| Show s t 1 I Salt Lake Feb 20 1S97 Dear Hal p Dear old Jim Herne For he is getting I get-ting on speaking terms with the sere and yellow and theres no denying it Its a pleasant thing to see success come as a crown to a mans life when that life has been one of such toil as r Hernes The only dread danger is that it may come too late to be fully enjoyed as in the case of the lamented Mayo But I met Herne on the street the other day sauntering about with Phil Margetts and certainly nothing in his manner indicates that he is not getting full enjoyment out of his existence ex-istence at the present time at least The lines are a little deeper in his face it Is true than they were 13 years ago but his general appearance it that of a very prosperous sojourner on Easy street Herne talks most entertainingly of his oldtime experiences in Salt Lake He tirst struck our town in 1868 in re twining east from San Francisco where he had been stage manager for Barry Sullivan He and Lucille Western played a long star engagement here supported by Phil Margetts David McKenzie and others of the old notable Eeseret Dramatic company Caine arJ I Clawson were the managers of the house at that time A round of such I plays as Oilver Twist The Child Stealer Foul Play Rip Van inkle in-kle and Lucrezia Borgia was given and many oldtimers for years regarded re-garded Hernes Rip as not second even to Jo Jtffersons He always had a leaning towards realism even in those days and his Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist was one of the most powerful o and terrible ot all stage delineations of those times As everyone who has I read the book knows Bill murders Nancy by beating her head to pieces 1 Herne to all appearances used to drag Western off the stage by her hair Then the thud that was heard outside as he is supposed to pound her head on the floor was vastly more terrible in I J1aLLI its effect on the audience than it would have been had it been done in view Finally Sykes reappears wiping his bloody arm with a sheet He stands alone in the center of the stage lost for a moment in moody contemplation contempla-tion when from the side wing a hideous hid-eous bloodbespattered something ono would not call it a human figuredrags itself on drags Itself to Sykes feet and from its lips issues the gasp Kiss me Bill I forgive you It is Xancy the breath not quite battered out of her body and on her head she has fixed a raw and bloody beefsteak matting her hair over it The effect may be imagined Several women are said to have fainted and the play was I not allowed to be repeated next night Since those days Herne has been before be-fore the public as both author and actor Hearts of OakkThe MinuteMen Minute-Men and Margaret Fleming the latter a bold study of modern social life that was thought to be too strong even for New York and Boston society so-ciety and was hence withdrawnhave all come from his pen but all have amounted to nothing compared with the success of Shore Acres It is now five years since he persuaded the late Horace McVicker to produce the play in Chicago It scored an immediate failure due to the fact that Mr Mc Vickergenerally conceded to be an ex ellent judgewas not abreast with Hernes advanced ideas and that he Insisted on a great many changes being be-ing made in the manuscript Heavens man he exclaimed to Herne do you think any audience in the world will sit still at 11 oclock at night while your play is winding up with no one on the stage uttering a word I and the curtain going down on an empty stage They wont have it So the managers ideas prevailed Herne made the changes and the play failed to make in Impression He had faith in it however end later when he was able to bring it out at the Fifth Avenue Ave-nue in New York and to give his fancy lull rein his genius was recognized recog-nized Instanter and since then the world has been at his feet Though his business has not been what he looked for in Salt Lake Mr Burton says It would be called excellent for I the average attraction he had greatly enjoyed himself with old friends Phil I Margetts and David McKenzie especially espec-ially being in attendance at every performance per-formance At the Grand Gwynnes Oath has not set the Jordan afire It is a sort lof i New York Ledger tale with only I two moments out of the ordinary one when Edwards a capital villain commits com-mits the murder and the other when Gwynne Indulges her somnambulistic propensities and brings the murder home to him Miss Bateman is always I al-ways capable virile magnetic bet be-t lieve she could hold her audiences with r selections from the compiled laws Femaledom received the joyful news that Governor Wells had signed the antihigh hat bill In a sort of stupefaction stupe-faction All of us thought it was a hoax none of us dreamed that our headgear could ever really be made a subject for legislation But its law ladies at least and everyonebut the milliners are singing hosannas about it Now Messrs Burton and Rogers to enforce it MARGE DRAMATIC AND LYRIC The coming week will be a most interesting In-teresting one witnessing as it will all three places of amusement open at reduced prices Tomorrow being a hoi j iday all three will doubtless do good j business indeed the Mascot after I noon and night houses promise to be I sold out before the performance After i that it will be a question of merit alone as to which secures the business 1 busi-ness The production of the Mascot is an I experiment and the management in charge of the new company is making It a thorough one No opera so expensive ex-pensive to produce as the Mascot is could have been selected as the cast is heavy It requires nearly 150 costumes cos-tumes Incidental dances have to be arranged the orchestra needs enlarging enlarg-ing and In every way the attendant expenses are beyond the average If the public patronage Is such as to yield any returns over the outlay then the Salt Lake Opera company may be a permanency otherwise not Certainly at the prices charged the public must attend In great numbers to even bring back the expenses Willard Weihe has musical charge Professor McCIellan will preside at the piano the orchestra will consist of 11 I the chorus numbers 40 and the principals princi-pals are made up of such well known fxe singers and actors as J D Spencer H S Goddard Miss Savage Miss Levy i Harry Shearman George Westervelt i John Robinson Alex Campbell Della I I Daynes Bessie Edmunds Ella Derr j Nellie Halliday F Graham and John James Miss Savage has rare singing I opportunities appearing first as a peasant next as a court lady next asa as-a soldier boy and again as a peasant Miss Levy will make her first stage appearance I ap-pearance her rich voice will have ample am-ple chance and being a pronounced I brunette her disguise as a gypsy in the last act should suit her admirably I Spencer has the big comedy role one that was always a favorite with Nat I Goodwin Goddard the singing part of Miss Savages lover Shearman the I tenor role Westervelt the companion I part to Spencer and Robinson the secOnd sec-Ond baritone as the sergeant The full chorus is made UD as follows fol-lows Sopranos Della Daynes Ella Derr Lucy Dean Ardelle Cummings Sara Patten Bessie Edmunds Lillie Bitner Ida Pitt Rose Romney Ruby Pike Mary Price altos Henna Tyler Nellie Nel-lie Halliday Anna S Hughes Billie Naylor Allie Bitner Ethel Saville ElsIe El-sIe Barrow Emma Jorgensen tenors Fred Graham Frank Foster Willis Ames Max Brodie R J Thomas Sam Spry Charles Strong Chester Ames Robert Edmunds basses John Sharp W G Patrick Charles Lambourne Joseph Jo-seph Sauer Winslow Smith John James Alex Campbell F Gill vve > The total business at the Grand for the past week would hardly have shown up well with the Caprice and Bankers Bank-ers Daughter weeks but for the advent ad-vent of Fitzsimmons The probabilities are that the 50 per cent of that monster nights receipts the opera house management man-agement are said to have retained I gave the weeks total a very handsome hand-some boost For the coming week the Grand announces a double bill l in mib snJfa is Gilberts charming Sweethearts and Buckstons Married Life There will be eight performances six nights and two matinees the opening being tomorrow to-morrow afternoon The casts are as follows Agnes Ranken makes her first bow during this week SWEETHEARTS Henry Spread brow Howard Kyle Wilcox a gardener Frank Hatch Jenny Northcott Victory Bateman Ruth her maid servantJessie Izette Thirty years elapse between acts 1 and 2 Sweethearts will be followed by the screaming farce in three acts I entitled 1 MARRIED LIFE Lionel LynxWalter Edwards f II Frederick Younghusband u I Thomas W Ross j i George Dismal Hugh Ford Henry Dove H D Blakemore Samuel Coddle Frank B Hatch I Mrs Coddle Jessie Izette Mrs Lynx Mamie Dupont Mrs Dove Margaret Marshall I Mrs Dismal Agnes Ranken Mrs YounghusbandVictory Bateman 000 Fullv alive to the importance attaching at-taching to stare settings and costum ery Fanny Davenport has spared neither expense nor pains to make the I production of Sardous Gismonda which she will present at the theater next week as elaborate as possible from tht scenic point of view Each of the five tableaux has been carefully prepared from models and plates made under the actress own supervision su-pervision and the costumes were made from designs of her own idea of the play By those who have seen it it is said to be the most gorgeous production II pro-duction ever seen on any stage Besides Miss Davenport as Gismonda and Melbourne McDowell as Almeno I the cast includes 25 speaking characters charac-ters and a grand chorus The story I 1 of the play it is well to recall concerns con-cerns Gismonda a widow duchess of Athens who is ruling as regent during the minority of her son Like Penelope of old she is surrounded by suitors for her hand chief of whom is Zac caria a cousin of her dead husband and ap unscrupulous villain Confident of securing the hand of the duchess and wishing to rid himself of her child he manages that the boy shall fall into a tigers den The frenzied mother vows that she will wed him who saves her son The boy is rescued not by a noble but by Al merio a peasant who has long loved her in secret In the last act Almerio is accused of killing Zaccaria and to save the duchess duch-ess name he confesses the crime She however completely conquered by his generosity and manliness tells all and begs him to become her husband I < > 0 As this is Miss Davenports farewell fare-well appearance in the Sardou roles there has been a great demand everywhere every-where to witness those to strong and intensely interesting dramatic plays i Fedora and La Tosca and thev l I will be presented Monday and Tuesday l i Tues-day nights when costly silver souvenirs souve-nirs will be given to the ladies on the lower floor as tokens of remembrance remem-brance of this popular actress farewell I In the Sardou i plays Wednesday i Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday I Sat-urday matinee Gismonda will be the attraction e 0 0 The Georgia Graduates played a re turn date at the Lyceum last evening and were applauded vigorously by their admirers the star Ernest Hogan j coming In for the principal amount of adulation 000 Professor Joseph Daynes organist at the tabernacle has arranged in honor of President Woodruff the song My Fathers Growing Old as an organ solo and it will be rendered on Sunday Sun-day next during the exercises at the tabernacle in honor of President Woodruffs Wood-ruffs birthday Mr Daynes has written an introduction to the song and made four variations on the theme one of which Is played with the feet The new solo will be heard with interest by everyone Mr Davnes ward choir the Twentieth Twen-tieth has deferred the date of its co cert owing to the fact that several Jf his leading singers are engaged with the Mascot company C5 < > V Herne said farewell to Salt Lake before two good audiences yesterday the Idaho legislature attending in a body last evening with several members mem-bers of the Utah solons The matinee attendance was heaviest in the cheaper sections above the rates charged being from Sl down to 25 cents Nothing seen for ears approaches the tender idvll Herne has written in Shore Acres It is a powerful moral sermon in its effects and it will long be remembered re-membered and recalled with delight by the Salt Lake theatergoing public Monday the company opens in San Francisco where It will do an enormous enor-mous business 4I The Bittner Theatre company is the next attraction to appear at the Lyceum Ly-ceum opening tomorrow night in The Fire Patrol which is the bill for the first three nights of the week being succeeded for the remainder of the i i week by Uncle Danl the Messenger from Jarvis Section The Bittner company is said to be a very high class organization which has been doing a tremendous business throughout the west this season They closed a weeks engagement last night at Ogden where they played to business far in excess of that ever done by any similar attraction at-traction The company is headed hy Mr W W Bittner who was seen here last season in Ned Royles company He played Major Bugs in Mexico and Jacks father in Friends and made a strong Impression in those parts Bittner Is a young man a giant In stature who r several seasons sea-sons played the leading parts In the Fourteenth street theatre and Grand Opera House New York Edisons latest and most wonderful Invention the triograph which is an improvement on the vitascope is carried by this company and tight pictures are shown each night Over 100 views are carried and many will be exhibited which have never been I seen here before beforeaoe < aoe New York Feb Olme Nordica I arrived in New York yesterday after her concert tour in the west and is stopping at the Hotel Waldorf Maurice Maur-ice Grau met her at the railway station sta-tion He has made arrangements for her to sing in Covent Garden this spring Mme Nordica will go to Paris in April and appear at the National opera house there as Aida Valentine and Elsa singing of course in French I She will not appear in opera in New York before she goes to Europe Mr Maurice Grau received a cable from Mme Melba yesterday in which she said that it was not possible for I her to sail on Saturday as she expected ex-pected and that she would ill all probability I prob-ability leave on the Majestic n < xt I Wednesday She added that she hops I to appear in La Traviata in Chicago Minday evening March S IT gD I The Princess De Chimay has given 1 Mr Oscar Hammerstein an option + nn her services at the Olympia Mu = ic I hall Mr Hammerstein has a week in I which to decide whether he will pay the salary asked Since her elopenunt I with the Hungarian violinist Rlgo there have been several rumors of her intention inten-tion to go on the stage but they have I all been denied It seems hoer i that the princess is not altogether averse to becoming a vaudeville star I provided the salary paid is large enough Mr Aarons one of Mr Osiar I Hammerstelns business staff recently I went to Europe to engage artists for the Olympia Music hall and especially to see what kind of a deal he could I make with the Princess De Chimay He cabled Mr Hammerstein that he I had called on the princess at Monterle I and that she was willing to appear at the Olympia for something like 000 I a week with certain incidental expenses ex-penses in addition I I dont know what I shall do yet said Mr Hammerstein last night The Continued on Page 131 THE STAGE Continued From Page 11 princess has given me a weeks option and I am considering I may engage her and I may not If she comes she will appear In a sketch of some kind Whether or not Rlgo will appear with her Mr Ham merstein does not know but he presumes pre-sumes that the violinist will accompany accom-pany her to America should she come Stage Whispers Georgia Cayvan is one of the theaters thea-ters big coming attractions Grace Gayler Clarke is the highest salaried member of the Ilerne company com-pany Owing to the length of the Mascot Mas-cot the opera will begin at 2 and 8 sharp Julia Marlowes new Dlay Bonnie Prince Charlie has scored an immense im-mense success in New York Herne Is proud of the fact that he played with Maud Adams the first time she ever appeared before the public pub-lic The Mascot train leaves for Ogden at S p m Friday and for Loan at 4 p m Saturday It will run as a social over the Union Pacific The manager of Camilla Urso the renowned lady violinist is in the city making arrangements for the appearance appear-ance here of his star some time in March Patience is to be revived at the Tivoll in San Francisco and the busy brain of Stage Manager George BLack B-Lack is at work on the details The Salt Tjikfi Onpra pnmnnnv he the way has had an invaluable I 1iln Mr Lask in preparing the Mascot Unable to obtain a view of the stage by reason of the size of the hats worn by the women seated in front of them the male portion of the audience In 1 the theaters at Brest have now byway by-way of protest adopted the fashion of taking cushions with them to the theater which when placed on the seats add a considerable number of Inches to their stature and enable them to see over the hats in front of them j However inasmuch as this in turn interferes in-terferes with the view of the people behind be-hind them the theatrical performances at Brest of late have been characterized character-ized by so much disorder that the authorities au-thorities have been asked to intervene in behalf of the managers failing in which the latter declare that they will be compelled to close their houses |
