The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-21
AT ELKS SHOW.
Local Herd Gives a Good Min
strel Performance.
FaVorites Aprlauded Loudly as
They Appear.
NOT ONE FAILURE.
Every Performer Came Up to
r, - Advance Notices.
Some Good Voices Among the
Singers.

What makes an amateur show go is,
of course, the loving friends of the
near-actorines in the audience. The
average amateur whose stunt goes big
in house filled with people who call
him by his first name would get the
axe in a ten-cent vaudeville. And
this is the secret of many a sad blow
to the Budweiser hopes of the stage
struck. George AIDES advice to anna
tours when in doubt, try it on the
box-office," is good except when the
receipts Of the box-office are promised
to charity or the local lodge of Elks.
In such cases the test is valueless.
The EIks minstrel at the Grand last
night was an enormous success be-
cause everybody in the-audienee was a
friend or acquaintance of everybody on
the stage and "held a good thought
for the performance every minute. At
that, the first part of the show COM
pared favorably with the average pro-
fessional minstrel show and was the
best amateur performance that has
been given in Topeka in long time.
There were some numbers of excep-
tionaI merit, notably Darwin BradIey's
baritone solo, The Glorious High Ball,
which made the hit of the evening
and Harley Whitman's tenor solo The
Carnival. This Bradley boy and a
number of other chaps of the Wader's
singing barber shop minors in the
moonlight around town for a number
of years and a good many people had
discovered that he had voice but
last night was his first appearance be-
fore a big audience. And he certainly
can sing some. They gave him a big
hand and demanded four encores.
When 1t comes to popularity, how
ever, you have to give it to Mike Muir
ray, who was greeted with more en-
thusiaSm than any singer of the even
ing when his number, mo, No, Posi-
lively No. was announced When
Mike Murray gets with a bunch around
piano he can make more noise than
a boiler shop, but put him up before
an audience, even an audience of
friends, and it is different. When he
started last night he could hardly get
his voice over the footlights but he
warmed up as he went on and finished
in great form.
. Art HargiS was also in the role of a
nice, quiet, young man" last night
although at every rehearsal he was
the Life of the Party and could think
of more perfectly killing stunts than
anybody But when the interlocutor
through his cork makeup and it was
not until he had finished the first
verse and the chorus came to his res
cue that he caught his feet.
Every song and every gag went off
Well and the show moved with celebrity
from the rise of the curtain to the
first drop After that it dragged a lit
tie as all amateur shows do but the
audience made lots of allowances.
Harry Miller and Clint Draper the
professionals who have put on all the
EIks minstrel shows in Topeka in re-
cent years had sketch which con-
Guided with a good song and dance
number Miss Viva Brown who has
a promising soprano voice sang
number from La SonnambuIa and
Aud Lang Syne for an encore Leslie
Lewis did an acceptable monoIoeue
and the performance concluded Win
George NJ. Cohan's sketch 'tHuIda
Hawkins Ball" introducing twelve |
Hagedians as Kurtz Kellam. lin
Stewart, Jerry tombstone. w p
Brown. Mike Murray and Clint Dram
err. The cake walkers were Raw If
ford, Harry Curtis, Homer Sheldon |
Jay Close and Otto Connell, with Rus.
Warrick Updegraff, Bill Stewart and |
Joe Risteen in the role of their LADY |
friends" The cake walk was uncom- |
monty well done and Kurtz KeIlam |
and Clint Draper were hit in their |
rendition of Cohan's I'm AwfuIly !
Strong for YOU. from the Yankee |
Prince
The minstrel soloists are Leslie
Lewis, Harley Whitman. Art Hargis |
w E. Brown Mike Murray, Clyde AL i
len. Clint Draper, Darwin Bradley and !,
Harold Copeland. The songs were all |
well chosen and went well. Jay House |
was chosen for the position of inter- |
Iocutor on account of his poise and dig |
nifty but they deserted him in the glare |
Of the footlights and there was some |
his chair, using himself for that pur- |!
pose. But although he was awfully |
'.fussed" he look distinguished in nifty |