1912 – Page 162 – Vaudeville America

Harris and Miller

This sketch was thirteen minutes long on an interior setting. A young widow calls a detective agency to find her a husband with beautiful eyes. When she meets a janitor, she mistakes him for her marriage candidate.

Thomas Jefferson and Co.

This sketch adapted from the work of Charles Dickens entitled “The Cricket on the Hearth” was twenty-five minutes long on the full stage. The plot follows the original Dickens work, with the characters of Caleb Plummer (played by Thomas Jefferson) the toy-maker and Tackleton (played by Walter Colligan) included.

Gravette-Levondre Co.

The act was eight minutes long on the full stage. A man and a woman impersonate historical figures while standing on pedestals. Each impersonation is announced by a card. They perform impersonations of Theodore Roosevelt, Napoleon, and others.

Tom Lewis and Co.

This sketch entitled “The Man From the Metropole” was nineteen minutes long. Tom Lewis plays a former waiter at the Metropole who has been engaged to work in a private household. Both the husband and wife of said household (played by Burrell Barbaretto and Bessie Skeer respectively) have had embarrassing episodes which occurred at the Metropole, so they each try to flatter him into silence. They then find out he actually knows nothing about either of them. The sketch ends with Lewis putting on his hat and walking out.

Mountain Ash Male Choir

The act was twenty-six minutes long on the full stage. This Welsh male choir is made up of men approximately twenty-five to fifty years of age dressed in evening clothes. The director stands onstage with his back to the audience. He does many entrances, exits, and bows. A bass and a tenor both have solos. The finale included the entire choir and their encore was a “Welch war song”.

Theodore Roberts and Co.

This sketch entitled “The Sheriff of Shasta” was thirty minutes long on the full stage. Theodore Roberts, a legitimate star, plays a man with a cabin on the Shasta Ridge. His wife does not love him and resents the isolation of the location. She soon falls in love with a travelling acrobat who recently murdered a man. The Sheriff is close to finding him. When she hears the Sheriff approaching her barn, she hides the acrobat in the hay loft. The Sheriff proceeds to tell the wife of her charms, making her husband jealous. When she and the acrobat try to elope the next day, the acrobat is killed by one of the Sheriff’s men and the wife is brought back to her husband.

Grete Wiesenthal

The act was twenty-four minutes long. Grete Wiesenthal does classical dancing in front of a special drop. She formerly danced with her sister in a double act in England, but she is now striking out on her own. She dances four numbers. The first is performed in a bird-like costume, and in the second she does a pantomime and whirling Dervish spinning in a Gypsy dress. For the third, she wears a green dress which comes to her knees and lets her hair completely loose. The finale involves her skipping and jumping to a Strauss waltz.

Year: 1912