Evening star., 1926-11-07

hearing the woes OF King Lear or the
perplexities OF Hamlet for a dollar
has not been extended in many
: years. Mantell has before him when
he speaks an immense room; too
large. in fact, for the most favorable
presentation of plays whose every
word is intended to be accurately
heard and where even the very lines
of facial play are interesting.
Facial play is no longer the impor-
tant element of drama that it was
when each seat had a small box in
front Of it that permitted the rental
of an opera glass by dropping Is
cent piece into slot. Theaters have
been made smaller and it is no longer
necessary to employ telescope aid.
n X
Hamlet in a dress suit seems
grotesquely audacious. Yet the play,
after all, is the thing. The thought
reaches the heart and the sonorous
cadences of blank verse roll forth
with the same intellectual thrill, re-
Rardless of silken costumes or cam
vas scenery. After the first surprise
the play is followed for its literary
beauty and accessories are supplied,
as in Chinese drama, largely in the
auditors own imagination.
It is freak Shakespeare, of course,
and that is no new thing. Hamlet
in evening clothes is very mild
monstrosity compared to that ex-
hibited when an actor named James
Owen O'Connor, finding that his tai
ents (Which were real enough) were
not rewarding him. hired few peo-
pie TO throw eggs and tomatoes on
the stage. He then proceeded to ad-
vertise the incident. He declared
his devotion to art was such that
even these missiles could not keep
him from playing. He had screen
stretched across the front of the
stage. and then performed at eace,
inviting his audience TO throw things
to their hearts content. He even
sold eggs and tomatoes in the front
OF the theater, where confectionery
is now so daintily dispensed 1t was
an enterprise typical of our rugged
Bible-reading, poetry-loving ances-
try. Those were the scene-chewlng
strutting, transforming days when
auditoriums were so big and often
draughty that the actor must needs
below little. Had modern inven-
tion been available, a more intimate
and natural style of diction might
have been encouraged by selling
from the slot box a microphone as
well as an opera glass.
In these days of intimate acting"
there is no acting really so intimate
as that of the magician. And a
magician is an actor with repertory
of we'll studied speeches which he
delivers with an air of superb sales
manship. when he is fooling all the
while. A little touch of diablerie in
makeup, better STILL in natural ap-
pearance, fortihes him in awing the
intelligence and browbeating a sub
ject with rapid fire eloquence which
seems impromptu, but which he has
employed many, many times with
the same type.
A magician. it might be asserted
with a fair ground for argument. is
first of all an actor. He impresses
the imagination and fascinates the
attention by arts of personality even
more than by his tricks. which are
common to thousands whose names
have never decorated the metropoli-
tan billboards Sometimes single
line fortifes the reputation OF a
prestidigitator. Herman the Great
would have disappointed any audi
enoe had he neglected to say, in the
course of his magic. please look
very closely; as closely as you can
The more you look. the more you
don't sec something!
X
The latest arrival in the world of
magic or telepathy or psychic sense,
or whatever term may be used to
describe the entertainment, is Dun
ninger He was introduced by Man
ager Robbins to a group OF friends
at an informal luncheon, where &C
quaintances were so close and OBJ
servation so immediate that the use
Of a confederate was absolutely inn
possible.
Some of his demonstrations would
be most easily explained by an as
sumption of psychic gift. Alas, this
assumption has often been made
only to be dispelled as some new
method of delightful deceiving was
invented TO take the place of the old
as too many people came to know
lust how II was done. AS TO the
psvchic aspect of his performance
Dunninger makes no assertion. He
refuses to contradict any who insist
that his marvellous dongs would be
impossible by any methods other
than supernorma'. At any rate. he
has a brand-new line OF mysteries
TO show. and with Houdini, that
nervous. alert, pugnaClouS. genia
wonder-worker. leaving millions oi
people who mourn his passing. there
is an empty place in stage wizardry
TO be filled: a place which. OF course
could not possibly have been in con-
temptation when Dunninger was Sc
lected by the Keith people as the
magician of the hour.
Houdini's biography reveals some
Interesting facts not generally
known. though easily available. to
his admirers. His name was origi-
nallv Weiss. He began as a trapezt
performer and invented a diving suit
He was awarded the prize for being
the first successful aviator in Aus
tralia, and wrote and directed his
own scenarios for films. There is a
little local pride involved in noting
the fact that this city was the scene
OF almost the first. il not the very