The New York herald., 1922-06-11


ater, which was not in the Bowery.
ss has been said, but in East Four
teenth street, just beyond the Acad-
emy of Music and in comforting pro-
pinquity to Luchow's.
q Heard OF In Broadway.
Miss Russell had not been at Mr..
Pastors educational institution more
than three days before she was heard
of in upper Broadway, then situate
I between Twenty-third and Thirty
fourth streets. A man from Baltimore
went down to investigate. This man
is worthy of a history. but it cannot
all be told at this moment His name
was John A. McCaull and he had been
y a lawyer. He came TO this town to
embark in TIE business of theatrical
management and became the great
comic opera producer of his day.
Theatergoers of the present time will
know what manner of man this was
when it is recorded that he lad in his
company at one time De Wolf Hopper,
Digby Bell and Jefferson de Angels,
Eugene Oudin-one Of the finest vocal
artists ever heard in comic opera-and
at other times Perugini, Hubert Wilke,
Francis Wilson, James T. Powers,
Harry McDonough and in short, the
whole list of operetta celebrities. The
great Nine. Mathilde Cottrelly was
also one of his stars.
John McCaull went to Tony Pastors,
heard Miss Russell and told her tha.
Broadway was yearning for her. She
was first heard on TIE Great White
Way in "The Snake Charmer," pro-
duced by McCaull at the Bijou Opera
House. as it was then called. The
leading star of the production was
Miss Selma Delaro, who had some
country by Col Maplesont to sing
Carmen at the Academy of Music.
She had been found musically made
quate. but she possessed beauty and
unusual charm.
Miss Russell made one of her few
appearances in tights in tkis produc-
ton Contrary to the impression
given by some of the obituary notices
she was not frequently seen in "doublet
and hose" She appeared almost al
WAYS as gorgeous heroine in the
sweeping garments of female glory.
Delicate I'm Feature and Form.
When the prAsc7.t writer saw her in
THE Sr.ke Charmer" she was a girl
i<-sii'n, marvelously delicate in feature
ara form, graceful and apparently
without self-consciousness. Her voice
was a clear. full, lyric soprano, of
: beautiful quality. but entirely without
warmth or variety of color. She al
ready sang fairly well as far as tech
nique was concerned. Her acting was
dull and apathetic.
Her beauty made her fortune right
away. But she was much more beauti-
full few years later when the raw
ness of youth hads given way to the
richness of early womanhood. There
is always room for differences of opin-
ion about a woman's beauty, but prob
ably the majority of people would
agree that Miss Russell was the most
beautiful operetta singer OF the last
thirty or forty years in New York.
The princess OF Trebizonde" produce
ton above mentioned took place in
1888. The Snake Charmer" was given
in 1881.
How Miss Russell was regarded by
the adorers Of her golden days might
be gathered from a hundred hints az
we'll as from the cooler records of tho
newspapers. For instance in Poor
Jonathan" it was her privilege to
impersonate prima donna. Her en-
trance was preceded by her delivery
of ! a brilliant cadenza behind the
scenes. Whereupon one of the char
acters addressing another. the latter
jmpersonated by Joseph w. Herbert,
said:
what do you think of her?"
"Oh." answered Mr.. Herbert, she's
out of sight"
Obscure Men Now Famous.
once upon a time the stage of the
Casino was enlivened by the produc-
ton OF review, the name OF which
has escaped the writer's memory.
There was much good fun In the play
One scene took place in the lobby Of
the Casino itself. A strange grotesque.
Hcbraic figure sneaked through the
entrance, crept up to the box office
window. and suddenly appearing be-
fore the eyes of the astonished ticket
seller. proffered two fiat books. say
ing:
"Don't ye want to buy a comuc
opera? I sell ye the two for a dollar
und a helluf."
The speaker Of this immortal line
was no other than David Warfield.
A little later came the scrub women
to clean the lobby. There were two of
them. They crawled about, scrubbing,
and talked TO each other after the
manner OF their vaudeville kind OF
course you recognize them-the Rus
- Brothers. After asking and an
swering many important questions,
one said TO the other:
.'T3ut answer me this. Who wrote
Lillian Russell? There's a play that
every child has seem"
But what was the name of the
operetta in which Miss Russell her
self spoke the line that made the hit
Of the evening? Wasn't 1t Poor
Jonathan? Perhaps. At any rate