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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1906)
23 1 THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAStt), AUGUST 19, 1608. s2Ts7' 7I ' wttVHTv!F:v lir . j .... jMTZitem j$e&fa tii QAu - - : .." i aSnLSJ' "p-.-. , J if . 1 v." vl, vj , WtJ -ffcig .Jiff IS f " 7 t , ZZS-iAyjf c& 4V ckwlk of rejoicing over the victory. You Jump out and stalk about, thlnkln that It Is great to be an actor. You no tice that the rival machine which you had been Vacing Is 30 feet ahead of your own. A bitter jest has been played: you were given a ride In the loslns; car. Then a chauffeur drops a monkey-wrench upon your toes, and you rush for the stage door. But you will have no worries of "the Buderman, Hauptmann, D'Annunsio, Ib een type" for some time afterward. VAUDEVILLE and moderate-priced stock entertainments are waxing stronger and more healthy and more beautiful and more prosperous ev ery day In this gay young city. The hunger for public theatricals seema to present an Insatiable maw which can not be gorged. All during the Summer, when the larger theaters have been closed,' ' these vaudeville and smaller liouses have Sailed merrily along on the tide of fat-pocketbookism, never shutting up their doors until . the lights were out lor the night to open again at the usual hour of the performances for the next day and evening. The hot-weather heglra to seashore and mountain-side apparently has made little difference in the lze of the box-office re ceipts, and whatever diminution actually happening has more than been made up for by the patronage of the visitors In town. In short, these houses that have remained open the whole Summer long have been drawing large crowds all the time without any cessation whatever. ' COMES now some further evidences of this phenomenal prosperity. Two of these theaters, namely, the Grand and the Star, have Just completed repairs and luxurious decorations, look ing now as spick and span as a lovely1 Bummer girl In her sweetest White frock. The Grand Is very tastefully redone, and Is commented upon by the patrons. The Star is about finished as to repainting, etc., and the Allen Stock Company (known to be excellent) will start the Star on Its .new policy of exclusive stock tomorrow (Monday) night. Plans are about matured also for the enlargement and refurnishing of the Lyric, and rumor has it that some impor tant additions are soon to be made to the Lyric Company,- the result promised being a pretty little bijou house, with as line a stock company as anyone would meet in a week's walk around town. If this sort of thing keeps up, and we can get attractive plays deftly handled by clever artists at a small-priced the ater, the larger houses will be obliged to put up rather stiff attraction to hold their own In the competition that is to follow. OF COURSE the big shows at above a dollar a throw excite the fashionable appetites tn all of us, and we wfl go there. If we can raise the price, anyway. Pantages has not felt It necessary as yet. apparently, to Indulge In the JOy of housecleanlng and redecorating but that house has not been a whit behind the other in Its successful campaign to win ducats from the public. Altogether, we may chronicle plenty of present satisfaction, and the prospect of much joy to come in the amusement world In Portland. Soon, only a week or so. and we shall begin to note the openings of the larger houses, the annual visits of the traveling troupes. Everybody In the city has money. So why is it not the time to feel happy? A WHIRL IN THE MOTOR PLAY Come, it is too hot to attempt any heavy thinking about the drama. This is the era of the auto play, so let's write about motors, says C. "W. C, In the Chi cago Record-Herald. . This mood was inspired by the perusal of an epistle reading In part: "What chance has the young dramatist today whose creations are of the Buderman, Hauptmann, D'AnnunzIo, Ibsen type, and who cannot even get consideration at the hands of producers because it is his mis fortune to be looked upon as a mere youth without any reputation to back him up, and because the commercial spirit of the age hinders his most artlstlo crav ings for the beautiful In literature?" It was the last straw, this appeal as to an oracle for the solution of such a problem In the middle of August, when one feels that he is being stewed en casserole. Rea son began to topple on its throne, and a frivolous expedition to study the dra matization of an automobile was the re sult. . This Is what happened. Tou wander gayly ovar to the ,Calonlal Sir zsrzc Theater, and explain your fell purpose to Messrs. George Wood and A. Toxen Worm, whose mission in life Is to take advantage of the mental aberrations of the representatives of the. press. It is about 10 o'clock: the great race for the Vanderbllt cup Is about to begin, and the time is ripe. The pair of critic's guides say the "open-sesame" to the doorkeeper, and a moment later you are behind the scenes. You are introduced to a sylphlde whose name is Elsie Janis, and who, at the ago of 17, Is making more money than the president of a railroad. You forget the auto-craze at once, but with a "Howdy-dTo-Come-Agaln-Good-bye," she whlskg away to "go on," and the mania returns. Then you are delivered Into the keeping of Albert Coles, an accommodallng stage manager,, who wears a velvet Jacket, and ramble out Into the dimly lit chaos behind the drop to investigate. A group of stake hands in overalls and mechanics wearing motor caps are clustered about two torpedo-boat destroyers mounted on wheels. You Join the throng, look the machines over with the owllish eye of a rank ama teur and conclude that they are really the real thing. Then you begin to ask a million fool questions. Do the motors really work? Most em phatically, and at full speed 80 horse power. Do the wheels go round? Cer tainly, but they are thrown out of gear, and are driven by a separate electric mo tor. Why ? To guard against accidents; It would never do to have a machine jump Its carriage and butt through the side of the building. The auxiliary battery. It seems, can' be shut off in the twinkling of on eye. Then you observe that the wheels are et on rollers.- Ilka the old fashioned "home trainer bicycle," and that the whole device can be moved along the stage In grooves, and begin to grasp the theory of the game. One of the motors has a sharp beak, and Is painted green; It Is" declared to be an exact reproduction In every detail of Bar ney Oldfleld's "Green Dragon." The other has a" square nose and Is white; it is a model of the White Flyer. Then you feel the tires; they are as hard as rocks; you Insist upon having the spark started, and comport yourself In the true "show me" spirit of Missouri journalism. Just as the demonstration is concluded soma one says that it Is almost time to start the race, and a panic ensues "Want to ride in one of the cars?" Mr. Coles asks. "John Farson did It last night." You Jump at the chance. Some one grabs your straw hat, turn tip your coat collar and Jams an automo bile fconnet upon your brow. You are guided through the gloom to one of the cars, and hoisted into the saddle, where you sit for a few seconds, expecting the worst. r'A pistol cracks: a youth in auto costume starts the spark whirring, rushes out to the bowsprit and cranks up: then clambers beside you to take charge of the wheel. "Chug-chug-chug" goes the engine: the frame begins to vibrate, and the curtain goes up. "Bend over." hisses your ac complice, above the infernal racket. You remember that this Is your first and prob ably only appearance on any stage, and try to give an imitation of Hemery or Bzlr. Not a sensation Is lacking except the breeze: you feel as If you are riding unon the pilot of the 20th century limited Toiu glance at the dark mass of people In the theater, but the only stage fright you feel is a slight apprehension about the exact moment of the explosion, that seems to be at hand. "How do you like the scenery?" asks your driver. You glance at the back drop and see dim, shadowy outlines of hills and trees, cast by a clnemotograph, whirling past you. "How fast are we going? you gasp. "About a hundred miles, an hour," he re spends with a grin, as he tugs with mimic fierceness at the wheel. After you have traveled 100 miles, the front drop falls, and a stage mob emits a piercing scream close to your right ear. It is the finish, and you know that out In front Elsie Janis, Henry Donnelly. Otis Harlan and Arthur Stanford are doing a NEWSPAPER LIFE ON THE STAGE There has lone; been a popular su perstition that no play dealing with newspaper life would ever succeed, and "The Senator's Vindication," by Henry Gardner Hunting, which deals largely with a reform newspaper In a small town In Illinois, ' Is the latest attempt. It Is to be produced In Chi cago. The scene of the first act Is laid In the office of this country news paper, and thft comedy Is largely sup plied by tho'se small details of life which are thoroughly farniliar to workers on newspapers, but perhaps somewhat foreign to the great public which has never seen the inside of a newspaper office. It was very difficult to get the nec essary properties for such a play, as newspaper offices even In the small cities are equipped with so much par aphernalia that it would be almost im possible to transplant one bodily. One of the hardest things Manager Will J. Block had to do In staging this play was to unearth an old Washington hand press, an almost obsolete insti tution except In the very smallest towns where modern machinery has not supplanted the earlier form of printing press. Very few newspapers use the Washington hand press now adays, and for that reason it was ex ceeding difficult to get hold of one. Mr. Block sent agents to nearly 20 towns between Elgin and Peoria, hop ing to get exactly the right model, and he finally suoceeded In purchattng what he desired at Pekln, III. The press had been used In getting out a small blanket sheet In that town. One of the duties or Charles Rloh man, who plays the part of the editor in "The Senator's Vindication." will be to manipulate Ink rollers and print newspapers In full view of the audi ence., Mr. Block ha been compelled to hire a union printer to get a gen eral foreman of this office in the first act. This printer has never been on the stage before, and will not speak lines, but naturally one could not ex pect an actor to be able to set type, make up a form and put it on the press without previous experience. There have only been two other plays In which a newspaper atmos phere was Introduced. The first of these, "The Power of the Press," en Joyed great popularity about 10 years ago, but no attempt was made to re produce the Inside workings of a newspaper office. Another more re cent production was "The Stolen Story." in wtych two acts take place In the city room of a big- New York daily. There is no ground for com parison between "The Stolen Story" and "The Se'nator's Vindication," how ever, for the scenes of the latter take place in a small country town and deal almost exclusively with the at mosphere of a small village publica tion, where the editor writes city Items, advertisements, records deaths and births, prints obituary poetry and makes himself a guiding spirit In lo cal politics. The plot of "The Sena tor's Vindication" Is evolved through the efforts of the editor of the Wynd ham Clarion to expose what he be lieves to be a great wrong committed by the leading politician. KKLLIE IS AT THE GRAXD. Last Performance Today Xew Bill Starts Tomorrow. Today is the last chance to see the wonderfully frood show at the Grand. Edward Kellie is by far the best story teller heard here In many a long day and a neater act than that given by Joe Whitehead and the Grierson sis ters Is seldom if ever put on the stage. Those mentioned are only two of the many good acta on this bill and one cannot do better if an hour is to be killed than attend the Grand in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5 or in tlhe eve ning from 7:30 to 10:45. Next week's bill has for a feature Harry La Rose & Co.. who present Will M. Cressy's excruciatingly funny one-act playlet, "The Sailor and the Horse." Of this act the Denver Times had the following to say when it ap peared at the Orpheum In that city: "There Is really a good act at the Orpheum this week which is bound to please. In fact. "The Sailor and the Horse" would be of Interest to almost anybody, so different is It from the many clever playlets seen on the Or pheum stage. The Harry La Rose Com pany has been featured on vaudeville bills throughout the country, but they came fully up to expectations when they; made their bow to Denver last