Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-02-08

spectacular pieces. but the TRANSFORMED
tion scene and the costumes were i'm
ported. The costumes for the nymphs,
who live below the Rhine-ah! they
would never, newer. never dol but re-
member that was when the ballet was
composed of our sisters, our cousins
and our aunts.
If Couldock was the master of ex-
pletiyes, Charles Vivian was the mas
ter par excellence of sarcasm. He was
an English comedian of rare ability
He was also founder in America, so [
have since been told. of the Elks club,
the b. r. o. L. Was there ever any
one who could sing a comic song bet
ter than could Charles Vivian? Won
der now many times he sang "Ten
Thousand Miles Away!" But for fun,
u for fun, commend me to the man In
private. Suffering Sally" out for her
Sunday afternoon with Billy with the
wooden leg" o how excrusiating, how
supremely ridiculous. And yet il was
improvised. He did it just TO amuso
Jimmy Harris Cthe late James Fergu-
son, then stage manager), and the
scene painters, But let me whisper
TINS. Vivian was a very unhappy man.
that special afternoon. He was do
ing the funny" in defiance Of fate.
A STANLEY EPISODE.
Poor Annie Ward Everybody around
the theater loved Annie Ward. Poor
foolish. little butterfly, how she could
sing, and laugh, and dance! Who
would have thought that such q petite
sunny-eyed, little creature could almost
have wrecked the life of such a man
as Henry NJ. Stanley? But 1t was whis-
pered that she did.
1t was also whispered that Stanley,
then unknown and poor, had sat In one
of the circles in the theater and glow
cred upon the girl as, IN gauze and tin
sci, she went through one of her bur-
lesque parts. When. in after years.
Stanley gave his lecture, How ] Found
Livingstone" at the theater he STOOD
on the selfsame spot as that on which
the little danseuse capered and sang
AS, in his almost stern, measured voice
the great explorer told of Darkest
Africa" his perils and tolls In the in
terror. how he had been compelled 10
abandon his luggage. piece by piece,
carrying at last, besides absolute neces-
saries only three books. Shakespeare,
Carlyle's Sartor Resartus and the BIZ
ble-I thought time and again, wonder
II the poor, dead and gone, little girl
was In his mind?
THE DAY OF THE LEGITIMATE.
Thenter-go!ng was theater-golng
from lut w = 10 the 81 s., Mllch was the
time OF the legitimate, OF great actors
and actresses Even the people Isolated
I'm Utah became connoisours When a
new star came along he was expected
10 show his quality In the Shakcspear-
ian or other legitimate drama, lingo
mar" Lady OF Lyons" New Way tn |
Pay Old Debts" "Rlchelieu," Louis |
XII" Damon and Pythias," and the |
like pieces were those In which he was |
put TO the test Tho man who went |
up the canyon after a load OF wood, |
during the day, became a critic nj |
night, Hamlet" was played over and |
over again, ON the bill boards. by the |
Council house corner. the Eagle Gate. |
the 1fthinghOuse, the meat market and /
the wood yard, how many times did |
they announce the presentation of |
Shakespeare's masterpiece? People |
would so 10 the thoater, not 10 see "A /
new play, but To see a new actor In an |
old part How many times did the /
writer see Hamlet played? I recall |
Paunceforte. Edwin Adams, McCul- |
Tough, Davenport, the dainty Miss
Evans, aud she played "Hamlet"
beautifully, Barrett, Kean, Lyme
Chaplin, and lastly the greatest Of an |
Edwin Booth, / am not writing these
"reminiscences 20 give my personal opiu-
ion on tho merits OF actors but only
one actor whom / have seen seemed
actually to live his parts, In all other
actors / could detoct the caro- aud
study, scholarly though II may have
been, but Edwin Booth seemed 10 be
the living reality, And o, what
princely man he Wasl II was worth
while 10 hear him In private CONVERSE
ton, aud 10 see him schooling young
actor was lesson indeed, ! have for
gotten who II was who played the part
Of Mare Antony 10 Booths Bruins. but
watched the great actor between tho
scenes Whilo he would school the
younger ana ambitious actor, for the
next scone that would come on There
was one Edwin Booth and one only,
Take him for all In an, we shall not
look upon his Ike again"
Dion Bouclcault has not been men