The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-11-05

BEFORE
PLEASURE"
The Cast.

The Cast.
Abe Potash. ........ Bud Schaner
Mawruss Perlmutter. Fred Fleck, Jr.
Rosie Potash. ...... Florence F'roney
i Ruth Perlmutter. ....... Ruby Eiliott
Keith Macdonald. William Edwards
Miss Cohen. ........ Dorothy Ogden
Robert blanchard. Roger Il. Murrel
Lional Brandon. 49,. Howard Walsh
Victor Curzon. Earl Gllpert
Ralph Nevill. ..... Andrew Grdnt
Rita Sismondi. ...... .Cecile Elllott
Synopsis of Scenes.
Act I-Oflice and projecting room
soi the Potash d Perlmutter Film
Co.
Act II-cThree months later.)
Scene d. Studio of the Potash &
4 Perlmutter Film Co. Scene 2-On
the Road to Pelham.
Act HI-(Next morning) Same as
act l. The action takes place today
in and around New York City.
Laughter was present IN force at
the Grand last night, when the new
Potash and Perlmutter' entertain
mept, Business Before Pleasure"
made its bow to Keokuk theatregoers
who couple OF seasons ago proved
SO appreciative of the humors and
argumentative exercises of Montague
| Glass Abe and Mawruss. Those
humors and exercises are not less
lively, spontaneous and full favored
becaue the cloak-and-surt business
has been abandoned for the movies.
/ Indeed, the movies seem exactly the
place for Abe and Mawruss and the
fantastic viccissitudes or the films to
provide precisely the enamel for the
jleaping torrent of conversation which
counts for so much of the success of.
the play. Besides, the movies pro-
vide any number of Mechanical aids
like the vampire VINO had melan-
choly moments, and in the midst Of
her yampirisn crayed for tiny
home in the country with plenty of
children. even dirty ones; and the
private dining rooms and the in
finite opportunities for inviting
green-eyed jealousy in the wifely
bosoms of Rosie Potash and Ruth
Perlmutter, to say nothing Of the
introduction of sections of "dllums"
at critical moments.
Perlmutter play Mawruss deposes
that every man has two businesses.
his own and the movies. Before the
play is over he discovers that the
movies are not a business but dis |
sipation. For the people on the stage
the world of the "fillum'' seemed |
very far removed from either. ALI |
evening long, as proverbial English |
is rendered, it was, for them, out Of |
the frying pan into the hot water |
But the audience enjoyed it all huge |
ly. 1t is the kind of comedy in |
which the audience laughs, not with !
the people on the stage, but at them. !
In the film business Potash and |
Perlmutter have a hard time OF it. /
Their first film turns out complete |
failure and then they plan to plunge |
still deeper and engage a vampire at |
a tremendous salary. One of the |
funniest scenes in the pTece comes /
when applicants for positions give a I
specimen Of their ability to the two |
partners, every actor or them deliver.
ing Warfleld's lines in the Music /
Master" IF you don't want her, / .
want her." while Potash, filled with
paternal sentiment, weeps copiously, I
to the great CONSERVATION OF Perl
mutter, who has warned him not to
seem pleased by any or the exhibit /
lions.
The arrival of the vampire in the
studio brings y long series of calami
ties upon the heads or the partners l.
Both wives become Jealous of her, !.
and Mrs. Potash happens upon her I,
Abe in house which is being burn
ed for Shooting" purposes. in the I.
arms of the vampire.
In the end, however. the vampire L
who is wicked woman only for arts
sake, saves the day for them by ex.
posing the reprobate banker who
has financed them and then deserted
them, and by advancing $4,000 OF {,
her own money to complete a finn
which is to make the company rich. I,
One did not have to know anything ,
about the film business to enjoy the
show. It was all a huge joke that
sven the most dense could under.
stand. There Were three acts, the
second of which boosted of two
scenes, and an automobile race was
shown on the screen with all the
Potash and Perlmutter wftticisms in
arge type, to be read at leisure
Bud Schaffer was irresistible as !
while the part or his partner,
'erlmutter, was excoilently taken by
fred Fleck Jr. The cast was stronger 2
han that of the average road show
Which comes to this city, and in all |
he performance was more than c
If the success of
omedy is to be gagged by the hearth
less of the laughs It draws from an I
udience, then Business Before c
'leasure" may be counted in the c
undred per cent. class. I
i