Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-13
SIGN Of THE ROSE"
A DELIGHTFUL SKETCH
George Beban at the 0rpheum
Introduces Character New
to the Stage


In 'Srhe Sign of the Rose" George
Bebans one-act play, which he is
presenting this week as the principal
feature of the Orpheum bill, Mr.. Beban
has done for the Italian immigrant
just the service performed some years
ago by David Warf1eld for the Jew.
In "The Auctioneer," a piece written
for Mr.. Warfleld by Lee Arthur, whose
home now is in Los Angeles, that actor
showed us the loyalty and lovable
side of a character which before then
had been utilized on the American
stage only to be ridiculed. In 1.-THE
Sign of the Rose" Mr.. Beban redeems
the "dcgo" from stage caricature.
With a fidelity which can not attain
it's full measure of appreciation here
in Southern California, where the
Italian laborer is little known, he
realizes a national type familiar
enough in New York and the east, but
foreign to this locality, and which
curiously has escaped heretofore stage
exploitation.
1t is announced that Edwin Milton
Royle has been commissioned to ex-
pand this miniature drama into a
three-act play and that Mr.. Beban will
star IN it next season. If this is done
success should follow, for the story,
even In it's present tabloid form, Is
of compelling humanity and abundant
sympathy, and MIR. Beban's acting in
it's central role is triumph.
The action of "The Sign Of the Rose"
occurs in one of Thorley's flower shops
in New York city. The child of a mil
posedly by members of the "Black
Hand" and letters have been received
demanding a $4,000 ransom to be
paid at Thorley's to an agent who will
be identified by "the sign of the rose"
Here, then, come the parents of the
missing child and here is stationed
central office detective to arrest the
blackmailer.
on the preceding day the millionaire,
recklessly driving his automobile,
through the crowded streets, has
struck and seriously injured a little
girl The child dies, though he does
not know it. All this is explained
tersely but completely, and it leads
up to the entrance of Mr.. Beban, whom
the audience at once recognizes as
the father of the dead child knowing
at the same time that he will be mis-
taken for the Black Hand emissary
OF course this is merely the A B c of
good playwrighting, but 1t is done so
simply and so naturally that the skill
of the authors technique all but es-
capes observation. The audience has
been taken itno the playwright's con-
fldence while his characters are still
cropping blindly through a maze of
misunderstanding.
The italian has come to the flower
shop to buy rose for the little pine
casket of his dead baby. The confu-
sion of Identities occurs. He is offered
the $4,000, and, racially slow OF wit,
bewildered by his strange reception,
declines the money and tells patheti-
cally and simply the story of his mis-
fortune. In the end the missing child
is recovered and the tangle OF mis-
taken identity explained.
In its relation this little story sounds
bald enough. but as 1t is presented by
Mr.. Beban and his company on the
Orpheum stage 1t is a veritable gem,
provided with an excellent setting, It's
every facet exhibiting the polished
acting of its author-actor, who. out of
has evolved a character new to the
stage and one for which the stage
should prove grateful.
Elsewhere the current bill offers
Nine. Jewell and her manikins in q
marionette play entitled "Toyland
Vaudevi1le;" Alf Grant and Ethel Hoag
in a ''chatter" act: the Asahi troupe of
Japanese magicians and acrobats; the
Imperial Russian dancers;~> Camille
Ober, Felice Morris and her company
in IA Call for Help" and the three
White Kuhns.
"Old Heidelberg was revived at the
Belasco last night, the performance
making the twenty-second week OF the
play at this theater, its presentation
having extended over a period of sew
eral years. Lewis S. Stone again de-
lighted large audience with his i'm
of Prince Karl Heinrich,
Eleanor, Gordon was the Kathie and
James K. Applebee the Doctor Juttner.
Several of the roles were assumed oy
players who have been seen at the
Belasco in the same parts in previous
A more extended review
of the performance will appear In this
column tomorrow.
Reviews of the new bills at the Los
Angeles and Pantages vaudeville
houses and Of the current offerings at
the Olympic and Princess theaters VIII
be published tomorrow.
DkMK &c QEIMG