The San Francisco call., 1910-01-10
COMEDIAN
IS IRRESISTIBLE
Lives Up to Every Promise Re.
garding His Odd Genius and
Delights Audience

nave been 10 Los Angeles 10 see
Lauder. The city was talking Lauder
singing Lauder and buying more
Lauder tickets. The funny little
Scotchman is. or was, there and
leaves the southern city in the mer-
riest kind of mood. The boy in the
elevator hummed softly to himself
she's Ma Daisy; the bellhop sang
Safest of the Family" as he led
the way; the policeman on the corner
whstIed "A Sprig O. White Heather
and everybody learned Il Love Las
sic"
The fact is that in a world of dis
appointment, broken promises, dead
hopes and buried illusions, Harry Lau-
der makes good every promise, meas
ures up TO every published assurance
concerning his singular genius and
turns his enthusiastic press agents into
models of unadorned truthfulness. II
William Morris. the independent force
in vaudeville enterprises has any more
al home like Lauder, the time will be
irksome till the American music hail
puts its back against the Orpheum in
Ellis street
LAUDER WORTHY OF PRAISE
Lauder is all he is said to be. Pub
licity work in his behalf becomes as
veracious as a church report
Just wherein rests LADDERS excel
lence is not easy to say, for his appeal
mainly humorous, though edged with
the tone of pathos-is purely personal.
He is an animated postscript; he is con-
hdential; he is unctuous; his sense of
the ludicrous is abiding and vivid; his
70 81, "a pf 6 ri l.
viduality and to set them before you is
like q. photograph plate which takes
and retains and exhibits every line. He
suggests in this respect those cameras
that astronomers use. When turned on
the heavens and with exposed plate the
instrument picks out thousands OF tiny
stars too dim and too remote for the
human eye TO see through the most
powerful telescope. LADDERS genius in
cha hsracterizations is like that. He sees
what you miss; he reflects from a ma
tuTe peculiarly keen to impressions q
thousand little peculiarities which 9TH
erwise you would never suspect, even
though the original of his impersona-
tion stood before you in flesh and blood
Indeed that is one of the secrets OF
LADDERS entertaining genius. He dis
Germs and exhibits; he sees and shows;
he observes and reproduces: he's an
actor who thinks; a mimic with a mind;
indeed, he is Harry Lauder.
HAS EXCELLENT VOICE
AS a singer he is a barytone. with an
excellent natural voice. He doesn't lay
claim to being q vocalist. though I
thought / saw the evidences of a wee
bit of vanity in his solemn delivery of a
verse of that eminently respectable and
aged song. Rocked in the Cradle OF
the Deep" Lauder sang it at the mat
inee Saturday as much as to say. Take
notice of this and, believe me, I'm nay
So puir singer meseP.'
II is not in the beauties of voice that
Lauder excels, though. 10 repeat, he has
d good barytone with a masculine big
ness 10 its timbre and range larger
in scope than his simple ballads de-
mand. His chief charm. I should say,
physically and aside from his marvellous
powers of observation and artistic re-
production-his chief charm. I say, is
his legs. There's fortune in EN-. They
are the stumpiest, brawniest, bowed and
twisted things ever topped By kilties.
To watch them alone, or together, is
worth the price of ticket
There was charm IN Frank Daniels
pedal exposures. Do you remember
Little Puck? Francis Wilson was elo-
quent on his feet. and De VOLTS hop
pers" are long and full of comedy; but
II is to Lauder that the stage is in
debted for perfect exhibition of com
edy legs. They are subtle when he
sings She's Ma Daisy" and when he
tells about his conversation with the
general they are eloquently self-satis-
fed. boastful and a little vain and bold
They are sturdy Scotch oak legs
gnarled and twisted and awkward in
''Tobermory." while in Safest O. the
Family they are sly, cunning, abused
and cringing.
You think legs can not express alb
stractions? You are wrong. Lauders S
legs are psychological.
sCOTCHMEN As SENTIMENTALISTs
Barrie tells somewhere why the
Scotch man or woman is so averse to
being caught in sentimental mood.
Somewhat paradoxically, he explains
that the Scotchman is at heart so very
sentimental that most of his time is
ken up in curing himself and hiding
his shame. Lauder looks at you frankly
and pokes SLY fun at his brothers He
knows that way down deep in our
hearts we keep a family bible, if for no
other reason than as a hiding place for
there's much warm sentiment in
LADDERS characterizations.
He shows US ourselves as we are
grown up, but boys fond of illusions
believers in dreams, dear lovers OF
laughter, though brimfuI of tears
Lauder is unlike those cheap vaude-
Vile artists-of whom there are mil
lion too many-Whose sense of the
ridiculous is born of the tenderloin and
whose choicest witticisms are fastened
TO relationships and subjects we should
hold aloof and sacred
There's no leer in LADDERS laughter
l was delighted and somewhat sur
prised at this characteristic OF Lauder
performance. AS the leading exponent
of English music hall entertainment III
was reasonable to expect to hear broad
Jokes and bon mots with double edge
The qualification that arose from the
well washed fun Of Lauder can readily
be imagined
CAPTURES HIS AUDIENCE
In fact. ! was agreeably surprised
al the quiet nature of his whole
performance. Even the music is
soft. The little patter he squeezed
between the verses of his songs is en-
tirely confidential You forget the au-
dience entirely and seem to be the
only one in the room. When he says,
Now, between you and l." IL seems. in
spite of the bad grammar, to be whis-
pered to you alone, and unconsciously
you edge forward a little closer so that