"The Hottentot" Has an Old Theme and a New Wrinkle

For many weeks to come, William Collier, a hardy, night-blooming perennial and guaranteed laugh producer will play "The Hottentot" to packed houses at the Hollis Street Theatre as he did on Monday last.

The old theme is the racing of horses in a "fashionable hunting community near New York," featuring a third act filled with field glasses and people; the customary "They're off!!" and a tremendously exciting, though second-hand, steeplechase. That is the old theme and the new wrinkle is, of course, William Collier.

The transplanting of Mr. Collier from the scenes of "Nothing but the Truth" and "Nothing but Lies" to the haunts of the idlest rich, busied only by bolshevist butlers and refractory race-horses offers the happiest medium for the Collierisms that kept the audience in one continuous chuckle from his first appearance to his last, and brought forth five minutes of sustained applause at the end of the second act.

The predicament is that one immortalized by Mr. Wrinkle: the mediocre equestrian, forced to make good. Unlike Mr. Wrinkle, however, Mr. Collier proceeds to make good, after remarking, "When the race is over, you'll either look up and say 'Good boy, Sam!' or look down and say 'Don't he look natural!'"

The action moves swiftly throughout the entire play; to Miss Elizabeth Moffat much credit is due for awakening, in the first scene, the risibilities of the expectant audience. The butler, Donald Meek, was an admirable foil to the harrassed hero and featured an amusing scene portraying the economic emancipation of the modern servant.

There is no exaggeration in the claim that "The Hottentot" is "the biggest success of Mr. Collier's career."