The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-26
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

! iFOn NduCeNliie toward drama, Wrote
that it was "a case of too much Co
ham," for there were the parental Jer-
ry j. and Helen F., Overwhelming the
| not much else than dancing Josephine
and George M; but l didn't perceive
George MS genius in the origination
| of stuff and nonsense, in which the
stuff was catchy and the nonsense in
| fictitious. Today George NJ. Conan is
| the pacemaker in musical farce, and
| most of the other makers of amuse-
ment in that field follow him like sheep
| after a bellwether. Under these con-
ditiOns. isn't THE Yankee Prince"
more interesting TO read about than
the weeks sedate plays? So here goes
| as though Gotham spelt Shakespeare.
X !. y
There is no such melodramatic plot
I'm this Cohan show as lately he has
been prone to; the theme is the time
\ worn yet not WORKOUT one of a titled
| European wooing of an American heir
ess; and here we have, for the first
| time since Rose and Charles Coghian
were together at Wallack's, a brother
and sister in the mimicry of sweet
| hearts. And George Cohan mas writ
ten his own role with Q, hot pen and
boiling ink; for, as a Yankee million
! aire. he falls with thud in love with
Josephine Cohan, as Yankee million
airess; and when the first-nighters saw
him kiss her they applauded tremen-
| dously; for hadn't they read that
| George, having lost-or loosed-his
wife, Ethel Levy, and taken n new cne
was free to restore his sister to the
Conan quartette? And. Oh, hoy Jo-
sephine did dance, to say nothing of
singing and even acting, to keep the
absent Ethel from being missed |
| he n IQ1rf T
diced for Josephine since, a dozen
years ago, in a Pittsburg vaudeville
| theatre, when a box was full of re-
nowned actors on an off Sunday even
/ ing, L saw the then young girls merry
Gus tension break half through a dance,
! and she sobbed out: Don't, oh, don't
! guy me-my feet are scared" Time
| not only flies but fixifies; for here is
Josephine marvel at dancing. and toll
cradle at acting. Papa Jerry NJ. has
| stood still, son George has not int
proved a whit, and it is Mamma Helen
who has advanced in proficiency Is an
| actress.
| Chicago is the doomed city in THE
Yankee Prince" Cohan used 10 put
/ into his plays songs of New York in
| exceisis and Of Tenderloin glorifica-
| ton. Now he fiouts Broadway in a
/ songs refrain with Come on, down.
town." instead of extolling the gay
white way" and he doesn't let his peo-
/ pie stop over in Gotham at all; but
/ after one act in the tea room of a Lon
! don hotel, and a second in front If
Windsor castle, he jumps them to a
| third at lawn party in Michigan
| avenue The program says that
| George NJ COhan and his royal fam
| lily appear in "a timely satire on titled
| fortune-hunters." The usual sex dr.
| rangement is reversed. Jerry NJ. CO.
| nan is the millionaire parent who seeks
an English earl to wed his daughter,
Josephine COhan, while Helen Il. Co.
han is the parent who opposes such a
match, and George NJ. Cohan is the
strenuous American who. after two
rounds with the earl In London, Knocks
| him out with a wind-up in Chicago
! Too much Cohan? Why, every boy in
| the chorus is an imitation of George
even the chorus girls behave like him.
and why deplOre the Conan vogue 50
long as its foolery beguiles our dlll
| cares away?
There is nothing, less than nothing.
in this play" said COhan to the au-
! dience, except money! But he knew
! better. There is spectators moneys
| worth Of girls. anyway. A spacious
! stage IS overcrowded by them, and
| they are brought on in relays, crisis
| crossing and mixing up in the Cohan
manner of frantic activity. And George
himself does other dancing than his
familiar head-fiopping, back-humping
| leg-tansling speciality. Probably the
vogue of the Viennes waltzes has
| reused him to fresh endeaVor; for in a
! dance with sister Josephine, he and
| she are more curiOusly timber and
agile than walters can hope to COPY.
even clumsily, in next summers no.
| tells.
There isn't an indecency of word or
| motion in THE Yankee Prince" None
! of the girls costumes is immodest
The finest display of femininity is in
the excess of clothes that are worn at
| a court" as Londoners call a recep-
ton held by the queen. OF course, as
! Conan wrote this play while honey
/ incoming in London, he knew that
| those royal functions are held only at
buckingham palace; yet, for the sake
of introducing a military show, he To-
Gates the scene at the portals of old
| Windsor, and shows us a procession
! of ladies going in TO kiss her majesty's
hand. There are only eight OF them,
| but they are so slow and stately, and
the court trains, held up by nattty
| pages. reach out so far behind them
that the parade seems hair a mile long.
! And at the end of 1t, the Chicago sport
! with the letter from John L. Sullivan
| to King Edward is escorted in tri-
| umphantly.
\ X x
| The wolf who gives title to the new
/ play of THE Wolf is a ravening
beast, although a man, and the lamb
he would devour is the only girl In a
| forest. There is another animal there
abouts. however. a good, strong mas
/ tiff of a fellow, and there you have
the opposed forces essential TO the
making of drama. The dog overtakes
4 the wolf carrying off the lamb, kills
the ferocious brute I'm a fierce fight.
and mates with the gentle creature TO
live happily ever after-though the
happiness is conjectural, for big dogs
have been known to eat little lambs
quite wolfshiy. This happens away
north in the Wilderness of Canada.
Playwrights have crossed the border
lately to get characters and scenes
among the goldseekers of Alaska, and
the lumber1nen of British Columbia;
and now we are taken to the trappers
of the Hudson Bay territory to find a
SPOT so wild that a girl may grow to