Mrs. Gene Hughes and Co.

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Miss Hughes and her company of four perform “Youth.” Edgar Allen Woolf’s work, with all its fun and comedy, is a sermon for women. It is appealing to women as it is about a woman growing older n years, but younger in spirits and looks. Miss Hughes plays Madam Cora Le Grand, married to a skinflinty sort of man who is always satisfied when his wife is in the kitchen. She endured him until he died. Their daughter, with the full instincts of her father, has married a man for which she does the same thing her mother did for her father. Cora, having been released, found a new passion for the stage. She went to Australia with her son-in-law as the manager of her act, “Madam Cora Le Grand.” Cora’s daughter knew her mother and husband have faded from sight but was unaware where they were, or that they disappeared together. The sketch opens as Madam Le Grand returns to the old home in New York, looking like the daughter of her daughter, and nearer the sister of her grandchild than the grandmother. The daughter is peaked and worn, very elderly in appearance, with an old gingham dress on. Cora is resplendent in fashionable clothes, looking the picture of health. The daughter does not recognize her mother. Cora states that when her husband passed away she improved by keeping her mind young. She supplies her daughter and granddaughter with new clothes so that they resemble human beings. The family leaves to greet the manager-husband. A thread of a love story is introduced when the granddaughter becomes attached to a flip young boarder (Billy Weeks, played by Walter Lewis). The boy whistles “Every Little Movement” every chance he gets.
Miss Hughes, wearing two gowns throughout the playlet, plays her role perfectly. Isabel Vernon, as the daughter, plays a vivid contrast to the modern “Cora.” Margaret Vollmer, as the granddaughter, has one of those ingénue roles which is there simply because it is. Mr. Lewis, as the boarder, has a wide open part, capable of much development. “Youth” is a pleasing comedy.
Source:
Variety 22:7 (04/22/1911)