MAOIiI DANCERS. FOR THE NEW YORK HIPPODROME. AMERICAN THEATRICAL ENTER

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1909, Page 5

MAOIiI DANCERS. FOR THE NEW YORK HIPPODROME. AMERICAN THEATRICAL ENTER-

" They are tired of Indians — our own dyed-in-the-wool Indians — these patrons of ours," said Mr. R. W. Macßride, the emissary of the New York Hippodrome Theatre, to a Post representative, " and so I have come across to New Zealand to take back with me a team of Maori dancers to titillate the dulled palates of New York theatre-goers." Harry Lauder had been, and seen, and conquered ; Eva Tanguay had danced her Salome dance, with the passage of the Head to put a ■fine edge on the thrill ; the diving elephants, two or three tons of pachyderm at a time, had toboganned thunderously into tho Hippodrome pool for many nights j but something new, something novel, was wanted, and Mr. Macßride j was sent to Rotorua to get it. | "I want the tattoed Maoris — the real, [ genuine thing," said Mr. Macßrido. | "They will be required for a turn of, ! say, 25 to 30 minutes. Someone in the I American fleet laid temptation in our way concerning the Natives, saw onr manager, and I left at short notice. I purpose taking about forty of the Natives back if they can be got." j THE HIPPODROME ITSELF. Concerning the Hippodrome itself, Mr. [ Macßride boasts, not unreasonably, of its standing in the theatrical line. It is a huge place, doing a huge business, for it caters for all classes. " Melodrama, ballets, operas, circuses, ;water shows— we give patrons good samples in these lines, and they , become regular customers," asseverated the visitor. j Consider the equipment : a complete circus, of 100 animals, 70 horses on which the Indians ride furiously, depicting the wild life of the West Nor' West ; a pool 90ft by 50ft, and 18ft deep, on which, when the stage manage/ demands it, the __ ballet girls carry out a water ballet, launches and featherweight gunboats lie on the flood, full of realism, and into which (the water) the sagacious and ponderous elephants slide down a nice ..angle to get very wet Then the | stage, 200 feet wide at thp back — extending a small block — and 120 feet wide in front, guarded by a gorgeous proscenium arch, while under the^ spacious roof 5000 can be accommodated comfortably. Mr. Macßride tells that the average weekly attendance aggregates 40,000, with tfc performances daily. "We catch all ther visitors from the country, the near and the back country," said the narrator, "and our show is very very popular." Something over 1400 people are regularly employed at the Hippodrome, and the wages and salaries bill tots tfp to something like 27,000 dollars. One of the great attractions at the theatre is the "Birdland Ballet," comprising 126 dancers, 120 chorus people, ! and 86 "supers," the total ensemble approaching 350. Included in the feat\«ises of this gorgeous s^ena is the "Elying Ballet," wherein thirty-five | maidens "of high degree, and elegantly, if judiciously, clad," are carried out on invisible wires, COftinto the auditorium and back. The Hippodrome authorities are very proud of this turn. Mr. Macßride has a lot of complimeu-' tary things to say concerning President I Taft, Harry Lauder, Eva Tanguay | (whose salaries are all as high as kind I report has made them receive). Ham- , merstein's Opera House, the Casino, and j the new Plaza Hotel, whose sumptuousj ness and general grandeur may bo indicated by the fact that John W. Gates, tne millionaire who loves trotters that pan break a 2.12 gait, thinks it worth while to pay 1000 dollars a week for j apartments thpre, though bo lives down Texas way. The Plaza Hotel overlooks Central Park, and is rapidly becoming the most frequented haunt of the gilded an.l great "400." Tne old and wellknown Wnidorf is suffering as a result oi the new rival. Maxima Elliott (out here with Nat Goodwin) has had a theatre named after ttad dedicated to her, and Air. Macßride gives his assurance that it is a beautiful place. In San Francisco he went ever the new Orpheum Theatre, and he describes it as the most perfectly-equipped of theatres. As a last word, Mr. Macßride, who managed Webber and Fields for seven years, says that novelties are rushed in the States. Any man or woman with some good business in her repertoire need never want at" least comfortable living and a little wad in the bank.