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Friday, February 25, 2022

Editor W.O. Saunders Takes Role of Devil, Feb. 24, 1922

Will Use Saunders in a Devil of a Role. . . Those Who Would See Editor in Hades May at Least Behold Him in Mephisto’s Flaming Tights

Enemies of the editor of this newspaper have often represented him as a very devil with a regulation barbed tail, horns, cloven hoof and all that sort of thing. They will have an opportunity to see him in that very role in a play to be given under the auspices of the Parsonage Aid Society at High School Auditorium next Tuesday night, Feb. 28. W.O. Saunders, who takes the part of Hon. Geoffrey Myrtleton, member of Congress, also takes the role of Mephistopheles in an amateur theatrical production about to be staged in the Congressman’s home in Washington when two deacons from the Congressman’s own home church come to Washington to pay him a visit. The deacons find their Congressman looking like the very devil himself, encased in flaming red tights and everything.

The title of the play is “The Deacons at the Capital.” It might be called by a dozen other names, because it is full of comedy and dramatic situations from beginning to end. Bill C. Sawyer appears in the roll of Pinkerton Case, a detective who appears throughout the piece in a costume of a Scotch Highlander. Bill C.’s naked knees in the Scotch kilties are just too cute for anything and will make a hit with the ladies especially.

The leading lady of the play is Miss Marguerite LeRoy, who shines like a Broadway star in the role of Betty, the niece of the Congressman. And for a Negro character the committee has made a real discovery in Frank Dawson, who plays the role of Jasper, the servant. Frank Dawson is more like a Negro than a Negro is like himself, in this role for which he has been cast. Others in the piece are Misses Hattie Harney, Mahalah Meekins and Polly Skinner, and Messrs. Sherrill, LeRoy Brothers, Guirkin Cook and Thomas Holloman. The play is under the direction of Mrs. Marion Bennett and Mrs. Mary Fearing. Miller, the Philadelphia costumier was enlisted to supply the costumes for the play, the construction of costumes for a Mephistopheles and a Scotch Highlander being just a little too much for local sartorial art.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Feb. 24, 1922

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