The Billboard 1923-09-29: Vol 35 Iss 5 (1923-09-29)

SEPTEMBER 29, 1923 al Nhe CROOKED SQUARE” is a stage play of no importance. It is a dresssuit, fur-wrapped, diamond-gowned melodrama of gentee] trimmings with @ mar velously spotless heroine that ought to be called a demi-virgin. To save her “‘pride’ and her “honor’’ back home she goes ont on Times Square (the crooked square) to become a street walker. She ‘‘strips’’ for the first man that picks her up. He happens to be a policeman. He arrests her and starts her on her way to the.Woman’s State Reformatory She gets out. As she never ‘‘strips’’ again she is elecible for a heautiful marriage in the Iast act. This is the sort of play that makes terrible liars out of actors. One cannot conceive of Kenneth McKenna being such a shallow-mouthed liar as he has to be in Mr. Shipman’s “happy” play. See Mr. Shipman’s advertisement in The Times about happy plays. Let it be granted that actors are supposed to play the whole range of human characters from demons fo guardian angels. Of course they are. Actors can play rascals or heroes if there is some semblance of characterization to cling to, some sprig of fancy to snatch at, or even some wholesome make-believe to respond to. ‘‘The Crooked Square’’ has no characterization, no semblance of reality. It isn’t even makebelieve. It is just “stage’’. Mr. McKenna in previous parts has shown something ubove ordinary intelligence. He has been in parts that required some characterization and has worked in an environment of ideas. Just now he is selling his face and drawing a salary. He is the good young man lined up in contrast to the stage villains He enters James Darnell’s Detective Agency on philanthropie business. He sees a slip of a girl, emiles at her and falls in love, with no questions asked. Before he sees her again she has “stripped” for the policeman and spent five weeks in the Woman's Reformatory. The girl je so ““honest’’ she tells the good young men the naked truth next time they meet. In this “‘happy’’ play details of this sort are of no importance to the nice young man. He goes on loving just the same, without saying a word. In the last act the heroie girl, who could not ave herself from ‘‘stripping’’ on the crooked equare, eaves the good young man's sister from disgrace and does other marvelous things. In the midst of all the villains, all Mr. McKenna has to do is to look simple, stand profile facing the girl and say: “You're wonderful.” It is an enormous stage lie and Mr. MeKenna looks conscious-stricken every time he ears it. C. Henry Gordon plars the arch villain. All he has to do is to look polished and show the white of his ere the way the moving picture actors do. That is all the part requires. Leonore Harris is the stage villainess in deep furs and Fifth avenue gowns. Claude King, who has had a reasonable share of good environment in New York, is now just a third act gentleman of no importance. In Mr. Shipman’s “happy’’ play you should see the end of the last act. It reminds one of the semicircle in the comedies of a hundred years ago— “The Rivals’, for instance—where all the company says a couplet and bids the audience good night. In “‘The Crooked Square’ all the villaine apologize for their crooked ways, spread themselves with molasses as it were in order to leave a sweet taste in the mouth of the audience. This is just a “show"’ written with the license of melodrama. The heroine's repetition of ‘‘stripped’’ fx a good sample of the dialog All the speeches are plain. They go right to the point to tell you who's who and what's what. There is no felicity of style, no feeling for elegance. For the social set in the audience the chief line of comedy is this: ‘‘Is it «still permissible for a husband and wife to dine together?’ There is a speech to this effect in each act, as if this joke had not already been cracked The only justification of the play is that it furnishes a vehicle for Edna Hibbard. One cannot say that it cives her «a character, but it gives her a stage part that has certain advantages to Miss Hibbard All Mise Flibbard’s lines about being down and ont and about her Virginia pride that drove her to street walking are paltry rubbish They come handy to the anthors, get their heroine into the reformatory, place her at the disposal of the villains and prepare the way for the rest of the “happy” situations Miss Hibbard is innocent looking. There is nothing about her that suggests the street. She hasn't a baby face or a child's face She has a girl's face with the «spirit of a woman shining thru it There is a piquant determination in her daintily up-turned nose. There is pertness in the turn of her head, penetration in the glance of ber eve and decision of char acter in her voice which is free from affeeta tion. It is « volee that combines routhful frankness with judgment and intuition Miss Hibbard’s firm little chin, ‘full throat and Physical development are all a picture of nascent womanhood She has no mannerisms She is poised in bearing and action She can put economical in ehbaracter into a part than the part supplies She te tn herself a compact and unified individual She is charged with dramatic expectation and as the central figure in ‘The Crooked Square’ she lends interest to the ‘story’. fer more personal superiority makes all the more place. Some of the other characters that make a Conducted by WINDSOR P. DAGGETT some poverty of the dialog sound law whose methods of living are so flagrantly stricken and common vicious. But rapidly written plays must have situation and so easy theatergoers must the audience ‘happy’ are just the popular swallow the premises, under-dog type that have the immediate symPau! Nicholson makes Dugan, the policeman, pathy an easy audience. Gladys Hanson an entirely interesting character. His acting does some effective work in the last act. She is quiet, subtle and legitimate, with every makes the part of Alice Harvey much more intonation and transition of glance full of than a type and lifts it out of the general 4. matic meat. Mr. Nicholson ean glance inscheme of surface melodrama. wardly without clicking bis eyes. There is a The dialog of ‘Red-Light Annie’ is not 7 quite so blunt as the dialog of ‘‘The Crooked Square’’. low life at a situation without saying al! the disagreeable words In quently in the city it turns a phrase or something to they act and move in life difficult to accomplish happy blending in this interest and any of the characterization in Square”. It s character of friendly duty that is superior to “The Crooked characterization that is convincingly humanized. official In dealing with sordid things of hints characterization suggest there is freindividuals aé This is something in a play that has a Edward Ellis, as the snow-bird villain, gives humanness to any character. In all his part he succeeds in making Nick Martin a depraved first act in twelve = scenes. But the brief individual rather than a stage villain. Warda glimpses of nooks and corners in out-of-the-way Howard, as the snowbird’s mate, is less subplaces ften have some sense of humor or tle. She plays the part broadly as a stageenough detail to deepen the impression. Some crook type, which appears to be the way it of the town ups and downs of a decent mun in surroundings that are weakness couple as Fanny and Tom might be expected to break company with a men show the characterization a good deal of masculine character inertia greatest consistency in was written and directed. Miss Howard has Frank M. Thomas plars with an unusually good voice, fine appearance and naturalness. The trait of more ability than she is able to use to adstubbornness is well handled The vantage in this part. She is a spectator combines small-town gri{ with smallaccomplice in vice rather than an integral part which for the of the action and motivation, if one may speak of motivation in red-light Annie plays. Mary Ryan seldom speaks witi colloquial intonation. She tends to recite speeches in elocutionary tunes taking notes on the musical scale, She molds each word and syllable with helps to account too complex for his nature. The of the story is that such an honest sister and brother-in a u r UN UP”, “6S East Seventr-e'ghth LaVerne and Alar board of July 21 brief key to the occurs in act one; scene, Widow Cagle’s cabin in the Carolina Mountains: but I allus wanted Rufe to l'arn as muel a-goin’ on five miles down the road. I wuz too little to walk it. the mornings ter it wuz me In Rut I wouldn't a bad ye Varn nothin’ if I'd a knowed it wuz a-goin’ to turn ye into a law-lover and make yer fergit the laws of yo’ own folks. Rufe IT ain't fergot, Mom I never will, But that little bit o’ l’arnin’ taught me to respect somethin’ a little higher then my own way of wantin’ ter do things. I'm a-goin’ ter l'arn more, some day. Mrs. Gagle I want ye to l'arn books then, not foolishness Rufe ) Well, Mom, ain’t whut I knowed made me the best farmer on the mountains? Don't I make ye a good livin’? Mrs. Cagle I ain't a complainin’. I don’t keer how much l'arnin’ ye git if ye don’t turn skeered puppy and lick the boots of them law mongers, like Jim Weeks. Sheriff Now, Mis’ Cagle. Rufe 1 ain't, Mom, but re would want me to do whut I thought wuz right, even if it wuz to go to war, Mrs. Cagle In this Guy'munt feud? No. If ye want to fight, son, git Zeb Turner, the man who killed yo" Pay PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION } ri:d / but ah aw:-luz wawn-tid roo:f tu lah:n uz muhtsh uz bi kood / shoo:l] wuz u-go.0oo-in awn waw,: dthu wei /lity he.oom / j tu:n yu in-too u law: spekt suhm-thin u li-tl hai-u d n-gawn tu lah:n mo-u suhm dei ah wawnt you to lahin books dthen mah.oon tnz de oont ah meik yu ui good liv-in do cout tu:n ski:-ud pub-pi / un Hk dthu boo:ts uv dzhim wi tks “SUN UP” TRANSCRIPTION by Lula Vollmer, is now playing at the Lenox Hill Theater, 53 street, New York. The following speeches were taken book. The transcription approximates the speech of Lucile Birmingham in the parts of Widow Cagle and Rufe. The Bill1923. gives a general description of the mountain dialect. For a sounds see “‘Hard Words’? in this is<ue. The following dialog from the prompt Mrs. Cagle I didn’t have none, and Rufe’s pap could read, as he could, Rufe Mom. Ye done all ye could. IT ain’t never bin agin l'arnin’. Yes ye did, I kin recollect once when school wuz (Turns to others). Mom used to tote me most of the way. Then when I started home over Mom would leave her work in the cornfield, meet me and tote the the rest of the way home. Mrs. Cagle wouldn't ye? mi-siz "‘kei-gl ab eint ne-vu bin u-gin Iah:-nin /-/ ah did-nt hev nuhn / an roo:fs-pap kood-nt roo:f yes / yu did muhm /-/ yi dubn aw:l yu kood /-/ ah kin re-ku-lekt wuhnst when / fahv mailz dah.con dthu ro.ocod / ah wuz to li-tl tu kit /-/ (tu:nz too uhdthuz) in dthu maw:-ninz muhm yoo:s to to.oet mi mo.oost dthen when ah stah:-tid he m ah-tu it wuz 0.00-vu muhm wood hu wu:k in dthu kaw:n fi:ld mi:t mi / un to.oot mi dthu rest u dthu wei but ah wood-nt u had you lah:n nubh-thin if abd u no.ood it wuz u-go.oo-in tu luh-vu / un meik yu fu-git dthu law:z u yu 0.00n fo.ooks /-{ ' f ah ne-vu wil / but dthat li-tl lah:-nin taw:t mi tu hun mah o.oon wei u wawt-n tu doo things / abm ah eint fu-guht muhm mi-siz kei-gl / nawt foo:-lish-nis /-/ roo:f wel / ne.ood muhm/ eint whuht ah meid mi dthu best fah:-mu awn dthu mi-s kei-gl ah do.oont ki-u hah.oo muhtsh lah:-nin yu git dthem liw: ah eint kuhm plei-nin /-/ if yu mawn-guz / laik she-rif nah.oo mis kei-gl reo:f ah eint / muhm / but yi:d wawnt mi tu doo: whut ah thaw:t wuz rait/ i:.wn if it wuz tu go.co tu waw: / wood-nt yi? /-/ mi-s kei-gl In dthis yi-n gubv-munt fyoo:d?—no.oo—if yu wawnt tu fah.t suhn / git zeb tu:nu / dthu man hoo kilt yo pap _sh formal deliberation. She has emotional intonation on stress words @s a rule. In con spontaneous speech flows. demarkation of words as such and a distressed wife does not declare her husband n-no-cent’’ as if she were punching a timeclock. There is no darting up and down the versation There no seale reaching notes. A simple sentence ilInstrat« the tune’’ that is noticeable ip Miss Ryan's elocution Take a hypothetical speech L e you, Jack, and will never leave you.’’ The speech runs to the tune of middle note, leap, descent, middle note, leap, descent. To leap a fifth on “I love” has the range of declamation The ascent the descent is pathetic It lacks the simple D is heroic, is old style. It erity of colloquial speech. In the old melodramas actors developed “‘tunes’’ that wafted heroie dramatic pathos on the air and blended to ‘‘soft music’’ from the orchestra. Miss Ryan says: “I'd have been there, Tom, if I'd had to walk on my hands and knees.”” formula in This speech follows range. intonations with drop glides a minor are essential for certain effects and moods. Glenn Hunter knows that and so does Gregory Kelly, but neither of these actors has a tune and their intonations of youthful cant are so blended with colloquial phrasing and naturalness that there is no reminder of method. As for range and musical notation in speech, Henrietta Crosman represents the improvement on colloquial speech that the theater sometimes cultivates. Sut Miss Crosman improves on’ nature by means of artistic ear rather than by mechanics. In speaking on the stage Miss Crosman gives the impression that she is talking after all the way other people talk, only with a larger sense of beauty and manifestation. Miss Ryan’s voice is musical, but her tune is mechanical and somewhat stereotyped. Her prayer in Fanny’s bedroom, act one, entirely fails in effect. No matter what state of emotional exhaustion Miss Ryan is in she can always recite in range of voice and round notes. An elocutionary prayer is not convincing. Stage prayers aren't and Miss Ryan’s delivery doesn't help the situation. “Crossed Wires"’ played a closing engagement on the Swarthmore Circuit in Bound Brook, N. J., September 18. This is the prize play by Richard A. Purdy chosen from 300 plays submitted to the Chantauqua Drama Board. Some requirements for the plays in the contest were the usual heroic Certain into American situations, American characters and & moral lesson in civie virtue. We have seen Broadway yiccesses stripped down to the conditions of fhe chautanqua circnit. It was iateresting to see a play written especially for a chautauqua audience. The success of “Crossed Wires" gives promise of what can be done. The pot of the play deals with small-town situations, introduces characters that come home te chautauqua audiences, and the moral lesson is not too pointed to be offensive and not too deep. The play has the necessary amount of comedy and the plot has a curious twist in its “crossed that ties legitimate comedy into its serious situation. The last act brings the whole audience into the play by making it part of the * meeting which turns the whole tent inte a town hall where the actors speak from the andience and pass up the aisles to express their opinions from the platform. The situation is a good one The company that closed in considered the feature ¢ Round Brook is ompany out of the five or more that are handling this piay. Nearly all of the company have played on Broadway. There was only one bad actor in the cast, and it is not known how he passed the board ef censorship at the first rehearsals All the company except the person who played Colonel Dodge have good voices and spoke @istinetly. Pronunciation and the general level of speech was so good that it discouraged a critical attitude of mind But actors like to be “‘corrected’, and after I went back stage 1 found that I had made a mistake not to have a long list of words for discussion. One word on which everyone received a hundred was ‘‘associate’’ used as an adjective. Everyone pronounced the last syllable as ‘*-it’? and not as ‘‘-ate’’. Fama Harrall, who is a very pretty girl, and Mary Ter who has a promising talent for character juveniles, are both from the South. They have made a good deal of progress in standardizing their speech with the rest of the company ‘hey furnish a miscellaneous program of songs and imitations in the afternoon, and play the leading women's parts in the play of the evening. They are both talented Burton Mallory as the iron-heeled editor of Glendale town has forceful features, a virile voice and a fighting vigor for the brisque scenes of the play. He is a professional swimmer and at the make-up table it was easy to see the trained muscular fiber that makes him a dynamic personality. If Mr. Mallory ever appeare in a play that staged a fight he could act it from the beginning of the argument to the final knockort. L. EB, Athey is a good character actor. He has mobile features, character lines in the body and a keen sense of naturalness in comic situations. As stage manager he keeps the whole company running smoothly In the booking offices Fritz Adame is usually spotted for a “distinguished looking’ part, & (Continued on page 42) +