“The Man From the Sea.”

Location:

Theater:

Date:

Type:

This act, written by Paul Dickey and Chas. W. Goddard and produced by Maurice Campbell, had its first presentation here today and held the audience spellbound. Never have I seen an act in vaudeville that has gripped an audience as did this one today and the interest was intense during the 18 minutes of its presentation. The scene is laid in a wireless station at Cape Fear, North Carolina, with a terrific storm raging outside. The operator on duty keeps getting a call for C.F. and decides to answer. The reply comes “Off Scarboro Reed, nine fathoms deep” and signed Carroll Brown. From another operator he learns that Brown and Bradley Wolf had both loved the same girl and had cut the cards to determine which would leave the other free to woo her. Brown loses and starts away in a storm but is supposed to have wrecked off the reef. On the night of storm the message had come over the wireless that Brown would return on Wolf’s wedding night. The wireless keeps flashing the message and the operator summons Wolf on the phone and delivers the message. Wold arrives at the station and orders the operator to return to the house with his fiancé and be careful that the automobile does not skid over the sea wall. Wolf has been in the station but for a few minutes when Brown, “the man from the sea” returns. He accuses Wolf of treachery and insists upon again cutting the cards for the girl, stating that if he wins he will take her back with him “nine fathoms deep.” Brown wins and as the card is turned the phone rings and Wolf is informed that the automobile has gone over the sea wall and the girl is drowned. Brown vanishes into the storm. While the act is weird it does not have that gruesomeness that might be expected. It is finely acted, the cast being above the average while the storm effect with “real rain,” etc., is the best that I have seen staged. It seems to me that properly worked this act could be heavily featured anywhere and will create discussion. Certainly there is no other act like it in vaudeville today and those managers who are constantly crying for novelties would do well to consider this one. Own set in 3. Time 18 min.

Source: