Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-01-03
A DESERTED HOME
OF MELODRAMA
The National Theatre, It's Plays
and Players, Including
John L., the Great

HNflE bills on the boards outside the
l. Orpheum Theatre, In Germantown, this
week announce 1.-THE White Slave: and
the old National Theatre. where those same
bills were first shown a quarter Of q century
ago. there is n tattered "For Sale' sign.
These two facts operating upon the menu
ory OF many past JOYS beget "reminiscences.
The title. THE white Slave" In the light
Of intervening happenings. takes in the mind
Of the younger public meaning entirely for.
eign to the proper one. The white slave of
BARLEY Campbell's play was no slum prob
lem. but lovely lady whose melodramattc
lines were cast In Uncle Toms Cabin" land
up and down the Mississippi River. and whose
narrowing adventures ended happily. In the
benencent shadow of the final curtain. 1t
was but one of the many high lights that
made Thomas Francis Keiy's National Thea.
tre for many years the local habitatton OF
melodrams.
The Wide-Open Days.
When the elder Kelly opened his playhouse
at the junction Of Ridge road and Tenth and
Callowhll streets, about the time of the Cen
tennial that neighborhood was just getting
ready to be called the Tenderloin. The people
who lived thereabout and those who were
drawn thither by the rather free gayeties that
had rein there were no fanciers Of problem
plays. Elemental stun was what they
wanted, and Mr.. Kelly saw that they got 1t.
For perhaps a dozen years. until the pas
sage OF the Brooks high license law. the
National Theatre was q bird that laid golden
eggs for Its owner and eggs aplenty of ancient
vintage for the villains who ranted upon
Its stage. For II was tho habit OF the
audiences to take their pleasures seriously
and emphatically. and one came to be set
down as a mighty poor villain who closed a
weeks engagement at the National without
a few marks OF popular disapproval upon
ones costume. 1t 10 recorded that one Will
liam Ferguson, the bad man Of "Thc Dance
of Death" wept copiously because he could
not win for himself such distinguished con-
tumeiy. Villains. in the paimy days OF the
National, never drew more than &35 week !;
they were supposed to take most OF their
wage in excitement The heroes sometimes
drew as much as $50 per week. but many
were content with paitry fifteen; and some
of them weren't worth that.
Tom Kelly. from the start, was In close
touch with Harry Miner. who ran the Bowery
Theatre in New York. and all the high
powered and low.browed plays Miner put
across came shortly thereafter TO the Ma,
| tional. The actors were no great shakes,
| but occasionally one Of stellar caliber paused
upon that stage momentariiy. 1t is said
| Lawrance DOrsay. down on his luck. once
| took a Job there as villain: but he always
| protested he did It for fun--and got II. And
Mrs Fiske once played there, quite seriously,
| but these are exceptional cases Among such
perhaps. we should include the appearances
| Of While Golfers father. Thomas w. Keene.
| Frederick Warde, OHVer Doud Byron and
| some others OF the heavy type who took them.
| selves bit more seriously than any audience,
| there or elsewhere. could ever be induced to
| do. But at the National the play was the
thing" invariably and seldom tho player
There was a time. In the early nineties, when
Theodore Kremer glutted the place with melo-
| dramas. made over night. and mostly built
upon some startling story of the day.
Those were the things that stirred to its
depths the top gallery. and It was the deepest
and the widest gallery In any local theatre
Also II seems to have been the most elastic
for II Is upon record. at least among the
traditions. that 22oo spectators Were once
crowded into It. II that was in the days
when smoking was permitted to the gods. I,
must have been a fragrant heaven. And how
the saloon next door must have reeked
between the acts!
The Great John L. Astor
| But Of all the Joys experienced under tina
| roof there wasn't another comparable to the
succession Of thrills and chuckles that SHOOK
US when ewsre privileged to look upon John
L. the night he made his awkward bow there
- leading man In Honest Hearts and win.
ing Hands"
Jehp Ii No need 70 ada his surname
II fhoo< ~ n N1 .nsceeosry nov >hers's conas.
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