The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-07

! tends to go on the road with a four
act play.
| Broadway summer productions are still
running at full blast. and are proving i'm
mensely popular. At the Broadway the
| atre Lew Fields, in 1.-The Summer
| Widowers,' Is doing a rushing business
while Eddie Foy is meeting with fair
| success in UP and Down Broadway" at
| the Casino theatre
Fred Thompson's play "Girlies'' looks
as though 1t would stretch out into the
! winter months. and despite the handi-
cap of producing a cold weather play in
midsummer, Louis Mann is doing nicely
with his new play THE Creator at the
| Lyric theatre.
TITLES Nightmare" which had no
more than opened the doors of the Herald
| Square theatre for asucessful run, when
| 1T was compelled to close owing to the
indisposition OF the star, Miss Marie
Dressler, will reopen tomorrow night
| Henry b. Harris will inaugurate his
J season a week from Monday night when
| The Commuters" with James Forbes
and May de Sousa in the leading roles,
will have It's first New York production
at the Criterion theatre.
During the past week the theatrical
calm has been disturbed by the arrival
of the Coburn players, who are present
sizes at Columbia university.
These players who were at Columbia
last summer appear annually at the
principal universities throughout the
country, giving Shakespeare and other
classics. The performances are being
given on the campus at the 10th street
between Broadway and Amsterdam ave-
nue., and the repertoire consists of las
You Like IT, Romeo and Juliet" 'The
Canterbury Pilgrims" THE Electra of
Euripides," Twelfth Night" and Much
Ado About Nothing"
Speaking of successful plays, cannot
overlook Seven Days" which ran
through the winter, spring and summer
and has now passed the 3oOth perform
ance.
| The wonderful record scored by "Seven
| Days is worthy a bit of comment, when
one recalls that for 10 years prior to
Its production there was a firm eonvic-
ton among theatrical managers that
farce was stone dead In New York Even
after the premiere and with full knowl-
edge of the advantages of a unanimously
Mandatory press neither Wagenhals &
Kemper nor other keen observers of
things theatrical ever dreamed that the
piece would run through the winter, pass
the spring limit and survive one of the
hottest summers in years
From several viewpoints. Seven DAYS"
must go down INTO theatrlcal history as
the biggest success of the season of 1909
10. In the duration of It's run, it is fore
most, and doubtless will compare favor
ably with any of last seasons notewor-
thy successes In the matter of aggregate
receipts.
If, there's anythingsin a name. Lillian
Russell has found it, The title of the
play in which she Is to be starred bv
ic
less striking than I'm Search of Sin
ner." and this doesn't mean that James
Buchanan Brady thinks it means either.
| Charlotte Thompson is the author of
| the piece, which is to have its premiers
| in Chicago at Powers theatre, on Sep
| tember 10.
| Another play by Eloise Steele, entitled
1.-THE Pace That Kills" by Mr. Brooks.
| for the fair Lillian's use Miss RUSSELL S
| tour will carry her to the Pacific coast.
| with a Broadway engagement in pros
| pect about February l.
| The final steps of the closing Of Huber's
museum on 14th street were taken this
| week. when the equipment was sold at
! auction. This marks the passing os
one. of New York's famous landmarks,
| which has attracted visitors for the past
| 80 years.
| George F. Huber, the owner and found
| err, is retiring from the business with
a neat fortune. as the museum netted him
about $4,000 a year.
The museum was founded by George
| Huber SO years ago and had existed even
before that time as Prospect Garden, a
music hall. Huber had some experience
| in managing smaller museum enterprises
| but in this new one he tried the novel
| scheme of uniting a museum with a
| music hall. The enterprise was q success
| from its earliest days and has continued
| a money maker down to the present, ac-
cording to Mr.. Huber.
Among the many freaks, which made
| the museum famous in its early days
| were Tom Thumb and Professor Lang
| don, although there were a good many
| dime museums in the country at one
| time, there never was a complete circuit
and each manager had to drum up his
| own talent.
George Huber maintained a great many
| agents all over the country and whenever
| any unusual specimen was heard of a
| man was sent to investigate the freak
and sign him up IL he proved satisfac-
| tory Most of the freaks played en-
gagements of from two to six weeks but
| occasionally some unusually successful
| person would be held longer
Huber was very successful with his
| music hall He proved himself to be a
good theatrical scout and many peo-
pie whom he picked from obscure places
to act on his stage have become famous.
Among the best known of the Huber
graduates are the Roger brothers, Flo
and May Irwin. Revell, the acrobat. and
in our own time the Princess Rajah,
whom Huber discovered at a Conev is
land dance hall. not to mention Sober
Sue, also of Hammerstein fame.
In addition to the music hall and the
museum of curiosities a menagerie was
maintained Doctor Cook once exhibited
a herd of sledge dogs in the managerie
and performed in the museum hall with
a band of Eskimos.
In addition to the freaks the museum
boasted a large collection of inanimate
curIos. Civil war relics African spears,
stuffed snakes and things of that ills
we're displayed in countless dusty cases
against the walls. There were also
numerous frames of old theatre pro-
grammes. photographs Of race horses,
dead and gone. baseball players now in
] the bush league and fighters who can't