The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-10
The Weeks One New
Play on Broadway
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

I hhed as with Mary Smith as Desde-
mona l wonder that the title of the
tragedy isn't changed to something
like -Desdemona, the White Slave of
an African" for that would appeal to
the audiences of a theatre which had
Rather Death Than Dishonor" last
! week, and Will have why Girls Leave
Home next week; and that would. fur
| thermore, obliterate the already belit-
tied leading man who plays Othel!o.
ne program doesn't unsettle the minds
OF the audience by giving the name of
shakespeare at all, but leaves the peo-
pie unbiased to regard the play, If they
choose to, as a new melodrama From
that viewpoint. Desdemona may stand
for prosecuted heroine of Theodore
hremers creation, Othello for a Mon
golian gfrl-slaver of Chinatown. and
lago and Emelie for the inevitable pair
who are vicious for vices own sake.
Even to the. Shakespearean scholar
there is a unique interest here, for
probably never before has Desdemona
been spot-lightcd and curtain-ealled
with Othello dimmed and obscured.
| Vaudeville is pulling up alongside of
drama This weeks developments in
clude deplorable play within the
twenty minute limit, and another that
is commendable. Let's consider the bad
I
not give 1t space. A vicious lesson is
what ails THE Aeronaut." AS a piece
OF stagework it is right enough, and it
SHOWS at least, by its count 'em-twen-
ty characters that twenty worthless
actors-or I'll say nineteen worthless,
and allow Taylor Granville. the author
and star actor, to count as measurably
worthy-may now obtain the time and
money of single, first-rate top-liner.
IlaIr
foundering in the bay of desperation.
TO save himself from being carried out
on an ebb tide of ill-luck to founder on
the reefs of bankruptcy, he produced a
London melOdrama in which the hero
and the villain fought life-for-life In
balloon up among the clouds. DAILY,
Wallack and Palmer alike grabbed at
sensational plays to save their palmy
day stock companies from dissolution.
Daily resorted to sliding canvases.
shifting lights. and all the other things
that he knew of, to thrill beholders with
the episode of that hero valiantly % err
coming the husky villain and dropping
him mile or so to a conclusive thud
on the ground below.
The moving photograph has come
into use, and spectacular effects which
might have saved Daily from the sheriff
are obtained in ''The Aeronaut." Tay-
lor Granville enacts Shorty. because his
scant height bars him from calling
himself Lengthy. He is a camp follow
er of a circus with an acrobat girl to
love. smirched lineage to clean up,
and a wicked enemy 10 defeat The
circus Is I'm hard luck 1t will be
mobbed If a balloon ascension and par
achute descent don't occur as an
nounced. The aeronaut is missing
Who'll take his place." says the Man
ager. 81 WILL" says Shorty aha"
says the villain, and cuts the parachute
rope half through, so that Shortly will
he dropped to death. "Oh, N.Y." saws
the audience. Why is 1t that people in
a theatre don't bethink themselves
that. 99s times in a thousand, the hero
of the play comes out from all perils
unscathed? Nevertheless. Shorty's bal
loon fight is watched with staring eyes
and bated breath while the kaleidoscope
moves the clouds downward to create
such an illusion as AuguStin DAILY never
dreamed of; and there are yasps end
explanations when Shorty shifts from
balloon to parachute, and by reversal
of the kaleidoscope the clouds move up
ward to illusionize his fall. Why TIE
cut rope doesn't dash him to death isn't
explained. 1t simply doesn't. Tabloid
drama has no space for particulars. It
IS sufficient that Shorty lands unllurt
on his feet, that his sweetheart is there
to be Rugged. that the villain is there
to be COMPOUNDED, and that. in the
phrase Of the Snowman: THE Aero
naut" makes good. It's bad morale Oh,
yes That's pity. Shorty is a three
card-monte sharp, pickpocket and all
round crook, and the play may send
off more than one boy to following a
circus into infamy. Taylor Granville
ought to be ashamed to teach such
deplorable lesson.
The title of 1.-THE Phantom Highway
man" in vaudeville program looks
like promise Of another third of an
hour Of wild melodrama; but that is a
misunderstanding, for the play is brain
work. and the names of two former
presidents of the Lambs, the actors
club. are attached to 1t as author and
actor. They are Clay NJ. Green and E.
NJ Holland. The time is long by-gone
when the vaudeville debut of legiti-
mate actor was surprising; so Hol-
lands is no wonder. This Holland is the
only son Of George Holland still on the
stage-of the George Holland from
whom came the nickname of the Little
Church Around the Corner. Joseph JEFF
ferson. who went to Pastor Sabine of
really little church to have funeral
rite read over the body of Holland, and
was sent around the corner to a really
big church to Pastor Houghton-all
three participants in that famous case
of pulpit disfavor of the stage have
passed away. A curious fact is that,
while Houghton became a sort of chap
lain to the theatre, he never witnessed
the professional performance OF play:
and another curious fact is that Jeffer-
son was not brought. by his seemingly
harmonizing experience with Hougfl-
ton, any nearer to being a reHgionist
The clergyman never entered thea
tire, and the actor hardly ever entered
a church.
George Hollands son-Ned to ac-
quaintances and Z. NJ. to the public
was by the chance Of success as the
private detective in "Jim, the Pen
man. and by the recent playing of the
same character in "Raffles" two years,
fastened SC tightly TO speciality that |
ne may never get loose. Better work |
of his Is in the delineation of a fine old !
southern gentleman Yet I suppose !
that, when Clay Green accepted the /
friendly Job OF writing piece for his /
use in vaudeville, there was no thought |
of making the roll anything else than /
the familiar Captain Redmond. with g
new. crime to analyZe and new crim-i