manage
mout of the Riley act which now takes
up his time The family lived iu the
| Roybould house ON Fifth South and
West Temple. and were well known IN
the old days for their entertainments,
their guests being principally Liberal
party and newspaper men.
As Mr. Coddington explained his
work. the applause from the front as
MIR. Reeves walked on the stage after
the third curtain call suggested how the
act grows on am audience, This was
Thursday and the curtain calls we're
three, Monday there was only one.
Each member OF tho audience felt a
little nearer 90 Riley, no doubt. as he
walked out. and back I'm the Hoosier
state the man who was the uucou-
sclous recipient Of the tribute OF praise
given by both audience and perform
ance, was possibly working away on
some new echo from the nations heart
strings that with those We Of salt Lake
heard ihis week. viii go TO keep alive
his memory as long as love and Lam
guage remain, with hearts that demand
their Interpretation into melody and
rhyme n is not probable that tho
/ little act viii see Its last performance
when It's booking expire on June 8. 1903.