The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-02-26
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graphed with the Nightriders and pub
lished far and wide, even unto current
literature, that you had quite forgotten
the existence Of a village on the Missis-
sippi where the most Of you received
your amusement education, or another
village where you often go to get a
higher view OF things, or still another
from whence sundry gentlemen and la
dies in blue hose stroll forth to give us
opinion on the Educational Side Of Life.
What they speak of is very interesting
and exciting, no doubt, but what care
we as long as we are able to run into
Memphis occasionally to see Mr.. Jossy
and Miss Parry in the Jefferson Theatre
Stock. l wished that could have been
in Union City during the recent excite
ment, but having CLEANED from the As
ISOLATED Press that your town was a
quaint little village set midst the hills"
and that all the civilization about who
didn't wear blue jeans, tote gun, chew
plug tobacco and address the visitor as
'strangah" either living in holes in the
ground or in trees, I was rather startled
and refrained.
have a remembrance of attending
summer opera at the Memphis Lyceum
several seasons back when Delamotte,
Daisy Thorn, Ada Walker and Ida
Mule, Nat Goodwin s first wife, warbled
ecstatically through The Chimes Of
Normandy and SO on, in company
with some charming young women from
Union City who could both read, write
and play bridge whist Afterward these
very same ladies spoke highly of the
relative merits of Tom Green of this
same Lyceum, who sang half his time
and fought the other, and England
Vaughn, of the St. Louis Odeon, who
is well known leading woman in San
Francisco now, and from this drew
that they had travelled extensively, es-
pecially as they announced that they
had lately returned from Hickman,
where some one was building an opera
house.
You see l can't let the Associated
Press give me ideas about the Union
City matinee girl, for | know them.
There are so many nice things in the
theatrical grabbing for Nashville and
Memphis this spring, 1 am sure the
matinee girl from your town will be
able to enjoy some. One Of them be-
ing the first appearance in Memphis of
no less a person than ALA Nazimova--
accent on the zim' please, for l learned
how to pronounce it from Blanche Stod-
dard, a Western actress, who was with
the Russian woman a season-Madame
Nazimoya came to America with her
husband, Paul Orleneff, and played to
Yiddish audiences in New York not so
long ago. OF course it didn't take
long for a we'll known manager to swoop
down on Nazimova and get her to sign |
a five-year contract with him. The ac-
tress learned English in eight months
and St. Louis person told me the 9th |
er day that her English was beautiful. |
The St. Louis and Chicago people who
have had her rave over her Ibsen roles, |
also over her Comet play by Owen John
son, who writes those funny schoolboy
stories in the Saturday Evening Post.
Mr.. Burns Mantle, of the Chicago
Tribune, wrote some blank verse about
The Comet" though showing his vein.
1t ran partly:
The Comet,
1t must mean something,
Yet
There's no meaning to it
That ! can see. Beg pardon,
But may | trouble you?
Me?
Yes, you.
Not me, have troubles of my own,
My wife brought me.
And does she understand it?
II / thought she did
I'd chuck herl
Which shows that one Chicago critic
loesn't like Ibsenesque plays even if he
Ices like Madame Nazimova. 1t seems
IS if we go to see the actor too much in
tead of the play. 1t is only PERSONAL
ty one cares about now.
/ wish you would write me about the
lyric and Reynolds and all the other
,laces of amusement in your town.
What about the barracks and the Blue
loose?
l have read Mrs. Thursten's last
,ook, The Fly On The Wheel, and