The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-03-23
FARGO Man began
LONDON SENSATION
ACT OF MYSTERIOUS YUMA MAN
WHICH NOW HOLDS INTEREST
OF LONDON WAS ORIGINATED
SIX YEARS AGO BY GEORGE H..
WEBSTER OF FARGO.

The act Of the mysterious Yuma
man. which is now the sensation Of
the London vaudeville stage, the pic
ture of which was given together with
a press dispatch under a London date
line in yesterdays issue of The Forum
on page 4. is the novel idea of George
H. Webster of this city, who originated
the Yuma act six a ago.
AS described in the London press
dispatch in yesterdays issue of The
Forum, Yuma is a man standing { feet
2 inches in full cavalry uniform, who
goes around the country from place to
place travelling in a box % inches long
and 16 inches deep and IL inches wide.
This seems, of course, an absolute
impossibilfty. AMI yet the feat Is be-
ing done daily" said the London ad-
vice in The Forum yesterday. He is
known as the mysterious Yuma man
snd while travelling on the railroad in
the box, pays full fare the same as
any other traveller, but requires nU
ticket. .a.
The picture accompanying the ac-
count of this strange visitor to the
sedate old British capital showed
~ Ia SSkA ALuh 4AIg jUSb DS1OAS
he does his spectacular act Of chang
;rg his uniform 10 that of the costume
of Mephistopheles, while suspended in
mid-air. BY his side was shown the
diminutive box in which he travels
over the European continent.
Mr.. Webster was most ~agreeably
surprised to see IN account of the act
he originated six years ago and in
troduced to the London theatre going
public at that time. He has a nIsn-
Der of photographs taken by London
photographers at the time the act was
first launched before the London pub
lie in 1906 which he will Immediately
put on display in front Of the Or
pheum theatre this week.
How Webster Conceived the Act.
az conceived this act back in 1906
when I was playing at the Scala thea
ire in Copenhagen, Denmark" said
Mr.. Webster today to a Forum repre-
sentative. ION the bill with us was
an exceptionally clever contortionist
by the name of Karl Liecker. He was
the best l have ever seen.
Before that time I had produced
an automatic wonder act called Phro-
So dlu DIS i "dLCL6Q LI6ChGI 10
through his wonderful feats On the
rings which swung out over the aud
fence each day during that engage
ment I made up my mind / could use
him to much better advantage in an
act which would be far more remu-
nerative to himself.
He was getting SIS a month at that
time. Immediately he accepted my
proposition and l paid his expenses
to st. Petersburg where my nex en-
sagement was, and there we rehearsed
the act until we had it ready for pre-
sentation. The initial appearance was
made in st. Petersburg at Patuisky
Gardens and it took well, giving me
an opportunity to see its weak points
and strengthen it before We took the
act to London, which we did the very
next thing, appearing at the London
Hippodrome, where we played a Ave
months engagement.
Frank Bostock, the famous show
man and European theatre manager,
| offered me a contract to appear In
his hippodrome in Paris. We went
and Yuma made n of the greatest
hits there that he has ever made.
Then we came to New York under the
management of Proctor Of the Proc
tor & Keith syndicate and toured the
bigger cities of the country on the
Keith circuit.
yuma is again back in London do
ing his big act where it is creating
Just as much of a furror as 1t did
when first presented there six years
ago. In New York we gave a private
performance one night at the resi-
dence of Stuyvesant Fish at a spec
~tacular social gathering. l took a
representative from The New York
Journal with me as my assistant and
the next day he had big scoop head
ed Yuma Between Millions-All So
eiaI Leaders at Fish Mansion With
Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish On One Side
and Mrs. John Jacob Astor on the
Other That one bit of advertising
made my tour with Liecher an assured
success In this country. / sold my
rights in the act in Detroit, where l
was made a big offer"
Mr.. Webster himself Is shown in
one of the photographs taken six
years g In London by photographers
Iooafad at IT Chaapside.