The evening world. Newspaper, November 19, 1904, Page 9

w THE »# EVENING WORLD'S Bg HOME wt MAGAZINE ' SATURDAY EVE NOVEMBER 19, 1904, WHERE THE GIANTS DINNER GOES, FROM THE WINGS. WILLIAM SCURODE RUNNING OFF STAGE WITH NOLO DALY AT Finis OF DANCE [Aysteries of the Pantomime Revealed by a Visit Behind the Scenes and Below the} Stage—Strenuous Life of the Trap-| Shooting Demon—He’s Really a Very Agreeable Chap and Tries Awfully Hard to Please—Shocking Discovery that the Cat and the Dog Smoke Cigarettes, F Humpty Dumpty should have a great fall at the New Amsterdam Theatre, it’s fairies to farthings he'd fall into a trap, Talk about “spreading pitfalls for the unwary!” That innocent enough looking stage is simply one big delusion and snare, It's a8 m Give SUCH A bine in THE Face iN A Anette RANK PAOULAN AS THE COOK, 7 RTHUR CONQUEST AS THE PARROT C—- JOKN PAS VEIGH AS PETER - her hell this time, boys!" which, after all, may be perfectly Proper lan- guage for a Demon to use. rd s s ed rd ad a HAT last one was bully!" exclaimed the delighted Dhmen as he} tumbled out of the “dive” and indulged in the luxury bf a breath- ing spell. “Hard work?" he repeated, scrambling into an English waster, which transformed the Demon into Arthur Conquest. “Well, it isn’t as easy as rolling off a log, but {t’s a lot better sport. Dangerous’ Yes, I suppose it is when you stop to think of {t. But I don’t stop to think, You can’t afford to think in this king of work. The minute you do it’s all over with you. You Jose your nerve and you're sure to get hurt. Have I ever Leen hurt? Bless you! yes. I've had both my ankles and my collar-bone broken, but ‘Lot bygones be bygo! ig my motto. A chap must never let a trap know that he’s afraid of it. The minute he does it will play him tricks, See) sé —Trars Aw Trioss Oc Mauer Dumery this mark?” He pointed to a blue line on the platform of the trap. | bi the toe mark. Get your toes over that line and you're shot off at an angle, and there’s no telling how or where you'll land. You can't be too careful when you're going through a twenty-one Inch hole, That's five inches smaller than the traps I've been used to in Bugland. But the smaller the better, I say. I mean the effect {s better, It's more startling to the audience, Toe the mark and be ready for the spring, and you've noth- ing to worry about. You must spring more with the arms than with the tata e place, and that's not pleasant, I can tell you, I saw that happen to a poor chap once. It spoiled him completely for trap-shooting, so it did. I hope I'll never be spolled, I want to do higher springs than ever when I go back plroueties as well, but I’m going to break that record or my neck when I'm home again. An I'm going to do the eighteen-foot spring and the pirouettes here at least ones, though it’s rather risky with ovly a twenty-one-inch out up es a pumpkin ple in a family of twelve. It has more traps than the District-Attorney's office good, But when they're open, “one step off the beaten path and you disap- pear from view as quickly and completely as a Vice-President, “Beaten path” in this instance is more than a Fairbanks figure of speech, It's the oniy way--the only way to keep your bflance and your self-re- Spect—that {s, wien the traps are open, And it takes a wise rat to tell when these traps are set, for the openings are so cunningly concealed by sheets of Bray rubber that the tenderfvot wouldn't know when he was walking Into a trap, ‘There are‘‘star traps,” which open up like French artichokes; “vampire traps," with folding wings; “funny posts,” which strike one as anything but & joke; “dives” which lead to subterranean surprises, and “slides,” whic | ‘would try the nerve of the immortal Kelly, In fact, the New Amsterdam Stage has almost as many hidden secrets as marvellous Manhattan Isle. Pd a Cl ad rad rad Cd NTERESTING on its surface, this stage, which 1s offering the greatest ] Production of pantomime ever made—“between four and five hundred people are concerned in it,” Mr. Klaw off handedly informed me—is poaltively amazing beneath its surface. “Come down and see Mr. Conquest go through the traps,” was an In- Vitation from Stage Director Ned Wayburn which | was more than willing to accept. For one thing, I had been bumping into fairies’ wings and things until I fairly ached to get out of the girly-girly, whirly-whirly world, where I felt “always in the way.” | 1 expected to find an acre of room down below, brt didn't. The lower) region was a wilderness of traps. If you've ever traveliod through the | derricked district of the Ohio oil flelds you may be able to form some idea of “Humpty Dumpty’s” underground region, Squads of coatiess men, who| looked as though they belonged to eome union or other, stood beside the ‘various traps, ready for action. “Over here is the star trap, which will be working in a minute,” sald Mr, Wayburn, as we stooped and squeezed and squirmed ater him. “Con- Quest will come through that ‘dive,’ pointing upward, “and chen he'll be shot up tiirough the star trap. Here he comes!” S-s-wish! came sorething through a rubber-masked hole above our heads, and a red otject flopzed Into a hammiorx-Nke contrivance, then ewung itself over the side aud streaked for the nearest trap. Te was ihe Demon, Hoe sprang panting into the trap, steadied himself a second, cried “Go!” and four men, yanking as many heavily weighted | Topes, shot him upward. The small platform on which the Demon | stood struck the stage with a terrible thud and then came banging down again, while the eyes of the operators were once more turned toward the “dive.” Almost as soon as one could turn, the Demon wes in the ham- mock, out of it, in the trap, and gone! He did not utier @ word wutil he} 4, for the third paye When the traps are closed, well and) hole to go through.” | “Is the reward worth the risk? Do audiences appear to oppreclate your s 3 | that's the worst of It,” complained Conquest. “I don’t seem to | go any Dotter here than Dan Leno did, and that wasn't much, was it? fi “Why not etick to animal imitations? They, at least, are appreciated, I suggested, remembering the applause his “parrot” had won, : “Yes; the animals catch ‘em, all right, but it’s the traps I love. It's | tamily pride, I suppose. My father was the best of all trap-shooters, you |know, As for animal {mitations, you should see .me do a monkey. It'sa sick monkey I do, a monkey that dies. It’s a pathetic bit, and every time I did the monkey at Drury Lane tears fell like rain.’ al ad Pad Cal Cad Cad EAVING the De:non to his perilous ups and downs, Mr. Wayburn piloted us back to the stage to open our eyes to other mysteries, | In his sweater and with a cricket cap on his head, he looked more like the trainer of a football team than a stage director, Occasionally he blew a small whistle, This was a shrill warning to elevator loads of chorus girls to make less noise, and the way in which they obeyed showed they'd hag a very good stage “bringing up.” We saw where the Giant's dinner went to. It went into the hands of a spare man with a derby hat, who was dragging the last of the meal—tho diminutive walter—through an opening in the back of the Giant just as we happened along. “T’anks;" puffed the youngster, as he was set on his feet. There in the wings was the switchboard from which the signals for | opening and clostug the traps were sent to the men below, | The electrician under the stage was sending up an immense hedge, technically called a “bridge,’ and half a dozen pautaloons took their piaces | behind it and made faces at Humpty. Four Coiumbines came up on a smaller something or other. “Did you come down In the Subway to-day!” asked one. “No; on the ‘L)" replied atinoher, One of the waltzing chairs wabbled {nto the wings, mournfully remark- tng, “Gee, I eum open in the back and the audience laffed!" The Cat asked the Dog for a cigarette. Princess Marie, with her waist unbuttoned in the back, was rushing about crying, “My maid! My maid!” She sald other things, which caused the comment, “She has the Daly disposition.” A mermald from Germany stood patiently on a lofty platform waiting to “swim” over the submarine boat. She came by wire, without turning a scale or wetting a hair. Ste smiled in German while tackle was removed from her waist and her ankles, and then went around back of the ocean to look at a lot of lite fish in a calclum-lighted tank which made them ten times their size to the audience. What @ help a little contrivance like that would be to a fish story CHARLES DARNTON legs. Bend your knees too much, and you get the kneecaps knocked out of 4, to London. I’ve been doing an eighteen-foot spring there and turning three! Ke Shrode Humety Dumpty Sli Dopezee a Three <4 ts Frrowetle 5" AMUSEMENTS. | AMUSEMENTS, :... Humpty-Dumpty L'a HTT, West 421 Si Eve. 8.15. Mat Sat) HORSE SHOW. GRAND EXHIBITION. OF HORSES: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19. « Horses, ters and “HENRY W.8AV re AGE Musical Fantasy of {WOODL PIXLEY & LUDERS' Newest Con ¢ West Point Ca CON Cenrs BY LANDER The Seats in the Two Upper Gal- leries Are Not Reserved. HUBER'S si \ BILLY WELLS, 63 Tron Skull Wooler Rago LION-FACED BOY, OLN btwos, pe. A aden’ styhay PROCTOR’ BROADWAY SCHUMANY-HEINC Ha 9248) { tz <. in Love's F, : Next Mon, (FRITZ 8 TIMES, e Opera Fonte Harr | Margaret Sayre and M To-day-To-Night 25¢,50c. Res. 75¢ | BATE NOW FRITZI SCHEFF Anhattan ey ark Pamnst. Brandl Cecievaig parent MRS. FISKE HEDDA GABLER. «That cf Mayjind ;PAVID B BBLAS ObNSL."* 14th Theatres: MATINEE TO-DAY. » In His Greater as 5 'S | MA Raut wy eet IPAMMERSTEIN'S ‘ons, 2, a * New Songs Ail Hite Matinee very Day, 20. & Ove, CIRCLE iT Mou ACADEMY OF MUSIC, 14th Bt. @ Irving PI a Sie THE WIZARD OF 02%»: Thanks PASTOR'S “os: MATIN TO-DAY To-Night, 8.15. | = “A CHINA DOLL" |" MAJESTIC ar Mat. Tay ‘ } NAt wkRa ye HLS TC WEBER #i #1"), AT To:Day WEBER & ZIEGFELD.) Ss . De S MAT. TO-DAY, Wway MA Mag LLEGE Wi BELASCO? ETE NM | os ANTIC canvas WARFIELD Tk Mosc Masten ey a : Bye S13. Mat Re = 2 METROPOLIS, GEO. W. MONROE |y —— - HEP wisyidlas, Wessun Maral BIOU , MAY IRWIN ONS, BLACK Is MACK." NRW Lex. Av.J0th, Mat eu. Wa Giths ian i ane ATINES TO. DA WINDS Resse umnitsensy: | GRAND The Main of Gr ft Ath ay.23 9 Bhe by aay Sods! MM HO Wi Be =! 3 CHARLES BY ARNTON. CONQUEST SLIDES > THROUGH THE VAMPIRE TRAP, THE MERMAID IN HER SWIMMING Act EMPIRE: anna anne JOHN DREW | CASINO “S25 PIFF, PARE, POLE HOWDY. NOV, 21—SEATS Ob SAME Ee SOTHERN-JULIA MARLOWE he Baroness | ‘anal Fidlest HUDSON "ese ey ; +. Corvany. ETHEL BARRYNORE—SUNDAY. ao a CRITERION 5TH Geek ts FAY DAVIS wit!!'ntt#ss GARRICK ft. San Henry Miller nS, WIGGS *!-. CABBAG! PATCH LYCEUM "*"%2:. CharleaW yadhaw) om DRE OF I Ue EDNA MAY THB, syito0b b “ \ 1a ILYRIC “2 pyrevel BROOKLYN AM! i Sis. MONTAUK COUNTY ‘C