Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-18

to the hero, "WiU you unlock tho door?''
finds herself facing an open doorway and
has TO invent line 10 get herself off the
stage.
EOING on the road is a very humanizing
~ experience, and one gathers consider
able respect for the small towns one visits.
They are SO brisk, SO proud in their local
achleVements, so prosperous and so full of
attractive shop windows. When one finds
IN Johnstowp, n. Y, for instance book
shop with almost as we'll assorted stock
as one would SEQ here in Philadelphia or in
Gloversville and Newburgh public libraries
that would be u credit to any large city, one
realizes the great tide of public intelligence
d that has risen so greatly in recent years.
AT the hotel in Gloversville the proprietress
assured us that ''an English duke" had just
left who told her that he preferred her hotel
to the Biltmore in New York. We rather
wondered about this English duke, but we
looked him up on the register and found
that be was Sir II. Urnick of Fownes
Brothers, the glove manufacturers, who have
a factory in Gloversville. But then, being
glove manufacturer, he may have been
kidding her, as the low comedian Of our
troupe observed. But the LOCAL pride Of the
small town is genial thing. It>msy always
be noted in the barber shops. The small
town barber knows'his customers, and when
strange face appears to be shaved on the
afternoon when the bills arc announcing q
play, he puts two and two together "Are
you with that show?' he asks; and being
answered in the affirmative Zone naturally
would not admit that one is merely there
in the frugal capacity of co author, and
hopes that he will imagine that such face
might conceivably belong to the low
ann,edionl bn 10 H.
favorite doctrine that this is a wise burg
"Yes," he says, folks here are pretty
cagy. If your show can get by here you
needn't worry about New York Believe me,
Il you get hand here you can go right down
to Broadway. | always take in the shows,
and I've heard lots of actors say this town
is harder to please than any place they ever
played"
ONE. GETS new viewpoint on many
Omatters by a week of one night stands.
Theatrical billboards, for instance. We had
always thought, i'll a vague kind OF way,
that they were a DETACHMENT to a town
and cluttered up blank spaces in an un-
seemly way. But when you are trouping,
the first thing you do, after registering at
the hotel, is to go out and scout round the
town yearning for billboards anG complain
ing because there aren't enough of them.
You meet another member of the company
on the, same errand and say II don't see
much paper out" this being the technical
phrase. You both agree that the advance
agent must be loafng. Then you set out TO
see what opposition you are rhying against,
and emit groans on learning that The Mil
lion Dollar Doll in Paris is also in town,
or Harry Bulger's Girly Show will be
there the following evening, or Mack Sen
nett's Bathing Beauties in Person. That's
the kind o6stuf they fall for" said the other
author modfnfully, and you hustle aroutd to
the box Office 10 see whether the ticket rack
is still full OF unsold pasteboard.
A I THIS time Of year, when all the met
"A ropolitan theatres are crowded and there
are some thirty plays cruising round in the
ofing waiting for chance TO get into New
York and praying that some show now there
will "hop," one crosses the trail of many
other wandering troupes that are battering
about from town to town. In remote Johns
town, N. Y, which can only be reached by
trolley and where there is no hotel (but a
very fine large theatre), one finds that Miss
Grace George is TO be the next attraction.
On the train TO Saratoga one rides on the
same train with the Million Dollar Doll and
those who have seen her paper" on the
billboards in Newburgb or Poughkeepse
keep an attentive optic open for the lady
hereelf 70 see how nearly she lives up 70 her
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