Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-13
Cohan's Confessions
of Broadway

OF broadway
HELLO, BROADWAY! OR THE MYSTERY
OF THE HATBOX-A musical crazy quilt
and music by George NJ. Cohan. Forrest
George Rabbit. The Millionaire Kid.
Bill shaverfam, The Hawk. :. William Collier
Bolivar Babbit' The Soap King. r,,,, r,,,.,
Ambrose Domlns, The Advertising Nut, :,
Kick In Mccluskcy. The stage PolisemaIns -.
Bum Lung, The Dancing Slave. Harry Deli
Mr.. WI. A Chinese Playwright,
Hang Gang, Chief of the Hishbln lnders. rs "
James Cody
Daddy Long Beard. The Miracle Man,
Tom Dinglc
Judge Reizenstein .......,.,, William Collier
The Defensive Attorney ,... George NJ. tCohar
Leo Getrichstein ..,.',.,. George NJ. Gohliar
Uncle Malcolm. Innoccnts Uneie. '''" Conner
The Man from Knoblack's Charles Dow Clark
Irene, The Song Writer'S Daughter.
Alfred Woods. The Music Publisher, ,,', ,s''l'
Ezra The office BOy.,..c Charles DOW ,CIarl,
cyri Habordash, The Dude George sa NJ conan CONAN
Alfred speedklnker. ............ sydney Jarvis
Mrs; castle '.'....'....''..'Ir Irene Enwrisht
Patsy Patsy Pysmalion 4 Flower; Girl, RI" O''O'"
Ruth chatterbox. A Gaiety Girl Belle BlancSe
Elsie 'Workingson. An Outcast. Peggy Wood
Aunt Laura, 1pnoeent,s Apnt.LouIse pressler
Fsys F9r 10 sSfS Jersey Rach Gs Mq WaFs OF Roms
George @ BaSbts % &partment en- WI Riyerside rs 1'f@ Drive
TSqshinE On R oate@st at 5 Patch non the Side
patch SNew York's Chinatown. china S TouchinE % iTaGGi on
Advanced plANWTitinR l.
roo room IN a New York HOTEL iti 4 ii Bit of the
Act 2-Pateh lin Front of the Hlppodronc.
Showing How Popular Songs are Made. Patch
Ps % h on ro2PeRnE PGPRnE oG f5c
Bis III, ON Trial Patch I[nnoeonts Home.
tom Rival. Patch 526n the Sidewalk. iy Touch ueR
ing on Susie Songs. Patch G-The Music House.
caste Square TouchnS nG"s on Watch HSa SoG Yoar
Step. Patch SIN Front OF Two New York
oyeFiookhs NeW York Ba% The Patriotic RaSe
II don't care what the dramatic critics think.
the audience likes to be fooled."-Georse Nj.
And we got fooled all right. It was a
funny revue-the first ever. 1t had a real
book and a real plot. A dozen real
plots, straight out OF all the Broadway
successes. And it had a plot of It's own,
which began with smuggled hat box
containing a Chinese melodrama, chased
that receptacle of respectability for three
hours. and then ended up by disclosing
the fact that there wasn't any plot in the
hat box after all.
Perhaps some of the audience were also
fooled by the fact that they don't live in
New York and know all the intimate in
of "It Pays to Advertise" "Out-
Cf or sinn riaI UlYttt I.
fooled just the same; they knew about
half the plays burlesqued and most of the
was funn: all by itself. Twenty
two soda syphons and 10 candy boxes
strung round a bachelors room are
amusing, even II you don't know that
they represent the dancing discomfort
which has oppressed the hero of "Out-
cast" ever since he was Tilted. Any
body can appreciate that this sort of
life will put a watch on your wrist"
AS for the way Mr Cohan demonstrates
how popular song is pushed, showed and
foisted on the public, it is a scream the
way Mr.. Cohan has written II, Miss
around it-not TO mention the way the
audience finds itself singing Down by
the Erie Canal when they go out. Fooled
again!
A person doesn't have to know the
backward plot of "On Trial"
10 nldW a ldh5l rom tue way the Jury
the courtroom into the library
of Innocent" when the witness rings a
wrist alarm clock. 1t is easy to see the
humor of the Miracle Man running a
reform school under the name OF Daddy
Long Beard, What more natural than to
leave no Montgomery and Stone un-
turned in a search for "Chin CHM?
Moreover, anybody can laugh at Mr..
Collier with no appreciable exertion, es-
pecially when he comes in exhausted to
lake the applause that has lust answered
Dne OF Mr.. cohan's whirlwind dances. Mr..
cnhan himself Is reasonably easy TO ap-
preciate. While as for any one who can't
Laii for Louise Dresser singing about the
Efie, Tom Dingle demonstrating that he
was named after his legs, Belle Blanche
initiating everybody but the old stand
oys. Eddie FOy and Anna Held Rozslka
Dolly and Harry Delf dancing and Peggy
Wood Just being beautiful-neutral Amer
lea is no place for them.
or course, at bottom Hello, Broad
FayF Is Inside stun" But that
iQesnt matter SO long as It is also
} great big circus OF clowning, dancing,
lsh and low brow tumbling ana feats OF
Mental skill and daring. Perhaps after
~ It IS the Inside stun that has made
NJ Conan the man to put together that
= qlqrons thing which all OF us have be-
tef ca Ia hrmly and vainly a really anus
rs trayesty. As a past master drama
'iat he knows the weak point Ia an this
Advanced playwright" business of start
nf one act ave minutes before the last
snded, and he can poke delicious fun al
& he has humor enough 10 appreciate
he irony Of William Golfers Comedy
lheatre, where William Is no longer well
'cme. and the George NJ Cohan Thea
fe' where other managers rule; SO he
smns them on the stage side by side
nd slls himself and Mr.. Collier singing
bout them. From long personal ac-
|r4 4iutsnce with himself he has learned
tHip4 or tno about the American nag
9 ~ advertising medium he knows the
Hcacy 81 rtnran songs and he can +
ra rIs f4ther ~ remarklns
@ la.a N Ioaf saaus
~ 'HsI trrI.t tour nose
f4 retaa Is ne