The New York Clipper (July 1919)

10 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER July 2; 1919 ROYAL The Three Caring Sisters opened the ■how with a surprising display of aerial feats. The girls, costumed in white from head to foot, went through a routine of fast hand to hand stunts, some of which required a good deal of strength. They finished with a strong jaw stunt, which sent them away to a good sized hit. Patton and Marks, in their act called "Just Class," followed. These two youngsters have plenty of class and per- sonality. They possess good voices, and gave evidence of being graceful dancers. They sang a number of songs and did s few steps that pleased the audience im- mensely. They had to respond to an encore. The Chinese number was especially well liked. Paul Decker and a company of three women offered a comedy called "The Ruby Bay." The ray is a cocktail which possesses the power of making a man do what some one else wishes him to do. Jack is in love with Marguerite, who is happily married. He confesses his love for her, and tells her he will drown him- self. She informs him of this wonderful Ruby Ray, and gives him a dose. She tells him that she will have a blonde nurse for him when he gets back, and he goes to change from a mourning suit to one of gayer color. He comes back and finds a blonde, but she is only an innocent school girl. Just the same, they make love to one another and the end of the play finds them running off to get mar- ried. The antics of Decker and the "school kid" provide much merriment. Andrew Mack denies he is an old man, but nature belies him. He walks on the stage, sings a song, tells some stories and sings a few more songs. As an Irish comedian Mack is there, but when he tries to switch to another dialect, he is out of his element, for the brogue persists in twisting his tongue. However, Mack scored a hit with the Royalites and had to respond to an encore. Some of his songs, patriotic in theme, were well liked. Eva Shirley, assisted by her jazz band, and Al Roth, came next. Eva has a voice that is a little out of the ordinary, and made good use of it. Her jazz band filled in the intervals. Al Roth helped a lot. Following intermission, Sybil Vane sang several songs. What a pity that this little girl hasn't been given a chance to show what she really can do. She has a sweet: voice, which she uses to good ad- vantage. She opens with a popular num- ber, and follows with several classical selections. The audience gave her a fine reception and she had to respond to one encore, but declined a second. "Kiss Me" has eleven girls and one man. The girl that plays the role of the vampire was the only comedian the "bunch" who proved herself a capable performer. Her playing of the part put the act across. The skit is just a few scenes thrown to- gether, with a-number of girls showing their forms, and one of them singing a few notes. The scenery was rather good, and the music excellent. The girls are pretty, and have shapely forms. The story is about a young man named Dick, who sends word to his aunt that he is married and has three children. Aunty has been sending an allowance and he wants to induce her to increase it. She decides to visit him, and when she arrives the trouble begins. Dick eventually wriggles out of the difficulty. As girl acts go, this one should please, for it is no better or no worse than the average. Lucas Hall closed the show with their nonsensical comedy and singing. The comedy is rather funny, and Jimmy worked hard. He scored a hit, but could not hold the audience in for his encore, as he was too slow in taking it. S. K. HENDERSON'S Jack Henley, comedy juggler, opened the bin Monday afternoon and scored a laugh- ing success. He juggled hats, plates, balls and various other things, intermixing his work with comedy stunts. His work with the "funny sticks" closed and sent him off to a good finish. Lou Miller and Alice Bradford, in "All for a Song," were hit-getters of no mean proportions. They opened with a song and went into a abort dance. Miller fol- lowed with "Celeste Aida," and gave way to his partner in a song and dance. They finished with a Chinese number. They are a clever duo. They are graceful dancers and sine well, a rare combination. Miss Bradford is pretty and chic, and her part- ner has a pleasing personality. The "Yip, Yip, Yaphankers," headed by Sergeant Melino, in "A Day in Camp," drew round after round of applause for their work. They did a little singing, dancing and acrobatics, with comedy run- ning through the entire act. Their whirl- wind tumbling finish brought down the house, and the audience brought Melino before the curtain half a dozen times. The Klein Brothers, Al and Harry, were moved up from sixth and fourth position and, with their comedy talk, scored the big laughing hit of the bilL They were forced to take an encore. They sang songs, and gave a few dance steps. • Ernestine Myers and.Paisley Noon, as- sisted by Grant McKay at the piano, won a decided success with their dance offer- ing. Noon opened with a song and was joined by Miss Myers for a dance. After another song by Noon, Miss Myers gave a Spanish dance, which was followed by a song and dance by her partner. Miss Myers next gave an Oriental veil dance and then came a "Romeo and Juliet" jazz dance. For a finish, they stepped a num- ber called "Jazzing the Java." Miss Myers made four changes of dress, using an appropriate costume for each number. McKay played a solo, and the act scored. Mile. Nitta-Jo was moved up from closing to sixth position and won rounds of applause for each of her six numbers. She rendered two songs in French, three in broken English and her encore number was in French and broken English. She was assisted by her own orchestra leader. Imhof, Conn and Coreene, in next to closing spot, were seen in their laugh - making sketch "In a Pest House." The skit tells of an old Irishman who comes to a country hotel for a night's lodging. He pays a dollar for the "privilege" of staying, and is assigned to a room with a rickety cot in it. As he is about to re- tire he is disturbed by the hotel's chore- man, an old rube, who dresses as a fire- man whenever he tends the hotel fires. When Pat finally drives the rube from his room he attempts to lie on the cot and breaks it. Next he is disturbed by a nurse, who has come to look after a patient and, in the end, is forced to leave the hotel because the. crying of a baby will not permit him to sleep. There are plenty of comedy lines throughout the skit, but it is more the way the roles of the Irishman and the rube are played than the lines that brings success to the work. A splendid set is used which shows a hotel office and a bedroom with a parti- tion between. Miss Coreene played the nurse and the hotel clerk. The Lightner Girls and Newton Alex- ander were moved down from fourth to eighth position, where they came in for their usual big success. They sang four songs and were recalled many times, but refused to take an encore. Charlie Chaplin's latest feature, "Sunny- side," closed the show. E. W. EIGHTY-FIRST STREET The weekly travelogue, showing the var- ious dances of the Russia. Cossack, and some of his feats of horsemanship, started the bill. The first act on the boards was an animal act. Brown's Dogs. The act is pre- sented by a man and a woman, who have several well trained doss. There is noth- ing extraordinary in the act, nothing to distinguish it from the numerous others of its kind save the tricks of contortion per- formed by one of the nn«malf ■ But this is novel. The act was received with favor. Nora Norine, a rather comely lass, with a fairly good voice in number two posi- tion, presented a singing act that should win favor. Miss Norine opened her act by introducing herself, and telling what 1 she was going to do. She then rendered a number of popular ballads, including a Chinese novelty number. This was ex- ceptionally well liked, and scored. Florence Henry and Company came third. They call their act a comedy, but ■ it is more like a sermon, teaching us not to think of self alone, but to consider those less fortunate than we. The story 'deals with a rich man, who feels that there is something wrong with him No doctor, however, has been able to find out what is wrong with him. He comes to the office of this physician. A poor, rag- ged kid enters, with his dog. The kid tells his story of poverty and hard hick. The old man listens, then adopts the kid on the spot, and also asks the doctor to be his wife. Miss Henry does good work in the piece, which is of the clap-trap dra- matic variety. The part of the youngster is well taken care of.. The act was well received, and many of the passages were greeted with -applause. The feature of this week's bill is the picture, Douglas Fairbanks in "A Knicker- bocker Buckaroo." The real hit of the bill was Ralph C. Faulkner, in his impersonation of Wood- row Wilson, our president. Faulkner bears a striking resemblance to the President, and upon .this resemblance his act is based. Faulkner has a cleverly written mono- logue on the treaty of peace, and the doings of the chief executive while on the other side. He compares himself to Wil- son, with laughable resultB, he being always the cause of the amusement. Faulkner, in his act proves Miwaolf to be a man of understanding, by using only straight action, and not flourishing around, as so manj* imitators of Wilson do. Faulkner depends more on his resemblance than on anything else. The most striking resemblance he bears to the President is when he takes his hat off and smiles. The vaudeville was concluded by the La Mont Trio, two women and a man, in wire- walking stunts. The brunt of the work falls to the smaller of the women, who seems well able to bear it. Her work on the wire is very good, and she is ably assisted by the man. The other woman does a trick or two. They got a large sized hit, and deserved it, for they worked like Trojans to get across. The performance was ended by the weekly pictorial, for which every stayed. S. J. K. SAID HE ADMITTED MINORS Herman Dolensky, manager of Loew*s Avenue B Theatre, was arraigned last week in Part.I of the Court of Special Sessions, before Justices Moss, Edwards and Froth- ingham. charged with admitting children under IS years of age to the theatre. Fred- erick B. Poynton, officer of the Board of Education, brought the charges against him, staring that he had seen ten children, all below 16 years of age, enter the bonse without their parents or guardians. After a short trial, Dolensky was acquitted. ' BUSHWICK Kartelli opened the show with his slack- wire offering. He has an excellent variety of stunts which he does very welL His sliding down the wire was the point for laughter as well as applause. He also did a number of novel juggling feats, which scored welL Kartelli is at home on a slack-wire, and certainly lives up to his billing of being "supported by a wire." Frank Mnllane found the second spot very much to his liking. He sang an Irian number, a ballad and one song in what was supposed .to be Yiddish, but really was a jargon of slaughtered Ger- man and English, with the Yiddish accent put on. His stories were well received and kept laughs coming. Billy Halligan and Dama Sykes started slow, out as soon as Halligan offered his "There:Isn't Anything That Can't Be Cured" number, he found the going easy. Their dialogue did not get over very well. One reason for this was that it was a bit too clever for the majority in the audience,-and another was that Billy con- stantly referred to July 1 at the wrong time. In one place, he put over his gag about June 30, "hist night was the end of the world." They went off to a big hand. Joe Towle was the laugh hit of the first half. Joe's patter about the draft board arid -the, army had the house screaming, and the other bits in his offering, especially the piano comedy, sent the offering off to a riot of applause. During the act, Joe spied Al Herman in a*box and tried to put over a few laughs with him, but'Al did not seem inclined that way. Louise Carter and company were brought up from the second, half and changed places with Nat Nazzaro, Jr. The sketch tells of a mother and a sweetheart who are waiting for their returning boy from France.' He comes home and tells them that he has been blinded by shell- shock. They frame up an exciting scene, in which the mother pretends to lose her mind, because the sweetheart is supposed to have married another during the boy's absence. This, added to the fact of the boy's blindness, is supposed to be the cause of her insanity. The boy gets ex- cited and starts to strike the girl, when light suddenly bursts into his eyes and he can see. The mother and girl then ex- plain that they had read that a shock will cure shell-shock and its results, and had decided to try it on him. The playlet is very well acted and presented. Betty Bond followed the Topics of the Day. on the second half. Miss Bond is a charming girl with pleasing personality and knows how to render songs. She arranges all her numbers according to an up-to-date apartment house, and sang a number about the different tenants on the different floors. She put over a "kid" bit, a jazz number, a song about a' poor little rich girl and an Oriental prohibition number. All of her numbers were very well received and scored high. Nat Nazzaro, Jr., and the Atlantic Fleet Band, jazzed things up for the entire while they were on the boards, and scored a solid hit. The boy is a dancer of merit," and the gobs "are all there" with the jazz. Al Herman opened with a few prelim- inary remarks, among which was, "Can you picture Billy Halligan, Joe Towle 'and myself at about 1.30 in the morning?" He rendered a prohibition "blues" number and offered his patter. Herman pnt over a few gags about the other acts, one of them being that Betty Bond was a bond that you can not take liberties with, and another was that the nearest the Atlantic Fleet Band had ever been to the ocean was the sink. His other patter and the songs of iia .plant in the box scored a big hit. Charlie'. Chaplin's "Sunnyside" feature film closed the'show, but did not hold the house very welL G. J. H.