The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-19
Told of Sothern's Don uixote'


ton the comedians without their COM
edy, or the comedy without its come
dians. The Rogerses are rgeuiuses,
however at least TO the extent of being
hard to keep at work together, but the
two firms who manage Busy Izzy'
and Happy Hooligan' practice the
same sort of self-advertlsing methods
without the distraction of dealing with
any erratic phases of genius. They
entftle the plays for 1909 Busy Izzy's
Boodle' and Happy. Hooligan's Trip
Around the World and both are good
examples of current form of enter
tainment graded in between the upper
extravaganza of musical comedy or
comic opera and the lower extravagan-
"a of the burlesque troupes.
X *
Cultiyaters in this part of the the
atrical farm are talking of an urgent
need of seed for a novelty crop. but as
yet there is no sign of a break away
from the familiar growths.- Busy Il
zy's Doodle" begins with the usual dis
closure of its full force of femininity
Izzy's Doodle is the cash assets of
bank, and when the bank breaks ten
girls start a run on it, They don't
seem depressed by their loss, but sing
and dance over it with gaiety not
often seen in financial panics. Opera
glasses are not used at the theatre
where this play is presented; so the
rather pretty ten faces answer the pur-
pose just about as we'll as positive
beauty; and the precision of uniformity
IN their figures is remarkable. The
agencies nowadays match up show
girls as exactly asFthe horse marts do
fOur-in-handS
Where's your mother nOW?'
chorus lady was asked.
She's with me in the TrOl Lola
troupe" was the reply
And your sister,"
she too"
And your daughter"
She. also. Our measurements are
all the same, you know. We are the
four Gibson girls Of the layout"
In the Izzy layout the Gibsonese girls,
all of them, may be from one family.
There isn't a variation of half an inch
in height. and the similarity of shape
is like peas in a pod, or say, matches
i'm box. for the ten girls are all the
TALL slim, straight type. In their en-
try they wear the long skirts and big
hats of fashionable toilets for an aft
ernOon outing. and, they come into
IZZy's bank with the tOppy manner of
smart bellies at a reception. A second
batch of six smaller depositors are
more agitative. They wear short
frocks,, swish the skirts saucily, and
behave like the cavOrting pony bal
let without which no extravaganza
would be regarded as completely
equipped. The ten FLIES are led by the
prima donna of the company, The pace
of the six ponies is set by the sOubTette
X x x
Busy IzZy is no variant of the comic
stage Israelite, and his companions in
clude those famiiiars, the bigOsh rural
constable doing detective duty, the be-
gorra Irish janitor butting in when
ever the fun needs a jolt, and the be-
damn office boy to make a cOntOrtiVe
entrance or exit whenever the activity
lags.
And the sliding stairway is there.
too You know it Well-the stairs that
change to a smooth surface, down
which the victim tObOggans with
bump at the bottom. Here it is on
shipbOaTd, and leads from a promenade
deck up to a captains bridge, where
the plays oldest showing of d girl is
made. She goes up there to view
sale, and as she gazes through tele-
scope at the tossing pillows far away,
all the men in the play gather on the
deck below, one after another, to gaze
up at her lingerie which, like seafoam,
is flung UP wildly by the blast. All,
but the mechanisms of the modern
stage do indeed work wonders for dra-
matte art.
PremonitiOn of a change in farces of
song and dance is not discernable in
Happy Hooligan's Trip Around the
World" The author is not exposed.
Perhaps there isn't any. Maybe it was
made by assembling Eddie De NOyes'
-.
Joe ]. Sullivan's Irishman, along with
several other fixed and unalterabIe
presentations. telling them to go as they
pleased at the first rehearsal, and
thereafter framing up their stuff into
an actable shape. At the outset. Hoo
lEgan and the others have arrived in
Japan in a rOund-the-earth pursuit of
an heiress, and so the opening exhibit
of the company's girls is one more re-
hinder of THE Mikado." However
their kimOnos are AmeTicanized, their
hair doesn't look as though gummed
solid, they don't tOddle like the little
Jap maids from school more than five
minutes, and thereafter they are
American tourists abroad, clerks and
shoppers at a pawnshOp sale, cowboys
in the Rockies and students at a col
lege. Each guise has songs and dances
to fit: also, costumes that range from
the gowns of bellies at a ball to the
trousers of a team at a football game
the pantaloOns padded with girl, not
with horsehair. The best thing done
by the three comedians may have been
suggested by the old HanlOn scene of
aorObatie topsy-turvy in a stage coach.
but it is as good as new. HoOligan
steals a street car, and operates it fun
nily, with the aid of his comrades.
Hardly ever do / revert to a play
that l have described; this. correspOn-
dence isn't given to noticing" plays
or players; but this is Holy week, and
THE Servant in the House" is the hOli-
/ est of dramas-if it isn't the unholiest.
/ | have told you that its principal char
acter is Christ reincarnated in a bishop
| who serves as a butler; that as the
play begins he is working at a side
| board with his back TO the audience;
| that when he faces around he is seen
/ to be an exact copy OF a life-size pic
! ture of the Savior that hangs on the
wall: and that. after the first per-
| formance | was unable to say wheth-
er the amazing exhibition would be re-
! jected by Christians as impious or ac-
cepted as devoutIy worshipful. Will
/ liam Winter and j. Ranken TOwse are
| the oldest two New York reviewers.
( Mr.. Winter declared next day that
1.-The Servant in the House" was not