Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-07
FITCH PLAY ON
AT AUDITORIUM
"THE BACHELOR" NARRATES
AN OFFICE ROMANCE
FRITZ ScHEFF GREETS HOST OF
ADMIRERS AT MASON
"The Prima Donna" is Latest Musical
Vehcle-Military Act Head
lines New Bill at
the orpheum


"The Bachelor" a comedy in three acts,
by Clyde Fitch, played at the Auditorium
theater Monday evening. Dec. s, 1909.
THE CAST
George G0Odale. ........... Charles Cherry
Edward Kirby .......f. PerciVal stevens
huly AehdeI. ....s. ......s.. .halph Morgan
Jacob, office boy. ............ Charles Latte
Millicent Rendeil, Jenny" ............
.....a.........M Miss Ruth Mnycline
Mrs. Rendell. .............M Miss Lillian rage
AIilda Flint ................ Miss Alice Riker
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
Fragile and clever, superficial to the
real issues of life even when most IL
luminatiYe of human foibles, "The
Bachelor" reflects the brilliant and in
substantial genius of Clyde Fitch. 1t
was a genius content with being an
observer of the world and its people. 1t
did not champion. Seldom did 1t inter-
Pret. 1t was like the woman in the
third act of its current product at the
Auditorium who forgot to ask her guest
to remove his coat. The people of Mr..
Fitch's dramas are always in full dress
They are immaculate and their con-
verse scintillates, but we involuntarily
look for the wires that work them.
THE Bachelor" may be defined as a
clutter Of cross-currents that eventual
ly unite in a steady flow. A young
stenographer, of a good family in re-
duced circumstances, falls in love with
her employer. He Is an easy-going
business man, but a man of honor He
takes her out to luncheon and to the
theater, oblivious of her scarcely dis
guised feelings for him or his own
more slowly dawning attachment for
her. The girls young brother-a bump
tious IDIOT well played by Ralph Nor
gan-walks in on the scene, and with
bland and utter folly asks the en-
ployer to marry his sister. AS an ar
gument the boy charges the man with
compromising her with his attentions.
The man Of infrequent business is
amused then angered, and finally gem
timely concerned. At last he proposes.
somewhat ungraciously--a proposal
that any woman with an ounce of
mother wit would have known was in
sincere. The girl, however, with a pc
culiar simplicity, naive and at the same
time forward, accepts him. Then she
learns of her brothers betrayal of her
confidence and of his interview with
her employer. She cancels the engage
ment in q scene of some dramatic
power,
The third act adjusts the episode,
conVentionally but not quite convinc-
really loves him, and tests his suspicion
by refusing to permit her to leave his
employ. Her mother forces the boy
who has tangled Cupid in such perverse
chains to apologize to his sisters en-
ployer, and herself indicates, by her
manner rather than her words, that
she is not averse to him as a son-in-
law. By deXterous use of comedy we
see the play conclude with a happy aili-
10 10 10
his pretty employe has come into the
heart of the employer without his
knowing 1t. In real life we should
doubt the evidence of our eyes on the
stage 1t Is only dramatic justice. Mr..
Fitch knew his audiences well enough
10 know that they commonly care more
for effects than for the way they are
produced. His wizardry is often more
convincing than anothers rationalism.
Mr.. Cherry portrayed the business
man with that English amiability that
Is temperamental rather than rea-
soned. He was at his best in the scenes
"hlch depict the more mild and man.
herly side of the character. Goodale's
ruse to discover the genuineness of the
Woman's love is not free from traces
or brutality, and with his best endeay-
ors the actor Is unable quite to obscure
thls tralt. His enunciation is a pleas
ant thing to listen to, and his person.
allty dominates the slender vehicle with
power and much charm.
AS the stenographer Miss Maycliffe
shows us fair, flowerlike beantv,
whose innocence atoned in a nea s,,ra
Tor the unwomanly positions in which
the action frequently places the char
actef MISS Paige wac rather too eff
IusiVe as the mother. Restraint alone
can rescue the role from improba6jlity
naTtg AaI.,
taken. fo'''s''
College wells from five groups of
lusty-lunged undergraduates relieved
the monotony of the interludes. Dele
cations from Occidental. Southern
California, Law school, Polytechnic
and st. Vincent's We're responsible for
them All were extremely convincing.
especially the effort to compress
Polytechnic" into a word of one syl-
liable. w. IT r
BY FLORENCE BosARD LAWRENCE
Viivacious FRITZ schef is with us
again.
IL Is moro TIM two years now since
TINS captivating singer and actress has
visited Los Angeles, and her return
last night was marked by an audience
which filed the Mason to the last seat.
as 1t hlled the theater with it's fire.
quent and spontaneous applause after
the favorite numbers of the opera.
With all the chic and temperament
for which the singer is noted she
sweeps in and out of a French gar
rlson town, takes officers and towns
people by storm, leaves everything in
confusion and eventually with the
same endearing whimsicalities and i'm
pudence sets all right again.
In THE Prima Donna" Victor Her.
bert has written some beautiful mu-