The Washington herald., 1920-09-05

"One of the reasons the little the,
ater people do not succeed any too
well in the establishing of the sort
Of a house that the One-act melO-
drama Of the Grand Guignol OF Paris
would fit into. was that they did not
take their idea to the right sort of
audiences"
SUCH is the opinion of Mollie
Williams. producer and manager and
leading woman of this week at
traction at the Gayety. She backs
up her opinion by staging a most
GuiEnOI favored melOdramatiC
sketch that fairly takes the breath
away from her audiences. with its
tragedy right in the middle of a
light. frotsy, burlesque entertain
ment. The Unknown Law" The
tragic playette is the only one of its
kind in bUrlesque.
Il have given the closest sort of
study to burlesQue audiences and
burlesque methods" says Miss Will
liams. Il commenced ten years ago
in the chorus, and have been through
every stage of the business. And 1
had an opportunity to watch it be-
fore I went into it myself because
where I was born and brought up in
New York City, ] was thrown in
with theatrical people.
I'm making my living at this
business, and consequently I'm try
ing to find out the kinds of things
the people will pay me the highest
price for. I put in a seaso9 two
with a dramatic organizatiOSto get
the experience in real drama, and
when I came back to burlesque 1
decided that the audiences that see
our shows are audiences Of people
who want genuine amusement.
'T heard OF the Grand GuiEnol in
Paris, and Of the kinds of people
who patronlze the place. It struck
me there was much similarity be-
tween them and the burlesque audi
ences. Likewise I saw the kinds of
people who patronize the motion pic
ture melOdrama.
And then, again, I thought of this
and it is the biggest and most
legitimate factor of the whole
scheme: Eurlesque is light, frothy,
laugh making. Now If a tragedy is
set in the middle of a farce, the
tragedy becomes a greater tragedy
and the farce funnier farce by
contrast So I devised "The I'm
known Law" I did not realize lust
how we'll the idea was going to
work out. but it has worked out
wonderfully"
Immediately on finishing The
Frontier of the Stars" in New
York. Thomas Meichau left for Hor-
lywOOd to CONNIE nee work on Easy
Street" For tie past year he has
been a transcontinental traveller.
having made The Prince Chan at
Hollywood, Civilian Clothes in the
East. then Conrad in Quest Of His
Youth" on the West coast before
coming East to make THE Frontier
0f the Stars" On completion OF
Easy Street" in September, the
star will 70 to st. Louis to appear
personally at the opening of the
clty's largest theater.
mo more privacy than a gold
fish" has a rival in the phrase. mo
more privacy than a movie star at
Coney Island" Thomas Meighan
and Faire Binney had to go to Luna
Park last week to make some scenes
for The Frontier of the Stars" and
their official love making was view
ed by at least 1000 eyes besides
the fnexOrable eye Of the camera
Antonio Moreno is making rapid
progress on his forthcoming Vita
graph serial, The Yelled Mystery"
which was written especially for
him by Albert 2. Smith and Cleve-
land Moffet- More than two-thirds
of the chapters already have been
completed, notwithstanding the
widely divergent points at which