Variety (Nov 1931)

fuesdayt November 17, 1931 FILM HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 37 STANLEY, J. C i Very much 'worthwhile this week. Instead .0' depending on acts chiefly ^Mj'-ve Btaised their own show and Sone a good Job at the Stanley, Jer- •ey City. Milton Charles at the console really starts It In a wel- IniDe cbangA of colored lights he ' "■IngB In the anipllflep to a hearty reSptlon, and then haa brought In a ml'i'B.ture football field having a tnovable football. He plays three numbers, with the. ball advancing at the . singing, which Is not strong, >nd' uses one football number In- troducing bits on the local schools. Then he flashes on the ' screen a number praising Bd Lowry. The lights go up, spots flare, from ' the bridge over ^he proscenium, and the band clod In yellow military ' «oats Parades down the long aisles to the stage. With them are Inr ' terspersod the Stanley girls carry- ing placards.' Lowry, dolled up as the winning, candidate^ Is led to the Stage amid much fanfare. The girls, dressed In .brllUaht blue mili- tary.tunics and gold boots with bare legs, dance; and tying up Lowry romp ofC with him-at the end^ ' The scene. shifts to a brilliant drop, and Bob, Bob and Bobble with ■' liowry are at 'vvork. The two men Juggle- colored clubs . rapidly. Jest Iiowry 'and bring In a dog, who 'poised on a man's .back catches things and plays.a few.strains on a ' harmonica. With Lowry smoking ' between th.em the men let the clubs ' fly'by him, knock the ashes from his olgar .ahd finally the cigar from his , mouth.. It goes big. Masters and Grace: are doing, their act a little faster, and the. girl getiB much; laughter by her comic posture. Her. kissing the spot gag Is hot so effective as before. The man lofts tw.o golf balls Into the ho.iise, wisely leaving out here the one to the balcony. . On a htige pirate boat the girls as pirates dance. Atiast they mob I<owry and throw a dummy Into the pit. He reappears, springs some : gags In 'one,' and the curtains re- veal a green velvet drop with a large f^hllke pink decoration before it, flanked by low red curves, and the band neatly arranged. . Lbwry Introduces Belle Baker; who appears' dressed In red. She sings five soiigs, ranging from torch numbers to ' .an Italian dialect song. She tells several stories, Blngs with Lbwry as a foil, during ..which they gag and embrace, and .after a show of refusing adds 'Ell . Bll/ rendering. It In fine style. Tre- mendous reception throughout. With .the aid of a man and a girl she and 'Eddie stage a blackout, and then she returns to Introduce a sniall .boy singer. He Is not so good, biit .the house thinks he's great, and 'Miss Baker shows she-is still a flrst-dass shcwwoman. With a drop! now showing a bridge and lighted buildings, Eddie amid the girls sings a thank you song, a small round screen Is low- .ered and Elddle's face appears on that , and goes on singing the song. The orchestra under Gabriel EInos plays 'Orpheus in Hades' with much eclat. Hines both de- livers the goods and sells it After a Pathe news with the orch. In as usual the following pictures and names are announced strikingly Jrom the screen, with the orch. helping. House nearly fllled. Austin. IMPERIAL, TORONTO _ Toronto, Nov. 16. ■ .'^sening up of the purse strings at this 8,B00-seater gives them plenty of variety and puts the house in front, where It ought to be. Be- sides 'Beloved Bachelor' (Par), «oward Knevels gives them a Jack Arthur specialty, band overture, or- gan concert and the usual road unit, Dream House,' all for a 60-cent top. Biz good. M^?"'?.^'"'''*""' ^ho periodically gets fi^^self the talk of the town and elides back Into oblivion be- o JIt executive desk, is on view wain. This week he puts the band wpugh a group of hot war-time f«.1^' °^i"es up the war .with some in^l^^i'"" clipped from 'Big Pa- flnifi. e"»wn on a giaiit ccreen, and nnishes on an armistice after-the- >»fil **f-. The boy with the sleek communicates, pep to Bot^^"^.' Is «n to 17 pieces »ow including ICathleen Stokes at ">e organ. tha ^^,ll"r ^°"'t a Kow, but lifts fli.»f^, °'?,^''^"'* the "rst hand wirnl: hands the baton over to ThI f* for the hews shots. vn.?«^"P'''"''st has lost ail his ner- trloS Si?, 0"'t wearing those i^,'='5 collars. Cameron Geddes. lo- Jaei? copped the honors In the >n ■^'■'hur bit. beVn,iIf ^'okes makes the pipes burn elow^S show. It opens Ko»Z '\'th the usual dozen Para- Shn" H'^'.'■'s In a straight routine, inir In .'^'^'''S and long skirts, lloof- dano',C pep, although a wall PIai?."o ""^^^ enough to draw ap- R li'n„'°"r"*'P and Blair were weak In man ^hatter. Uialr, the .-itrolBht as ;i,^°"V'"'"ted little. O'Donnell "Wh„, , ^''y hoob was passable, ianav •'^vay from the it wn\, ? '.'' ""'1 ^vent into his songs p "Vx^Hf"-. l>iit not bettor pnou.qih. eeieg Bates, the ono-leggeU hoofer, was no Jazzin spasm, but managed to pull the show together. MIS curtain speech was awful. The encore was a hot number, but seemed to tire the legless boy. Bill Koblnson, playing local RKO time, has been^jCoachlng the pegleg be- tween shows. That may explailn fatigue. Masters and Gaiithler In their houso-building act full of pratt falls were new to the town and uncov- ered a flock of belly laughs. The burlesque act got* the femmes, a surprise. Props need paint. An orchard scene with the giils ;twined around ,the trees as roots nnlshcd. O'Donnell sang 'Trees' as Louise Glenn did ballet steps. Cosi tunies made smart use of girls' Hg- ures. .Lighting .effects with plenty shadows did the rest. Looked for a minute as if Ziegfeld had Just come In, DEPfVER Denver,' Nov. 11. Fanchon & Marco's 'Greetings' Idea is the best- and- l/jightest stage show the Denver has had for some time. The scenery Is .splc arid span and carried the idea of the 'Greet- ing* through to the end. . Del Chain, dressed as a pokthian, delivered the greetings to the audi- ence, acting as m. c, and' later put- ting over his burlesque mtaidread- Ing act that trowed them. First dtop showed huge, picture of writ- ing material and was used several times. . The line appeared first In long white dresses before a sky blue drop and as' Dorothy Thieme sang 'Songs of Your Dreams,' a young eoiiple acted a love sgene. Theni a song about the four-year periods of a youngster's lite, each verse be- ing pantomimed by a' member of the line. Each of four girls, dressed to represent a piece of birthday cake, and for the end. of scene all backed together' and the candles were lighted. Jimmy Clemons saiig 'Goodbye Broadway, Hello Montreal' as the .introduction to his eccentric dance. A huge Easter basket setting on turning, around revealed the. line in fllmy apparel and they went into classical dance. . . Buster and Brown, with a fair line of chatter and better dancing, entertained briefly. A 16-foot valentine, with girls for trimmings, Introduced that sectlqn of ',<ireet- Ings' and Dorothy Th'leme '.sang a Valentine song as a parson appears to marry an !old fashioned couple. The Christmas scene, also used in the finale, was the flashiest of the lot. Miss Thieme sings 'Holy Night,' the scenery Is Christmas In atmosphere, and four girls in huge costumes, suddenly get to- gether and form, an immense Christmas tree; which lights up, making a great flash. Fred . Sfhmltt's overture, dedi- cated to Armtlstice day, featured songs of 1918. EMBASSY, CHICAGO Clilcago; Nov. 18. Here's the Embassy, one of the three major houses on the indie Essaness circuit of 12, . making a weak and futile try to bring back flesh in the neighborhoods, without any real Idea of how to go about It. ' Idea behind a girl band, and a platinum haired one at that, was not bad, but the way It's done here the whole thought should have been conveniently forgotten. This same Essaness tried the same stunt last year and wound, up behind the eight ball. No naborhood, 'long weaned away from stage shows, can be expected to stage a sudden revolution In a couple of weeks.. And yet that's exactly what Essaness must' have figured when It cooked up the musi- cal combo called ■ Mary and her Platinum Blondes and installed them on a run at the Embassy. With stage facilities absent In a grind house of 1,700 seats, practically all on the ground floor with the excep- tion of a small mezz, the girl band was shoved on a platform In the pit, leaving them almost on top of the audience. Naturally such, an arrangement must prove a handicap to a bunch of amateur musicians with no stage presence, even If they were on a stage. . To place 11 girls in a spot like this , without giving them som.e background and support was the gravest error of all. All the' help they got came from Stan Carter, who was put In as m. c. but no- body would suspect it. Carter .s flashing to and from the wings was not very exhlloratlng. For a" clhnnx the audience 'was called upon to join In on chorus singing to accompa-ny- Ing screen slides with the m. c. im- personating a college cheer leader; Outside of a few of the neighbor- hood lads going for the come on ot the platinum' thing, further Increase In trade for the house is doul'tftil. At least adult reaction In'^tne audi- ence was not very eneoui'jiBlnK. Nest few weeks should convince Essaness that it take.s .showni.inshlp to put on show.i nnti If they Intend going ahead why not let showmen do it? ' Meanwhile double featuring l.s .■jtlll here. Three changes weekly, including ttto band. Is another Item to think .ihout. "VVixtPrloo .Jhld«o (V) and 'ItunarounU' fnadlfO dou- bled up on thi.s program. Npan. LOS ANGELES, L.A. Los Angeles, Nov. 12. A $1,000,000 tneatre with a 10-cent show about sums up this house, which Is the most elaborate the- atre on the coast. Switching from one policy to another in an effort to. add something to the castoff pic- tures shown, the house has played everything—^vaude, tab, presenta- tions and stage bands. In . the hands, of: receivers, the problem becomes worse, with every- one trying to dlcti^te the policy and no one'apparently knowing. Present stage show Is put together by Walter League, former stager for Fox In the east He accomplishes a lot with 'Wishes, but It doesn't make entertainment. He's hot to blame, tor.the house allows about tl.OOO for the show which Includes Cally llolden's lO-plece band.. Billy Snyder m. c.'s the three acts. Including Dexter, Webb and Merrill, two men and a girl plunking banjos with the girl doubling with an acrb and a tap dance;. Rita and Reuben, adagio team^ and Van and Davis, blackface comics who' haven't changed their rdutlne since Walter Pllmmer booked eight weeks in up- per New ,York state. Snyder is the one siavlng israce. With a . pleasing personality and some good gags, he manages to take the curse oft the proceedings. Band Is Just fair and solos with-a med- ley of college airs. Rest of the time it's Just accompanying. With 'Gay Diplomat' <Badio) Iva^n Lebedeft's first starring picture as the attraction, business 'was. brutal on Thursday, opening day. Lebe- dell was scheduled to make a petr sonal appeaxance Friday. A Tom Patrlcola comedy . (Educa- tional) and Pathe neiws clips fllled the bill. Call. PARAMOUNT, L. A. Los Angeles, Nov. 12. Continuing the class stage presen- tations staged by Lou McDermott, stage show' this ' week is mostly atmosphere for the feature, 'Touch- down' (Par). Band of 60 under Dave Mendoza'S direction takes up most of the stage, with the line girls and the male chorus. working on a platform behind the band. Mendoza and: McDermott bow out in two weeks when . Harold B. Franklin quits stage shows and tries a 26- plece pit .band. Entire routining has the line and chorus blending with the orchestra In their specialties.. Only solo Work is by Manuel Emanuel, bari- tone; Max Lamer, tenor, and Ellen Coots and Maurine Marseilles, so- pranos, each handling the chorus of One number^ Lack .of talent not noticeable due to skillful staging. Male chorus sang *Trees,' 'Trail of the Loneisome Pine' and a medley of college numbers. Line' girls did a silhouette''and a football tableau for the finale. Entire presentation looked class, with the audience eating it; as. evN denced by the applause that carried through the house spill. Staiee show Is a relief from the general run of presentations locally that Is usually crammed with tap dancing and trick comics. But the effort doesn't seem to be drawing, as the. first show on Thursday,, de- spite, the topical nature of the fea- ture, played to half a house. Paramount news. Paramount Souvenirs, novelty reel and: Rudy Vallee's short "Kitty from Kansas City,' rounded out the program. Call. Warner's Hollywood (N.EW POLICY) Hollywood, Nov. 12. Like Warner's Downtown, the Hollywood house has been forced to live stage entertainment to bolster its nickering flicker program, owing to the shunting over of the pick of the WB celluloid crop into the new Warner's Western for runs. That left both stands 'with weak sisters, none capable of holding up on day- and-dates as heretofore, unless sup- ported by something. The Downtown has put in five acts on a $1,000.budget which, with, the orchestra and Stage crew, stands that house $2;6.00. About thei same budget' obtains in Hollywood with Jesse Stafford's Brunswick record- in; orchestra oh stage, and sur- rounded by some auxiliary special- ties. Opening ballyhoo ' for the stage shows became the- occasion for 'WB to slip in the weak 'Expensive Women,' Dolores Costello's swan- song at Burbahk. But at the Down- .town, the Hollywood evidenced its reaction to the supplementary stage trimmings, and was even more for- cibly approved by audible public ac- claim when Stafford bowed off with a speechlet promising further consistency of entertainment. ■With the Stafford musical gang onstage, the house should slough one of those Vltaphonc shorts. Makes the show, bverlong and te- dious; That Walter O'Kcefe short could have been omitted here with the cartoonic oke alon; with the ncv.-sreel.' Gaylord Carter inte'rpo- Intcs a medley of 'Love Songs of lire Nation' at the console, making his organlog more humorous than straight .Starford, wh^'o has been at the raramount. Sain Francisco, for a run, went stage-band from the ritzy Palace hotel, 'Frisco, where he was somewhat of an institution. Recent-: ly he has been ait the local Blltmore hotel before shifting into the War- ner house. Ue also played a week at the local Par, doing the same choral ensemble of 'Student Prince,' but Its acclaim here disproved any captlousness concerning Its famili- arity, . He strives for novelty and gets It with the able assistance of Gene Rose, his aide at the Ivories, who Is also responsible for the or- chestrating. Jeanle Lang supports vocally and Mairqulta, seen at George Olsen's 'roadhouse and else- .wheres, registers with her neat rumba. Paul. Gibbon and the trio, IC^n Howard, Art Winter and Buzz Adlam, also contribute vocally. Grace Poggi, eccentric dancer, billed, but didn't show. The .extra $2,500 for the stage trimmings may be. quite an item, but Indications are that the biz will warrant It.iThis 'will refute.the War- ner's long adamant stand against stage shows since their costly ven-: ture with them a' couple of seasons back when they had a fancy stager of presentations and 'a heavy hut, but with the conservative vaude downtown and the stage show thing here, it's a reasonbale overhead and readily reimbursable. . ' Abel. MICHIGAN Detroit Nov. 14. ; . A show: can be no better than Its best act and this show, from an entertainment angle, is Just that and It spells weakness. While the production end Is all right the tal- ent Just Isn't there and because of a poor e^lcsction for the name acti Act used is oiie. that has worked up' a reputation via radio. That they miss in a theatre Is one of those things. The apt is named T,ouIe's Hun- gry Five.' With the naime act a dis- appointment the other two acts suffer with the rest of the Show. Without a punch to put It across, the others while performing ca- pably, are not strong enough to carry the show. The result is un- fortunate. ' The 'contrast with last week's show, which sent them out . raving, is unfortunate. . But It all comes back to the one fault with locally built producUons. A fault that Is, however, balanced by certain bene- fits. The fault Is that the talent problem iS' embarrassing. If talent Is bought for the three middle west Publtx. locally built presentations In Chicago, St. Louis and here, the three weeks involved are often not enough inducement for the''right kind of acts. But 'when distant talent is wanted for one y/eek locally the week's pay Involved is usually too sngiall to get them, out here. Consequently the talent available for those shows is often very much wanting as to en- tertainment possibilities. This week is one of those weeks. Show titled 'California Bound' has the frajnc- work of a nice production as fa:- as line routines and sets go.. Proceedings open with . the set laid In a ti'aln Shed, observation end of a. train on the stase. After a suitable routine the effect ot the train pulUng out Is created and Lyman Howe's 'Runaway Train' Is used to create the effect of the train moving. Then LaSalle and Mack Into their hoke acrobatic tumbling. Boys only did a few minutes. Next scene production number showing a street in the San Fran- cisco . tenderloin with girls on top of a sightseeing. bus doing a. hand and arm routine. Bob Nolan on to Introduce the name act The Hungry Five with Herr Louie and the Weasel This act can play- shooting galleries and turn verelns, but Is unfitted for fast company. The final scene Is an orange groVe. Nolan and an unbilled good looking blonde' singer do a duet that pleases and the line on for a toe. .number to Jazzed up Dance of the Hours. William Knox on last, a Juggling act with a line of chat- ter that might get over on a fairly stro'iig bill, drew few laughs. . . The o'verture shows a lot of care this week. Running'9 minutes long. It is built Into a production. Titled 'Overture Dansa.nt,'. it ' Includes a lot of the classic and modern dance melodies. Interpolated In the latter part Bob Nolan sings through a mike 'Dancing in the Dark' with girl behind s'rlm in cabaret repre- senting a dressing table. With the lights up behind the scrim girl Is revealed, and then fades out with the lower part of the scrim illumi- nated to show a couple dancing. The girl on again /or a' duet with Nolan. And close for a nice hand. This numlxir is outstanding. Lee. . Fan McBs'Weakening? Pull of the confession mags give signs of beginning to fade. Most recent demonstration of this Is an-, nounccment by Macfadden's 'True .Stories,' one of the pioneers in the neld, that ad ratc.3 will be clipped fi%, beginning with Jan. 1. A\ioth"er of the old standbys, 'I Confess,' put out hy Dell I'ublloa- llons, ho.s been shelved. LOEWS STATE, L. A. Los Angeles, Nov. ll. Produced by Gae Foster, Fanchon ; & Marco's 'Slavlque' unit is 'one of the finest ,40 minutes of entcrtuln- liient assembled by the F. & M. dl- vertissment works. Colorfully aiid tastefully mounted, It lands with a distinct click and a large measure the talent is reisponsible. Seven Ai-conls with- their teeterboard acro- batics to shoulder and hand catches provided a fine finale to. a unit that can be sold right a]5>ng with any picture. La Vonne Sweet -opens with nice tap on toes, backed by the 10 bpys - and 'five girls who later , comprise five adagio trios. In the.sanio num- ber. Patsy Marr does Intricate acro- tap work, sounding the beats on her hat. . Ensemble finishes with Buss floor work. Setting is 'along the < Chauve-Sourls Idea. Followed by BrOok and' Thomp- son, . male unison tap team in 'one and a hair who score strongly with their encore Imitation of starting, an old Ford. ' Latter is new out here and good for plenty, laughs. . . Back to full-atage drapes for an- ' other hoof, with every one in white.: could stand a vocal accompaniment, with the show minus oh singing, although, this is hot noticed. Sam ' Hearn Introduced at the finish .of the humbcr . and . comes downstage in front of. the braille for his fast' line of chatter as an a.k. commenta- tor on current news and conditions. Finishes nicely with his violin imi- tations.. ;: Five adagio. teams followed foir tinison catches and poses and Into an effective group of ensemble girl- , passings. Body-tossing includes al- most everything ever done by trios of this type and with five sets doing, the tricks simultaneously,'looks dif- ficult to top. . Arconis tied things Into knots with their board-bouncing and overs onto the shoulders of top-men. Into chalrS and passing each other In .the air. Troupe consists of five men and two women and ' work themselves Into a hippodrome flni-a ish to their specialty and the 'aSP- Show should be given credit for sticking to the title throughout In Its theme. Costumes, sets and mu- sic blended. Picture,, 'The Cuban' (Metro), ac- companied by 'Wedge Play' from the Howard JoneS series,- and news- reel. Capacity opening night (Arm- istice Day). FOX, BROOKLYN Brooklyn, Nov. 14. They conie here to see Abe Ly- man.- That's heard from surround- ing femmes when, the bill's caught Without Lyman currently, Fan- chon's own supervised piece, 'Five Races,' vaude unit, plus Ron and Don, organ duet from the. house, would suffice for stage show enter- tainment but It takes Lyman and his band to carry "Friends and Lovers' (Rndlo), feature, through the week. F&M vaude units carry no girl line. What Lyhian means here can be envisioned from one glance at the opening' show audience Saturday matinee, and 'find around; 76% femmes customers, with floor about fllled. Those femmes mean b.o. in Brooklyn, because it's that kind of a spot, the girls drag the husbands or boy friends with them to the. show. Also noticeable by looking around. While the front rows are packed from. the start with femme types gaping at the front line in Ly- man's band. Lyman's smart He doesn't give too much at any one performance and himself shows only for the spe- claly numberis, leading the crew from the pit on a raised elevator. Currently he precedes the Ron and Don organ duet. ' ' Smart also to . Inject , a tone of classlclcism in his music. This time It's the band playing, and singing something from 'The Student Prince.' Then he finishes with a strong blare of instruments in 'Tell Your rather" or something after several of the boys precede In solo specialtUs to travesty that very tune. Frank Jenks' appearance as m.e. with this F. & M. unit representing the White family through his wife, Margie, means something for the Fox Brooltlyn b. o. also. Jenks was here last season for some weeks as m.c. Fits perfectly all the way. He opens the stage show after 13^- ma.n disappears and against a scrim In 'one,' whereupon Is depicted the five races to fihow. Includes nejro, white, Indian, Brown, Japanese. Brown Is represented by 1-ietty and Beverly Adams, who peculiarly enough look to bo blondes. But their fcath(?red bonnets when they do their fane dance hides the locks, so It doesn't matter, with the light- ing taking care of the rest. Danny. Small, accompanied by Josic nnd Horace 'Sawdust' Stewart; take the colored an^le. Small sing- ing. Josle Is a girl dancer. Stewart .shuffles for comedy relief and th* trio, helped by band music, keep up the grade of entertainment started (Continued on page 39)