The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-12-11
"SCARLET
AND WHITE"
Vela ska Surraff, Screen
Queen, Makes Bow in
Spoken Drama
Cast.

Cast.
Arnold Roswell, callow scion.
.................. Dennis Auburn
................. Larraine Landee
David Strong, rich mans ath-
letic son; her brother .....
Tommy Watson, a newspaper re-
porter ........ Walter c. Percival
Billie Gray OF the Cabarets. -.
NaleSka Suratt
Bulldog" Miller, proprietor Of
the Scarlet and White Resort
................. Arthur Pickens
"Jazz Joe" Bailey, light OF finger
for the "ivories" and the "swag"
......... Harry Hart
Pansey Policy, his woman" an
entertainer" $500. Lucy Weston
"Parson" Smith, a sanctimonious
waiter ........ Herbert Haywood
Coast to Coast" Taylor, an all
around thief $50. Charles Norman
Arthur Mason, a rich rounder and
raw bounder -. .,... 2. Butler
Egan, a city detective. .........
Harry Hubbard
Mrs. Strong, David's mother.
..... ..... Eva Sargent
Barry, q uniformed policeman.
~. Wilbur Smith
Mullin, a Pinkerton man. Jack Ball
Synopsis.
y Act 1.-The Scarlet and White"
cabaret cafe at a. m.
Act H.--"Billie's" apartment an
hour or SO later.
Act TTI.-Sun parlor Of the Strong
mansion on the Drive"
Theatrical tradition tells Of the
drama entitled Nellie, the Beautiful
Cloak Model" to the great delight
Of the gallery gods Nellie was poor
but honest, and Of course was pur-
sued by the regulation villain. This
bad mans choice of the heroine for
his victim was explained in many
"asides" addressed to no one in par
ticular, but designed, no doubt, to
reach the intelligence of the audi
ence and disclose his dire purpose.
And he went about 1t with ccnsum.
mate villainy, as, according 20 MS
lights, he should have done. rms
villain, to express his idea OF love
for her, threw Nellie from a bridge
into the waters below; he tied her
to a railway track In front OF an ap-
preaching locomotives; he attempted
to burn, to poison her. But Nellie
escaped his Vaccinations. In the
final act, the villain, pleading his
case to the scornful model, voiced:
Nellie, why do you fear ne?"
Scarlet and White" offered as a
picture of high and low society"
and written by Jack Lait and 10
Swerling, is like Nellie, the Beautiful
Cloak Model" but with difference,
the difference lying in the fact that
the more the Gin this case) pseudo
bad man mistreated the heroine the
more she loved him. His cave-man
tactics were balm to her soul, etc,
etc. All this was enjoyed by good
sized audience at the Grand last
evening, drawn there, presumably,
largely by the reputation OF the star,
valeska Surratt, which has been &C
CURED through her work as a motion
picture artist.
The story of the play is not
pleasant one. Miss Surratt is cast
for the character of billie" Gray,
cabaret entertainer, wooed and
captured by IA young millionaire who
adopts knock-down and throw-out
methods to accomplish his purpose.
1t was a queer kind Of love-making;
but he wins out with his scheme,
which is accompanied by terrible
stories of his supposed murderings,
thieyings and almost all other crimes
mentioned in the calendar. The first
act represented an underworld dive in
which the wooing begins; the sec
ond. "Billie's" flat, where the wooing
proceeded on the part of the man,
coupled with the woman's effort to
separate her companion from his
wicked ways; and the third was an
apartment in a Chicago mansion, in
which place all is explained and viz
tue and cupid win out. Throughout