The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-02
Where Genius Wins Out
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

the wings to go on with the play prop
er. She would quit rather than suffer
any belittlement. / heard in New York
that she wouldn't go on the tour. yet
here in Atlantic City 1 saw her name
Respondent with his over the entrance
OF a theatre on the board walk. OF
course. 1 went right in to see about 1t.
Parquet seats had been marked up to
~, n h audience looked like that,
with a Vanderbilt-Astor element added
by the local horse how week to an as
semblage of the ~seashore's most FASH
ionable people. And The Merry-Go-
Round" was making such a triumph
as 1t had not in the city of its birth. l
sat close under a box party of horse
show visitors, and between acts / heard
one of the women say: isn't this
amazing for Atlantic City? 1 suppose
It's being tried out a week here for a
New York rum"
A few were present, though, who
knew that the Hitchcock-Hite fight
was on. and they watched the enemies
amusedly. They are rustic sweethearts
in the first act, n nave several Joint
scenes. Mabel is a brash type of act
ress. but in those spells with her oppo-
nent h held herself back, and let him
go ahead. He had put in a representa-
ton of their flight with a horse aud
buggy. Neither beast nor vehicle was
IN sight. Hitchcock helped Mabel into
an imaginary wagon, seated her fiat
on the stage, tucked her in, said
"Glang," n fiicked a fly off the
norse's ear with an invisible whip.
GOSSIP o houses passed, the run
ming over Of a hen, the soaring of the
horse by a dog and other incidents of
the rio led up to a collision with an
automobile and the rival players went
sprawling pell nell. This seems wortS:
telling as a comic oddly, and il amused
me, besides, as a mix-up for fun by ac-
tors in real animosity.
however, 1t was with separate stunts
IN the second half of the show that the
Hitchcock-Hite fe1d entertained those
who know of jts existence. Mabel had
her chance first in the character of a
tough chorus lady behind the scenes in
n Lw-grade company. That was old
stun with Mabel, but new to most of the
audience. and h gave il with a vim
that made every point hit hard like a
pugilist's blow. Did she knock out
Hitchcock? At the time il looked so.
The comedians own inning soon fol-
lowed. That consisted of a transfer of
a drinking song that he had sung in
Richard Harding Davis comedy, 1.-The
Yankee Tourist" setting forth a conviv-
ialist's view of 1.-The night when we all
~ AohNt oAd IN wafer WAGON Is q
lonesome sight" Transferred to ''The
Merry-Go-Round." and made a showily
hilarious episode in a bohemian resort
with Hitchcock the boss roysterer in
an assemblage of chorus girls and their
fellows, il was a scene of souse that
looked like an apotheosis of alcohol.
Hitchcock careering and c~areeniag at
the head of a mad procession of girls,
with four of them holding him on his
feet, while he chortled in maUdlin glee
well, did he knock Mabel out? At the
time II o so. At the close of the
play, he n she had a comic encounter
in a studio. as an artist and his model.
but | won't say whether it left him or
her ahead. My judgment wouldn't be
final, anyway.
Atlantic City has a tenderloin kind of
Observation-Disclosures resort, just off tho
board walks water wagon route. where
money spenders go for late food. drink
and music Shall I go to Old Vienna
tonight with a hope to see a Hitch
cock-Hite encounter or to the Hole in
the Wall for a Wild Man versus Canni-
bal King riot?