Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-12-22
CHORDS AND
DISCORDS =
A. Rigby, Blaekface Man.

/
Arthur Rigby. who has been a pub
lie entertainer for upwards of 80 years.
has been spending a few days III Rock
Island. He Is one Of the performers
on the vaudeville bill which closes
this evening at the Empire theatre.
Rigby is a blackface minstrel. He
tells stories, cracks jokes, but does
not sing or dance, although he
gives an imitation OF both. Rig
by's position is that il he seriously at
tempted to render a song number he
would fail in his effort to convince
/ his audience that he was a trained yo-
/ calist He says he is not even I'M
trained. He does know how to dance,
he claims. but says there are so many
people before the public who take shak-
| ing their feet as serious business that
he feels for him to essay to execute
artistic steps would be merely adding
to the already too large army that is
seeking to make living in that par
ticular field of stage endeavor. Hence
he simply wobbIes his feet. but he does
ii after a fashion that for any other
actor to try to initiate him would be
fatal to the formers future. Others
| have sought 10 acquire the peculiar
movements originated by Rigby. but
they have never vet, so far as the rec
ords go, gotten up sufficient nerve to
permit the folks who pay at the box
office to view them. Hence Rigby has
rarity in the variety business-an
almost original act
You may or you may not care for it.,
but Rigby is still cashing it. He
doesn't even have to carry d special
drop. He says the only drop he will
ever have is when he grows so stale
that some armed person will so far
forget himself as to pick him off in the
middle Of his act. OF course this is a
bit Of Arthur's we'll known facetious-
ness, as there is little likelihood that
he will force himself after he has at
tanned to the age when all good actors
voluntarily ring down the curtain up
on their activities
Rigby was remiuiscing in a circle Of
Rock Island friends the other night
and when he erred in date he was
corrected by Tim Collins, our retired
capitalist Arthur and Tim have been
friends SO many years that neither
will hazard a guess OF the time when
i they first met Tim says it was during
/ the Civil war. but Arthur insists they
were serving in different regiments and
that it must have been after the re
! beIlion was ended But be that as it
may as Bobby Gaylor used to put it,
You will hear theatrical managers
claiming that the public taste has
changed" said Rigby Il beg to dis
/ agree with them have travelled both
continents, and have found that people
are just people, and that is all there
is to it. They want 10 be entertained
and they are ready to fork over their
good money to the theatre that will
meet their desires. Let me tell you
where the trouble lies We haven :
had coming along fast enough young
people with brains and the faculty of
/ using them in the entertainment bust
ness I am speaking with particular
reference TO vaudeville. Don't blame
the managers. They go into the open
market and buy the best they can find
just the same as men do in other
lines. Take the average song and
- dance team. AS they enter the or
chestra strikes up some ragtime all
and the performers break into cry
about being so far away from Tennes-
see and they are going back just as
soon as they accumulate carfare. This
is followed by another selection de-
, scribing the moonlight in Alabama OF
=, the cotton fields of Louisiana They
are all headed south. Why don't some
= of them MARBLE about the moon ant
;, the flowers of the north? You get ny
/, point: They all do the same stunt
with slight variations.
q have attended rehearsals- yol
know all the actors must go over theil
-. stuff with the orchestra before they
= open an engagement-an have hear(
team break into a song and seen an
other pair hguratiyely cave in theil
: shoes My act is killed. says one
Them guys stole that song from III
when they seen we were knocking en-
out of the seats. That's the h o
it. just as soon as an artist gets COINS
good some rum from the brush comes
along and plays pirate. Of course tn,
buns go on first. and that's wha
makes it tough on we high priced per
formers. That's the rattle you hea
on the stage when the audience is no
in front.
THE truth Of the matter is that tht
e music publishing houses send thei
e new songs TO every professional who's,
name they have on file and tell hin
: he is the only one who is TO be thu
q favored. Each singer gets busy. learn
? the latest hit. and the result is the pu0
n lie is bombarded with It from one end o
the season to the other 1t is the sam,
with gags. Some writer will prepart
= line of new stuff for an entertaine
= which the latter pays for. The BIZ
city newspapers publish the bits tina
. win the laughs and the suit case cir
cult comedians cop it from the papers
How many times did you hear thu
: September Morn joke? A hundred
: I'll wager, and some Of EN- are still
9 pulling II.
I