The New York Clipper (January 1920)

January 7, 1920 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER PALACE Moos, and Mme. AM. W. Loyal have improved their act greatly since their last appearance. It is dressed in wisteria shade and the dogs, especially "Toque," never worked better. He does his acrobatic Btunts to perfection and catches the balls and knives with bat few misses. It would be much better if Loyal could, eliminate the few lines spoken, as they do not add merit to the offering. However, it is a good opener and went over. Coral Melnotte and Edna Needom, one a decided blonde and the other a branette, offered a bndget of songs, dialogue and dances that caught on. Miss Needom is a comedienne who has a good sense of com- edy values and handles her material deft- ly and fast, while Miss Melnotte "feeds" Jier with a cleverness that puts the act over great. The turn got a great hand in the afternoon, but went over better at night. Henri Scott is about the best bet that -opera has sent to vaudeville. He is a robust man with a voice that carries to all parts of the house. Opening with an -operatic aria, he then sang the Toreador anng from Carmen, then an Indian love song and finished with "On the Road to Mandalay." He is sure fire, and while .announcing his next selection, his tone of speech was pleasant. A. Winter Smith accompanied at the piano, and Scott could have easily given an encore, as the ap- plause that greeted him at the finish war- ranted it. Joe Laurie, Jr., added many new friends to his old ones, and the reason is found in the fact that he is a likable chap with a world of personality and a routine -of "gags" that caused much laughter. When he introduced his mother and father to the audience and chided the "Old Man," all good-naturedly, the spectators ate up -every word. Laurie has added some won- derful material, and, as the act stands, it is a novelty, excellently delivered. Leon Errol, assisted by Alf. James, held -over for the third week, scored as heavily -as on previous weeks. His "Souce" la a masterpiece of characterization. But he will persist in calling the names of friends in the audience while working, although he surely must know that this detracts the attention of the major portion of the audience from the stage. However, "The Guest" is a corking skit and Errol is a real comedian. "Topics of the Day" were flashed dur- ing intermission. Ella Shields impersonated English male -characters in an ideal manner. She is about the best in her line since Vesta Til- ley and some of Miss Shields' work even surpasses that of Miss Tilley. Miss Shields is pleasingly mannish, and her style and voice are in full accord with the character she portrays. She also dances with ability and grace. All her numbers but one are restricted, and the "Pul" ballad employed for the finish, sent her off with a hit of huge proportions. Grock, held over for the second week, did not go as well as on his first visit. Some of his stunts are too mechanical to bear repeating. At best he is only good for one time around. Rockwell and Fox started slowly, but as the act progressed and Rockwell put every ounce of strength into his "Nut" work, the audience woke up to the fact that a real comedian was before them. Seldom does an audience roar with laughter, but Rockwell bad them at his mercy with a line of chatter that blazed forth in volumes, and in which every line had a howl. The "musical" interlude, wherein he plays a tin whistle and Fox plunks a banjo, almost had the spectators in hysterics. Next to closing they stopped the show. Cleveland Bronner presented his gorg- eous production containing a bevy of pretty girls, elaborate scenery, good singing and splendid dancing. It held them in to the finish. 3. D. VAUDEVILLE REVIEWS (Continued on Pars IS) ROYAL The Ramedella and Deyo made a slow start with their dance offering, and the first few numbers in their act need a lot of speeding up. It was the last few toe-dance bits that netted the trio a fair amount of applause at the close of the act. One of the girls would do well to pay more attention to her make-up, as It looked very poor from the front. There is one thing in the act which cannot be found fault with, however, and that is the wardrobe, which is very good. With the opening part of the act speeded up, it will find it much easier going. It is seldom that an act in number two spot, especially one that does straight sing- ing, stops a show, and, therefore, Bertram and Sexton are to be given credit for the very good account which they gave of themselves. Both men have a lot of per- sonality, look neat, and sing exceptionally well. Their repertoire consists, for the most part, of published numbers. Eddie Heron and a company of two women found the audience easy with a comedy playlet, called "The Traveling Man." Heron takes the role of a travel- ing salesman, who returna to his wife after an absence of three weeks. The couple have been married for six weeks alto- gether. She acts cold to him, claiming that women nowadays must devote their energies for the good of the world and pay no attention to their husbands. A second woman enters, and, by making love to the husband, gets the wife jealous. The wife then decides that she was wrong and makes up with hubby. The act is fairly well written and handled. Grace Nelson was filling in for either Kitty Gordon or Jack Wilson, who wars advertised to appear here this week, but were not programmed. Leon Errol was the other who filled in for one of the two. Miss Nelson was not programmed, ' but was billed outside the theatre. She seems to be rapidly gaining a reputation throughout the city, for although she was new to this house, .her name was the signal for applause from the audience. Her ex- ceptional vocal ability, her delivery and and her personality, carried her off to one of the biggest hits of the bill. She stopped the show and then took an encore. While the work of Williams and Wolf us is always clever, somehow this audience didn't laugh as hard and as often as they used to at Williams's stunts. While they went a little better toward the close of the act, the applause they received didn't fully warrant an encore, after two bows. Cora Voungblood Corson and her K. of O. Octette opened the second half with their brass Instrumental offering. Four girls use cornets, as many more trombones, and Miss Corson plays two different in- struments, one resembling a tuba, and the other a giant helicon. This last instru- ment is really worth loosing at, for they have become rare things in the last ten years. The act gave a very good account of itself. It may have been because the audience was disappointed in not having Jack Wil- son and Kitty Gordon on the bill, but whatever the reason was, they suddenly grew cold after the first few acts and Demarest and Collette, in fact, even Leon Errol, did not get as many laughs as they generally do. This may also explain the reason for Williams and Wolfus not going as well as usual. However, Billy Dema- rest did get some laughs with his falls, and the patter got some giggles. Leon Errol, assisted by Alf James man- aged to work them up a little with his statuary bits. He presented "The Guest," seen here last season. His "souse" needs no comment aa to its faithfulness. James bandies his end of the act excellently. Sinograms dosed the show. G. 3. H. COLONIAL This week's bill is bound to provide an evening's entertainment for anyone, for it has comedy predominating. The Jack Hughes Duo opened, following the news reel, and offered a novelty musi- cal act in which Hughes and a woman demonstrated their ability and versatility by playing several different instruments, including cornet, saxaphone, banjo and, piano. Both play all of these instruments more than passably well, and, in addition, Hughes handles the violin very nicely. They" scored very heavily in the first posi-. t inn. Second on the program were Nelson and Cronin, who offered a singing and comedy act that went over for two encores. The boys have pleasing voices, a well selected repertoire of numbers and know how to put them over. Their knowledge netted them a large sized hit, to which was attached two encores, as we mentioned before. Dorothy Shoemaker and Company, in a new playlet, entitled "Life," filled the third .spot acceptably. Although the act is cleverly done, still, the plot is so obvious that it scored only an ordinary hit. For a further detailed review see our New Acts Column. Allman and NaUy followed them with a cleverly written skit, called "Vice Versa." Although the author, Ben Ryan, may not have known it, the play is especially op- portune right now, inasmuch aa this is leap year and the scene depicted in the little skit is being enacted quite often. Allman U a likeable chap, and Miss Nslly is one of those pocket-sized comediennes you dote on. Both are clever and handle their material exceptionally well, with Miss Nslly getting a. shade the better of the deal Grock, who is being headlined hare, held fifth place. His antics and comedy bits went over big, while he did them, but on the whole, we must say, and justly so, too, that his impression on this audience was not at all lasting. They lsughed at him, applauded his tricks, encored his musical numbers, but after he left the stage their enthusiasm was gone. That, of course, does not imply that he has lost any of his cleverness or that his ability as an enter- tained has lessened. It simply means that this particular audience did not take to him as well aa they might have. Ap- parently, the crowd had come to see cer- tain people, and while it applauded what it liked, it saved most of its favor for its own favorites. Following intermission and the now habitual "Topics of the Day" came Mar- garet Young, billed aa vaudeville's versatile comedienne. She is a singing comedienne who, in appearance makes one think of Mrs. Sidney Drew. She was a great favorite with the audience, which encored her repeatedly. She has a number of popu- lar and one special song selection, all of the comedy type, which she renders in a very pleasing voice. Dugan and Raymond were a scream in their "An Ace in The Hole" skit. They had the audience in continual laughter, and many of their quips were applauded. Dugan injected one or two original re- marks during the act when the opportunity presented itself. Boscoe Ails, assisted by Midgle Miller and a jazz band of five, cleaned up the honors of the bill. Ails, with his peculiar style of dancing and the young lady, with. her style of stepping, took the audience by storm. They were forced to accept sev- eral encores, and Ails had to make a speech before the audience wonld allow them to go. The Four Nelsons, in their novelty hoop- rolling act, dosed the bill, holding the audience very nicely until the last roll. They worked bard to get across and suc- ceeded. S. K. RIVERSIDE Nolan and Nolan, billed as "Jesting Jug- glers," opened the show. The juggling done by the man was good and the jesting was conspicuous by its absence. A number of old stunts as well as one or two new ones, all well executed, won a big hand at the act's finish. Pearl and Guy Magley did well in their dance revue which opens with a Chinese number done in costume, and ends with some fast and well executed dancing by the young couple who are singularly well mated. A bit of - ht "Tcy dome by the' woman In the opening number received a big hand in spite of the fact that all agree that this particular style of dance is al- ready out of date. To to, 'the Kewpie down, has made a number of changes in his act since it was seen at this house several months ago and the change has considerably improved the offering. George MacFarlane, the baritone, has taken on considerable weight in the past year or so and now looks more like a pros- perous banker or lawyer than the opera singer which he declares he is. There, has been no change in George's voice, however. and it retains all its old fKrilHwy clarity and appealing quality. MacFarlane has one of those voices which in his songs makes people forget all- their troubles one minute and remember them all in the next. He waa in particularly good voice at the afternoon performance and scored strongly. Myers and Noon, with Grant McKay at the piano, closed the first part, and either the length of the act or its per- ceptible slowness, particularly in its second half, robbed it of much of its entertaining value. Irene Franklin in a repertoire of char- acter songs followed "Topics of the Day" in the second naif of the bill and sang a number of new songs as well aa one or two of the old ones. With one or two exceptions all of Miss Franklin's numbers are of the special variety, and although rendered in her usual artistic manner did not score the success with which aha is usually associated. The reception given the Prohibition version of "The Vamp," a published number, plainly indicated that Miss Franklin's' act would be materially strengthened by the introduction of more songs of the published variety. At the act's conclusion Miss Franklin, in a neat little speech of thinks referred to hex hus- band and former vaudeville partner, stat- ing that he ia ill and will probably be con- fined to bjs home for months to come. "There is nothing wrong with the Green family," said Miss Franklin, and this re- mark aroused both applause and laughter. The Swor Brothers had the comedy sec- tion of the bill almost entirely to them- selves, and if they failed to make the most of their opportunity they can blame no one but themselves. There la a lot of good material In the act, and' after an excellent start they let an almost positive hit slide away from them. These are days of speed and action and in spite of the fact that the men are portraying the lazy "nigger" type the action of their comedy should not be allowed to continually drag as it did at the Monday afternoon per- formance. Aleen Bronson and Co., in a dainty lit- tle schoolroom act, in which Miss Bronson is the prevaricating school girl who Is kept after hours on account of her untruth- ful excuses, did well in spite of the fact that next to closing is too far down the bill for an act of this nature. Miss Bron- son did well in the part of the part miss who convinces the school teacher that the telling of the truth in all instances often results in trouble and unhappinees and both looked and acted the role almost to perfection. An nnprogrammad lady in the role of the teacher waa exeeUextt. Sheila Terry in "Tea for Three" closed the show. vr, v.