Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-18
The Theaters
ny SHIRLEY OLYMPUS


For ways that are dark and tricks
that are vain the heather Chinee is not
alone in his popularity. Japanese can
| go some along those lines, especially
when they are sorely smitten by the
! charms of pretty Geisha girls. Just at
present Bill Brenner, guardian of the
portal to the seamy side of the curtain,
has his hands full with the Japanese
"Johnnies" who nightly cluster around
! the stage entrance to the Orpheum
| theater And it's all because the john
nies want to become acquainted with
| the Geisha girls who perform at the
Beck house.
Excuses which for originality are
world beaters are given by the john
MES in their efforts to get by Bill. But
he, being wise beyond his generation,
! is obdurate also, for his job depends
| upon it.
| One of the Johnnies told Bill he was
| a physician and just had to see the
Geisha girls. Another declared the
| girls needed an interpreter, so he prof
fered his services. Another came as
the supposed representative of a Jap
| anese society, bearing an invitation to
a banquet which existed only in the
fertile brain of the invitation bearer.
Another offered Bill a box of the
| finest cigars money could purchase If
only meeting could be arranged. Bill
says he has not kept exact account,
but he knows there have been at least
| 250 attempts to use him as a go-be-
tween in making dates with the Geisha
girls.
There is more than press agents "hot
air. in the statement that the members
of the Geisha girls act are ladies of
| high quality. They are from one of
Nagasakis most exclusive seminaries.
They are not the tea house Geishas.
In fact if you should happen to ask
them from which tea house in Japan
they come they would be insulted. The
| Orpheum Geishas are of the caste
which marries nobility. 1t is largely
for this reason that the Johnnies are
so anxious to meet the winsome little
misses. In Japan these girls would
never come in contact with the aver
age Jap who emigrates to the United
| States The Japanese Johnnies, like
American Johnnies, believe the stage
gives them a license to flirt with its
people. And were it not for Bill, the
| license might be issued
All Of which goes to show that the
freedom of the west is taken advantage
of to the fullest by all, even the Japs.
Art with a capital A has struck
treeless Butte, Mont, as Is eVldenced
by q report from there that David
Warfield and the critics are in a row.
Now, what do you think of that?
| Some gentleman with a vitriolic pen
| took occasion day before yesterday to
say Mr.. Warfield's supporting company
and the play itself are "rotten." Mr.
Warfield took umbrage, with the result
that all newspaper passes were can
| celed and all newspaper men barred
| from the theater. Personally COM
mend Mr.. Warfield most highly for his
| stand. 1t seems rather strange that
"The Music Master" could get by mil
lions of playgoers and hundreds of the
ablest critics in the United States, only
to be roasted to a beautiful brown by
a Butte critic. OF course Butte has
produced some wonderful personalities,
among them Mary McLane. Are we
now to have Daniel come to judg-
ment or a second William Winter rise
from the copper mines and the smelter
smoke to tell the world that it has been
mistaken after all and that "The Music
Master" is not at all play worth
while? Every man is entitled to his
own opinion, but it--would seem that,
Judging from a preponderance of evil
dence at least, one or more Butte men
are just little out of harmony
Where will it all end? I asked myself
Yesterday after a chat of an hour or so
with Al Levy. during which he calmly
| Llletl IlC has IL pleeil IOl ttNNA
ing a regular stage to his cafe. 1t is
possible Levy may buy ground or space
of some sort Immediately north of his
restaurant and there build stage, so
that his cafe Observation-Disclosures that
means-may become permanent
feature.
The success which has attended
Levy's departure of giving a vaudeville
entertainment three times a day in his
restaurant is so great that the genial
AL is chuclkling in glee and rubbing his
hands with satisfaction He fills his
cafe at every performance, which
means he is getting revenue from a
, source hitherto almost profitless. The
class of patrons is of the best. OF
all this, but he says results justify the
expenditure He even plans to spend
more money for "talent." If he puts
through his stage scheme he will be in
, a fair way of developing a hieh class
music hall right here in our midst
\. Loud cheers for AL Levy, pioneer
"cafe chantanter" and gastronomic i'm
presario.
When press agents get together
dramatic editors get theirs!
Sidle Lawrence, press agent for the
ReIasco- Morosco enterprises, yesterday
called upon William Hamilton Cline,
nress agent for the Beck Vaudeville
interests in Los Angeles. Mr.. Law
renee, Who recently showed his face,
1. e.. shaved off his beautiful brown
beard which he has worn for fifteen
wears. asked Mr.. Cline, who has worn
a beautiful black beard for twenty
two years, to shave Off his beard. And
Mr. Cline declined!
The foregoing is not joke. 1t is the
result of press agents getting together.
, But one man ever struck the czar of
Russia and lived. That man is Willy
Panther, one of the performers at the
Orpheum. 1t came about in this man
ner:
Panther was playing i'm st. Peters
burg The czar had been i'll and some