National vaudeville artists (1928)

r/t Twelfth Annual "benefit > M N. V. A. M » ONIGHT we celebrate the twelfth annual benefit of the National Vaudeville Artists’ Asso' ciation. The recent nationwide observance of N. V. A. Week amply proves the national scope and popularity of vaudeville as an institution not only for the entertainment of the public, but for the record it has made in deeds worth-while outside of the theatre — deeds of patriotism, of mercy, of constructive citizenship and of unselfish philanthropy. Individually and collectively the members of the National Vaudeville Artists’ Association have written its name indelibly upon the bright pages of our country’s history. In time of war and in time of peace, at home and abroad, in the face of national or local disaster, as by flood, or fire, or strike, or tornado, or epidemic, the people of vaudeville have led the way in helping and heartening their fellow creatures of all walks of life. The manner in which the American people in every state, city, town and neighborhood this year, as in years past, have responded to the one annual effort of the N. V. A. to replenish its sick and benefit fund, proves once more, if proof was needed, that Americans do not forget, that they are not ungrateful, that they are as keen to approve and applaud the humanitarian work of people of the theatre as they are to approve and applaud their artistic efforts on the stage. By their participation in the N. V. A. celebration of 1928 in over 1000 American theatres during Easter Week and by tonight’s magnificent assemblages in five of the largest theatres of our metropolitan area, a total of more than ten million of our fellow citizens give tangible evidence of the faith and esteem in which the entire nation holds the National Vaudeville Artists’ Association and, above all, the fine and unselfish purposes which motivate this annual celebration in aid of the N. V. A. sick and benefit fund. These five all-star benefit performances tonight presented simultaneously at the Metropolitan Opera House, the Knickerbocker Theatre, the Hippodrome, the Jolson Theatre and the New Amsterdam Theatre have brought together in a mutual cause “the expectancy and rose’’ of every branch of the theatre as well as of vaudeville; great personalities as well as great names, of opera, drama, concert, musical comedy, motion pictures and the circus. Their presence on these programs tonight gives gracious token that they — all of them — are at one with their compatriots of vaudeville in the great and unending duty of befriending the less fortunate, ministering to the sick and needy, succoring the widows and orphans, comforting the aged and disabled members of the theatrical profession. And in appraising this year’s unanimous response of the American public and of the members of the theatrical profession to the N. V. A.’s only annual enterprise in behalf of vast humanitarian enterprises, it is timely to note the enthusiasm and efficacy with which the owners and managers, the operating factors, the employers and employees of vaudeville and of other branches of the show business have entered into the celebration of N. V. A. Week and into this culminating five-ply metropolitan demonstration tonight. That the entire resources and expert co-operation of the Vaudeville Managers Protective Association would be centered upon the success of this year’s N. V. A. celebration was a foregone conclusion. But that organization outdid itself this time in planning, in conferring, in getting its always highly organized machinery into perfect working order for the big week and these culminating metropolitan events. The peace and prosperity, the spirit of amity and mutual respect, the impulse toward helpfulness that has come upon the world of American vaudeville, could not he better demonstrated than in the unanimity with which the various circuits great and small, joined in a week’s observance which found Keith-Alhee-Orpheum, Loew, Proctor,