The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-05-22
MUST CONQUER
GERMAN PEOPLE !
TO END THE War
Lieut.. P. O'Brien Tells Aud
fence We Are Not Fight
ing the Kaiser Alone
BENEFIT BY POLICE
NETS RED CROSS S., 900
Monster Audience Crowds
Poll Theatre For Red
Gross Benefit

Never in the history of Polls thea
tire was an audience aroused to the
high pitch of enthusiasm as that
which crowded the big house from
floor to roof last night to hear Lieu
tenant Pat o'Brien, of the Royal Fly
ing Corps, who was the star attraction
on a wonderful bill presented in aid
of the Red Cross under the auspicef
of Team IL, of the police department.
Great credit must be given to S. q.
Poll who contributed the house and
TO Manager Matt Saunders who
staged, not alone the regular show,
but attended to all the details con-
nected with the monster affair as far
as the theatre was concerned. There
was not a single hitch at any tine and
the huge crowd was handled in just as
an efficient manner as though it was
an ordinary audience.
Team IL, which is under the lead
ership of Police Commissioner John
C. Stanley, netted more than $4,000
by the affair, and this is entirely due
to the fact that the active campaign
ing was in the hands of Assistant
Superintendent Charles H. Suckley,
who in the last two weeks succeeded
in arousing an enthusiasm among his
corps of workers which fairly COM
PEELED them to put the affair "over
the top
Seldom has any theatre witnessed
the wild scene of enthusiasm which
greeted, not alone, Lieut.. Pat O'Brien,
but Sergeant Thomas J. Reilly, of
Pershing's army when introduced by
Lieutenant-G Governor Clifford B. Will
son, and it was many minutes before
Lieutenant O'Brien could start his ad-
| dress owing to the continued ovation.
After conversing for minute or so
with Sergeant Reilly on the stage
Lieutenant O'Brien escorted the
| Pershfng man from the stage and
started his account of being wounded,
made prisoner, his mad leap for free
| dom and final escape into Holland.
He spoke for about an hour and
| half and there was not one second
| of that time the audience was not
held spell bound by the simple MARIA
| tive of the man who had been through
He'll and survived to tell the rest of
the world about it.
The story of Lieutenant Pat O'Brien,
|
into details of his wonderful adven-
ture, but he did bring out some new,
facts for the people of Bridgeport to
| ponder upon, such as Remember
that you are not fighting the Kaiser
4 alone. You are fighting every man,
woman and child in Germany. They
all think alike and have the same am
billions and ideals. Until the Ger
man people are conquered the war
will not be over. 1t is ridiculous TO
think of starving them out They
will have to be. beaten by man power
and by man power alone"
Beside the money secured by Team
II, by the sale of tickets there was
more than $500 taken up in tin
buckets which were passed among
the audience by number of promi-
nent women in Red Cross uniforms.
A word must be said of the most
excellent bill which was secured by
Manager Saunders for this half of the
week. Every number was a winner
from the dancing team of Trojetty
Bennett to the mammoth operate
number entitled the Eight Dominos.' u
Music and laughter predominated and
principally laughter when Crawford
and Broderick held the boards. They
: were beyond doubt the best team that
the writer has witnessed in Polls OF
any other theatre for a long while.
Another big feature of the. big affair
was the selection of pictures present
ed which included many direct from
the scene of the great German drive
,, in Picardy.