The sun., 1916-08-20
NOTES AND GOSSIP
OF II STAGE

selecting . scene for his firs
serious play. 1.-THE Silent Wit
nsss." Otto Hauerbach did not
ind II necessary to 80 beyond the
campus Of his own alma mater. where
also. according to his own admission.
no found the material on which he
based his story OF the play now cur
rent in the Longacre Theatre. The
prologue Of the play u laid In Rush.
vile. . small town In Illinois. near
which Is located Knox College. Mr..
Hauerbach worked his way through
college and went into . New York
newspaper office before he started
writing plays. Although he has to his
credit many succeasful musical comedy
books and farces. no wrote The ST.
lent Witness" four years ago.. At that
time II wa submitted to several pro-
ducing managers under the titles of
Her Other Name and Tho Eye Wit
ness"
On several occasions he received ad-
vance royalties for his manuscript but
until H. II. Frazee contracted with him
It was kept in the managers desk. OF
VI III w BiVStuk SiapC ~ "a
lent Witness 10 the result Of a recent
revision. but the premise on which the
drama L. based still remains the same
and very much according to certain
important episodes which developed
during Mr.. Hauerbach's college days.
II 10 interesting to note. however. that
tho references to the prosecuting at
torney's ambition to make Q record
rather than SEQ justice done 10 ~ evil
dent to-day as It was then. While
The Silent Witness" n to continue
indefinitely In New York Mr.. Hauer-
bach will be drawing royalties from
five other productions announced for
presentation here this season.
The next Offering 10 . new farce
called "A Pair Of Queens.' which will
also be presented by H. II. FrassA 1t
was done in conjunction with A. sey-
mour Brown and Harry Lewis. who
supplied the original story and will be
offered arst in Atlantic City next week
with Edward Abeles. Joseph santley.
Kathleen Clifford. Mauds Eburne.
Hugh Cameron Frank McGinn.
Charles Butler. ReEna Conelli and
Elise Scott In the cast. Another suc-
ccssful work by Mr.. Hauerbach Is
"Katinka." now In It's second year at
the Lyric Theatre.
Along comes Sarah Padden out of
the provinces and gives the theatri-
cal season its first novelty. She IL a
new kind Of an American actress Is
Sarah Padden. for she doesn't give a
hang whether Broadway gets excited
about her or not. and this in the face
Of tho fact that the Palace manage
ment has brought her to town to he
featured this coming week In 1.-THE
Clod," a clever playlet In which the
Washington Square Players registered
a we'll remembered hit at the Bandbox
Theatre last season. The Keith people
liked the sketch and they liked Miss
Padden and determined to bring the
two together on Broadway. That IL
why Sarah Padden in 1.-THE Clod" is
to be a Palace headliner. Now
haarken to the newcomer. who It
should he explained Is "A tremendous
favorite In the Middle West. the South
and on the Pacific coast.
I'm not excited about broadway Mt
all. Every n Mt the Palace keeps
saying: Think what It means II you
thought about It a lot and I want to
say that you all set o high a valua-
ton on making a hit in New York.
You make It too hard. too nerve rack
ing. too utterly too-too. and l for one
am going about ..iy debut in al every
day matter OF fact way. for IT'S all in