The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1906, Page 23

NCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, .AU UST atten- on the reply 1 find enough so she was le por- v York. And in- s s of unrecorded relief were In brief, I am convinced that y genuine stage peo- who are r impe- own improvidence e is to blame or * City Surprises Goodwin. 1 he was in San Francisco last * * Goodwin expressed regret ed his company in Los d of bringing it here laying his repertoire in a canvas ¢ he city’s condition had not been to me,” he said, “I have arranged to play but all in :les 1 was led to believe that from San Fran- appeared like My people not con- by play- a that was ¥ le to purchase life’s neces- saries, and I felt that after doing such hing 1 would be ashamed to return t and face my friends. So we ¢losed our season down there and I came up here—to find neither destitu- sented on sides money away would have poorhouse. they could earn salaries community y tion nor despair, but plenty of money| in circulation, labor in demand and bustling and confitlent. Poverty? Why, you folk ought to be sending some of your surplus wealth to the charity workers in the Eastern cities. After seeing how very nicely you are getting along, I would not everybody hesitate to accept all the money you|while Weber and Fields, the daddies be induced to send me via the box office * * * Florence Roberts’ Plans. I plaintively rifice: Roberts 1e has : much | \ mer vacation to studious unfamed ! not one | ays by nd, a 4 worthy of pro-| Theater pointment 1s ex- H rent Crane, who| tically complains that although | s to app in an American season, he shall have Englishmay, simply | 10t get a suitable play | country All of which may tend to cast ex-| the by tory light on paucity of American | Some of the manuscripts read by | good new authors. rea Miss Roberts or Mr. Crane may ssessed genuine merit as plays, but e | re rejected as bad plays because they did not happen to afford their ader sufficient opportunity for dis- | play of his or her most effective act- | ing methods. It is significant that no | long-lived play was written to fit any | particular actor as the tailor cuts cloth to accentuate curves and diminish| angles. Shakespeare had no “star” in when view he wrote his immortal nor did any of the eighteenth century dramatists whose plays are | still acted. They depicted for stage; use certain phases of life or character and left to the manager the task of| finding actors qualified to properly fill | the roles. Play Must Fit Principal. Nowadays it's different. Not only must the Robertses and the Cranes be| accurately measured, but the taste of the manager must also be catered to by the playwright who hopes for ac- { ceptance of his work. The manager | insists that the theme must be of cur- rent interest and the actor demands a character that harmonizes with his most telling art of personation. Thus the author who aims at having his play produced another’s pe- cuniary expense is degraded—or de- | grades himself—to the level of a tradesman. His hope of enriching literature or perpetuating | his name must be relinquished. To make his work marketable his literary discernment must be sacrificed. That, in my opinion, is the prin- cipal reason why so many bad Amer- ican plays are staged, and why every |now and then we hear of an Amer- ican play scoring a great success after it has repeatedly been refused pro- duction. For this condition the dram- atists themselves are not entirely blameless. Indeed, the remedy lies with them. If they would either abandon playwriting as a means of earning a livelihood or unite in de- | voting their efforts to constructing stage literature instead of made-to- order plays,®the managers would eventually be compelled to accept | their wares. But it would be rough on the one-part actors who stalk as “stars.” at dramatic * * * Dutch Comedy Rivalry. Rice and Cady will be doing Dutch foolishness at the Davis when Kolb and Dill commence to perpetrate sim- ilar nonsense at the Central, and there . may be a recurrence of the vast public excitement that reigned l 3 of all fat-and-thin Dutch comedy teams, came to compete with Kolb and Dill, then in the heyday of their popularity at Fischer's, Who can forget the animated argument then waged in the clubs, the saloons, the cigar stands and other forums of impromptu debate over the respect- ive merits of the competing come- dians? Who escaped being waylaid on the street and asked whether he estimated Mr. Kolb’s kicking of Mr. Dill's abdomen to be on a par of artistry with Mr. Fields’ jabbing of his fingers into the eyes of Mr. Weber? Who can cease to remem- ber that night of nights at the Grand Opera-house when a select commit- tee from one of the leading clubs gravely sat through the Weber-Fields performance to compare it with the Kolb-Dill ditto and return a verdict that would forever settle in that club the vexing question of which com-| pany ventilated the most attractive chorus, pulchritude as well as vocal worth considered? Is the city in proper mood to un- dergo another convulsion of that kind? Shall the populace suspend its task of reconstruction to engage in dispute as to whether Rice and Cady or Kolb and Dill will distort the English language most fantastically? We shall see. * * * Attractions for Oakland. Gottlob & Marx do not expect to have their new Columbia Theater, at Van Ness avenue and Geary street, ready for occupancy before next May. Since the house was first planned sev- eral important changes have been mdde and the delay in commenci; construction thus necessitated has been augmented by difficulty in se- curing steel and other building ma- terials. The structure will be eighf stories, instead of four, as originally agreed upon, and will contain numer. ANERIGAN ZEAUTY CHOARU IN 71DDLE-DE-DEE AT THE DAV IS THEATZR NVAYAYY N AN YN \.\ YA ; HELENA- U 7} NING: 2] | i Jis. ous office apartments for physicians | exclusively. Indeed, it promises to | be the central home of the medical profession. No definite bookings have yet been made, but Mr. Gottlob {says the opening attraction will be | worthy of the occasion. In the meantime the Macdonough | Theater; Oakland, will harbor what- |ever big dramatic aftractions may visit the coast this season. Among those already assured are Maxine Elliott, Olga Nethersole and Louis James and the list will undoubtedly swell as the season progresses. Any play or star that was sufficiently mag- netic to draw Oakland to San Fran- cisco can be relied upon to attract San Francisco to Oakland, and the com- bination managers will not overlook that fact, especially™if they find their Eastern business below expectation. Two prosperous weeks in San Fran- cisco have balanced the ledger of many a “show” that waé more or less to the bad financially when it arrived here, and one prosperous week in Oakland may be depended upon to perform similiar service. * * - Edna Aug in Paris. To hear them discuss it on McAl- lister street you might be apt to imagine the appearance of Edna Aug as a principal in a Paris “revue” a tre- + is that at the Moulin Rouge she does pretty much the same kind of work she did at Fischer’s ere that house en- tered its “ten-and-twent” career. Of course, a Paris engagement means something to be envied by American soubrettedom, but a Paris music hall is not one whit loftier in tone than was Fischer’s during the period alluded to, nor is a French “revue” a bit more dignified in qual- ity than the Weber-Field stuff they are doing at the Davis, which resem- bles it in most components. Neither the one nor the other is marked by coherency of plot and both rely main- ly upon the attractiveness of things that are absolutely irrelevant to what- ever attempt a plot there is. When she was on O'Farrell street Miss Aug did not" appeal to the higher artistic instincts and there is no reason to be- lieve that her flights in Paris are any loftier. McAllister street apparcnfly con- founds the Moulin Rouge with the Comedie Francaise, where the lead- ing members must be artists and even those who take minor parts must show talent of high degree. Of such is the elevation of Edna Aug. * ‘Fate of the Tivoli. Frank W. Healy, who was earth- * * mendous professional uplift for that|quaked out of the assistant manage- young woman, while the bald truth |ment of the Tivoli, writes to me from « i cisco Opera Company, largely com- posed of people who were with him in the Eddy-street house, have made such a hit in Seattle that Russell & Drew have decided to build a manent home for them there. playing for eight successful weeks in Seattle .thq San Franciscans went to per- which they will take the road and | stick to it until the building that is to | house them in Seattle is erected. In the meantime no palpable effort is being made to revive our own per- manent home of opera. W. H. Leah putting up buildings for other peo- ple and in performing the functions pertaining to his Police Commis- sionership that he has no timeg to de- vote to theater construction, nor does Mrs. Ernestine Kreling exhibit any the business which she adorned for so many years. To permit the Tivoli prestige and title to die would savor of disloyalty to the city, for throughout the world of music the Tivoli made San Fran- cisco famous as the only American town that for more than twenty years had opera every evening and at least one afternoon of each week. But as lose any of its valuable assets through carelessness, it would be quite sane to new Tivoli producing opera before Mr. Healy's “troupe” returns to Seat- tle. * * * Music Temple Proposed. My energetic little friend, Alfred Metzger, is bravely utilizing his monthly Musical Review to promote the organization of California’s music teachers and the erection of a $3500,000 temple of music in San Francisco. Both projects are worthy, and to push either of them to consummation would be a stupendous achievement, even if the city’s music life were more firmly settled than it is. Mr. Metzger, however, opines that no time more favorable than the present could be selected for bringing the tutors to- gether and providing them with a gathering place that would dignify the new San Francisco, and he is con- fident that neither the work of form- ing the association nor the task of raising the half-million dollars is im- practicable. His suggestion that the presidency of the proposed society be conferred on Dr. J. Fred Wolle, head of the music department of the University of California, is indisputably wise. No man is better qualified, either artis- tically or by position, than Dr. Wolle to harmonize the teachers of har- mony. He is the leading music figure in the West and he does not give pri- vate music lessons. * * * Theaters for the Week. whose vocal range is said to be unsur- passed, heads the list of new people who are to open at the Orpheum this afternoon. She comes £rect from Europe, where she has sung in all the leading dcities, her engagements in cluding a twenty-four weeks’ run in London. In Bucharest she made such a hit that she was specially engaged for a gala performance of “La Traviata.” . oFrank Gardner and Lottie Vincent, old favorites here, w#l appear in a new spectacular fantasy, “Winning a | Queen”; the six Proveanies, trick Aftter | Boise, where they are completing a| four weeks' run, at the conclusion of | apparently is so busily engaged in| symptoms of inclination to re-enter| the Tivoli corporation is not likely to| wager that'San Francisco will have a| Edith Helena, an American soprano, | —. | eyclists, will make their San Fran- o debut he Reiff brothers, ers and complete the nong the acts retained lark and his half a dozen inine aids; Billy Van, who will change his chatter and songs; Carter and Bluford, in new business and costumes, and the Lu- cania trio of acrobats. * * - Will R. Walling, who was leading man at the Alcazar when the earth- quake did things, has been engaged to fill a like position at the Central Theater and will make his first ap= pearance there tomorrow evening as Captain Harry Ford “The New | South,” the war drama in which Joe Grismer starred “for several seasoms. | He be supported by the full strength of the Central stock com- pany, an organization which has done some excell work the past week in “The Black Flag.” Oza Waldrop, Agnes Williams Johns and other fa- vorite members of the company will be appropriately placed in “The New South.” When he was at the Alcazar the new leading man proved himself to be something better than the aver- who thus designated. While his physical graces made him a | valuable matinee attraction, his work in will age actor is | won for him the admiration of the sterner sex who appreciate good his« | trionism. * One of the secrets of “Fiddle-Dee« :Dee's" success at the Davis Theater |is the impression made by the lead- ing woman, Rosemary Glosz. She is | thoroughly en rapport with the spirit of her role, and, remarkable to re- late of .a musical comedienne, ad- heres strictly to the lines of her part as they are”laid down in the book; and thus makes their meaning intel; ligible. Of her vocal quality and art| of gowning enough has been written, Rice, Cady and North cannot com-= ‘plain of lack of appreciation from the| | big audiences, nor has Mr. Lynch | reason to be dissatisfied with his Sam | Francisco reception. As for the, | chorus, it has seldom been excelled; either vocally or physically in this; | city. Harry James is fairly entitled toy | all the congratulations he is receivinn | on the success of his latest venture. * | Gossip of the Stage. Ben Greet's recent departure fom Europe disposes of the report that he might be induced to give a series ol: Shakespearean productions this sum«, mer in the Greek Theater at Berke-| * - | * * {ley. But the fact remains that with-, out Mr. Greet's direction a veryy creditable article of Shakespeare could be presented al fresco in thes.‘ parts. The actors are available and| only the selection of a capable man-| ager is needed to bring the project tos consummation. - Kolb and Dill are booked for fhree weeks’ run at the Central The<y ater, commencing August 26. Ben T." Dillon is the only former Fischerite; accomapnying them. Barney Bernard, is coming West as the principdl come~ dian in “The Rollicking Girl,” in whick{ Sam Bernard starred last seasom, and | Maude Amber and Winfield Blake ara, making a tour of the world with Howard Thurston, the magician. - - - * - . | Kate Condon, whose work at they Tivoli is among the pleasant mems ories, will be in Peter Daly's com~ pany. Her season begins in New York next month.