In their new act AN ANCIENT ROMAN. This is a very pretentious affair, they have two elaborate scenes which they carry for it including nine or ten special drops. I don’t consider the act as funny as what they produced before but it has the element of newness and novelty and is desirous from that standpoint. 23 min, full stage, 2 shows.
This act opens splendidly with one of the girls playing the violin and the other singing a song as their second number but they are terribly handicapped by their father who is blind, attempting the comedy end of it, and their finish in one of the three cornets is really poor. If the two girls could be secured to do their work which they could do in one or two very easily, they could give twelve or fifteen minutes of an especially pleasing tune which would be more valuable to use decidedly than their pleasant act. They are very pretty and very clever. As it is in its entirety the act is only fair. 23 min, open in three closing with about 5 min. in 1, 2 shows.
Garden in 4. Two men, equilibrists. This is rather a novel act. They open in full dress and do some clever balancing. They then change to tights and do an excellent wire act. One holds the wire by his teeth while the other does a one hand balance on the wire. Although the act does not consume much time it is one of the best acts this character we have ever played. 9 minutes.
C.D.3, 22 minutes. Man and woman in a singing and dancing act. The woman makes an excellent appearance, and is a good vocalist. The act is really a singing and dancing act with a little talking. It contains several good laughs and they are both very good dancers. At YRR they are, I think, HR overpaid.
3 shows, 15 min, full stage. This man has two monkeys, two dogs and two ponies, one of the latter being the smallest equine in the world. He is not a quick qorker [sic] and the act suffers as a consequence. The material is there, for the simians and canines are tractable enough, but the fellow lacks snap. His stage trappings are taudry [sic] looking and his assistant is a sloppy looking individual. With all its shortcomings it made a hit with the holiday crowds, and will go big with the children during the week.
3 shows, 18 min, full stage. This is a Western team that has appeared in the principal vaudeville houses west of New York but have not done any work in the east, and I put them in here this week with the understanding that it has to be sort of a ‘tryout.’ They are both fairly clever and I think if they had a better place in the bill than they can get here this week, would make good. The man makes up on the style of Nat Wills, a little more exaggerated perhaps and in addition to his comedy sings some good parodies. The woman plays as a soubrette with two changes of costume. If they will continue in the 3-show section at GRR it will be a cheap and good act.
3 shows, 10 min, full stage. This is a first class ‘sight’ act and should be booked to go the circuit whenever possible. The woman works straight and the man in evening dress, as an Irishman. They are both clever acrobats, and uses a combination of trapeze, and horizontal ladder, on which the woman walks head down, and bounding table and horizontal bars. The rigging is bright and handsome. It is one of the sort of acts that can make good in any part of the bill. Went splendidly here today.
2 shows, 23 min, full stage. In a new act, patterned after that of Moore and Littlefield, but not so good as the latter by any means, entitled, ‘The Stage Manager.’ Howard as an actor is a positive ‘shine,’ as he has a fat part but does not know how to get the most out of it. He wins out on his piano playing, as usual. Miss Bland does better work than probably anybody gave her credit for being capable of. Act is a good one but by no means great, and only went in spots with the audience.
2 shows, 14 min in 1. This team is well known to managers on the circuit. This is the first time they have played here in two years and in the interim they have been abroad and the lady is now playing the harp and cutting out some of her lively coon songs, which were always the hit of the act. They went fairly well but not big, the changes possibly appealing to the artistic among the audience but not being pleasing to the vast majority.
2 shows, 25 min, full stage. Presenting for the first time here a pantomimic comedy, ‘High Jinks,’ which is given three scenes, the first the interior of a French café, the second corridor of a prison and the third a stone quarry, which in themselves are unique in the varieties. It scored a fair laughing hit but requires considerable coaching in various ways and perhaps a change or two in the performers, but at the end of a fortnight, when it is scheduled to go ‘on the road,’ it should be one of the best things of the kind that has ever been offered in vaudeville for money.
