The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-26
FROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

Clyde Fitch wrote a sketch for
George Lawrence. the young woman
who so artfully played the hairdresser
in Her Down Way" with Maxine Ell
lott. The title OF the playlet is Miss
McCobb. Manicurist," and the story is
as follows:
Miss McCobb flirts with a young
chauffeur He comes TO her finger
renovating apartments and proposes
marriage before she has learned any
thing further about his cognomen than
that it begins with George. Presently
her professional rival. the chiropodist
lady. calls and informs her that her
gentleman friend has gone back on her.
His name is George, and he's a chauf-
feur.
AS Toplifsky used to say. That
enough" The ladies fall to, they pull
out each others hair in handfulls.
Then in quick succession comes con-
Citation. regrets, reconciliation. There
are two Georges. and though both of
them are chauffeurs, they are not the
same.
AS whole, Mr. Fitch has done moth
ing SO pugilistic since he wrote "The
Straight Road" But the humor of the
piece will make it score. 1t is far. far
ahead of the average vaudeville sketch.
and Miss Lawrence brings a whole
some atmosphere OF jollity and high
spirits to her performance which make
it hit the bulls eye.
Bandmaster John Philip Sousa and
Leonard Liebling are collaborating on
new production in three acts. Two
will be laid in New York and the third
act in Cuba The time will be 1898. If
will not be a war play. and it has not
yet been named.
What could Mr.. SouSa tell about the
opera? His answer sounded like a
long note on an eighteen-inch gun-it
was so different Would he tell any
thing? Not much. But then there was
Mr.. Liebling. The bandmaster through
Mr.. Liebling told it all in an inter-
view. Liebling also is modest-about
the new piece. But with the aid of a
hydraulic high pressure pump Mr..
Liebling had been induced to- confess.
Mr.. Liebling had been mysterious.
but added: IF all this seems bit
mysterious it is meant to be, for We
are guarding the name and the plot
with a degree of secrecy which compels
even the admiration of our wives. 70
whom no comic opera writing husband
are heroes"
Having produced this shock. Mr..
Liebling continued as an electric bat
terry in this way:
Our new piece will be all that a
comic opera should not be. There is
no jigging king with comedy legs; TO-
body seeks a magic island, Ubiquitous
isthmus or promontory of plenty Best
of all, there is to be no flannel suited
tenor warbling into the upper boxes
ditties about viOlets, seashells and the
moon.
THE whole thing is an attempt to
tell modern story in plausible way.
The music is the best and freshest
Sousa has done since Ell Captain
Contracts for producing the new piece
are said to be signed already. 1t should
burst forward upon an unsuspecting
public very soon.
X X x
Robert EdesOn, appearing in Glass
mates" says that a spade is not al
ways a spade IN Boston, and illustrates
it with this story:
1t was a quick lunch restaurant
Coffee an sinkers," said the stranger
TO the waiter
Beg pardon. sir said the latter
but I fail to grasp the intricacies OF
your nomenclature"
You know what coffee lisp"
Yes. sir
well. sinkers are doughnuts"