Judge — January 1, 1921 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

awn by Henwas Parwen JUDGE at the Play HEATREGOERS are going to have | their pocketbooks aulted — still more seriously than now if the retiring Democratic Party (acting through its present Secretary of the instruct the Republicans as to how they shall the new taxation. A sixty-cent taxwill be added to every three lar ticket, if Secretary Houston has his way That will box-office price of theatre-tickets for successful shows thn dollars and seats at th the basis on’ which the Naturally the speculators, and the who sell through x receives its propor- Treasury) is permitted to increases in make the ixty cents each. .As no one buys box-oflice this represents only speculator price will be fixed. managers peculators, see to it that the new ta tion of increase Mr, U, Pay who vhen it is passed along to lly buys the ticket Sou WHERE or other Jepcr has r about a certain last straw that broke certain camel's back. Up to present writir Mr.l has stood the high cost of theatre ing very manfully or very damphoolishly Inf cases during the recent period of big inc 1 high f has pai prices for pe mediocre theatrical enter tainment. In the more rational times which seem imminent, this will break his back as a cu wel him to be depending on the point of view w increase may be the straw that omer the theatres. come a movi n in spite of his preference for the spoken drama ND what will the managers They stockings off economized on the re have already taken the the chorus-girls a mainder of their costumes to the ‘umonia point. They cannot safely go much further in that direction Their gorgeousness has so spoiled the public that they do not dare cheapen their productions. With good actors competent writers they cannot reduce salaries nd royalties wit centage of their theatres. And there's no profit in a closed theatre The managers are ingenious gentlemen and always seem to find some means of escape from the dangers which threaten them from time to time. In the matter of the threatened tax they may even take into consideration the fact that Mr. U. Pay is the goose that lays the golden eggs, and that it won't ¢ kill him utterly. One competition in so few, and » scarce ut closing a goodly per means might be, in to redu There have would not omission of f girl-and-music shows. girls which the case the number of the ch been very few choruses have been improved by the three or four of their alleged beauties . * * WILL some mectium kindly page the late Mr. Rafiles? He would vastly enjoy impressions Miss Mary {the criminal world, but brought a curious combination of comparing with Brennan by her calling an into close association with higher social circles of which, Mr himself was, in unptofessional circumstances those Rafiles moments, such a distinguished ornament honest with these crooks. We really like them, We never them except on the stage, and there they give us In fact, they don't Let us be meet many a pleasant moment exist. anywhere but on the stage, i imagination of novelists, and in the tions handed out by detectives who a haps not expert judges of th refinement of the ture and persons are called upon to deal sobriquets as “Gentleman Jerry” and Count” may carry conviction in the crit and detective world, but their bearers rarely whom they n the circles where they are supposed ks successful in get far 10 operate. The few ore society ¢ have not r manners but in spite of them ot by on account of HAT'S one reason for enjoying Mar Brennan in Mr Mitchell's “Comered.”” She's such a delightfully im possible little criminal. ‘The appealing an artist The combination, aided second is that she’s impersonated by 1s Madge Kennedy by a strong dash of pre-natal influence, supplied by the author, makes her entircly at home in every one of the most unusual situations in which she herself. It really seemed overdoing it a bit to add to the eful a person, the marvel would Irving Savage has given his new star excellent support for this kind of a venture, with the gamut running from a Chinatown dive to an Eighty-Second Street boudoir. It may be remarked in passing that the veracity was a bit stronger in the lower end of the Island. * 8 “QrORNERED,” as a play, shows a thor- stage acquaintance with the finds ifts of so rese at muscle-reading which even the late ous ability have put to Bishop. Col shame ough 20 «drama inge thrill the rchestra is methods of criminal m nuity in devising situations. ‘T tllery loves, and to which the not entirely asserted itself with sullicient frequency. .Any feeling of strange- ness was averted by the presence of those old friends, the cocaine addict and the bullying detective. It was possible to recognize the former and his failing because at times he averse back of his forefinger across his nostrils, This novel bit of characterization pleasant that it should by no means ever be omitted from any drama d The Chinatown dive was much more interesting than those kept running to bore the deluded patrons of the s which are permitted to tened city drew the with the lower world. big sight-seeing c carry on their trailic in the enl of New York The play gains interest as marking the return of Madge Kennedy from the movies to the speaking stage. It is always pleasant to extend the glad hand to these erring sisters and so try to figure out how r heen disfigured by wandering from the fold. In the case of the present star it_may be » serious effects h they have said that she shows quite as pretty as she was, and in regis: tions displays none of the familiar in the mov tering her er exaggerations close- omnered"” is sure-enough melodrama and really (watch this word carefully, please) interest. become It is no longer so smart to be pleased with a play given at a comfortable and convenient theatre as it is to journey to some remote with an unbathing audience, seated in back-breaking chairs and an unventilated atmosphere of air breathed many times over. These little journeys in search of the true, the beautiful and the good in dramatic art repay the pil grim (if he escapes contagion, infection or parasites) by permitting him to assume an air of intellectual superiority over the Phil- istine who finds his theatregoing energies exhausted by the superfluity of entertain- ment in the usual low-browed theatres. The sport of pioneering is a delightful one for those who do not mind its discomforts, and there is no joy comparable to that of the discoverer who discovers something that isn't Matcalfe. HEATRICAL slumming has quite a fashionable pastime. part of town and go into ecstacies comicbooks.com