Walter Eccles and the Four College Girls

              WALTER ECCLES AND THE FOUR COLLEGE GIRLS






A COMPANY OF SIX ARTISTS









The College Girls in Caps and Gowns


The Mandolin Quartettes


The Beautiful Scotch Costumes with Mr. Eccles in full Highland Regalia


The Foot Ball Game


The Screamingly Funny Dutch School with Mr. Eccles as the Old Schoolmaster


The College Yells


That remarkable characterization 
The Dreamer
 by Mr. Eccles and the entire company


The Parasol Girls


The Grand Opera Selections


The Peasants


The Drum Corps


And Pervading all, the


Atmosphere of Artistry




IN the six years Mr. Eccles has had this company, it has appeared in every state in the Union with the exception of Arizona and California.  This was the first company, we believe, to give a real costumed concert with action fitting each number.  So smoothly and quickly does everything move, that seventeen numbers, with encores, are given in the time usually occupied by ten.  Many of the numbers were written especially for the company, others are from the different light operas, the costuming and action being copied as closely as is consistent.  There is a Drum Corps with Military Drill, Spanish Songs with Mandolins, airs from Grand Opera, Mandolin Quartettes, Scenes from the Light Operas, etc., and for practically every number a change of costume is made.  The young ladies are all college girls, they have beautiful solo voices, wonderfully blended, and they are under the direction of a competent conductor, who acts as pianist and musical director on tour.  It is their aim in this concert to reproduce the bubbling, spontaneous spirit of the campus.




Evening Observer, La Grande, Colo.


Crisp, catchy, dashing, mirthful, tuneful and busy—all this and more can truthfully be said of the College Girls and Mr. Walter Eccles, who appeared last night in the last number of the course this year.  The numbers were presented in a way so new and refreshing that it fairly snapped and crackled like a new shirt front, and the reason of it was that every musical rendition, except the grand opera sketches, were given with a graceful lot of 
work.
  Some might say that the 
work
 had earmarks of comic opera but it did not.  It merely helped permeate the atmosphere of the auditorium with a soothing, delightful disposition in the audience.  Eccles' readings were excellent—excellent through simplicity.




Long Branch, N. J.


Walter Eccles and his 
College Girls
 made a big hit at the Lyceum last night, when a large and appreciative audience gathered in another of the delightful series of entertainments given under the direction of the Long Branch Teachers' Association.  The audience was appreciative from the start, and the College Singing Girls and Mr. Eccles, who recited, were given a rousing reception.  The program, a well selected one, greatly pleased the audience, who were loath to leave when the last number had been concluded.




Atlanta, Ga.


The College Girls and Walter Eccles captured the large audience at the Auditorium last night at the beginning and held them for two hours or more—scoring an emphatic hit.  Many said it was the best performance ever given by a lyceum number at the auditorium.  To say that everyone was delighted is stating the facts mildly.  The College Girls Company will be welcomed to Atlanta whenever they can come this way again.




The Galveston (Texas) Daily News.


With a company of attractive members, all of whom possessed voices above the average, with a collection of costumes both dainty and vivid, Walter Eccles presented his 
College Girls
 at the Grand Opera House, Monday evening.  The program for the evening consisted of seventeen numbers, solos and choruses following one another in quick succession.  It was a well chosen selection of numbers, the average running high.  There were none of the members of the company but whose voices were sweet and clear-toned, and their renditions of the songs were received by the audience with hearty applause.  The best solo of the evening was Frances Conn's song, 
My Little Gypsy Sweetheart,
 which showed the fine range of her voice, and which was well staged.  There was a hearty burst of applause at the conclusion of the best comedy number of the evening, 
Dat's in der Deutsche School,
 in which Eccles, costumed as a German vaudeville, Weber & Fields sort of schoolmaster, listened to the recitations in verse of a class of four buxom 
Deutsche Madchen.
  Antia Kempton's Dutch character song was well received by the audience, among which she seemed to have made many friends, and the song 
When a Girl Knows a Secret,
 was one of the best costumed of the numbers presented.  But by far the best of the musical part of the program came toward the end, when three songs were given, one the song of Titania, from 
Mignon;
 one the spinning song, from 
Martha,
 and the third the Tyrolean chorus, from 
William Tell.
  This last was doubtless the best of the songs rendered during the evening, both in point of technique and the pleasing manner in which the voices of the singers harmonized.  It was well received by the audience, as was, for that matter, every number given.




Meriden (Ct.) Record


Rarely has the Home Club been favored with a better group of entertainers than the College Girls and Walter Eccles.  The club hall was filled with members and their ladies Wednesday evening, and they were delighted with the clever and artistic work of the performers.  C. C. Pearsall is the musical director of the company and has arranged a fine program of songs.  Mr. Eccles proved a character impersonator of the first rank, and all his readings were highly applauded.  Anita Kempton in Dutch character songs and Frances Conn in 
My Little Gypsy Sweetheart
 were the best of the soloists.  The entertainment ranged from grand opera selections to a medley of college songs and there was a wonderful variety of amusement crowded in the evening's entertainment.  The group singing specialties were among the most enjoyable features and the verdict of the Home Club members was that it was the best performance of its kind ever seen here.




Troy (N. Y.) Record


The College Girls and Walter Eccles were the attraction at the Y. M. C. A. auditorium last evening, proving the finest attraction yet in the course.  A more dainty, winsome group of lassies than the College Girls one does not often see.  With pleasing personality and charming manners they combine decided talent along the various lines attempted, and presented a program both varied and satisfactory, calling forth much applause.  Mr. Eccles in his impersonations, songs and sketches was also pleasing, the whole forming a strong combination of attractions.




Columbus, Ga.


An adequate idea of the entertainment cannot be given in a newspaper notice, but it is sufficient to say that the people who heard it forgot for the time all of the perplexities and gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the pure bright fun and the catchy music.  The 
College Girls
 is a type of Lyceum entertainment that will always be welcomed, for the real good it will surely do.






WALTER ECCLES AND THE FOUR COLLEGE GIRLS





MR. ECCLES is now starting his sixteenth season in Lyceum work.  He has been very successful as a 
full evening man,
 and is abundantly able to give the entire program alone, but aided as he is, in this, by four clever young ladies, who have been associated with him for several seasons, and his very competent musical director, he has set a standard that is very high in Lyceum circles.




With this company most of his work is done in character, that is, with make-up and costumes, but sometime during the program he comes out as just his plain self and reads a poem—a poem that makes you 
think
—wonder if you have done your best that day to help the other fellow along—and then for the rest, well, he just tries to cheer the other chap, so he can help himself.




Moberly, Mo.




MR. WALTER ECCLES
 the clever, versatile and snappy humorist.  To say that he is an entertainer does not express it.  He is simply a roaring farce from start to finish.  There is often a whole chapter in one of his comical grimaces, and volumes in his seriousness the next instant.  We believe the Lord made this man just what he is and that he could no more go through life without making fun for others than that a mule could be taught to sing psalms.  He is simply excruciating in his facial expressions and goes from the ridiculous to the comical and from the comical to the serious with such rapidity and seeming naturalness that one is at a loss to know whether to laugh or cry.  His courtship of Maude captured everybody and round after round of applause greeted the conclusion of almost every sentence.  Should Mr. Eccles ever come to Moberly with any kind of entertainment he will certainly meet with a warm welcome.  The people like to be made to laugh and that is what he makes them do.




OXFORD PRINT BOSTON U. S. A.