Arizona republican., 1909-02-17

however may do material damage be- fore their force is spent. and you may depend up it that, no matter how great is the educational value of the theater, this particular movement, which is all ready growing to an alarming extent, will work havoc before it is stopped.
 The complacency with which the American theater- going public is ac- ceptings questionable plays is an ab- solute proof of the iHroads that have been made by the loose drama. Do you recall the indignant uproar caused by the dancing doll in Pinero's "A Wife Without a Smile" and how quickly this suggestive +prop"- was relegated to the ash heap? That was several years ago. Public likes and dislikes change with the times, and this season i've have witnessed the in teresting sight of Broadway audiences made up to a large extent of the same people who tabooed the sugges
 tive drama of yesterday-applaudin the last line of The Devil" wherein the leading character expresses satis- faction at having brought about the moral downfall of the two most de- NtnN ptODiG Nllt DtdN- WO years ago New York would have nothing to do with Mrs. Warren's Profession" one of the cleverest works of one of the cleverest living playwrights, be- cause it suggested things which New Workers at that time discussed only in private. This year the dramatists daring has progressed with the pub lies appetite for questionable detail Salvation Nell,' splendidly presented and splendidly acted, was loudly praised by the critics and the public because of its remarkable "production' and the fidelity with which 1t pro duced certain phases of lower metro politan life. But it presented usually the very objects which were only talked of guardedly in Mrs. Warren's Profession" and the public stood for them. Photographic is the adjective which was most used in describing Mrs. Fiske's latest vehicle Yes; the play is a collection of vivid motion pictures. but they were made by flash light. The things which they depict cannot be caught in the daytime
 Evil Influences at Work in Vaudeville.
 Less than a year ago an English woman visited our shores to enjoy some of the notoriety which one of her books had excited, and. as was to be expected she made a number of fruit less efforts to have dramatic version of this amorous narrative put on the stage. Since then the rank weed of rottennesS has grown tall enough to hide from a number of managers a vision of what they were coming to- and. as a result, we have several vau- deville acts and at least one musical comedy scene which depict the worst episode in the book which less than a year ago no manager would touch. The tiger skin like the "hootchie- kootchie" and the rail on a brothel has reached the playhOuses of Broadway. Once the notorious Moulin Rouge was talked of only among men; once Paris by night was not a subject which was openly Haunted in the face of an American public seeking theatrical en- tertainment. Now it is being present. ed as a show which most critics agree appeals chiefly to licentiousness- a meritOrious achievement for one of the producers of the deservedly successful ''F1orodora"
 The public, you say, demands sen sations. Yes, you are right. But there are sensations and sensations; they are not all to be found in malodorous scenes. Vaudeville had it's greatest vogue when, through the in strumentality of it's American found- CTS, Benjamin F Keath, F. F. Proctor and oscar Hammerstein. 1t was clean. wholesome and entertaining. Through competitive wrestling for the almighty dollar, it has become the place where you may find the latest and most dar- ing sensation, and within the last eight months you have seen half dozen of the most successful and most celebrated American variety houses change their function. This brings me to point with which you may or may not be cOnversant
 The Most Successful Plays Are Clean.
 The most successful plays and the most successful musical entertain ments, not only of recent years, but of all time, have been clean. This Is statement which goes with absolutely no qualification or reservation. It ap- plies also to players, playwrights and Jh0N NHN uOIlsL hIlOW, uIl- leSf as l have said before, cleanliness of all kinds is a tremendous factor in final success. And by success, I, as a manager, am still talking of dollars and cents. Klaw and ErIanger's Ben Hur'' and Little Memo" and William A Brady's Way Down East" have have more money and will live longer on the forty weeks -a-year boards than any two cleverly written but suggest lively immoral French or English or German or American plays which you or any one else can name "Brews- ter's Millions" and Polly of the Cir GUS" both of which am proud to have produced, have been, are now. and will continue to be, productive of bigger returns than any two American plays of the present day which deal with indecency. Miss Maude Adams is the greatest drawing card in the whole theatrical Armament. She is moreNre- spected and is wealthier than Mime. Bernhardt-which does not mean that