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Show 1 PICKING a CHOmS COLLEGE VlM I j - -. Gum Shoe -Sleuths Discover 'Merits of Girls Before They Are Asked to T,ake Part in ! Annual Thespian .Per- ..4 formances a? W' BY RALPH E. MOOXEY. Choosing chorus girls Is a task Vf: fc'hlch is desired by a Cow bachelors and bandied by a few much-mar- 'yMmk red men. The job is as hard and 'tiJ&Si tedious as trying: to weigh coal in ,y&-. postage scale. '..5 Choosing college chorus girls and i'v'v prima donnas is -worse yet. 'ft This last is a task which annual- tfkffr - ly pr6sents Itself to college stage tt"?v directors in half a dozen "Western e fci'ef universities, for throughout the S Wcst il iB becoming- the custom for q college students to present annuul jj ; musical comedies. m co-educatlnal chorus girl is a problem ,n herself. She will not . m,fi' wear skirts above her shoe-tops and k? JOSO, sne cannot always sing, but if her ambition to appear in the college's SrMv big annual shew is not gratined she itlV, ri'v- ' can' and does, cause the dickens a' I iIary 1301,63 is picked for the S- chorus in J9l4's jolly production. Soft -" isle of Zim-Zlm," then Mamlo ',,Vv; biiijin. sorority sister, must be chosen also. Everywhere that 'V?" Marvi sos, Mamie Smith will go g too--and consequently. Mamie A may we as welcome as Mary's pet g " lambdas in a certain ancient In-ftitution In-ftitution of learning, but she will Elav In, the chorus out of pure de- l A votlonUo Mary. The college stage director tears his heart about It In . i prlvaie. -A m The musical comedy clubs of jpfc y "- Tale, Princeton and Chicago uni- j-ijv verities dodge the chorus girl prob- (TmJ -. '' lc'n by dressing men in skirts, but b-?- in the Wirt the girls insist on tak- glgf '-j. . ing thosemarts and creating prob- af- "-' lems calculated to drive Belasco 'v Tne slip of the chorus of the Ui,: -'4.; QuadrangH Club of Washington IB',-ivC" Unlversltyycccntly created a Ire. Hf mendous conmotlon by refusing to B - , do a danq which required that R each girl ta upon her male part- Si ' ner's lap foj a moment. w .v" A rehearsi broke up In a quarrel ij ' - and when thl girls had finally been & pacified thcthorus men took up the plaint uriU the step was finally ie eliminated frfo the dunce. Dn In the meaAlme. the unfortunate ld ?tagc dlrectoinearly wont crazy between listente to complaints and im- - trying to 'hurjT UP the rehearsal, Ct The final prodfctlon was only two in' 9t ft ' c 1 1 weeks away and there were but two or three more rehearsal dates, so he had his troubles, obviously. Washington University, Michigan Michi-gan University, Missouri State and many other "Western schools have co-eds, and when the time comes for casting their librettos, "why women cannot be Ignored for women's parts. So, we now have among us the college coryphee. She originated at AVashington University. Univer-sity. There, five years' ago. the senior class producod a munlcal comedy and she was born. She has since existed in the Quadrangle Club's annual productions. .MUSICAD MELQDKAMA TO BE PRODUCED. The Quadrangle Club is this year .producing "The Love Star." The student librettists call it a musical melodrama and the' girls, in accordance with all tradition, are "guests at the festival," "friends of the princess." and "ladles of the court." Which proves beyond all i v. ' ' r . " , doubt that the piece, although 'It is a college production, Is a sure enough show. ' . A few months ago the Interior of J a sedate brownstone gymnasium ; witnessed a peculiar thing. Some . sixty co-eds, ruffled and tunicked .' and bearers of lengthy plumes according ac-cording to the fashion of that now ancient day, were gathered at one end of it. A brisk young man In dark clothes and wearing dark hair brushed smoothly back, entered the room. He was not the least confused con-fused by the tremendous buzz of conversation which lilled It. Tlefer to the programme and see -who he is. Ah, yes! Eugene C. , Smith,' stage director. Notice his happy, carefree countenance, be-- be-- cause- in another paragraph will como. a lightning change. "Well, he entered. After some preliminaries a young lady took III i I I II I I I II I I IH "i rr don't. It he calls them down gently they smile at the humor of the situation. sit-uation. Their singing is more or less faint. ' Broadway history tells of a certain cer-tain stage manager who was selecting select-ing the chorus of a big musical comedy. His system was to call out th? name of a town after each girl sang. If ho called New York or a town near it the girl was sure of . an engagement. The further the towns he named were from New York, the smaller the chances of being engaged. After one particularly poor performer per-former made her attempt at a song the manager shouted, "Hawaii." STAGE MANAGER POLITE AT COLLEGE. "Fine,". answered the girl. "How's ' yourself?" The Hawaii system is not in vogue at Washington University. SCHWEIG ACT NQUVEAU PHOTO- her place, at the piano and he clapped his hands. "Please group around the plano, the altos at the right and sopranos at the left." Alto sounded unusual to some of the girls, so they thought they'd try It and see what it was like, anyhow. The rest compromised on soprano, where they were sure of safety. After the preliminary grouping come few saw friends in the other group and changed places in obedience obe-dience to beckoning fingers. Business of stage director handing hand-ing out scripts containing song words. "Sing," he commanded. It was a noble errort. The girls have never sung like that since. They have since discovered that he is a mean old thing and wouldn't dare to take them out of the chorus cho-rus anyhow, even If he wanted to. They nre all he's got and he must keep them. The time of the first performance is now at hand. Mark the change In the director. Ho is haggard. Little lines have appeared in his face where wrinkles of disgust have settled. His shoulders arc slouching slouch-ing In a discouraged way. The girls are careless. They know just what they are to do. but they don't do it because they want to see what the director will do if they f ENTER left Marie Gal- J lenkamp. Lower left Senta Retter. Lower right Helen Beyers. All three are stars in "The Love Star." Other photos are of scenes in "The Son of o' Gun." Rejected girls are treated politely. Their names are apt to bo omitted from the list calling a rehearsal, or they may be allowed to stay and sing, without heing taught dance steps until they begin to feel In the way. As a general rule, however, everyone ev-eryone is useful to. the college stage director. He will find places for as many girls as want thorn and he is generally crying for more. Thero Is no use In being too critical of performers in an amateur show; some one who ha6 been picked for a principal may turn out to bo worse than the most deplsed member mem-ber of the chorus. Stage managers of tradition are profane and brutal. They enforce commands with strong words and v.". f I compel dlscipllno by harsh methods. meth-ods. Not so in colleges. Politeness Is the rule. The dlretcor asks the girls to "pleasp be more careful," and to "kindly pay attention for a few minutes." He feels that he has committed an Indiscretion if ho Informs -a group of dancers that they are "rotten" because rotton is not a word that can be used in the parlor without making a bad Impression. "Washington University furnishes good material, howover, because the school Is a hot-bed of dramatic activity. Acting is not listed in the curriculum, but it is taught there as thoroughly as in the elocution GEfcUASP SlSXEJaS.-J-HOTO. schools and stage academies about the country. Every student activity takes expression ex-pression in some form of the "show" business. When the architectural students desire to havo a celebration of the completion of a quarter they give a parade with numerous funny core-monies core-monies in the open air. In the spring when it is time- for the girls who llvo In tho dormitories dormi-tories to go hi 18 for the summer they give a huge dancing fete (Mac-Mllian (Mac-Mllian Day.) Dances of all nations are given together with appropriate appropri-ate esthetic dances. The undergraduates annually give a circus in. the Stadium. Thoy appear In hundreds of parte, as sideshow freaks, singers, acrobats, animal trainers and what not. A fow play animals. 1313's giraffe made a great hit. There Is 'a dramatic dra-matic club which gives Ave legit-mate legit-mate dramas every year and one "blood - and - thunder" melodrama. It produces one big show at a downtown down-town theater annually and often takes this production on tho road for several weeks. The Quadrangle Club presents musical comedies and every- year the sophomores givo a minstrel show. When the Blackstone Debating De-bating Club ends Its season it has a cabaret performance. The architectural students have annual St. Fatlma's Day. when St. Fatima is resurrected and appears upon the Quadrangle to bless them in their year's work. GREAT RESOURCES FOR MUSICAL SHOW. The resources of the college for the musical show are tremendous. Electrical engineering students plan lighting effects and manage the calciums. cal-ciums. Art students plan scenery and design costumes. The production produc-tion costs about 51,000, including costumes, programmes, sconery, stage hands, orchestra and so on. The average student is a lazy, easy-going person. Ho has a great habit of putting things off till tomorrow to-morrow and of getting his lessons in the five-mlnuto periods between classes. If he is told by his teachers teach-ers that a thing must be done by a certain time ho Ib very apt to beg an extension at tho last minute. Once ho is put In an official position po-sition In some student activity, however, how-ever, he quickly changes. Ho Is given giv-en dates when things must be done and he knows he will get himself disliked by his classmates If they are not done. He fears tho censure cen-sure of his fellow-pupils much more than the scoldings of the faculty. fac-ulty. Most of the baginnera in the unl-verslty unl-verslty societies are stirred with en- ' thusiasm, but are suffering- from the usual school day vice of putting things off. A short course under the active energetic stag managers and committee chairman and a vast change is to bo noticed. They not only do more social work, but more school work as well. The college chorus girl le not always al-ways languid. When tho show is produced the girls suddenly become be-come enthusiastic. Tho dance-steps are done with fiery precision and thoy slig "from the heart out," as they once sang in the try-outs. Then tho worn lines fade from the director's face an2 something resembling a smile agitates his lips. ) I Llfa.Is worth living for him again ,'H and all troubles are over until ikll until the next year's show' is ready lll for. production'. lll |
