The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-22
Gossip of the Theatrical World
By PAUL COOK

, a comedy in which Miss Thurston is said | to have very congenial role.
 l notable offering of the week will be 1 Donald Brian in "The Siren" We arc
 rather late in being offered this highly
 successful piece, but we are assured of l capable company and a production of
 metropolitan proportions. MT. Brian first
 won fame in "The Merry Widow" where l his graceful dancing captvated countless I feminine admirers. His abilities as a
 dancer were so universally recognized l that he was even called upon to give oer- 1 tain members of New York's exclusive
 society set a few lessons in the art of | Terpsichore. | Fetching Mizzi Hajos will be warmly welcomed on her return visit to Blrming-
 ham as the star of "The Spring Maid Miss Hajos will appear at the Jefferson | theatre next Saturday afternoon and
 night. She is a charming comedienne and 1 her performance is invariably a delight. 1 Charles McNaughton will play the same role in which he was so Imaginable last season.
 Miss Katheryn Kidder will begin a vaudeville engagement this week at the
 Colonial theatre, New York, playing an excerpt from Madame Sans Gene" The | sketch will be called "The washerwoman Duchess" certainly not happy choice of title. If memory Is not at fault, the last appearance of Miss kidder in Blr- mingham was some years ago when she was a co-star with Frederick Warde in Alexander the Great" The play vas elaborately staged and well acted. of course, but did not have lasting qualities TO this day, theatregoers remember the extensive view of Miss Kidders back, af- forded during the various scenes of the play Mary Garden herself might have felt pang of envy at the sight.
 The Billboard makes a drastic sugges- tion for the treatplent of theatre patrons whose tardiness almost invariably spoils the first act of plays. Some nights they are worse than at other times and this unpleasant condition of affairs probably prevails in nearly all the theatres in the United States. 1t is particularly eXasper- ating to have people trampng into Q theatre and climbing over us just when we are intent on catching the opening lines of play, so that may be in posi- tion to appreciate the finer points lat on. The Billboard thinks all the aisles of a theatre should be barred the moment the curtain goes up and all late arrivals forced to stand in the rear until the first act is ended. The problem would be solved, so far as the players and the prompt theatregoers are concerned, but the house managers life would not be worth living. The best that can be done is sometimes to seat late corners in rear seats until the first act is ended. but even this plan is set at naught when patrons object
 David Belasco recently produced in the east a fairy play. written by Madam Rostand and Maurice Rostand, wife and son of the great French dramatist. One Of the principal parts was played by Mary Pickford. the idol of thousands of moving picture patrons, who know her as Little Mary" Her wInsoIne face is known and admired from one end of the country to the other Callow youths have fallen in love with her and old men have sighed over the vision of her youth and beauty Of course a person can't always be Little Mary" No doubt Miss Pickford
 is ambitious and she may be aiming at something better and more worth while than the simple sketches in which she has heretofore been so successful.
 
 Speaking of moving pictures. the bust ness in Birmingham is booming as never before It is barely possible that we will have too many houses to insure profitable returns for some of their owners. The town is being filled up with moving pie iure theatres, most of them, be 1t said. models of their kind. The competition Is already becoming noticeably strong and the managers who fail to watch their op- portunities will be left behind the race for patronage.
 'Tabloidn musical comedy is proving extremely popular in the south this sea-