| Show = i1 1r4 i S hj 4 J J W V 9 L V 1 a I1IJ15k i1r 1q1 ai This week Salt Lake Theater Harry Har-ry Cors If i Clarke In What Did Tom kins Do Thursday Friday and Saturday Sat-urday nights and Saturday matinee O The past week Salt Lake has enjoyed an exceptional play an attraction for the payworn and brainweary theatergoer theater-goer rather than for the newcomer to the theater Anyone who has had much observation of theatrical audience can understand that there are very few plays which appeal to all classes of theatergoers the-atergoers As a rule the finest products are those which appeal strongest to those who are inveterate amusement seekers while the crudest appeal more forcibly to the newcomers to the theater the-ater A few weeks since a gentleman of Salt Lake who scarcely misses an attraction I at-traction in the entire season sat with utter disgust through what he called two hours of rot and trash In a vain trying to find some scintilla of enjoyment enjoy-ment in the whole performance The I next afternoon he allowed his two children chil-dren and their governess to attend the theater and was utterly dumfounded to find that they had not only absorbed I the play greedily but continued to smack their lips and talk glowingly I about it for days in succession I J Sag Harbor is a play for the worn out theatergoer It is refreshing Invigorating In-vigorating delicious Treating of the 4 simplest characters and the simplest themes it was given like all great art I with such rare skill as to make It seem a reality It goes without saying that only really great actors can be effective In such works The ordinary farce comedian or song artist would be as incapable I in-capable of accomplishing anything In I I Sag Harbor as a sign painter would in trying to reproduce Rosa Bonheurs Horse Fair l It was rather a strange circumstances that a piece so superb in every feature as Sag Harbor should have fared so indifferently in this town of enthusiastic theatergoers One observing commentator has declared that the people like to be humbugged and It may be that the frankness the management in announcing that Mr i Herne did noL firpnmnjiiiv Snrirovh n I I co may have kept a number away from the performances As a matter of fact Mr Hernes role IK by no means the predominating one In tho play Capt Dan Marble is If anything a subsidiary part certainly not tho leading one Sag Harbor Is I a play in which one can freely enjoy himself giving vent to his mirth and his tears It Is too bad that the whole theatrical season cannot be Interspersed with half a dozen plays of the atmosphere of Sag Harbor g 1 Pipe KtJrles us they arc Irreverent ly called by advance agents have come to form a very large proportion of the news dealt out by large newspapers to their dramatic readers It may be that this is another Illustration of the Bar mini proverb that the public likes to be humbugged but be that as it may ninetenths of the stories anecdotes and yarns related about members of the theatrical profession arc purest myths i There are doubtless Incidents In lives of nil players which arc out of the the I ordinary and which would make Inter I esllng readlngbut these have been al I mostly entirely swallowed up in the stories invented by writers enterprising t < space necking to advertise < In this novel l way their attractions No little I amusement is furnished the theatrical I press agent by noticing how his yarns I manufactured wholly by his own en tcrprlsimr brain are caught up by the press and repeated from oner city to the other till the whole public comes to bc i licve the tales absolutely time Many I Mars have come to rate the ability of j their press representatives upon their I 1 BUCCCSS in getting these fabrications In Ito I-to the newspapers and when fictions I cnn be foisted upon the popular m zines maga the triumph is compete In old days Ibis sort of business was known as circUFing all attraction Now it Is considered entirely legitimate and the foundation of a successful theatrical agent One can MCa1rcl scarcely look in any Sunday newspaper without finding a multitude of these stories nmaufac tuied out of whole cloth but related as actualities j A few months since Frank Perley Alice Nielsens was laughingly relating to representative a Tribune re 1 porter hln early successes In this line At that time he was press agent for Barnums show he concocted the story about Jumbo beIng killed by a biff I freight online while endeavoring save the to I life of the baby elephant The only filtmput of the story that had any foundation to it waa that Jumbo had I been killed by 1 a freight engine The employees of the circus Mr Parley aid were unloading the giant p elephant when a big freight I train which had not boi > n properly warned by the train dispatcher came crashing In the menagerie oars Jumbo was Just about to be led down a 1 fltccp grade and although the em plo ees saw the train comIng nothing could Induce the elephant to move Mr Perle Perley > very cleverly utilized the Inci I dent in iiroiu no a rnVnnnrc about th l great affection between Jumbo and the I baby The same sort of pipe stories are being continually evolved and perpetrated per-petrated upon the public largely through the Instrumentality of dramatic dra-matic editors too lazy to write their own matter So much has it become a matter mat-ter of custom that nearly every advance agent now travels with a lot of stereotyped stereo-typed stories which he is desirous of foisting upon the local public before which his attraction is about to appear An amusing incident in this line recently l re-cently came within the experience of The Tribune A certain star who has t lately been s enl in Salt Lake wrote a personalletter to the dramatic editor to say that he had spent considerable time delving into historical readings in search for fads regarding the character charac-ter he was impersonating This matter mat-ter he said had never appeared in print although It had been written for the use of a certain prominent Eastern newspaper He presented it to The Tribune he said as an original and unpublished un-published article which would attract wide attention and be most Interesting not only to Salt Lake readers but to the country at large The funny part of the affair was that by the same mail his business representative who had not been advised of the contents of the letter sent to the dramatic editor an Eastern paper with the same article in print blue penciled On another occasion occa-sion one of the regular reviews of a dramatic performance in this city was handed next season to The Tribune for publication labeled original and not duplicated During the year In which the stuff had beei in use the elm for pris ing advance man had forgotten altogether alto-gether where It had originated and re turned It to the very paper in which It first appeared as an article of his own It seems to be the Idea of most mem hers of the theatrical business rater I nlty that newspapers are printed for the special purpose of advertising gratis theatrical wares A merchant a tailor or a life Insurance agent who would bring to a newspaper a long writeup of his business and present It as a news article would be looked upon as a curl osity and yet this is the regular prac tice among theatrical agents Vhen some unfavorable incident relating to their stars Is published they look upon it almost as a crime as if a paper were published in the interest of the attrac tions instead of readers I It Is likely that one or two of Salt i Lakes clever amateurs will be taken next season by Harry Corson Clarke for 1 his company Mr Clarke had a wide J reputation as a theatrical educator The number of young and ambitious novices I whom he has developed Into artists j could hardly be enumerated In ncol i won Probably no work Is more exact Ing I and less remunerative than lhat of j blinking out aspiring stage proteges Most young people go on the stage with I the Idea that all Is play behind the fool lights l When as they suddenly discover I It i is not only work hut the hardest kind of drudgery with all sorts of disap I pointments awaiting them they drop out of the profession In spite of ajl I this t however It is to Mr Clarkes i credit that so many of those who have I taken up stage work under his tuition j I have proved successful I artlsls Prob ably in no realm iJT Mr Clarke so thor i oughly nt home as that of making up I I The rapidity with which he can change himself from a fourteenyearold boy 1 to nn old man or from a dapper dude to fa phlpjnatlc German professor in al J I j most incredible It Is probably due to i j the fact that Clarke Is hard taskmas I tor and IpsifUs on thorough work and absolute lIsciphIlle that so many plaints < are laid against him j I Ingratitude ap I 1 pears to be the rultroii the stage It is I I too often the case that a stage man agervwho has spent seasons of patient labor In ironing out an actor finds I the recipient all his labor deserting his ranks and applying to some other I company for tho sake of a slight in crease in salary or lift In position Mr f Clarke has had his i 1 full share ot cares I iilid I responsibilities In this direction Drilling recruits seems to have occupied I almost as much of bin time as creating new roles Fortunate indeed is the young aspirant who succeeds In Inter esting Clarke to the extent of an en I gagemeul for if made of the right fiber Clarke is sure to find it out and devolep the latent talent I 4 The story of What Did Tompkins J I Do is thus related by J W Frankel j Harry Corson Clarkes manager Mr I Frankel Is himself a dramatic writer 5 L of some ability so that hls summary tells thc story very concisely I Col Tompkins Is a typical New i Yorker of GO physically alive mentally I wide awake of generous kindly Im pulses and hence no less happy In dispo sition than in manner Unfortunately his Income Is not adequate to his ex pansive taste and expensive habits Naturally he Is often at his wits end to raise the wind yet truth to say not 1 so much for gel jndulgence as to carry out his ever onerous though often hazardous sthmn sin s-In one of his post impecunious straits Col Tompklns 1 decides to send out a theatrical company in support of oi a pro fessional friend Gwendoline Gwynne I who Is ambitious to star lIe advertises I fn > an anccl who turns up unawares 1 In the person of one Josiah Plant a fashionable florist Plant who has reached the age limit is no less anx loun to secure than to invest his share of the paternal < < estate For under the terms of old Plants will the wouldbe theatrical backer must marry before he Is 10 and sister Daisy Is obliged lo wed before she la 20 while the widow Joslahs stepmother In case she we sat s-at nil Is to select man over 50 all un del penalty of disinheritance So without with-out hesitation the clever Colonel decides de-cides on mating Plant with Gwendo line his son Blackstone with Daisy and himself with the widowto the obvious advantage of all six But tho result Is another story Col Tompkins no sooner makes up his mind to wed the widow of Plant whom he naturally assumes tobe of mature age than this lady turns up young and charming In quest of his son whom the Colonel promptly decides to Impersonate since the lady has como to retain the young lawyers professional profession-al services for the purpose breaking the late Plants to her very distasteful will The Colonels genial prevarication prevari-cation and festive proclivities as well as gallant generosity swiftly precipitate precipi-tate all hands into a desperate tangle and himself into such unfortunate dilemmas di-lemmas that the audience Is scarcely afforded adequate breathing apclls between be-tween its prolonged fits of laughter till the play ends no less l I happily than merrily mer-rily Harry Corson Clarke effervescent enthusiastic and full of umblUous projects pro-jects as ever dropped Into Salt Lake yesterday to put inn couple of days of business and pleasure preliminary to his theatrical engagement He Is as I brown as a nut and his appearance belles the reports of serious illness from which he has suffered so much This season he says will be his last on the Western half of the hemisphere for a long lime to come as he has arranged ar-ranged i to circulate over the Eastern circuits next vcar Mrs Clarke not with him but Joins the company at I Portland Mr Clarke yesterday signed contracts with two Salt Lake young ladles their engagements to begin at once alho wishes them in thorough training for his Eastern tour of next year Nellie Clawson Brown who has appeared in numerous local performances perform-ances is a clever dashing untiring girl who wan bom and reared in Salt Lake Her father Is Bishop Clawson Lottio Levy Ivahn the other lady engaged en-gaged Is the daughter of the well known cigar manufacturer Sam Levy and a vocalist of exceptional ability The engagement of both these young women with Mr Clarke marks their entrance Into the theatrical profession They will be seen during the Salt Lake engagement and then accompany the organization to Portland and the Northwest Their hosts of friends and admirers eel confident of their future o I Blanche Aldrach closed the season with The Eleventh Hour company at Kansas City and has returned to Salt Lake to be with her sister Mrs J A Robinson who Is confined to bed by Illness Miss Aldraoh had an offer for a summer season of light opera at Kansas City when summoned home STAGE CHOWCHOW James Nelll purchased the exclusive exclu-sive Western rights to Clyde Fitchs play Barbara Frietchie The first production will be given lay 12th at the California theater San Francisco 9 V a William A Brady plans to have charge of twelve productions and something like eighteen companies the coming season more by ten at least than any other Individual manager M The Ralph E Cummings Stock company com-pany Is playing engagement at for fo-r scos Burbank theater Los Angeles u 4 Kato Claxton is to star again having signed a two years contract with William Wil-liam A Brady to appear in The Two Orphans 0 4 S The following note appears in tho latest Dramatic Mirror concerning a wellknown Ssalt Laker Charles W Meakin returned to this city last Friday Fri-day from Montreal Can where ho closed a successful season of thirtyone weeks as agent for Frederick Warde He soon will leave for Salt Lake City to spend the summer months with his parents 4 S 0 Madame Bernhardt has stirred theatergoers thea-tergoers of Philadelphia to high pitch by an interview published in Boston wherein she said that tho people ot Philadelphia are stupid and unresponsive unrespon-sive Favorite actors and actresses have been called upon to refute tho statement |
