The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-15
l"WF1AT DO VAUDEVILLE AUDIENCES LIKE?
 WHY, HOPE THEY LIKE ME-" SAYS RAY COX
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

Interviewing vaudeville" people is like
 the ancient game of:
 Button, button; who's got the button ?''
 You can't find your interrogation in
 the conversational scuffle.
 You ask a definite question and you
 promptly get an answer to something
 else.
 What is told you is often funny. | But
 i It's more frequently irrelevant l For instance: Suppose you ask each vaudeville artist
 that you happen to interview what he
 believes the effect of the new tariff will
 be on American imports?
 Ask him that question and stick man. fully to the point. | And
 | I'll wager at the end of say, six inter-
 views, you will have heard not one single
 solitary thing about American imports 1 You will have heard all about the latest
 'twango,' the newest hoop skirt effects, | the poor in Afghanistan and the team l that will win the 1914 pennant, and one
 thousand and one good stories (some of them good, because they are so bad) and
 anecdotes from the racy to the reminis- cent, but about American imports, nary 1 a word"
 l Or
 | Take the simple question What do vaudeville audiences like?'' And
 I Three out of four times the vaudeville artist will never give you a definite an swer, but branch out into a discussion ! of why vaudeville Is more to their liking | than the legitimate or compare vaude- vile audiences with other audiences, or a thousand and one other things except a definite answer to your simple ques- | tion.
 Not until I met Ray Cox the clever comedienne, round at the Lyric did I get satisfactory answer to my aues- | tion.
 | l had begun to think it was hopeless; I'd almost given up the seSsch. Walking about like a human interro- gation point wasn't going to do me any good I'd begin to think, when all at once tried, tried. again., for it was | the very first shot out of the box that l aimed at the Interviewed" yesterday afternoon just after the matinee. when within the privacy of her boudoir-dress- | ing room, with the aid of her maid she was trying to get out of her aeroplane | togs into her street clothes What do vaudeville audiences ike?" l asked as soon after I was introduced | to Miss Cox as ordinary courtesy (some- thing, by the way, it is said, interview CTS do not possess) would permit. Like? Like?" repeated Miss Cox as her big gray-blue eyes and her fascinat- | ing smile enveloped me and made me a willing captive at her shrine immediately. | What do vaudeville audiences like? Why l hope they like me" An" said I. Foxy Quiller-lil1e, my question has been answered. At last I | find an artist who is indeed an artist and charm and cleverness and gray mat | ter plus, and sir, as Boswellis friend the late pr. J., might have observed there is really an end ont" Sounds like Eva Tanguay or George l Conan to give you the answer I did"
 Miss Cox continued, but remember,
 didn't say they like me I only said | hoped they liked me- ''Too modest by far. Of course they | like you" I assured the brilliant star
 Didn't you hear the big noise out in | front this afternoon? Didn't you catch the | laughter and the merriment? Of course | they like you-that's it." | Miss Cox smiled her prettiest smile as an encore to the first delicious sm;le | shed given me md thus encouraged to ] discuss the question I further ventured. l Now then, that's settled: tell me how
 it all happened.