Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-07-03
Plays and Players
Art and PugiIism.

No one, even in the widest flight
of imagination, would expect Robert
! B. Mantell, the ShakeSperian actor to
issue a challenge for the heavyweight
pugilistic title; to see Lillian Rus
sell as a circus bareback rider, or to
witness a steer roping exhibition by
Tom Wise. Yet it is quite the thing
for the real and near arenic cham
pion, the circus clown, the steer roper
and the female murder. who have
gained great publicity thru more or
less sensational notable or interest
ing feats, to be presented as actors"
Georges Carpenter, a clever look
Ing F'renchman, whose greatest
claim to fame is that he fought
nobly for his country in the late war,
and who has gained greater notoriety
because he has tloored a goodly num-
Der Of second rate pugs. came to
America ostensibly to wrest the
worlds ring crown from one Jack
Dempsey, but more truly to line his
purse with Yarkee sreenbacks won
from the seeker Of sensationalism
who pays his coin to witness the
1.-THE looking Georges on the
screen.
Georges press agent alleges that
the fighting Frenchman is finished
actor. in fact a male Bernhart, who
would win top most fame as a dra-
matte actor In addition to his mascu-
line beauty and his magnificent ply
sique he is represented as having I'M
usual dramatic ability and unexcel-
led facial flexibility and expression.
The sporting gentry welcomed
Georges as a batt1er--the artistitally
inclined are having him thrust upon
them as a dramatic genius. He came
an ordinary puslist-a very ordinary
one, perhaps-and he leaves our
shores a theatrical star. So much for
judiciops publicity.
We have had the sorry spectacle of
old John l.. Sullivan, Jake Kilrain.
Bob Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Britt, Jim
Jeffries, Jack E'empsey and a score
of other fighters posing as actors If
they had fought as badly in the ring
as they acted OH the stage their fame
would have been as short lived as the
life of the prov,rbial SNOWFALL in the
region made famous by Dante.
There are. OF course exceptions
and exceptions prove the rule-but
they are as few in number as the
feet of an eel. Jim Corbett left the
firing to appear on the stage and
made very good Job Of it.
Few actors could earn their salt in
the ring and they, themselves, should
see to 1t that the pugilist earns very
little Of his behind the footlights. If
he must be exhibited in the name of
art let him perform where he belongs
in the ring or in side show, where
the curious may deposit their dimes
and see what they are paying for.
II we are to have dramatic art let
it be undiluted. Drama is one thing
pugilism is something else again.
+ !. !. =
Looking Backward
In order to- encourage grand opera
In New York III 1893, wealthy fash
| ionables subscr bed to boxes, paying
| $4,000 each for them.
The first dramatic production of
Uncle Toms Cabin" was made by
Charles Webster Taylor, Aug. %.
| 1852 1t ran for eleven nights and
was a failure.
E. II. Sothern made his debut on
the stage as cabman in Brother
SAM" at the Park theater, New
York, Sept. s, 1879.
George v. Hobart, the playwright,
was once an actor. He appeared in a
variety show at the Fifth Avenue
fheater New York, on May Z, 1900.
Charlotte cushman's last appear
ance on the stage was as Lady Mac
beth. Nov. Z. 1874 Macduff was
played by Frederick Warde. Miss
Cushman had the reputation of maxi
ing more farewells than any actress
living or dead.
Nine Rejane, the great French
tragedienne, who died recently, made
her first American appearance at
Abbey's theater, New York. in Sar-.
dou's Madame Sans Gene"