The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 11, 1904, Page 19

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N FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1904. WITH THE PLAYERS And t peace, fluttering a dozen, a score, ¥ knew—afterwar i not see (andante seen by—even d d Y e Bellew! shouldn't I sigh? v a girl gets the chance ole blocks and a half arring the half, I WILL be Romeo? It happened this The unearthly hour of 10 o'clock sday morn California Hotel was the T nearthly hour of 10 of the clock was also set fer the Knights Templar parade. I had seen gay, ex- citing bifts of pageantry on my Wway down, welvet cloaked Sir Knights, eplendid priests, black, shining, pranc- ing steeds, the wawve of glorious ban- Ders, the morming sun glinting on a eword, or turning the gold and silver trappings into a rich, ordered dagzle, d th of 1 I had heard the . e crowds, the gay ek of the siren, glittering snatches music, the wine of the I hope I did my duty Bellew's fascin- actively assist- ee the parade of the drums et got too much u should see the 1 hundreds of BELERPTHNORYR the most blase “I do not want to more Ham- eady. But—" oment later Mr. s ha d came d many wn lly was comic . e e t S d e T ey couldn [ robbed the a 5. So we shoot them.” I suggested, a ¥s,” Mr. Bellew smiled. It's beautiful, you is a great, long thing ioor to the table here —headed with an ar- on bark, the whole T corated with hooks ke & fish bone. Can’t drag n it gets in, you know—it the other side.” t has!” I gasped. d And every point is pols- “When you see a way, stoop—er— pantomime he sketched black, gliding through the rently friendly, ap- Y but with his poison- 1 his treacher- the rfare when Of how the one Epe at never tries to get out of the 2 t ingenious ‘lever by te his Own spear, turns res of daily iow is the country?” in the north,” the magnificent blue— here—good it i trees, or two here,” I be- Those are said the Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in front of me. “Larger than our sequoias!” I pro- tested. Gently then Mr. Bellew said: “I think so. In the Dandenong range the ‘stringy bark’ runs easily up to more than 400 feet high.” He completely squelched me by adding casually: “The big trees grow mostly in valleys there No one takes any particular notice of them.” It was while talking of the Aus- tralian trees—“stringy bark,"” iron bark, “limitlgss” cedar—*of no commercial use from lack of raflroads,” that I dis- covered Mr. Bellew in another enthu- siasm, the elephant woodchoppers of Rangoon. He described eloquently how the elephants carried great trees to the sawmill, saw that they were cut into the proper length, dragged the blocks to their resting place, piling them at last into heaps with mathematical ac- curacy. He told how one old elephant— “the old lady”—teaches the whole thing to the recruits in six weeks, and how every elephant of them learns to leave everything he is doing when the whistle blows with.the promptitude of a union carpenter! “I cannot imagine how in the world you came to be an actor,” I blurted out then. “Living so much among real things"— - Mr. Bellew smiled and became blase here. He sat back with the wearily graceful air of a Raffles. It was then I noted that above his black brows his hair shines whitely—as does Raffles’. It was then I found that Kyrle Bellew was not born to-day. Lazy the voice was in which he said: “It was accident through which I went on the stage. I'd been to sea for eight years. When 1 was paid off I went to Australia in one of the gold rushes. Made a lot then; lost it. Then”—Mr. Bellew smiled meaningly—*for my sins I became a dramatic critic. But I always said nice things about everybody! “Bad morality”— “Perhaps,” he nodded, and resumed, “But one night I was sent to do an opera. I met an old captain of mine at the theater. Told him I wanted to g0 home. He couldn’t take me, but he had a friend with him, captain of a crack. passenger boat running to Lon- don, who needed an officer’”— “Officer?” “Oh, I was supposed to be a smart sail Mr. Bellew remarked. “But my old captain told the other chap, ‘This fellow’s all right,” and he took me on. H the ows in the office chaffed (he said “chahfed”) me and my brass buttons! But I reached London a few eeks later with £8 in my pocket.” The actor chuckled then as he said: “I didn’t know what to do, you know, living, and in looking over the ts in the Daily Telegraph ‘Wanted—A light comedian.’ I thought I was light enough, and cut off my brass buttons, bought a pot hat and answered it. The manager asked me vhere I came from. ‘Australia,’ I said ‘Work’s hard there,” said he. ‘Yes,’ I. ‘Change the bills often?" said ‘Very frequently,” I said. And he ver asked me what parts I was play- ! That's how I became engaged to as light comedian with Miss Helen y. Ten days afterward, at the 1 Theater, Brighton, I made a hit —-made a hit”"—the actor chuckled. ‘The he resumed, “Dion Boucl- saw me as Woodstock in ‘Clan- carty’ in Dublin, and sent for me to the ymarket. I was there for eleven rs. 1 should probably have been e vet only § got into hot water with , lawsuits and things, wouldn’t let y what I wanted. Then I came here to Wallack's, then Abbey en- d me to play with Mrs. Potter™ s not the first time that Mr. Bel- d mentioned Mrs. Potter. His had brought in a note from the brother, who lives here, while ed. Ihad laughed over ghe press legend of the reconciliation of lly associated players. Mr. said that they had never I had thought that he sed with the opportu- And I had noted the admiration with which he his late associate. His tone instinct with hgmage. “Abbey asked me what I thought of her—she had only just begun to act,” he continued. “I told him I thought she had everything but experience that a woman needed, beauty, voice, gentus, social knowledge—everything. After we began I played with no one else for fourteen years. It was a business part- nership also for thirteen years—we played under our own management and in a repertoire of twenty-six plays with ly two of them that were not of the timate’ genre.” “I've never seen Mrs. Potter,” I said, “she must be extraordinar; 2 e is a great woman,” her confrere testified gladly, nay eagerly. “There s nq one quite like her. There is no actréss that can do quite the things she can do.” “Such as, for example”- “Well, take her Theresa Raquin,” Bellew instanced. “There is a play to me the greatest piece of dra- atic literature in existence. You see no eingle thing done, only the effect of what has gone before the play. But you understand everything. And every character is absolutely lifelike. Take Ibsen now. Ibsen creates his characters to bring about his situations. The rela- tions betwen his men and women are not typical. Mind, I don’t say they are not possible. But Zola gives you the thing occurring every day, the people to whom the thing happens. And Mrs. Potter is as great here as Zola. Her Therese is the highest art.” “Bernhardt—Duse?” I venture. “They have not the peculiar temper- ament,” Mr. Bellew insisted, Zola the greatest of dramtists—where had I heard something like that before? Ah, I knew. Apropos, too, I'd picked up my old Plutarch the other day and read in the Alexander: “The most glo- rious exploits do not always furnisheus with the clearest discoveries of virtue or ‘vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.” o delightfully typical I consider the following dictum. I said: “Then you don’t care for Ibsen”—he nodded “no”— ying it h of “what about Shaw?’—greater than Shakespeare. T remembered. “Oh.” said Mr. PBellew, with the most ticklesome affability of patron- age and a deliciously indulgent upper inflection on the adjective: “Shaw’s quaint!” I wanted then to put Kyrie Bellew and Arnold Daly into the ring, with George Bernard Shaw as ampire, Myself, I'd be pleased enough io take the gate money. I won't spoil the story by Mr. lew’s later protest concerning Shaw’s sincerity. He could not do better: “Shaw’'s QUAINT!" We returned then to Mrs. Potter, and Mr. Bellew put it that “God broke the mold when he made her. He argucd that the actress had succeedsd by being “just her own extraordinary self”; spoke of her red hair—not “imitation,” as the Orpheum punster put it, like another famous red-haired actress; characterized her as “more of a classical actress” than any other type, and spoke of her recent Calypso. “Truly,” I inquired, “wouldn’t you rather be playing the repertoire you played with Mrs. Potter than—Raffles, for example?” “Why?"” said the actor with a shrug. “Raffles is an easy thing. It's popular. After all it’s the commercial side that counts. I have only to put on an evening coat, take a cigar, walk cn the stage, and walk off again, and then forget all about it until the next time. Why should one bother to be a Hamlet, nerves strung up all night, in bed all day, or dead beat? I've done all that; I've been through it all, and Jolly hard it is.” “Mr. Bellew,” I said sternly, “you’re acting!” “Perhaps I am,” he laughed. “But there, if one were to play the things he preferred he would almost alwa have to play them to empty benche: Perhaps “Hamlet” had recalled the Haymarket, for the actor began then to talk of his Haymarket days, in J. B. Buckstone’s time, when the oldest actor there had been 42 years with the house, the stage manager 85, the ‘“youngest” member next to Mr. Bellew 17! “Those were the days,” recalled the actor, “wheh we had to look in The Daily Telegraph every morning to see what we were going to play at night! A fact, I assure you. And we had to report one hour before the per- formance for fear the bill was changed. And we frequently changed the bill every night. Actors don’t have to work to-day! We used to be engaged for one line of work”—Mr. Bellew lazily slapped a knee to emphasize the following—*"“and we were expected to know every part in that line in the legitimate drama.” Then do you feel that the stage has degenerated?” “‘Palmy days’ and that sort of thing?” queried the actor. “Not at all, 1 remember old Bucky on ‘palmy days,’” he laughed jucky used to grunt: ‘Palmy days, palmy days,’ years ago, sir! No, sir! The only ‘palmy days’ 1 remember were when the beggars got drunk and never knew their lines'—dear old Bucky!" It w after this when Mr. Bellew said that Charles Fechter's was the best Hamlet he knew, that I mentioned the Hamlets outside. It was then I had the honor of Mr. Bellew's: escort down Kearny street. And it was then I got a peep at the gentle Romeo. Just by the peanut stand we said “good- by”—alas! But was it wittingly that Romeo held my hand a tender trifle longer than need be, as he asked “if I were not going to say very nice things about him on Sunday?” And the amateur Juliet turning up her eyes to him, COULD I say anything else!” FLORENCE ROBERTS TO PRESENT DRAMA THAT MADE A STIR replied, “How The chief novelty of the dramatic week will be the presentation by Miss Florence Roberts this evening at the California of Angel Guimera's ‘“Marta of the " a pastoral drama that made a considerable sensation on its nroduction in New York last year. Hobart Bosworth, who was in - the original production, is in Miss Roberts’ support, and the long and careful re- hearsal of the drama seems to promise an excellent performance. s i Lowlands, “Raffles,” the thrilling story of the conflict between a -brilliant criminal and a brilliant detective, begins its sdeond week to-morrow evening. Kyrle Bellew and E. M. Holland share honors in the chief roles and the rest of the company wins praise throughout. & al e White Whittlesey will this week be seen in “The Second in Command,” tnat John Drew introduced here on his last visit. 7The Alcazar company will, as usual, be competent in the support. . e e The Grand Opera-house will have a curious and what should be a charming Japanese extravaganza in the “Prin- cess Fan Tan,” in which some hundreds of children will take part. “The Toreador” is in Its last two weeks at the Tivoli. “The Serenade” will follow. i i The “Anheuser Push” is still going successfully at Fischer’s, with “Miss Mazuma,” rlace itf. by J. C. Crawford, to re- & ia ke “Only a Shop Girl” will be given at the Central this week. s e e Harry La Rose and his company in “The Sailor and the Horse,” by Will M. Cressy, are headlined at the Orpheum this week. P W The three Dentons, performers on triple horizontal bars suspended in the air, are going to astonish the Chutes’ goers this week. e THEATRICAL STARS ARE TWINKLING ALL OVER THE UNIVERSE While playing an engagement in Kansas City Ethel Barrymore had the misfortune to sprain her right ankle and is now finishing her season with a doctor in attendance at each per- formance. . s e Lulu Glazer produced her new opera, “The Madcap Princess,” in Rochester on August 25 with great success. £ ek e Manager Dillingham presented Fritzl Scheff in “The Two Roses” fn Cleve- land August 29, and it is said to be a genuine success. v s e “The Rogers Brothers in Paris” is THE — sald to be a fitting successor to “The Rogers Brothers in London. 8wy Henryk Ibsen is said to be at work on a drama with war as its motive. M D S Nance O'Nell 1s rehearsing a Dbiblical tragedy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich en- titled “The Tents of Assur.” The play will be produced at the Tremont The- ater, Boston, in October. It is- said to be built around the character of Ju- dith. e James K. Hackett produced a new comedy by Louis Eagan called * Little Surprise,” at the Princes: ater on August 25, with Arthur Byron in the leading role. siaies b “The Isle of Spice,” the Chicago musical comedy, was produced in New York on August 23, and was highly ap- preciated. . “The Royal Chef,” another Chicago success, entered on what promises to be a long run, at the Lyric Theater, New York, on September 1. A . Mrs. Patrick Campbell begins an en- gagement in ‘“The Sorceress” at the Herald Square Theater, New York, on September 26. A concert tour of the chief cities of South Africa will be undertaken by Madame Lillian Blauvelt, the American soprano, next year. Arrangements to this end are being made by Harry S. Alward of Charles Frohman's business staff, who is now in South Africa. ol Clarence Eddy, the eminent organ- ist, will make a tour this season of the entire United States and Cana- da, under the direction of Loudon G. Charlton. Dorothy Tennant, who has been en- gaged by Henry W. Savage to play the title role in George Ade’s new comedy, “The College Widow,” is a native of San Francisco, and has been on the stage but three seasons. During her brief career on the stage she has play- ed a number of important roles. Her first engagement was in “Lovers’ Lane,” and for two seasons was lead- ing woman for Robert Edeson in “The Soldiers of Fortune” and “Ranson’s Felly.” She also played “‘Mary, Queen of Scots” with Bertha Gallant iast year. Miss Tenant Is a tall, willowy blonde, and the rolé or Jane Wither- spoon in “The College Widow” Is well suited to her talents. a e . Christmas pantomime, the real kind from Drury Lane, London, will be part of this season’s attractions, though ar- riving a little late. “Mother Goose,” the _oliday attrac- tion at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York last season, will be pre- sented in this city at the Grand Opera House for three weeks, beginning Mon- day evening, February 6. This is gen- erally acknowledged to be the most ex- tensive spectacular production ever sent en tour in this country. There are 388 people in the organization and seven 65-foot special cars are required for the transportation of the scenery. The company is an extraordinary one and among many other principals wiil present a quartet of famous comedians —Joe Cawthorne, who plays Mother Goose; Harry Kelly, Wililam H. Ma- cart and Clifton Crawford, the song’ writer. Lella MclIntyre ' plays Jii, Edith St. Clair Caroline and Neva Ay. mar Colin. The plece is staged in fit- VITSIC TOLRS RTINGTON; teen scenes and there are three mag- nificent’ ballets, each of which exhibits more than 300 people. " e W It is a generally conceded fact in Europe' that no actor of the present day and few actors who have ever lived possess the genius for “making- up” for a.part as does Ermete Novelli, the great Ttalian artist who is to make his_first visit: to America this season under the Liebler & Co. management. His Shylock, his Othello, his Louis XI and his Nero all bear indisputable evi- dence to.thé verity of this claim, as do many of his comedy roles. No one is as clever ag Novelli in painting on-his countenance the physiognomy of the character he is to personate. KEvery evening he is to be found in his dress- ing-room an hour before the play be- gins. Seated before the mirror of his little dressing table he invariably lights a cigarette and at the same time holds a discussion with seven or eight friends, seated where they can, in the midst of coats of every hue, trousers, vests, ‘shirls, wigs of all colors and all dimensions. While he smokes and talks, Novelli twists with master hand the hair of .the wig which he will wear later. He combs and brushes it, gives to the hair, white or black or golden, straight or curly, the form and place which he thinks is appropriate to the character. Then he turns to his face, which can be that of a man of any age, from the imbecile dude of twenty- five years to the husband of fifty, ri- diculous and contented; from the face all wrinkles and from the white beard of Shylock to the handsome and mel- ancholy profile of Hamlet, to the iras- cible face of the “Burbero Beneficio,” and the black lowering physiognomy of Othello. With the rapid and almost feverish hand of the artist he puts a few touches under his eyes, on his cheeks, about his mouth and even on his forehead, so that the edge of the wig cannot be seen even at close quar- ters, and so he stands completely transformed and unrecognizable. No- velli's achievements in this line are a constant source of wonder and admira- tion to his friends. No actor living, it is said, can approach him in the art. CONCERT GIVEN BY THE BOHEMIAN CLUB OF HISTORIC VALUE The Bohemian Club concgrt of last week, with its introduction of three orchestral compositions by members of the club, including the significant tone- drama of W.' McCoy, was one of the most important affairs in local musical history. By it alone the Bohemian Club demonstrated its position as a practical leader in the arts, and through it was effectively introduced to the local pub- lic a too ‘little known and very gifted member of the local composing group. Possibly one€’s enthusiasm at the occa- sion, the first hum of the season's or- chestra—a- very good one, too, it was, ably concert—mastered by “Johnny” Josepho—led us into 'a little ex- travagance of expression concern- ing. “The Hamadryads.” Second hearing winll demonstrate that. As I remember the work now, it seems . to me as it did then, so far as its first two movements go, of the best that California has turned out. Nor.am' I forgetting Frederick Zech’'s “Lamia,” graceful “and scholarly, nor the other work of the- music-gifted (Y 74 R ) e SO0 -t among us.-E. S. Kelley and Oscar Weil, of course, do not count. These are only national.folk that are good enough to live, or have'lived, here. But'I find the McCoy - talent: virile, spontaneous, deft and original "in expression, and quite individual The parallel - between the ‘“Nalad's Idyl”‘and, Rudolph’s song in-‘“La Bo- heme” ‘is, ‘however, unfortunate. But such’ things 'will happen. to the best- regulated domposer. - In. the ‘finale also I find ‘severaliphrases strongly remin- iscent of the ‘*Aida"” grand march. The rest, however, seems exceptional in its originality, ‘and Mr.. McCoy's spirited conducting of the work gave point to its every feature. Dr. Stewart’s “Montezuma” suite was also: most agreeably reheard. =Red- ding’s " “Indian Suite”- interested, -and Richard. Hotaling's readings of the dra- matic texts, were briliance ‘itself. (It is warmly to be‘haoped that the entertain- ment will be Tepeatéd next.year. ! « e e The. season promises .at least one fascifiting . musical novelty, in the lec- ture recitals of Arnold Dolmetsch.and his company, who are.to be here some- where -about-next-January.--The Dol- meisch recitals have been long famous in London among: connoisseurs. of thé curfous aund beautiful In music. Dol- metsch. himself "is .a unique figure, quaintly part and parcel: of the oiden- time instruments and music .among which he lives. Tt is ‘freely ‘whispered that more than one noveligt of the.day has used the Dolmetsch personality in his novels. . George . Mdore, notably, is one of thege, in his “Evelyn Inness,” in the lovable. figure of the -old musi- cian. with. viol d'amores,..rare old madrigals, and other.finé ancientry. The recitals deal with little of any- thing under the respectabe age of 200 years. Even the pérformers . appear in the costumes of the time. All sorts of rare instruments, wind, string and per- cussion, are played upon. All kinds of rare music pompous old Sarabandes, humorous gigues, stately gavottes, are played upon them.’ € 1 rongs also are part of the.programme, heéard to the accompaniment of ‘the i struments by which ‘they were originally accompa- nied. Mr. Dolmetsch; I believe, regards his work partly in the light of a mis- sion. He hopes thereby" to" save to music much of the beautiful that is in danger of being entirely lost. He pleads not only for'the music of yesterday but for the 'instruments, through whose disuse he holds that’-valuable tone color, tone character, ‘s’ lost “to the modern orchestra. ' For - the' dilettanti, however, _the recitals “are’ said ' to be uniquely charming in’ themselves, and they will~doubtless ‘be greeted with wide enthusiasm. ' New, York exclusives seemed to enjoy them, I rémember, on the first foreign = engagement of the Dolmetschs there two years ago. There are to be 100 ‘appearances this season, beginning in' New York in November. Here's a pretty ‘muss if what “Tay Pay” ©O'Conner says in his Weekly is true. - He asserts that literary 'criti- cism: is: purchasable-.in- every journal in Paris save three—ELe Temps, Le Journal des -Debats and Le Siecle, and that musical.reviews are purchasable ‘without -any .exceptio; The -Musical Courier” has-this to say of the matter: T. P.'s Weekly of London informs a wondering world that-of the 150 daily newspapers in ‘Paris there are only thres —Le Temps, Le Journal,des: Debats . oritls . -be intreduced. -odies COMEDIAN -WHO TOOK -TO THE STAGE AFTER ‘A LIFE-OF DESPERATE ADVENTURE IN QUEENSLAND. | s esunl b SaeS T SO B v T S e o A e bt B cism is not a branch of the advertis- ing department. “In all the other pa- pers, when you want a favorable re- view of a book you go to the business manager and arrange it. You can be hailed as a grand master on the first page of such world renowned papers as Le Figaro or Le Journal, in a clever leading article signed by a well known man of letters, for a couple of thou- sand francs.” * * * Naturally the con- verse holds good. You may be a great master and you may be generally re- garded as a great master, but editors will not permit reviewers to say so urtil your publisher has interviewed their cashier. In music the price is considerably less. Any paper in Paris (including the three named by T. P.'s Weekly) will for 50 francs print a ten line. criticism of .a concert written by the concert giver himseif or by any of his friends. This practice has become notorious in Paris and hence musical criticism in the daily newspapers. is regarded there as more or less of a farce—although some persons can see nothing funny in.such a disreputable state of affairs. A few pessimistic New Yorkers predict the same disgraceful conditions for New York if the busi- ness relations between visiting artists and the critics of our daily papers are allowed to continue as flagrantly as they have flourished heretofore. - The only difference between the Paris and the New York “grafting” systems is that over there the business office gets the money, while here the critic reaps the. questionable gain. But the New York critic really needs the money. oy ¥ire The advance sale of seats for the grand operatic concerts to be given by Mme. Fannle Francisca at the Al- hambra Theater September 21 and 24 will commence next Thursday morn- ing at Sherman, Clay & Co.'s music store. There have already been many inquiries for seats, but no orders wiil be accepted in advance of the sale. David Bispham is among those to be heard here this season. Mr. Bisp- ham has been recently delivering him- self. concerning song recital pro- grammes. What he has to say, though not new, Is true and as he is a model programmie maker here it is: Mr. Bispham only once—some yeéars ago in England—agreed to sing a song for a fee, and he says he “got so sick of that blessed ditty” that, after he had repeated it the ten or a dozen times required, he never looked at it again. Since then the singer has res- olutely ‘decined to have his chm_ce fettered. He believes in the classics of song as the foundation of a sing- er’s profession, but considers that all schools should be illustrated in re- cital programmes. With a Handel and Haydn programme, for example, I Schubert’ and Brahms should be in- with the old Italian masters Schumann and Cornelius may America and England are not the greatest song producing éouritries of the world and vet what can be lovelier than some of the mel- of the Anglo-Saxon genre” Neither must one forget Grieg and Dvorak, Jensen, Wolf, Strauss and the Frenchimen, and while as yet America has not greatly feit the influence of Italian blood in her composers of vo- ¢al works, yet the. younger generation of our song writers, such as Hermann ‘Wetzler, Max Bendix and others, show ‘what might be called a liberated Tous cluded; Franz,

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