The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-03-27

me and said he had found u s""hhS
place in which TO produce our SHOW.
After taking off my equipment. ana
followed by the resi- of the sec'loh'
went over to the building he had h}'Nea
n,1+ II was a monSgFnuS barn win
nIatform at one end which would make
nm ideal stage. The section get right
on The lob and before night had mat
place rugged out in appIe-pie "f0er'
The next day was Sunday an" after
churcb narade we put all our TIM" on
\ dress rehearsal. and it went fur
made four or five larC" signs an
,ouncinc that our company would open
nm that evening at the King George the
Fifth theater. on the corner OF Ammo
street and Sandhag terrace. Genefai
admission was one-half franc. FIRST
tan rows in orchestra one franc. AMI
boxes two francs. BY this time our
printed programs had returned from
London. and | further announced mat
on the night of the first performance
n program would be gwen free of
charge to men holding tickets costing a
franc or over.
We had an orchestra Of seven men
and seven different instruments. This
orchestra was excellent, while they
were not playing.
The performance was scheduled 10
start ut p. M.
At 5:13 there was mob in front OF
our one entrance and 1t looked like
big night. We had two boxes each ac'
communicating four people, and these
we Immediately sold out. Then
brilliant idea came to key Cohen>tein
WHY not use the rafters overhead. call
them boxes, and charge two francs for
u seat on them? The only difficulty
was how were the men to reach these
boxes. but to key this was Il mere de-
tail.
He got long ropes and tied one end
around each rafter and then tied lot
of knots in the ropes. These ropes
would take the place of Stairways.-
We figured out that the rafters
would seat about forty men and sold
that number of tickets accordingly.
When the ticketholders for the boxes
got a glimpse of the rafters and were
Informed that they had to use the rope
stairway. there was howl of indi@na-
ton, but we had their money and told
them that if they did not like it they
could write TO the management later
and their money would be refunded;
but under these conditions they would
not be allowed to witness the perform
ance that night.
After little grousing they accepted
the situation with the promise that if
the show was rotten they certainly
would let us know about it during the
performance.
Everything went lovely and it was
bowling success, until Alkali Ike ap-
peared on the scene with his revolver
loaded with blank cartridges. Behind
the bar on a shelf was long line Of
bottles. Alkali Ike was supposed to
start on the left of this line and break
six of the bottles by firing at them with
his revolver. Behind these bottles
10 represent the back of the bar, at
each shot from Alkali'S pistol a man
behind the scenes would hit one of the
bottles with his entrenching tool
handle and smash 1t, to give the i'm
preston that Alkali was good shot.
Alkali Ike started in and aimed at
the right of the line of bottles instead
Of the left. and the poor boob behind
lie scenes started breaking the bottles
on the left. and then the boxheldeH.
turned loose; but outside of this littls
fiasco the performance was huge sue
cess. and we decided to run it for s
week.
New troops were constantly coming
through. and for six performances We
had the IS. r. o." sign suspended out
side.
ITO he CODtiDupd1