Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-01
The Theaters
.BELASCOITES PLAY
bob JONES OF YALE
BY smLE LAWRENCE

" ERE It not for the fact that the
wv name of Edward e. Rose ap-
pears upon the Belasco programs
this week should say that Bob Jones
Of Yale" must have been written with
stub pen by a playwright who
learned his trade at a business college.
or correspondence school. The Rose
imprint, however, forbids such levity,
though it is difficult to understand how
the dramatist OF THE Prisoner of Zen
da" could have perpetrated SO trivial
a melodranaa.
Seemingly Mr.. Rose has struggled to
adapt a story from the Balkan penin-
sanAa so that 1t might serve as a politi-
cal romance of Central America. There
is a rascally prince, a prosecuted
princess, an unscrupulous countess and
some twaddle, in the lines, about the
kings guard. What business all this
royalty has to be paradnig the Central
American field don't know. However,
they're there.
Jones is a telegraph operator, q rail-
road man, a civil engineer, or MEM
ber OF Uncle Sans underpaid diplo-
matte corps. He's there, too. In Yale
he pulled stroke on the varsity crew
and he also played football on the var
sity eleven. This is rather unusual,
but Jones is a versatile chap. His
was a guard on the Yale team. His
other friend. also on hand, was cox
swain OF the eight. In the first. act
they give the Yale yell. incidentally
Bob teaches the princess to play Boo
la" on the piano. So much for the
higher education.
The PotfuI Plot
Now I should like to tell you what
this play is all about, but I'm not quite
certain myself. OF course Jones is IN
love with the princess, though he
doesn't know her rank. Equally OF
course the princess is due to marry the
villain for reasons of state. AS you
may have guessed bv this time, Jones
and his RAJ, rah, rahl friends foil
the villain and carry off the royal
maiden, presumably 10 fiat some
where in the States where no greater
perils can threaten her than the wrath
Of the janitor. I'm guessing at TINS
last, though, and maybe they didn't live
in fiat after all.
Apart from that college yer, the
feature of the production Is storm
which arrives suddenly at the casa oei
Moro and cannonades the old ruin until
the scenery shakes and the hghtning's
smoke drifts gently out into the audi
torium It is a very fierce storm, potn
in the literal and in the slang sense OF
the adjective.
Members of the Belasco company
struggle obviously with the absurdities
of the play. They can't act because
they are given no opportunities. Lewis
S. Stone is Bob Jones.
Miss smythe Exits
Florence Smythe plays the persecut-
ed princess. Miss Smithe's role re-
quires her to make a dignified exit
from the stage, weeping quietly, every
time Stone enters, and as he follows
her pretty closely she hasn't time to do
much of anything else. Stones part,
of course, is somewhat more exactlng:
To begin with, he has to wear a lot OF
clothes-military and civilian. He has
to fight a duel with Harry Glazier, as
the villain. He is required to tie up
an inuuisitive telegraph operator ana
manipulate the key himself. Tnen hs
makes love and he takes a couple OF
drinks. AS 1 said before, Jones is
versatile chap.
Harry Glazier is just a villain.
Charles Ru-gles is the Yale coxswa1n.
eager for a SCRAP" Hobart Bosworth
is the Yale guard, also in search OF a
shindy and with penchant ror pugs' |
He's the first guard I ever saw VINO
knew the difference between coieop-
terra and a Iepidoptera. Miss Earring
ton is the countess. Miss Bernard is
an attendant to the princess William
Yerrance is a plotful politician and the
others are variously disposed, all OF
them more or less unfortunately. How
ard Scott has the most satisfactory role
in the play. He gets through In the
first act, and there are four OF them
In all.
Manager Oliver Morosco received
telegram last evening from the offices
of Sanger g. Jordan in New York city
stating that their representative had
left for Los Angeles on Monday morn
ing and would arrive in Los Angeles
about Friday evening to witness the
production OF "A Society Pilot" the
new Morosco- -Bachman play now Ill
its second week at the Burbank thea
ter.
Messrs. Sanger & Jordan are the ex-
elusive agents for Charles Frohmans s
plays. They are sending their repre-
sentative to Los Angeles at this time
as the result of a cablegram sent from
Walter Jordan's London address ask
ing Manager Morosco to withhold the
option on eastern rights to the piece
until such time as he could dispatch
his man to the coast to open negotia-
tions for their purchase. If terms
cannot be arranged satisfactorily to
both parties concerned, however, Mr..