The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-09

view HOrk, June t.-BetWeen Memo
rial day and Labor day stretches a tor
rid time in stage amusements, but it is
not an arid waste of space, nor scant
IN peculiaritise. The three roof gar
dens that top off FIVE theatres at the
corners of Broadway triangle, mingle
their lights and music again in sum-
Iner rivalry. The Aerial, Paradise and
Sardin de Paris are open again this
eek with outputs considerably novel.
~ was at the initial performance Of
Inc HoneymOOners" that George NJ.
conan outdid Richard Mansfield in put
ing chip on his shoulder and daring
slHe audience TO knock ii off. Never
does much love go to waste between
Etar-stagers and first-nighters in New
YORK. Marie Dressler hit it off by
coming the death watch" as a phrase
Tor those who, TO judge by their de-
meanor, would rather be present at the
funeral OF a failure than the birth of
a success. The professional critics are
not conspicuous among these death
watchers; not many of them prefer to
be abusive. and some of them would
rather praise than censure; but years
and wears of usage forOids a newspaper
reviewer to ever applaud, and his habit
is 60 never smile when he is amused, or
laugh out loud even when inwardly
spasmodic with m6Triment. These men
and their women mates don't number
more than a hundred on an opening
night. But there are three or four
times as many amateur critics, all Gym
les, who occupy the seats within clear
view from the stage and whose blase
manner and air Of ennui are enough to
loosen the tension of all bat the most
Self-poised actors, leaving, them scared,
limp and out of tune. Charles F'rohman
once said TO me: IF il were not that
II would be a discoUrtesy to folks who
have no intention to be other than help
ers to the drama, but who really are
kinderers. l would if I could shut out
on first nights all habitual first-night-
ers. and let every new play make its
first appeal TO an audience that didn't
assume dilletante pose, nor take on
the attitude of critics but sat with
their minds and their hearts wide
open to conviction"
X X
Kindly permit reminiscent para
graph. Edwin Booths ambition. as 1
once heard him say, was to be as able
.ran actor as his father had been. He
| f0ndly desired to play with success
every. role in the repertOry of his sire
So, in a New York euga cement nearly
third of a century ago, he revived
such all-but-forgotten dramas as "The
Apostate," "A New Way to Pay Old
Debts" and Tine Iron Chest" 1t was
In THE Apostata" that the biggest of
the Booths Ito my mind the greatest
actor that ever lived) was for one night
a crushed agedian-crushed by the
Nnsympathetic cynicism of New York
DFSt-night audience. I recall it with
the vividness of a recent incident
Pescara in that drama is a human
monster of vengeful malice, and being
fooled in his malign purpose, he has a
spell of paroXysmal rage. Now, Edwin
Booth endeavOred to act the part in
loyal imitation of his father: and so,
when Peseara's ferociOus malignity was
thNarted, he bObbed up and down, with
face grimacing wry, and arms fling
ing wild It was a grotesque demon
StratiOn of emotion, there's no doubt
of that, but the actor mad the authority
OF his. revered parent for the extraVa-
Sance of manner; and he had carefully
prepared himself for il. The audience
as whole knew naUght of the obsolete
play. nor of the senior Booths way of
personating the apOstate. Therefore,
approaching nothing in the OutburSt of
wrath save grOteSquery, it laughed out
right So. as l said, Edwin Booth was
Tor one nigE. crushed tIagedian. He
never acted in The Apostate" again.
To drop back to George NJ Cohan:
His complaint is that New York's first
night assemblages don't laugh at him
as subsequent ones do. "Frappe
friends are ehillier than icy enemies, -
was once his way of describing those
whom he looked at across the footlights
upon the Introduction of new show in
Broadway. In anticipation of the stony
stare from rocky faces at THE Honey
mOOnerS," Conan put into his topical
Of y 81,
wed thank you very kindly, Mr.. Bing-
ham," tmeaning our refOrmatOry police
commissioner, a wish that he'd arrest
those who won't smile a smile, much
less laugh a laugh, at an opening per-
Torrance. He was mistaken if he ex-
pected to timber up the grim visages
of those who were accustomed to in
visible laughter. He was so discon-
fCerted that he couldn't remember the
4 next verse of his own song, but stuck
Vast I'm the middle of it, started again
at its first line with a repetition of
lapsed memory, went off the stage had
a hasty consultation with the prOmpter
and came back to make a third and
this time triumphant attempt to bring
the song TO a climax.
X X x
There was a further disturbance of
Cehan's placidity leading to the salient
Oddity which 1 have been aiming at.
He Is. firmly opposed. and God bless
him for that, to the first night usage of
unreasonable encoreS. Every song,
dance or other thing that is liked at
first has to be done over and over until
it gets to be disliked at last. Cohan
had made up his mind to run THE
Honeymooners" through with a celer-
ity not to be halted by repetitiOns. In
the final act, the girl mimic that seems
to be deemed essential TO a summer
roof garden show was introduced. She
was Gertrude Hoffman, a follower of
Cissie LOTUS a long way behind, but
nearly alongside IF Elsie Janis, and a
very enjoyable impersonator Conan
had SO arranged the action that Ger
trude. instead of giving her limitations
as an interpOla ton complete scattered
them through a half hour of the play.
thus gaining time to dress and make up
for the differing caricatures. But the
encore idiots wouldn't catch the idea.
They raised such a persistent row-de-
dow after each of Gertrude's stunts
that the other players utterances were
lost III the applause. Evidently, Conan
had ordered them not TO give way To
the clamor. The. consequence was that
the third act of his play was panto-