The evening world. Newspaper, September 6, 1913, Page 9

No Excuse for Vicious Red-Light Play “THE TEVOENCY Now 1S TO PRODUCE A PLAY WITH Aw EYE ON THE BOY OFFICE” drama, but not tainted-blood drama. Points Out That if White In saying this 1 realise that I myrelt Slave Evil Cannot Be| may be criticised because I produced Suppressed by the Au- ‘The Easiest Way.’ I did #0 because NA y | j i | | I considered !t a masterplece—one of =.= thorities It Certainly) tne tew reatty great American pl i “Can't by a Few Actors'" was an inspiration. Eugene Walter wrote It, 1 am sure, with no Intent to be sensational, nor with any purely | sell thought of the box office. He | wrote It in all. earnestness and. sincer | | _*—Merely an Exhibition | @f- Poor Wretches Who +» dreLike So Many Lepers —Sounds Warning to i ANN ANH i ity, and be told a serious story th: depicted a phase of Tenderloin life) out descending to its most victo re ha. He did not aim to appeal to} ." Managers. the morbid nor to jolt the sensitive. | Ge WE FEDERAL a a Yet this play was closed in Boston, cut GOVERNMENT t to pleces in Baltimore, and condemned , ’ By Charles Darnton. in other places, It had to fight every CAN'T STOP THS A FEW ACTORS can't inch of the way, yet it finally won the | fight and will, I firmly belleve, be, given a place, one of these days, among | the great American pla “Greater lcense is allowed the theatre to-day than ever before. The tendency [OUGH we didn't see David! Belasco strolling along his) footlights on Thursday night | he is in town, keeping a close eye ‘on the stage. Like you, perhaps, he mew its wboause& piny wiih an aye is watching {t with more than ordi-| | in, box office alone. Nothing, Inj nary interest, now that the pollce| ihe ena, could be more disastrous to have been pressed into service a8) the theatre, which depends for Its sup- ‘vas believed to be the house of the devil. When the actors cam housewives snatched their clothes | descend to victousness. | : “ey the Une in yard and dramatic critics, He believes {t 1s) Port upon « public that may be dulce see sot ee etn eare the theatre | #0, what is it? > high time for managers to sit up | '9 turn against It, Faith must be kept} ony it ‘ Jowten “apalnatiie tke s with that public; It must fee! that the ‘ people strugs 1 ‘ and take notice of conditions. He} Prejudice as unjust as it was ridiculous, theatre is an institution that can trusted and respected, “In my opinion, as I ha be) and only by untiring artistic effort that believes they should be the first to| finally won the respect, as well as the guard their own field. He believes already and thelr even worse associates be drama, no good can come of it, Surely if the Federal authorities cannot sup- press the white slave evil, a few actors opinion of a man who knows the! ,theatre as you know your own win t—and also lose It, “The ‘movies’ won a part of that pub-|am following ‘crook’ Ne when pictures were first given be- dbreshold. If any man lives in ft) 4, the stage can't. Nothing of value| cause those pictures told pretty, whole- | come, eapecially and for it, that man is David Be-/js taught by the ‘moral lesson’ of ajsome stor! But since the Wasco, This may sound like a/ play that makes an Insincere appeal. | turned to the sensatl 1 sometimes | Sing. | i 5 Suc! play merely exhibits poor) the vicious phases of life there has been | “To get back to the bi jsn’t, It’s the truth,|Such a play L Hedy pi eet savages, but i | wretches as it might so many lepers.|a change, This has helped to bring back |am convinced Every man-Jack, or woman-Gill, of ‘as must admit it. And that’s why ‘Pavid Belasco's words at this time} Even Bernard Shaw, with all his bril- liancy, could not gild a pill that the public would swallow. If the public tu-, It Is vile, In dealing with our galleries and our balconies in aj measure, But if our stage In deluged with red-light plays we cannot hope to “The brothel play is a mistake. I ‘have not seen the plays responsible for OM Present agitation, but I fee! jnati- fed in saying there !s no excuse for any play that har a disorderly houre ofee.ene of its scenes. I lke red-blood Came 6,000 Miles to . major, Let him tell his own story in ] That's the Fix of Major) *o¢"course, you know, 1 have always | Waller, Chief of the 1 Fire Department of the future of the theatre? “There was a time when the great actors and great actresses of this country could scarcely draw enough money to the theatre to pay their board bills, And why? Because the theatre |plays are merely blackbirds that pass lin the night, and unless I am greatly mistaken they will soon disappe “L intend to produce a play myself this season that deals with erlminais, but thix play makea no attempt to i | Tho .aTe! Fikes OUT! nan nore heard of the wonderful work of the New York Fire Department, and I fan- cled it was worth while to take my| lexand: “e leave to attend this nvention and see dl ria, Egypt—I tar aarm, Wary wali, shenni ¥ aeade | Got All the Alarms at} arrankements at my hotel to get ail the alarms, and every time the gong ! My Hotel,” Says He, “But When! Got tothe Fires, the Fires Were| Out, Don’t You See?” sounded I've started cut to see the fire. | Sometimes I've lost my way. For In- stance, only last night | got away down | to the bottom of West Thirty-thr: street—yes, of course, Talrty-thi just as I was steppin | & —no, of course, the Noi by told me the fire was In Bast Thirty- ' ". ¥t does not appear on the minutes third street. And when I had arrived s) wt the International Association of ;At the bottom of Kast Ti..:ty-three j Fire Engineers, which has been injetreet J met the engines coming back. 4 Central Palace all| THe, fire Was out, dun't you see? Geavien 88 the Gran “I've tried taking the trams, too, but nis week, but it 1s nevertheless true) our reitows are too fast for me, They that one of the visitors crossed 6000 | always have the fire out before I ar- sr ed-| eh ‘educated’ x From such an injury the] that it {9 up to the critics, are worth their weight in type, Here| ay 1s ‘educated’ up to the point wh re | hold our own. they 4 ae it will accept playa so brutally frank as| theatre could not recover in years, But| table thing * to be positively shocking, what can be|T do not belleve this will happen. Such | such @ play by the critics often as advertising, This whole que: one that the Theatrical Manag sociation might well consider, See a New York Fire and Hasn’t Seen One Yet popularize or glorify them, nor does It v to me {s that ft has @ big thought b hind 1t—Is there a cure for crime? If No matter what the fate of this play may be—and I'm not depending upon heroes or heroin: Justifying errors made—I shall be satls- fied 4f It helps the public generally, and eat thing nor admiration, of the public was this /I hope the Federal authorities particu- {hey bhould protect the public from |#A!4, the brothel should not be shown | prejudice overcome. All this work—|larly, to find the cause of crime and Polsoned plays. Iam simply giving |°" the stage, nor should painted women| the work of years—may now be undone | then to find the cure. The argument net i ‘ by plays that shock the jubiic, I have | forth js that crime, after alt, is nothing you his opinion as he gave It to me.) iaraied before the public. No real! gtudied that public lons and carefully. |more than the result of perverted You need not be told that it is the| argument can be made for the red-ligat|1 know how the theatre may woo and| thought. I've had this play in my hands for four years, so it cannot be said I plays. to me that at last the time for it has as attention cently been called to conditions in Sing It seems has re- t play, I that It teaches nothing. nauseating and dangerous. it we must firat rely upon the discretion of managers. After The regret- is that condemnation of for ite own good if not for that of the public. Let the theatre keep the good name it has struggled so hard to win!” ‘Fancy That Now’ @ WORLD, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, “Train ’Em?” Asks the | Comedian, Who Heads “His Own Company,” the Seven Little Foys; “I Didn’t Train ’Em— That’s the Way We Have Our Fun at Home” —And Just for Good Measure “Mother” Also Appears in the Act. Have you seen Eddle Foy and his own company? it'a his own company, all right, for {t's his own family, They're doing @ stunt this week at Keith’ in Union Square. Seven kids and Eddie. Well, 1913. —n 11 Head Salesman in a Glove On the Stage, Declares David Belasco Says Eddie Foy, ‘‘a EDDIE FOY AND SEVEN LITTLE FOY6. to the eyes, you gasp: “You little rascals!” The little sketch holds the audience. And after awhile it can’t hold them. The people just rise and cheer the antics of the youngsters. Oh! they are cute, and they are as funny as thelr dad, And they don't get a show in New York, for the Gerry Society won't let the Little ones act; won't iet them sing or dance. And thelr movements reveal the fact that they can both sing and dance. But they just help father. They giv! recitative. Yes, that’s what Eddie told Magistrate Breen in the early summer when he was haled to court for letting little Mary sing. “The Gerry Soc! ty ie all right,” sald Kddie, ‘It struck me that I ought to be allowed to instruct my children in thelr father's profession, but there are many peopie who don’t Ike to see chile dren on the stage. TI% Gerry Society ls looking after the weifare of the ies of New York, and you bet your maybe Bryan, who Is seventeen, might Object to being called a kid, for he's a Pretty husky lad, and Charley, who crowda Bryan clone for age, wouldn't for a minute stand the kid But there's Dick, who t# thirteen; Mary, twelve; Madeline, eleven; Eddie, seven, and Irving, five—they're kiddies, ald right. “Train ‘em? aye Eddie, “I didn’t train them; that's the way we have our fun at home.” { And home ‘s New. Rochelle. home of the Foys muat be some home. It's @ happy little family that frinks about the stage. The merry youngsters | Juat twine themselves about your heart, | You long to hug them there and as you! wipe the tears thelr fun has brought { boots, after the fashion of the London brigade, There's your Britisher for yout Besa, Why Zeno, the Strong | Man, Changed His Name While honeymooning through town @ few days ago, Dexter Fellows, the cirovs press agent who knows more persons! by their front names than any man io the United States, told this ones “The circus pays off evety Saturday in alphabetical order, On the list are Mure than a thousand names, This was bad for Zeno, the str an Who Ko ut sundown after hanging around tuily & Wlwie afternoon. Zeno was on the arrangement but had no redresy. | is spring, he showed up ready | for a contre The agent spotted hin {and jc passed this welcome hi lp : miles of black water expressly to #ee| rive, I begin to doubt whether I shail \7 | ..the famous New York Fire Depart-|over see them at work. Fancy that, though for twenty years chief of a de-) The biggest night's work he can r@- = "Why isn't your name Zeno, the: | ent put out @ fire and will go back | now!” partment of US native fel nin the|membor in his twenty years a five etronk man?” | | t week with his ambition still un-| Mr. Waller ta fully convinced that If igypcun city at the delta of the Nile, |.alarma—not quite enough to make | "No Is Ajax, Let some other gratified fires in New York run true to form he} ‘Thewe blacks he finds to be mitural) Kenloa turn over tn hls sleep. | is due to see the department at work on , f th inn smoke eaters-bray and| When tt gets hot in Alexandria tt te ‘This fs H. T. Waller, Chief of the) iremendous conflagration, he can|roady to tackle anything so long as,enough to make this week In New York Fire Department of Alexandria, FgyPt | ony wait long enough. Our hazards, ! there is a white man to bose the! look like @ hoar frost in an ice box.| Baker | @ fine, upstanding Briton of military) he thinks, are enormous, The trouble} jun, alle races his motor up and down t Mr, Waller soya he wears a tar-{ bearing who among his neighbors i8/is he has engased passage to England | the qight miles of water front and) boosh on work days and hie men gq known by the unpretending title ofjon the 10th. He returns that way, de> | som: Hines has $20,000,009 woth of cot+| through that tropleal heat, ac whieh to Asetie for!ing, as Bas been said, on pa is mind 40 protect trom Gre | Aree dled in brass helmets end tap News nat cninnsaarene atti ‘ Seen, 5 einige nee sitesi Se Seccckeattne ene bood do the Waiting this year.” — >. LETS IT SHINE. uffer doesn't belle his Nght under a bushel. hiding Hainilton—I should say he doesn't “ . And tho | jently does, He| he twists that little face of hi Ing to puts it in front of @ rellector,—Newark| Well known mug of his dad, He lite they are doing good work, As a man, having children of my own, I have to take my hat off to them," Well, there's nothing in the little sketch of the Foys to which exception cun be taken. y Just frolic on the stage as they in the house, and do that's what makes you love them and holler for them, and the comedian, world laugh f nearly two tions, looka them over with pride and ys to the audience, with his eyes: Now, what do you think of that?’ ‘The kiddies have fun with Eddle, too, and maybe they don't get « hand for! thelr fun, Their mother must have taught them thowe tricks, Six of them come on for starter, Then the father counts noses and disuppeare, He re- turns with @ carpetbag marked “Par-| cel Post.” When he opens this Irving, | the five-year-uld, steps out and throws kisses to the audience, This the elder Foy'a goat. At least, It appar- Tho little five-year-old in stewling his thunder, and Kddie pouts while the big laugh gu around the house, ldie ts as funny as ever and sings badiy, He retains his reputation In both performances, “Pm head salesman in a gl hv he says, “and I'm showing my kid ‘That gets w laugh, and a storm fol- lows when he telis the audience that it They love their dad, who has made the he moved to Piatbush he would make a | of It, #0 great would Le the in- | in population. Eddie stands on | the short end of the family on the stage, and that makes the rest of the | family look very» for he towers | over Ir the fve-vearsold. And Irving looks up at him and makes wry | faces. When the comedian gets a hand Irving bows and throws Kisse@ to the audience, Pather Moy is very muen | Put out adout that and the family get j more laughe. Phe kiddies tine up and each does a tte t Kuch has a talking part Charley Foy the spit of his dad.” De 1s 4 Sundayeschoo! girl, he the line and murmura | Kross Krew all wround And the ladicw Walsper: “Isn't he cute, he litle dear!’ And as he walks about they suile, They wateh hin face grin, then laugh and then holler | nto the Eddie Woy the Second for tai, Toe Litle imp Se ls funnier than the whole monkey house in Central Park. The family Is dressed in white, ail except the father, whose attir usual, would keep Worth guensing in Paris. The boys are in white duck, the girls in white lawns and black stockings and shoes. The girls are juat darlings, and you can't help wishing they were yours, When the holy inno- cents roll thelr eyes at thelr adored daddy, and put one over on father, it ost-night to the peace of the audience. When the kiddies trip off the stage after their dainty act, with curtsies and iret nd Father Foy in the rear, the audience yells for more. Then Eddie kneels to thé audience, and the family trips out and each kiddy Kjaxes him as he or she dances past him. And they're off again. Oh! more of that! more of that! demands the audi- ence, That one little touch has them all by the heart. It'a the handkerchief for the ladies and the big hand for the men, And Eddie has to make one of hin famillar speeches, I thank you for your kindness to the kids” he gays, “I was going to bring thelr mothér, only the stage wasn't big enough"— And the laugh ts nipped in the bud, Foy was known to the big stage as Morango the dancer. She danced for two years in the Em- pire Theatre in London. For two years she danced in the Grand Opera House in Paria She danced in the extrava- @ansae of the late Dave Henderson, Ghe danced into the heart of Eddie Foy, and hasn't danced since Bryan was born. the gets her share of the applause, then Eddie has to make a real speech. He again thanks the audience for the kind reception to the kids, and feels tug at his skirts, Litte Irving Is doing the tugging, With one of those won- House,”’ td I’m Showing [ly Kids’’ lp i “Father,” Gertul faces with which he laughed him- elf Into fame, the comedian looks in- quiringly down. anya the kiddy, “mother saya to come home.” And that breaks up the show. “Weil,” said Fddie, after the show, “they @ay that actors can't have any domeatic lite, I defy the alligator. Does that bunch look like race sul- elde? Of course their mother had to ve up her profession when the bables came, But she was willing. Her life was different after that, and if he haan't made a good mother show me. “As to the children going on the stage —well, the stage is my profession. I'm nota doctor. [I'm not a. law- yer. I'm not @ writer, [ am an actor, In all other professions men ike to have their sone follow their course in life. They can prepare their children for their future from the cradle, Society in New York won't perimit me to do that, and acting ts the only profession I zan teach my chil- dren, and I think that my profession is becoming more appreciated and more highly esteemed every d. ‘The preju- dice which existed against the stage In former years is almost entirely disal- Dated. ext week I appear in Washington, then go to Philadelphia. Where 1 go my family go with me Thy children’s mother {9 always with them and we have » woman tutor who travels with them. If any of the children want » adopt my profession, I want to give them all the training poadible. If they don’t take to it, 1 want to make them wick of it” That from Eddie Foy, who has been serving laughs to the public for the last thirty years or more. “IT want to be a singer and do serio work on the stage,” said Bryan, bis eldest son. “I want to be Eddie Foy the Second,” spoke up Charile, who is Eddie In the jempryo. A Hair Raising Controct “We all remember Russia jad down a how the ruler and Caar of stated (its wealth and its undertakin, attaches reportel to him dally | bbs that that was the way he wanted tie) they were asked from time to time railroad built from Petersburg to Mos-| ‘lid you show them the Kremlin” cow,” said John A. Morris, the owner) Yes. Your Hichness.’ ‘And were they of Morris Park Hace ‘Track, at a din-/antonished?” ‘No, Your Highness’ He ner on board his steam yacht Cora.| asked, ‘Have you shown them the Great sut perhaps you don’t kiow now he| Beil! “Yes, Your Highness.’ ‘And were looked upon the enormous cost of con-| they astonished” No, Your HMignens,’ Siruction (named In the contract made) and so on, naming ail the great sights for its building) to be pad to the con-| near, one after anot This went on tractors, Smith Brothers of Bulumore, | for si | days until at last there "AL one Je the road Was] seemed nothing else to have them shown, being built yrosentatives of ans /and with a sigh he turned to the court other country Were at the Court of| officer saying, ‘Well, I suppose we shall Russia and tae Cear gave instruction » to do it, So show them the con- that they should be snown 4 the with Bros, of Baltimore reat siehts, he mpreen | und if that them noth: jon them the gre sata, | ine ever w ‘The late Bishop Potter of the Epis: copal Church and Edwin Booth, the ac were very great friends, and the {shop In telling of his first meeting, Mr, Booth sald: “I was preaching sermon at Newport, R. 1, and it was & Very h@t summer's day, The door of the church was open and I noticed a or, Gentleman get up from 9 rear pew and | alone a> ns - Edwin Booth ee_an Audience od sit doWo on the doorstep, thought nothing of It unt after a while T realised that | was talking to this man only, When the seevices were over 1 found out that he wae Edwin Booth—that I by some aaknews influence hadg been drawn t@ speak te bim—as if m} sermon wae te tm is ens