Hollywood Filmograph (Jan-Jul 1930)

14 February 8, 1930 233 Club To Offer 20 Big Vaudeville Acts Holly-wood Music Box to Be Scene of Great Midnight Show 233 CLUB WILL STAGE MIDNIGHT VARIETY SHOW AT MUSIC BOX, FEBRUARY 15 A midnight show of twenty varied acts, at the Hollywood Music Box Theatre, on Saturday, February 15. has been announced by the 233 Club, Hollywood's active Masonic theatrical club. Creighton Hale, Russell Simpson, Otto K. Olesen and John LeRoy Johnston are arranging the program and Edgar Forrest will act as stage director. A majority of the acts will feature prominent members of the 233 Club, a number of the men playing female characters in addition to assuming male roles. While the program is by no means completed, the stellar names and acts already carded give the affair the appearance of one of the biggest benefit shows in months. The February 15 show will be the first public 233 Club event in more than two years. Proceeds will go into the 233 Club auditorium building fund. In addition to permitting the use of the Music Box Theatre for the entertainment, Manager H. Ellis Reed will also contribute a sketch in which several of the Civic Repertory Theatre players will be featured. Sarah Padden, noted vaudeville star, will play all of the characters of a lively dramatic sketch, "The Barrier." Through the courtesy of Mrs. Frank Keenan, Russell Simpson, screen favorite, will appear in "The Vindication," assisted by William Walling. Ford and Cunningham will present their travesty as will also Barker and Wynne. Mickey McGuire, star of Larry Darmour talking screen comedies, will present a monologue and several comedy "blackouts" will present such well known entertainers as Monte Carter, Lon Poff, Gus Reed, Bobbie Davis, Charles Crockett, Creighton Hale and George Harris. By special permission of A. Atwater-Kent, Calvin Hendricks, the Los Angeles baritone who recently won second prize in the international Atwater-Kent Radio Audition at New York, will sing his prize winning numbers and also play a piano selection. This will be young Hendricks' first public appearance here in several years. John T. Murray and Vivian Oakland, who have delighted Orpheum audiences often as well as appearing in several prominent screen plays, will present a satire and Richard Anderson and a large company will offer a burlesque on "Richard, the Third." DIRECTOR TO TOUR WORLD A tour of the world, which is planned to extend over four months, and embracing more than a score of foreign cities, will start February 7 by Richard Wallace, well known motion picture director, who will sail from San Francisco on that date on the President Fillmore. Wallace recently completed a long contract with Paramount studios, during which he directed some of their outstanding products. Incidental to the recreation of which he is in search, Wallace will observe the attitude and reactions of motion picture fans abroad toward American films. He intends to make extensive inquiries from competent sources of the problems attendant on making pictures which will suit the requirements and tastes of the foreign audience. After a short stay in Honolulu, he will proceed to Japan and China, visiting Kobe, Tokyo, Mukden, Peiping,. Shanghai, Hong Kong and other Oriental places of interest. The itinerary takes him south to Manila, from whence he will go to Singapore, Penang, Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria, Naples, Lisbon and other important cities. His schedule calls for his return to New York May 26. He expects to resume work in Hollywood soon thereafter. Among Wallace's outstanding achievements with Paramount is "Seven Days' Leave," adapted from J. M. Barrie's play, "An Old Lady Shows Her Medals." The picture attracted attention because of Wallace's treatment of the whimsical and unusual story material supplied by the English playwright. RICHARD WALLACE A majority of the 20 acts on the bill being "set," sponsors of the 233 Club midnight show at the Hollywood Music Box Theatre on Saturday, February 15, are this week putting five dramatic sketches into rehearsal. Confident that the coming show will exceed in variety and dramatic brilliance the memorable 233 Club show at the Shrine Auditorium three years ago, members of the prominent Hollywood Masonic Theatrical Club are exerting every effort to present casts of players in original sketches and comedy skits that will enthuse the most critical audience. Sarah Padden, noted vaudeville star, is to offer "The Barrier," a sketch in which the artiste plays several characters. Russell Simpson, whose many years of stage drama preceded his entrance in motion pictures, will offer "The Vindication" by courtesy of Mrs. Frank Keenan. Mr. Simpson will find considerable demand for his broad dramatic talents in this sketch and will be assisted by William Walling and several other well-known stage and screen folk. Creighton Hale, Henry Otto, Edna Marion, and two prominent actresses, will be seen in Mr. Hale's original sketch, "You Tell 'Em" and members of the cast of "And So To Bed," the current Civic Repertory Players' show at the Music Box Theatre, will present a brief act to be directed by H. Ellis Reed. Richard Anderson, former Shakespearean actor, will convert one of the famous Bard's masterpieces, "Richard the Third," into a burlesque with prominent stage players in the cast. John T. Murray and Vivian Oakland will be seen in a satire of their own conception, as will also Barker and Wynne and Ford and Cunningham, popular vaudeville artists. Drama will not be the only outstanding feature of the midnight 233 show, for there will be a number of prominent musical and dance creations offered. Gus Reed, basso, and Bobbie Davis, tenor, who have appeared in a number of recent singing pictures, will present several previously unheard theme song numbers together, accompanied by Carl Sell, pianist. Eva Rosita, who is being featured m "Oh, Susanna" at the Mayan, wil! offer a colorful Spanish dance accompanied by six harpists, under the auspices of Charles Carrico. Nita Martin, blues singer, Calvin Hendricks, concert baritone, Charles Wakefield Cadman, composer-pianist, and Otto Ploetz, tenor, will be added to the program within a few days. Mickey McGuire, the star of Larry Darmour comedies and regarded as one of the prodigies of the screen, will present a new monologue, and Jimmy Hodges, former Follies comedian, will appear in two comedy black-outs, assisted by several members of the 233 Club who are prominent in stage and screen circles. There will be six masters of ceremony, according to John LeRoy Johnston, who is supervising the program, and five special full-stage settings for the acts in addition to proper curtains and drapes for "close-in" numbers. Edgar Forrest, veteran stage director, will act as stage manager for the show, and Fleckenstein's Orchestra, augmented by addition of six Preview "MATCH PLAY" Mack Sennett seems to have taken the talkies seriously in this one. To start with, he has an extraordinary attraction in the golf champions, Leo Diegel and Walter Hagen, and for a sure fire comic — Andy Clyde, who easily could have made his characterization of the bewhiskered eccentric father of Marjorie Beebe, repulsive, but played his part so straight that he was really very funny. Miss Beebe reminds us a great deal of Daphne Pollard. This is no discredit to her for Dahpne is a very clever comedienne. Marjorie, under the eagle eye and direction of Mack Sennett, should prove very popular. Bud Jamison, as the semi-heavy, helped to carry the tempo of the comedy along in good shape. An unnamed character, who plays a "golf bug," added to the humor of the situation. The story and dialogue was by John A. Waldron, William Goodrich and Harry McCoy, while the captivating theme song, that runs through the story, was written by Mack Sennett. John Boyle showed us how capable he really is by photographing some of the most difficult shots as driven by Messrs. Diegel and Hagen, who by the way are not so bad on the screen. Inasmuch as this was a comedy, Mack Sennett naturally took some licenses to have his characters stand around back of the golfer making bis drive which wasn't according to Hoyle, but stage licenses we must grant, while the entrance of Walter Hagen could have been more cleverly handled for suspense purposes and a laugh by accidentally pushing him in. However, Educational has a fine novelty morsel of entertainment to offer theatregoers in this fun-film and Mack Sennett varied a great deal from his usual knock down and drag out comedy idea. Westlake Theatre patrons laughed their heads off at the antics of those in the picture which is sufficient to verify what we have said about this comedy. HARRY BURNS. i i i POPULAR DUO HERE Julie Ring and James Norville, who are very popular on both the vaudeville and legitimate stage, especially for their "Graveyard" act written for them by John B. Hyam, are in the city looking around, having a good time and at the same time keeping an eagle eye on something worth while to do in the talkies. Mr. Norville, for years, was associated with the leading legitimate producers in New York in a managerial capacity as well as appearing on the stage while Miss Ring's last appearance here was in "Excess Baggage" which created such a tremendous hit at a downtown theatre. new musicians, will provide musical accompaniment. Proceeds from the show are to go into the 233 Club Auditorium building fund, President Rex B. Goodcell has stipulated.