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.