Variety (Sep 1931)

Tuesday, September 22, 1931 VAUDE HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 39 PALACE (St. Vaude) Everythliie that goes up' must come down, Indudlner the Palace theatre's bill average. This week's vaude show Is pretty fair as $2 en- tertalnmient aiid on Saturday looked only fair as a grosser. At the matinee Eclwarcl G. Robinson, heoii- jlnlng, drew more. people to the etage entrance.after tho show than jn the theatre for the show. Polace at 12 has been always notoriously bad for 7Bo picture stars wishing to exhibit drawing power .lii a, straight . vaudeville hoiise. The psychology might be that a picture star's popularity Is proved at 76c scale but the $2 crowd hasn't yet heard about Jt It remain no flim name has yet suc- ceeded in packing the Palace. Brightest spot on the current bill and bright enough In one way to diminish the Importance of tlie pro- gram's shortcomings Is the advent of Rlchy Craig, Jr.- (New Acts), into the big time monologist class. Craig was No. 3 with assistance from an unbilled dancing girl. Because of his Palace , hit at the first show he's being, held over next week as m. c. During his monolog Saturday .Craig told o.f a fellow who was hit by an anchor and became a master of ceremonies. That was told'before the holdover news was received. Craig is another clear example cf ▼a:udevllle's recuperative qualities. Things die through their own failure to create' for themselves. Craig is of and from vaudeville.. As long as such good things grow out of It, that branch of show business will be hard to completely lick. CriiUg is-as good as example as were Gordon,'. Reed and: King on the previous Palace bill. There is the same sort of encouragement in an- other act here currently, Castletbn, Mack and Own. To the former Castleton and Mack knockabout duo' has been added a girl who can take a fall as well as a man, or at least as well as her two. partners. And they're excellent tumblers. They do three-high comedy thrillers and Individual nosedives that strike, the maximum Of physical comedy effectiveness. These people have youth, the fli-i< Irequlsite for this sort of work, and as long as they have the strength to do their stuff they can't miss Jn b vaudeville theatre. Horace Heidt's Californlans, now the Palace's, most popular repeat band, and Kate Smith, In her ninth week here, were the applause hits. Miss Smith still favors ballads ;un- der the radio influence, despite her one hot number out of four, besides the 'Moon' encore, was most sue ccssful. They now like most tiny thing Miss Smith sings. Tho Heldt bunch closed the first bart with. Us customary wallopy high-speed music and novelty work. New costumes and unison bits keep the act abreast of the times. These Changies In routin are the reason why this, one can repeat here more bften than other bands. Even so slight an Insertion as one chorus during which tho musicians produce rhytlim by scraping two cheese graters together, gives the turn a new twist. In place of the original liObo,' the late stunting police dog with tho band, is another, 'Lobo II,' and just as smart. As usual, the Heidts' 30 minutes seemed like 16, a quality this band has pos .eessed since Its first Palace date two years or so ago. Nayan Pearce and Jay Valle, carrying their own director, showed a different type of flash act in tho deuce and had no trouble. The Palace might be the turn's best spot, for flash acts that depend on quietly delivered lyrics besides flash often have dlflflculty in the larger theatres. The lyrics sung by Velio seek to pin. the several numbers tO' . gether and the result is consider ably more successful that in usual . similar Instances. Miss Pearco does most of the dancing. While chiefly A high kicker, she doesn't- play up the Klcldng; What she doe's In- vol-ves the body as much as the feet, with , her long red hair also count Ing. In the 'Red Rhadsody'. num ber, which may or may not Im press the farmers, the red hali: plays the lead part. Robinson Is doing 20 minutes of talk, chiefly about himself, p^ed by clips from some of his talkers. Talk intelligently written and it helps Robinson to do what the vaudeville audiences probably will expect from him. Ho kids his gangster film stuff neatly, in such a way that his one legit moment, in which he picks up the 'Little Ceasar' climax from the screen to finish It on thi stage, is built up Into a corking iexlt. As an actor -Robinson has nothing to learn, but fts a temporary vaudevllllan on his talker rep he's a freak who niust draw or jslse. Not for a long while has the Palace opened and closed dumb. It happens this week due to lack of Punch pomedy finish, which/fja the ^>>ew mode. But the Palace audi- ence, ha^'t forgotten iU breeding Olvera Bros., hand-to-hand closers, looked like, judges at a perfect back contest. . Charles Carrer, juggler whose Implements are out of the ordinary, this being his forte, opened the show. Last week the holdover Benny- Lyman-Hoctor-Smlth bill in its second week ran Into the tail end of the heat wave and after a bad start finished with ia, fair $23,000. The booking office and the theatre believe that if not for the weather, that show would have been good for three weeks. . Adverse' weather might bo unkind, but it's stili show business' best alibi. Bige. Kabarett der Komliker Berlin, Sept. 11. Radiating point of the new pro- gram Is Lollta Benaventa, Spanish dancer - of charm.. If this .Lollta would hot have been there, one woi^ld have liked best the two Biix- tons. The handicapped acrobats, who do cleverness with clumsiness and great bijmor. Lotta Goslars danced grotesques, which she could build up a bit more for the International variety shows; the step wonder, Happy Smart; gultolr player Amallo Cuenca, and as the opening number ia. young woman, Cella Brandt, playing at the same time on two long pianos. Two • ^ketches) an amusing story by ,Awertschenko, ''An Agreeable Travelling Companion,' played by Paul Morgan, who is' back from Hollywood, .and by . Hans Deppe. The sketch, 'This Is Paris,' Is a primitive and simple parody on the Parisian erotic one-act play. - Pub lie laughed over It - Magnus, ACADEMY with fBad Girl' (Fox) on the screen the hoase took It for granted that tbe e^tage show would not have to be such hot potatoes, yet the- first show down here of four scheduled for Saturday did not seem to' have the anticipated draw. The audi- ence was. noticeably slow in coming in and there was plenty of room when It had ended. Not so- good with the 14th Street i>avement Jainmed with passersby, 'With the Fanchon & 'Marco.Idea conipletely dominated by the .Great Raymond and his'illusions the re malnder of the show was augmented by four acts booked - through the New York F&M office. ' The latter comprised Jordan and Grabe, Ash ley Page, Harry Stanley and Mills and Shea. Jordan and Grace have a balahc ing iand juggling act of-early min strel o)lo days with sufficient dem onstratlon of baton,: whirling, gun spinning .and wagdii wheel bal- ancing to be applauded by those who like this sort of thing. Ashley Pago and his xylophone swung the first music of the day Into favor by using topical selections. Harry Stanley Is of the cocksure variety of stage monologlsts who seems sadly In need of material but hoke's.what he has, including a few blue gags Into a pretty fair return. And when he's not kidding the two femmes with him they are either singing or dancing and jaz zing the general complexion of rou tine. Stanley seems to be leaning too heavily on a style of comedlng. which has been badly warped in the vaudfilm houses. Mills and Shea scored cleanly oh their comedy acrobatics. They have some nifty ground tumbling tricks worked up a little bit differently and for more applause than similar turns obtain, Raymond Is given a background of 10 P&M girls, eight doing the ensemble work and also showing skill on herailds and trumpets as weir as doing a drum number de cldedly effective. The other two are small in stature and- do a double dance although acting as sort of pages to Raymond during his tricks. .Raymond spots his illusions tliroughout the Idea period and does them in a sliowmanly -way. For 30 years at least and mainly on the road Raymond has carried on his inimitable way. And while he still retains much' of the old routines and still has cabinet and disappearing tricks as his standout he displays grace, skill and ability to mystify, He has two male assistants and is ■ also given splendid aid by his wife, Raymond works in a bit of comedy with a committee which for the most part was stocked with plants. Fanchon & Marco by having their femme chorus work in between trltks and ■ also helping Raymond at times have given the magician a sort of production background. Though admitting what he does may have whiske'rs and all that it con- tinues to be baffling, trickery. and- mystifying to those who have never scon Raymond or any of the other magical wizards work. The stage is glvoh a hoavy-drhppd embellishment which seems neces- sary to give proper stage color to the Raymond routine. An entertaining show as a whole bilt bringing nothing new to the stage portion. Mark, ti STATE A better than usual Loew's State bill this week. Acts are nicely framed and routined and in toto go over better than usual, Milton Berle, former Xxiew m, c. and last w.iaek doing the m. c. thing a:t Fox's Academy, is m, c.'ing here this week and has a lot to do with putting tho audience in a happy frame of mind. Loew probably is experimenting with this m. c. Idea in view of the manner in which that policy has been received at .RKO's Palace.: With Berle's kidding in between nets, stage end ran to 6C minutes for the first show Saturday mati- nee, much longer than customary here, Berle. is - chiefly a gagster and secondly a comic songster. He has sufficient iBubstantial material in. both, A personable chap with a. snappy style and handles the entire proceedings with ease. One thing that is in favor of Berle is-that the majority' of his gags and puns are fresh, some dealing with current events and not as stilted as with the majority. Most of Berle's mate!"' rlaJ sounds like home-made stuff. He's-either a good gag writer him- self or has a good - gag writer. Weaves in and out of acts. Intro- ducing and doing small-comedy bits with members of the preceding acts Has two comedy. songs, one a parody on 'Roll On, Mississippi,' and the other a medley of familiar airs to original lyrics. . Opeiier is Wallenda Troupe equilibrists of eklll, who have a closing number that's sure-fire, Lillian .Dawson, torch singer, re- ceived a big hand at the finish ot her turn and after a little gagging -with. Berle, took an encore. MisS Dawson Isn't much different from the; conventional fan of torchers. Nice looking girl, carrying herself well, with good enunciation. Voice is pitched a bit too low during some parts of her numbers. Includes two ballads, ' but her voice is better adapted for blues, Naomi Ray and Eddie Harrison trouped on next with the hoke that never tires, albeit It's their fihish- ing bit that's 50% of the turn. Miss Ray starts the works by warbling; is interrupted by Harrison, and they go into comedy love-making. Small Harrison Is a good contrast to Miss Ray's build and girth. Use an audience plant as' a comedy heckler, but at this house not taken to like In the neighborhoods. - Clos- ing bit has Miss Ray In conven- tional ballet attire, doing a bur- lesque adagio with Harrison, RosettS and Luttman (New Acts) have a dancing turn that's nicely framed. Assisted by two blonde girls for some heated song num- bers. . ™, , Tomfoolery of Jans and Whalcn, back again, closed. Boys are do- ing the same material as of yore, one playing the uke to certain tempo, other dancing and latter stopping when the former changes tempo. This time the boys secure this majority of their laughs from the capable assistance of a flaxen haired looker, Helene Grant, who starts warbling a torch song and goes into a hQj cooch. That cooch angle thereafter serves as the meat of the comic attempt of the boys, Metro's 'This Modem Age,' , fea- ture. . and Arabian pyramid-building and ground-tumbling in short order. Eddie Miller next with a satis- fying ■ vocal routine, - interspersed with Miss Henrietta who doubles from tho ivories to doing Ann Pen- nington stepping, Sh© looks lots like Penny. - , ^ , Monica and Ann Skelly, assisted by BlUy and Jack Holden, accept- able juves, -have a pleasant little skit for the trey. The girls have a nice flair for comedy and regis- ter from the barrier. Then tho Rooneys, with Pat clowning with IU and clicking pronto. High Stakes' (Radio) on, screen. WINTERGARTEN Berlin, Sept. 10. Wiritergdrten this montli has en- tertainment. No number is a blank. To be mentioned first, the six of the State Opera, the ballet, oX the solo numbers getting notice: Elisa- beth Grube, Daisy-Si)icss, Genia Nl- kolajewa, Rolf Arco, Rudolf Koll- Ing and Jens Keltli. . Collective or ensemble, the outflt* by Professor Ernst Stern. It is a try to show old and most modern ballet art in the variety show.- And a full success. The best number waa 'probably 'Man and Machine,' ■where the fight of the' man. against the power of levers, wheels and valves is transformed in expressions shown by the dance. In. powerful rhythms by Leo Spiess, which' re- minds the accompanying music of the Potemkln -picture. Salerno, .the juggler,, is over 60, and yet brings' new tricks. His productions .and performances are so varied that one does not grow, tired. Piplfax, the funny, man, also well known. He haunts and squeeks as funnily as formerly and yet has a .new little point, •Rlion-Wheel,' a large, wheel, In- side of which a person is -perform. Ing gymnastics and turning around, has 'with the tim:e grown frorfi a sporting Into an artistic perform ance, Lauren and Ladare are In charge of the first number. They do it nicely. Twelve Gladiators, the Bratanos, make a real chandelier of: muscles and smartness. The two equilibrists, the Heltanos, for a few whirlwind minutes, MagiMS, RKO, L. A. Los Angeles, Septi 18. It's probably been remarked upon all along the route how juvenile and peppy Pat Rooney- looks, so it may as well be. recorded once again that only the physical contrast with Pat, III, makes any age difference ap- parent. Otherwise Pat, Sr., could pass for a perennial juyo without tipping his mitt as an ak. Between both Rooneys (Marion •Bent is now retired for good) they glorify the spirit of the Daughter of Rosie O'Grady -until It becomes a contemporary as well as a legendary trademark. As an act, It's a big league head- liner; one of the ifew professionally existing remnants of the glory of bigtlme vaudeville that was. Acts like Rooney'S bring up anew the query -where would those real sock names come from if vaude were re- vived in bigtlme fashion. The prts- ent-ddy Bakers, Howards, Lahrs, Richmonds, Brehdels, Browns, et-al., have either gone legit or pictures, not to mention those others gone radio, or those name hoofers who now content themselves with run- ning dancing schools. Nothing has been done to forster and promulgate real, new bigtlme talent. A Rooney brings home all too forcibly the truth that the old training schools for -yaudevllllans, when playing the Palace -was the pinnacle ..of variety success, have long plhce gone ERPI. And there's no Sun, Pan, Proctor's, WVMA, Xioew's and intermediary Keith time to graduate the vaude- ville aspirant into the Palace or an Orpheiim' route. ' And so once again a four-act RKO intact opens conventionally with Al Erlckson's RKOllans overluring a Victor Herbert medley In convcn tionally satisfactory manner, punct uatcd by the saxophonist who doubles into a tenor solo. Lois Torres (billed singly) opens with a family of five stags. They essay a Spanish terp introduction but fool few, going into their aero 86TH ST. Patrons of this RKO uptown iiouse wHl have to be contented with the screen entertainment this 'first-half and take the vaude show as one of those things of now and then, . On paper it looks like a fair bill but' plays; poorly. Lack of punch comedy and not a hapi>Ily laid out bill Is. the reason; The 'screen is playing "Waterloo Bridge' (Pathe), an Aesop Fable, a special Pathe comedy made by the -Mas quers Club of California' and the usual news reel. Business -^ay. off Saturday mat-. . To Antonio and Renee Demarco goes the applause ot the show. As sisted by two unbilled male plan i^ts, this ultra smart ballroom danc ing duo glided through several neat numbers. They closed the show which made their success tbe liarder to gain. The two boys asr sist okay at the two pianos and do two solos for changes. Tito Coral (New Acts) found the going tough on early. He does not seem vaude with his present rou- tine! which reeks of somberness. An act of this kind, straight highbrow singing, slows up the small bills. Justa Foursome with Silver and Sharpe, Burns and Phillips lingered only a few-minutes during which they danced both tap and acrobatic and switched on and off to straight acrobatic routines. They are bright The girl especially so. De Vlto and Denny, hoke comedy act, just ahead of Block and Sully, man and woman, comedy team. Both - difflerent in type . but both striving for laughs. Separated by an act might have given. Block and Miss Sully a chance.' - Their comedy Is rather Intimate. It Is gaggy and If one or two miss, it leaves big holes in the routine. . They fared lightly. . Al DeVlto and Russ Denny as- sisted by Dot Stevens perspired and wrestled, socked each other with fiddles, brooms and other props and tore around the stage but it did no good. They tossed in the towel finally and plainly showed they disliked taking one bow even. Miss Stevens foils all through in okay manner and taps for her bit alone. They boys must be credited with trying while on, but the York- villc folks just couldn't believe they were funny. Earl, PALACE, CHICAGO j Chicago, Sept, 19. Since the Palace is doing flvcl shows on Saturday because of s midnight performance, . the vaude. has become shorter and .snappier., . Must be'-giving the acts headaches . trying to figure out where, when and ho-w to cut, Check on aildiencei reaction would be interesting, too. Some. might -wonder how come Estclle Taylor, sole. headliner, only did-eight minutes. Or that Conlln and Glass, . pomedy strength of thQ - bill, skipped off In nine minutes. Brevity Is okay In the proper' place,' but when It affects the run- ning order of a whole bill, it shoiild be modified.;- Palace has been getr ting, good shows right along, so .onei that falls below average once in. a while must, be accepted phlloso-. phically. Miss Taylor's drawing possibility in this town's hoird to figure. Con- current showing of. 'Street Scene' at the U. A, with Miss Taylor In strong role may help.: Meanwhile, this is the screen, player's first visit here iri two years, , At that- time she was mixing- some songa - in a sketch. Now It's a. straight vocalizing turn with tbe usual and accepted male pianist. Audience re- action - was . f avorable until - Mts^ Taylor erred In supplementing an apologetic curtain speech to the effect that she was glad the folks wiere paying while. she -was learn- ing how to sing. That' line didn't help at al]. It- would be advisable for Miss Taylor, to insert a couple of new tunes In place of such flre^ side ditties as 'Just a Song at Twi- light' Miss Taylor has a nice voice and with the' proper songs she would, do nicely .and without apoIo> gles. One of the fastest openers seeoi here for a long time were the Tolat Casting Stars. This act reminds oC' the old vaude days -when acrobats, were just that and. didn't try to be - comedians. Th6y only did five mln-. utes but enough - to show plenty speed and flash. Joe Termini, who- used, to be a frequent visitor In local. picture house a few years back, is still as somnolent as ever in appearance but wide a^lrake wUh his instruments, which Includes'iSAl violin, banjo and guitar. What hap- .pened to Joe's harmonica? Conlln and. Glass are still laugbi getters, although with different ma- terial than wheit last seen around > here. Of the two, the old act must get preference. Jimmy Conlln work- ing hard but doesn't get as much out of this act Misia Glass, aS-: us'ual is a good tpl\\ ' . Reversing the usual . order «f things lately, a flash Js closing the show. -Deno- and Rochelle have a smooth dance -turn carryingla piano - player and a solo girl stepp'er who. also announces the team. For many; .years Deno and Rochelle were! known- for their apache, but now they call it the.-racketeer, dance'. It's still an apache though In different clothing^ 'The Run Arbimd' (Radio) screen feature. Biz normal Saturday noon,, •which means a good sized house, Bpan. Thurston's Repeats Chicago, Sept. 21, F&M. units at the Tlvoll and Up- town will lay oft weeks of Sept.. 25 and Oct; 2, re.spcctlvely, making way for tho return booking of Howard Thurston, Maglclah's- added two weeks in towji following his showing at the Chicago two weeks ago. ' Fanchon & Marco okayc-d the units' layoff for the two weeks. Puhlix F& M Units (Continued from page- 7) a factor In building-up a specula- tive box office name. Such a brand name, it is claimed by showioaen, could be established locally any- where by Publlx, if It had the F&M shows under a long term agreement The name if built as any kind of a draw, would virtually cost Fublix nothing,- since the build up would be within the regular weekly ap- propriation by Publlx for dally newspaper advertising. If othing reported at this end as to ho-w F&M feels on the matter of absent billing. F&M'has no sta- tionary Chicago rep. It Is stated by sofne of the F&M people pass- ing through that the neglect to have a blUlhg clause Insierted in the Pub- llx contract with Fanchon & Marco was an oversight on the part of the producer. They say that should an amended agreement be entered into between the parties, the billing of F&M units by Publlx houses win immediately be made ia matter of importance by F&M. Talent Unit Balaban & Katz tie-up with the Hearst papers for a Fanchon & Marco talent quest contest here soon to get under way and c^- tinulng for maybe two months, la taken to indicate, the future use of the F. & M. name by B. & K. Contest is spilled as prizes and things, with the: big punch for B. & K. being the s'felectlon of 16 Chi- cago girjs who will be sent to Hol- lywood for training and entrance Into ah F. & M. unit to be known as 'bliicago.' This unit to spot the B. & K. houses as their own nelghb talent. Bert Adler, F. & M. publicity rep- resentative, i's now her to complete arrangements with the co-operatloii and auspices of the B ^ K. exploi- tation department . _ ^