The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-20
Miss Russell and Chorus with
"Teddy Bears"


Teddy Bears"
No dramatist has ever yet made eff
fectual use of our first President on the
stage; but lots OF stuff derived from the
present President. In one way or another,
Is OF more or less theatrical value. Doro-
thy Russells best five minutes in Tho
Mimic and the Maid were those in which
she led a chorus OF girls with TEDDY
bears" No musical farce nowadays tries
to do without two sets Of young women
toll ones In the gowns ara -Eawingroom
department of Gibson stis' and short
ones In the frocks and frlsss OF nursery
children. ''Roasts" and 'brGtlers" are
these birds" in the parlance Of the stage.
Dorothy and the "broilers" come out with
TEDDY bears" in their arms. coddle, ca
ress and COO to them like doll babies, and
finally, setting them on their hind legs
the stuffed cubs hind legs-dance to them.
Then occurs the dramatic surprise. the
sensational wonder, the marvel of realism.
The Teddy bears each showing its teeth
In delighted" grin, dance with the
clockwork that has been wound up with
in them. And the music of the ambitious
A. Baldwin Sloane, under the baton of
highly impressive director. Tines itself to
the hopping of a dozen mechanical Ted
DIV bears:
While Dorothy Russell led the "broil-
ers." Janet Melville led the 'roasts":
that Is, the tall contingent of Gibson girls.
Could this Janet be the Melville, of Mel
vile and Stetson, the vaudeville team?
Yes. There was the fat Evie Stetson. rs
wardrobe woman. butting funnly into
the rehearsal. and 1t really was her long
time variety-show partner who. as
society women, displayed with seemingly
effortless ease the quite correct aspect of
a smart-set belle.
This account of the birth OF THE MINI
ic and the Maid" is also. it's obituary re-
cord, for 1t Is dead after two perfor-
manccs. EXtnguished are the lights that
lettered its title among Broadway's fiery
promises of pleasure. Pasted into scrap
books are the advertising agents tales Of
Dorothy Russell's personal doings, In
Guiding one of her taking Mamma Lillian
Russell's toy terrier out for walk en-
countering a bulldog, and having an ear
bitten off the little dog by the big dog, in
spite of tho girls fearless attempt at
rescue. Why, yes-there are newspaper
jays right here in fly New York, to print
such rot-sometmes with joke-marks, yet
sometimes with no indication that the
editor isn't chump.
The New "Fritz" Play.
David B. Hill, former Governor and as
pirant to the presidency, is proud to own
and live In Wolfert's Roost. once tho
costly home at Albany of Joseph *. En-
met, the actor. Emmet was sweet
singing and neat-dancing negro minstrel
when Charles Foster prolific writer of
plays, hearing him speak and yodel with
German accent, conceived the idea Of
Fritz, Our Cousin German" Out of Joe
Emmet's resulting fortune came Wolfert's
Roost. There were many imitators of
Emmett, but no one duplicated his charm
of singing to the hearts of audiences.
Chauncey Olcott and Andrew Mack war
bled their Irish way into the vogue and
brogue of William J. Seaman; but all the
search for q successor to Emmett has
found In Joe Hortiz. who is presented in
Our Friend Fritz" Yet Hortiz's high
tenor voice is the acme Of melody, and he
yodels-well, to me all yodeling is dread
full, and the better 1t Is the worse 1t
makes me feel: but Hortiz yodels Just like
Emmett used to. He lacks only the EN-
met and Seaman genius to make every
woman In the theatre fancy, fon the
foolish time being. that he Is singing his
love to her, and to no one else
The new Fritz play. by Langdon McCor-
mick, is an endeavor to get clear of the |
mess and barnacles of Fosters old one.
The young German doesn't MARBLE to
at play, nor lullaby one of them
to sleep; and isn't that a bold departure
from the standards? OF course, he has
to have listeners In the scene. The first
or these Is q nearly grown girl, a mall |
treated truant from poorhouse. She |
isn't TOO big to be taken up in his arms,
but ha doesn't do that to lull her to sleep. |
He carries her out to wash her: and |
when She comes back her face. hands and
feet are clean to the neck, wrists and |
ankles, but at those points dark contrasts
of soiled skin mark the limits of Frit2s
in scrubblng her.
Further along In the play. when 1t has
become melodramatc on a stormy night |
IN haunted old mill, with an heiress
by gang of criminals, Fritz
appears In tho disguise OF n bibulous
woman tramp, and shifts the drugged
which has been prepared for the |
girls ruination, so that the several scoun.
drels dope themselves with It, Thereupon
Fritz sings a ballad with the refrain "Tm
so sleepS-sleepy now" The tune and the |
voice sounds like hush-a-by- baby. hut.
the lMlled ones are the drowsed sots and
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