Bess Gearhart Morrison: entertainer

              All art is an effort to be sincere.—Kipling.

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BESS GEARHART MORRISON
ENTERTAINER


WE have no space for an elaborate Introduction of BESS GEARHART MORRISON, telling of her personality and why she SHOULD make good.  She HAS made good, and we will let her delighted audiences tell you about it.

The absolute proof of an Entertainer's ability is the possibility of a Return Engagement.




SIDNEY, NEBRASKA, Telegraph.
Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison, already a favorite in Sidney, again charmed her audience by her wonderful versatility.  The Pianologue, The Lie, The Choir were particularly enjoyed, but when as a closing number she gave Where the Flag is Full of Stars the enthusiasm knew no bounds!—Sidney (Nebr.) Telegraph.


GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA, State Capitol.
Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison made her twenty-fifth appearance before a Guthrie audience last evening and was greeted, as usual, with an enthusiastic crowd.  The program was closely followed—in fact not a word of Mrs. Morrison's is missed intentionally by anyone, so rare and strongly magnetic is her personality and so fitly chosen are her selections.


LAUREL, NEBRASKA, The Advocate.
Bess Gearhart Morrison appeared here Friday night under the auspices of the Tuesday Club.  This was Mrs. Morrison's twentieth appearance here, and Laurel will stand for her coming twenty times more if we can get her.  She gets better every year.

J. H. KEMP, Committee on Talent.

The Fullerton, Nebraska, Chautauqua management were fortunate indeed in procuring the services of Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison for the 1908 session.  Too much cannot be said for Mrs. Morrison's splendid accomplishments as reader and entertainer.  This is the fifth annual session she has delighted Fullerton crowds, giving thorough satisfaction to the management and to the audience.


BEATRICE, NEBRASKA, Press Reports of Chautauque.
The management again (for the fourth time) secured Mrs. Morrison and could not have done better with all the talent of the country at their disposal.  She never fails to please.


VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON, The Daily Columbian.
Swaying her audience from tears to laughter and holding them spellbound, not only by her readings but by her relation of little personal incidents that she has met during her travels, Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison appeared last night for the second time in Vancouver, and if possible she has become more popular than ever with local literary people.

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, L. O. Jones.

President of Nebraska Epworth Assembly, and of International Chautauqua Association.

Bess Gearhart Morrison has always been a favorite with our audiences.  She has a voice of great compass, with clear and musical tones, and her enunciation is so distinct that she is easily heard.  Her soul is in her work, and she has the ability to please the most critical audiences.



IOWA

Ames Times
In the evening Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison came on for the prelude and the success of the Chautauqua program was assured.  She knew more stories than anyone we ever heard—funny stories about the Irishman and the monkey which tried to shave him, and the like.  Stories of mothers and babies and little bits of sentiment that caused the lump to come in the throat and the tears to come to the eyes.  Bess Gearhart Morrison is not an elocutionist.  You do not notice the inflection of her voice—but you hear her tell you stories that are the funniest you ever heard and stories which are the saddest you ever heard, and she tells them in a way that is abounding with human interest, and Ames wants her back again next year.


Humboldt Independent
Then Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison proceeded to give the most unique and satisfying program in the nature of readings that has ever been given in Humboldt.  She is delightfully different from any and all others we have heard.  The moment she stepped upon the stage all could feel that she was there to please.  Without any affectation she brought to her audience many new things in a new way.  She is the best reader who ever appeared here, and if she can be secured again she will appear upon our program next year.



ILLINOIS
Mary A. Blood
Columbia College of Expression
Chicago

A great variety of selections and unusual ability in discerning what audiences like to hear.  The moment she steps on the platform we feel in her bearing that certainty which is born of success.  She enters at once into sympathetic relations with her audience and without the least affectation, by her strong personality, expressive face, and responsive, sympathetic voice, she brings her audiences the rollicking humor, or the pathos of life—and they live in the scenes she portrays.


Lyceumite and Talent, Chicago
In the August number of the Lyceumite and Talent, Ralph Parlette, the well known humorist, has this to say: Here I heard a new kind of a chautauqua preluder and reader, Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison.  She is really different, delightfully different.  Mrs. Morrison reads as though she was speaking extempore, reads with a fervor and versatility really remarkable.


SOUTH DAKOTA Hot Springs Star
The soldiers at the State Home and the National Sanitarium are enthusiastic friends of Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison, who filled a date here last week on the Lyceum course.  Mrs. Morrison is known throughout the West—her personality, her power of expression, her technique, cleverness and naturalness, mark her as one of the greatest elocutionists of this day.  It is the hobby of this talented woman to gladden the hearts of the boys in blue.  She favored the members of the state home with a program in the afternoon, and in the evening appeared at the National.  The old boys fairly went wild over her, and declared they never had such a privilege before.


Spearfish Enterprise
Bess Gearhart Morrison, who played to a large audience at the Matthews opera house Monday night, proved one of the finest attractions of the season.  Mrs. Morrison says she is only a story teller.  That may be so—but she is one of the finest story tellers we have heard.




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INDIANA

Winamac Democrat-Journal
Aug. 31, 1914
But about the greatest hit of all was the reading by Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison, the queen of mimicry, who sure is at the head of her profession.  Should she return to Winamac for next year's Chautauqua season, she will meet with a royal welcome by our people.



NEBRASKA

Lincoln State Journal
The Unveiling of the Lincoln Monument
Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison read Lincoln's Gettysburg address just before the monument was unveiled.  Parts of this famous speech, chiseled upon the granite background, peeped from under the flags and could be read by the listeners as she recited.  Mrs. Morrison's voice was clear, musical and powerful, reaching to the farthest limits of the crowd which stretched away for rods on every side of the monument, while the street was filled and jammed with vehicles of all descriptions.


Chester H. Aldrich

Governor of Nebraska

I have heard Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison and have never been more highly entertained than I was by her readings.  She is certainly a woman of extraordinary talent and genius.  One thing noticeable in her, is that she is free from the objectionable mannerisms of so many elocutionists.  She forgets herself and enters into the spirit of the reading, and is entirely natural.  Her control over her voice is nothing short of marvelous.  I have never heard a better reader.

Edward R. Sizer

President of the National Postmasters' Association

Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison is one of the best entertainers before the American public today.  Her charming personality and generosity toward her audience never fail to win not only their applause but their hearts as well.



KANSAS

St. Francis Herald
The entertainment by Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison was universally voted the best one-person program ever presented to the people of Saint Francis.  It was one of unusual merit and Mrs. Morrison's interpretation and impersonation were faultless.



TEXAS

Fort Worth Record
It was a splendid offering which Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison gave her audience last night at the Royal Theater, in a full program of monologues and story telling.  Mrs. Morrison captured her audience with her first number, which was the reading of The Rebellion of M'Lindy Ann from Munsey's magazine, and she carried them with her at her pleasure throughout the

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 remainder of the program, which included much that was comic, less that was serious, but all of which abounded in human interest.



IDAHO

Boise Statesman
Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison, the noted Lyceum reader, spent an hour yesterday at the pentitentiary, where with her readings, she brought cheer and a bit more of reverence for the Christmas time through her stories.



IOWA

The Rolfe Reveille
July 17, 1913
Monday brought Mrs. Morrison for four preludes, but we now believe that her calf story cannot compare with many of the other numbers given by her.  To say merely that she is a topnotcher in her class doesn't do her justice; she is in a class by herself and we vote her the world's championship among readers.  From brightest wit to deepest pathos; from sparkling humor and nonsense to profound philosophy she led her audiences as easily as a shepherd leads his sheep.  There was none of the sameness and monotony that usually creeps into a reader's work and her last prelude was even better received than her first.  She can come to Rolfe again and welcome.



WYOMING

Cody Enterprise
Bess Gearhart Morrison was the cleverest and most polished artist of her kind who ever appeared before a Cody audience.  She was genuinely good.  The management will make an effort to secure her on next season's course, and should they do so, there isn't a building in town with sufficient seating capacity to hold the crowd that would wish to hear her.



COLORADO

Julesburg Advocate
The entertainment given by Bess Gearhart Morrison was one of the best ever given here.  Very often an entertainment given by a reader, alone, becomes tiresome on acount of its lack of variety, but Mrs. Morrison has such an extensive repertoire and changes so completely from one character to another that from the first number to the closing she held her audience intensely interested.



UTAH

The Salt Lake Tribune
An enjoyable recital was that given at Phillips Congregational church last evening by Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison, who is a talented artist and who delighted the audience which filled the house.  A varied selection of humorous, pathetic and serious numbers were splendidly given.



OREGON

Lebanon Express
The dramatic reading by Mrs. Bess Gearhart Morrison was the best ever given here.  Mrs. Morrison has a charming personality, a fine voice, and such an unusual naturalness that it is most pleasing and refreshing.  It was the finest entertainment we have ever heard given by one person.



WASHINGTON

Olympia Morning Olympian
Too much in the way of praise and appreciation could hardly be said of the entertainment offered last night at the Baptist church by Bess Gearhart Morrison.  Added to her wonderful talent as a reader and story teller is a striking personality, and the combination never failed to please her appreciative hearers.



IOWA

Webster City Daily Freeman-Tribune
Mrs. Morrison's recital in the evening was received with such enthusiastic applause that it matters not what her title may be—elocutionist, story-teller or entertainer—her charm is beyond compare.
Her selections are so decidedly unusual that it keeps the audience guessing as to what is coming next.  The pathos of the Christmas Story by the popular Grace Richmond, the humor of Belindy Grumble on Choirs, the charm of Katie Lee and Willie Gray, and the grandeur and beauty of The Home Coming Song by Van Dyke, which stirs the patriotic heart to its depths, strike a responsive chord in the minds of all—young or old, rich or poor, educated or uneducated—all can understand, appreciate and love Bess Gearhart Morrison.