The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-02-27

! 'Otiog'iH hfiN fHJ INV q NCd'
Riot and Never Aeled Asain-Georse
Reynolds Melancholy Romeo to Six
Ambitious Amateur Juliets.
The freak play or the performance
that is Il trnvcsty Is little in evidence
today. but il does not seem so long
ago when Il slump in business some.
times embOldened even the most con
scrvative of theatrical managers TO re-
sort to extraordinary measures to at
tract at least one capacity audience.
One of the early freak performance
was intended MS an event of great ar.
tistic value. The late Henry Welt
sohn, who afterward became famous
as an impresario, aspired to the great
Forests mantle. The great tragedian
was playing ut Niblo's Garden in
"OtheilO" and WoIfsohn. then twenty
two. had saved little money with the
idea of purchasing the privilege of APP
pearing rs the Moor in New York ouce
at least His ambition appealed to
Marie Seebach. the German actress,
who was appearing in that year 0S6S,
at the Theatre Francois ON West Four
teenth street. Wolfsohn paid the man
ager $1,000 for the privilege. besides
himself selling out the capacity of the
theatcr.
Although the audience was composed
chiefly of his friends and relatives, the
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 bouffc 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 so great that benefit was ten
dered to him. He decided to present
"Genevieve" as a 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 festival Of fun. When Gabei
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 $1,000 it yielded II
he could forget the experience.
II was fifteen years before anything
Of this nature was attempted again.
This time II 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 as much as $15 each.
The house was crowded, but. alas, the
Gabel's benefit.
Booths theater. then at Twenty-third
street and Sixth avenue. was the
scene of the next freak performance.
George Rignold. famous as a matinee
idol. was attracting all New York to
see his Henry the Fifth" Joseph
Tooker. an ingenious Snowman. IL ever
special matinee of Romeo and Ju-
liet." with six amateurs to appear rs
Juliet. Rignold was the Romeo. Such
a scene as was on view on West TWEEN
ty-third street that matinee day was
never witnessed before nor since. AS
early as o n. m. the lobbies 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 well that 4.2O0 persons.
90 per cent women. were packed into
a playhouse seating $500 comfortably.
The performance itself was SO bad
that Rignold would have quit In the
fourth scene but for Tooker's plaintive
plea to stick II out. lockers idea had
been that the Juliets would be SO bad
that they would be funny. whereas
five Of them were just rank incompe-
tents The sixth Juiiet was none other
than Marie Wainwright. who distin
guished herself all the more by the
contrast. Miss. Wainwright was imme-