Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-15
THE CAST
BY s1DLE LAWRENCE

by sIDLE LAWRENCE
"The Time, the Place and the Girl !"
which opened the fall season at the
Mason last night, is always entertain
ing and nearly always amusing. oc-
casionally it Is hilarious. In its con-
struction the authors-the program
names three Of them-seem to have
torn leaf from the George Cohan note
| book. In fact, all that is lacking to
make 1t distinctly Cohanesque is a bit
| of melodrama There is actually a plot
| that may he deserted with the naked
eye, and this despite the fact that the
| piece is announced as comedy with
| music" There Is considerable fun
| both In situation and in dialogue; and
| there Is a character, "a square gam
bier" who is addicted to the Gatling
gun style Of conversation, quite in the
| approved Cohan manner.
The comedy makes sport of the vicis-
STUDIES which beset the guests of
| Virginia sanitarium when smallpox
| quarantine is established in the abb
sence of the hotel help" The serv-
ants, being outside, are not allowed to
enter, and the guests, on the inside,
are denied egress. Consequently the
assembled party, pleasure-seekers,
nervous wrecks, hypochondriacs and
chance visitors, are compelled to do the
work usually performed by menials.
AS a matter of course they do it very
badly. That's what makes 1t funny.
Two Love Stories
There are two love stories and much
profound philosophizing on matrimony
and it's attendant evils. Apart from
this philosophizing the comedy puts for
ward surprising number of witticisms
and puns. 1 shall not attempt to re-
peat them for you. Here, however, is
one that is typical, and not SO bad,
either: Every girl that puts on airs
is not an heiress." From that you
may judge the quality Of the other
ninety and nine.
With the single exception of John 70.
Young, who has his name in large type
| upon the program, the company is not
remarkable for its ability, though one
or two of the minor roles ara skillfully
| handled, and Elizabeth Goodall makes
an attractive and lively head nurse.
Mr., Young Is a natural comedian. His
| dialogue, to use an Anglicism, is largely
a succession of ''wheezes," and he un-
rolls 1t as though he had never talked
anything else in his life. Theo T. Rook
presents skillfully drawn caricature
of miserly farmer; and Ogden P
| Wight won the regard of last nights
audience through his acting of Pedro
an organ grinder. Lillian Goldsmith
| ''The Girl is pretty, chic and grace
/ full She Is unfortunate, however, in
| the possession of an excessively annoy
ing speaking voice, so difficult to I'M
derstand that much of what she says
never arrives on this side the foot
| lights.
Scenery and Costumes Good
The comedy is well staged, the seem
cry, while not new, being picturesque
and effective. The costuming exhibits
an ingenuity in bizarre effects for
which, the program tells us, VIII r.
Barnes Is responsible The chorus is
agile and can sing quite we'll enough
for musical comedy, or comedy with
music, either. The most musical num-
Der on the list is Don't You Tell"
sung by. John q. Young and Miss
Goldsmith. In the second act Mabel
Melvine has a number with chorus
which is well sung and which con-
cludes with a tambourine and bones
drill, executed with precision. This is
the big feature number of the piece
and merits the numerous encores usu-
ally accorded 1t.
Other good musical numbers are
thursdays My Jonah Day. BLOW
the Smoke Away" and 1.-The Waning
Honeymoon"
Unfortunately the management of
the company--not the management of
the Mason opera house-made certain
promises In advance announcements
which were not fulfilled and which
never were intended to be fulfilled.
This sort of circus advertising is no
longer valuable to the better class of
stage attractions. 1t creates distrust
and induces feeling of resentment
on the. part of the auditor, who finds
himself dragged into theater by mis-
representations and who may be ex-
pected to be somewhat chary about
again patronizing the firm which has
deceived him.
BY this / do not mean that "The
Time, the Place and the Girl" is not
an amusing evenings entertainment
for 1t Is. 1t does not, however, make
good the claims made for 1t in advance.
The Big City Quartet. advertised as
headliners at the Orpheum this week,
delighted two large audiences yesterday
and It's first appearance in Los Angeles
was assuredly a success. The four
men have we'll modulated voices which
they handle with discrimination. In
concerted work especially this quartet
Is noteworthy. The voices blend so
softly that the tone seems rather the
production of one great vocal organ
than that OF four individual singers.
The selections so far as the quartet
work went were novel and amusing,
but the solos might have been of more
ambitious style in justice to the ability
Of the musicians.
Charles H. Bradshaw. assisted by
William Wagner. Hilda Vernon and
Rosemond Harrison offers sketch Fix
in a Fix" which is not so funny as Mr..
Bradshaw deserves. Hilda Vernon in
the part of the mother-in-la law was suf-
ficiently grim and unforgiving, and the
entire cast did their best to make the
rather unsatisfactory act go.
LeClair and Sampson, the Bogus
Strong Men," performed the most i'm
possible feats with apparent ease-and
other accessories-and juggled 3000-
pound weights and each other about
in bewildering fashion.
The trained monkeys have not yet
been taught to unfasten buttons, and
so Charming, the disrobing trapeze
monkey of ]. Raffins' simian perform
ers, Just used her teeth and claws when
1t came time to remove the gorgeous
red satin gown and lingerie. There are
a number OF small monkeys who do
some circus stunts rather we'll, and the
clowns make monkeys Of themselves
to the amusement OF the onlookers.
OF the holdovers Franklyn Under-
wood and his company introduce a new
farce. "A1r Stungs Mistake" The
opening is sensational and the slxit
holds the audiences attention from the