Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-12
THE PLAYGOER'S
WEEKLY TALK
Dissertations on Plays and
Photoplays of Interest
to Philadelphians

FNwO suggestions for next season:
i To some manager who isn't afraid
TO make money, even via the Shake
speareah route: Put out company III
Z, Shakespearcan repcrtory. headed by
Walter Hampden, whose Imaginative
Hamlet delighted playgocrs here at two
special matinees this week.
To ]. Hartley Manners: Make an
entirely new stage version of The Old
Curiosity SHOP" with the dual role of
Little Nell and the Marchioness for
Laurette Taylor.
iNHE "three second room at the
i Shubert Theatre is the name given
Shis dressing room by Walter Catlett.
II make the stage in three seconds
from this room after the callboy let's his
little yell." said Catlett. ''and it's hard
on the shoes the way l have TO skip
and slide to make it.
/. 'Hard?" commented one of the dane
ing Cameron sisters. scornfully to the
Playgoer. why you don't know what
being hard on shoes is. Why we girls
wear out three pairs of slippers
week apiece doing our little bit for
the merriment of nations. But luckily
for us the managers pay for our dane
ing shoes. That's in our contracts.
When you figure the salaries dancers
are paid and the expense for slippers
that has to be borne by the manage
ment, the dancing acts are some Of the
most expensive on the stage.
Just then the callboy called and Cat
lett gave his three slides and skip and
\ wore out about one and one eighth
cents worth of leather. at which the
Cameron sisters again scornfully shifted.
NTARJORIE McCLINTOCK. Of the
1Nl "F'lo Flo" company. gave n real
heart to heart talk about the other
side" of stage life to the women writ
ers in their clubrooms at the Art AL
lance last Sunday night. Miss Nc
: Cfntock, in the musica, comedy. is
made up to look about thirty years of
age. but she's really only twenty and
as pretty as can be. She told how she
had made the stage. and in answer
+ TO questions gave picru-e of the family
life of a company that was truly rare.
Miss McClintock was n member of
the Ben Greet players before our entry
Z into the war. She is also talented
harpist and has accompanied Fritz
Kreisler on several occasions.
The women writer's entertained Miss
McClintock at luncheon at the Curtis
Building on Tuesday.
Il 9yTTALTER HAN1PDEN, whose Ham
w let will be presented al a third spe-
5cal matinee at the Adelphi Wednesday.
took few minutes from Shakespeare to
express to the Playgoer his belief that
The war has changed the mental outlook
of the American people and that the
time is ripe for renaissance in the
4 theatre.
''Watch the world of thought in the
theatre,'' he said, for it is beginning
Ito reflect the thoughtfulness Of a great
gSnation charged with infinite RESPONSE
~, ,n;ties in one of the most important
ially in world history" he SAID.
If tbcdtch the plays of materialism dis
.ppear and the plays of the Imagination
appear.
''The nation has been keeping a vigil
with death. 1t is open eyed and sensi-
tive.
Men. women. children who never
have thought or imagined or meditated
upon universal things have been moved
out of themselves and made to reflect
upon the great movements of history
now in the making. We shall feel this
in. the theatre. There is no playwright
who meets this spiritual demand as com
pletely as Shakespeare. So | believe
that Shakespeare will be revived more
often and more successfully; that the
great plays will be given increasingly ::
that we are going back to- Shake
speare."
MORA BAYES is making collection
IN of fans. Every time she gets a
rev gown she goes on still hunt to
find a fan to match it. She has nearly
100 fans in her collection now.
Statistics are not given of her ward
robe trunks.
yXTITH the advent OF cheap electric
w power and extended city mains, the
old fashioned kitchen pump, dear to the
heart of every group who has lived in
the country, is in danger Of extinction
-and thereby hangs q tale of an OBJ
stacle that threatened to delay the
premiere of "Turn to the Right"
For the first act the scene is the
Kitchen of the Bascom homestead. Like
all such kitchens, it has a pump and
cast iron sink.
A stickler for realism. Winchell
Smith hunted far and wide for an old
fashioned red tablecloth, shaded oil
lamp of the same vintage, wooden
bucket for the jam-and found them.
But the pump was not so easy. Finally
want ad was employed. 1t brought
rush of bargain day proportions and
within n half hour Mr.. Smith had just
what he was looking for. A farmer
who had iourneyed over from Connec
& ticut. carrying under his arm a pump
that he had discarded when he installed
gasoline pumping plant on his dairy
farm (sh .. pocketed bill and walked
off with high regard for ''show folks.
3 Mr.. Smiths selection has behaved ad
mirably during the long period that il
has been in use. 1t gurgles at each per
fcrmance and sends gush of real water
into the Belascoesque sink.
improvements at the Palace
At the Palace Theatre improve
ments are under way. including tn
Installation of fine organ. 1t is no