Bernard and Ferris copped the applause honors. Bernard, dressed as a chef and has a healthy base voice, and Ferris possesses a natural choir boy soprano voice, getting an ovation on each number. For an encore they sang the Hebrew classic, “Ell Ell” Stopping the show completely.
“Bric-a-Brac,” a miniature musical comedy, with two men and five girls, plenty of scenery, took the class laurels. Eugene Carrey, Beulah Hayes and Leon Leonard deserve credit for making this miniature production what it is, especially Miss Hayes, who, besides her beautiful soprano voice, has oodles of personality, looks and appearance, and could at any time step out and do a high grade single. The chorus is a perfect working one, and also assists in putting this tabloid across in high style.
Jerry and Gretchen O’Meara were left in tough sledding, but as soon as possible brought smiles to the faces of the benumbed crowd. Jerry, a character comedian par excellence, characterized a tramp and old man, getting laughs, a throb out of his lines and work, while Gretchen, with a million dollar appearance, did her share for an encore and four bows.
Sibyle-Sammis Sisters four girls in evening dress, sang several different harmony songs with no punch nor delivery, and they put no enthusiasm in their work. They all have good voices and would do much better in Chautauqx work.
Harry Kahne, “The Master Mind,” followed. Kahne works in “two” in front of a pretty special cloth drop, with the assistance of three blackboards. He asks the audience to suggest names, etc., which he writes backward, upside down, and several other ways, with touches of comedy intermixed, all of this done with a high polish of showmanship. For his closing trick he writes the headlines of a newspaper, starting with the last letter, finishing with the first: divides an eight figure number if four parts so that it will add up: the audience calling out name of any State in United States, he giving population of the capital and what it is noted for, doing all five stunts simultaneously. Kahne is a master showman and has an act of true merit.
Hubert Dyer and Co. closed. His assistant opens with a Roman ring stunt and he comes on with tramp makeup and his pantomimic work held 100 per cent of the audience in getting gobs of laughter.
Whitfield and Ireland next to closing, stirred things up for a laughing hit. They have a comedy drop of hick town with wise cracks on it that gets a lot of laughs before they come out. They open straight. Miss Ireland later changing to rube character. They got though a routine of gags and finish with a parody song.
Annie Kent and Co. followed, Miss Kent is a clever comedienne and put her numbers over extremely well, the best of which is “It’s a gay Life,” with some very good interpolated gags that act her out as one of those women who will do anything except falling into the bass drum for a laugh. She gets laughs throughout the numbers and gets a good hand after her session. Her assistant at the piano works hard to put his number over with little success.
Howard’s Animal Spectacle, one of the greatest dog and pony acts of all times, held the house in and breathless and brought down a bombardment of all-earned applause.
Ben Harney, who bills himself as the “originator of ragtime,” did some piano work, sang “Mr. Johnson Turn Me Loose” and did some eccentric steps and patter. The last was pretty good. He was assisted by a brazen –lunged darkey who worked up bows in a shameless manner and was otherwise no help. Harney, with the sympathy and his still agile limbs should hold up a good spot on the medium circuits.
