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Show OPENING NIGHT BIG SUCCESS tS Sl 0RPHEUM BILL EXCEPTIONAL Society Parties Are Numerous Numer-ous at Premiere in Vaudeville Vaude-ville Theater. rjl O speak of a first opening night may sound a bit redundant, or even mora so but the fact that the Orpheum this season cannot get along without ... two opening nights.' Last night was the vaudeville premiere; next Sunday there will be an opening night for the moving picture show. To be a real first-nighter, therefore, one must be a Iwo-nighter or a bi-nighter this season. The only pictures shown on the vaudeville vaude-ville nights are the Hearst news pictorials. pic-torials. These will be changed every Sunday Sun-day and Wednesday night, so that there will be a scries for the movie shows and another series for the vaudeville performance. perform-ance. The pictures shown last night are valuable, not only because they are Intensely In-tensely Interesting, but because they are exclusive. Last night there were scenes of war and peace, warlike, man-eating sharks and peaceful warriors of England, Eng-land, Germany and Belgium, and a dozen other timely and fascinating pictures. But one must not linger too long on the pictures when one is supposed to herald the opening of the Orpheum vaudeville season. Last night It was vaudeville of the best type that crowded the house. If the "movie" night Is as enthusiastic as last night, then the new plan of entertainment is sure of success. suc-cess. In a vaudeville programme each Person Per-son picks out the numbers that please him most and talks about them to his friends. His friends are almost certain not to agree with him whole-heartedly. That Is what makes the vaudeville world go 'round a variety of tastes. Any showman show-man would have told you that the entire bill was splendid, but he would be speaking speak-ing as a cold expert who was not permitting permit-ting his sympathies to interfere with his judgment. To say that the present critic was best pleased with the poetic Chinese Chi-nese plav, "The River of Souls;" with Claire Rochester, who sings classical or popular music in a mans baritone and in 'a beautiful soprano, and with Nate Leipzig, the international card expert, is merely to express a personal preference that has naught to do with the classification classifi-cation of the other features. If one were to classify by laughter alone, one would say that Betty, the simian pantomimist, was a star of magnitude. mag-nitude. Consul and his adopted daughter, ltettv, furnished forth many a scream of merriment. Consul is not a comedian, but a very solemn and cautious monkey gentleman, who goes about everything as if he expected the hangman to place a noose around his neck almost any moment. mo-ment. Betty, on the other hand. Is a harum-scarum, scandalous character, who cms up dreadfully whether on skates, bicycles or stilts and manages to be al-wavs al-wavs funnv. "The River of Lost Souls" Is enchant-inglv enchant-inglv staged. The Chinese atmosphere is transfused with delicate poetry. It is a drama of blood, having a tragic finale, but nevertheless the author has Invested it with a line grace and charm. Felice Morris is Sue Sin Fall, "the lily flower," the dainty Chinese flower of a girl who is wooed "by the mandarin, most artfully enacted by Harold Hartsell. She Is loved by Tai Loy Jung, the wood carver. The mandarin appears as seeking to win the lily flower from the wood carver and the wood carver's fate seems certain; but a surprise is in store that Is quite Oriental, ORPHEUM High-class vaudeville. Performances this afternoon and evening at 2:30 and S:30. Programme Pro-gramme headed by the fantastic Chinese drama, "The River o' Souls." PANTAGES High-class vaudeville all week. Matinee every afternoon and ,two performances at night. PARAMOUNT-EMPRESS Last time today, special return engagement of tho remarkable and gripping Lasky production, "The Cheat," featurjng the talented emotional actress, Fan-, nie Ward, and Sessue Hayawaka, tho young Japanese actor, supported by an all-star cast. Paramount-Bray cartoon, "The Wild and Woolly West." Regular musical features, including Weihe's orchestra, Ed. P. Kimball and Franz Rath's piano-logues. piano-logues. Continuous. 12:30 to 11 p. m. AMERICAN Today only, William Fa mum is presented In "A Soldier's Sol-dier's Oath," one of the William Fox productions; also Blllle Burke in the lifteenth episode of "Gloria's Romance," and Mutt and Jeff in motion. Organ recital this afternoon at 3:15 by Professor McClellan. This programme will be followed Friday and Saturday by a Triangle play, "Honor Thy Name," with Frank I Keenan. LIBERTY Today, at 2 o'clock, and ; every day this week, Theda Bara, in William Fox's picture of the well-known well-known book, "Under Two Flags"; six-reel special production of France's famous foreign legion. MEHESY A remarkable dual characterization charac-terization is portrayed by King Bag-got, Bag-got, Universal Btar, in the two-act drama, "The Man Across the Street." Talented Edna Hunter appears ap-pears as the "woman." "Fate's Decision" is a two-reel Centaur drama, in which Margaret Gibsoi and William Clifford have the leading lead-ing roles. It tells of the lesson learned by a man so wrapped up in business that he neglects his wife. Two comedies complete the bill, "A Gambler's Gambol" and "BaBhful Charlie's Proposal." Continuous performance, 11 a. m. to 11 p. m. BROADWAY Ethel Clayton and Car-lyle Car-lyle Blackwell appear in a society drama, "A Woman's Way," last time today. This photoplay extraordinary ex-traordinary is from the stage play of the same name, which was Grace George's most famous of Broadway successes. for the mandarin is not so cruel-hearted aa to deprive the young lovers of a of bliss. He is merely seeking In a graceful grace-ful Oriental way to accomplish the murder mur-der of one who is hateful to him, and this he accomplishes most politely. Miss Rochester, as we have been told, is not only a marvelous singer, but an athlete ath-lete and a cross-country auto enthusiast. Last night she attempted a new role very nervously and shyly. She tried to make a speech but let us draw the curtain cur-tain at this point. In this role she won the hearts of her audience, but not their applause. Those who lightly assume that a "card shark" can do nothing new are counting without the genius of Nate Leipzig. To attempt to describe what lie does would be to well, it cannot be done. See for yourselves. The bill opened with "The Gladiators." 'who combined wondrous strength with equally wondrous grace of motion and evoked constant applause. James B. Donovan. "The King of Ireland," Ire-land," and piquant Marie Lee appear in comic exchanges and musical and dancing features which they have attempted to explain by the title, "Doing Well, Thank You," which is apropos of nothing. Whatever What-ever they did, however, they did quite well, thank you. But perhaps tiio best of all was that idealized Irish jig or perhaps per-haps it was just an old-fashioned Irish jig which Miss Lee presented while "the king" lilted in his inimitable way as an accompaniment. Werner and Amoros Co. furnish a European Euro-pean novelty with a distinct surprise of which that famous impersonator of women, wom-en, Julian Eltinge, might be envious. The first night was marked by the attendance at-tendance of many society people. Nate Leipzig, the card magician, uses only a part of his name. In full it is Nate Leipsinger. He is a brother of Hy-man Hy-man A. Leipsinger of the Freed Furniture company of this city. It 13 a Readily-acceptable Bill Wliich Is On at the Pantages Theater for the present Week. THINNER than a stream of boarding house treacle In dog days. Charles W. Semon is at once the high C and the low E on the bill at the Pantages theater this week. If vaudeville had not been invented t Semon's existence must surely have been lu tile. He is the embodiment of vaudeville; vaude-ville; that Is. he would be if vaudeville could be embodied in one dimension. It is an accurate description of the man to say that there is distance between his head and his feet about six feet of it. Standing four times In the same place j last night, Semon failed to cast a shadow. He gave it up and played several mu- I sical instruments for his own entertainment entertain-ment while the audience strained its eyes in unbelief. Contrastingly. El well & Kenyon, billed as the "Harmony Duo," are generously supplied with three dimensions. Also they have voices gratefully exceptional ones. A good number. The "Three Rianos" appear in a re- , turn engagement of the sketch, "A September Sep-tember Morn in A frlca." It Is a freak bit of comedy, a clever effect in animal 1 imitations. j Just why they call the minstrel girls the "Petticoat Minstrel Maids" one is at a loss to guess, unless it is for the same reason that a fat man is often called "Slim." There's no denying that they are minstrel maids, for two of them, the end maids, appear in black-face and the others take turns in doing numbers In regular man -minstrel manner, but why the prefix? Anyhow, they broke the record rec-ord for minstrelsy In Salt Lake. They sprung a new joke. Also it Is a new onet on the subject thereof. The details have disappeared from memory just at present as from the recollection of an Englishman, English-man, but, anyhow, it's the joke that has some reference or other to the shade trees In front of the White house. There is a musical number in which three "fiddles" and a harp get along with i a fair degree of congeniality under judicious ju-dicious encouragement from the orchestra. I The bill concludes with Thalero's dog and 1 pony circus, not at all bad. I |