The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 6, 1903, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY., DECEMBER 6, 1903. \ y have been “nuts™ for me to boy there, in small y i have been ple ¥ rge boy there, s be w say in pieful way. The though Herschel Mayall ns any pull with the car- » was much room for the artist, and ittle 6x10 dress. to chat oh! b the gallery gallery that whisties and sizzles the tres- hiss of him is heard he nto the City Hall! the gallery s ‘with b in distress, kles with the s giggles with adores mag- conquering n short, of the Cen- but abov servedly e reader, it would have oyed me for the ghliery of a hundred fights— bunch of and pably de- e small woman. ¥ and reverently of the ppress. Mr. Mayail th a chest swelldom he's wn up to, all but trembling He told me so himself al- tely And, alack-a-day, s not there to hear! Naturaily Mayall, an erst- , Petronius, Mer- it. But the t art of being inter- the Central s padded chair, 3 disguise in which he runs down the counterfeiters ek. As seriously as he tak he took the ng handling of els get used to elsarte said that there ways of putting the i each one looks differ- as saying. “I'm quite r mercies, Mr. Maya mis and then the lady— t teil the truth s Jook so different in Don't tell me you have sinned— zallery boy!” 1 implored \osphere yonder reeks with showed his handsome smile and slowly ured: “I think it would be best if ; asked me questions and let me an- em a slow vent ittle Q's and A's down the L Twould be original,” I re- but a littie formal.” usually do?" Oh re’s anything an actor is particularly interested in—the National Theater, for example—ask him about that. Then his theories of his art, his history and so on are always interest- ing ke to With you, for example, I should know how you come to be play- tral melodrama?” are three things I dislike,” the id then, in a sort of I-had-al- orgotten-it way, “going to the dentist's, having my photograph taken and- eing interviewed.” T've heard it be- He nodded his remarkably .shapely head in affirmation and volunteered: 1 was once interviewed by a girl in Cincinnati and didn’t know it. She was a friend of mine, and we went to the theater together one day. Naturally, I talked about the show and the acting, and next Sunday it all came out in the paper. 1 didn’t even know that she was a journalist. But that was just the right kind of interview.” “That seems to me a rather impossi- ble sort of thing to do—"" “We were schoolmates,” the actor explained. “But do you find that peo- ple will talk freely with that before them ?”"—my inch of pencil. “Frankly, Mr. Mayall, I think people will talk on the fascinating subject of themselves with anything before them. 1 get toe much, not too little, usually, of heart-to-heartiness. In fact, I'm a more or less discreet filter. Gosse says, ‘tell everything you can,’ in a chapter on the ideal blographer. Interviewing is something the same, don't you think 7" “I love you for myself alone!” Some- thing like this in stentorian tones from the nearby stage luckily broke up the interviewing talk, and Mr. Mayall smiled naturally and said: “It's Shu- mer—Henry Shumer—our villain, and, curious to say, the jolliest fellow in the world off the stage.” “Does that seem curious to you?" ““Well, it seems to me that if you are in love -with your art you must carry away the atmosphere of what you are playing,” the actor advanced. “I re- member—] was talking about it only the other day to Jack Maher at the Al- cagar—when I first played Sir Bryce Skene in ‘The Masqueraders.” I was wandering round with a polished frown and my hands in my pockets all day. Then when I played Mephisto here a while ago I went around making cut- ting, sarcastic remarks.” “Impossible!” T cried. “But do you know there is quite an opposite the- from yours? Miss Constance Crawley of the ‘Everyman’ ‘company told me of Beerbohm Tree's experi- ence—or rather his wife's. Mrs. Tree when her husband was play- the stage he was sinful . that when he was e villain he was perfectly home—‘angelic’ was the That is not my experience,” the actor said thoughtfully. ory “You would be almost a ‘holy ter- ror’ at home just now if I laughed. v comes it that you are playing ‘do or dle’ heroes?” ‘Well, I had never had a melodra- matic experience for one thing,” Mr. Mayall began, unconsciously throwing out his chest. *“Then again, they pay excellent salaries here.” You like it?” “Sometimes. This week I have quite a little opportunity of character- ization in ‘The Counterfeiters” It's not a bad thing. You've seen ‘Sher- lock Holmes?' Not such a far cry from that.” “But, Mr. Mayall, after Eilert Lov- borg. Mercutio, Mephisto and such like—" Oh, well,” and for a few moments Mr. vall talked “not for publica- He ended up with: “Ashton ens paid me a compliment I val- most highly when he said I would play a thousand colorless parts Ste ued without condescension or shirking. Of course, one does get many and many a bad part and has to swallow one’s pride to play them.” it's due to the audience to »st,” I remarked. ‘“Morgan low much of his when he The White Heather'—do you remember? And that Romeo of his! You had many good people down at the Grand Opera-house in vour day, by the way.” “Joseph Haworth one of the finest,” rall heartily subscribed. “He was f the most unselfish men I ever met, kindness itself, and such a Ham- I enjoyed thoroughly my experi- ence with him.” “What parts do you like best your- self 7" “Deep down in my soul,” and this was in the actor's deepest, warmest note—and I know of no finer voice going than the Mayall organ—“I would likk to have remained in trag- edy.” “And why not?” “Hardly pays these days. And then—" the would-be tragedian mod- estly paused, “well, if I could con- vince myself that I could be I should want to be. But as—" “As you can't convince yourself you could be, you don't want to be—" “Thank you,” he laughed, “exactly. I personally geveled in the part of Ma- rio in ‘La Tosca.’” That's not saying at all that I played it well, though. Mer- cutio I'm very tond of, and Eilert Lov- borg. But it quite frequently happens that we don’t play well what we like best. And vice versa. Here's a very emall instance. This week I havé to adopt three disguises, and I'd never done anything like one of these parts, an Italian peddier. I was nervous about it, didn’t want to do it, but—well, it isn't & failure. Now, I suppose you will make all sorts of fun of me for this on Sunday—and you—" to the artist. “Heaven forbid!” I said. “Consclence is too valuable a commodity to be made fun of, even in disguise.” The artist answered by passing over his sketch. Mr. Mayall threw up his hands when he saw it, with that characteristic lit- tle pout on his classic features. Then he made the following unique request: “Oh, can’t you take something off those shoulders? It makes me look so—" “Chesty?” supplied the artist. “Really—" “Really, they are quite broad, Mr. Mayall,” I protested. “What is your chest measure?—as a defens But he would not say. I might have been asking an ingenue her age, or a prima donna her weight. I ventured again: “Were you always—that way?" “No, I used to be a puny litle wisp of a chap until 14 and thereabouts. My father sent me to school in Maine then —that was the only place for education, he thought—and I determined to get a good body there—" listen, little chap of the galleries. “So I went to the gym- nasium regularly, and well—don't put this down—I won an all-round cham- pionship in athletics before I left there. I've a bunch of medals at home.” “Your voice, too?” “Yes, I earned that, also. It was very bad and weak when I began. One thing, you know, seems strange to me. We train horses, dogs and cattle to be strong and fine and stop at our- selves. Mostly it's laziness, I think.” “Do you do much now in the way of training?” “Every morning, mostly, and some- times evenings. I feel”—and My. May- all shrugged his fine shoulders uncom- o B T — F B | | HERSCHEL MAYALL. THE LEADING MAN AT THE CENTRAL THEATER, TALKS OF HIS BOYHOOD, HIS START IN LIFE AS AN ACTOR, HIS AMBITIONS, AND THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A HERO IN LURID MELODRAMA. S s - g fortably as he sald {t—"T feel wrong all day if I don't.” “For how long?" “Oh, perhaps fifteen minutes, dumb- bells—light—and Indian clubs. I ride horseback every chance I get, too. But walking Is excellent exercise.” “When did you begin to want to be an actor?” I asked then. “I had my first feeling of ‘stage- struckness’ when I saw John McCul- lough in ‘Virginius.’ 1 was only a little chap and I had gone up Into the gal- lery with some other kids. It all seemed so wonderful, and when the curtain went up eight or nine times and Mc- Cullough came out I gave up wanting to be a detective right there and began to want to be an actor. Then I learned there was a gentleman named Shakes- peare and 1 began to spout. I remem- ber once getting up in an old tree when I was at school and shouting out Marc Antony’s speech for all 1 was worth. When I got through making the welkin ring I saw an old Yank leaning on a spade looking at me. He said: “‘If you ain’t crazy, your folks ought to take you home and do some- thing for you.”” “What did your people say, by the way, to your going on the stage?™ “Took it very philosophically. My uncle's family, however,” and the actor laughed at the remembrance, “got up a gort of round robin to ask ‘'me to change my name so as not to bring disgrace on the family.” “It {s your own name, though?" “Yes, but I've left out a James—I sign my checks H. J. Mayall.” “May you have many to sign.” “Well, I've been earning a liberal salary for some years and I've no very extravagant habits,” he smiled. “I like to bet on a horse race once in a while —I was born in Kentucky. - Talking of horse races, that was a clever illusion in ‘Ben-Hur'—the chariot race. Dan- gerous, though.” . “How s0?” “Oh, both horses and men were in constant danger through a single false step on that treadmill arrangement.” “You have plenty of dangers to en- counter on the Central stage,” I sald then. “Yes, but nobody ever gets hurt. They have a splendid curps of stage hands here. If they hadn't—" “If they hadn't it wouldn’t be so safe to lie lashed to a burning deck or to jump from a sky-scraper—" : “Or_ fling the villain from a balloon to the earth below,” Mr. Mayall added. “No, ‘twouldn’t. I had to fling Mr. Shumer from a balloon the other week to a vast abyss below—six feet, on a soft mattress. That was easy enough. But he used to lie there and make faces £t me, and if 1 hadn't pretty good facial control I should surely have laughed.” “Do you think the ethical effect of the tank drama a good one?” “On the gallery, I certainly do,” Mr. Mayall declared. “You see, virtue is always rewarded and vice punished here. And if you could’hear the way in which every little bit of virtuous sentiment s applauded, and vice hissed! I think it appeals to the ele- mental good that is in all young hearts.” “The artists say that all bad art is immoral.” “What do they mean?” “Possibly that art must, first of all, be truth, seen through some prism of genius, or else its ultimate effect will be immoral. We know that virtue is not always rewarded and that the wicked flourish like the green bay tree not seldom, and, further, that the bad are neither so purely bad nor the good so wholly good as In the average melodrama—ergo, that the picture of life it presents is false. It seems to me, Mr. Mayall, that you are interviewing me! “It won't on Sunday,” he said rue- fully. “But perhaps the usual melo- drama may be taken as a rough sort of symbolism, fitted to the simpler mind.” “Maybe,” I agreed. “But now, may we return to your history? You stopped with spouting Marc Antony's speech for the inappreciative Yankee.” “Well, my first experience on the stage was while I was at the univer- sity. Booth and Barrett came to town for a week and I suped with them. carried spears and things. I succeeded in making myself obnoxious to Mr. Barrett—nosing about the wings—and in getting a few kind words from Mr. Booth.” “And after that?”’ ' “Then I went barnstorming. My first week I shall never forget. I learned six long parts in-one week! At the sixth my brain gave out. You see, I could sleep only a couple of hours each night. They were to give me $6 a week and board. I got the board.” “How did you get home?" “I had a good father,” the actor put it. “But you will understand with that sort of thing as a starter that the work I have now does not seem excessive.” “And then came?” -“More barnstorming. I virtually barnstormed for four years. Most ac- tors have dcne it and most are ashamed of it. I don’t see why. Every one must have a start. Of course, one gets into bad habits, but with a good stage man- ager you soon get out of them.” “Your voice, you always had that— no, I forgot,” I recalled. “It was really a bad, weak volce when I began,” the actor repeated in its pleasant depths. ‘I studied sing- ing for it and the ordinary elocution- ary exercises. No, when I was at the university I sang once—only once—at a small function. In the report of it in the college paper, the Ariel, they sald: ‘Swans sing before they, die; it would be a good thing if some people . died before they sang.’ I never sang again.” 5 “And now after the barnstorming?” “I have been mostly in stock since then, four years at Pike’s Theater in Cincinnati, and I have been almost three here. San Francisco is the hard- est public to please I ever came across,” he sald, suddenly expansive. “I sup- pose I shouldn’t say that. In other places if you make successes in threé or four good parts you are established. Here you have got to be on your mettle all the time. You can’t rest on your ‘audiences. oars a moment. Perhaps that is why it is so good to be here.” “And you stay.” “Perhaps it is a bit of doggedness in me—I want to win them yet.” “I thought you had,” I said, and bowed as I put up the terrible pencil. And Mr. Mayall pleaded as we went down the spacious foyer: ‘You will make those shoulders less?” Some of the Plays to Be Presented at Local Theaters Winter has set in at the Columbia with “Way Down East” and its realis- tic snowstorm as the bill. The play is getting good houses and is pleasing its Next week Lulu Glaser comes in “Dolly Varden,” one of the most successful musical comedies of the last few seasons. The music of “Dolly Varden"” is the work of Julian Edwards and is con- sidered of more than usual merit. It is bright and qainty and fits well to the book of Stanislaus Stange. Miss Glaser appears to special advantage in the comic opera and surrounding her are a number of exceptionally talented comedians and singers. & e e The local burlesque, “I O TU,” at Fischer’s, by H. J. Stewart and Judson C. Brusle, is cramming the house. The whole cast shows to excellent advan- tage in the burlesque, and its timely fun is creating a whirlwind of laughter nightly. Seats are on sale two weeks ahead. e e The Alcazar produces a play new to San Francisco to-morrow evening in “A Royal Prisoner,” a Russian ro- mance. S At “For Mother’s Sake,” a rural drama with Marie Heath, the “Little Sun- beam,” in the principal role, is the week’s menu at the Grand Opera-house, It opens this afternoon. RIS e “Yon Yonson” will open to-night at the California. Nelse Ericksen does the emigrant Swede, and there is the usual quartet. e Be “The Counterfeiters” of to-night and this afternoon at the Central will give way to-morrow evening to a new thrill- er in “New York Day by Day.” e eiw The Orpheum has a promising list of mewcomers for this week's Bill. o e The Chutes are prospering with a varied programme in the big theater and the usual attractions. g Clyde Fitch's clever play, “The Girl With the Green Eyes,” will be pre- sented here for the first time when Clara Bloodgood makes her appearance at the Columbia Theater in the latter part of this month. Miss Bloodgood is considered one of the most fascinating and brilliant of American stars and in the Fitch play her efforts are entirely successful ( ZIUSIC . be heard to unusual advantage. The first concert to be given in the Greek Theater at Berkeley will take place on Wednesday afternoon next at 2:30 o'clock, when Manager Will Green- baum has arranged for a concert in aid of the establishment of a musical and dramatic fund at the university by the Ellery Royal Italian Band. San Fran- ciscans should take the 1 or 1:30 boat. The programme planned will be ex- ceptionally fine, and as the accustics of the building are perfect the band will The price of seats has been set at the low figure of 50 cents each in order to in- duce out-of-town people to visit this most remarkable building of the State. It has been arranged that in case of rain the concert will be given in the gymnasium building of the university. Tickets can be secured at Sherman, Clay & Co.’s. " (e i The Royal Italian Band will begin to- night a return engagement at the Al- hambra Theater, when the following programme will be given: “March of the Drums” (Chiaffarell); overture, “Fanciulla Delle Asturia” (Secechi): clarinet solo, “Adagio e Tarantelle” (Cavallini), Sig. Decimo; “Mazurka de Concert” (Pepe); fantasie, “La Tosca™ (Puccini); waltz (De Angelis); Siberian Scenes (Marengo); polka, ‘Loretta” (Chiaffarelli); finale act three, “La Giaconda” (Ponchielll). > e e Mrs. L. Snider-Johnson will give a song recital on the evening of Tuesday, December 8, at the Y. M. C. A. Audito- rilum. The programme consists of classic and standard songs and includes two arias from the works of Von Web- er and Tschaikowsky. Mrs. Johnson is the well-known so- prano of the First Congregational Church of this city, and has been often heard since her concert debut last Feb- ruary. ‘ Dr. H. J. Stewart will assist and Miss Kathleen Parlow will give two violin numbers. o aTe Here is the list, unavoidably left over from last Sunday, of the artists who since its opening in 1879 have heiped to make the old Tivoli famous: Musical directors—T. Homeyer, M. Navone, E. Schmidtz, Luscum Searelle, George Loesch, Gustav Higrichs, J. H. Dohrmann, Richard Stahl, W. W. Furst, Max Hirschfeld, Adolph Bauer, Joseph Hirschbach, Carl Martens, Paul Stein- dorff. Stage managers—M. Bachrack, F. E. Brooks, Al Hendersen, Harry Jates, R. C. Lloyd, Fritz La Fontain, W. G. Coventry, Walter Craven, Robert Evans, Rochester, James O. 'Barrows. Charles M. Pyke, Fred Urban, I. W. Norcross Jr., John E. Nash, George E. Lask, Joseph Witt. Names of artists who have appeared at the Tivoli Opera-house: Miss M. Neville, Miss Edith Wood- thorpe, Miss Hattle Moore, Miss Le Fevre, Miss Ethel Lynton, Miss uvoulse Lester, Miss Louise Leighton, Signora Sepelll, Signora Sordelll, Miss Helen Dingeon, Miss Laura Clement, Miss Tel- lula Evans, Miss Kate Marchi, Miss Ber- tle Crawford, Miss Louise Manfred, Miss Mamie Taylor, M#ss Dora Wiley, Signora Ida Valerga, Miss Alice Galliard, Miss Belle Thorne, Miss Ida Mulle, M Ada Somers, Miss Hattie Delaro, Miss Emily Soldene, Miss Louise Royce, Miss Alice Vincent, Miss Tillie Salinger. Miss Fanny Hall, Miss Gracie Plaisted, Miss Lena Salinger, Miss Grace Vernon, Miss Lizzie Annandale, Miss Fannie Liddiard, Miss Carrie Roma, Miss Alice Nielsen, Miss Carrie Godfrey, Miss Laura Mil- liard. Miss Alice Carle, Miss Mabella Baker, Miss Emily Melville. Richard Valerga, Henry Norman, Max Figman, C. M. Pyke, Willlam H. Hamil- ton, Robert Dunbar, Ferris Hartman, John J. Raffael, Ferdinand Schutz, Mar- tin Pache, George Broderick, Francis Powers, Thomas Leary, W. F. Roches- ter, James Kelly, James O. Barrows, Willlam H. West, Fred Emmerson Brooks, Frank Roraback, Fred Borne- man, Tom Casseli, Harry Peakes, Fred Lennox, H. W. Frillman, Mons. A. L. Guille, M. Connell, Al Hendersen, Harry Gates, Harry de Lonne, H. Rattenbery, Wilmot Eckert, Signor Baldanza, Signor Villani, Signor Parolini, Signor Campo- bells, Edward Knight, Edwin Stevens, Stanley Felch, Arthur Messmer, War- wick Ganor, Miro del a Motta, Frank Riddale, George Olmi, Frank Pearson, Philip Branson, Melville Stewart, A. W. F. McCollin, Thomas Ricketts, John E. McWade. & Nina Bertini Humphreys, Fernando Michelena, Maurice de Vries, Madame Natall, Miss Bernice Holmes, Rhys Thomas, Sig. Abramoff, Elvia Crox Sea- brooke, Josie Intropidi, Maurice d'Arcy, Dennis O’'Sullivan, Myra Morella, Selma Kronold. Katherine Fleming, William Sig. Ludovico Viviani, Effle Florence Wolcutt, Helen Mary Linck. Anna Liehter, Edgardo Zerni, Willlam Schuster, Sig. Wanrell, Mary Brandis, Willlam Pruett, Annie Meyers, Gerald Gerome, Miss Charlotte Beckwith, Ada Palmer Walker, Tom Green, Sig. Fernando Avedano. Gaudenzio Salassa, Vincenzo Fornari, Alfred C. Wheelan, Frances Graham, Alessandro Nicolinl. Vittorio Repetto, Dominico Russo, Lia Poletini, Barran Berthold, Miss Estefano Collamarini, Emanuel Castellano, Nici Barbareschi, Miss Mand Williams, Edward Webb, Ar- thur Cunningham, Agusto Dado, Linda Montanari, Giluseppe Agostini, Harry Cashman, Harold Gordon, Emelio d'Al- bore. Pilade de Paoli, Mary Welch, Pietro Venerando, Michele de Padova, Ines de Frata, Tina de Spada, Marie Pozzi, Zelie Mertens, Stewart, Merrill, FOL de Lussan, George Tennery, Camiils d'Arville, Adelina Tromben, Lina de Benedefto, Clio Marchesini, Emanuel Ischierdo. Alfredo Tedesch!, Adamo Gre goretti, Giuseppe Zaninj, Baldo Travag- lint. Mrs. Fiske's Play Strengthened by the Fine Stage Pictures One critle, who has written much in praise of Mrs. Fiske's acting as the Magdalen In “Mary of Magdala,” in which this famous artist will be seen in this city, and of the production it- self, puts much in little by saying that the representation—aside from Mrs Fiske's wonderful acting and the ex ceptional support she receives one of the best companies ever organ ized in this country—presents “five acts of flawless stage pictures.” The scenes of this drama, as Mrs, Fiske has pro- duced it, are sald, as they are su sively unfolded, to represemt pic from as perfect as though magnified from the canvases of great masters of painting. It is not only the beauty of the scenes themselves, which enlisted the best talent to be found In their compogjtion, but also the added beauty and harmony of fit furnishings, and as much as anything else, the wonderfu accurate and picturesque costuming that gives to the scenes as they peopled the aspect of actual Oriental life. are P When Mansfield appears at the Co- lumbia Theater this season he will probably not only appear in “Heidel burg” but alo in his contemplated play; “Ivan the Terrible i e N Nat Goodwin is in Boston with “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” The Silver Slipper” has made a big hit Philadelphia. E. H. Sothern and “The Proud Prince” are in Baltimore. Den man Thompson is playing a special Boston engagement. Mrs. Lantry ap- pears at Cincinnat! this week. Wil- Ham Gillette and “The Admirable Crichton” are in New York. Louis James and Frederick Warde are play ing through the South. David War- fleld is in Brooklyn this week ine Elliott still entertains New “Her Only Way."” “The “Billionaire is at Philadelphia. ———— A World’s Parliament. It was only 700 years ago from the authorization of trial by jury in land disputes in England till private war was wholly abolished in England, and the Parliament which did this came into existence 100 years after trial by jury was authorized. Already the na- tions have authorized trial by jury in all controversies. Remembering when wager of battle was abolished the coun- ty seats in England were farther froin London than the capital of the natio: now are, it is hard to escape from the conclusion that an international Parilla- ment will come into existence as Eng- land’s Parliament did, much more speedily as time for travel and com- munication diminishes, and that this Parliament will do, in say 100 years under twentieth century conditions, what it took the English Parllame 600 years to do under ancient c tijons. But whether this reformation according to the nineteenth century revelation in political affairs takes 100 or 200 years for its realization, it seems almost proved that the world will be included in this union when it is formed.—Gunton’s Magazine. R SO S e ¥ Eloquence as an Investment. ‘Webster Davis is an example of how poor a thing is eloquence as a perma- nent investment. A few years ago ‘Webster was recognized by friend and foe as one of the finest spellbinders, at a time when “spellbinding” was at its highest worth. He dropped public speaking, and now he is only known to fame as a builder of apartment houses. It is in that eonnection his name gets into the papers occasionally, and even that is with a streak of mel- ancholy reflection on what might have been. It is only occasionally that we hear now from Charles A. Towne, who hag been drowned in oil. And mapy lesser lights In oratory are lost in the sea of commercialism. Prosperity is not an unmixed joy. It is sad in its discouragement of brilllant oratory on the hustings. Speech-making is not a good cash in- vestment. The “stumpers” usually have to take their pay in trade. Some- times, indeed, they have as pay only the hope of office or preferment in the future.—Cincinnati Enquirer. B e — French Warn Germans. PARIS, Dec. 5—The constant mili- tary maneuvers of the German army corps near the French frontler are causing considerable friction between the French and German Governments, as French citizens are complaining that German troops invade French ter- ritory and recklessly trample down the fields. The incident of the German mili- tary balloon carrying Captain Hugo von Abercorn and three other army officers into French territory made sev- eral French generals suspect the Gen man officers of spying.