Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-14
BY SHIRLEY OLYMPUS

llICllL may oSSlA' - -
she is serious that she is an art
ist, and it is because she is an arts
ist that she knows so well how
10 be jolly.
After all, making people laugh
is a serious business. Comedy
isn't mere clever foolishness. 1t
is, when presented on the stage,
the result of earnest effort,
Ninety-nine per cent of those
who sit in a theater watching a
performance of any kind, whether
it be comedy, tragedy, vaudeville
or what not, decide that doing
such and such stunt is easy.
How often has the writer heard
some person sitting near him in
the theater declare, "Why, that's
easy. could do that with prac-
tice," or "If I could get chance
to go on the stage | know I'd
make a hit, for all you have to do
is to sing a song, tell story or
repeat lines written by somebody
else" But, it so happens that
some good force prevents those
cocksure individuals from getting
an opportunity of doing a stunt
in vaudeville, 1t takes brains,
not egotism, to make laughter.
And also it requires practice.
Now, take the case of Miss
Rice.
To the casual observer it would
seem that putting ones head
through a black curtain and put
ting a manikin through comical
gyrations, the while song is be-
ing sung, is an easy matter. To
day it is easy for Miss Rice. But
it has required many, many years
of practice, study and deep
thought to bring that simple
method of laugh-making to per-
lection. First of all she had to
be endowed with an inventive
brain. Next she had to be the
possessor of a good voice. And
last of all she had to combine
these forces properly.
The apparatus Miss Rice uses
is all her own invention. Every
dav she devotes at least an hour
to planning new manikins which
must be rehearsed as carefully as
though they were human beings.
So, you see, it is because Miss
Rice has a serious side that she
is entitled to prefix the word
"Jolly" to her name.
Miss Rice is no stranger to Los
Angeles. When the late Gov
ernor" Wyatt was directing the
forces of the Los Angeles theater,
now the Orpheum, Miss Rice
made her initial Los Angeles aP-
pearance with Frank Daniels in
"The Ragbaby." She played
Venus. After that appearance,
which was so many years ago the
younger generation of playgoers
cannot remember the date and
the older generation refuses to be
lead into remembering it, Miss
Rice went her jolly way until she
came back again as a vaudeville
star, playing in the same theater,
now changed from the home of
legitimate to that of variety.
"I'm coming back to Los An
geles some of these fine days to
remain for always" said Miss
Rice. "And when | do come I
shall force the Pioneer society to
make me a member, because since
that initial appearance here some
well, I shall not say how many
years ago-I have always consid-
cred Los Angeles my one haven.
Something in the climate here ap-
peals to the person with highly
develop ID temperament. If
Broadway only knew Los Ange-
les as | do, the Great White Way
would be deserted forever"
Because Miss Rice was one of
the stars of light opera and musi-
cal comedy of yesteryear, I asked
her to enlighten me a bit. Here is
what she said:
Musical offerings of today,
with but few exceptions, are less
worthy than they were, say ff-
teen or twenty years ago. The
public does not want ultra-art. 1t
wants to laugh and grow fat. 1t
wants to forget when in the the
ater, not ponder over fine music.
The artist today may wish to pre-
sent something exquisite, but if
he insists he will go to the poor
house.
Long ago decided that to
survive in a commercial age it
was necessary to be commercial.
Hence 1 entered vaudeville. High
pay is received there. The com
netitiOn is keen but the financial