The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-11-22

/ is not stingy in her debut Thirty
I skilled musicians play the peculiarly
| fascinating tunes of japan for her to
dance TO. and the stage is set hand
somely for the house of a Japanese war
/ lord of high degree. Need 1 say that
/ Japan's holy volcano. familiar on many
/ fan and screen, is to be seen in the
I distance through the open doorway?
Down the mountainside come two
lights. getting bigger and brighter as
/ they descend, and anyone is excusable
/ for thinking they are the lamps of a
/ touring motor car. What if. with the
velocity and momentum of gravita ton,
/ it shouldn't turn aside for the fiimsy
Jap house of bamboo and paper. but
should plunge straight through it across
the stage, over the footlights and onto
me in the middle of the front row?
Wouldn't I be sent TO hades in the
midst of my sin of going to see a geisha
dance wickedly? On, my gosh!
x X X
How nervous is a bad conscience
Have ! forgotten that the title of the
play is ''The Vampire Cat" and of
course those lights are the hungry, blaz-
! ing eyes of that supernatural beast on
! its way to suck the blood of some HUI
the curtain in the darkened theatre, and
while the orchestra turned the Jap
chords of Oriental melody into weirdly
! lovely harmony. solemn voice from an
| invisible speaker said that. ages ago,
a vOraciOus and otherwise awful demon
cat lived on that sacred mountain and
made vampire raids o nights on the
dwellings in the valleys below: that this
horrible creature had the power to take
ION Ea nh r.r H.. a.
bled to death: that it thus became the
| semblance of a war lords pet geisha:
and that, guised as the siren. il firstly
entranced him and secondly drank his
blood. So runs an ancient Jap legend
/ the voice declared, and babe us watch
| the illustration of it by Mrs. Fuji-Ko.
OF course. the geisha dancing before the
war lord would be something like Sa-
| lone dancing before Herod, but why
hurry to be cynical? This is japanese
dramatic art.
The war lord waits impatiently past
| the appointed hour for the geisha to
come to him. He doesn't know that the
vampire cat has caught and absorbed
her; and when the cat arrives. looking
/ like the geisha. the war lord is sulkv
over her hardness and won't enjoy her
Then the blend of demon cat and siren
girl demonstrates the potency of the
mixed blood. The creature dances the
SenSualistS blues to a rOSeate hue
coaxes him and scolds in pantOmime.
| leases and veXes him, and finally, with
a leap that * cats and a dancers,
both in one, fas>ens on the man as he
lies on a low couch, and We would see
the vampire gorge itself on human
blood but that the curtain comes down.
1t seemed TO me that l might have got
a little more horror for my two dollars.
Still. it was haunting show. True, the
woman looked less like a geisha than
a mother of geishas; and to avoid the
appearance of = heavyweight matron if
she had worn her black hair in a solid,
black, pompadoUreo couture. as geishas
invariably DO. she let it fall down her
back in = hope TO produce a girlish eff
man. her tricks of aliuring sensuality.
and her final spring upon his PROSTATE
form, were a wonderful compound of a
woman's deviltTy and cats play with
a doomed victim.
| A thrill went through me when.
stretching out her fingers hooked like
| claws. treadinS on bare feet noiseless
as paws and with a sudden facial
/ change from a SIRENS wiles TO a beasts
! ferocity. she bounded on the PROSTATE
man. Oh why was it that / couldn't
let it go at that? But, no. | had to
think how funny il would be if the
whole weight of heavy Mrs. Fuji-Ko
should land plump on the war lord and
force big grunt out of him, Fat is so
| hard on fancy
Down to Dc te by contrast with those
Grecian and japanese pantornimes. and
up TO date in lOw-price imitation Of
high-price musical face. is Too MANY
/ Wives" Like its model. il has an idea
| If not so much as a plot. A Wealthy
mans spendthrift nephew is ordered To
mend his bachelor ways by becoming
a husband: so by mail he declares him
| self a bridegroom and obtains more
money. The uncle comes to see the
bride To get out of the plight. the
rogue induces a maiden to pretend she
is his wife. A string of farcicaI Incl
dents rise from that deception The
play was written I Surmise, with some
popular comedian in view. but failed OF
that purpose, and was relinquished to a
company touring the cheaped theatres
Thus New Workers who can spare half
! A dollar oftener than two dollars are
getting much better composition than
they are accustomed TO. and those who
don't count their money closely may
see how good material is delivered by a
company scant in talent Mind you
too. this show gives good value for its
price
7 Joe Morris is q little man with a big
Voice. and I think il is Irish by birth
but he has turned it from brogue for