The San Francisco call., 1913-07-21
Junbos to Give Weight
Lightness, Too. on Bill
First Due to Elephants
at Orpheum; Latter to
Misses O'Dea and
Franklin
ny WALTER ANTHONY

by WALTER ANTHONY
Theodore Bendix players render the
Rosary at one end OF the program
and LAMBERT renders it at the other.
but that isn't all that is notable about
this weeks Orpheum bill.
For one thing there are the ele-
phants-three Of them-to lend weight
to the bill, and Ida ODay and Miss
Irene Franklin to lend lightness.
There is sketch called The Girl
From Child's," by Archie Colby, and
Val and Rita and Lou, in Three in
One" not to forget Pat Rooney and
Marion Bent, who dance tandem. but
joke alone.
Miss Franklin remains the star Of
the progam, though she is brought
over from last weeks multiplicity OF
good acts.
We are glad she is with US again
and that, like most quantities of super
fine excellence. she grows better with
added acquaintance, though were she
the most exacting lover of approval,
Miss Irene could not complain of the
agility of the Orpheum's approval
Still, she's even more popular this
week than she was last and sang under
our insistance until in a perfectly clear
voice she was forced to announce that
her voice was tired out She's the
one to blame this week il the program
lasts longer than it usually does. She
added to this weeks budget of ditties
one she calls Expression which no
comedienne will dare attempt without
she has added to the gifts of person
ality, those of comedy acting and
pantomime. Her expressiveness in the
song hurts when her hero of the sere-
made is kicked, and the mingled emo
tions that overtake you when the
yachting verse comes around can only
be known to few who, like Admiral
Porter, II. NJ. S. Pinafore. are some
times sick at sea.
Miss Franklin has assured her pop
ularity here with the three ply of her
triple art of singing comedy and pan
tomime.
GOWNS CHANGED WITH SONGS
Ida ODay offers some neat songs in
the early part of the program. She
has improved since last she was with
us in an easy attitude with her audi
ence. She wears pretty gowns and
changes them as often as her songs.
Hal Davis and Inez Macauley have
what / would call a pudgy act-very
mucn WHICH tHcil
efforts to inject sense of spontaneity
are more .laudable than successful.
Inez is a girl from Child's whose
advent as housemaid into the home Of
Henry Bull is the beginning of plot.
She used to be Mrs. Bull.
Now there's another who doesn t
know that she-the present Mrs. Henry
is the second in the line of Mrs. Bull.
Mrs Bull 80. / undertakes the re-
n In, h,
half OF her successor and achieves 1t
in 90 minutes or less.
CRITIC CALLS IT IMMORAL
The act should call immoral because
1T breaches an Impossible ease in the
process of redemption. Before the girl
of Childs is done with the job, Mr..
Bull eats from the palm of Mrs. Bull
(the second). and accomplishes wonders
in vocal culture. At fIrst he roars like
a bull, but at last he cooes like dove.
It's a very reassuring plot, but not
funny enough for a comedy.
Val Harris, Rita Boland and Lou
Holtz gave a neat singing and dancin g
turn the staging of which Elsie Janis
claims to have mothered. She has put
together a rapid Is minutes, and per-
haps In her hurry to cram II with doings
she wasn't as particular as she might
have been in an item or two, partfcu-
larly the silly song of the effeminate
young man and the knitting club, which
for some reason outside of my capacity
to comprehend struck the audience as
funny.
PROTESTING VOICE
But a protesting voice may be raised.
I hope, against songs Of this kind. l
can not see why a thing that is dis
gusting off the stage is funny on.
For he the is better tha n
the average of its kind, and Miss Bo-
land reveals a piquant personality,
much ingenue charm and lingerie.
Pat Rooney and Marion Bent have
an act in which the better three-quar-
ters is the dancing.
Rooney's legs are nimble and he is
an exceedingly graceful person He
discounts his jokes by laughing at
them himself.
Miss Bent is an able assistant in
the dancing of the act and a hearty
approver of the comedy.
LAMBERT gives impersona tions of
famous musicians and plays the same
Instruments that Liszt, Joachim, Pade-
rewski and Holman do or did. He
looks like the originals-or their ac-
cepted pictures-and plays like Lam
berti, which Is to say. that he plays
we'll. but not like Liszt, Joachim, Pa
impersonation Of Svengali is lurid and
effective.
A TIRESOME REPETITION
Musical acts hereafter should show
their program to Stage Director Orn-
dorff and thus avoid repetition of
Rosary" which it is trying enough
to hear once Sunday at the Orpheum.
Yesterday we had it twice. LAMBERT
did 1t and so did the Bendix players
when they opened the program.
That was the only thing that the
Bendix quartet did, however, that
merited censure. The rest OF their
program was admirable. and they
played the Dvorak 'Humoresque" so
we'll that 1t nearly took and quite
earned an encore.
The elephants close the program
emphatically. 1t is the best elephant
act / have ever seen on the stage, and
Miss Orford is a brave little dancer
who does minuet with her huge
partners.
I am sure that the children will en-
joy the act.
did.