The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-06-07
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs

! looking at pleases audiences more
] than any other dOings of the same
grade. That is true all the way up 70
/ the top level of the drama. When
Mary Anderson came back TO New
York, from which had gone away with
some crudities still hindering her
genius, and showed US that London
training and practices had qualified
her to play HermiOne and Pedita, the
mother and daughter in "A Winter 5
! Tale" with greater effect than any
other acress within a hundred years.
nothing else electrified US equally with
Perditas free. wild dance on the VII
Ia &c green. Even the gallery is criti-
cal with dancers, and quick to jeer a
faker. The steps may be ever so I'M
calmly, but if they're not difficult
they'll be guyed.
If there is any one thing as to which
New York audiences are absolutely in
discriminate, il is the imitatOr of stage
celebrities. Nat Goodwin, Henry f.
DiXey and Tim Murphy are among the
men who started in as mimics to be-
come Originative comedians; but of late
years that speciality has passed over
TO femininity, and Cissie Lotus and
Elsie Janis and Fay Templeton have
amused and amazed with their exact
copies, not exaggerative burlesques. But
the fondness for mimicry is being
abused Outrageously. Any one who can
talk through the nose and flop the fore
locks is accepted as a likeness of George
Conan. Any one who can pull up the
corners of the mouth, snap the fin
gers, slap the hips and squeak at
songs high note, is a passable cOun-
terfeit of Eddie Foy
In one OF the two roof gardens 1
have mentioned a little girl and a lit
tier boy are placed forth TO do what
Goodwin, Dixey and Murphy did
quarter of a century ago, and Lotus,
Janis and Templeton are doing now.
The aTTanger of these children's act
takes care that there shall be no mis-
takes in identities. The pretty girl of
10 and the ugly boy of IA chose are
gueSses of mine. and not evidence for
the Gerry society go behind screens
at opposite sides Of the stage, and
while changing clothes take pains to
shout the name of the next ensuing vic
tim of initiative torture. In some in
stances the people might guess right.
but II is safer to avoid misunderstand-
ing by a clear announcement before
hand. Il was after the girl had missed
Eva Tanguay, the boy had struck at
Dave Warfield without hitting him.
and both together had done their worst
at Montgomery and Stone and the ROg-
ers brothers, that chap near me called
10 an usher:
Bring me a long. black cigar" he
said
What brand and what price?' was
the question.
Il don't care what names on the
band. and you may make a quarter
the limit of cost" said the man, who
looked sedate and reflective: "but
sure want a cigar thatll make a thick
smoke, so l won't have to see this turn
while listening TO It,"
This paragraph is for the knockabout
clowns of the stage: Two acrobats, the
paired f1ip-fapper and bumper, spent
three consecutive summers in one Of
those roof gardens. and probably would
be there now but that they have gone
10 Europe. The fellow who f1ip-fapped
was of no particular account. but the
one who bumped was laughed at an
nually for three months. although his
mishaps were unaltered from season to
season. The present show has three
trtOS of acrObats made up of all clowns
and of the nine men none has fewer
falls, less hard thumps, or seemingly
less comic mishaps than the one chap
in the previous duo; yet the sum Of
laughter during their combined time
doesn't amount TO as much as was
given TO him alone. Why so? Answer:
When each of the nine has a bump.
he claps a hand on the hurt spot.
pulls a wry face. limps away to a cor
ner, and the spectators don't laugh inn
moderately. But remembered that the
supremely successful thumper. slump
er and bumper had never lapsed an in
slant in his foolish giee when thWacked
or spraWled, but left the sprains and
bruises TO the peoples imagination
That was the same suppressed emotion
that the late Charles ThOrne. who had
been a ranter before that, suddenly in
PRODUCED as leading actor of the famous
Palmer Stock company. So dramatic
art is possible in knockabout clowning.
X X
Airily I tossed a dollar through the
hole in the ticket sellers window of
Brooklyn borough theatre. and sent in
after it the naughty remark: Il don't
like box seats" They are half a dollar
apiece there in the afternoon. while
the parquet chairs are only a quar-
ter, and / wished the fellow to feel
that the difference was as naught to
me When I had set out to plunge into
stage amusement. After a pause. to
let him comprehend that l was a spend
thrift, l added: IN take one seat in
the third TO fifth row of the par
quet"
mo you won't. sir" and he looked out
at me with no Difference; the best left
is the eighth row in the balcony"
So l made my way slowly through
pack of women and girls in the lob
by, up a stairway and down a steep
incline. 10 find that the fellow had 10