Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-06
KENDALL HAS
FUN SHOW
PROGRAM so DEsIeNATEs 1T AND
DESCRIPTION FITS
OPENING OF MASON SEASON Is
AUsPlcIoUs
star Tails Funny Stories and Cracks
Funny Jokes in Way That
Keeps Audience in Con-
slant Laughter

TNZRA KENDALL opened weeks en-
n gagement at the Mason last night
IL in Swell Elegant JONES', dis
tinctly Kendall vehicle. The play, II IL
NAV properly be so classed, serves mere
Nv as an excuse for the star, albeit an
ENJOYABLE one Swell Elegant Jones' Is
Kendall and Kendall by the same token
is swell Elegant Jones'"
The program fails to credit the author
ship of the piece probably because the
man under Kendalrs hat himself is
primarily responsible. However. it is
said to have been written by Herbert
Hall Winslow, who also is credited with
having turned out that other Kendall
show 1.-The Vinegar Buyer" 1t may be
that this chap Winslow has more real
existence that Sairey Camps friend,
Mrs. Harris; but his work bears indeli-
bly the Kendall hallmark, and it has
been limited that the name is merely a
nom de plume for the comedian himself.
s'Swell Elegant Jones' throws no new
light on Kendalls ability as an actor,
1t presents him just as he has appeared
heretofore as an expert and very funny
monologuist. The piece is plentifully
supplied with distinctive kendallesque
humor Its lines are funny, though they
are less funny than the manner of their
delivery There is for instance, some
Tom is manly name, even when ap-
piled to cats, but the same remark when
made by Kendall becomes howlingly
funny and it isn't necessarily a back
yard fence howl, at that
Plot Is Unimportant
swell Elegant Jones" outlines a story
of divorce and remarriage. The plot,
however, seldom intrudes unpleasantly
on the series of monologues that keeps
the audience in good natured laughter
during the entire performance 1t opens
with Jones, a mining millionaire, tossing
out S. tips faster than a bank teller
could count them Then there follows an
interval of poverty, during which Jones
loses both his money and his wife Ulti-
mately the family inherits another for
tune and is reunited. That is bald, al
most as bald as some of the acting con-
tributed by members of the supporting
cast, but anyway. the plot isn't important
and neither is the company.
Kendall is the easy-running, self-feed-
ing joke teller of old. He has a pecu-
liarly dry method of delivery. as dis
tinctive as his headgear, and he is the
same yesterday. today and tomorrow, for
which his audiences should be grateful.
For the several thousandth time he re-
peated last night his observations on
West Baden as a health resort. Probably
the jokes were new when West Baden
was young, but everyone laughed and
everyone would laugh just as readily, to-
night, if they were to hear the same
jokes repeated again under the same con-
ditions. The health resort monologue
came in response to an insistent encore
at the close of the second act. 1t was in
PRODUCED cleverly and without the stars
stepping out of character, for which he
should be thanked
Boy Makes Hit
Master Robert Tansey, who is not re-
lated to the celebrated Pill family, is a
young actor of almost distinguished abil-
ity. Robert is still a boy and he played
flesh and blood boy to the life; no
mollycoddle, if you please, but foot
ball-playing, ets-go-in-swimmin' boy a
boy that it would be a delight to have
around the house-if he belonged to you
and not to your neighbor.
William Hackett presented an exag-
gerated but funny character bit as
Sleeper" Bundy; and Miss Mai Wells
was much better than the spelling of her
first name Miss Clarinda Tiney. Ethel
Browning gave an accurate picture of
Hoosier country girl in the first two acts
and did her best to tone down the play
wrights ideas in act three. Miss Caro-
line Exert played a rascally female de-
tective like Observation-Disclosures
None of the company attempted dialect
and that, at least, should be placed to
their favor.
To recapitulate, Swell Elegant Jones"
is Kendall and Kendall is high priest of
the Kendall brand of humor. There is
none other like him. and he doesn't come
to Los Angeles oftener than once a year.
More's the pity.