"GET THE HOOR!"

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9408, 31 March 1909, Page 7

"GET THE HOOR!"

“v If stage-atrnob people had opportunities of testing their talent in tne publicity of a theatre without taking theplnnge into theatrical life, there , might be fewer tragedies of tin stage. The two Bowery theatres in Kew York present such .an oppor- , tunity to anyone who thinks he or she has the makings oi a musioj all “star.” Every Thursday ev ®° inf : ' fslvs a New York correspondent) Ly amateur may appear on the stage after the regular performance and give any “turn” he or she likes. Pew performers get beyond the first - fewr lines of a song, or the first few seconds of a dance. The audience is brutally candid at performers it does not approve of. and yells snob advice as “Beat it!” “Chase yourself !’ “Go and hide in the long grass. and demands the instant removal of the offender. This is what happened one night when Harry °,®“ e on to sing “Mamma’s Boy .- “Harry walked forward, a headed yonth with a soft manner and began his song. Two words were audible. ‘Oh. we--’ when the gallery’s thumbs went down, and g there were insistent f j from the auditorium to Get the , hoc™! Get Mie .book 'I nonSnaed singlag, thoagh nobody | heard hia words, when the leader (I the orchestra handed up a honqnet with a hose attachment, though which he sent a stream of water straight into Harry a face. But Harry was persistent, and the audience continuing to demand the hook, ’ from behind the scenes _ there was projected a huge hook attached to a long pole, and, arr £r.^h S yanked from the sight of the wrath* fnl crowd.” A huge neg ro sought approval of a buck dance was”informed by the 'audience that his feet were not mates, and advised to have them changed. He frowned, and the audience, taking this as_an insult, set up a terrific noise Hut the negro’s blood Was set np, and he refused to stop. A bag of sand dangling from the flies dropped ofi hia head, and a heavy discharge of water from the orchestra met him as he moved aside. finally, three stage hands had to carry off the infuriated aspirant, his feet dancing in the air. A young lady who, in her extreme nervousness, sang, a comic song like a dirge, pleased - the, audience, and was rewarded With a shower of i coins. Coming hack to respond to' an apparent encore, she was greeted with cries or Don t sing! Pick np the coins! She picked them np, hat it was plain that she was disappointed at being regarded as an object of charity and not as an artist. Of eighteen “turns,” five were Received kindly, and the prize for the best item went r,o army buglers for regulation bugle calls, so that the abilities of the would-be “stars” cannot have been very high.