The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-02-17
PATRONS TODfCIDE
POLICY OF HOUSE
Vaudeville Will Gave Way to
Musical Comedy at Ameri=
can as an Experiment
1.-THE Merry Widow" Travesty
Will Follow Lonesome
Town" at Princess


The fact that the American theater is
musical comedy house was proved yes
terdsy afternoon when Manager Homan
announced that he had engaged Jack
Golden and a company of * to appear
a his theater in musical comedy be-
ginning Sunday afternoon February %.
We are trying 20 find out what pa
irons Of the theater want" said Homan
yesterday. \ think they would like
musical comedy. and so we are going to
take chance with that sort of enter
tainment Golden is gather q company
together anS will bring it 70 this thea
ter. II the musical comedy end Of the
performance goes better than the
vaudeville show. then wen stick 20 mu-
sicsl comedy It's an experiment, that's
ell
The somewhat tangled vaudeville sit
uation in this city and the fact that
Sullivan & Considine control the Ameri-
can now. has nothing to do. according
10 Homan. with his hier into musical
comedy.
Lonesome Town" is in It's last days
at the Princess, but not in its last de-
lland. The audiences have been large
this week. and Mana ger Loverich says
that the advance SAFE for next week is
large After Lonesome Town" comes
The Merry Wildwood the legiti-
mate Merry widow but the travesty
which Joe Weber put on in New York
when the Lehar operatta was the rage
il the metropolis.
The music Of the trovesty is just the
same as the music of the Savage pro-
duction, and an augmented orchestra
win interpret Lehsr's beautiful har-
monies.
Maude Lillian Berri. who has rec
emily returned 20 San Francisco. will
be the merry widow. and attenuated
Kolb and corpulent Din will dance the
dizzy measures OF the famous waltz.
burlesque OF Franz Molnar's The
Devir' will be given in conjunction
with The Merry Widow" Thus the
widow and the devil will be attractive
at the Princess as elsewhere
Marie Booth Russell. who is Man
tells leading woman on the stage and
his wife in private life has assumed
more roles in this city since the classic
drama was on at the New Columbia
than any other actress who has ever
appeared in San Francisco. She says
that she HIS a Photographic memory"
for the lines. That is to say, she sees
them as one sees pictures when ones
eyes are shut. She has played Juliet.
Lady Macbeth, Julie in "Richelieu,'
Goneril in King Lear" Portia in THE
Merchant Of Venice" and she has
played Desdemonia in "Othlo" as well
as Emilia in the same play. She has
been Ophelia in Hamlet and in all
these roles she has not faltered in a
line.
Her explanation of EmiIia's miscon-
duct in "Othello," where the wife OF
the handkerchief. is ingeniously true.
Emilia, says Mrs. Mantell, was
afraid of Tago. her husband. The
wretch dominated her and so she was
afraid TO tell a secret which she knew
her husband would not permit her 70
reveal
Mrs Kerr. wife OF the manager OF
the company, told me in the presence
Of Mr. Kerr that Mrs. Manten didn't
behave that way off the stage at all
AS all good wives should be-" said
Mrs. Kerr she is really, and in fact,
the leading womsn-''
Mcintyre and Heath threaten to leave
the musical comedy stage. They have
sung and danced all the way from
Texas to Tacoma. and have been before
the public for more than generation.
Now, they say, they are about to quit
the musical comedy sage in order to
show the public that they can do some
thing besides the trunk scene" They
have under consideration a play by a
well known dramatist. which they will
appear in next season. There are no
chorus girls included in the scheme OF
the playwright The subject and theme
Of the drama is the negro question. 1t
is really a problem play, designed to
uphold the fact that the negro is not
fit to WELD a ballot or to become a
proper citizen.
Arleen Hackett, who plays Resale
in the dramatization Of Gilbert Parkers
story ""rhe Right Of Way, was born
on the 18th OF the month, and still does
not regard the circumstance as unpro-
pitious. IF Won count the letters in
my name" she says. you Will find that
there are Just 13 letters in the sigma
ture. Besides. I was born in room IL
OF the principal hotel in Warlam
Mass. which commonwealth. if You re-
member. was one of the original IL
states. When ] was 13 years old
fsegsn my studies in the Emerson
School Of Oratory in Boston, and now J
find myself the leading woman in The
Right of Way the title OF which con-
tains 13 letters"
Miss Hackett comes OF distin.
guished family. Her greatgrandfather
was General Warren of revolutionary
fame, and q victim OF British or Hes
sian bullets at Bunker hill. Her mother
was related TO Ulysses S. Grant. and
strangely enough, her father was a
cousin 70 Mrs Tom Thumb. Thus the
giant and the pigmy meet in her
family.
May I say. seeing that I am chronic
ling these facts. that I, too was born
on the 18th of February and that there
are just Is letters in my name. I never
Dragged about that before and would
mot now ONLY the nllhlicitY man ns tIl