The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-07
THEA TRICAL LETTER <. OF FRANKLIN FILES


 New York. Feb. e.--Salome has re- turned to town again to hug dead mans discovered head. Cleopatra has come to cuddle live snake in her bared bosom. The Giri. from Rector's makes Q physically cleaner but, iIn- morally nastier exposure of herself In . play which had but one of it's inc tended two public rehearsals across the Huason, because A Jersey Mayor shouldn't be followed by an evening. So, you see, we have three young wo- men in our theatres fnadmigsibls to our drawing rovms. At the same time. though, respectable heroine .is in- trOduced to ppSnewly by George Ade: so it atill is. es ever was and ever will be, nip and tuck between good infiu- ence and evil in st&ge shows.
 The siren who danced the head off John tine Baptist is way up In grand opera, and the other who turned the head of Marc Anthony is way down in vaudeville. but they are exhibited by the same showman. This SaIome is embodied by Mary Garden. concedediy the handsomest although not the best- voiced singer at either of the rival opera houses, and she performs in the Wilde tragedy set to music by Strauss. The Cieopatra is a pretty snake charm or, RaJah, shifted from a Bowery 10- cent museum to a $2, Broadway the- atre to sell while people are buying sights of women in exposure. We have had so many and such amazing saiomes that Miss Gardens dance of | the seven wells" wouldn't be highly inc l teresting if she were not the first cp- efatic celebrity to give 1t Prina don mas singing the role hitherto have left I the dancing to be done by the leader of the eompany's ballet. and the ef- feet war in . way comic when. last i year, Fremstadss thick SaIome strode heavily out to let thin Saiome glids lin and do the dancing. This change hasn't been due. as think. to inability of the great sopranos to give the dance ] flttingiy, for they are excellent act- resses: and surely Julia lMarlowo did it effectively and she is neither light weight nor q trained dat1seuHe; but Hhe was in the rsverent drama of sJohn the 4 Baptist" not the lascivfous play b, I Oscar wilde: ana maybe they shirked I so .dnwomanly q service in 90 wantor I 6 0haxaaAar to save their aelf.rasp9cs But tls9res dolsft neea t0S discus. I tns Qu&f1tie6 of iBaIofne'' Che opera Il nor of Mary Garden tn 1t generally, fol Imusfc ianst in my line; 50 will tel
 you merely what she did with tue nov Il notoriohs dance of nudity. Tradition 4 says chat Salome appeared before hei Il AN-1NAF-Ns q I veiis: that she removed one after an. .l other with Oriental pcsturings ant l wfirlines and that she earned the head of John the Baptist by delivering her
 self finally to the monster monarch | stark. naked. You know. too. thai numerous stage women have come very I acar Go literal realism lately in thu Il plays principal episode. Miss GardeI has been exploited by every means de I visable by press tagents' guile: sfie hal 1 talked freely for publication; her man I awer has been, Knocked down in thu Il street on her account; and now that I ls all over, she declares that she wal J untrue to her art because she let thu spectators so out to snppers wttl 1xheir appatites unhnrt by. seeing he hiss eEcorpeess Mps. Ste feels. in th' depth of her artistic soul that sh' should have obey9d OBcsf Wildess al
 rection iaatead o1 merely hugging th' gory head
 | -But lot me be calmly descriptive