El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-04-02
SEESITS
BURLE5QUE
Show Is Received by Audi
ence With Various De
grees Of Approval.

The Crawford theater was packed
Thursday night for the opening per-
Torrance OF the first Of the " estern
wheel burlesque companies Many
had to be turned away. The women
were about equal IN numbers 10 the
men in the audience
1t is real burlesque, nothing more
nor less Burlesque has been defined
as being in the middle Of the road
between the old time hOnky-tOnk show
and the modern musical comedy and
this definition holds good of the Craw-
ford show. There is plenty Of smut in
the performance, there is enough sug-
gestiveness in it, IL it were all rolled
into one big suggestion and applied
automatically, to make the tiehtest
wad in FL PasO buy drinks for the
crowd.
There is much that is entertaining.
The company has over 20 girls, most
Of them fair Of figure and face. and
the costumes are bright and becoming.
One Of the leading women in one of
her sallies says that "a small girl in
tights looks smaller. a tall girl in
tights looks taller. and any girl in
tights makes the men look longer"
The costuming. mostly, is Of the. sort
that makes men look longer, according
to this definition.
One Of the features OF the perform
ance was several groups Of living pic
lures, posed by girls Of the company in
white tights-festUres which in cir
Gus always bring obs" and abs" Of
admiration and approval
The show OPENS with a chorus from
Carmen" that is well sung, and is fol-
lowed by the prison duet from III
TrOvatOre" then IL switches into a
melange Of most anything. the girls
dancing in step TO their singing and
making a very pretty stage spec
tacle There is no denying that there
is plenty Of action.
The comedians spring a lot Of jokes
that are fresh and clean, and a lot that
are neither fresh nor clean The
audience seemed TO like the show.
judging from the applause, which was
vociferous and continued.
The first part was really no worse
than a musical comedy Of the Murray
and Mack type but the second act,
which purpOrts TO be a police investi-
cation into a dinner that has been
raided, is really as shocking as The
Blue Mouse" The Girl I'm the Taxi"
and other performances that have en-
tertained FL Pssoans at the Texas
Grand from time to time and got away
with it This act brings in a disrOb-
ing scene-although the disrObed girl
remains after it is all over. in a beau
tifully fitting suit or white tights
much more than the girl wears in time
tried Fra DiavalO''-and closes with
somewhat censored version OF the
hOochie kOochie, which the announcer
takes the trouble to explain is dance
Just as Ruth st. Denis does it in all
the big theaters Of the country"
which gees to prove that he never saw
Ruth St Denis dance The Judge" re-
moving first his coat then his collar and
watching a big thermometer slowly
rise to the ceiling as the dance pro-
gressed. il might have been explained.
are not features Of the performance
when Miss St Denis does her dance.
In the Crawford performance the dis
robinE is done 10 the tune OF a quick
little song. something coming OF with
each verse In Fra Diavalo." although
there is much more disrobing. nobody
asks at the conclusion of the scene
Haven't you got some more verses"
That's the difference.
Prior to the display OF these features
the management announced Thursday
night that it was the desire OF the com
pany to make the show one thar would
appeal to the women and children OF
Fl Paso as well as the men.
Like whisky. all burlesQue is bur
lesque; the only difference IS that some
Is worse than the rest and the degree
of virtue attaching 10 O performance
IS usually regulated by the degree OF
liberation Of the people and police
The FL Paso burlesQue performance IS
on par with the average i'm the larc-
er cities. but 10 call il a performance
for women and childreu-weU. weII
c. 4 II