INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • March 1907

This is No. 8 in a summer series designed to acquaint you with the very collectible Burr McIntosh-Monthly magazines popular a century ago. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson and Edwad T. Heyn. This post focuses on:

Burr McIntosh-Monthly, Vol. 12 • No. 47 • March 1907

THE ROSE OF THE RANCHO

The season of 1906-07 has been a remarkable one in the number of artistic and financial theatrical successes. One of the most important of these has been the annual production of David Belasco, The Rose of the Rancho, a play based on life in Southern California just prior to the acquisition of that country by the United States. The piece was originally written by Richard Watson Tully and staged on the Pacific coast. In its elaborated form it received its first New York presentation last November and, following the precedent of other Belasco pieces, settled down for an all-season's run. Although nominally without a star, the piece did succeed in elevating to stellar prominence Miss Frances Starr, hitherto a little known stock actress discovered by Mr. Belasco. The production is notable for its wonderful stage pictures, surpassing in this respect probably any of the same wizard's previous productions.

FRANCES STARR

is the discovery of David Belasco, under whose management, in The Rose of the Rancho, she has achieved a wonderful success. She was born in California in 1886, making her first appearance on the stage as a member of a stock company in Los Angeles. She came to New York and joined F. F. Proctor’s Stock Company at the Fifth Avenue Theater. Last year she was in Gallops with Charles Richman and in the fall of 1906 opened as leading woman in The Music Master, leaving that piece to create the part in The Rose of the Rancho that brought her fame.

THE RED MILL

is a remarkable musical comedy success that has served to reintroduce Montgomery & Stone to Broadway and demonstrate beyond cavil the versatility and fun-making ability of these two men. As Tin Man and Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, they first came into public favor, and the wiseacres decided that they were one part actors and dolefully shook their heads when it was announced that they would be cast in so-called straight comedy roles. Their success, however, is due not only to their own capability, but to the excellent music composed by Victor Herbert, the genuinely funny book written by Henry Blossom, and for the manner in which The Red Mill is staged. The piece came into New York last September and has been playing to capacity houses ever since.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

has been hailed by come critics as the long-awaited "great American play." It has been playing to full houses in New York since fall. It enjoys the distinction of enlisting the services of two equally prominent and successful stars, Margaret Anglin and Henry Miller. It was written by Prof. William Vaughan Moody of the University of Chicago, a man known in the literary world, but unknown on the stage prior to this, his first play. The piece was originally produced out of New York and called The Sabine Woman, and was rather harshly criticized ... on its moral score. Heedful of this, the play was changed somewhat and ever since its first presentation in New York early in October, has crowded the doors of the Princess Theater. It has proved to be an absorbing play presented by a very capable company of players and notable also for its production at the hands of actor-manager Henry Miller.

MARGARET ANGLIN

co-stars with Henry Miller in The Great Divide (see above). Last season she scored a success of equal proportion in Zira under Henry Miller’s management. When Lena Ashwell was playing in New York last winter in The Shulmanite in which she was originally seen in London, two revivals of Henry Arthur Jones’s Mrs. Dane’s Defense were made. One afternoon Miss Ashwell played the role of Mrs. Dane which she had created in London; the following afternoon Miss Anglin essayed the same part as she had played the role when the play was first staged in America, and in this had scored the first and greatest success of her career. The New York critics were evenly divided as to the comparative merits of the two interpretations. Miss Anglin unquestionably occupies the position today of one of the, if not the greatest emotional actress on the American stage.

THE CHORUS LADY

Rose Stahl in The Chorus Lady is a graduate of vaudeville who has scored a notable success on her elevation to stardom. She has been playing a comedy written by James Forbes, a former New York newspaper man, who has for several years been associated with Henry R. Harris as assistant manager, etc. The Chorus Lady was originally a vaudeville skit that depended equally upon Miss Stahl's personality and the clever lines given her in the leading character, chorus girl Patricia O'Brien, for its success. It was produced in London after touring the vaudeville houses in this country and scored a remarkable success. Mr. Forbes took the central character and made her the basis for a four-act comedy drama whose success, as in the vaudeville skit, has been dependent almost wholly on the star herself. (At this writing, The Chorus Lady was in its 8th month and still going strong.)

JULIA MARLOWE

is starring with E. H. Sothern in a repertoire of classical plays, including Sudermann's John the Baptist, Hauptman's The Sunken Bell, The Daughter of Jorio and Jeanne D'Arc, as well as the several Shakespearean plays that were in their repertoire last year. The co-stars have been remarkably successful in an artistic and financial way, and this March plan a European invasion, starting in London and subsequently going to the continent.

EMMA TRENTINI

is a member of the Manhattan Opera Company. One of her greatest successes has been scored as Bertha in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Seviglia.

ALEXANDER PETSCHNIKOFF

is the celebrated violinist who has been appearing in this country with his wife during the present season. He hails from Moscow where he entered the conservatory when a very young boy. He was a pupil of Hrimaly for a number of years, in due course winning the conservatory's first prize, a gold medal, after which he was offered the opportunity to continue his studies in Paris. At the outset of his career he had the good fortune of interesting the Princess Oursoroff, whose influence was exerted in his behalf with the result that he was soon favored and courted by nobility. She presented him with the famous Ferdinand Lamb violin, which is said to be the most valuable instrument in existence. Petschnikoff's playing is said to be free from charlatanism and trickery, the charm of it being in his temperament, ideal conception and wonderful power of expression. His wife is an American girl and was a pupil of her husband before marriage. They have appeared frequently in Europe in joint concerts, one of their greatest triumphs being at the Mozart Festival held in Salzburg.

DAME NELLIE MELBA

Mme. Melba's return to the grand opera stage after an absence of almost six years, at the new Manhattan Opera House, has been one of the conspicuous things about the grand opera season of 1906-07. Making her reappearance in La Traviata, she subsequently sang a number of times at the Manhattan, invariably being greeted by crowded houses. In the intervals between her opera appearances she has sung in concerts in large eastern cities. Mme. Melba's son, George Armstrong, was married in December 1906, the wedding being a great social event in London. She gave her son a wedding present of $7,500 a year in addition to the $250,000 which she settled on him as a child. Prior to her departure for New York, the rumored engagement of Mme. Melba to Lord Richard Nevill was revived.

AFTERWORD

Although listed in the Table of Contents, the portrait of Mme. Melba is missing from my copy of the March 1907 issue of the Burr McIntosh-Monthly. This doesn't happen often, but it's not surprising when it does, especially when it's Nellie Melba, the most popular diva ever! The publisher encouraged readers to remove photo panels from the laced-together books. After all, the pages were never numbered. They even supplied readers with inexpensive mats and frames to display their favorite performers. Anyway, I thought you might wonder about the picture I substituted, which is a copy of the flyer once used to promote Mme. Melba's autobiography. 

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.

Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/

WORDS & PHOTOS BY BURR McINTOSH • February 1907

This is the No. 7 in a summer series designed to acquaint you with the very collectible Burr McIntosh-Monthly magazines popular a century ago. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson and Edwad T. Heyn. This post focuses on:

The Burr-McIntosh Monthly • Vol. 12, No. 47 • Feb. 1907

BLANCHE BATES finished in November what was virtually an all-year’s run at the Belasco Theater, in The Girl of the Golden West, and at present is touring the country. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Bates, who owned theaters on the Pacific coast thirty years ago. Both were prominent in their profession, Mr. Bates being a prominent star in the ‘60s. Blanche Bates made her debut at Stockwell’s Theater, San Francisco, in August 1894, in Brandon Matthews’ one-act play This Picture and That. For four years Miss Bates played in stock companies on the coast and went to New York in 1898. She secured a position in Ada Rehan’s company under the management of Augustin Daly, and in 1902 joined David Belasco, under whose management she has appeared in The Darling of the Gods, following this with her present great success.

THE STUDENT KING, a comic opera about music, composed by Reginald DeKoven, with book and lyrics by Stanislaus Stange and the late Frederick Ranken, was originally produced in Boston, being subsequently seen in Chicago, and offered to New York theater goers on Christmas Day 1906.

Star of The Student King is Miss Lina Abarbanelle, who was very successful at the German Theater on Irving Place in New York.

GERALDINE FARRAR, the grand opera singer who made her New York debut at the Metropolitan in Romeo et Juliette at the opening of the 1906-07 season, after enjoying worldwide fame for her singing in Berlin. She was born in Melrose, Mass., 24 years ago, the daughter of Syd Farrar, a noted baseball player. She made her first appearance at the Melrose City Hall in an opera written by a Melrose woman. At the age of 10, over her father's objections, she went to Boston to study music. Miss Farrar then went to Europe, locating in Berlin. She made her debut October 15, 1901, at the Royal Opera House in Berlin, as Marguerite in Faust, and thrilled her audience. The next day she signed a three years' contract to sing at $10,000 a year, being the first American ever engaged for a long engagement at the Royal Opera House. The Kaiser asked her to sing before him at the Wiesbaden Festival in 1902. Miss Farrar was made the recipient of numerous offers of marriage in Germany, among others who sought her hand being the crown prince of Germany, who showered gifts upon her.

LILLIAN RUSSELL's first starring tour in the straight comedy, as opposed to her appearance for so many years in light opera or musical comedy, was anything but the success hoped for. The play was called Barbara's Millions, and was an adaptation from the French by Paul Potter. It failed in Chicago and lasted two very unprofitable weeks in New York. Undaunted by her failure, Miss Russell started out again in December in a new piece called The Butterfly.

DELLA ROGERS was born in Denver, Colo. She went abroad at the age of 14 and studied for three years with Anna de la Grange in Paris. She made her debut in St. Petersburg as Carmen. The following winter she performed at La Scala in Milan. Miss Rogers also sang in Rome, Palermo, and later made a tour through Roumania and also appeared at Constantinople. After appearing in Budapest, she returned to Vienna to study German, and the next winter accepted a two years' engagement at Elberfeld. She is at present at the Hamburg Stadttheater.

ALAN C. HINKLEY, the well known basso singer of the Hamburg Stadttheater, was born in Boston, Mass. in 1877. Early in youth his musical abilities were evident, for when still at the university, he sang with success in church and in concerts. He taught harmony and counterpoint and for a time was the leader of a small chorus of 45 voices. After leaving the university, his studies were directed by Mr. Oscar Sanger, and it is due to the latter that his voice developed to what it is now. Later under Sanger's direction he sang his first opera parts and oratorios, and finally made his debut in Boston in Robin Hood, singing the Serenade in that opera 100 times in one year with success

Not satisfied with singing smaller parts and striving for reputation, Hinkley went to Germany in 1903, where he accepted a five-year contract at the Hamburg Stadttheater appearing in 1904 as King Henry in Lohengrin. Despite his youth, Hinkley has been successful in Italian and French, as well as Wagnerian operas. His success is all the more remarkable because he knew no German before coming to Germany and had to become the master of this difficult language. He also sang with success the roles of Cardinal in The Jewess, St. Bris in The Huguenots, Landgraf in Tannhauser, and King Marke in Tristan and Isolde.

FRANCES ROSE. America is represented at the Breslau Stadttheater by Miss Frances Rose, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. After she finished her voice culture, she went abroad and studied a repertoire under Prof. Adolph Robinson in Vienna. Her first position she still holds in Breslau. Miss Rose's career there has been a successful one.

PUTNAM GRISWOLD, who is engaged at the Berlin Opera, is a native of Oakland, California. He began his career as a singer in the Congregational Church of that city. He went to England to study under Rendegger and in Munich under Leonati, and from there he proceeded to Paris to work with Plançon. While passing through Berlin, he was engaged by the Frankfurt Opera House. After three years there, he was engaged by Mr. Savage of the Savage Opera Company, and appeared 110 times in 25 weeks in the United States. Finally he was engaged by the Berlin Opera, where he still is.

FLORENCE WICKMAN. An artist well known in the United States, having appeared as Kundry in the Savage Opera Company's production of Parcifal, is Miss Florence Wickman, who at present sings at the Theater des Westens. Miss Wickman was born in Beaver Falls, Penn. She made her public debut in Fides at the Wiesbaden Opera House. She next sang Aida at the Royal Opera House, Munich, and it was then that Mr. Savage engaged her to sing in Parcifal.

ROXY KING. Another American artist engaged at the Theater des Westens is Miss Roxy King, who was born in Ohio, but when a child went to Brazil. Five years ago she went to Berlin and, while still a pupil at the Stern Conservatory, sang the part of Recha in The Jewess at a public performance of the institution. The Direktor of the Theater des Westens heard her, and engaged her at once for his establishment.

LEO REINS. Of all the American opera singers in Germany, probably Leo Reins of the Dresden Opera holds the best position. Born in New York in 1870, he made his first appearance when he was 12 years old as a soprano with Lawrence Barrett in Francesca de Rimini at the Star Theater, New York. In 1889 he was granted a scholarship in the National Conservatory of Music, New York, and came under the tuition of Oscar Sanger of that city, thereafter appearing in many concerts and oratorios. After a few months in Paris under the management of Jaques Bonhy, Reins was engaged by Damroach and Ellis for an American opera tour, and the fall found him again at home singing opera in four languages.

At the end of the regular season, Melba took a small company to the Pacific Coast and engaged Reins as leading basso. After that, he went to Germany where he sang prominent roles in Tannhauser and The Huguenots. Having mastered the repertoire, he has appeared in almost all court concerts and gala performances. In 1904, he made his first appearance at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, London, and at the last Bayreuth Festival, he sang the role of Hagen in all Gotterdammerung performances.

MARCELLA CRAFT was born in Indiana, but from early childhood lived in California, where she studied singing and appeared in concerts in Pasadena and Los Angeles in 1895. The following year she went to Boston to study with the late Charles R. Adams, and she soon became known there and throughout New England as a concert and oratorio singer. Thus from 1898 to 1900, she sang in Elijah, The Messiah, The Creation, The Seasons, Hymn of Praise, Gallia, The Golden Legend, Snow and Skylock, and other works, among them a concert version of Lucia.

In 1900, Miss Craft sang in Flotow's Stradella in Mainz. In November of that year she went to Milan where she studied singing with A. Georgin Benvenuti, and dramatic action with Francesco Mottino. She made her debut as Leonora in Trovatore at Morbegno in May 1902, when she was praised for the freshness and beautiful timber of her voice, her perfect intonation, and her artistic rendering. She is at present at Mainz.

LOUIS BAUER is one of the stars of the Cologne theater, and a native of St. Louis, Mo. He entered upon his singing career as basso in the most prominent church choirs in his home city. However, his ambition to be an artist in every sense of the word, led him across the water to take up a thorough study of the art of singing. And for this service, he entered the conservatory in Vienna, taking up all branches necessary for a career. He sang in Weimar and Zurich, and had many flattering offers from other German cities, but he preferred his position in Cologne which he still holds.

Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/

INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • September 1906

This is the sixth in a summer series designed to edify and entertain you with the camera and the sometimes-pen of editor/publisher Burr McIntosh. Text in this issue was written by Paul Thompson. This post focuses on:

The Burr-McIntosh Monthly • Vol. 11, No. 42 • Sept. 1906

JULIA SANDERSON has been playing in The Tourists, a musical comedy by R. H. Burnsides, music by Gustav Kerker, whose New York premier was celebrated on Labor Day at the Majestic Theater. This piece was produced in Philadelphia last spring and subsequently sent to Boston for a highly successful run. Miss Sanderson first came to Broadway’s notice in Fantana, another musical comedy which ran for several months at the Lyric Theater, New York, in 1905. It is proposed to star this young woman in a piece called The Motor Girl later this coming season.

ADELE von OHL was a conspicuous member of the New York Hippodrome last spring in the spectacular production A Society Circus. Under the stage name of Champion she rode a white horse and performed the dangerous feat of plunging into the Hippodrome tank in the course of the play. She comes of a family, all of the women of which are clever in handling horses. Her mother has conducted a riding academy at various times and a younger sister is famed not only through New Jersey but elsewhere as a horse breaker, both her experience and that of Miss Adele having been secured in the west on ranches where they lived.

DORIS KEANE first came to Broadway notice in September 1905, playing an ingenue role in support of John Drew in Augustus Thomas’s play Delancey. Miss Keane received her training for the stage in a New York dramatic school and it was due to her personal attractiveness and cleverness in playing a part in one of the annual graduation productions of this school that led Charles Frohman to give her an opportunity in the company of his star.

VIOLA  ALLEN has once more forsaken the modern playwright for Shakespeare and this coming year is to play in the latter’s Cymbeline. The season of 1905-06 she starred in Clyde Fitch’s play The Toast of the Town, playing the role of the famous actress, Betty Singleton.

LOTTA FAUST is the wife of Ritchie Long, a tenor singer very well known in Broadway musical comedy productions. Miss Faust probably made her first and greatest hit in Babes in Toyland, Victor Herbert’s tuneful musical comedy, which was staged at the Majestic Theater in New York. She subsequently appeared in Wonderland by the same author, which piece, however, did not meet with the same measure of success that had attended Babes in Toyland. She was to be featured in a revival of a musical comedy called The Land of Nod, which was put on at the Grand Opera House in Chicago last July, but was prevented at the last moment from playing this part on account of illness.

JEAN GERARDI is an internationally famous cellist. His first tour of the United States was almost a decade ago when he was hailed as a child prodigy. Since then, he has made frequent visits to this country and is known from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. He was born in Leige, Belgium, in June 1878. He has played in virtually every civilized country. He is the possessor of an artistic temperament and a splendid technique, has a large repertoire, and though his first fame was that of a child prodigy, he has won still greater praise as a finished artist.

TWO ADDITIONAL PANELS were included in this issue.

The first is self-explanatory:

And if you lived in New York in 1907, you would recognize immediately this popular comic actor, DeWolfe Hopper. (See my earlier posts on the life and loves of DeWolfe Hopper, Husband of His Country.)

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.

Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/

WORDS & PHOTOS BY BURR McINTOSH • October 1905

This is the fifth in a summer series originally designed to edify and entertain you with the camera and pen of the multi-talented Burr McIntosh (although it's clear that he did not write the material in this issue). This post focuses on:

The Burr-McIntosh Monthly • Vol. 8, No. 31 • October 1905

LOUISE GUNNING is the daughter of a Methodist minister. she was discovered by the late Charles Hoyt, who thought he foresaw a great future for the auburn-haired little girl who invaded his office in quest of employment. He placed her in A Trip to Chinatown when that piece was enjoying its phenomenal run at the Madison Square Theater under his direction and that of Frank McKee. She sang Scotch ballads in that play and afterwards in A Day and A Night, when the latter piece was put on at the Garrick Theater, New York. After Hoyt’s death she went into vaudeville, where was playing when Charles Dillingham looked about for a prima donna for The Office Boy, Frank Daniels’ first starring vehicle under his management; he  discovered her and gave her the place. She married shortly after the New York engagement of this piece and retired for a while from the stage. She made her reappearance in vaudeville, but succumbed to the offer of Fred C. Whitney to sing a leading role in Love’s Lottery in support of Madame Schuman-Heink, when this former grand opera star made her debut in light opera at the Broadway Theater, New York.

MARGARET ANGLIN comes from one of the best families in Canada. Her father is edits the leading newspaper in St. John’s, N.B., and is a member of the Provincial Parliament. For a great many years she was Canada’s favorite amateur actress; as a child playing many parts with companies from the States and going as far West with these companies as Toronto, then returning to her home in New Brunswick. By her perseverance she secured a hearing from Charles Frohman, virtually forcing her way into his office, as a reward for which he gave her a place with the Empire Theater Stock Company. Her success was immediate. She played in many productions at the Empire, including Brother Officers, The Unforeseen, etc., but made the greatest success of her career in Mrs. Dane’s Defense, at once establishing her position as one of the best emotional actresses in America. She has played a great many times as co-star with Henry Miller, being possessed of a very great popularity, particularly on the Pacific Coast.

THELMA FAIR is a Denver girl. Her stage experience has been short but remarkable for the progress that she’s made. Fred C. Whitney found her and gave her one of the leading roles in his military musical comedy or opera, When Johnnie Comes Marching Home. With her pronounced blonde hair, her natural good looks and singing voice of splendid range, she was successful from the very start, the New York critics treating her kindly when the war musical comedy was first produced in New York. She subsequently went under Edward E. Rice’s management when that veteran of the stage produced at the Bijou Theater Mr. Wix of Wickham. When Charles Frohman put on The Rollicking Girl at the Herald Square Theater, he gave Miss Fair an important part in the production and made her the understudy for Hattie Williams, who was virtually a co-star with Sam Bernard. On several occasions she sang the leading woman’s role and scored a decided success.

MABEL DIXEY is a sister of Henry E. Dixey, the former star of Adonis, who is one of the most versatile and clever actors on the American stage. She has been making a name for herself, however, through her portrayal of various roles of the ingenue type. She was under the management of W. N. Lawrence for a long while and was well cast in The Frisky Mrs. Johnson when Amelia Bingham put on that Clyde Fitch play at the Princess Theater. She has also played with Henry Miller, and at one time was in that bucolic drama, New England Folks.

CLARA LEIGH is one of two sisters who are very well known in the amusement world as The Leigh Sisters. They came from England, and because of their clever dancing, particularly in featuring the umbrella dance, when this was a great novelty, made an enviable name for themselves. They played in burlesque productions for a number of years, and ultimately found their way into the chorus of Weber & Fields’ Music Hall.

ELLA SMYTH is a lyric soprano who played one of the minor roles in the Bangs-Penfield version of A School for Scandal, — Lady Teazle. She was made understudy for Lillian Russell when the piece was at the Casino Theater before the fire came that sent them on the road, and, on one or two occasions, sang the role of Lady Teazle in decidedly acceptable fashion. The latter part of the season she was entrusted with the part of Mrs. Candour. By a peculiar coincidence she had been understudy for Miss Russell when the latter was at Weber & Fields’ prior to her starring in the musicalized Sheridan play. Miss Smyth comes from San Francisco, and it was there that she received her first stage training.

BONNIE MAGINN is probably one of the richest women on the stage. She is worth between two and three million dollars, is the owner of an extensive cattle ranch in Montana and, because her possession of this wealth is not mythical, but real, will probably retire from the stage after this season. She first came to New York theater-goers’ notice through her remarkable dancing at Weber & Fields’, opposite Belle Robinson, when Peter Dailey was singing there. She stayed there for a number of seasons and left to play a much more important role in Klaw & Erlanger’s production of Mr. Bluebeard at the Knickerbocker Theater, in which piece she had one of the leading parts. When Joseph Weber and Lew Fields separated, and the former was organizing his company for the season of 1904-05, he at once opened negotiations looking toward the return to the Music Hall of Miss Maginn. As a result, she was prominently cast in both Higgledy-Piggledy and The College Widower. This coming year she is to occupy an even more important position, playing the roles that would have fallen to Anna Held had she remained and had the firm continued to be Weber & Ziegfeld instead of Joseph Weber’s Music Hall.

CATHERINE COOPER is the daughter of a Milwaukee photographer. Her stage experience covers a short period. Her mother was on the stage, and it was largely because of this that she herself adopted the theatrical profession as a livelihood. She played in several Chicago musical comedy productions and came to New York in Weber & Fields’ ill-fated An English Daisy. When Fantana left the Garrick Theater of Chicago to come to New York, she was transferred by the late Sam Schubert to this latest musical comedy, which was destined to enjoy so great a measure of popularity in New York City. She is an extremely attractive girl and her dancing played an important part in Fantana.

WALKER WHITESIDE is an actor who enjoys a splendid reputation in the middle west and far western parts of this country, through his portrayal of various Shakespearean and other classic roles. He played one engagement in New York at the Herald Square Theater, but the New York critics refused to take him seriously and, as they are prone to do with most strangers within their gates, treated him with scant courtesy, so much so, in fact, that it has deterred him from repeating his invasion of Broadway. When the dramatization of Lew Wallace’s book, Ben Hur, was determined upon, the famous Indiana author wanted Walker Whiteside to play the title role. His wishes were not realized, however, for it was felt that the actor’s size would operate against a successful stage portrayal of the character of Ben Hur, because he is not as tall as the average man, being in fact about the stature of Edwin Booth. In other roles, even those requiring a dominating physique, he has overcome this handicap and made his followers forget the limitations under which he labored.

DAVID WARFIELD, the most conspicuous figure on the American stage at the present day, because of his phenomenal success as a character actor, a success that The Music Master, which is now in its second year in New York, did more to enhance than anything he has ever done, began his theatrical career as an usher in the Bush Street Theater in San Francisco. He did not remain in that position for long, however, for he soon went into the minstrels, joining a troupe which was playing in the house where he was ushering. His first New York appearance was at Herman’s Concert Hall on Eighth Avenue, where he gave a Jewish character imitation. George Lederer discovered him and, in the heyday of his success as a producer at the Casino, brought Warfield uptown and put him in some of the famous Casino productions which have made Lederer and the Casino famous. Warfield scored his greatest success playing the role of an eccentric Dutch comedian in The Merry World. He afterwards went to Weber & Fields’ and played very important parts in their various burlesques. David Belasco saw him there and came to the conclusion that he was capable of better and greater things, and put Warfield under contract. His first year under the Belasco management was in the piece called The Auctioneer. Belasco ended Warfield’s second season in The Auctioneer, and had the new piece, The Music Master by Charles Kline, written for his star. Warfield went to the Bijou Theater, and scored the one great big hit of the theatrical season. His run was interrupted only on account of the summer and resumed early in September, with the probability that the play would run through most of the present season.

NELLIE McCOY, who has an important part in The Earl and the Girl at the Casino Theater, and has for a long time enjoyed a reputation as a clever dancer with her sister, Bessie, who is in A Yankee Circus on Mars at the Hippodrome, had a singing and dancing role in Lady Teazle before she went into The Earl and the Girl. Before that she was at Weber & Fields’. The first act of The Earl and the Girl is a copy of that famous painting, “The Fallowfield Hunt,” this having been copied by the scenic artist, not because it has anything to do with the plot of the musical comedy, but because it afforded an opportunity for an attractive stage setting. Accordingly, when a part was created for Miss McCoy, she was given the name of Daisy Fallowfield. She did so well with the two or three lines entrusted to her that her part was immediately broadened and the ambitious Miss McCoy was given a role that ultimately assumed an importance that was not to be denied.

THE EARL AND THE GIRL, which reopened the famous Casino in New York after this historic playhouse had been closed for several months following the fire which drove Lady Teazle out of New York, is an English importation. It ran for something like two years in London at George Edwardes’ Gaiety Theater, with Willie Edouin playing the leading role. When the piece opened in New York it was far better known in other cities than in the metropolis, for many months ago it was put on in Chicago and played there for a long while, subsequently going into the Boston Theater for an extended engagement. Ivan Caryll, composer of The Duchess of Danzig and other equally successful English musical comedies, is responsible for the music, while Seymour Hicks and Percy Greenback wrote the book and lyrics. The American version, which was changed a great deal to fit the peculiar fun-making abilities of Eddie Foy, who was virtually made the star of the piece when it was produced in New York, was staged by Richard Burnsides. The story, in brief, is of how the earl of Stole (Victor Morley), who is in financial distress, is about to give a house party to an American girl (Georgia Caine), whom he is desirous of marrying. An animal trainer, Jim Cheese (Eddie Foy), who is down on his luck, breaks into the earl’s place at this time, just as the bailiffs are about to attach the estate for debt. To make it possible to continue with the house party, the earl persuades the animal trainer to change places with him, the comedy opportunities thus afforded being rather unusual.

Just "Click the Pix" to enlarge.
Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/