The New York Clipper (January 1920)

January 7, 1920 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER ll "HEARTS AND FLOWERS" Theatre— Jefferson. Style— Quartet act. Time— Twenty-five minutes. Setting— Flower shop interior. "Hearts and Flowers" was, once upon a time, a big girl act. In its present form, it is just a quartet act, there be- ing two men and two women in it. One of the men,takes the part of an English dude who turns out to be an escaped nut while the other essays the role of a negro porter about the flower shop. ■ One of the women is the proprietress Of the shop, and the other a lady of the bright lights. The thread of a plot runs through the. act as follows: The lady of the bright lights, Miss La Rue by name, has been receiving flowers every day,- sent by a mysterious somebody. She determines to find out who sends them and, accordingly, visits the shop they come from. She enlists the aid of the negro porter to help her find the gender. Enter our English cousin, who is equally anxious to meet his light of love. The negro porter again is drafted for service. He arranges things beauti- fully and all is set for the ringing of the wedding bells when, bang, it is dis- covered that the bridegroom-to-be ia an escaped nut. Thus ends love's young dream. The act is well put on. and has evi- dently been given much attention, for it runs along very smoothly. The people in it ate capable and do their utmost to put it over. Honors go to the blackface com- edian and the blonde prima donna. A pleasing little turn, pa such things go. —S. K. -■ SEYMOUR AND HOLT Theatre- Proctor's 125th St. Style— Talking and singing. Time— Fourteen minutes. Setting— In one. . ' From the start of this act, the pair in it showed that they were not going to give the audience anything original And they didn't. With the exception of one or two gags, the. fourteen minutes of their routine, except where a song was ■ rendered, was consumed in their spring- ing gags which have long been thrown aside as too Old by Hmall-time American acts.- • We say American, for this team is, evidently, English. At any rate, the male member played the part of an English comedian and his accent clearly portrayed bis nationality all through the act. At that, he must be given credit . for ability to spring gags, for he did get laughs even with some of the old ones. That the pair have some ability can- not be denied, and with some new patter they should be able to get bookings. ,v. a. j. h. NEW ACTS AND REAPPEARANCES ". -■• LEXEY AND O'CONNOR ' Theatre— Proctor's 125th St. Style— Dancing and singing. Time— Fourteen minutes. Setting— In one. ■ ■ Eiexey and O'Connor are a youthful appearing team and, besides having youth for an asset,' both have personality sticking out all over them, especially the •girl. Their offering is primarily one of eccentric dancing, but the girl delivers ' one or two popular" songs. She has no voice to speak of,.but has a manner of . delivering a jazz number that gets over. " ..The shining quality in both is their .eccentric dancing. They have an original • t routine of steps,' which . not only will _'. bring.applause for the difficult ones, but also get laughs by the manner in which they, are done. .The act can-fit into any /bill and,, with .the proper position, will give a good account of itself. ' O. J. H. . MYERS AND HANNEFORD Theatre— Fifth Avenue. Style— Rube comedian*. Time— Twenty minutes. Setting— One {ordinary). Whoever should tell you that either one of these fellows is new at the game would be passing erroneous information. Far from being new, both have the stamp of old timers upon them. They dress as young hicks from Hicksville itself. And we must say, hoping that their feelings won't be hurt, that they are the most natural looking hicks we have ever seen on the stage. The act opens with a number called "Down in Arkansas," into which are in- terpolated several refrains from an old "blues" number, but that's all part of the game. The teller of the two then sings a ballad which he puts over rather well. His partner.follows with a specialty ac- robatic dance that is a sure fire applause getter. They concluded with the playing of a musical saw which the writer viewed two years ago, played at that time by the inventor, but which he saw for the first time on the stage of a vaudeville house in this act. This last bit went over with a crash, as the audience was some- what mystified by the whole thing. A good act, well handled, can spell only one thing—success.—S. K. GUY BARTLETT TRIO Theatre— Harlem Opera House. . Style— Comedy and Singing. Time— Fourteen minute*. Setting— In one. All three members of this act are male, two working in full dress, and Bartlett doing the comedy end, attired in "rube" make-up. The two in full dress start the act oft by discovering that Bartlett is not with them. On his entrance, he tells them a sad (?) story, somewhat on the lines of the Bert Fitzgibbons story about the mother who killed her daughter, which leads into a "crying yodel." While the gag itself is not so good, the yodelling bit starts the act off with a dandy amount of applause. Bartlett then delivers several comedy bits, which can be vastly improved in the way of gags that are new. The other two serve as "straights" for some of the gags, but most of their work is in the singing. This part of the act is good, for the three possess voices that blend pleas- ingly. With the patter bits improved, it will make a first-rate turn for the three- a-day route.—G. J. H. "THIRTY PINK TOES" Theatre— Fifth Avenue: Style— Comedy acrobatic. Time— Fourteen minutes. Setting— Four {special). ' When the curtain rises, the audience sees a bed and a conch, upon which are stretched three people, with thirty pink, dainty toes showing. Naturally enough, the audience suspects that they.' are women's toes. • But the audience is wrong. The toes belong to three men who, after rising from their resting places, offer an excel- lent--comedy tumbling, acrobatic, and band-to-hand balancing act. The turn is full of novelty and comedy, which is . properly "handled, The men know their work, and do it right, which is, after all, '. what connts. '• "'..; .. The turn should bave.no difficulty clos- ing a show.—^S. K. MERKLEY TRIO Theatre— Jefferson. Style— Dancing act. Time— Twenty minute*. Setting—fuU stage, bare. This act contains two women and a man, the latter evidently the owner of the offering. He opens in one, singing a number in which he announces the pur- pose of the act. The scene then goes to full stage, with a hat rack and a settee constituting the furniture. The man and one of the girls then offer a specialty ballroom dance. This done, the man announces in rhyme that he is tired and that his other partner will offer a number. This little miss, by the way, has a toe-dancing specialty all her own and scored the largest individual hit in the, act. After she has completed her number, a specialty by the first two follows, after which the toe dancer offered another difficult specialty. The man then an- nounced in rhyme that they would offer their impression of the Indian-shimmey dance, and, wearing costumes that were half Indian and half Parisian, they did so. Each number in the act ia introduced by & short rhyme in which they teli what they intend to do. The act is a neat little dance offering, and should have little difficulty in getting time. S. K. NAT NAZZARO AND CO. Theatre—Audubon. Style— Acrobatic. Time— Twelve minutes. Setting— Futt Stage {special). , Nat Nazzaro has fonnd time to leave his booking and producing work' in the hands of Max Tishman and Edna Hirsch and is again playing iu vaudeville, this " time also with a youngster. Jimmy Naz- zaro, otherwise known as Nat Nazzaro, Jr., is now playing with the D. S. S. Jazz Band, after having been coached by Nazzaro for some time. But Nazzaro now has another youngster with him, apparently in his very early teens, and who really could not be very much over sixteen. This lad is one who win bear watching, for the stunts he does with Nazzaro are really breath-taking. Naz- zaro must be given credit for his present acrobatic offering, for it is above the average opening or closing acrobatic act generally seen in vaudeville. At this house, the act was placed in fourth posi- tion on a bill of six. The act moves fast and the best part of it is that all stalling is omitted. It is one that will get over with any audience.—G. J. H. STEWART AND WOODS Theatre— Audubon. Style— Talking and singing. .Time— Fourteen minutes. Setting— In one. The male member of .this mixed team essays the role of an English comedian and does it well. His partner, an -at- tractive woman, handles the "straight" end of the offering capably. The two are presenting a routine of songs and ..patter for their- act. Both possess - fair voices and deliver their songs well. While the patter has a few spots which can be improved, on the . whole the gags are clever and the. dia- logue gets over well. In the better class of small-time houses, the act should find it easy going. ' G. J. H. JACK INGLIS Theatre— Fifth Avenue, Styto—.Viil comedian. Time— Fifteen minutes. Setting— In one. At the stage right, there is a table with a phone on it Inglis" enters, to the phone and the following tion takes place: - > • ' "Hello, is this the fish market? Have you any dry herring? You have! Well, give them a drink." Having given the audience an Idea of what they can expect, Inglis follows with his famous "dollar down and a dollar a week" song. After giving a few Imita- tions on that often maligned, yet some- times necessary instrument. The Jews Harp, he offers a burlesque on the pro- tean artist making his quick changes. For this number, .be uses an excellent parody on "The Face on the Bar Boom Floor," to which haa been added some lines specially written for him. Inglis* ability as a nnt comedian is a matter of record. With his present vehi- cle, and the way he works, he will nave no trouble getting over, for be knows how to tickle the humors of an audience. He will always be able to take care of himself.—S. K. FRANK JUHAZ Theatre— Jefferson. Styto— Magician. Time— Eighteen minutes. Setting— Ordinary, in one. . s Juhas ia a magician, an announcement that in itself means very little. To say he is a good one would, also, mean..vary little. But, in addition to being a magi- cian and a good one, he has a comedy act that is sure to delight the patrons of the family and better style tbxee-a-day houses. Jnhaz presents a number of card tricks, a few new ones and a few old ones, and does them very nicely, for he ia quick with his hands, which means something. He also carries with him a rather fleshy personage who provides all the comedy. This fellow has the laziest manner and the most cow-like look we have ever seen on the stage and he uses them to gain laughs. Let it be said right here and now, be gets them, too. He does not say two words throughout the entire act, an of his comedy being of the silent type, bnt he gets laughs just the same. - Jnhaz and bis confederate have a clever little comedy magic act and they put It over very nicely, indeed. 8. K. PICCOLO MIDGETS Theatre—Procr or's 58th St. Style— Acrobatic, Comedy. Time— Fifteen minutes. Setting—Fun stage. Three midgets, two of- the and one taller, are offering several bite similar to some of those offered by the Singers. The trio have, worked out a pleasing routine of strong-man, acro- batic dancing and comedy bits, which, because of their size, will enable them to be featured along the three-a-day route. Two of them, one impersonating a female midget, go through a dance and later also offer a boxing match that is good for several laughs. The acrobatic work contains a lot of good stunts and. these also get laughs in places. The' taller one of the three offers a bit of instrumental work by playing a guitar, while doing some tumbling work. The act will find it easy going in the family ■ houses, for the little fellows, aside from being clever, have a universal appeal, aa everyone likes to see the- 'smart tittle chaps work. g. J. n.