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17
Audrey Marsh and Charles Winninger, as "Betty Lou" and "Cap'n H e n r y." How quaint they look!
Boat
soubrette" of the Showboat show. She twinkles in a little spot almost by herself as the blues singer. She is well known at home and abroad in that capacity. And it's an absolute fact that the Prince of Wales has placed a standing order for every record on which she sings. Her records sell like hot cakes in England — and they are a little hot at that, if you mean some of those more recent ones.
Now you take Cap'n Henry — he's the one that makes them all walk the plank, but not like the old pirates did. It would be more to the point to say he is the one that makes them "tread the boards," because he is the boss of the show. A genial, lovable "Uncle Henry" to "Mary Lou." And he's just like that off stage, too. The part, as you doubtless know, is taken by that greatly admired veteran of the footlights, Charles Winninger — and don't you ever dare
leave out that "n" and call him "Winniger." Let's call him Charley, everybody else does. Charley is one of those kind of persons the mayor or somebody is always appointing to do things for other people. Just now he is chairman of the stage division of the Citizens' Unemployment Relief Committee of New York. And his manager, Pete Mack, is chairman of the stage division of Long Island. And they are both putting on drives to fight back the despair that confronts so many unemployed — especially among the theatrical people — these dubious days.
It was Jules Bledsoe, the famous colored baritone, who started those amazing song-skits you hear on the Showboat program. His portrayal of the frantic negro in search of his lost Chloe — through "the smoke and flame" was sensational. That is one of the things that keeps the Showboat so fas
"Chloe! Chloe!" Can't you almost hear Jules Bledsoe calling that piteous cry — just as he sang it in that thrilling dramatic version you heard over the air from the Showboat ?
cinating. To dramatize the songs, and act out the characters, gives a vividness to the impression that will last a lifetime. The listening audience sent in a hurricane of applause notes. Then came the dramatization of "Poor Pierrot" from "The Cat and the Fiddle." A sparkling gem in a brilliant setting. And in this particular program there was an especially dramatic climax at the finish where Mary Lou decides to stay on the boat with her foster mother rather than to go to New York with her real father.
There probably is no finer aggregation of colored singers than the Hall Johnson choir. Sometimes they come to the studio in plantation costumes to sing their plantation songs. Hall Johnson with alert gestures and sinuous fingers seems to electrify each singer to an ecstasy of vocal fervor.
Molasses 'n' January, portrayed by Pick Malone and Pat Padgett, are two of the funniest coon characters on the air, no foolin'. They were very successful in New York over WOR as Pick and Pat. It's hardly fair to compare them witli any other blackface team, although the nearest semblance might be that of the Two Black Crows, Moran and Mack.
Don Voorhees and his orchestra, who supply the musical background, also (Continued on page 31)