The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-07-02
BY JOSEPH MITCHELL
Times stan Writer

DAAS We~o OA(OSobA ~ VAC AASAAO 0AANA
sinister siren of Egypt.
The spectators applauded, and
the tumultuouS Sarah Bernhard
stood up, held to the shoulders
of two young actors, and bowed.
She never took a step. She did
not want the audience to see her
limp.
That said Harold Seton, dean
of Manhattan'S f1rst-nighters,
was the most pathetic scene I
ever saw in a theater.
THE divine Sarah in her last
hour on the American stage was
tragic as the Greeks were tragic.
She revived Cleopatra and Nine.
x for the reverent ones of Man
haitian.
Then she went back to Paris
to die. An aged woman, dream
ing of the past. I went to first
nights for a quarter century, but
this was the most pathetic scene
I ever saw
But it SaddenS me to think Of
it. 1 rather would recall the most
preposterous performance I ever
saw. The Cherry sisters at Ham
merstein's old Victory theater.
They we're so bad they were ex-
tremely popular.
Instead of firing the sisters, the
managers stretched net across
the proscenium and allowed them
to go on and sing and recite to
their hearts content.
"Rowdies hurled vegetables and
eggs at them, but very few of the
missiles slipped through the net.
AS long as they were bad, they
were paid. Each night they be-
came worse.
A ND other crazy plays I re-
l. n member with pleasure are
the sensational melodramaS of
the '90s. The ones with trick
1uCC1AdulCdL eIleCCS.
THE County Fair" had a horse
race on a treadmill, and another
had a mill saw which was stopped
in the nick of time from killing
the heroine. remember AL
Woods early production, Queen
of the White Slaves and 'Ber-
tina, the Sewing Machine Girl
and Nelly, the Beautiful Cloak
Model They explain themselves.
Il have been told that Mr..
Woods would first get a lot of
spectacular posters and then hire
a writer, any kind of a writer, to
construct a play around the
posters.
Billboard advertising was an
important part of the show bust
ness in those days.
owen Davis, a young gentle
man from Harvard, made a lot
OF money writing these melo-
dramas. I saw many of his plays,
including Driven From Home
and The Gamblers Daughter
and Her One False Step
One of his flashy melodramas
stands out in my mind because
the two leading roles were played
by actresses from higher class
productions. 1t was The Great
Diamond Robbery in which
Blanche Walsh was the heroine
and the venerable Polish star,
Nine. JanauSchek, was Mother
Rsenbaum, disheveled old re-
ceiver of stolen goods.
NEISS WALSH, who later
Iva starred in Resurrection in
which there was a heart-stirring
prison scene, had been born in
old Tombs prison. Her father
was the warden.
When the famous FANNY Day.
export was aged and stout, a
great theatrical scandal was Gre
ated when her handsome young
husband, Melbourne Mcdowell.
toured in the Davenport repertoire
with Blanche Walsh as his leading
lady. He took all his wife's plays
and gave her parts to Miss
Walsh.
Road circuits in the nineties
covered the length and breadth of
the United States. Following
successful Broadway runs, the
more sturdy of the stage people i'm
mediately packed up scenery and
departed for Illinois, Texas and
Louisiana.
Many of them visited Australia.
Blanche Walsh, Nat Goodwin,
Maxine Elliott, Andrew Mack and
William Collier, with the young
John Barrymore in the company.
are a few principals who made
Australian tours.
"Kyrle Bellew co-starred with
Mrs. James Brown Potter, not only
in the United States, but in Aus
tralia and the Orient.
Actors were travellers in those
days. Mrs. Potter, who had been
Cora Urquhart, society beauty in
New Orleans, before marrying a
nephew of the dour old Bishop
Potter Of New York, now lives il
retirement on the Riviera.
She is the mother of the for
mer Fiji Potter, who divorced
James A. Stillman and now is
married to Fowler Mccormick.
In the COS, when I was in nv
prime as a flrst-nighter, the pop
ular theaters we're Days, the En-
pire, the Casino, the Madison
Square, the Broadway, the Ly-
ceum and Palmer's, as we'll as the
lower-priced Star and Tony Pas
tors.
The best seats were $50.
Later, they were put at 81. After
that the scale began to rise and