OCR Text |
Show 1 Who Is Marie Lloyd and Why? M.. 'r-r? Z . v.rJ&J It. rrr , '-rm fi:;M : vlP?C; i ill Mario Lloyd, hcadlinor at the Orplteum, When you go sightseeing in London, with a real Londoner for a cicerone, he shows you parliament house, the, Trafalgar Trafal-gar square, tho tower and Whltcchapel for which he apologises about as San Francisco does for Barbary coast. Then, having finished the tour, ho says: "Now. old chap, having done thc regular- sights, we'll go down to the 'all and 'avo a look at Marie." You wonder what he means but not for long. Into a music hall you go If the capacity permits and pretty soon everyone ev-eryone si Is up and takes notice. A number num-ber is shown and a great yell goes up a yell of mighty welcome. Out on the stago trips a buxom woman, and tho yell Is redoubled. Aud thus you get your first Introduction Introduc-tion to that notional British Institution, Marie Lloyd. For she is as much an in-, stitutlon there as thc river Thames. Mario shows hor white teeth, waits for tho applause to subside, and then sings a character song. . One. after another she reels off hor ditties, each received with more acclaim ac-claim than lLs predecessor, until Mario is fairly compelled to stop. In fact;- she sings nine songs and the audience Invariably In-variably Joins In the rousing chorus Hko an Inspired choir. As the calls are repealed re-pealed Mario asks, "What will you liave next?" Then come calls for old-time favorites, and Marie .obliges while the audience yells the chorus and everybody Is happy. But we all can't go to London, and" wc all can't hear Marie Lloyd there. Ergo, this latter-day Mohammed, Martin Beck, has fetched Marie to us Marie Lloyd Is headlining the new bill at tho Orphoum this week, sans her enthusiastic British audiences and other local color and atmospliere. But who is this Marie Lloyd, and why? Marie is ono of threo Lloyd sisters the others being Daisy, who has never been here, and Alice, who Is now practically American. All threo sisters followed in the footsteps of their parents, and entered en-tered the varieties for the elder .Lloyds wero standbys In tho olden days of the 'alls, just as the trinity of sisters Is now. Of the three, Mario has always hcen thc favorite perhaps because she Is the most original and" has given tho hardest study to character types. In tho delineation delinea-tion of which she excels. Alice, as wo all know, sings dainty songs of a do-grce do-grce of naughtiness that makes them bright; Daisy Is given to more serious ballads, but Mario has gone right Into the haunts of the people, studied them, and put them on the stage. That's the real secret of her popularityshe popu-larityshe shows the good audience units of Itself. Her auditors can recognize the types, because many of those' types are silting right beside themselves. Arid everyone ev-eryone knows that a real success the- j atrlcally Is made by depicting familiar things and persons, rather than going to a past era or an unknown region. While other English stage folk, then. ! have been playing for tea- parties with nobility, hanging about the fringe of society so-ciety or scrambling for a knighthood, Mario has been down in the slums, picking pick-ing out her people and learning their ways. The result is a series of genuine characters, char-acters, translated to the stage Intact. Being so absolute they are easily recognized, recog-nized, being part of itself, each character strikes home to her audience, and by depicting de-picting her own auditors Marie reaches their very hearts. |