Inside facts of stage and screen (April 26, 1930)

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1930 INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN PAGE FIVE COMPETITION FOR TELEVISION In Hollyivood'-^^J^O'w By BUD MURRAY "IN HOLLYWOOD NOW" seems to have made an im- pression nationally, that is, not this particular column, and yet. even this column got a rise out of George Rosener, now at War- ner's studios, which reminds us of that operetta, "Oh, Susanna," George and the writer recently directed. The onlv fault "The Old Timer" found was that we used the word "with" instead of "in." We rememher when "The Bard of the Shuberts" used to say, "Some kind soul has been putting raisins in "ME" coffee," and the night J. J. Shubert tried to run George out of the Winter Garden for using his name in vain, and in retaliation, Georgie signed his name to a long term contract. With George in Henry's was that stellar, droll comedian, Red- mond Wells, who made such a hit in "Oh, SuSanna." and we can go back with Wells to dear old "Honey Boy Evans'" minstrel show. Wells was strictly a hoof- er, and my. how he has prog- ressed. Picture studios are over- looking this "one best bet." Well, anyway, George Bernard Shaw Rosener swore his way out of the eating place, and brushed by a gen- tleman, a real, showman, and the finest man we or anyone has ever worked for, Sid Graviman. Gentlemen travel together, to- wit: with Mr. Grauman was a son of that grand philanthropist and great showman, William Mor- ris. None other than William Morris. Jr., who is IN HOLLY- WOOD. NOW. conducting the Wm. Morris Agencv. and in that office is Rufus LeMaire, another ex-boss of ours, when we han- dled his "LeMaires Affairs" in the East. Rufe takes us back to 1917, playing in the Winter Garden show, "Ding Our Bit." a show in which the Duncans made their first Broadway appearance, through Rufus. Rufe used to run the Sunday nite concerts, dressed in a nattv naval uniform. He was a sailor during the war and served on that famous battleship, 280 Broadway. What a sailor. A little later big William O'Neal, that robust tenor, lumbered into Henry's, and if he doesn't land something quick here IN HOLLY- WOOD. NOW, we think he can be matched against "Cannery," the Italian giant. We discovered Bill in 1023 at an Elks dinner, and placed him in "The Lady in Ermine," and later Bill appeared in the Broadway productions of "Desert Song" and "New Moon." Bill opens this week at George Olsen's new nite club. Please follow us to the fites at Hollywood stadium, because rite over there we had to look twice; thought we saw a man in black- face make-up; but it was just one of the blackest tans we have ever seen on any man, and it was right on Al Jolson'g chubbv face, and he brought to our mind a tour in 1911, when'we were with "The Whirl of Society," and Al .Tolson was the head man. and the manager of that show was Stan- ley Sharpe, now general manager for Florenz Ziegfeld, and thev are all IN HOLLYWOOD, NOW. This .then, carried us to 1925, when we were stage directing Ai Jolson's "Bi gBoy." which is now bemg "filmed at Warner Brothers' studios, with the same Al Jol- son.^ only bigger and better, and he IS IN HOLLYWOOD, NOW or at least between train jumps to New York. Also at the Hollvwood fites two new stars in Filmland, and well-known stage favorites, Bobby Woolsey and Bert Wheeler, who >have just finished filming "Cuck- oos." Bob turns back the pages for us, 7 vears when we were in N. Y. at 'Century Theatre, stage director, and the play was "Lady in Ermine." Bert takes us back to good old stock days, in Elmira and Syracuse, and then a season with the Coutts and Tennis pro- ductions of "Girls of My Dreams" and "When Dreams Come True." when we worked for coffee, with- out the cakes. But we had laffs and jollv times. Here's a surprise. Bumped into Charley Mosconi lunching at The Brown Derby. He is only one of a big family of dancers, that fa- mous Mosconi gang. Charley con- fides, he is contemplating opening a dancing school, IN HOLLY- WOOD, NOW, and if he does he will have a real one. We welcome another good dancing school in this town; it would crowd out some of the fakirs. Come on, Charley, you and your family cannot miss. Charley Foy, of the famous Foy family, needs no introduction, and Donald Kerr, of Kerr & Weston, a team of the bygone days, and Harry Masters, formerly of Mas- ters and Craft, now Masters and Gracey; and still they comer here's Danny Dare now directing at Fox studios. Masters was with us in "Passing show of 1916," and Danny Dare on the Century Roof about 1919, and rite back of us at th,e fites is the only living specimen of a real honest to. good- ness hard-shoe dancer, our old garlic and oil friend, whom we used to argue with and for. while en tour with George White's "Scandals of 1927-27." _ Yes, you guessed it, Tom Patricola. We caught him on our right at the stadium, eating peanuts. There's a load for vou right on the hoof, and "IN HOLLYWOOD, NOW." We read so much dailj' that the columnists write about the inva- sion of Broadway directors, actors and song-writers, but. what about this invastion, of HOOFERS, and we only mention the ones we know. Possibly they are not classed among the "intelligentsia." Strolled into the Blossom Room at the Hotel Roosevelt, where a nartv in honor of Harry Rapf, M-G-M executive, was i n full sway, and met Jimmy Hanley, a real song-writer, and i t seems about 15 years ago that we bumped around the "jernts" in N. Y. with Grant Clark and Joe Goodwin, all writing at studios, and lest we forget. Lew Pollock just blew in from N. Y. to write for Warners. Thev are all IN HOLLYWOOD NOW. While we are exploiting song-writers, how can we possibly forget our old Irish pal, Joe McCarthy, who was the best man at our wedding 11 years ago. and we still have the same wife. So has Joe. Joseph writes with Jimmy Hanlev at Fox studios IN HOLLYWOOD NOW. Also at the Roosevelt, Macklin Megley, of that famous produc- ing firm of Megley & Moore. Mack is now an executive at the RKO studios. We cannot refrain from mentioning our luck to be able to say we worked with him, and recentlv. too, staging pro- logues at the RKO Hillstreet. And last but not least, let us in- troduce you to our dear friend B. B. B. and his cellar, where one is always made at home, and no cover charge. We know B. B. B. for quite a spell, and whether audiences are tough or not, he is always genial (we didn't say gen- tile). He always has a good word for everyone. That's why everybody likes B. B. B. And he is IN HOLLYWOOD NOW HARVEY KARELS VALLIE SCHOOL OF DANCING Riveter* at El Capitan, San Franciceo En Tour 7377 Beverly Blvd. OR. 2688 ALLES SHOW PRINT MA. 1681 -224 E. 4th St., Los Angeles- MA. 1682 STAGE PRODUCTION IS IIS If major leaguers of the produc- ing industry are successful in mo- nopolizing television for use in the- atres, there will be strenuous com- petition from the independent side in the shape of high grade stage shows. Such is the first reaction to the story publi.s'hed in Inside Facts last week, outlining the intention of the big interests, now developing television, to keep it under control and confine it to theatrical release. Legitimate theatre producers do not believe that television will harm the stage. On the contrary, opin- ion is that it will stimulate its re- turn to popularity. Television, they claim, will be ooe more imi- tation of the real thing. The new generation, being more or less brought up on mechanical repro- ductions, are showing impatience with them and are developing de- sires for in-person entertainment. The desire for the return of the legitimate is piling up to the point where it will become irresistible before very long, they believe. Radio artists as a whole were disappointed at the first break of the news. Many of them have clung to radio in the belief that television would become an adjunct of present-day broadcasting, and the announcement that every ef- fort was to be made to confine it to theatres dashed many hopes temporarily. The present radio broadcasting, however, would in no way be in- terfered with. It would remain the chief form of home entertain- ment, and radio studios would no doubt become a favorite recruiting field for talent for television pro- ductions. Television would not be broad- cast as radio is now, but would be conveyed to the theatres by special wire, which, erf course, is where the A. T. & T. interest comes in. Technical observers believe that the research and experimentation of the big interests has been con- ducted along so many lines, with such a great number of patents ready for filing, that outside in- ventors would find it practically impossible to develop other meth- ods without infringing in some manner on some patent right. News Notes of Dance Studios TEACHES TAPPING Bud Murray, principal of the Bud Murray School for Stage, says that again tap dancing in- vades a new field. This time it takes hold of school teachers who take tap dancing with the express purpose of teaching this style of dyce to their pupils during the recreation periods. The first teach- ers' class is now in progress at the Murray school. * * * PLAN SUMMER COURSES Walter S. Wills, executive head of the Wills-Cunningham School of Dancing, Hollywood, is now making arrangemeints for complete summer courses. The summer classes will include tap, acrobatic, soft shoe, waltz clog, ballet and eccentric dancing of all forms. Advanced pupils will be taught original routines for both single, double and ensemble numbers. Special^ classes will be organized for children. Classes in musical comedy dancing will also be ar- ranged during the summer season. FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS SAN FRANCISCO, April 24.— Four one-act plays have been chosen for presentation by Theatre Arts, Inc., in the Community Playhouse, Tuesday night, April 29, under the direction of Talma- Zetta Wilbur. The plays are: "Dregs" by Frances Pemberton Spencer; "Hardy Perennials" by A. Meeker Jr., Elliott Nugent and Howard Lindsay's "Apartments to Let." and "The Valiant," by Hol- worthy Hall and Robert Middle- mass. •AMONG THE MARRIED' VINE STREET THEATRE HOLLYWOOD (Reviewed April 20) This new production of the play offered four months ago by Ed- ward Everett Horton's group is a prize. It revealed perfect theatre, careful, studious direction, excel- lent timing, a capable and well balanced cast, and in all is a praiseworthy production. "Among the Married" is no con- tribution to moral standards; con- tains no preachment's for or against, and succeeds only in pa- rading some of the weaknesses of the flesh. But the a'uthor, Vincent Lawrence, seems to know his in- fidelities, drags out before the foot- lights worldly facts known to most but heard publicly with emo- tions of either shocked enjoyment or sophisticated amusement, and succeeds in being absorbingly en- tertaining. There was not a weak spot in the cast. The work of all was significant of not only ability but artistry, building performances on the background of the direction of Charles King that have not been surpassed on local stages for some time. Alma Tell, as the wife who drops her virtue when she dis- covers her husband's infidelities, projected a flowerlike but potent characterization, salvaging her per- sonality with ease in the high dra- matic notes from the inroads made upon it by Barbara Brown, who played the philandering foil with vibrant ability and charm, and rarely failed to dominate her scenes, as she should. Dudlej' Ayres proved smooth and likeable as the menace-bache lor. who took love where he found it, which was usually in the home of his married friends. How- ard Russell, as a dyspeptic and suspectic husband, demonstrated adequate ability and admirable re- straint. Robert Frazer, in the starred role of the man who loved his wife but enjoyed other women, too, brought into play all of his polish and skill. Virginia Thorn- ton completed the cast as house- keeper. From the standpoint of produc- tion and performance, "Among the Married" is one of the most sig- nificant offerings of the season. Yfotes. "FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD" EGAN THEATRE (Reviewed April 21) A number of capable perform- ances and a scries of wise-cracks placed in the mouth of the adol- escent daughter character, hold up this domestic comedy, patterned in extremely conventional fashion. Miss Lorraine La Val as the wise- cracking daughter, very much topped the performances, with Donald Wilson as an inventive son, also turning in consistently good work. The piece, written by Joseph Lawlis, who appears in the cast as the Irish father, combines the fa;niliar ingredients of "Abie's Irish Rose," "White Collars" and "The Family Upstairs" with a steady stream of wise-cracks, puns and humor of the vaudeville tvpe. It starts with a snappy first act, but the plot is so contrived that •for all dramatic purposes, the sec- ond stanza holds the climax, and the final period seems, therefore, forced and trite in its situations. With revision the piece has box- office potentialities along the lines of the above-mentioned plays. Its particular weaknesses lie in the poor characterization of the ostensible hero, a millionaire role under which William Ruhl strug- gled manfully, and a poorly con- trived handling of the love inter- est between Ruhl and Toni March as "Mayme Kelly." Ruhl's lines are too trite and forcedly introduced to seem like actual speech, while the love in- terest suffers from a similar weak- ness in handling, two items a skilled dramatic hand could easily correct. ^ The best written characteriza- tions of the play, next to that of the daughter, are handed to Lawlis as the father, "Kelly," and to Etta Delmas, as "Mrs. Kelly." Both parts were well played, Leslie Thomas handled a nit-wit society character very smoothly, but Lou- ise Bowden failed to impress in a similar feminine role. Nor did Al Aldrich do much with the char- acter of the Hebrew father of the girl young Kelly wanted to marry. Aldrich's makeup and dialect were too overdone for straight comedy drama. They should be toned down considerably. The action occurs in one set, the Kelly flat in Harlem, and it WHS quite well handled from the standpoint of an authentic impres- sion. Harry C. Brown, Jr.. and Cy Forrest have a production of minor potentialities in this, their first coast offering. THE BLUE GHOST* PRESIDENT THEATRE SAN FRANCISCO (Reviewed April 15) "The Blue Ghost." another mys- tery play, well cast and well acted, comes close to the point of being different although it utilizes the well worn formulas for ghost (Continued on Page 15) Most musical com- edies born on the Pacific Coast fail because the book lacks humor. If con- sulted in time, 'Doc' Jim Madison can prescribe the neces- sary comedy tonic. For consultation, address 4 6 5 South Detroit Street, Los Angeles. Phone ORegon 9407. Night Club Entertainers Desirous of Breaking Their Jump East COMMUNICATE WITH C. WHITNEY PARRY At THE TAVERN 341 South Main St. Salt Lake City, Utah HERBERTS Good Food With Courtesy OPEN ALL NIGHT 745-749 South Hill Street Los Angeles Bachelor Hotel & Grill 151-159 Powell Street San Francisco