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Show l s XOith the First Fighter, vg H j j BEN HUR. H For scenic effect, for the height of stage real- H I ism, for a gorgeous moving picture, and for a H j j pleasing performance wo must thank Klaw and HLi ! Erlanger for the play of the week, but for a true H j 1 conception of the real Ben Hur, we must thank H I j some playwright and actor yet to come. These H j words are not meant to be depreciatfve, for the H j ! effect was good, and perhaps the story was fol- Hiij f lowed as nearly as it is possible to follow any- Hj h thing so replete with beauty of detail as General H l,j r Wallace's glorious story. H There are a dozen reasons why a play cannot H j f last all night. One is that mo'At of us must ap- H i, pear at the family breakfast table, and the other H eleven do not matter. H J j Therefore, to place the extraordinary events in H j j the life of Ben Hur in an action which cannot last H i, r more than three hours is a task for a master. Hji , But the money's worth was there, and now that Hj, 'I the excitement is over and e sry copy of Ben Hjl I Hur has been taken from the book stores, let us B! rest to prepare for the next Pyper prize. There H'sj was no fault in the impressive scenes of the play. H (' The open sea was a little dusty for those who H j sat near the front, but people had no business H i , sitting near the front at such a time, and the !' prologue, Jerusalem, the gahoy, the race; the I., hh lake, and Mt. Olivet, all were beautiful and im-i im-i ft hi ,t pressive. But the people did not compare favor- M LI ably with their surroundings. "William Kelloy, as B iji fe Ben Hur, was a dissapointment, though there were W III if no flaBrant errors in his performance. The Mes- Bi -It sala o Alphonz Ethier, the Utah product, was KsJLSI splendid, though he receives less praise here than H 8 H PI elsewhere, a case of the prophet by his own fire B: i 4 ; side, mayhap. The best work in the play was m f HJ done by Stephen Wright as Simonides, and Julia H l ir Heme as Esther. m " I Margaret Pitt as the mother of Hur, could B , '' hardly be improved upon. m , I , j i There were but two people among the prints prin-ts I w, cipals who were frightful to look upon, and worse Bj , i. to hear, a certain Charles Collin as Ilderim, the B ; i . ( , ffi sheik, and Harry DeForrest, who plays Sanballat. Jlii K If there is no one to tell them of their faults as KM: k.1 Hfii M others see them, the management should present KjH If each of them with a book containing a descrip- .jb'i I' I 'Ion of the characters they try to represent, and KjL I j the lines they read so miserably. Blil. Ill 're sec s really the worst; the bent, the ! 111 H cunning; the dignified sheik in Wallace's clever HjL' WJ"lj picture turned into a howling pi Ize fighter with a H 9 m gray wig covering his top piece. A sacrilege. And Hfelj X Sanballat "the respectable Jew" Ben Hur's fel- Hnf lfr lw voyager from Cyprus" who "entered (in the Hi 1 1 i story) graye, quiet, observant, in spotless white, Hjff! if the gleam of a jewel on a finger." The Sanbal- Hi IM lat who lays a wager with all the dignity at his Rm i: I'll command. But this modern actor man had a bet- -BfiT i ter plan. He entered like a drunken sailor, had a 1 i'j make-up like a Connecticut farmer, and laid the Hfifij I y wager like a tout would call "Big Liz" in a crap Ei H layout. But the play was good. It was new, and HtP ill original, and distinct, and a satisfaction to nearly Hjpff' L'fj all of us. We can't expect the orignals, for Hipp j j "when you leave New York, you're camping out." BI f :i & & & Hratj jjE Plots, counter plots and all sorts of humorous Brail pjIT intricacies are so closely interwoven in "Are You HPlj l a' Mason?" that every evening's presentation is MBE !i ? greeted with two and a half hours of merriment i wherever the comedy plays. Competent players have the character assignments, and carefully arranged ar-ranged stage settings prove fitting frames for some of the prettiest stage pictures of the season. sea-son. "Are You a Mason?" will be presented in this city on next Friday and Saturday nights, at the Salt Lake Theatre. $ Robert Edeson in "Soldiers of Fortune," under un-der the direction, of Henry B. Harris, is announced an-nounced for the Salt Lake Theatre "November 9, 10 and 11. No more important event will mark the first half of the theatrical year for it introduces in-troduces as a star an actor, who has been an important im-portant factor in many of the sreatest successes presented in the last decade, and it affords admirers ad-mirers of Richard Harding Davis' stirring story of adventure an opportunity to witness its dramatization drama-tization at the hands of one of the foremost playwrights play-wrights of the day, Augustus Thomas. "Soldiers of Fortune," which is now in the third season of its success, ana' which was originally orig-inally presented for 150 nights at the Savoy theatre, thea-tre, New York, relates as everybody knows to a row ending in a revolution over certain mining concessions in Olancko, a South American republic, re-public, and the preservation cf the mines and their owner, a millionaire New Yorker, by the bravery of the resourceful young American superintendent, su-perintendent, Robert Clay. One of his rewards is the dictatorship of Olancho. The other, infinitely infi-nitely more prized by him, is the hand of the youngest daughter of the millionaire. Mr. Thomas Thom-as has retained the principal personages and the best dramatic material in the Davis story, adding thereto many embellishing, and characteristic touches of his own. gm Sv ( DANDY'S AMBITIONS IN POULTRY LINES. It Is not known to many that Jess Dandy, the Hans Wagner of the "Prince of Pilsen" company now playing In the West, is the owner of a farm. He did not know it himself until a short time ago when he received a bill for taxes in the town of Searsport, Me. The property was left him by an uncle who died about a year ago. Dandy has decided that will take actual possession of the farm at the end of the season and raise chickens. He says that he is going to raise the kind that you can eat. He has had experience with the other kind for many years. &fr w v GIRLS WHO ARE TO ADD BEAUTY TO SHOW. Anna Held has selected the young women who will appear in the court of Napoleon scene with her in "Mam'selle Napoleon," and she declares them to be the most beautifu1 in New York if not in all the country. Some of the lovely elected are Margaret Walker, Wal-ker, Edna Goodrich, Dossa Gibson, Vivian Blackburn, Black-burn, Maybelle Coufrtenay, EtfUh Moyer, Nina Blake, Nina Tt&ndall, Catherine Bell, Blanche West and Molly McGrath. v John Drew threatens to set a new style in mustaches this season. As Captain Dieppe he wears a long, black one, equal to a good pull and a constant pull, and it is said already to be popular pop-ular along the pavements. There may be some who believe that Drew's days as a fashion plate are passed, but they want to go a bit slow. It is John who is responsible for the long, wide-skirted cutaway, which is of rather recent appearance, and he was among the first to wear fiat-lasted boots, knd, therefore, If he persists in the Dieppe mustache it would not be at all surprising to see it come into prominence under many a proboscis. C? t7 v5 It is rather interesting to take note of just how foolish the song writers can be. Two new popular affairs, or at least affairs for which popularity pop-ularity is prayed, are called "The Altar of Friendship" Friend-ship" and "Down Where the Cocoanut Grows." The first, a sentimental ballaO, founded "on the story of the Nat Goodwin offering of last season, has this chorus: Wo stood at the Altar of Friendship, We vowed to be good ante true, I loved him with dearest devotion, Better, perhaps, than I kr"dw. No ring has he placed on my finger; Another will soon be his wife. The vows at the Altar, of Friendship I'll keep, and will love all vny life. The other, evidently trying to get into the "Bamboo Tree" class, Is still more foolish; You is my cocoanut love, Sweet as the milk we're sipping; I want to kiss your ruby lipr. If you will love me only, r Then I'll be never lonely. I'll kiss your lovely finger tips, We'll eat our fruit together In fine or stormy weather. You is the best gal that I knows; My hut was built for two Just me and only you Down where the cocoanut grows. fW fr t&V The wedding of Daniel Frohman and Margaret Mar-garet Illington will take place the last of November. No-vember. Miss Illington will be remembered here for her magnificent work in Sothern's "If-1 Were King." Before the marriage this wonderful' actress ac-tress will create the part of Yuki in Klaw and Brlanger's "The Japanese Nightingale." - fcy O !? "People are always asking me why on earth I waste my time on a play of as light a calibre as 'Old Heidelberg' when I might be making some great production of Shakespeare or modern mod-ern tragedy. The dear public seems to forget that I have made the most money out of my lighter plays, and if it wasn't for the lighter plays I could never indulge in the luxury of great dramatic drama-tic productions. Just think of the difference in expenses! That's what counts, you know. 'Beau-caire' 'Beau-caire' made me a great deal of money, but I would rather play Brutus. Stars have to make the mare go, and that's why I have determined to alternate my productions. Now that 'Heidelberg' 'Heidel-berg' is successfully launched I shall turn my attention at-tention to something very creepy and terrible." The above remarks, naturaly, come from Mr. Mansfield. Ada Rehan finds that, by the irony of fate, on the night of her reappearance on the stage family misfortune again overtaVes her. Just before be-fore the curtain rose on "The Taming of the Shrew," at Atlantic City, on Monday night, word reached the theatre that the last of her brothers, Edward Crehan, had died suddenly; but she was not told until after the performance. Miss Rehan Re-han went through a similar experience when her father dropped dead. She was giving a matinee mati-nee performance of "As You Like It," and Mr. Daly managed to keep the news from her until lito at night. Miss Rellan's mother with whom it was her custom to spend evry Sunday in the old homestead in South Brooklyn died shortly after 'Augustin Daly, and her brother, Arthur, the only man in her family who ever dabbled in stage affairs, died about the same time. & & & ihe New York Sun has this to say of one ol ot the late Joseph Haworth's keen disappointments, disappoint-ments, of which he had many: "His bitterest disappointment dis-appointment came three years ago when he went out on a short tour with a scratcn company in Grace Livingston l'lirniss' romantic drama, 'Robert 'Rob-ert of Sicily,' a dramatization of some phases of Longfellow's poem. Neither Ha-.vorih nor his manager had sufficient money to keep their com-jany com-jany afloat until they reached any of the large cities. But so convinced was Haworth that the role of Robert gave him the greatest cnance of his career that from that time until the day of his death he never ceased trying to persuade some responsible manager to back him in this production, Early this summer, just after the close of the 'Resurrection' company, Mr. Haworth gave a private reading of this play in a woman's drawing room, and if he had ever been able to act the leading role on a New York stage as he acted it that afternoon, he would hwe made even a greater sensation than he did in the dramatiza. tion of Tolstoi's novel. The man was superb. 'The Proud Prince in which Mr. Sothern is to appear at the New Lycecum, is founded on the same poem. And, by the way, speaking of Mr. Sothern recalls the fact that it was Joseph Haworth Ha-worth who secured him his first engagement on the stage. It was a very small part, but Haworth coached the young man with such success that in the course of a few years he was leading man in Helen Dauvray's company at the old Lyceum and made hi first real hit in Bronson Howard's 'One of Our Girls.' ' & & & Hold's Band made another bg hit at the grand last Sunday evening, rendering the most delightful delight-ful programme yet given at the winter concerts. The "Hungarian Rhapsodie" by Liszt was highly commendable, and the selections from popular operas were also enthusiastically received. Nellie Penrose Whitney rendered "The Camelia and the Rose," an exquisite ballad, and charmed her audience. c5 Marie Cahill is avowedly Irish. And she has not lost the wit of old Erin as easily as she has lost the accent. An example of this was noted at an uptown hotel a few days ago, when she and some friends were discussing a certain man once famous as a theatrical manager, a man more noted, it is said, for shrewdness than for integrity. "I knew him well," said one of the party, remi-niscently, remi-niscently, "and I never liked him. His manner was always pleasant enough, but beneath his courtesy one could detect the cloven hoof." "I don't know about that," cut in Miss Cahill, "but tne only tiine I ever met him he'd been trying try-ing to disguise the odor of a few cocktails, and what I detected most keenly was the 'cloven breath.'." |