Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-01
MERRY FRENZY
IS GOING SOME
RIOT IN ABSURDITlES C00LS
THE BLOOD SALUBRI0USLY
BREEZY FARCE, REPLETE WITH
LAUGHS, OPENS AUDITORIUM
Dragging Action Near the Close Could
Be misunderstanding Dog Is
Feature of Los Angeles
Bill

Jeanne Chaplin of Smith, Jacks sister.
Helen Blake of smith, Jeanne's friend
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Genevieve Clife
Mrs. Roberts Keep, formerly of Smith,
a chapertne. Bertha KrieghOd
"StilP' Bill St0ver, foreman of the Flying
Heart. ............. Frank I. Charlton
AucreriO Maria Carara, MexicOn.
...........,.......... Salvatore #. Zito
Cloudy, an Indian. ......... Charles BrOl1ate
willie, n killer. r.............. Willis Browne
All Sing HO, cook at the Flying Heart.
......-..... ...-....s..... IF. L. briggs
Marledetta, Mexican servant ..........:
"Gabby' Gallagher, foreman of the Cen
tipede ranch. h............R r.. B. Theadore
Skinner, cook at the Centipede. 80.
.................... frank AliWorJh
Mexican Girls, Cowboys, etc.
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
U HERE is a fragrant, nonalcoholic
beverage sold at soda fountains
n and some other places known as
the Grenadine punch. 1t is mild and
tongue-tickling, and it has no after
effects. 1t deserves to be advertised.
Now, "Going Some" is the Grenadine
punch of the weeks dramatic feast.
Not strong or heady. not frothy or
foamy-just pleasant to the palate and
easily forgotten-no after-effects.
It helped cool the somewhat tepid
air of the Auditorium at the reopening
of that beautiful playhouse last night
for the regular autumn and winter sea-
SON. 1t rallied our risible nerves even
as the refrigerating breeze outside re-
minded us that it was the last and not
the first day of August. For it gave us
more honest laughs to the square min
ute than any play we have seen in the
last four months.
That about sums up it's virtues, ex-
cept for the pleasure of meeting some
score of well conceived characters, in
cluding a batch of hilarious, if quite
mythical, westerners in raiment and
rare, reeling converse the twin BROTH
ers of the red rocks painted on the
scenery These pictorial characters
the copper penny Indian, the La Pa
Iona Mexican, the Websterian foreman
and Willie, the bland and the humble,
are creative masterpieces in their way
as precise and Zinc-etched as the glori-
Gus progeny of Charles Dickens. Most
of them are impossible, as most grand
ly grotesque creations of fiction or the
lighter drama are impossible. but they
ought to be, even if they can't. For us
they live, and it's merely the worse for
realism. We shall never meet Sam
Weller or the Killer. We don't expect
to. We merely know them, which is
infinitely better, considering the multi
tude of people one meets but doesn't
know.
Playwrights Armstrong and Beach
have taken the two most picturesque
and colorful creatures of our drab and
sorrowful modern life sand mixed them
up to their mutual derision and cha
grln-the cowboy and the cOllegian.
They mingle to their mutual advan-
tage. Both learn a few things. The
desert weds the campus and blossoms
as the rose with frantic mfrth And
no one-except perhaps a true Mo-
hammedan-can cavil at its quality.
Speed-what satire in a name!-had
TO win the race. The hearts of the
Flying Heart ranchers were set on
regaining their lost phonograph from
the Centipede outfit, and the guns of
the Flying Hearters were set for muir
der if Speed belied his calling. And,
of course, there We're the smiles of COL
lege girls to spur him on and the
greenbackS of college men Wagered on
the race to bid him forget to pause.
So Speed-bluffer from the cradle
went in and won. He trained baking
ly enough, and made a WY face over
the rationS that his arch rival in love
induced the cowboys to mete out to
him. He was counting on the appear
ance of his friend Covington a real
s1o0-yard champion, to help him out.
CoVington cOmeS-on crutches. Speed
and his canny trainer are in agonies
of anticipation, hearing rifle cracks on
every breeze and making deliberate
and detailed plans for their early in
terment. And then as a last resort,
Speed fixes the race-buys up his
superior rival, and wins the money
and the girl. 1t is rather a tame end
ing, but then Speed is rather tame
animal. 1t is his rival who is wild.
SO much for the plot. 1t would have
been better if reduced to three acts,
curtailing some of the flirting with
the college girls, diverting as it is, and
running the race with less tedious de-
lay. The humor of the false starts
Is lost on an audience, which wants
the climax and nothing else, and the
grotesque absurdity of the practical
revelation of the frame-up just be-
fore the running was too evident last
night to need verbal proof. Farce will
excuse much, but it must leave us a
shred of reason, else we shall not have
wherewithal to laugh at it. And there
is a point where it verges on travesty
which it is not safe for the bravest
and most contemptuous playwright to
pass. That point was passed last
night in the last act of Going Some
and it marred the glee of the finale
for many of us.
A pleasant minor strain in the play,
which could safely have been repeated
with more frequency. is the plaintive
little love affair of the Mexican and
'NAACA
There was just enough tender ro-
mantle verify in the acting of Sal
vatore Zito to make a charming un-
dertone to the clashing cymbals of the
main action. The other touch of real
ity in the story is the delicious fan
tasia of the phonograph-tha mes
senger of things unseen which woke
fierce wrath and gentle joy in the souls
of the ranchers. The phonograph, not
]. Wallingford Speed, is the true hero
of "Going Some" and one is as sorry
for the Centipeders who lost it as for
their victorious rivals, who regained
1t at such cost to all concerned.
The acting in general was accept
able Mr.. O'Rourkes facial antics are
Irresistible and he extracts every
ounce of merriment from his superbly
comic lines. James Spottswood is
natural and credible as Speed. We
believe him, for we have met just
such chaps. We are glad when he
wins, because they always do win. IT
is sort of predestination. Right or
wrong does not figure. 1t is sheerIy
a matter of sympathy, and sympathy
is the groundwork of every farce that