The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-10

the way clear to happier conjugaiity with her native lover. It is giggle- grille sort of foolery by Marian Fair- fax. wife of Fully Marshall. an actor. and being of itself rather bright. is made to shine by the brilliance of its 
 So wide and shallow Is Maxine Ei- liott's Theatre that the box fronts are set at very flat angle with the pros- cenium frame. The audience there- fore looks at broadside of ornate ar- in white and gold which. with the stage and box openings, sug- gests a mat of enormous size. cut out for pictures that are alive. On the night of the houses dedication these five apertures held what were Nike great portraitures in water colors of lovely women. Maxine Elliott was the plays centre figure, of course, but in the midst of graceful groups and in succession of paintings that were right good art. Tricky, too, was the picture of the island. for 1t came very slowly out of the night with the first light of dawn fiickering in the sky. then giimmerlng on the water and fin- ally showing that bright streak along the lakes further rim which Is as sure as moonlight on water or sunlight or snow to set spectators wild with en- thusiasm. The upper box spaces show ed scarcely less pictoral groups of wo- men and girls in gayef gowns than are often seen at a theatre other than the opera. In one lower box aperture was Geraldine FarrarJ regarded as the sightliest among this seasons singers at the two opera houses and here posed showily in a decollete dress.
 It was the box opposite, though. that held the pictur8 at which all glasses were directed in the plays inteFmis- sions, for it contained Mary Anderson with her husbands Navarro family. Yes. there was Our Mary. famed as the most beautiful American actress who eyer gained world renown and now for a long while out of American sight In England. The years since her impulsive abandonment of the stage, leaving a tour unfinished have effaced no more of her beauty than they had to, anda we saw a handsome matron with no token in toilet or att titude of ever having been an actress. She betrayed no consciousness that she was on show and didn't favor us once
 with a full view of her face. There
 was some guessing why, with her seeming dislike of conspieuousness. she
 was there in box. Her only other attendance on an opening First night that I recall was at Maude Adams
 first playing of Juliet. Several mil- lianaires had been mentioned as hav- ing tent money for this enterprise. and now 1t was whispered that Mary An- tlersou's husband, or father-in-law, was the, capitalist The family own much real estate, and 1t was argued that a
 business might account for the pres
 ence of the famous former actress. N
 am expected to write about plays and thRir WgsNntation& not about theatres anu iaAli8 *napAgefsent but this forty. six kStARAa3re AANe open insor adjacent to Broadway is the first since Laura Keene's to bear a woman's name. Lou isvllle has one named for Mary An- derson and Chicago one for Julia Mar lowe; and somewhere up In the north west Is a. Lulu namesake of 6 local actress; but the playbill' asserts posi- lively that Maxine ElfiOtts Theatre is "owned by Lee Shubert and Miss El- liott."
 Do, you know that Bennington Brent is serving hls. fifth term as mayor of Omaha, that he used be @ washer and ironer in a laundry. that he invented a wringing machine and that. as owner of hundreds of laundries in western cities. he has become eight or ten times millionaire? Those are facts. unless "An International Marriage" Is fiction. get 1t from George iBreadhurst's new play, too, that a Senator Williamson. of Nebraska, strove for a nomination to the Presidency last year. And If you don't know those things, likely you are not informed that a Congress man Og1esby. from the same state. has won the heart and hand of Mayor Brents daughter. who was famously betrothed to the nephew of a European king, just as Senator Elkin's daugh- ter was to the Duke of the Abruzzis. Broadhurst makes Brent brag of be- ing self-made by his wringing machine. '"The proudest day Of my life.' he re- marks, when congratulated on his daughters engagement to the possible heir to a throne, isn't this one, eut the day that 200 leading omaha men banqueted me after my last reelection to the mayoralty and eTery one wore a shirt done up In laundry of mine When the duke asks him for his daugh- ter and she wants him to say yes. he blurts out to the young fellow: You look like the goods all right, but won't know you for a sure good thing till you run through my wrfnger" And then again. when the duke is spoken of as likely to fool his daugh- ter. the mayor casually remarks: He stands as much chance as a dog with tallow legs chasing an asbestos cat through he'll" Digby Bell plays Brent much as he did the homespun father of the fashionable girls in The Edu- cation of MT. Pipp.'
 The Brent heIress. made pretty and charming by a new Christine Norman. Is recognized readily as an imitation of Miss Katherine Elkins with a slight blend of Miss Anna Gould. The oddl- ty of her story Is that, unlike tho Elkins- Abruzzl affair. a way is found to overcome the kings objection to an untitled bride for his nephew. A needy count Is hired to marry her. quit her at the altar let her get a divorce and thus become countess qualified by title to wed a duke. That program is carried out to the point of divorcement She Is staying with her fiance's parents at their ancestral palace and has won their hearts: nor do they resent her rude, crude. slangy and abusive father. who comes to visit her; but she has grown homesiek. the duke proves himself not1a noble man, the arrival of the Nebraska Congress- man convinces her that he is the only man she loves. and to marry him she jiIts the duke. The play is not well regarded.
 An opportunity comes along to provo the superiority of American .theatri- cal morality over the European. There is no denying that the foreigners hay" led us in dramatic art, or that only lately are we catching up with them In. the use. Of literature on the stage: but our sense Of humor Is not only keener than theirs. but much cleaner When A new German farce. "The Blue Mouse" was picked out for production ,---,.aL n niaIn strat0hf fra n a. .