New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-07
BY GEORGES. KAUFMAN.


Else Alder. idea of a nice. sociable
evening is something like this: IL be-
gins with some Austrian cooking. For
that matter. IT probably ends with some
Austrian cooking, too. Little MISS AlGer
is the demon Austrian cooker, take
II from her. But Austrian, mind you
not Germanl Oh. those Germansl
Why, they don't think anything of put
ting the same sauce on vanilla ice cream
that they use on sauerkraut, and as 10.
their
Well, anyhow, il begins with some
Austrian cooking. Then, Of course. she
must 20 70 the theatre for the evening
performance. Just before the curtain
goes up she would like the audience TO
ret all excited about the play, and then
gradually work things up so that there
Ia a frst-class riot going at the end OF
Act l. Between the trst and second acts
the manager telephones for the re-
serves.
When the second act gets under way
the audience simply cant contain ~
self any longer In an excess OF en-
thusiasm over the performance they be-
Gin TO take down the second balcony
one niece at a time. Meanwhile they
are applauding. cheering and otherwise
indicating TO those on the stage that
tbev consider il a darned good show.
In the turbulent scenes at the END OF
the second act three men are killed
while seven are carried out on streten-
ers. A.
The reserves who responded TO tne
managers call have succumbed TO the
spell OF the play. and are behaving
worse than the audience. The manager
calls out the Fire Department, but the
disturbance has long passed the quelia-
Bile stage. The last act IS one long
cheer, during which one man goes crazy
from 10y and another loses the use OF
ri, arms after applauding for twenty
seven consecutive minutes. Az tne
| final curtain the audience storms the
stage, falls at the knees Of the actors
and actresses etc, ETC.. etc. etc. anu
In other words, Else Alder likes audi
ences with a little bit of zip IN them'
At the New Amsterdam. where MISS
Alder is appearing. in around tne
J Map" an American would PROBABLY
/ listen for few minutes and then re-
mark that he thought the show was
/ getting as much applause as any per-
| Torrance in town. Furthermore, ne
would be right. Miss Alder's complaint
I is not against the audience at the New
Amsterdam; II has to do with American
audiences IN general.
"Gracious," she calculated. Please
do not make il appear that | am DIS
satisfied with my own reception here'
or that | am asking for more applause
for myself. Far from IT, But the con-
frast between American audiences and
~
great that It is the first definite
/ in this country.
az had a hint of what was to come
during a visit here last year. On that
occasion I went to the Metropolitan
considerably, and | was astounded at
the inattentive attitude of the audi
ences. But ! was not prepared for our
Washington opening. To me the audi
ence seemed like ice. ! began to fear
that there was something wrong with
the performance. But imagine my sur
prise when | read in the papers the
next morning that the audience had
been enthusiastic Enthusiastic. II
that was enthusiasm | would hate TO
see an audience when it was not enthu-
siastic"
A singularly accomplished, ambitious,
lovely and yet modest young lady is
Miss Else Alder. Although her first
name is written Elise" incidentally, II
is not pronounced as in anything
else" Call her Elsie, like the books
One of her most recent accomplish
ments was the acquisition Of the Eng
lish language In eight months. Fur
thermore, she did not learn it In the
way that Austrians and Germans usu-