Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-28
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE

BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
Two interesting playlets, providing
scope for 9th dramatic action and
clever comedy impersonation, are fea-
tured on the Los Angeles bill this week.
Both are entertaining. although far
from flawless in details of portrayal.
Widely variant inttheme and treatment,
they are both good examples of the
type of brief play which has had it's
significant development and apprecia-
ton under the canny eyes of the vaude-
vile audience.
The Cooper playlet shows a female
episode" in the past of a governor re-
appearing to plead for the life of her
later lover, sentenced to hang for MUIR
der The woman meets curt refusal of
her request on the score of old mem
cries until she threatens to reveal the
executives closet skeleton by publish
ing his letters to her, thus running his
domestic happiness and blasting his
chances for reelection. The motive of
jealousy is we'll handled here, and its
counterpart is seen in the politician s
furtive dislike for his later rival, whose
life Is In his hands. Pressed for a de-
cision, the governor yields, signs the
reprieve, and is about to send IL by
special messenger when word comes
that the prisoner has cheated the law
and also himself by committing suicide.
Fearing to intrust the message Of death
to his own lips the governor sends the
woman away, to learn the news from
his clerk A cry from her tells that
the blow has gone home, even as Bur-
leigh tears up the compromising let
ters, with words of bitter self-accusa-
ton on his lips.
There is genuine dramatic virility in
the character of Governor Burleigh,
much of which Mr.. Cooper embodies by
his acting. He is SNUG and assured
and has the rotund pomposlty of the
type. Unfortunately he gives the inn
preston that the governor carries the
utterance and diction of the stump into
his private life, which is unlikely. Mr..
Cooper's delivery is too oratorlcal for
the part, and Also by a curious para
dox at times too indistinct. His sur
render to the woman is too sudden. We
are not prepared for 1t, and 1t jolts our
sense of reality, which up to that time
the interview has fairly well main
tanned
Despite a tendency to overtheatricize
the role, Miss De Voc gave us the i'm
preston of real emotion in the part of
the woman. Her work would be more
satisfactory If she took pains to articu-
late her big speeches more clearly.
But with all criticisms made, 1.-THE
Price of Power" is a capital study of
life at short range, we'll constructed
and with a consistent heart interest
strong, sincere story told graphically,
with no unnecessary talk and by sim
pie, logical climaxes.
Primarily comedy, "a Chinese Mug
get' tells the plausible story of an
Irishman enriched by the gratitude of a
Chinese servant whose life he has
saved, concluding with an Italian i'm
personation in which the Celt takes the
part of the man from whom he saved
the servant, as a salutary object lesson
to the latter on the disadvantages of
opium smoking. The plot is thin
enough, but 1t Is enlivened by some
good dancing by Pearson, in the role
of the Chinaman, and a song by JOEL,
in the character of the Italian. OF
course, both these specialties delay the
enactment of the story, but the same
criticism would apply to a fair major
ity of comedy sketch-acts now on the
vaudeville stage, as well as to the libret-
tos of nine-tenths of the successful
musical comedies of the day. Humor
is imperious in vaudeville, and some
day we shall doubtless see a chloro-
formed girl punctuatirg her state of
coma with girly-girly song. and a
just executed criminal come to life long
enough TO 90 a Clog dance. BOIn WOulQ
be funny. If slightly embarrassing to
the probabilities.
JOEL and Peason do some good imper-
sonation. The formers Irishman is
lifeIike and would be more interesting
if he avoided the monotony of voice
and information with which he delivers
his opening soliloquy. AS the ina gined
Pietro, Mr.. JOEL makes up and acts
well. Mr.. Pearsons Chinaman is a
genuine creation. and talks and acts
in character consistently.
OF the other acts on the bill, the
Dumitrescu-Verm troupe of GYM
nasts do some pleasant, husky work
on the bars, and Virginia Grant sings
"Annie Laurie" and "Come Back to
Erin" with sweet and tender appeal.
The Daring Darts ramble about the
flying ladder as if they were born there,
and Mann and Franks combine the
ludicrous and the emotional in fair
proportion in character singing and
burlesque. Kelly and Reno are princi-
pally successful in breaking furniture.
The Laugh-o-scope is interesting.
The fourth and last of the Arizona
touring parties of young women on
their way to the Alaska Yukon expo
sition at Seattle attended the perform
ance of "a Runaway Girl" a.. the Ma