INSIDE THE BURR McINTOSH-MONTHLY • July 1908

This is the 10th 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. A variety of photographers contributed to this issue, and their work is credited here. It's obvious that by mid-1908, Mr. McIntosh had little time for his magazine, as he spent more of his time in Los Angeles, forging a new career in motion pictures. 

This post focuses on Vol. 17 • No. 64 • July 1908

OLIVE MAY (Photo by Dover Street Studios, London)

is one of the more attractive of the younger generation of players on the London stage. She is now appearing in that city as one of the gaiety girls in the new production, Havana. 

ROBERT MANTELL (Photos by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

is now one of the most prominent actors playing Shakespearean roles in this country. Although he is an old-time actor and has been well known for his portrayals of melodramatic and romantic roles in the popular priced houses, it was not until a very few years ago when he came into the late Princess Theatre on Broadway that New York realized the ability of the man. He probably will have a London engagement shortly if his manager’s plans go through. 

PERCY HASWELL (Photos by Otto Sarony Co., N.Y.)

has had the good fortune to be in one of the conspicuous New York successes, being cast for the leading woman’s part in The Honor of the Family, Paul Potter’s adaptation from the French of Fabre’s play based on Balzac’s story, The Two Brothers. Miss Haswell is the wife of George Fawcett, who has made such a big hit in London in The White Man, known in this country as played by Faversham under the title of The Squaw Man. At one time Miss Haswell was a member of the late Augustin Daly’s company. Of late years she has been in her husband’s stock company in Baltimore. 

MARIE TEMPEST (Photo by Dover Street Studios, London)

is starring in London in Mrs. Dot, by W. somerset Maugham, at the Comedy Theatre, this being the third success by the same author now being played in the English capital. It is one of the best things the talented Miss Tempest has done, and the rights for America have already been secured by Charles Frohman for next year. 

MME. GLACIA CALLA (Photo by Otto Sarony & Co., N.Y.)

has studied grand opera singing under the best masters in Paris, and now at the very end of the season in this country she is to have an opportunity to display her ability with a light opera company that will possibly be heard in New York after a road tour. 

ANTOINETTE WALKER (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

is the ingenue who created the role of Jenny in the original production of The Music Master. The past winter when David Warfield revived that play, which in time will become as much of an American classic as The Old Homestead, Miss Walker was engaged to play her original role once more. 

FRITZI SCHEFF (No photo credit)

who deserted grand opera for the musical comedy stage, has one potent reason for remembering the season just ended, inasmuch as it brought release from her marital bonds. Moreover she ended her use of Henry Blossom’s clever piece, Mlle. Modiste, which has served her so successfully for three seasons, a result due to Blossom’s clever book and lyrics, Victor Herbert’s good music, and Manager Dillingham’s excellent staging of the piece. 

RUTH MAYCLIFFE (Photo by Frank C. Bangs, N.Y.)

is one of the three girls in Clyde Fitch’s Girls, the satire on the bachelor girls of today which has been so very successful at Daly’s Theatre, New York. She plays the youngest and most impressionable of the bachelor girls, and is the first apostate from the non-marrying faith. 

CRISSIE BELL (Photo by Bassano, London)

One of London’s show girls, Crissie is also a noted beauty. She created a sensation in the beauty contest recently held there to determine who should be called the most beautiful woman in England. 

MARGARET ILLINGTON (Photo by Sarony, 5th Ave., N.Y.)

has been starring with Kyrie Bellow for eight months in New York in The Thief. With her husband, the well-known manager Daniel Frohman, she departed immediately after her theatrical work had ended for a vacation in Arizona. 

MAUD ADAMS (Photo by Sarony, 5th Ave., N.Y.)

has been playing in The Jesters, a romantic comedy in blank verse, which was first done in Paris by Mme. Bernhardt, this marking the second time that the American star has followed the great French actress in masculine roles, the other time being in L'Aiglon. Miss Adams is to play before Yale and Harvard Universities in As You Like It and other Shakespearean comedies, and is probably to make her debut in such roles in London next season. 

NOTABLE PRODUCTIONS IN THE SUMMER OF 1908

Among the pieces with a seeming grip on life as far as a prolonged stay in Nw York is concerned, are the following:

PAID IN FULL by Eugene Walter, one of the big hits of the season, has a most interesting history. It was to come into the Astor Theatre last December but did not because it was such a pronounced failure on the road. Another attraction was substituted and the work of reconstruction begun, a most hopeless appearing task and one which the wise-acres said was foredoomed to failure. Meanwhile, the author, who had a play called The Undertow done here by a popular-priced stock company with virtually no success, was sleeping in parks and getting food where he could. Then came the premier of Paid in Full, and in one night he became the most sought-after dramatist of the moment, with managers galore seeking for any play he might have written or might write. Indeed, shortly after Paid in Full, another play, a melodrama of the Canadian woods call The Wolf, was produced, and is at the present writing being offered on Broadway, but not with the success of the first play. All the critics united in praising Paid in Full, which had a quality of naturalness and conviction which goes straight to the mark. It has the advantage, moreover, of being well cast so that every role is in capable hands, and that counts for a great deal. The story is a simple one of a married couple in moderate circumstances, the husband going wrong and wrongly blaming his missteps on the wife.

Once more The Four Cohans, a quartette as famous today in the houses where big prices are charged for seats as they were formerly in vaudeville. George M., the son and genius of the family, has scored in a most decided manner with The Yankee Prince, whose life at the Knickerbocker Theatre bids fair to be a regal one. He has written a satire on the title-hunting Americans with bank rolls to substantiate their claims to foreign alliances, but it is not so much in his satire, which is only occasionally in evidence, that he wins out, as it is in the clever manner in which the piece is made to hold together a number of excellent specialties in songs, dances, etc. His idea is evidently that of the late Charles Hoyt, who had a wonderful vogue the latter part of his lifetime—people like vaudeville, consequently give it to them disguised as a play, the characters in your story to provide the specialties. Hoyt combined a very clever satire on some public foible with his good vaudeville and made a great big success of the plan. Cohan works along somewhat similar lines, but substitutes musical comedies for farces as the connecting link to the "turns." Josephine, his sister, who has been absent from the family group for some years, her place being taken by her brother's former wife, Ethel Levey, has now returned from vaudeville, and her reappearance with the family has evidently exerted a beneficial influence, for her brother's book, lyrics, music and personal work were never better. The Yankee Prince may be commended as a clean, well-staged, tuneful, amusing offering.

Clyde Fitch has failed so often of late that it is a pleasure to record the unquestioned success of his latest play, Girls, a satire on the bachelor girl and her foibles. While it borders on the vulgar at times, as Fitch plays are apt to do, one can even forgive that for the sake of the genuine fun which is provided. Three girls have an organization which foreswears man and matrimony and in the course of the play each girl falls a victim to the darts of the youthful, scantily clad marksman. Here again clever players add to the enjoyment of the author's work. Laura Nelson Hall, ringleader in the anti-man society, was the star of Rachel Crothers' short-lived play, The Coming of Mrs. Patrick; Amy Ricard will ever be remembered for her athletic girl in The College Widow, while Ruth Maycliffe, youngest and prettiest of the trio, is to me unknown. Charles Cherry, Herbert Standing and Zelda Sears are the other notables in the cast who make the play the success it unquestionably is.

In addition to the aforementioned lighthearted entertainments, Mr. Thompson also gives a nod to two summer productions of New York's Metropolitan Opera Company. (Photos by Byron, New York)

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