The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-26
How Fascinating Flora" Fascinates
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs

because the performers are antic and
graceful, always hold out against seri-
Gus drama in summer time. Three
plays of music and mirth were fixed in
Broadway for the caloric season, and OF
the others that are to be placed there
In competition, Fascinating Flora" is
put on view this week. Its most ardu-
Gus sight that seems the most frolic-
some is that of eight stalwart young
men flingins out, at arms length, each
a lightweight girl so that her feet, en-
veloped in fiuttering lingerie, twinkle
about over the front row of heads in
the parquet. Probably you have seen
Inc same thing done by Partisan aero
battle dancers in vaudeville, where
every pair in a troupe of walters whirl
each other alternately shoulder high
and horizontally by the hands. The ex-
plot is more startling here because the
girls are suddenly, and at first unex-
pectedly, flung toward the spectators,
eight of them across the footlights in
row at once; and I wouldn't wonder
y, on perSpiring night, damp-hand-
ed girl should slip from the grip of her
partner, and make a palpable hit on
some gaping gazer.
X X X
A sumptuous show is this of ''Fas-
cinating Flora" yet no intellectually
brain are directed to the bases of
heads instead of the brows. Still, the
exposures of women are not vicious. To
be sure, one of them goes up out of
sight in a balloon with a man: and.
pretty soon. after several sandb2gs of
ballast have struck the ground, a fran
tic effort to further tighten the airship
IS indicated by 2 fall Of the mans coat.
trousers and boots, followed by the wo-
= .alr Oh,
stockings. But she is n comic creature.
anyway burlesque prima donna
played by Ada Lewis; and so, when she
descends in the basket, and alights
with her toilet wrecked, she is funnieT
than she is immodest.
The boldest exhibition of comely fem
ininity is when the eight show girls
of the outfit-that is to say, the octette
of tall, straight, handsome creatures of
the Tenderloin lady type-are shown at
Manhattan Beach. AS they enter upon
resort, they are cloaked capped and
yelled as though they had trundled
down from town in automobiles. If,
ncw, they were accompanied each by
her motoring admirer, there would in
deed be a strenuous use of opera
glasses for purposes of Identification.
But they have no masculine escorts,
and each seems able to serve as her
own chaperOne. They sing and amble
to the tune of an indefinite sort of a
verse. For the second stanza, they
throw off their outer envelopes, and
step out in modish summer gowns.
Next. for the third set of jingling
rhymes, they fling away their waists,
drop their petticOats and are exposed
as bathers in sleeveless tunics. rudi-
mentary skirts. and thence downward
a semblance of bare calves to socks be-
ginning at their shins Had I better
take back what / wrote about this
show not being vicious? ! will leave
only that these make-believe surfites
are no more denuded than the thou
sands of real ones who. next month.
VIII be visible along the ocean beaches
from Maine to Florida The difference
is that these are professional exhibits,
while those will be amateurs. And
these, before running off at the end of
their song and dance, make confidential
megaphOnes at their smiling mouths
with their hands and, winking their
eyes, give ROBUSTNESS to the invita-
ton: "Oh, come in with US, boys-the
water is fine"
If the makers of "Fascina TING Flora
are to be found guilty of offensive fun,
they can't plead in mitigation that this
is their first offense. They are hard
ened old criminals in musical farce
GuStaYe Kerker i'm the music, Joseph
w. Herbert in the language. and r. II.
Burnside in the special devices of di-
version. 1t seems likely that a Frenoh
farce is the basis of the work. But
there are such originalities, for in
stance, as a prima donna from Indiana,
who declares herself no piker in Grand
opera stunts" and is ready to make
good" by a duet with Caruso. The
voice of the famous tenor issues in full
volume from big horn of a phono-
graph, while the woman emits hgill
yells as his visible companion. The
first half of the entertainment is at a
Paris fake conservatory of music, where
Americans figure as operate operators
singers and visitors, with a tumble of
ematOry matings.
For the second half, the action is
brought to New York, and the charac-
tiers shift their activities from opera to
speculation in fraudulent mining
stocks. finishing I'D with a splash in
Coney island surf Adele Ritchie, who
never, or hardly ever, tours far away
from Broadway, and frequently is a
business partner in plays that she acts
I'm here, is the Flora whom the title de-
clares to be fascinating Louis Harri-
son is the leading comedian. 1 don't
like TO count up the years since he end
John GOurlay were the funny men in
SEINE Of the earlier song dance
farces, and he had a talented sister,
Alice, now forgotten by the theatrical
public. Yet here he is again, locking
young and surely spry, in the role of a
travestying operate tenor, and not only
an industrious but an effectual laugh
foreer. Harrison and Adele Ritcnie
have the lead in the best Of the novel
ties in Fascinating Flora" An inter
polated song, THE Subway Express, -
has the catchiest of the tunes. It's
verses tell of the Irritation, courtshiu
and betrothal of "A fellow and 4 girl
who are passengers on our UNDERGROUND
railway. While those two sweethearts
MARBLE and saunter to and fro. Just
back of the foothghts, Their experience
is illustrated on the stage behind them.
A car is run into view at the third
verse, with the chorus in the seats al
The open windows; and for tie ensuing
verses that cars standing room is
crowded by as many of the plays char
aCters as can hang TO the straps, iostl.
one another get fighting mad, ard 9th
erWise demonstrate the discomforts en-
dured by New York City passengers
That is, 1 think, the most elaborat t
scenic setting that any song has mad
N IL - ~