The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-07-23

as sung by children. Many 1uFenlIe
companies were organized to ira
verse the country singing in 1T, In
one Julia Marlowe-then known as
Fannie Brough-made her debut
when about II years old. she
started in the chorus. But present
~ she was Cousin Hebe; and before
long, Little Buttercup. Effie shan
non, on the contrary, never Gradu-
ated from the chorus.
All Loved Fritz.
"'I was merely one with the sis
ters and cousins and aunts, she
puts it, "My singing voice was
never phenomenal, and although
served as understudy to some or the
other girls / never had an oppor-
tunity to appear. Ida Mule was
the Josephine, and Fritz Williams
was Sir Joseph Porter, How we
tot in the chorus who was not
madly in love with the admiral as
he strutted around the stage in all
the dignity of his position. j re-
member very we'll how | brought
my autograph album for him to
write in, and how he scrawled III
his round, boyish hand, ! am the
monarch Of the sea, Fritz VII
liams.' In later years, when Mr..
williams and | were members of
the Lyceum company in New York,
/ produced that autograph album
and confronted him with it, 1t was
the first time he had suspected
we had ever been in the same
company before, and be was great
ly surprised as he exclaimed, We're
you that little yellow haired glrl!
and | admitted that | was
Will any stars Of the future re-
fer in that way to the performance
given recently in New YorkF Was
there a coming Julia Marlowe or
Annie Russell, Efie Shannon or
Corinne among the LOTT Who can
say2 Surely there was a large
enough majority of girls to direct
speculation toward that sex, The
predominance of feminlnity among
Captain Corcoran s crew may be
taken as writing finger pointing
toward equal suffrage in the early
future, though l am inclined to
wager that it indicated masculine
tendency for baseball IN the pres
ent. The little girls hitched rakish.
ly at their nautical trousers and
were as nautical as instinct would
permit, and here and there boy
chorus singer showed that his sex
is not absolutely inartistic, rough
and lacking in ambition.
Little Thomas Garnaham was
Dick Deadeye, with fringe Of
whiskers around his chubby face
and a bald spot on his little head
that was delightfully."- ridiculous.
De Wolf Hopper was hurrying
about behind the scenes giving the
boy final directions how to play
the role as he did Louise Cunning
sat in box, from where she must
have seen how much Genevieve
Tobin resembled herself as Jose
phine. George Tobin, as Sir Joseph
Porter, struggled manfully with a
monocle, and Tiney Henley, who
was cast for Ralph Rackstraw,
struggled manfuliy with her sex.
Scenery built for adults-De Wolf
Hopper is full grown, ism I he?-
dwarfed the youngsters, who them
selves dwarfod an admirable
orchestra, requiring it to play
pianissimo in order not to drown
their squeaky little voices.
Aside from the pleasure the af
ternoon doubtless gave to mothers
and perhaps to their sisters and
their cousins and their aunts-it
served single purpose, and that
to raise question: Why should
work of such infinite delight as
'Pinafore" be tampered with3 At
one theater we have the Gilbertian
fancies and Sullivanian music be-
smeared with stupidity and vul-
garlty; at this we get il thumb
marked by the sticky hands of
vain and curious children. If it
delights their parents to see them
strut through characters conceived
as greatly, In their way, as
Dickens s, and hear their little
voices pipe through music as in
comparable, within its purposes, as
any ever written, let them enjoy
the sacrilege at home: Presently
they will like TO hear the youngsters
read from Homer and trill a bar
or two from Parsifal.H %
But why fret? Very few people
took the trouble to go to the matt
nee, though it was presented at
a leading Broadway theater, and
was bounteously advertised And
probably the children, being mod.
erns, finished of the afternoon
with a cabaret in the nursery.