Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-28
BURBANK BALLET
MISTRESS HAS
WIDE EXPERIENCE

Miss Mildred Martin, who has
charge of the dancing numbers which
will be introduced in Gay New York;
at the Burbank theater next week,
gained her experience in stage dane
ing on the stage. Her first instructor
was an old ballet master employed by
Henry w. Savage to assist in prepar-
ing liking Dodo'' for public view at
the Studebaker theater, Chicago.
Miss Martin, whose home was then
in Portland, Ore, went to Chicago on
visit. While there her cousin dared"
her to apply at the Studebaker for a
chorus position. She was not stage
struck, she says, but she wanted to
be independent, and consequently she
accepted the dare, asked for the place
and got it,
In king Dodo'' she had her first
stage experience, and with the king
Dodo" company she returned to the
Pacific coast. Her next engagement
was in way Down East" There was
no dancing in that. Miss Martin play
ing the soubrette role of the squire 8
niece, but she did not forget.
After that came a season with Kolb
and Dill, who come to the Majestic
theater next month. With those popu-
lar German comedians she appeared in
Los Angeles and on the road, leaving
them here to join the Murray and Mack
company.
BY this time hard practice had made
Miss Martin an expert and exceedingly
graceful stage dancer, and when Muir
ray and Mack decided to put on sum-
mer show in the east she was made
ballet mistress of the company. The
following season she returned to Los
Angeles with them and left them here
to rejoin her family, her father and
mother having removed to Los An
geles from the north.
A year ago next month, when Man
ager Oliver Morosco put on "a Trip
to Chinatown" at the Burbank, Mil
dred Martin applied for the position of
dancing instructresS to the chorus and
got 1t. That was the beginning of her
work at the Burbank.
For the past week she has been drill
ing sixteen girls, most of whom never
had danced in their lives beyond ball
room waltz or twostep in the mys-
FERROUS graces of stage dancing. The
instruction will continue through this
week, and when the curtain rises on
the first act of Gay New York" at the
Burbank next Sunday afternoon the
result of her work will be apparent.
The chorus is said to be the best
Manager Morosco ever assembled for
any of his musical comedy offerings.
1t should make q hit, and if it does
much of the credit will belong to Il
quiet, unassuming young woman, who
has worked hard and long and who has
acquired the knack of teaching the
young foot how to shake itself to the
best advantage.
Agnes Mahr is we'll known in Los
Angeles as 1.-THE American Tommy At
kins," and as the circuits premier toe
dancer. This time her sister Flora is
with her, and the two are seen in COM
bination. AS Tommy Atkins, in the
poodle dog dance, the Japanese dance,
and several others, Miss Mahr shows
many changes of costume and some
exceedingly difficult toe dancing, wor-
thy of close attention. In fact, this,
the most difficult of all Terpsichorean
exercises, has in Miss Mahr it's most
expert exponent and graceful por-
trayer.
bring a cyclone of comedy and action
and certainly live up to the title. Their
finale shows a cyclone crossing the
stage, taking with it everything in
sight, including most of what they have
on. But this is merely the climactic
event in their very clever laughter
making turn.
company in Sewell Collins bright
Thirty Dollars; Jwan Tschernoff's
unique dog and pony show, with spe-
cial appeal to children; Nonette. the
gypsy musician, and Goldsmith and
Hoppe, with new motion pictures.
Lillian Russell. who will appear at
the Mason next week in "Wildire,"
produced that play in Cincinnati for
the first time on any stage. In recog-
milton of that fine start she recently
played a return engagement there and
during her stay In the Queen city
made her only appearance in vaudeville
as the headliner of the famous Pen
and Pencil clubs annual benefit, which
Is given by the Cincinnati newspaper
men in connection with the Actors
Fund of America. Miss Russell sang
two or three of the songs that she
made famous during her days upon
the comic opera stage and with Weber
and Fields. In return. for this compli-
ment to their club the Cincinnati press
men made the famous beauty the only
woman member of the club and elected
her to honary membership, suspend
ing their constitution to do so. Ape
culiarly appropriate compliment to the
queen of the American stage was the
presentation to her of the largest clus-