INSIDE THE BURR-McINTOSH MONTHLY • May 1907

This is No. 9 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. This post focuses on Vol. 13, No. 50 • May 1907:

MARGUERITE CLARK

has been in the support of DeWolfe Hopper in Mr. Pickwick, Wang and Happyland for the last three or four years. She was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of A. G. Clark, a prominent merchant of that city. As a child she took part in amateur theatricals and charitable entertainments, and after her education was completed in the Brown County Convent in Ohio, she went on the stage. She served an apprenticeship in the chorus, following which she had roles of minor importance in The Belle of Bohemia, The Burgomaster, The New Yorkers, and The Wild Rose, after which came her engagement with DeWolfe Hopper. It is confidently expected that she will be starred this coming season in a musical version of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper.

MARIO SAMMARCO

joined the Manhattan Opera Company, New York, in January, succeeding Maurice Renaud as baritone of that company, and making his debut in I Pagliacci. He came to New York direct from the Teatro Real, Madrid. He has also sung leading baritone roles in Milan, Vienna, Berlin, Buenos Aires, St. Petersburg and all the principal opera houses of Italy. He has a fresh voice, warm in color, eloquent and of ardent feeling. His style of singing is free and easy. Critical observers feel that he has not yet reached the apex of his powers.

ANDREAS DIPPEL,

who has long been one of the conspicuous tenors of the Metropolitan Opera Company, was born in Cassel, Germany, November 30, 1866. He studied at Berlin, Milan and Vienna, making his debut at Bremen in September, 1887 in The Flying Dutchman. After five years spent in that city, he went to Breslau. America claimed him in the years 1890, 1891 and 1892. In the spring of the latter, Dippel was in Vienna, but in 1898 he returned to America where he has been heard regularly since. His repertoire is an extensive one, including some one hundred roles.

MLLE. REGINE PINKERT,

a noted coloratura soprano, came from Kiev, Russia, where she was singing at the Municipal Opera, to become a member of New York's Manhattan Opera Company. She was born at Varsoria, of Polish parentage, and began the study of music at the age of five. When she was fifteen years old she was a pianist of high order and began playing in concerts. She studied in Paris under Madame Marchesi for two years and then, at the age of seventeen, made her debut at Milan, afterwards appearing at the prominent theaters and opera houses throughout Europe and South America. Her repertoire consists of such operas as Lucia, Somnambula, Puritani, L'Elisir, La Boheme, Barbiere, Rigoletto, Hamlet, etc.

GERALDINE FARRAR,

the American girl who became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company last fall, making her debut as Juliette, added other laurels to her wreath by her performance of Madama Butterfly in Puccini's opera when it was produced at the Metropolitan and Caruso sang the role of Lt. Pinkerton. This was the Italian version of the same opera which Henry W. Savage presented in English in New York and throughout the country using a relay of three prima donnas for singing the title role and also three sets of principals for the roles of Sasuki and Lt. Pinkerton, respectively. Miss Farrar's father was once a noted professional baseball player.

PAULA EDWARDES

has headed her own comic opera or musical comedy company in the past few years with varying degrees of success. Her last vehicle was called The Princess Beggar, and was seen at the New York Casino. Before that she appeared in Winsome Winnie. She was born and educated in Boston and made her first appearance in the chorus of Tabasco, of which Thomas Q. Seabrook was the star. She next appeared in Hoyt's A Black Sheep, created a character part in A Dangerous Maid at the Casino, and then made a great success as Mamie Clancy, a Bowery girl, in The Belle of New York when that piece introduced Edna May to the theater-going public of America and England. In Augustin Daly's company playing A Runaway Girl, she created the part of Carmencita, following this with a part in The Great Ruby. In 1900 she appeared in Mam'zelle 'Awkins. After a revival of A Runaway Girl, Miss Edwardes became a star in Winsome Winnie.

ELEANORE DI CISNEROS

is one of the new contraltos of Oscar Hammerstein's company. Her maiden name was Eleanore Broadfoot, her home being in Brooklyn where she sang in a choir for a short time. She succeeded in securing an engagement to sing small parts at the Metropolitan Opera House under the management of Maurice Grau. Then she disappeared for quite awhile, during which time she became the wife of a Cuban gentleman and went abroad to make a career for herself. In six years she rose from an unknown singer of small parts to a position where she was accepted in leading roles in Italy, Austria and England. Her American success naturally followed. Both in her singing and in her acting she scored deserved success that winter.

MME. BRESSLER-GIANOLI

has been a member of the Manhattan Opera forces during the inaugural season of grand opera under Oscar Hammerstein's direction. She made her first appearance two years ago with the French Opera Company from New Orleans which had a rather disastrous season at the Casino Theater, New York, although she personally scored at that time principally because of her Carmen, which won her immediate artistic recognition, dramatically and vocally. She repeated this success at the Manhattan last winter, her vocal work being admirable, splendidly seconding her acting and enhancing its effect. Her dancing, moreover, was much better than when she was first seen in New York. This was but one of many roles in which she scored during the Manhattan Opera season.

NOTABLE PLAYS OF THE SEASON

Among the most interesting dramatic productions of the season now ending is that of Hauptmann's John the Baptist by Edward Sothern and Julia Marlowe, at the Lyric Theater, is notable. This was one of the splendid repertoire of classical and poetic plays presented by these talented American players in the principal cities of this country and subsequently staged by them at the Waldorf Theater, London. The title role, played by Mr. Sothern, was an interesting study though chief honors were accorded Miss Marlowe for her conception of the part of Salome, one of the features of this performance being her much discussed dance of the seven veils. Like the other pieces in their repertoire, including Jeanne d'Arc, The Sunken Bell and the serious Shakespearean offerings, John the Baptist was admirably staged.

The Belle of Mayfair has been a musical comedy of truly international importance. Americans were more or less familiar with this latest work of Leslie Stuart, the man who composed the tuneful measures of Floradora, long before the piece was given an American production, last November, and ran for several months in New York prior to a long Chicago engagement. It was while starring in this typical English musical comedy at the Vaudefille Theater in London that Edna May became piqued because of the prominence attained by Camille Clifford, another American girl in the supporting company (who had incidentally annexed to herself a peer of England), and left the piece, subsequently starring in Nellie O'Neil.

In this country the piece was presented by an American company of notable excellence, including Christie MacDonald, Van Rensselaer Wheeler, Richard Carroll, Ignacio Martinetti, Irene Bently and Valeska Suratt. Both here and abroad its success has been largely due to the tuneful numbers contributed by Leslie Stuart. Its book is a paraphrase of Romeo and Juliet, telling the story of two modern lovers in Mayfair, London, who are parted by their respective families, although the outcome, as might be imagined, is happier than that of the Shakesperean original.

After several months given over to the presentation of original plays by some of the most famous dramatists writing for the stage, including Israel Zangwill, Clyde Fitch, Eugene Presbrey and Jerome K. Jerome, with only a minimum amount of artistic or financial success as the result of her offerings, Eleanor Robson last January put on at the Liberty Theater a play by Paul Armstrong, based on Bret Harte's short story, Salomy Jane's Kiss. He took two or three characters from some other Bret Harte stories and gave the whole to the theater-going public under the title of Salomy Jane. Mr. Armstrong had previously won recognition from the theater-goers of this country by writing for the late Kirk La Shelle The Heir to the Hoorah which, produced several seasons ago, is still being played throughout the country. The vehicle with which he provided Miss Robson is one of the best, if not the best, of the many western plays staged in recent years and has met with success richly deserved. The dramatist was materially aided by the excellence of the supporting company provided for the nominal star, virtually every role being well played and, although the piece depended less than most western dramas on its scenery for its appeal, that phase of the play was far from neglected. The success which the piece scored resulted in the management's abandoning the idea of presenting Miss Robson in any other plays during the remainder of her New York season.

George Broadhurst contributed his share to the notable plays of the season in The Man of the Hour, a play dealing with political conditions that obtain in practically every lrge city, yet which are particularly true of New York, inasmuch as the types depicted find their counterparts in the political world of the metropolis. The piece went into the Savoy Theater last fall, after a series of failures had been staged at that house, and at once scored a remarkable success. Although there is a strong love interest, the play makes its appeal along wholly different lines and, because of this, there was some doubt as to its ultimate success, a doubt, however, which was dispelled shortly after its production, when a series of crowded houses gave even more satisfactory proof than favorable criticisms of how completely the play had scored. Mayor McClellan, Tammany Chieftain Murphy, and other lesser lights in New York politics, are rather faithfully reproduced.