Life — September 12, 1907 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

*LIFE* The Ball Is Up are again, those of us who have survived an especially silly summer theatrical season. May the law of averages make the regular season just inning give the New York public some coi pensation for the cheap atrocities whose only ex- cuse for existence was that they were “summer shows."” Just why theatrical purveyors insist that the stage shall add frivolities and inanitiestothe other discomforts of the heated term is another of those unsolvable mysteriesof the managerialbrain, The most important development of the close season is the growth of our own pet Theatrical ‘Trust into a far more important organization to be known as the Universal Theatrical Trust. It is to have a thousand billion dollars of capital, which was provided by Messrs. Klaw & Er- langer from the hot air prevalent during the summer. It will control not only the theatres of America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Cannibal Islands, but negotiations are in progress with prominent managers in Mars, Saturn, the moon and other stars and planets to place their houses under the control of the new trust. It will have a monopoly not only of all the legitimate stage entertainment in the universe, but will also take charge of all vau- deville, circuses, minstrels, Punch and Judy shows, church so- ciables, county fairs, chicken fights and mumblety-peg. As usual, Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger will be the sole booking agents and will collect for their services five cents from every dollar paid by anybody in the entire solar system to see anything. * 8 « ITH the opening of the season comes the news of the death of Mr. Richard Mansfield. Lire: has never shared the estimation of Mr. Mansfield as an actor which endowed him with greatness in the belief of an undeniably large following, nor has it credited him with an unselfish and self-effacing devotion to the profession in which his name has gained such prominence. What- ever he did, however, he did lavishly and on a scale un- usual to-day on the legitimate stage. In eccentric char- acterization he was at his best, and his name will survive longest in connection with réles which he apparently considered unworthy of his powei se 8 SA comedy any better when it’s musical? The trans- mogrification of our old friend “The Gallopers” into “A Yankee Tourist” by the addition of some clever lyrics by Mr. Wallace Irwin and some catchy music by Mr. Robin, together with the inclusion of a number of comely chorus persons, leaves the answer still in doubt. Even religion seems to be more popular with added musical features, so perhaps Mr. Hitchcock was not unwise in secking to profit by that fact. The piece was amusing before, and it is certainly not less so now. ROM the giddy capital of France, via London, comes the vehicle chosen for this year’s display of Mr. John Drew’s stellar abilities. become so well defined, or, to put it morcexactly, sostrictly limited by what his management evidently thinks the public expects of Mr. Drew, that it is enough to say that the leading réle in “My Wife” is a well-bred man of the world approaching or arrived at middle age, who finds himself in various predicaments in which he conducts himself asa more or less simple-minded gentleman should, and that Mr. Drew supplies to these requirements his well-known personality and his equally well-known case of manner and artistic finish of method. ‘Those of us who have seen him in parts de- manding greater accomplishment may be excused for regretting that in these days of few good actors Mr. Drew’s work is confined to such easy and pleasant lines. In Mr. Drew's support Mr. Gottschalk brought to a part almost as prominent as the star's his usual laughable personification of the well-born Englishman of stunted brain growth. ‘The leading woman is Miss Billie Burk reimportation from England, who brought to an inconceivably in- génue part a daintiness and gracefulness of person, speech and manner unusual and highly agreeable. ‘That long-time favorite, Mr. Morton Selten, transformed himself into an elderly French papa with amusing success. In its entirety, the cast showed care- ful and intelligent rehearsal, and the result was a smooth and charming performance. ‘The play itself is a flippant comedy inspired by the possibilities of the French divorce law and deodorized for the Anglo-Saxon market. The plot hinges on the phenomenal innocence or igno- rance of a young French girl in the matter of the real meaning of marriage and her matter-of-fact assumption that her doting but not too elderly guardian will marry her temporarily, so that later ‘These have comicbooks.com