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.
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Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/
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