The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-12

Proctor's-A Clyde Fitch Playiet.
A comedietta by Clyde Fitch called Miss
MeCobb, Manicurist, y was produced for
the first time in Newark at Proctor's
Theatre yesterday afternoon. The sketch
Is one OF the cleverest and most amusing
In all vaudeville.
In the writing Of crisp dialogue, the
evolving OF Electrically effective situations
and the presentation of feminine character,
Mr.. Fitch Is always at home. In his pres
ent sketch his aim has been to be merely
entertaining and he has completely sue
eeeded. The two capacity audiences at
Proctor's yesterday testified to that unmls-
takably. The brightness of the lines, the
dizziness and truth displayed In playing
up the characters of the manicurist and
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS examples of
Mr.. Fftch's correct observation and photo
graphic portrayal of feminine types-to-
gether with the np-to-dateaess Of the
whole thing, made 1t impossible not to be
Interested and entertained.
The sketch began badly. It was some
what surprising that so practised a tech
nician as Mr.. Fitch could nave resorted to
, the ancient and outworn expedient (Which
not even vaudeville's demand upon brevity
excuses of forcing his characters to tell
their story directly to the audience. But
fortunately the little monologue, in which
Miss McCobb introduced herself and at
tended to the other preliminaries of the
action, was soon over. Once things were
fairly started the interest was never al
lowed to relax.
The situation upon which the action de-
ponds is purely farcial and serves its pur-
pose capitally. A manicurist and a pedi-
curist are f1irtatiously involved with a
chauffeur. 1t Isn't the same man. but
they are deceived into thinking so by the
fact that one chauffeur Is driving the car
or the other, who Is In jail for exceeding
the speed limit. After an exceedingly
laughable hair-pulling scene, they discover
the supposed faithlessness of their lover
and wait for his return with blood in
their eyes.
The slangy, gum-chewing manicurist and
chiropodist are drawn with exact realism.
(no one can beat Mr.. Fitch in the por
trayal of Tenderloln types), and they nrs
faithfully reproduced by Miss Georgia
Laurence and Miss Fern Waycliffe, two
very pretty young women, who also have
been taught how to act. Miss Laurence
especially made amusingly vivid the sort
of up-to-date jollier she was given to rep
resent. Edwin Fowler made all that was
possible of the chauffeur, who, like all
Mr.. Fitch's male characters, was pretty
much Of a nonentity.
Anyone VINO likes a Soou iduSn With
reason behind 1t should see this brilliant
little specimen of Mr.. Fitch's art at It's
best. 1t isn't the only dlverting thing on
the Proctor program either. Carroll john
SON, a graceful dancer and all-around
clever minstrel man, gave an act on a
very ambitious scale for vaudeville. that
was a show in itself. There were two or
three Southern scenes, attractively repro
duced In the settings. and Mr.. johnson
was assisted by fifteen young men who
could dance with the best of them. 1t
was an AL minstrel act.
Miss Laurie Ordway, an English COM
edienne; Gilmour and Latour, Clayton
Kennedy and Matte Rooney, in an eccen-
trio comedy, 1.-The Happy Medium Lew
Bloom, monologist, and a troupe Of
Arabian acrobats, In a drill, dancing and
wall scaling act, rounded out a generally
good program.