Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-02-20

Eiot and Never Acted Again-George
Riqnold's Melancholy Romeo to SIX
Ambitious Amateur Juliets.
The freak play or the performance
that Is II trlveSty is little IN evidence
today. but it does not seem so long
nyu when II slump in business some
times embroidered even the most CON
sentative of theatrical managers to re-
sort to extraordinary measures to at
tract ut least one capacity audience.
One of the early freak performances
WAS intended as an event of great ar
tislic value The late Henry Wolf
sOhn, who afterward became famous
as an imprcsario, aspired to the great
FORESTS mantle. The great trngedian
was playing ut Niblo's Garden In
"Othello" and Wplfsohn. then twenty
two, had saved Il little money with the
idea of purchasing the privilege or APP
pearing as the Moor in New York once
ut least. His ambition appealed to
Marie Seebach. the German actress.
who was appearing in that year (1S6S'
1T tlic 4 utUtIt VII w S''t WI
teenth street Wolfsohn paid the man
nger $1,000 for the privilege. besides
himself selling out the capacity of the
theater.
Although the audience was composed
chiefly of his friends and relatives, the
portrayal was so Iudicrous that riot
seemed imminent and was only pre-
vented through an appeal to the audi
ence from Nine Seebach to consider
her own position. WolfsOhn never trOd
the boards again.
The next year in the same theater
opera bouifc was the rage. owing to
the tremendous hit Of comedian OF
the name Of Gabel. who appeared as
one of the two gendarmes in Gene
We've de Brabant" Gabel's popularity
was 50 great that a benefit was ten
dered to him. He decided to present
"Genevieve" as travesty. the male
principals assuming the female roles
and the women those of the men. The
house was sold out one hour after the
advance sale opened. Spectators reap
ed harvest
The audience began to laugh before
the curtain rose. the conductor was
greeted with rOars of merriment. Even
the ushers were grinning In anticipa-
ton of a festival Of fun. When Gabel
appeared deliberately gowned as Gene
We've it was fully two minutes before
he was allowed to sing the beautiful!
serenade number. He. too. was burst
ing with laughter. The same reception
greeted each Of the principals. but from
then on the performance was about as
enlivening as a funeral. The theater
was half empty before the act ended.
Gabel said the next day that he would
gladly give back the 5000 it yielded II
he could forget the experience.
1t was fifteen years before anything
of this nature was. attempted again.
This time it was for the late Maurice
Grau. who had suffered many reverses,
that the benefit was organized at the
Academy Of Music. Grau himself ar
ranged the program. the feature Of
which was travesty of the first act
Of LA Grande Duchesse." The great
Aimee. queen of opera bouffe. was
cast for General Boum. the pOnderous
NJ. Duplan played the Duchess. and
the droll NJ. Mezieres was Wanda.
Seats brought rs much as SIS each.
The house was crowded, but. alas, the
fiascO was even more complete than at
Gnbel's benefit.
Booths theater. then mt Twenty-third
street and Sixth avenue. was the
scene Of the next freak performance.
George Rignold, famous as matinee
idol. was attracting all New York to
see his '"Henry the Fifth" Joseph
TOoker. an ingenious Snowman. IL ever
there was one, conceived the idea of a
special matinee of Romeo and Ju-
liet." with six amateurs to appear as
Juliet. RignOld was the Romeo. Such
IL scene as was on view on West Twen-
ty-third street that matinee day was
never witnessed before nor since. AS
early as 8 II. III. the Hobbies were pack
ed. and the line to the box Office
reached to Broadway
At noon at least 5000 women were
congregated in front Of the theater.
and the management. fully awake to
conditions. commissioned big" Jim
Brown. king of ticket spectators of
that day. to "work the line" This
Brown did so we'll that 1920 persons,
% per cent women. were packed into
a playhouse seating 800 comfortably.
The performance itself was 50 bad
that Rignold would have quit In the
fourth scene but for lockers plaintive
plea to stick it out. lockers idea had
been that the Juiiets would be 50 bad
that they would be funny, whereas
five of them We're just rank incompe,
tents The sixth Juliet was none other
than Marie Wainwright. who distin-
guished herself all the more by the
contrast. Miss Wainwright was imme-
diately engaged as professional and
quickly became a star.-New York Sun