The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1895, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 28, 1895. Fero CQoTrscHALK Rang A NAanKivE |t~ If the theater 1s a reflection of the real world, what a merry place this must be to live in. Melancholy can claim not a single San Francisco theater for her own. The comic side of the conventional theatrical mask seems to have spread over the drama’s mobile face till not even at Morosco’s is there any crime or sorrow or sin to speak of. There doesn’t seem to be any room in the stage world for villains just now, and the faults of theatrical char- acters this week have been such slight, pardonable ones that we may well con- gratulate . ourselves upon the prevailing tone of good-nature and general stage jollity. For we smile at the Baldwin, we laugh at the Columbia, we roar at the California. At the Baldwin one is transported into a fairy realm, where the women are beauti- ful and brave and strong, the men beautiful or brave or Tweenways; where, when a girl does get into trouble, a providential titled cousin and prospective husband appeases Mrs. Grundy before that excel- lent, strait-laced dame knows she has been offended; where the only barrier to eternal, idyllic, aristocratic felicity is the scarecrow of clothes and customs, about which the wind, Nature, dances for a time in wanton playfulness, and then changing from a zephyr to a whirlwind rushes for- ward, downing the thing of rags and sticks, and flies on with a whistle and a shriek, while the ladies Belturbet and their lovers three march gayly over the prostrate make-believe to a happy curtain. At the Columbia things are almost as lovely, though a little more earthly. *“The Jilt” has the gentle, kindly, Old World atmosphere of Lever, who couldn’t bear to be cruel. except perhaps to an English dandy or a clergyman. So the Reverend Spooner stumbles short-sightedly (and does it very well, too), on and off the stage, a survival of Restoration times when he stumbled through life—a pitiable, con- temptible sorrowful figure. But all of the rest of the peovle are happy and human. Lord Marcus Wylie is not a desperate villain and Daisy of Daisy & Co. is amen- able to gilt-edged argument. Of course, to make ‘“The Jilt'’ fully effec- tive requires a Boucicault or an Irished Emmet, who should possess a brogue as fetching as Fritz’s accent. But actors such as these, whose personality is so win- ning that one readily believes and shares in the trust and affection their presence creates among the other characters upon the stage, are rare; rare as genius, as Lyceum companies, as taste and tact are. Emmet with a song, a dance, a smile and a word or two could carry ascrundea ready- made play as was ever fitted to one man’s abilities. Boucicault could make of Myles O’Harz so lovable, so charming a char- acter that ail the women in the audience dreamily envied Kitty Woodstock her lover, and the men didn’t wonder why. Frawley hasn’t any of this charm. There is none of the champagne of genius in the bottle which he uncorks for the Columbia’s patrons. At times it has been beer, and flat at that, which he gave thera; but there was wine in the bottle last week, not of a surprisingly mellow, luscious quality, but zight good wine, fit to he served at any ordinary dinner, where a man makes no pretense of being a gourmet. Frawley uses a neat little accent, which becomes particularly effective when he becomes serious and sincere. His Myles O’Hara is a very pleasant sort of a fellow, a trifle stiff, as Frawley’s conceptions are aptto be, but interesting, natural and quite ac- ceptable. One would have the ‘‘gentleman rider’’ more of a sportsman and less of the quiet gentleman Frawley makes him. But Frawley's conception harmonizes with his acting. He is an ideal timid lover; a mod- | est opinion of his own, or rather O’Hara's, deserts accoras very well with the slight hesitancy of speech which Frawley so often uses and the trace of diffidence in his man- ner. His proposal to Kitty Woodstock was a model of its kind; his little soliloquy when he parts with his horse and his part- irg hint to Lord Marcus were excellent characteristic bits. He fails to suggest the kind of life that has made O’Hara a com- posite. There are no little touches to speak silently of the bohemian half of him, but he is a pleasing, kindly, sincere Miles O’Hara, if not a dashing and irre- sistible one. Katherine Gray is a beautiful woman with a low, very pleasant voice, with which she still quite unnecessarily experi- She doesn’t look like a jilt, she doesn’t act like one, and she gives one the impression that such a woman could not have enjoyed either the name or the game i But itis all past by the time v Woodstock appears on the scene, and Miss ( 1 the part of 2 loving wife very prettily. She is quiet and graceful, and at her best in the last act when she is makes confession to Sir Budleigh with that tender tone in her voice and that vretty dark 1 pent in repentance, Phosa Mc. ter had another opportu- t eek to prove herself an intelli- gent, able actress. Her Mrs. Welter was a very good little piece of work. Arbuckle was good last week. Osbourne, who is a favorite at the Columbia, played Lord Marcus Wylie with dignity and a clear idea of proportion, and the company as a whole is well cast and seen tc advantage in Boucicault’s comedy. When the California Theater manage- ment advertises “‘the second week and still crowded” it is telling the simple truth. 's “A Black Sheep” has filled the a two weeks. To judge by the on with which it has been re- ed it wil! probably play to good houses aining week. Its success or its vever, has nothing to do with dramatic art, for “A Black Sheep” is a blot among plays, unworthy of reforma- tion, the blackest of Hoyt!s flock, and his theatrical sheep roam o®r many ranges. There are occasional witty lines in the )¢ he kind of wit which is evidenced it a punning, labeling programme, and “Under the City Lamps.” there are a few good character sketches; but “A Black Sheep” is a crude little satire, which has for its three acts no more wit than would be necessary to carry a paragraph or a caricature in a comic paper. Its humor is that of the physical farce; the excruciating fun of blows, torn coats, swelled heads and blackened eyes. stage setting and the costuming are real- istic, and there are clever mechanical de- William Gillette, “Too Much Johnson.” tails which the experienced playgoer has learned to his sorrow foretell intellectual poverty. When Peter Dailey presented a well-arranged Bowery scene the audience understood that there was to be no plot to his play and no situations. It was a med- ley, which is all very well when there are clexer people,whose specialties make inter- The | esting scraps of character study, whose fun is funny, whose voices are worth lis- tening to, whose songs are new, whose dances are graceful and novel. But Otis Harlan in “A Black Sheep” is a cheap and very vulgar Peter Dailey, and Dailey isnot a miracle of refinement. And for a real- istic Tombstone barroom and an alcohol- bearing trolley which works the California audiences have bartered their birthright to Ferdinand Gottschalk, Lyceum Thea- ter Company. clean, bright entertainment. The inter- esting part of itis that they sit down to | this mess of pottage with as much appe- } tite as though there were nothing better to | be had. The thousands of people who have | listened to and enjoyed ‘A Black Sheep” prove one thing. Hoyt is, perhaps, nota man of overpowering intellect, but of much excellent common-sense. He has seen men and women behave like overgrown, thick-headed children, over whose intelli- | gence lies a caul of inherited and environ- | ment-cultivated stupidity. He has seen | his broad, rudimentary caricatures of peo- ple and situations dawn upon these lim- ited intellects with the force of mental dynamite, shattering the enveloping, dead- ening dullness and bringing a ray of light where all had been dark before; not a bright, informing ray, rather a dull, gross glimmer. But these people have actually seen the joke and exploded in mirth there- at. The half-blind man, who perceives the blurred, bare outhines of a stable, is as much entertained as is the artist before | whose discriminating eye the anatomy of | a tree is revealed in all the delicacy and completeness which nature has bestowed. This is the lesson Hoyt has learned—the | stage can be no higher than its patrons. He pretends to be no better than his mas- ter. He tells us frankly that he gives the public what it wants. One may smile at the crudity, the vulganty, the shallowness of this composition in dialogue, as he face- tiously calls it, but Hoyt laughs and laughs best at the patronage his plays re- ceive. ®. After all the proof of the theatrical pud- ding is in the eating of it. And because you don’t care for the heavy, hali-raw food i | shall your neighbor be compelled to dine from a menu of yourchoosing? Thereare people, many, many of them, to whom this coarse-grained dish isa dainty. Their childish, uneducated palates delight in the unpleasant mixture which adults in intel- ligence avoid. For ten men who fully appreciate the delicacy and the artistic strength of Froh- man’s company, the lightness and spirit of Fritz Williams, the. studied excellence of Ferdinand Gottschalk’s interpretation of aristocratic peculiarities, the modesty and intelligence of Bessie Tyree, there are a hundred in San Francisco and elsewhere whose faces are red with congested meri- ment, whose hands give out ear-splitting applause, whose feet beat upon the floor in unrestrained delight at the daintiness of Hoyt's exquisite conceit in making Hot Stuff playfully bite his lawyer’s ear and the latter retaliate with the delicate atten- ! tion of a kick. The Hayman Company is doing a very practical piece of business in running the | California for the kind of people whose | patronage of “A Black Sheep” attests the qualities in amusement which appeal to | their taste—or lack of it. There are men | and women, evidently, who think cab- | bages more beautiful than roses, squashes more ornamental than sweet peas, and turnips sweeter than violets. The Cali- | fornia is the Hayman Company’s kitchen | garden. May it thrive. It takes a mob of plebeian pleasure- seekers to support the aristocracy of thea- ter-goers; just as a nation of French serfs was necessary so tnat the Trianon Opera Company—that ethereal, sentimental com- pany of silly players with realities—might flourish in all its grace and polish. The difference is, of course, that intellectual beggary is not at all compulsory, and he who would cultivate his taste, improve mentally or morally, has the world before him where to choose. It takes many Cali- fornia Theaterfuls of ecstatic “ Black Sheep” audiences to enable the Baldwin management to give us a Sir Richard Kato or a Sir Joseph Darby. Every hand- clap. every burst of laughter which greets and applauds such a show as the one at the California enlarges our opportunities of enjoying intellizence and art upon the Baldwin stage. One sympathizes with the California—it is such a pretty theater to be given over to the mental sans-culottes, and it has seen better days—but, if one is not of the Moun- tain, he gives the pleasure of his appreci- ative presence and the profit of his dollar and a half to the Baldwin. MiriaM MICHELSON. Despite the endeavors of Theodore Dur- rant’s attorneys and the threats of Judge Murphy, the management of the Alcazar Theater advertises “The Crime of a Cen- tury” for next week. The manager de- | marti clares that should the courts enjoin the play the injunction will speedily be dis- solved and the curious public be gratified by the dramatized version of the Em- manuel Church murders. The play repre- sents Du Bois, the murderer, laboring under the influence of an evil spirit, Malus. “Malus,” says the programme, ‘‘must be considered not as a character in the play, but as an evil genius embodied in Du Bois, a part of the inner man. The love he bears his mother and sister is the one pure and redeemable trait of his otherwise totally depraved nature.” The play is by R. C. White, author of the “Evans and Sontag” melodrama. The part of Du Bois is advertised to be played by Morti- mer Snow, and Miss Mai Chapman will be Beatrice Lacomb. The Lyceum Company will present “An Ideal Husband” at the Baldwin next week, a play which has been very successful in London and New York. Itis a comedy of modern English life, very witty and epi- grammatic, but with less cynicism and more sentiment than other plays by the same author. Richard Chiltern is the ideal husband. He is a Cabinet Minister, rich, talented and respected as a man of unblemished honor. In the eyes of his wife he is ideal- ized; she believes him a man against whom no one can say anything. Chiltern in his youth was attached to the Viennese Embassy, and while there sold a state secret to a Jewish banker, thereby making for himself a fortune. It was his one sin and years of subsequent prosperity had led him to belicve this sin would never be dis- covered. In the height of his popularity, however, he finds his secret isin the hands of an enemy and is about to be disclosed. Katherine Florence, Lyceum Theater Company. The loss of his position and influence is not the greatest danger he fears, but that he has forfeited his wife’s esteem. Public exposure is averted, however, and Chil- tern’s wife, like other wives, forgives and forgets. “‘An Ideal Husband” will be given Mon- day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at the matinee. On Thursday and Saturday nights “The Wife,”” the old Lyvceum suc- cess, will be revived, and on Friday “The Case of Rebeilious Susan” will be repeated to give San Franciscans another oppor- tunity to enjoy the cleverest, completest, most_artistic performance that has been seen here for years. e ‘A Black Sheep”’ begins its last week at the California to-morrow night. Miss Hattie Wells will introduce her San Fran- cisco audiences to that latest Eastern nov- elty, the Trilby dance, in which the dancer’s feet are bare. * e The Frawley company will put on ey Ui P ity g1 'u““”“ vyl Ll L . Jhuag iy I 1l Lina Haenseler. Haworth’s picturesque naval drama, Ensign,” next week at the Columbia Thea- ter. Much attention has been given to the details of stage-setting, and the gundeck of a mar-of-war is one of the realistic scenes promised. President Lincoln fig- ures in a tableau, and Admizal Farragut and Captain Wilkes are among the charac- tersinthe play. . The action of the play takes place dur- ing the War of the Rebellion. In order to prevent Captain Wilkes from capturin, the Confederate Commissioners, a Britis| officer seeks a quarrel with a Xpung Amer- ican ensign, hoping that the difficulty will detain Captain Wilgke!‘ ship in the harbor. Lieutenant Blythe insults the American officer’s sweetheart, but a fight is avoided, till the Englishman tears down the flag from the American consulate, when the ensign kills him. The hero is court- ialed and sentenced to aeath, and he sabout to be hanged at the yardarm of the ship. when a pardon arrives from the President. e At the Tivoli ‘‘Maritana” will be the next opera, and all San Francisco will whistle and hum “In_Happy Moments” and ‘“‘Scenes That Are Bziggten” in conse- quence, A new prima donna contralto, Alice Carle, will make her debut Monday night in this City. Miss Carle has sung with the Boston Ideals, the Conreid and the Carle- Alice Oarle, Tivoli. *| Attorney.” s tized “Trilvy,"” are collaborating on a play for Manager Palmer. *‘Judith Shakespeare’ has been drama- tized into a one-act play. The management of one of the Paris theaters advertises a special room for bi- cycles. The one hundredth performance of Trilby was given in New York last week. The souvenirs were colored photographs of Virginia Harned mounted on glass. Sothern will open the New York Ly- ceum in August with “The Prisoner of Zenda.” Forbes - Robertson will produce a dramatized version of “Tess of the D’'Urbervilles” in London with Mrs. Pat- rick Campbell as Tess. Bernhardt’s new vplay “La Princesse Lointaine” was not a great success in England. The great Duse occupied a stage-box the opening night of the play. 'he new company which opens at_the Columbia on August 12 will include Rose Coghlan, Barrymore, Dixey, Stockwell, ‘William Beach and Maud Winter. They will play “Twelfth Night,’” ““A Man of the World,” “Nance Oldfield,” “The Rivals” and the New York success, “The District Later Dixev will present his new play, ‘“A Gentle Savage.” The Orpheum. The famous Jordan family—Lewis, Ma- mie and Rosa—will begin what promises to be & noteworthy engagement at the Orphe- um to-morrow evening. As aerial perform- NEW TO-DA ton opera companies and her voice and ability as an actress are expected to add much to the attractiveness of the Tivoli operas. Raffael will be Don Jose, Hart- man the eccentric Marquis de Montetiori, Irene Mulle the Marchioness, and Laura Millard will make an admirable Maritana. * " J. Jay Dowling commences the last week of his en&a%ement at Morosco’s on Mon- day in “Under the City Lamps,” a melo- drama, by Leander Richardson, editor of the Dramatic News. The most sensational incident in the play is the rescue from drowning of & young woman by the hero. A tank of huge dimensions will be used in this scene. The scenery has been specially painted from photographs and will be as effective and realistic as Morosco scener: always is. Mr. Dowling will play the lead- ing role of Arthur Penwick and will be supported by the entire stock company. * #¥x Herr Mathieu Pfeil will make his first appearance in this City to-night with the German Comedy Company at the Baldwin. The play will be “Two Happy Days.” Dramatic Paragraphs. William Gillette in his successful com- edy, “Too Much Johnson,” is the next at- traction at the Baldwin. It kept New Yorkers laughing for ten months. The California closes after next week’s run of “‘A Black Sheep.” For their last week at the Columbia Theater the Frawley Company will play ““All the Comforts ot Home'’ the first two nights, “The Arabian Nights” on Wednes- day and Thursday, “Young Mrs. Win- throp” Friday, “Moths’’ Saturday and the matinee and “The Senator,” which in- cludes the entire company, Sunday night. “Martha,” “The Royal Middy,” *‘Faust’’ and “The Tyrolean” will follow *‘Mari- tana’” at the Tivoli. Olga Nethersole’s American tour under the Frohmans’ management begins next October in New York. S8he will play “Camille,” “Romeo and Juliet’’ "and “Carmen,” which is founded on Bizet's opera. The Lyceum Company will not be seen here again for two years. Manager Morosco has not yet selected Forrest Seabury’s successor at the Grand Opera-house. t is now definitely settled that the great open-air performance of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” will be given under the auspices of and for the benefit of the Chan- ning Auxiliary of the Unitarian church. It is expected that Rose Coghlan, Henry E. Dixey, Maurice Barrymore, William Beach, L. R. Stockwell and other well- known professionals will assist in the per- formance. Beerbohm Tree is to play the role of Svengali when “Trilby” 1s produced in London. Antonin Dvorak is engaged on an opera, the libretto of which is founded on Long- fellow’s “Hiawatha.” Julia Arthur_has made a very favorable impression in London, where she is play- ing Rosamund to Irving’s Becket. Bill Nye and Paul Potter, who drama- TIVOLI OPERA-HOUSE Mrs. ERNESTINE KRELING Proprietor & Manage: LAST NIGHT- Melodious Opera, in Five Acts, NEW TO-DAY—AMUSEMENTS. Of Bal “SATANELLA” e OB THE POWER OF LOVE! ~——NEXT WEEK!—— “VMARITANAY First Appearance of ALICE CARLE, Prima Donna Contralto. Popular Prices—25c and 50c. ALCAZAR THEATER. W. R. DAILEY. Manager ——LAST NIGHT— GRACIE PLAISTHD! Monday, July 29th, “THE CRIME OF A CENTURY I” A Sensation Up to Date! No Law or Equity Can Prevent. Prices—15¢, 25¢, 350 and 50c. VILL THIS ONE KILL HIMSELF? CENTRAL PARK, SUNDAY, JULY 28th, At 3 o’clock. PROF. O. R. GLEASON WILL ATTEMPT TO TAME AND DRIVE ANOTHER MAN-EATING STALLION— o Accomplished Vaqueros, Bucking Bron- cos, and *‘Maud,’’ the Equine Queen, Admission 25¢, Reserved Seats 50c. WALTER MOROSCO....cceveenunee JOSEPH J. “UNDER THE EVENING PRICES—25c¢ and 50c; 8T N [&T D MRawey MOROSCO’S GRAND OPERA-HOUSE. The Handsomest Family Theater in America. =7 = — ers these artists are ranked among the “unequaled.” They inclnde in their act evolutions of a remarkable character. Lewis Jordan hasbeen an acrobat from his youth and possesses in an eminent degree the coolness, strength, celerity of movement aud rapidity of calculation requisite to meet the hazards of his calling. Mamie is a petite, pretty woman of beau- tiful form, and her movements in the air are grace itself. She and her consort per- form with ease a series of half and com- plete somersaults on bars that swing fully sixty feet apart, never making a mistake in their calculations by the fraction of a second. Rosa swoops down from a loity perch, turning a double somersault before grasping the hands of Lewis, whose tra- peze meanwhile is swinging with the regu- larity of a pendulum. Johnny Carroll, the clever character singer, Kennedy and Lorenz, the Marti- nettis, the Garnellas, the Bland sisters ana others complete a strong programme. Lithographers Elect Officers. Ataregular meeting held by the San Frane cisco Lithographers’ Mutual Benevolent Asso- clation the following officers were elected: President, M. J. Calnan; vice-president, P. Wilkinson; recording secretary, Charles M. roll; financial secretary, A.J. Troll; treas- urer, Fred Cost; marshal, J. J. McCormick; trustees—A. D. Bruening, J. P. McSweeney, J. M. Olsen. The association will give its first anni- versary ball at B'nai B'rith Hall on Saturday evening, August 10, -AMUSEMENTS. Sole Lessee and Manager. THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING, LAST PERFORMANUES OF CAPTAIN HERNE, U. S. A. MONDAY EVENING, JULY 29th, DOWILING In the Great New York Success, CITY LAMPS!” Family Circle and Gallery, 10ec. Matinees Saturday and Sunday. COLUMBIA FRIEDLANDER, GOTTLOB & CO. TEIE JIIT! TO- MORROW NIGHT EX 153 FOUR STUPENDOUS SCE; FIRST APPEA Double-deck Scene of U.S. Frigate Ha vana, Cuba, by Moonlight; President’s Room in W CE UF M THEATER. ..... <eveeve.. Lessees and Managers ILAST TIMIE. TO=INXIGEXLT TRE LAST GREAT LAUGHING FRAWLEY COMPANY SEASON. SUCCESS OF THE OF ALL GREAT PRODUCTIONS, THE GLORIOUS NAVAL DRAMA, I : Spar-deck of a U. 18 AND COV. NCORP'D MEATRE Y PROPS. TO-MORROW MONDAY, ——THIRD AND LAST WEEEK— DANIEL FROFMAN Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Nights and Saturday Matinee, ‘N IDEAL HUSBAND" By the Author of “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” Thursday and Saturday Nights—Only Times, “THE WIFE” Friday Night Only, “THE CASE OF REBELLIOUS SUSAN” Xozies, TOO MUCH JOHNSON! With WILLIAM GILLETTE and Original Company. FPRIEDLANDLR.GOTTLOD & o+ LESSES ATDMATAGERS -+ TO-NIGHT (SUNDAY) AS USUAL. TO-MORROW, MONDAY, JULY 29, LAST WEEIX FAREWELL PERFORMANCES OF — EBHOYT's— BLACK SHEEP AND OTIS HARLAN AS HOT SFUFF, FIRST TIME IN THIS CITY OF The Great Eastern Sensation, the TRILBY DANGE. TiILBY Quaint Dance. TRILBY As Du Maurier Wrote. ABSOLUTELY A NOVELTY. BALDWIN THEATER. EXTRA. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, THE IRRESISTIBLE COMEDY, TOO MUCH JOHNSON «+« . WITH.... WILLIAM GILLETTE AND THE ORIGINAL COMPANY e Which caused New York to laugh for a whole year. D@ The sale of seats will begin at the usual time, Thursday, August 1. BALDWIN—TO-NIGHT. The Conrled Comedy Company from the Irving-Place Theater in New York In tne Great Comedy Success, 2 HAPPY savs. |2 GLUECKLICHE TAGE ‘With Original New York Cast. A Carnival of Laughter! Splendid Mise-en-Scene! ——Next Sunday, August 4 “DER WEISSE HIRSCH !} Box-office opens at 11 . M. to-day. O'Farrell su?e:. Between Stockton and Powell MATINEE TO-DAY (SUNDAY), JULY 28, Parquet, any seat, 25¢; Balcony, any seat, 100) Children, 10c, any part of the house. A Great Array of New Artists! NEW ACTS! STARTLING NOVELTIES § NNIE_CAREOLL, Jun’l‘u]fi BLAND THE GAL CME FOUR, WHITNEY BROS., THE ANNEDY and LORENZ, > MUHLEMANN TRIO, LES FRERES MARTINETTI, Etc. RUNRING RUNNING RACES ! % RACES CALIFORNIA JOCKEY CLUB RACES, SPRING MEETING! BAY DISTRICT TRACK. Races Tuesday, Wednesda Friday and Saturday. n or Shis Five or more races each day. Racesstartat 2:30 P. 3. sharp. McAllister and Geary street cars pass the gate. —_— ey PICNICS AND EXCURSIONS. Thursday, EL CAMPO, THE POFULAR BAY RESORT, OPEN EVERY SUNDAY DU o Dancing, Beuline, heating, Flshing and Masic, Dancing, Bowling, Boating, Fishing an mh:rlx'mu-emenzs. Refivuhmanu‘u City Prices. Fare, round (fln.d 25¢: children, 15¢, including admission to grounds. ORI S TEAMER UKIAR ‘Will leave Tiburon Ferry 10:30 A. M., 12:10. 2: and 4:00 p. x. Returning leave El Campo at 113 A, 1:00; 500 and 6:00 P, 3 y )