Read-Amsbary-Banks

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OPIE READ
WALLACE BRUCE AMSBARY
CHARLES EUGENE BANKS

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ASSOCIATE MEMBER
AMERICAN LYCEUM UNION

S. B. Hershey
Prest & Genl Mgr.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.

EXCLUSIVE DIRECTION
Central Lyceum Bureau
SPILLMAN RIGGS, Manager
50 Columbia Building   Columbus, Ohio



The Read-Banks-Amsbary
Combination
Among the various forms of entertainment for the Lyceum, the Author's Reading has always taken a leading place.  The Nye and Riley, and the Field and Cable combinations are still fresh in the public mind, and a successor worthy of either of these has been a vain quest until a happy thought brought together Opie Read, Charles Eugene Banks and Wallace Bruce Amsbary.  A better balanced organization, presenting a more delightful and varied evening, has never been offered.  Wit and wisdom, tears and laughter, harmless fun, and homely common-sense in harmonious proportion, make up the two hours' program, which seems all too short to the listeners.  Each member of the trio is widely known, and holds for himself a special niche in the esteem of the public.  To the charm of the uncut leaves we may then add the genuine merit of each performer, and claim in advance the success which this unique and interesting combination will certainly achieve.



OPIE READ
OPIE READ is known and read in every corner of America and in foreign lands.  His wonderful pictures of Southern life, as revealed in its distinctive history and institutions, have no parallel in any language.  The Kentucky Colonel, The Jucklins, My Young Master, The Yankee from the West, and others, have been sold by the hundreds of thousands.  The aggregate sale of his books far exceeds that of any other American author, and their names are household words in this country; no other American author holds a warmer place in the hearts of the people.

Upon the platform, Mr. Read presents a striking appearance, and is interesting to the audience from the instant he appears.  He gives his own stories with indescribable charm, and takes his audience with that same entrancing directness that captivates his readers.




Press Commendation

A WONDERFUL DELINEATOR

Louisville Courier-Journal
Opie Read is a wonderful delineator of character, strong, clear, and full of a truth as pungent as the scent of walnut in the woods; careful and clear in diction, with never an involved sentence; an artist in the interpretation of his own work.  In his sky there is many a beautiful tint, sunsets of rest and sunrises of promise; and in his words, there are thrilling notes, while everywhere in the air about us we hear the sharp cry, Truth, truth!  How genuinely American, how live a product of his native soil!



DELIGHTFUL ALL THE WAY THROUGH

Cincinnati Enquirer
A large audience, composed of the best citizens, assembled last evening to hear Opie Read, the novelist and story-teller.  The distinguished gentleman was given a hearty welcome.  The entertainment was delightful all the way through, and the audience was enthusiastic.



WITH NOTED WRITERS

Alton, Ill.
The audience last evening was highly pleased with the programme presented.  Opie Read, the king of American fun-makers, gave a number of his popular writings, and delighted everybody.  There is great charm in his productions, and to hear them from the lips of him who wrote is yet more interesting.  The tales of Southern life, now weird, now laughter-producing, were all given in the quaint and characteristic style of the author.


Chicago Tribune
Opie Read's reputation as a novelist and storyteller of the charming old Southern type, and some of those remarkably clever versified productions that have made his name a familiar one wherever periodicals are read, call forth the literary appreciation their entertainment richly deserves.



GOSPEL OF TRUTH AND CHEERFULNESS

Davenport (Ia.) Democrat
With Mr. Read's work most of his auditors and of our readers are familiar.  He mines in the depths of human nature and brings to life its choicest gems.  There is a truth in his sketches that forces the admission from the reader that they are human nature boiled down.  Would that we had more such entertainments in Davenport, and that such preachers of the new gospel of truth and cheerfulness and love were never without an auditory, bounded solely by the limits of the hall in which they speak!




CHARLES EUGENE BANKS
THE work of Mr. Banks is clean, wholesome and refined.  His pathetic poems touch the heart, and his quaint humor teaches lessons which are good for all to learn.  No more admirable balance wheel could be found for the eccentric comedy of Opie Read and the dramatic interpretations of Amsbary, than the truth and beauty of Charles Eugene Banks' poems.  His work has distinctly a Western flavor and the fresh air of the Iowa prairie which gave the first inspiration to his facile pen is in and through it all.


Little Rock (Ark.) Daily Press
Charles Eugene Banks is purely a western poet, with the beautiful touch of genius in all his work.  He brought forth the sincere applause of genuine admiration.


Boston Transcript
He must be a philosopher indeed, who can take such a rosy view of life.  Not only does Mr. Banks speak cleverly and entertainingly and satisfyingly on topics peculiar to the poetic sphere, but he dresses up homely sentiment in excellent form.


Denver (Col.) Times
The large audience which greeted the appearance of Charles Eugene Banks at the Coliseum last evening was a flattering testimonial of the fame which had preceded him.  Every number was applauded to the echo.




Press Commendation

Chicago Record-Herald
Mr. Banks appeals to humanity in its gentle aspects and arouses the sentiments of love, hope, patience and reflection.


Pittsburg Commercial Gazette
Charles Eugene Banks is a delightful entertainer and his poems are rightly molding the tastes and thoughts of the coming man and woman.


Chicago Inter Ocean
Mr. Banks is an ardent lover of truth.  The soul of the poet is his.  His humor is as quaint as his sentiment is natural and tender.


New York Independent
Simple touches of sentiment and pathos, a gentle way of reaching the sympathies—these, without any effort at art, make Mr. Banks very effective as a writer or speaker.



WALLACE BRUCE AMSBARY
WALLACE BRUCE AMSBARY as an entertainer has done more to bring the poets and poetry of the present day to the notice of the public than any man on the platform. From the beginning of his career he has sought out and presented the stories illustrating the homely phases of American life with their familiar comedies and tragedies, and so faithfully has he performed his chosen task that although comparatively new upon the platform his name is already a household word in many states.  His original poems are delightful character studies among a type of people whose very existence in the prosy state of Illinois is a genuine surprise to many people.  The recitation of these unique French-American dialect poems will be an especial feature of Mr. Amsbary's part in this entertainment.


Never saw the ocean,
Never saw the sea,
But on the banks of Deer Creek
Is grand enough for me.


The Binghamton (N. Y.) Republican
The readings of Mr. Amsbary were especially good and his interpretation of the selections kept the audience in laughter.


Bellville (Ont.) Daily Ontario
Mr. Wallace Bruce Amsbary is one of the best humorists that has ever visited the city.  He was recalled four times and each time responded in a gracious manner.


Cleveland Press
Wallace Bruce Amsbary, with his humorous dialect stories and poems, responded to repeated encores.


Aberdeen (S. D.) News
Mr. Amsbary is the best reader that Aberdeen people have listened to in years.


Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
Mr. Amsbary recited several laughable dialect stories, including some of his own composition.  These were well rendered and called forth much applause.


The Reporter, Edgerton (Wis.)
The program entire was superb and most brilliant, and the large audience which at tended in spite of the bad weather heartily encored every number, proving that they thoroughly appreciated the excellent work of Wallace Bruce Amsbary.


The Chicago Inter Ocean
Mr. Amsbary interpreted the writings of Rudyard Kipling, James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, Frank Stanton, Peter Dunne, Charles Eugene Banks, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Henry Drummond, and some original poems, with rare feeling and delicacy.  Every number was followed by enthusiastic applause.


Abilene (Kan.) Daily Reflector
The star of the company is W. B. Amsbary the reader, who brings to the platform something new in manner, and in variety of subject his work is wonderful; tears and laughter follow close upon each other.



HOLLISTER BROTHERS

HB

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