The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-12

N A/ saying that the chief patrons w of rottenness on the stage are women. He declares that in Boston Maude Adams, in delightfully."- clean ana uplifting comedy by Barrie, was literally | "starved out" while an appallingly ln- decent play tbat was running three blocks away attracted so many women
 that three extra matinees were gwen. The Baltimore Sun asks whether NIT. Lackaye is joking, since he is creolteu with lively wit, and adds that in Bal timore audiences that attend indecent nlavs are made up more largely or men than of women.
 "The Queen of the Moulin Rouge saws the Sun, enjoyed Its first night III Baltimore before an audience so large ,v masculine that 1t resembled a Satur- asv evening crowd at a burlesque house." As the narrative of the experi- ence of 'The Queen of the Mouiih Rouge, is not continued through the engagement the Sun does not give any light upon the character of succeeoihs audiences, but, inferentially. the hrst night crowd was fair sample.
 If MT. Lackaye is speaking seriously surprise will be occasioned in the sou'h bv the statement that Miss Adams anu MT. Barrie went begging in aesthetcN Boston. while bean-fed hordes Jammeo temple of amusement occupied by the world, the flesh and the devil and devoted to the exploitation of salacious- ness In Louisville the seating capacity of theater presenting Miss Adams IS always taxed to the utmost, and many persons are turned away.
 | It is true that Miss Anna Heid-who | is probably the best advertised ex- ponent of salaciousness on the Amer | ican stage-was greeted by large au- diences during her recent Louisville apga cement in Miss Innocence" and at the matinee many persons were turned away after the last seat hao been sold, but there are women who uo' | and women who do not, contribute lhelr presence as an indorsement to that stvla of entertainment. While an over flowing matinee for Miss Innocence or "The Queen of the Moulin Rouge may bear out MT. Lackaye's statement that women support the indecent
 show" it is demonstrable here that the
 sort of theatrical pabulum which Miss
 Held provides is not more popular with
 women than the kind of comedy TOT
 which the name of Miss Adams stands.
 And the merest glance at the two au-
 d,ances shows which of these actresses
 appeals to the better class of women,
 The valued publicity that accrues to
 the indecent farce or musical comedy, or the erotic play, through anything approaching frank description by the
 nress. awakens the curiosity of many
 women. and the more actively curious make up the large matinee audiences
 which Mr. Lackaye is quoted as point
 ing to in Boston. The tremendous in-
 huence of advertising is to be con-
 s,dered in accounting for the rush for
 the box office when an especially fecu- lent offering is to be presented. The struggle of New York men to buy seats
 at any price for Mrs. Warren's Pro- 1 fession,, when the press agents had so over-played its indecency that the po- | lice suppressed 1t indicates that curi- osity has no sex. When their curi- 1 OgitY Is aroused Dy tic SoioSiSeo thS
 response of men Is as ready as that of women The four or five musical | comedies that have received unlimited
 advertising through adverse criticism from the pulpit and the press during the last two years stimulate the curi-
 osity of women more highly than that
 of men because they are not greatly different from the burlesque shows that
 have been presented to masculine audi
 ences for generations. Their piquancy,
 from the masculine, point of view, lies
 almost wholly in the fact that they
 are presented to mixed audiences.
 In a recent article in the American Magazine attacking l"the degradation of the stage the writer observed that formerly there were respectable plays \ and comic operas attended by men and
 women and 'leg shows presented in burlesode houses to men only. Re cently,' he said, there has sprung into existence style of show for mixed 1 audiences that could not be adequately described by the phrase leg show or by any anatomical term that would he printable Quite naturally the nov city of such exhibitions nres the femi-