New-York tribune., 1920-08-30
Another Sort
Of Cowboy Seen
= In "Blue Bonnet
Fresh Characterization Is
Splendidly Played by Ern-
50 est Truck on Scarbor-
ough's New Comedy at the
Princess s
By Haywood Broun

The best of "Blue Bonnet" which
was produced at the Princess Theater
on Saturday night, is so exceptionally
good that it is difficult to understand
just why George Scarborough was COM
pellcd to pad it out here and there with
material so markedly inferior. He has
at least one distinct creation to his
credit, and at the point where he left
off Ernest Truck has gone on to COM
plete one of the most winning stage
portraits of the season. Billy Bnrle-
son, the eighteen-year~old hero of the
play, is a cowboy without any cows,
He doesn't even own gun. and
further than that he is handicapped by
his promise to the young heroine never
, to drink or gamble until he is twenty
one.
But though circumscribed by all these
factors, he is determined to preserve
the best of the cowboy traditions in a
section of the country from which all
- the other cowboys have departed. He
is scrupulous to sing the old songs of
the cowboys and to talk their language
and to act in all circum stances as a
cowboy should. Here, of course, is a
starting point for an unusually inter-
esting play satirizing not only cow
boys, but the whole succession of cow
boy plays. Scarborough has done this
TO a certain extent, but he has not real
ized the uttermost possibilities of his
theme. 1t calls, it seems to US, for a
story in which the cowless young man
should be compelled to tilt at nothing
more than windmills, but the dramatist
has finally been soft-hearted enough to
create two actual ogres to test his
tEnettle. The villainous justice Of the
peace is not without humor, despite his
conventional aspects, but the senti-
mental and embittered spinster who
is drawn into the plot against the
young man and his love is decidedly
of the theater and has no place in the
affairs of any character, SO freshly con-
ceived and expertly executed as that
of the young Quixote of chaps and
spurs.
Not since "The Dummy" has Ernest
Truck had part which has so COM
pletely enlisted his talents. For sew
eral seasons now he has been conven-
tionalized into a small knockabout per-
son for farce purposes. In "Blue
Bonnet" he plays with very genuine
appeal and an infectious humor. In
deed, he does so we'll that it is quite
impossible at the moment even to con-
ceive of anybody else acting the role.
Almost as good is Richard Taber as
a boyish private in the Goth, and Mona
Thomas as the girl ranch owner COM
pletes as smooth and we'll coordinated
trio as the new season has brought to
the theater. The difficult task of max
ing young people on the stage seem ac-
tually and convlncingly young has been
admirably accomplished by playwright
and players.
So much Of the story as concerns
these three is capital, but the plot to
steal the old home by the wiles of the
vlllainous judge is familiar and dreary
stuff. Helen Lowell is also handi-
capped by the imposition of a quite i'm
possible combination of virago and
sentimentalist. Most of the rest are
broadly drawn. but they are still not
entirely, out of the picture. Matte
keene, for instance, is highly amusing
but her scenes with Miss Lowell suf-
fer from inferior direction and are
played with both women talking
straight out to the audience as if they
We're endmen in minstrel show.
Billy Burleson, the little cowboy. is
the sole retainer on the Hillyer ranch
after the death of its owner and he
stays on as the companion OF Hope
HIllyer, also known as Blue Bonnet
the sixteen-yearold heir of the prop
erty. Gossip banks against them and
the land from the girl, which is baked
by Billy in regulation fashion. His
rivalry with the soldier for the favo,
Of the young miss is dramatic mate.
rial of far higher caliber and there is
enough of it to make an evening al
Blue Bonnet a decidedly enjoyable
experience. Trucks performance alone
enabled US to sit without wincine
through no little talk about fathers
grave under the cottonwoods.