Imperial Valley press., 1913-09-20
Red Light Takes
Hold of Stage
(By Beau RialtO.)
Written for the United Press.)

(By Beau RialtO)
| written for the United Press.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 20.-The 1913
1914 season, as far as can be judged
at this early stage, looks promising.
The fall openings took place during
the hottest weather Of the summer,
as Christmas magazines are put to-
J gether in June, but the weather
seemed to make no difference to the
crowds that jammed every first night.
The infant season has been brilliant,
and already many real successes have
been scored, while the bones of but
few actually are bleaching along the
Great White Way. David Belasco,
among the first managers to start
the season, scored an even greater
hit with his "a Temperamental Jour-
ney'' than with his "Years of Dis
cretion" last season. "The Family
Cupboard also has been given the
stamp of approval They may be said
to be the best dramas of the early
season. William Collier scored a
comedy hit in "Who's Who," by Rich
ard Harding Davis, and among the
comedies potash & Perlmutter,"
Nearly Married." and "Her Own
Money" are doing good business. "Ad-
ele, ,"Christie Mcdonald in "Sweet-
hearts" and De Wolf Hopper in "Lie-
Der Augustin" are among the best
musical shows. Old favorites still
running from last season are "Within
The Law" with Jane Cowl, Laurette
Taylor in Peg O. My Heart" and
Julia Sanderson in "The Sunshine
Girl"
The tidal wave of red light melo-
dramas that threatened to engulf
Broadway and sell the American
drama bodily into white slavery has
died a-bornin'. The brothel play is
not within the law in New York, and
no more will the madames and cadets
stalk the boards in Manhattan. The
police put the ban on "The Lure" and
"The Fight" and the Shuberts and
the Henry B. Harris estate, respective
producers, withdrew Objectionable
productions without contest, but
they did not escape so easily. Magis-
trate McAdoo issued warrants for
Lee Shubert and William Harris and
the matter is now in the hands of a
grand jury. Purists said that both
plays, the second acts of which were
laid in disorderly houses, were unfit
for women to see, and Commissioner
Waldo sent police censors to see them.
The police officials and Magistrate
McAdoo condemned both plays unre-
servedly.
The suppression fthese two plays
have upset the plans for almost every
Broadway manager for it was an open
secret that a veritable avalanche Of
lurid dramas were in preparation,
some of them going even further than
''The Lure and "The Fight" the set
tings, lines and actors of which left
audience.
Forty-eighth street, Manhattan, is
the home Of trustfulness OF the hot
bed of dare-deviltry, it is hard to tell
which. The manager of the Longacre
theatre there opened his brand new
house with adele" a musical show
and the next day, when the critics
had spoken kindly, he blazoned an adj
vertisement of the piece all over tie
sidewalk, painting it on the bricks
with permanent pigments.
A block away the manager of the
new Forty-eighth Street theater ad-
vertised all over town that "your
money refunded instanter" if patrons
did not like Kiss Me Quick" the Bar
tholomae farce which the critics unan-
imously condemned as rank "bloom-
err So far, say the box office men,
they have received no demand for
money back and the play is still run
ming.
Lee Shubert is the guy who put
"The Lure" in lurid,t but Magistrate
McAdoo, he's the guy who put "The
Lure" and "The Fight" likewise, "in
Dutch"
They varied the program on Broad
way the other day by announcing the