Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-03
BY sIDTE LAWRENCE

bI LANhA14NOG
~ OMETHING has happened TO
Watts. The town has taken on
~ musical comedy airs. 1t has be-
come a summer resort for long ana
short German comedians and for short
skirted, golfing chorus girls who han
die a driver very much as though they
were playing croquet and who prob
ably wouldn't recognize Colonel Bogey
should he pass them on the links.
Moreover, a certain Mr.. Homer Emens
has moved the town into the foothills
with a lake, or a pond, or a puddle,
or something or other in the fore
ground. And not content with that,
this same Mr.. Homer Emens has
taken scene painters view of the
Glenwood hotel at Riverside and has
transplanted the hotel, mission bells
and all, to the town at the other end
of the Watts and local. car line.
Personally I hadn't heard of these sur
prising changes until last night, when
l dropped into the Los Angeles the
ater and saw them for myself.
1t is a very amusing Watts, this
Lonesome Town" which the elongated
Mr.. Kolb and the spatulated Mr.. Dill
brought us last night via New York;
all of which goes to prove that distance
really does lend enchantment to the
view. The commuter who lives in
Watts never could have imagined so
lively a Lonesome Town." The thing
isn't possible.
The Same KoIb and Dill
Kolb and Dill have changed little
since their last appearance on Spring
street. Kolb, If possible, is a trifle
more attenuated, but that is all. He is
still boss of the ranch and he still
dances with a grotesque agility that is
amazingly funny.
There is nothing particularly new n
the work of either of these comedians.
TO be sure they have cut out the slap
stick, but the good old reliable seltzer
bottle still holds out to squirt; and
when things go awry the tall man still
kicks his shorter partner in the
stomach Thus, you see, 1t isn't so
much what they do as the nightly
funny way they do it. I have seen ro@
tund comedians kicked before, but l
never have seen a kick delivered with
such ludicrous effect as Kolb places
it; nor received with such comical
resignation as Dill accepts it. And
even the seltzer bottle isn't as unfunny
as it might be.
However, there are novelties in this
Lonesome Town. One of them is a
plot which really tells story; another
is a stunt provided for the chorus and
which won't be half so funny once the
chorus is able to do it properly. The
girls come running on the stage, os-
tensibly pursued by an enraged cow.
One at time they vault stone wall
and despite arduous re-
hearsals not all of the young women
have acquired the knack of it. Last
night some of them vaulted, some
scrambled and few just rolled; but
all of them escaped the horns of the
~,
fawed its appreciation.
Who's Who in the Town
The Kolb and Dill company this sea-
son includes Billy Clifford, Maud Lam
bert, a thin-hipped young woman with
a wink calculated to give Long
Beach druggist cardiac palpitation;
Charlotte Vidot, who conceals her pret- |
Liness under a bucolic makeup so ef-
'ectually as to prove her devotion to |
1er art. Ernest Van Pelt, who is well
Known here and whose bygosh con-
stable is funny along traditional lines;
Ind a considerable number of others,
mostly girls. There is one Cirl in the
chorus, by the way, a blonde, who has
4 prima donna voice. I don't know
where Kolb and Dill found her, but
she is not long for the merry, merry.
The dialogue in the piece, much of it
obviously Manhattan made, is funny
enough to make even manager laugh.
[ know because heard the house man.
ager do it. The songs, too, are good.
In proof of that several of them have
been pirated in Los Angeles notably,
when the Moon Plays Peek-a-b boo
and Just Some one" OF the others
the best are TN Running After
Nancy" and "Gee, but This Is a Lone
some Town." which was first sung here
several years ago by Kolb and Dill
Lonesome Town" remains at the Los
Angeles two weeks. It's local color is
sadly bedaubed, but if you are in search
IF that commodity you can get il in the
real estate ads. Otherwise the comedy
ills the bill. It's funny, it's well done
and it's fairly well sung.