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CONTINUOUS VAUDEVILLE
[Illustration: CONTINUOUS
VAUDEVILLE
BY
WILL M. CRESSY]
CONTINUOUS
VAUDEVILLE
BY
WILL M. CRESSY
_With Illustrations by_
_HAL MERRITT_
[Illustration]
BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER
TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED
Copyright, 1914, by Richard G. Badger
All Rights Reserved
THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A.
INTRODUCTION
When you go into a Continuous Vaudeville Theater you expect to see and
hear a little of everything. You see a lot of poor acts, a few good ones
and two or three _real_ good ones. In seeking a suitable title for this
book it struck us that that description would fit it exactly; so we will
christen it--
CONTINUOUS VAUDEVILLE.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE OLD STAGE DOOR TENDER 13
IT'S HARD TO MAKE THE OLD FOLKS BELIEVE IT 22
UNION LABOR 28
MARTIN LEHMAN GOES TO NEW YORK 30
SOME HOTEL WHYS 43
IT ISN'T THE COAT THAT MAKES THE MAN 45
ONE-NIGHT-STAND ORCHESTRAS 48
"HEART INTEREST" 57
TOMMIE RYAN'S HORSE 60
VAUDEVILLE VS. THE LEGITIMATE 70
A SOCIAL SESSION 75
BIGALOW AND THE BIG SIX 81
NEVER AGAIN 90
THE ARTISTIC TEMPERAMENT 93
HOW MIKE DONLIN SHRUNK 104
A NIGHT IN BOHEMIA 109
BREAKS 120
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND CANANDAIGUA 123
LET US HOPE 127
THE OLD SHIP OF ZION 130
FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD 137
PLAYING THE ENGLISH MUSIC HALLS 140
"WOODIE" 151
A CORK MAN 153
THE TROUBLES OF THE LAUGH GETTERS 159
ASLEEP WITH HER SWITCH 165
I JOIN THE SUFFRAGETTES 168
THE PERILS OF A GREAT CITY 174
DO YOU BELIEVE IN SIGNS? 177
CLOSING NUMBER 180
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Mag Haggerty's Horse_ 60
_"Shun Licker"_ 64
_The Widow's Mite_ 66
_Far from Home and Kindred_ 69
_"Why?"_ 74
_"Time All Open. Indefinite"_ 78
_"Good Morning"_ 90
_It Isn't the Coat that Makes the Man_ 107
_"Vengeance is Mine"_ 117
_One Sure (?) Fire Revolver_ 118
_"Give 'Em the Gravy"_ 121
_The Band of Hope_ 127
_The Cressys in Ireland_ 153
_Playing Hoboken_ 161
_Carrying "The Old Man" with Her_ 162
_"Bring Her Hither"_ 172
_The Perils of a Great City_ 174
CONTINUOUS VAUDEVILLE
THE OLD STAGE DOOR TENDER
Naturally if you are going back on the stage to get acquainted with its
people, the first chap you are going to meet is the old Stage Door
Tender. You will find him at every stage door, sitting there in his old
arm chair, calm, quiet, doing nothing; he is a man of few words; he has
heard actors talk so much that he has got discouraged. He sees the same
thing every week; he sees them come in on Monday and go out on Saturday;
the same questions, the same complaints, the same kicks. So he just sits
there watching, waiting and observing.
He seldom speaks, but when he does, he generally says something.
* * * * *
At the Orpheum Theater in Des Moines there was an old fellow who looked
so much like the character I portray in "Town Hall To-night" that
everybody used to call him "Cressy." Finally we came there to play and
he heard everybody call me "Cressy." He pondered over this for a day or
two, then he came over to me one afternoon and said,
"What do you suppose they call you and I 'Cressy' for?"
He expressed his opinion of actors in general about as concisely as I
ever heard any one do; I asked him what he really thought of actors; and
with a contemptuous sniff he replied,
"I don't."
* * * * *
Nobody in the world could ever convince "Old George" on the stage door
of the San Francisco Orpheum that that house would survive a year
without his guiding hand and brain. Old George was hired by John
Morrisey, the house manager, while Mr. Myerfelt, the president of the
Orpheum Company, was abroad. George's instructions were to admit no one
back on the stage without a written order from Mr. Morrisey. A month or
so afterwards Mr. Myerfelt returned and started to go back on the
stage.
"Here, here," said Old George; "where are you going?"
"I am going up on the stage," said Mr. M.
"You are not," said George, barring the way, "without a pass from Mr.
Morrisey."
"What are you talking about?" demanded Mr. M. "I am Mr. Myerfelt, the
President of the Orpheum Company."
"Yis, and I am King George, The Prisidint of this Door; and me orders is
that no one goes through here without a pass from Mr. Morrisey. And
there is nobody goes through."
So deadly earnest is Old George in this matter that, should it be
absolutely necessary for him to leave the door for a moment, he has
bought himself a little child's-size slate upon which he writes out a
detailed account of where he has gone, and why, and how soon he will be
back.
"Gone to get a drink of water. Be back in a minute. George."
"Gone out in front to ask Mr. Morrisey a question. Be back in three
minutes. George."
"Helping fill Miss Kellerman's tank; don't know how long. George."
"Inside watching Banner of Light Act. George."
This "Banner of Light" act was Louie Fuller's "Ballet of Light,"
consisting of eight bare-legged girls dancing on big sheets of glass set
into the floor of the stage. George would go in under the stage and
watch the act up through these sheets of glass.
He said it was the best act that was ever in the house--for him.
* * * * *
Old "Con" Murphy was on the stage door of the Boston Theater for
eighteen years; his hours were from 9 A. M. to 11 P. M., with an hour
off for dinner and an hour for supper.
The theater faces on Washington Street and the stage door is on Mason
Street. For eighteen years Con sat in that Mason Street door and only
saw Washington Street once in all that time.
One day Eugene Tompkins, the owner of the theater, came along, stopped,
thought a minute, then said,
"Con, how long have you been here?"
"Sixteen years, come August," said Con.
"Ever had a vacation?"
"No, sor."
Tompkins looked at his watch; it was ten minutes of twelve. "Well, Con,"
he said, "when you go out to dinner, you stay out; don't come back
until to-morrow morning. Then come and tell me what you did."
Con put on his coat and went out; out to the first vacation he had had
in sixteen years; the first opportunity to see what this city he lived
in looked like. The first chance he had had in sixteen years to get out
into the country; to hear the birds sing; to see the green fields; the
trees; the flowers growing.
And what do you suppose he did?
He walked across the narrow alley and visited with the Stage Door Tender
of the Tremont Theater all the afternoon.
* * * * *
I asked the Stage Door Tender of Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater
in New York once what he considered the best act that ever played the
house; unhesitatingly he replied,
"Joe Maxwell's Police Station act."
I asked him why he considered that the best.
"Ain't no women in it."
* * * * *
An agent for some fangled kind of typewriter was trying to interest the
Stage Door Tender of Keith's Theater in Philadelphia in the machine:
"Now this is just what a man in your position wants and needs. You have
a lot of writing to do here, and nowhere to do it; now with this machine
you don't require any table or desk; you can hold this typewriter right
in your lap."
"Not me, Mister," said the Door Man hastily; "I'm married."
* * * * *
There used to be a door man at Keith's Boston House who could tell more
in less words than any man I ever saw. One Monday morning some actors
came in who had never been in Boston before, and they were asking this
old fellow about the different hotels:
"How is the Rexford?" asked the Lady.
"Burlesque," grunted the old fellow.
"What is the Touraine?"
"Headliners."
"How about the So-and-so House?" naming quite a notorious hotel.
"Been open eleven years and had three trunks."
* * * * *
"Where have I seen you before?"
And the Judge at the prisoner leers;
"Why, I taught your daughter singing."
"You did?" said the Judge; "_ten years_."
* * * * *
Nat Haines was playing Keith's, Providence, R. I. The act on ahead of
Nat was Professor Woodward's Trained Seals. One afternoon Nat, hearing a
noise, looked around and there was one of the seals coming out under the
curtain behind him. It took Nat just two jumps to get off the stage. An
attendant came out and captured the seal. Nat came back. "Well," he
said, scratching his head; "I have followed every animal on earth but a
skunk and a lizard, and now I have got that. Humph; Professor Woodward's
Trained Shad. I think I will learn dressmaking."
* * * * *
I once asked Ezra Kendal how he ever kept track of those seven children
of his.
"I use the card-index system," he replied solemnly.
* * * * *
The Depths of Degradation: A man that plays second violin and double
alto in the band.
* * * * *
Mary Richfield (Ryan & Richfield) had a headache; the Los Angeles sun
had been too much for her. She went in to a drug store and asked the
clerk for a headache powder. This clerk was not a first-class drugger;
he was just a student; but he knew where the headache powders were, so
he got one for her; got his ten cents and started away. Mary looked
around; there was no soda fountain, no water tank.
"Well, here," she said; the young man stopped and looked back at her.
"Where am I supposed to take this powder?"
"In your mouth, Mam."
* * * * *
One cold, blustery day several of us were sitting in the stage door
tender's little room at the Orpheum, Denver, when the door was thrown
open and in hurried a boy of fifteen or sixteen.
"Where's Cressy?" he asked briskly.
"Right here," I answered in the same manner.
"I want a sketch."
"All right."
"What do you charge?"
"Five hundred dollars."
"Gee Zip!"
And he was out the door and gone.
* * * * *
At the Minneapolis Orpheum a chap with a jag came weaving his way out
from the auditorium and over to the box-office window.
"Shay," he said thickly; "wha' do you want to hire such bad acters for?
They're rotten."
The ticket seller asked which ones he objected to.
"Why, tha' ol' Rube, and that gal in there; they're rotten."
"What are you talking about?" said the ticket seller; "that is Cressy
and Dayne; they are the Headliners; they are fine."
The man looked at him a moment, as if to see if he really meant it; then
he asked earnestly,
"Hones'ly?"
"Certainly."
For another moment he studied, then as he turned away, he shook his head
sadly and said,
"I shall never go to another vaudeville show as long as I live."
IT'S HARD TO MAKE THE OLD FOLKS BELIEVE IT
We may be Actors and Actresses (with capital "A's") to the public; we
may have our names in big letters on the billboards and in the programs;
but to The Old Folks At Home we are just the same no-account boys and
girls we always were. We may be Headliners in New York, Boston, Chicago
and San Francisco, but back home we are still just Jimmie and Johnnie
and Charlie that "went on the stage."
Charlie Smith, of Smith & Campbell, in his younger days used to drive a
delivery wagon for his father's fish market. But tiring of the fish
business he started out to be "a Acter." At the end of five years he had
reached a point where the team commanded (and sometimes got) a salary of
eighty dollars a week. As driver of the fish wagon he had received
eight. And he determined to go home and "show them." Dressing the part
properly for his "grand entre" put a fearful dent in his "roll"; so much
so that he had to change what remained into one and two dollar bills in
order to "make a flash."
But when he struck the old home town he was "a lily of the valley"; he
had a Prince Albert coat, a silk hat, patent-leather shoes, an
almost-gold watch and chain, a pretty-near diamond stud and ring and the
roll of ones and twos, with a twenty on the outside.
After supper, sitting around the fire, he started in telling them what a
success he was; he told them of all the big theaters he had appeared in;
how good the newspapers said he was; what a large salary he received,
etc., etc.
All seemed highly impressed; all except Father; finally, after a couple
of hours of it, he could contain himself no longer, and burst out--
"Say, when are you going to stop this dumb fool business and come back
and go to driving that wagon again?"
* * * * *
Ed Grey, "the Tall Story Teller," went from a small country town on to
the stage. It was ten years before he ever came back to play the home
town. When he did the whole town turned out _en masse_; the Grey family
ditto; after the show the family was seated around the dining-room
table, talking it over. Mother sat beside her big boy, proud and happy.
The others were discussing the show.
"That Mister Brown was awful good."
"Oh, but I liked that Blink & Blunk the best."
"That Miss Smith was awful sweet."
But not a word did any one have to say about "Eddie." Finally he burst
out--
"Well, how was _I_?"
There was an ominous pause, and then Mother, reaching over and patting
his knee lovingly, said,
"Now, don't you care, Eddie, as long as you get your money."
* * * * *
Cliff Gordon's father doesn't believe it _yet_. Cliff was playing in New
York and stopping at home.
"Vere you go next veek, Morris?" asked Father.
"Orpheum, Brooklyn," replied Cliff.
"How mooch vages do you get dere?"
"Three fifty."
"Tree huntret unt fifty tollars?"
"Uh huh."
Father nodded his head, sighed deeply, thought a minute, then--
"Then vere do you go?"
"Alhambra, New York."
"How mooch?"
"Three fifty."
"Then vere?"
"Keith's, Philadelphia."
"How mooch you get ofer dere?"
"Just the same; three fifty."
Father sighed again, thought deeply for a few minutes, then, with
another sigh, said, half to himself,
"Dey can't _all_ be crazy."
* * * * *
Tim McMahon (McMahon & Chapelle) had a mother who did not believe
theaters were proper and Tim had a hard time getting her to come to see
him at all. But finally she came to see her "Timmite" act. It was a big
show, ten acts, and Tim was on number nine. After the show was over Tim
went around in front of the house to meet her; she came out so indignant
she could hardly speak.
"Why, what's the matter? Wasn't I good?" asked Tim.
"Yis, sor, you was; you was as good as iny of them; you was _better_
than any of thim; and they had no right to let thim other eight acts on
foreninst ye: _You ought to have come on first, Timmie._"
* * * * *
The first time Josephine Sabel's father and mother saw her on the stage
she was in the chorus of a comic opera company and was wearing tights.
Mother ran out of the theater and Father tried to climb up over the
footlights to get at Josephine and got _put_ out.
* * * * *
Charlie Case had been on the stage for years before he ever got a chance
to play his home town; then he came in with a minstrel show; he had a
special lithograph, showing him standing beside an Incubator, which was
hatching out new jokes every minute.
The house was crowded and Charlie was even more nervous than usual.
Everybody else in the show got big receptions; Charlie walked out to
absolute silence. He talked five minutes to just as absolute silence;
then, discouraged, he stopped to take a breath; the instant he stopped
the house was in a pandemonium; they really thought he was great, but
hadn't wanted to interrupt him. After that he would tell a joke and then
wait; he was a knockout.
Later he was talking it over at home:
"Why, that awful silence had me rattled," he said; "I couldn't even
remember my act; I left out a lot of it."
"Yes," said his father; "we noticed you forgot to bring on your
Incubator."
UNION LABOR
A Song and Dance Team (recently graduated from a Salt Lake City picture
house) got eight weeks booking on the Cort Circuit out through the
Northwest. The first show told the story. They were bad: awfully bad.
But they had an ironclad, pay-or-play contract and as the management
couldn't fire them, it was determined to freeze them out. The manager
started in giving them two, three and four hundred mile jumps every
week, hoping that they would quit. But no matter how long or crooked he
made the jumps they always showed up bright and smiling every Monday
morning.
Finally they came to their last stand: and it happened that the manager,
who had booked them originally, was there and saw them again. He could
hardly believe his eyes, for, owing to the fact that they had been doing
from six to sixteen shows a day for the past eight weeks, they now had
a pretty good act. As they were getting about as near nothing a week as
anybody could get and not owe money to the manager, he wanted to keep
them along. He was fearful the memories of those jumps he had been
giving them would queer the deal, but he determined to see what a little
pleasant talk would do; so he went to them and said,
"Now, boys, you have got that act into pretty good shape; and if you
like I can give you some more time. And," he hastened to add, "you won't
get any more of those big jumps either. I was awful sorry about those
big fares you have had to pay."
"Oh, that's all right," replied one of the boys; "we belong to the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and always ride on the engine free
anyway."
MARTIN LEHMAN GOES TO NEW YORK
Martin Lehman is the manager of the Orpheum Theater in Kansas City.
Martin Beck is the general manager of the Orpheum Circuit. Mr. Beck had
wired Lehman to come to New York at once. What Mr. Beck said went. So
Lehman went.
If there is any one thing on earth that Martin Lehman loves better than
another it is _not_ traveling. He is probably the only man on earth who
can get seasick anywhere and everywhere. A sprinkling cart will give him
symptoms. His son Lawrence says that he always has to stand by and hold
his father's hand when he takes a bath. He always walks to and from the
theater because the street car might pass through a mud puddle and he
would get seasick. The next worst thing in the world is a railroad
train. He dies twice a mile regularly. _But_--Martin Beck said, "Come at
once."
So, with his suit-case full of Green River, Hermitage and other
well-known mineral waters, a couple of lemons (who had been playing for
Louis Shouse at Convention Hall the previous week), and his Orpheum
pass, poor Lehman boarded the night train for Chicago, hoping for the
best but expecting the worst--and getting it.
He got on board early so he could get into his berth before the train
started. Lower seven, right in the middle of the car. He placed his
bottles of life preservers in the little hammock beside him, punched a
little hole in the end of one of the lemons, closed his eyes and said
his evening prayer.
The train started. So did his troubles. The train gained headway. Ditto
the trouble. But, like his forefathers in far-away Prussia, he fought
for freedom. He brought all the strength of his powerful mind to bear.
He tried "The New Thought," "Self-Hypnotism," "Silent Prayer"; he tried
every religious belief he could think of except Mormonism. And finally
he slept; or died; he was not sure which; and he didn't mind; he lost
consciousness; that was all he cared for.
The next thing he knew somebody was shaking him and telling him to
"Change cars!" It seemed that this car had developed a hot box and
passengers would have to change to the car ahead, taking the same
numbered berth in the new car that they had occupied in the first one.
Poor Lehman's getting up and dressing was absolute proof of the power of
mind over matter. But finally, with part of his clothing on his back and
the rest over his arm, he managed to stagger into the other car, only to
discover that he had lost his berth ticket.
The conductor said that the only thing to do was to wait until the other
passengers got located, and the berth that was left would naturally be
his. It doesn't take a mind reader to see what he got. Upper number one;
right over the wheels: just beside a smoky kerosene lamp.
As in all good novels we will now have a line of stars.
* * * * *
Arriving in Chicago, he varied the misery of the trip by a taxicab trip
across the city to catch the New York train: this time drawing lower
nine.
"Troubles never come single." In the seat back of him was a woman with a
baby. The lady in front of him indulged in perfume of a most violent
type. The weather and the porter were warm and humid.
He went up into the smoking room, but some rude drummers were smoking in
there so he had to come back to his seat. The lady in front of him said
something about people "reeking with tobacco smoke," and took another
perfume shower-bath. Then the porter leaned over him to open the window.
So the day passed, and the night came; and Lehman went to bed. About two
o'clock in the morning the end of the world came. Or so Lehman thought
for a moment. It was afterwards discovered that the car he was on had
broken a wheel and jumped the track. Upon coming to and taking account
of stock, Lehman found that his injuries consisted of one fractured
bottle, a dislocated vocabulary and a severe loss of temper.
For the second time on this awful trip he was invited to "change to the
car ahead." The first thing he did was to hunt through his clothes for
his ticket. No more of that upper number one business for your Uncle
Martin! No sir! Having at last found it, he placed it in his mouth,
picked up what there was left of his clothes and made his way up ahead
to the other car.
"Tickets!" said the conductor.
"You bet!" said Lehman, taking the ticket from his mouth and handing it
to the conductor.
The conductor took it, copied the number on to his plan, handed the
ticket to the porter and the porter took him in and put him to bed
_again_.
Lehman tried to say his evening prayer again, but couldn't remember it.
While he was thinking it over the door at the ladies' end of the car
opened and something came down the aisle. As this "something" came out
of the ladies' apartment, it was presumably a woman. But Lehman disputes
that fact to this day. She was about six feet long, nine inches wide,
all the way, and about the color of a cowhide trunk. Her hair was in
curl papers, her teeth in her pocket and her trust in Heaven. Like a
grenadier she marched down the aisle until she came to the berth where
Lehman was trying to die as painlessly as possible. Upon arriving here
she pulled the curtains aside, sat down on the edge of the berth, jabbed
Lehman in the stomach with her elbow, and said loudly--
"_Lay over!_"
Lehman groaned, got one look at the female, then placed both feet in the
small of her back and shot her out on to the floor, yelling loudly for
the police.
The car was in an uproar in an instant. Lehman was lying on his back,
shouting "Police!" The female was screaming and hunting for her teeth.
The conductor, the porter and the brakeman came running in to see
whether it was a political discussion or just a murder. All the old lady
could do was to mumble and hunt for her teeth. A man across the aisle
swore that he saw Lehman stab the old lady with a bowie knife and throw
her out into the aisle. The woman with the baby corroborated him,
excepting that she thought he hit her with a piece of lead pipe.
By this time the old lady had found part of her Fletcherizing outfit and
informed the congregation that she was neither struck nor stabbed; but
that her husband in the berth there had certainly gone crazy.
There was a sympathetic chorus of "Oh!s" from the other passengers and
the conductor jerked the curtains aside and asked Lehman what he meant
by treating his wife this way.
"_My wife?_" screamed Lehman. "Why you ---- --!$!--&--$&'o$--! Are you
calling that old goat face _my wife_?"
"Sure that's your wife! Don't you suppose she knows?"
"Well, don't you suppose _I know_! Do I look as if I would be the
husband of anything that looks like _that_?"
The old lady now caught sight of Lehman for the first time.
"Why," she gasped; "that isn't my husband."
"I know darn well it ain't," said Lehman.
"Then what are you doing in my berth?" demanded the old lady.
"I am not in your berth!"
"You _are_ in my berth!"
"Let's see your tickets," said the conductor.
"Here is mine," said the old lady. "Lower seven."
"And here is mine," said Lehman. "Lower seven."
The conductor looked at them closely; then stepped back under a lamp and
looked at them closer. Then he handed the old lady's back to her. Then
he turned to Lehman and, handing him his ticket, said,
"That is your yesterday's ticket from Kansas City to Chicago." Lehman
looked at it dazed for a moment, then dressed and went up into the
baggage car where he sat on a trunk all the way to New York.
* * * * *
E. M. Chase, a Norfolk (Va.) newspaper man, has for years been
collecting newspaper clippings. The following are from some of his rural
exchanges:
"The funeral was conducted at the home by the Rev. Mr. Browles and was
afterwards buried in the old family burying ground."--_Lebanon (Va.)
News._
"Mrs. W. G. Neighbors is suffering with a rising corn on her
foot."--_Lebanon News._
"J. N. and Alfred Quillen were grafting in our neighborhood a few days
last week."--_Gate City Herald._
"Rev. W. C. Hoover preached an excellent sermon at the Union Chapel on
last Sunday, his subject being entitled, 'I go to prepare a place for
you.' Rev. Hoover and family then spent the rest of the day with Mr.
Luther Armentrout and family."--_Shenendore Valley Newmarket._
"The members of Moore's Store String Band met Saturday evening and
rendered some very fine music, as follows: W. E. Lloyd, H. E.
Weatherholtz, V. M. Weatherholtz, B. H. Golliday, C. S. Moore and 26
spectators."--_Shenendore Valley Newmarket._
"Selone Sours is out after a severe cold.
"Her daughter Emma Sours is still nursing her risings.
"Your scribe took a trip to Louray one day last week and purchased three
sacks of fertilizer, one peck of clover seed and a half bushel of
timothy seed.
"We remarked to our little son the other day that it was going to rain,
as certain birds were singing, and he said, 'Pa, rain don't come out of
a bird.'"--_The Page News._
* * * * *
There is a sign over in Newark that somehow doesn't just strike my
fancy; it reads--
P. Flem. Delicatessen.
* * * * *
A couple of young country chaps wandered into the lobby of Shea's
Theater in Toronto and stood watching the people go up to the
ticket-office window and purchase tickets; finally they got into the
line, worked their way up to the window, then one of them laid down a
two-dollar bill and said,
"Give me two tickets to Hamilton, Ontario."
* * * * *
"Irish Billie Carrol" was standing in the wings at the old Olympic
Theater in Chicago, watching the show. There was a chap on who was one
of those men who can never let well enough alone; if he said or did
anything that the audience laughed at, he would immediately say or do it
right over again. Billie watched him awhile, then turned to his friend
and said,
"All the trouble with him is, he always takes three bases on a single."
* * * * *
Barney Reiley, then with the Old Homestead Company, now the manager of a
theater in Indianapolis, and I were walking down the street in
Baltimore, when the sun, shining through a magnifying glass, set fire to
an oculist's show window.
"By Golly," said Barney, "it's a lucky thing that didn't happen in the
night, when there was nobody around."
* * * * *
Boston newspapers one week contained the following interesting
announcement:
"At Keith's; Cressy and Dayne; Don't fail to bring the children to see
the Trained Dogs."
* * * * *
[Illustration]
At the Majestic Theater in Chicago they have a big, two-sided, electric
sign upon which are displayed the names of the acts playing there. They
place the names of two acts on each side and use no periods. One week
the two sides read--
"CRESSY & DAYNE THE VAGRANTS."
and
"ELBERT HUBBARD NIGHT BIRDS."
* * * * *
Said the Actress to the Landlord,
"Want to see 'The Billboard,' Mister?"
Said the Landlord to the Actress,
"I'd rather see the board bill, Sister."
* * * * *
[Illustration]
An English actor, just over, was playing at the Fifth Avenue Theater in
New York City. He was in love with America and wanted to see it
all--quick. One night he came to me and said,
"I think I will take a run over to Buffalo Bill's place in the morning,
before the matinée."
I told him I would; it would be a good run for him.
Buffalo Bill lives in North Platte, Nebraska.
* * * * *
One of the provincial music halls in England has the roof arranged like
a roll-top desk, so that in hot weather it can be rolled back, thus
making a sort of roof garden out of it. An American Song and Dance Team
was making their first European appearance there; their act was a much
bigger hit than they had anticipated; and when they came off at the end
of their act one of them said delightedly to the other,
"Say, we just kicked the roof off of them, didn't we?"
"I beg pawdon, old chap," said the stage manager, overhearing him; "it
rolls off, you know."
* * * * *
James Thornton and Fred Hallen were coming out of the Haymarket Theater
in Chicago; Jim, who was ahead, let the door slam back against Fred.
"Oh, Good Lord," howled Fred, hanging on to his elbow; "right on the
funny bone."
Jim looked at him, and in that ministerial way of his said,
"You haven't a funny bone in your body."
* * * * *
A young man asked me recently what spelled success on the stage. I told
him the only way I had ever found of spelling it was W-O-R-K.
SOME HOTEL WHYS
Why are porters and bellboys always so much more anxious to help you
_out_ than _in_?
Why do so many hotel bathrooms have warm cold water and cold hot water?
Why is it that on the morning you are expecting company you can never
find the chambermaid? And every other morning she tries your door every
fifteen minutes regularly.
Why does a hotel clerk always try to give you some room different from
the one you ask for?
Why does a hotel cashier always look at you pityingly?
Why does a bellboy always try to get two quarts of water into a quart
pitcher?
Why do hotels feed actors cheaper than they do folks?
Why is a mistake in the bill always in the hotel's favor?
Why does the landlord's wife always have theatrical trunks?
Why do drummers always leave their doors open?
Why does my wife always try to get a corner table, and then put me in
the chair facing the wall?
Why do "American" hotels always have French and Italian cooks?
Why does the fellow in the next room always get up earlier than I do?
Why does the elevator boy always go clear to the top floor and back when
the man on the second floor rings for him?
Why is the news stand girl always so haughty?
Why does the night clerk always dress so much better than the day
clerks?
Why do I think I know so much about running a hotel?
IT ISN'T THE COAT THAT MAKES THE MAN
A seedy-looking chap came up to Roy Barnes in Toronto and said in an
ingratiating way:
"I don't know as you will remember me, Mr. Barnes, but I met you down at
Coney Island last summer."
"Yes, sure, I remember you easy," said Barnes, grasping his hand in both
his own. "I remember that overcoat you have on."
"I hardly think so," said the seedy party, trying to draw his hand away;
"I did not own this overcoat then."
"No," said Barnes, "I know you didn't; but I did."
* * * * *
Grace Hazard has a washlady. Washlady has a thirteen-year-old son. Son
became infected with the acting germ and ran away to go with Gertrude
Hoffman's Company. His mother was telling Miss Hazard about it.
"'Deed, Mis' Hazard, yo' know 'tain't right for dat po' li'le innocent
child to be pesterin' roun' dem theater houses dat er way. 'Twas jes'
dis ver' mo'nin' dat he's Sunday-school teacher wuz sayin' to me: 'Dat
boy has got too much--too much--intelligence to be in dat stage bus'ness
nohow.'"
* * * * *
Hanging in each room of the Great Southern Hotel at Gulfport, Miss., is
a small sign stating--
+-------------------------------+
|GUESTS CAN HAVE BATHS PREPARED |
|ON THEIR FLOOR BY APPLYING |
|TO THE MAID ON THEIR FLOOR. |
+-------------------------------+
* * * * *
A friend of mine in St. Louis is a Police Captain. One day he went into
a bank to get a check cashed. He was in citizen's clothes and the paying
teller did not know him anyway; so he said,
"You will have to be identified, sir. Do you know anybody here in the
bank?"
"I presume so," said the Captain cheerfully; "line 'em up and I'll look
'em over."
Seen from the car window: "Shuttz Hotel. Now open."
* * * * *
On Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo: "Organs and Sewing Machines tuned and
repaired."
* * * * *
At the St. James Hotel, Philadelphia:
Mrs. Cressy. "Waiter, have you any snails today?"
Waiter. "No, mam."
Mrs. C. "What's the matter? Can't you catch them over here?"
ONE-NIGHT-STAND ORCHESTRAS
My idea of what not to be is Musical Director of a Musical Comedy
playing one-night stands. This is the real thing in the Trouble line.
Max Faetkenheuer was musical director with an opera company that was
playing through the South. They arrived in one town at four in the
afternoon, and Max found the orchestra waiting at the theater. They
looked doubtful; they sounded dreadful. Individually they were bad;
collectively they were worse. During the first number the cornet only
struck the right note once and that frightened him so he stopped
playing. The clarinet player had been taking lessons from a banjo
teacher for three years and had never made the same noise twice. There
were six French horns, all Dutch. The trap drummer was blind and played
by guess and by gorry.
Max labored and perspired and swore until 7:15; then he had to stop
because the audience wanted to come in and didn't dare to while the
riot was on.
"Now look, Mister Cornet Player," Max said; "I'll tell you what you do;
you keep your mute in all through the show."
"Yes, well, I shan't be here myself, but I will speak to my 'sub' about
it."
"What's the reason you won't be here?" asked Max.
"I play for a dance over to Masonic Hall."
"So do I," said the bass fiddler.
"We all do, but the drummer," said the flute player.
"_You do?_ Then what the devil have you kept me here rehearsing you for
three hours for?" demanded Max.
"Well," said the cornet player, "we knew this was a big show, and we
presumed you would be a good director, and we thought the practice would
do us good."
"It will," said Max.
* * * * *
On another occasion he struggled all the afternoon with a "Glee Club and
Mandolin Serenaders'" orchestra. Finally, by cutting out all solos,
playing all the accompaniments himself, and confining the "Glee Club"
to "um-pahs," he got everything figured out except the cornet player; he
was beyond pardon; so Max said to him,
"I am awful sorry, old man, but you won't do; so you just sit and watch
the show to-night."
"Oh," said the Not-Jule-Levy, "then I don't play, eh?"
"You do not play," said Max.
"All right then; then there'll be no show."
"Why won't there be a show?" asked Max.
"Because I am the Mayor, and I will revoke your license."
He played.
* * * * *
At some Southern town we played once with "The Old Homestead"; the
rehearsal was called for 4:30. At 4:30 all the musicians were there but
the bass fiddler.
"Where is your bass fiddler?" asked our director.
"Well, he can't get here just yet," replied one of the other players.
"When will he be here?"
"Well, if it rains he is liable to be in any minute now; if it don't
rain he can't get here until six o'clock."
"What has the rain got to do with it?"
"He drives the sprinkling cart."
* * * * *
The worst orchestra I ever heard was with an Uncle Tom's Cabin show
playing East St. Louis. It consisted of two pieces; a clarinet and a
bass fiddle, each worse than the other.
* * * * *
At North Goram, Maine, I once hired an entire brass band of twenty-two
pieces to play for an entire evening of roller skating in the town hall,
for three dollars. They were worth every dollar of it.
* * * * *
In one of my plays I issue a newspaper called _The Wyoming Whoop_. At
the top of the first column are the words--"In Hoc Signo Vinces." One
day one of the stage hands came to me with a copy of the paper in his
hands, and pointing to this line, said,
"That means 'We Shoot to Kill,' don't it?"
* * * * *
My wife was in a hair-dressing parlor in Cleveland; the girl who was
doing what ever she was doing to her, discovered that she was the Miss
Dayne at Keith's Theater.
"Oh, say," she said, "I wish you would tell me something."
"Yes? what is it?" asked Miss D.
"Is that old man that plays on the stage with you as homely as he looks?
His face is just like one of those soft rubber faces that the men sell
on the street; the ones you pinch up into all sorts of shapes. He
doesn't look as bad as that all the time, does he?"
Miss D. told her that there was not much choice.
* * * * *
Jim Thornton was playing his first engagement for Kohl & Castle in
Chicago. As he came off from his first show, he stopped in the wings to
watch the next act. A gentleman came along, touched him on the shoulder
and said,
"You are not allowed to stand in the wings here."
Jim looked at him a moment, then said,
"And who are you?"
"Who am I? I am Kohl."
"You belong in the cellar," and Jim turned back to watch the show.
* * * * *
William Cahill was playing Paterson, N. J., and living at his home at
the furthermost end of Brooklyn. Three hours and a half each way, twice
a day. A friend meeting him on the ferry said,
"You are playing Paterson this week, aren't you, Bill?"
"A little," replied Bill, "but I am going and coming most of the time."
* * * * *
I met Fred Niblo on Broadway:
"Hello, Fred," I said; "I went by your house this morning, and--"
"Thank you, Bill," he said, grasping my hand and shaking it heartily.
* * * * *
Clifford & Burke were playing Shea's, Buffalo. There was also a
bare-back riding act on the bill. There is a very old lady who comes
around the theater every night selling laundry bags, money bags and such
stuff to the actors. She had seen Clifford & Burke's act several times
and knew that they finished up their act with a dance.
Friday night she was sitting in our dressing room; Clifford and Burke
were on the stage when she came in but had finished their act and gone
to their room, although the old lady didn't know this. The horse act was
on and the old horse galloping around the stage "clickerty clack;
clickerty clack; clickerty clack," when suddenly the old lady stops
talking, pricks up her ears, listens a minute, then said,
"By garry, thim byes is doin' a long dance this night."
* * * * *
There was a German artist playing on the bill with us in Buffalo. He was
a very polite chap, but his English was very Berlin. One night, after
holding a rehearsal with a German acrobat, who was not much better off
than he was as to the English language, he came over to my wife, and
very slowly and laboriously he said,
"Goot evening, Madam Mees Dayne; eet iss colder than h----, don't it?"
* * * * *
Charlie Case was telling me how bad his teeth were:
"Why, Will," he said, "I have indigestion something awful. I can't chew
a piece of meat to save my life. I just bite it hard enough to make sure
it is dead, and swallow it."
* * * * *
Chick Sale comes from some one-night stand up in Illinois, I have
forgotten the name of it; but there are two rival hose companies in the
town. As fires are scarce, every once in a while they have a "contest."
The two companies line up side by side, somebody counts three and away
they go across the square to the watering trough. Upon arriving there
they unreel their hose, stick one end into the watering trough, man the
pumps, and the first one to get a stream on to the flag pole wins.
Last summer there came a real fire. As the fire was nearest to their
engine house the Alerts got there, and got a stream on to the fire
before the Reliables arrived. As they came panting and puffing up the
hill the captain of the Reliables saw this, stopped, waved his hand back
at his company and said,
"They have beat us, boys; you can go back."
* * * * *
There is one good thing about Des Moines, according to the
advertisements they are running in the magazines. There are twenty
railroads running out of it.
* * * * *
On 125th Street in New York City there is a piano dealer by the name of
Wise. On every window of his store he has painted--
"What is home without a piano? Wise."
And he is correct.
* * * * *
One week in Omaha, Neb., the advertising in front of the Gaiety Theater
read--
"The Midnight Maidens.
15 to 75 cts."
* * * * *
A Montreal furrier advertises--
"Fur cap, $1.00.
Good Fur Cap, $1.25.
Real Fur Cap, $1.50."
"HEART INTEREST"
When you go into a Continuous Vaudeville show you expect to see all
sorts of acrobatic marvels, trained animals, and funny people. You
expect to hear sweet singers, talented musicians, and funny comedians.
But once in awhile you see and hear some little gem of sincere, heart
interest.
And so, just in order to give that little touch of the "heart interest,"
I am going to tell you of a couple of little incidents that came into
our lives at different times.
One night several years ago we were playing in a little town way up in
the mountains of Pennsylvania. The night telegraph operator at the
railroad station was an old schoolmate of mine. And so after the show
was over I went over to the station to have a visit with him. It was a
still cold night in the middle of winter and we sat around the little
stove in his office, talking over our boyhood days back in New
Hampshire.
Along about midnight the outer door opened and a poor, ragged,
hungry-looking young chap of twenty-two or three stepped in and walked
to the stove. After he had got his hands thawed out a little he came
over to the window of the telegraph office and handed the operator a
piece of paper. It was just a piece of common wrapping paper with a
message written on it in lead pencil.
"How much will it cost me to send that message?" he asked.
The operator counted the words.
"Ten words; twenty-five cents."
The young fellow withdrew his closed hand from his pocket and emptied
out exactly twenty-five cents in pennies and nickels, sighed and went
out.
The operator sat down and sent the message. Then he sat looking at the
paper for quite a few seconds; then he turned to me and said,
"Well, I have been jerking lightning quite a while now, but there is the
biggest ten words I ever sent."
He handed me the message; it read--
"Kiss Mother good-by; I am too poor to come."
The second is just a letter which Miss Dayne received in Pittsburg, from
a poor old mother who thought she recognized in Miss Dayne her erring
daughter.
MCKEESPORT, PA., Mar. 5.
Dear Daughter Blanch.
i recognized your picture in one of the Pittsburg papers. Blanchie will
you write me a few lines and releived my heart and mind. if it is
concealment you dont want any one to know from me if you will only write
me a few lines i am your mother how i have longed to see you my health
is failing me the children often ask about you and wonder dont fail me
dear child you are just the same to me as the rest love to you Blanchie
from your heart broken mother
[Illustration: Mag Haggerty's Horse.]
TOMMIE RYAN'S HORSE
Tommie Ryan and his wife (Mary Richfield) live in a very charming house
at Sayville, Long Island. The Ryan horse lived in the barn. Although, if
Mrs. Tommie had had her way, he would have lived in the parlor. For
"Abner" was the pride of her heart.
Abner had been in the family so long he had become a habit. He had grown
so old that Tommie had to go out at night and fold him up and put him to
bed; then in the morning he would have to go out and pry him up on to
his feet again.
When Mrs. Ryan wanted to go for a drive, Tommie had to go along on his
bicycle, to push the horse up the hills and hold it back going down the
hills.
Abner's teeth had grown so long that he looked like a wild boar. Tommie
vows that he chewed all his hay for him for two years.
Finally Tommie got tired of acting as wet nurse to Abner and wanted to
dispose of him some way; but Mrs. Ryan absolutely refused; she said
Tommie had given her that horse "to keep" and she was going to keep him.
But finally, along towards fall, when it was time for them to start out
on their winter's tour, Tommie evolved a deep, dark scheme. So he framed
it up with the local livery stable man, that, as soon as they were gone,
he was to dispose of Abner; sell him, if he could; if not, then give him
away to some one who would treat him kindly and see that his last days
were spent in peace and plenty. And, in order to cover up his duplicity,
he left three letters with the livery stable man to be copied and mailed
to him on stated dates.
Everything went off as planned; Abner was disposed of, and upon the
first stated date the Ryans received the first letter; it stated that
the distemper was rather prevalent among the best circles of Long Island
Horse Society, but that as yet Abner was free from it.
Two weeks later a letter came to St. Louis stating that Abner was
afflicted, but very slightly.
At Milwaukee a week later the third letter came, describing in detail
the last sad rites attending the death and burial of Abner.
As the weeks passed by Mrs. Ryan grew resigned and Tommie grew happy.
And then came their engagement at Buffalo. Upon arrival at the theater,
Tommie found eleven letters; one was from the livery stable man at home;
this one he slipped into his overcoat pocket for a private reading later
on. While he was reading the other ten, his turn came to rehearse his
music; he slipped the ten letters into the same pocket with the livery
stable man's letter, and forgot all about the whole lot.
Arriving at the hotel, Mrs. Ryan asked him for the mail and he handed
the whole lot over to her. The first one that she opened was the livery
stable man's. It stated that the family he had given Abner to, according
to Tom's directions, had just been arrested for beating and starving
Abner.
I can't tell the rest; it is too sad; but to this day, every time Mrs.
Ryan thinks of Abner, she looks at Tommie, and he goes out and sits in
the Park.
* * * * *
"Thou Shalt Not Steal," said the sign in the car.
The conductor looked at it and laughed "ha ha."
And he pinched four dollars, and whistled the air,
"None but the brave deserve the fare."
* * * * *
After six weeks' travel the Harry Lauder Company had reached San
Francisco; every night of that six weeks Hugo Morris had taken Lauder
out to some restaurant to exhibit and feed him. On this first night in
San Francisco, the show had been an uncommonly large success, and
"Spendthrift Harry" was feeling generous. So he said to Hugo,
"Wull, Hugo, I bane thinkin'; every nicht sen we left New York you ha'
taken me oot as your guest; you ha' entertained me grand; I ha' never
seen anything like it in ma own country. An' I ha come to the conclusion
tha' it is not richt for me to let yo' do a' the treatin'. An' so
to-nicht I wi' toss yo' a penny to see who pays for the supper."
He did so, and Hugo got stuck.
* * * * *
Wouldn't Alan Dale feel at home in a "Pan"tages theater?
* * * * *
[Illustration: "Shun Licker."]
One morning in Chicago I received a pressing invitation to come over to
the police station and bail out "A Fallen Star." Upon arriving there I
found the aforesaid Star sitting on the edge of his bunk holding his
head in his hands and wishing it had never happened.
Like all Good Samaritans I started in delivering a Frances Murphy to
him; I told him how he was ruining his health, fortune and reputation; I
was really making quite a hit--with myself. Suddenly a rat scampered
along the corridor by the door. The Fallen Star saw it, started,
glanced sharply at me, then regained his composure. I was going ahead
with my temperance lecture, when he glanced up at me a second time and
said sharply,
"I know what you think; you think I think I saw a rat--but I didn't."
* * * * *
One summer we took our Property Man up on the farm in New Hampshire with
us; one day my wife was trying to describe a man that she wanted him to
find over to the village:
"He is a rather stout man," she said; "has reddish hair, wears blue
glasses and has locomotor ataxia."
"Oh, yes," interrupted the Property Man, "I seen it; he keeps it up in
George Blodgett's barn; I see it every night when I go after the cow."
* * * * *
The manager of a little theater in Des Moines closed an act on a
Thursday; I asked him what the matter was with the actor:
"Too officious, front and back."
* * * * *
B. F. Keith had two theaters in Philadelphia; one on Eighth Street and
one on Chestnut Street. One week while we were appearing at the
Chestnut Street house one of the papers had a picture of me. Not having
space enough for the whole name of the theater, they cut it down so that
the announcement read--
"WILL M. CRESSY. KEITH'S CHESTNUT."
* * * * *
[Illustration: The Widow's Mite.]
The train had stopped at Reno for a few minutes; it was just at dusk and
as the night was warm we got out and were walking up and down the
platform. There was a billboard at the end of the station and the bill
poster was pasting up some paper advertising the coming of "The Widow's
Mite" Company. An old chap came along, stopped and looked at it, but,
owing to the poor light could not quite make out what it was; so he said
to the bill poster,
"What show is it, Bill?"
"The Widow's Mite."
The old fellow pondered on it for a moment, then as he turned away he
said, half to himself,
"Might? They _do_."
* * * * *