Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

N<>\ ember 17, 1928 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD 33 G4J.LOS4YS STAGE SHOWS I PRESENTATION EDITOR. Something about Every one GREETINGS! . . . Well, now that election is over md everyone is satisfied let us turn to the headlines j{ the dailies and to the topics of the day. . . . Bold :ace type tells you of the recent sea disaster, the iritish Steamer Vestris went down to the sea and ill of its crew and passengers are safe except those n the boat and raft, which are still missing. . . . lust a few days ago the country was in sadness over he Mt. Aetna eruption which has ruined many •outhern towns in Sicily. ... It seems that ve are always reminded of the wrath of the gods for he evils and sins of our poor souls. . . . Well, as Stanley Lupino used to sing once, "some little bug s bound to get you, some day." . . . We all wonder .vhat that little bug may be. . . . Who knows? And vho in heck gives a care, anyway. . . . Let us make nerry while the sun still shines even if there is no noonshine still. ... In our daily rounds we heard hat Publix may start producing all stageshows in hicago again and also that after New Years they 'ill rotate all their band leaders over the entire ircuit. ... In spite of the talking pictures that have up planted many orchestras and organists we notice hat Publix and Fox are still opening big deluxe heatres. . . . The new Fischer-Publix house opens i Detroit November 15 with Wady Wadsworth as uaster of ceremonies. . . . The new St. Louis Fox iouse opens on Christmas Day with a Meyer Davis ■and unit. . . . Davis is in charge of all band rganizing for the Fox firm. . . . Speaking of new heatres, don't forget that the twin of Publix's Paranount opens on November 24 with Paul Ash as naster of ceremonies. . . . Marks Bros., of Chicago, lso have some big plans in mind for a large loop eluxe house. . . . When Brooke Johns opens at the Mental this week he will give away $5.00 bills to the •est smilers in the audience. . . . Here's your chance 0 show your new china set. boys! . . . Step up and oliect your dough. . . . Eddie Perry is back from month's vacation and is relieving Bennie Krueger t the Tivoli, Chicago, this week. . . . Ben Black is ow in complete charge of the Publix masters of eremonies and gives them a polishing touch in the chool department of the big circuit. . . . Walter lirsch is no longer with the Chicago Villa Moret ffice. he is now with the Melrose Bros. Music Co. . . Don Wilkins, M. C. and his wife. Iris, have een transferred to the Broadway theatre in Tacoma. . . His place at the Portland is being filled by •tnt Morgan, formerly a film comedian . . . Ralph 'ollack. M. C. at the Capitol 1n Salt Lake City. Is oing east for a new post. . . . George E. Carpenter, lanager of the theatre arranged a fine farewell party f 26.000 high school students a£ the school audiDrium. . . . Saw BUly Cripps of Remick's Chicago taff and he informeo me that Julia Dawn is opening six weeks engagement at the Riviera theatre in hnaha as guest organist. . . . Julia is the clever cung lady who also sings with her solos. . . . Seldon leaps is the featured organist at Pantages Salt Lake 'iry theatre. . . . Hie friends wish him heaps of luck. . . Russell Bishop, solo organist at the Orpheum 1 Sioux City, was a Chicago visitor last week. . Mrs. Preston Sellers is back at the Senate, hicago, as the picture organist. . . . W. S. Russell, ne of my aides, is in a position to save you fellows loney if you plan on buying a car. . . . Russ can P you off on a good deal on any make of auto, so insult him next time he sees y»u. . . . Buddy isher, who won the title of "Chicago's Worst Master f Ceremonies" during his flop at the Avalon theatre, as added to it also the "Worst Cafe Band Leader." ince he is not so forty at the Green Mill. . . . • aterson-Berlin & Snyder are staging a comeback i the music field and "Memories of France" looks ■ ke it will do the trick. . . . Douglas Murray has een made production and stage manager of the oxy. . . . Bernard Arons will be his assistant. . . . eorge Dewey Washington, the colored baritone, is n two M G M talking shorts now being released, one ;atures "Chloe," the song of the swamps. . . . iarry Waiman and his girl band are making nother tour of Keith-Orpheum houses. ... So are arry Webb and his Entertainers and Peter Higgins, ie Irish picture house tenor. (Continued from preceding page) asked by the teacher to practice their dance for graduation day. Up from their desks and out to the center of the stage pat the two youngsters. They tap from one end of the stage to the other. They waltz tap, fox trot tap. whirl tap and tap as tapping never has been tapped before. As they return to their seats, a sedate appearing couple, grey haired but erect and smiling, enter, and proeeed to show their children how it was done 25 years ago. And the old folks are just as nimble as their children, or at least nearly so. For a finale, all four Join in a final dance fest. As for the others, it might be said that all are excellent performers. Ray Bolger is an excellent dancer and little Virginia Ray. besides being a mighty fine singer and dancer, is also a descendant of the famous General Robert E. Lee. Although she is only sixteen, she is a seasoned trouper and has appeared on the stage since she was 7. As an extra added attraction, Eduard Werner staged an orchestral number which was in reality another stage show. Featured in it were Charles Jolley, Detroit's favorite tenor. Louis Lyons, Dorothy Steger and the Ford male quartet as vocalists and and some fast dancing by Epps and Sibley. Werner called his show "Under Southern Skies," and he incorporated in it melodies of the South, negro spirituals and "darky" dances. It was very well done. Chicago Oriental Week Ending November 16 Well, boys and girls, how many of you remember Napoleon ? No matter. Napoleon is the personality kid of all time. He licked Europe. Then Europe licked him, and exiled him on the Island of Elba for life. And one fine morning Nap rowed himself to the mainland, started talking to folks he met, picked up an army on the way to Paris, took the town, declared himself king and all but licked the world all over again. Remember ? But this story is about Paul Ash. Ash is the only guy in show business who'd have given Napoleon a run for his money if he'd lived when swords were worn where batons flourish in this sweet and simple civilization. Ash licked the werld — the show world, that is — too. And then went to New York. Perhaps this is the first time New York has been compared to Elba. It was about like that for Paul. The big 6hots in Publix — and gosh, how many of them there arel — all but buried the man. And learned that you can't bury a Paul Ash. Nor a Napoleon. Back he came from Elba, to Chicago, under just about the dumbest billing that ever came from Bill Hollander's office in B & K — which is plenty dumb — and the home town gang didn't know whether to traipse down to the Oriental like they used to or send posies. The Billing had said, in effect, "Here, you saps — we're giving you another squint at this guy, then we're taking him back to New York where there's real people : he's too hot for youse guys." Nothing in the world could have pulled 'em in under that billing except the Ash personality. That did it. but she was a long uphill drag and only this last week — his seventh — has the mob yipped for his stuff the way it did when the history was in its first chapter. You see, what's happening is too big for the B & K gang to fathom (a six-letter word meaning understand). It's just this: Mr. Paul Ash is negotiating the gap between local and national fame. No wonder the boys don't get it ; no band leader's ever done it before. Ash was a big guy in Chicago — still is — and Ash was a big guy in New York. He'll be a big guy in Brooklyn. But at about the time folks are beginning to realize that he's a big guy in any old town where they happen to need him, everybody's going to wake up some morning and find that he's a big guy in America I And that means the world. Nohody'll know just how it happened, but one of these days everybody'll discover that Paul Ash is the first all-American jazz per sonality, master of ceremonies, band leader — and all the other things he happens to be. That same day everybody'll say they "always knew he had it in him." Watch and see. The show for Paul's seventh and final week here was called "Au Revoir" and ran like this: Opening: Paul Small, as a court jester, sings lyrics bringing on the gals in costumes representing Life, Love and things like that. This leads to a lifting of the scrim to reveal Ash in King George's Thursday afternoon outfit atop a throne. He comes down and tells 'em this show's to be different. This becomes a gag running through the bill. Caffery and Miller supply some nifty acrobatics. They like them. Doris Roche, who sings 'em warmer than most of the gals, slips over a pair of ditties. They like her, too. Johnny Perkins, permanently identified with Ash in the local subconscious, is on next for a lotta stuff. Armistice Day is reason enough for repeating "My Dream of the Big Parade" and he kills it. Then he goes into the farewell sentiment thing and the girls weep all over the cushions. A sweet send-off. "St. Louis Blues" is symphonized by the band' — stil the best stagehand in show business — for more returns than Hoover got in the newsreel. George Dewey Washington, in his third week at the house, made a miniature opera of the show for a spell with his "Spell of the Blues," the girls working upstage in silhouette. This was the big shot of the show. Washington begged off to get away. Paul Small next did a farewell thing, with Ash at the piano. (About one more of these farewell gaga and they'd have carried the women out feet first.) Finale: For this they used the disappearing train illusion, out of the B & K warehouse, and on the show causht only half of it worked. But nobody cared. They knew what was intended and gave the stage crew a break. St. Louis Missouri Week Ending November 2 Frank Fay's stage show was "Snap Shots" and included in the cast Will Aubrey, singing comedian : the Connor Twins, harmonists: Mills and Shea, acrobats: Gray and Whit*, dancers, and Don Thrailkill, tenor. Leonid Leonardi and the Missouri orchestra offered as their overture "Meet the Boys." Milton Slosser also presented an organ solo. Kansas City Pantages Week Ending November 3 The Mexican Motorcycle Cossacks were given a prominent place on the stage program at the Pantages and lived up to their reputations by winning favorable comment from both press and patrons. The act consists of some daring feats on motorcycles on the 6tage by all seven members of the act. With the Cossacks riding at a terrific speed across a short stage, some on one wheel, others on two, the audiences were given plenty of th.iUs. Margot Morel Hart Osborn and some snappy girls are seen dancing about in a tuneful number that consists mostly of dancing. "Noodles" Fagan offers a comedy act which eonsists mostly of vocal numbers with the words made to rhyme about persons In the audience. The Harmony offered a varied selection of popular songs. Ulis and Clark are a man and a girl who do a bit of dancing, siaging and comedy dialogue. The Pantages orchestra, directed by Louie Charninsky, played popular selections as the overture. Stat© 5918 'cmaen OS 54 W Oindolph a W*1V yOU OCttiiVJ RUMORS PAUL G. DAVIS Featured Organist EMBASSY THEATRE CHICAGO