The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17
Francia Wilson is Coming


 Awakening of MT. Pipp."
 Msjestic Theatre--yaudeviiie all week.
 Francis Wilson fs Coming.
 Doesn't the very mention of his name make you smile in anticipation of the. good laugh that Is to be enjoyed on Tuesday night in seeing e sure enough comedian rolled backwards seven cen Ntnries in time? Don't you know that 10 matter how phlegmatic you may De. you are bound to laugh when . Francis Wilson greets you with ms broad smile? Don't you know that the inimitable humor of When Knights agreeable thought and feeling you may have indulged during the day or past week?
 If you don't. you are not knowing person.
 There are but two offerings for the week. and both are plays having ca- pablo comedians in the headlines. The second diversion to be offered Is that of Charlie Grapewin in MT. Pipp" You saw 1t two seasons ago--and enjoyed it thoroughly. no doubt. This season the lines may be changed somewhat, but the comedy will be present. You may, therefore, assure yourself of very pleasant evening indeed.
 Francis Wilson.
 ''when Knights Were Boid." with Francis wilson as the central figure, an absolutely up-to-date English no-i bleman, for whom the clock is turned Backwards for seven centuries. while he ss given a taste of those medieval days he so thoroughly despises is gen. orally conceded to be the most amus- ing farcical comedy that the stage has seen since theatre-goers laughed until their sides ached at "Charley's Aunt" Charles Marlow originally wrote When Knights Were Bold." for English audiences, but In its transplan- tation to American soil 1t has lost none of its remarkable amusing flavor and has proved so great a success that Francis Wilson is presenting it for it's second season in this country.
 It offers the comedian some splendid opportunities for fun-making, and of these he takes the greatest possible advantage, in his own inimitable way. Above all, Mir. Wilson is 6 comedian, but there are moments when his dis tinct genius as a serious actor are very much in evidence. and there ia many A younger leading man upon the stage today who could wei, take les- sons In love-making from Francis Will con.
 The story. which MT. Marlow has told, and very cleverly told, in When
 
 eatiricai shafts at ancestry worship, Sir Guy de We're has just come Into his title and estates He is a young man of effervescing spirits. but wholly lacks the dignity with which those around him, especially his fair cousin, with whom he is very much In love, thinks he should be clothed. He is also fond of rollicking pranks and the possessor of a vocabulary which Is more than spiced with the slang of the day .. Every one about him continually harps upon his ancestors. until he becomes worn out with hearing of the martial deeds they have done. And so, at the end of the first act, he goes to sleep on couch drawn up before the fire An the great baronial hall and dreams.
 In the dream, which, in the second act, the wheels of time have whirled backNard--some seven hundred years, in fact--and Sir Henry finds himself in his dinner coat surrounded by a lot Of twelfth century retainers in the costumes of the day, the curious part of 1t all being that every one about him Is his or her own prototype. The fun is spriukled. throughout the act as thickly as plums in 8 Christmas budding, and the audience is kept In the throes of uproarious laughter from curtain to curtain. FH
 The elimination of the act is a duel between the hero and another knight who is besieging the castle. Both are in armcr, armed with great swords, but Sir Guy, with his modern notions finds the boiler plate and his weapon little to his liking and so discarding them both and his vizor, sails in with few "upper cuts" and by cleverly directed solar plexus, puts his adversary down and out and then amuses himself by sitting on his chest
 In the third act. the dream Is over but Sir Guy is still under it's spell. As- sumang the manners of the twelfth cen. tury he brings his lady love as well as the rest of the people about him, to a distinct realization that the present time Is the best to live in after all and there is a happy ending.
 Charles Frohman has mounted When Knights Were Bold" elaborately and has surrounded Mir. Wilson with large supporting company, feature of which Is a big chorus which sings a twelfth century song of welcome at the end of the first and at the beginning of the second act. Prominent in the cast are Augustin Duncan. George Irving. John F. Trevor, Lloyd eCarleton, Victor Be noit, Edna Bruns, Margherita Sargent Theodosia de Coppet. Blanche sharpe Bertha Mann and the comedians daughter. Adelaide Wilson.
 Charles Frohman is to present MT