Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-09
Delightful Pages Turned in
Playhouse Picture Book.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.
In Loose AzkMes~ Earle

TN turning back the pages of
the years, the theater reveals
many touches of lightSome
= fancy associated with the
name Of Victor Herbert. His
rhythmS have inspired many
Broadway poets to dexteritieS Of
phrase. At the moment of their
utterance such rhymes seemed so
natural that they are absorbed
into recollection without even a
thank you" to the patient scribe
who laboriouSly put his Pegasus
through eccentric PAGES as direct
ed by the leader Of the band.
y y y
The author of Babes IN Toy
land" is not now made coiaspicu-
Gus in the hamboyant red and
black Typography Of the window
display cards. A guess, which
may call for corrections by some
Scrapbook guardian of the past,
Is that the author was Glenn
MacBonoHgh, youth (hiS type is
always young in SPIRIT who apol-
ogized often for turning out so
much material that affronted his
own critical sense. He quoted the
old English proverb, Needs must
when the devil drives"
The touch Of childhood inter-
est is always fraught with SYM
pathetic charm for playgoers of
all ages. The tinSel and gauze Of
the Christmas spectacle has de-
nopfaI f1a0v,a &IaA
COLLINS, demons and fairies had
decided to abandon one Of their
favortte trysting sports when the
old flicker Of oil or gas which left
crannies Of mysterious shadow
was replaced by the sharp relent-
less glow Of the electric light. It
is probably only a coincidence
that the uncompromiSing modern
illumination has stimulated a de-
mand for realism in all branches
of play productions; including the
musical spectacle which, in its
measurements of graceful human
proportion, has become perhaps
the most realistic Of all forms Of
theater display.
*&#A
The persistent assertion Of ju-
venile influence may yet lead to
a revival of the ancient classic OF
which "Humpty-Dumpty" was the
hero. The assumption seems to
be that when he fell OF the wall
where the bills were posted, he
crashed like the perSonif1ed egg
in the fable and could never be
put together again. Yet there
were "Hunpty-Dumpty" interpre-
terS-Tony Denier and half a
dozen otherS-who were proud OF
their special talents and main
tanned the pride of friendly rival
ny. The biSmuth of complexion
and the vermilion lines Of face
have been left to the circus clown.
He has an honorable ancestry,
descended from the Italian fam
lily of Sacramouche, with close re-
lationship to the Pierrot OF
France.
But Pierrot is now left outside,
patiently singing Eau clair de la
lune," to a tickle public that re-
fuses to open the doors OF the
theater.
IL Is TO the 1nCeIIecLudI CTeQIC OF
play patrons that Shakespeare,
whose direct appeal was to the
populace, in terms OF melodrama
and what in his day was doubtless
called buffoonery, outlives the
tricks and toys that were dangled
before the eyes of the susceptible
grounding.
It is in Shakespeare that the
immortality of great poetry as
serts itself in superiority to story
telling ingenuity. 1t is very ably
contended that the plots are often
quite mechanical affairs, not al
ways running with sufficient
smoothness to satisfy the exact
ing standards In this peculiarly
mechanistic era. But the Shake
spearean world is peopled with
true humanity, with motives good
or bad, but never Indifferent, and
they are companions never en-
tirely to be lost, even though their
careers at times become more or
less entangled in a wilderness Of
:, Imagination. A worshiping public
does not value them the less be-