Judge — May 8, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

——————— By Samuel Blythe Marcosson year’s profits and then takes the mazuma away from them in a single night’s poker game. Speaking of Ziegfeld, Erlanger is a great manager.” Once—it was in 1842, as I remember— I, together with Aleck Woollcott and a lot of other old-timers, went to see Mrs. Fiske in the first performance of Sardou’s “The Butter and Egg Man.” Her per- formance was a wonderful one. In the scene where Abraham Levy tells his father that the name of the Irish girl he is going to marry is Rosie Murphyski and so leads the old fellow to believe that his fiancée lives in New York, her acting was so remarkable that Herbert Swope, of the THE SATURDAY EVENING POST NUMBER OF JUDGE 5 Memories of an Old Playgoer Mrs. Ephraim Cherry, grandmother of the Cherry sisters, in ‘The Scandals of 1820" Oz of the most interesting nights I ever spent in a theater was at the Salem, Mass., Opera House in 1786. The bill was Robert. B. Mantell great favorite of those days, in “King Lear.’ The leading woman was Mrs. Whiffen. I well remember an occurrence at the end of the third act; the memory of it is as vivid as if it happened only yesterday. ‘The applause was terrific and upon Chauncey Depew’s shout- ing of “bravo,” Mr. Mantell, the great-great-grandfather of Burns Mantle, of the Daily News, came before the curtain and made a speech I shall never forget. Never have I heard such brilliance or wit. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr. Mantell, “I wish to thank you for your heart-warming recep- tion of our little efforts not only on behalf of myself, but. also on behalf of the entire company.” Another event, that stands out in my memory was the night Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater in Baltimore. To this day, the beautiful legs of the girl who was playing the réle of the maid linger in my recollection. Speaking of legs reminds me of old John Stetson, the famous theatrical manager. I met John, we were close friends, one afternoon in the oyster house near the old Union Square Theater. I recall the day well, as John said at the time, “It’s a fine day, isn’t it, Sam?” I asked John subsequently who he thought was the gre:test actress on the American stage. “Lillian Lorraine, he replied without a moment’s hesitation. And this, I may now record for the first time, is the reason why Ethel Barrymore got sore at the managers, dropped her skirts another inch and joined the Actors’ Equity Association. John Stetson was the greatest theatrical manager, except the Cherry Lane Playhouse, that I’ve ever known. Speaking of Lee Shubert one day, he observed, “The trouble with Lee is that he devotes all his time to manag- ing theaters. That won’t never get him nothing. Zieg- feld has the right idea. He spends all his time at Palm Beach waiting until the other managers show up with their (Continued on page 10) A scene from the performance of “‘The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief” at the Castle Square Theater, Boston, March 19, 1881 Mrs. Whiffen in the original version of “The Shanghai Gesture,” produced at Min- sky's Winter Garden in 1776 LEFT — Lillian Russell, tn “White Cargo” at the Euclid | Avenue Opera House, Cleve- land, 0., December, 1874 comicbooks.com