Life — November 30, 1905 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

A Dramatic Success. HE tunes were made by Johnson, The harmonies by Brown ; The “book” was done by Anderson, The jokes by William Towne ; The sce Was posted as ‘1a dream Smith s and Jones the lights And Hill the color-scheme, ic job, by Alphonse Daub, id the tig By Reginald von Herbert ‘The orchestra was led ; Lornelius Biggs designed the wigs Which crowned each choral head ; Goldstein and Co. supplied the show With grease-paint and cold cream, And Pete McGann the spot-light ran Which gave the star her gleam. ‘The leader of the chorus Was little Gertie Gymff— A perfect dear !—she held a spear And did it like a nymph. Bill Sykes was stage mechanic, (We print his name with pride), And James McGrew, head usher, too, Earned acclamation wide. Kahn held the ticket window And Wilson held the door, And Lzzinger, the manager, His honors proudly bore. But one small name, withheld from fame, Was scorned or else forgot ; The oversight was only right— He merely wrote the plot, Wallace Irwin. Horses and Others. HE Horse Show was a joy. Interest in the | exhibits was never | more acute. New 4 Yorkers area simple j\ people, hence the | absence at the Show } of vulgar display, or “ Society effects. During the whole week there was not one Societ Pusher or Snob in the whole vast assemblage. Dress- makers and milliners had nothing whatever to do with it. were glad to know >of any Lovers of horses, all over the coun! that Mr. and Mrs, Henri Werthe trip in Europe, were with Mr, and Mrs. Henry Seli And that Mrs. John Jacob Astor, more beautiful than ever, with a felt, trimmed with shaded gray and white feathets, attra from their wedd m, who have just returi ed hat of gray niversal Farmers, sports and breeders are keenly alive to the fact that Mrs, Reginald Vanderbilt ha iss Las Swan and Mrs. Glen Collins, and later on her mother, Mrs. Frederic Neilson, dropped in fora few minutes. Mrs. Vanderbilt, who is as handsome as ever, prettier, if any- thing, from her residence out of town, wore a black cloth frock and black das guests velvet coat, ‘LIFE While the high jumping was a disappointment to many, there was consolation in the knowledge that Mrs. J. Lee Tail chiffon cloth, made with three-qu “s blonde beauty was exhibited in a gown of silver gray eter coat and trimmed with satin, A Triumph for David Belasco. ESPITE the prevailing fashion among writers on theatrical topics to regard their statement that a play is melo- dramatic as being the final word of condemnation, it still remains a fact that there is melodrama and melodrama. So long as we keep out of the domain of the super- natural, we will have to admit that “truth is stranger than fiction,” and so long as that remains true, it will be difficult to define just exactly what is meant by the word melodrama, In its accepted form it may perhaps be taken to mean a piling up on the stage of events which are outside of ordinary experience, and hence not easy to believe. On this account they seem unnatural and stagey, and perhaps give the word the reproach which contemporary critics are so fond of bestowing upon it. This seems to be the worst thing that can be said of Mr, Belasco's latest offering, The Girl from the Golden West.” It is perhaps the highest tribute that can be paid to this work of Mr. Belasco’s to grant that it is melodramatic, because he has sup. plied to his melodrama an atmosphere and a logic that take from it the elements of improbability and exaggeration, which are the discredit, of the melodrama contemporary critics are wont to decry. Ilusion is of the charms of the stage, and Mr. Belasco's credit is the greater the greater the unreality he makes real to us, whether he does it by his scenery, his lights, his language, his selection and training of his players, his arrangement of scenes, situations and speeches, or all of these combined, He may even avail himself of hackneyed material, but if the result of what he does is to make a coherent whole which holds the attention closely and excites the emotions without insulting the intelligence, he has done a thing which is most creditable in the artistic and creative sense, whether we call it melodrama or anything else, Whatever credit we may give to the artists and artisans who work his will and actually produce the results, the greatest praise must go to the brain which furnishes the creative faculty and the organizing power to weld the efforts of so many others into the stage story which carries us away from ourselves and into another world where we forget our own lives and live the existence of the im- aginary people before us, ‘ery one knows that Mr. Belasco is highly theatric in his methods, It is perhaps unfair of him to take possession of our minds by sur prising us at the beginning of the play with his unusual rop and second moving curtain, But who stops to think whether it is fair or not when one finds one’s thoughts transferred at once, whether one wishes it or not, from Forty-second Street, with its cabs and clang- ing street-cars, and from the interior of a New York theatre to the land of the setting sun, to the heights of the Sierras, and thence down the valley, until we are within the walls of the Polka comicbooks.com