Variety (Nov 1931)

ifnepi^ay,. Noveoiber 17, 1931 R E V I E W S VARIETY. 39 JEFFERSON ''(Continued froim page 38) •.. t Btune the folks for good-Blze4 Sft Worl they flnlBhed. Watts Is } ttS old school among comedy StaMrs.- He plants each word while fSSeSns stock still. It still Bets SSSlta! Belle Hawley, looking i^W with her blonde smartness at Jhrplano, raps the keys for Watts Si* solos. Talk m the act is up snuff. Could have encored, but passed It .up. flao Hazard, the only flying Vftude actor In America and who nakes all Jumps In his own plane, ta doing his familiar hokum wire. Rild comedy bits. Hap Is eLssiiated b? his wife, whom he does not bill. Hifl style of slow-gaited siUy com- - ^7 wears well and builds. Han is good showman with an act that voude can use In handy style today, fiia wife walkia the wire and aids Svaround. Well liked Iwe. . Jack Elliott end' his Blue UToon Girls (New Acts) were the first of . the tap dance l>|itraise. Tap donc- inff is still okay for vaude In small doses, but lately It has become th« booker's prop. Jim Toney, assisted hy Gertrude Green, has enlarged hlq rouUhe since at Loew's State a short while back. The additions are funpy, and at thlq house put Toney ■oyer. Miss Oreen is still Indistinct 'in the' opening, especially when tnriiing her back on. half the house. She' taps^ too, following a stage full of femme buck , hoppers in the El- liott act Toney got a. bucketful of laughs aitid finished okay. . :st$Tens Brothers and Herman ' -mUii. their big brown .bear, flapping ' aad'-wrestling stooges, which alone In Iwelf Is an act, haye goiie dizzy 'aiad'added two little. colored boys, who tap and tap and tap. New scenery which represents outside of :a'Sl<(sshow tent Is "also In. But those tappers I, .Fully, four, or five intDUtes of this act is used up for them'i They fare lightly. Wheii the apt gets down to. the bear and the comedy the laughs pour out and It then becomes a pleasure. Some- body's wrong somewhere. Earl, 86TH STREET A puzzler here tl>ls'week. Good fare on the stage end, with lilcely- Iwlanced vaude and a draw picture . -in 'Five Stor Final' (WB). But more than half empty Saturday af- ternoon. Maybe It's football. James Hall (New Acts) doing a personal appearance got a nice 'hand on bowing In and a better one . on the way out. - Mining' that, tor. tSIs house at least, he got: over. Despite that He'll have to have more ' qiaterlal if he wants ntore vaude '.dates.' Act as'lis looked sbrt of sklmjiy.' - Louis' Berkoff started with his' nini-people dance flashy one of the finest It's both fast 'and colorful, besides having , a batch of very real scenery draped about It. Maker and Bedford (New Acts) are-now doing a Burns and Allen Imitation, with the girl taking ofl: Grade Allen even as to mannerisms and- clothes without announcement. For those people who don't know the Original act this couple clicks. WUlle West and McGlhty follow Hall to close the bUl with their jBual hokum layout for a nice laughing ftideout Kauf. WARNERS, L. A, (New Policy) • rrrui Angoles, Nov. 12. ^TBIs. Warner theatre and Its Hollywood sister are heralding the return of stage shows with ji prop erin, having been forced into the so- calWd local stage revival by a shift- tag of the better Warner film re- ^es to the newly opened Warners' western. Although the first $1,000 Sfrt l^vey vaude bill at the down- town, theatre is no panic on roller sKatee, it increased the attendance yotably opening day In a dlsadvan- I?g««»>a hookup with Dolores Cos- lri5v? J^P«"8lve . Women' (War- dating both houses, iJi?!^!??**'*'" example of vaudeville 5"??hllng bravely to an ultimate SHr* J'Jth several cans of filin tied •round its neck. »h« n*Jiy,****''Ses of poor booking ~,tJ?ert Levey office can truthfully answer that acts availa~ble locally Sf.J*^ ^'""'ted. Sharp proof of wta'ls that two atts oh the current iJIi^.^re from the previous weak "Penlng show of the Carthay Circle's S,V2?"*««'t try at straight vaude. ;5?.=lx Covans (only Pour until hnlw..™^* played every local opera S?nS* BO often they could do their Sl^"^ harefoot and not, pick up a luSSS?*'* Three I>yn8Jhos, is a aIS,?i.^ two straights and Br«„ * *"d was without any stage Pa^2'^ opening show. It bv?£: "P'^' possibly contributed to hoiiiH ^Irangeness of vaude in the awin Vlentriloquist with ""I Rogers drawl; awakened some J^Mnse •with a haphazard. Intimate 'drei..r„*"®.'^'* school and Is woxth ^?f"e w'th more modern delivery, her Mlshka, with a dance part- Kirl S„"Ve-P'ece Russian band, a 1^ singer and a Russian knife- Jne ^.7'*'^ a fairly entertoin- That ^•"^ unexpected climax. •houia»!f*®. Miss Mishka's tlnn n» 5^''*P snapped at the be- • ""'ng of a waltz routine, starting a. batue with the slippmg gown which was wonlialf the time by the gown. And next to tile gown was Miss Mlshka in person. . T,^? ^next-to-closihg Nelson and Knight, sailor conilc with queenly femme straight, ambled through a collection of material that brought them nowhere. .Then the Covans, original four augmented by a strut dancer and a blues shouter, and all colored. It's a fast stepping ses- sion (three girls and three boys) and should have been given some out-of-town dates so It wouldn't have become so boresomely familiar to local audiences. ' What's more, it's worth the time. A 10-piece pit band, accompanied proceedings with an apparent abil- ity, demonstrating what It should shape into during' a i>op medley overture which 'wound up like twice as many .men. Naturally it has not achieved consistent smoothness yet. ' . Selling Its.stult at 26 cents before 1 p. m., 36 -cents afternoons aiid four bits for evening trade,'Warners isn't; overcharging for Its program films and vaude. But Bert Levey must strain a tendon in search ot better acts It the policy Is to be maintained -only so long as the grosses paiy for lt> He can find them U anyone can. Bang. PALACE, CHICAGO Chicago, Nov. 14. Four Marx Brothers-'opened to rainy weiather and a holdout of negligible proportions.- Intermit- tent, showers during the' afternoon could have worked either way 'as- far- as the box office was con-, corned. Under the week's salary load It'll take around $30,000 for the house to break. It's a figure- tliat the boys should have no trouble hitting .and most ,likely clearing. ' Bookers haven't .built»a very strong shOw around them. Major' share of the purse, |9,600 net be- ing heaved their way, there wasn't much left to go. around. In the strive for economy the bill was limited to three other acts, with each of the latter coming ih the small money class. For their , second stand at the Palace wUhin a - year, the Marx boys are using the Napoleon-Jose- phine skit out'of the Follies as the background and skeleton on 'wnlch to. hang their how standardized casserole of tomfoolery.'Show at the first performance ran 68 minutes, with the Marx family taking only; 24 minutes of It Laughs came In spasms and stai'ts, with the lm- r. jsslon gained that there was a lot of stalling gOing on to 6yen fill out that amount of time.' Brightest' moment In the Marx'routine was the Harpo Interlude at. the golden; strings. And hotr they pounded for more! That first show mob may not have departed disappointed, but they surely didn't look totally sat- isfied. . .: i Bill's opening spot brought Har- ris Twins and Gloria Lee, a^ spruce good-looking trio with a nice as- sortment of tap daaclng and piano tinkling. Although It could stand better pacing and some .shearing, the turn fitted into th« niche ac- ceptably. Girl's fast . cartwheel might be shifted from the next-to- closlng bit to the last for a punch finish. Has every chance of provr Ing more effective. Summers and Hunt stretch out five minutes of laugh script to more than twice that clocking. Cross- fire drags unnecessarily, giving the customers more than enough time to recall the answers before the team gets around to unloading it. Patter of this mixed pair Is soggy with, double entendres, and in many spots could, for the good of all con- cerned, take some hefty scrubbing, Strange as It may seem, the out- standing applause hit of the entire performance was the act that fol- lowed Summers and Hunt and pre cede the Marx Brothers. It took a conjurer of hats, tennis balls and Indian clubs to bring down, that house, and the lad : that stopped that show and held It stopped, was Bobby May. It looked a walkaway for him from the very start of his act when during a preliminary Indian club bit he and his .stooge, Joe Holmes, down In the, front row, went at It thick and_ heavy. That started them laughing and this rumble from aU parts of the house continued right through -while May tossed off his Jugglery bits, with frequent and fiiiiny Interruptions from the Holmes sector. _ ; •Fanny Foley Herself (Radio) topped tho screen bill. Picture Minded Publishers are now buying mate- rial with the direct Intent of mak- ing th'eir biggest money in selling to the picture companies. Accord- ing to writers material which hasn t picture possibilities stands little chance of going to press. . instance is the buying by a pub- lishing house from a newspaperman of a story which a major film com- pany has under consideration. Au- thor has Informed the picture firm of the sale and that all further busi- ness must be done through the pub- lisher. RKO, L. A. Los Angeles, Nov. 12. Whatra-Man Hudson should be Ipdestone but he ttkrned out to be What.-a-PIop when opening orig- inally with What-a-Ma Ken^iedy, at the Golden Gate, 'Frisco. The next week Joe Laurie, Jr., took What-a- Man along as a stooge but It didn't help the Oakland gross , any, with some ' negative . reaction audibly voiced, although biz maintained Its average pace. Locally the Rev. What-a-Man doesl't seem to mean anything either. Laurie dovetails 'What-a-Man into the finale of his act, bringing on a pseudo reporter with What-a, but It's the snappy Laurie chatter that gets 'em. Show In toto Is fiat. Liocal four acts are so-so and general eight-, act composite runs 90 minutes, which is plenty overtime. Will have to be. trimmed. In sequence Shattuck and Ward open with fair jugglery.. . Deucing mildly Is Feewee Murray aiid Co., three Juvenile hillbillies.. Peewee is up front. for the vocal-yodel < stuff. Ih the trey. Harry Hayden CO., 'With a long-winded sketch.. can stand cutting on their maiterial. Some, laffs happen after' a while. Props didn't, do right by-'em, either, on their stage set This is one of Bern Bernard's local specials, a trivial farcelet: of four people (two couples) with an obvious denoue-. ment Ray - Hughes and Fam start the regular, unit procession. Hughes, does his prattfalls for strong re- turns, but the team overstays gen- erally. Christiansen Bros. (2) with femme vis-a- vis do some ex<iellent - ballet terp work and-register. They carry a private maestro. • Bernard aitd Henrle with, thislr special ' lyrics" registered; Girls have the same nice style and de- livery. They, like Ray Htighes and Pam, also malde -quite some use of the orchestra leader -and this trench unionists for straightlng. Laurie has checked his a. k.- stooges and now has a fiock of Juvenile assistants. - Laurie first, clinches himself with consistently effectl've chatter; then brings on' the singer, girl stepper .and the three-hoofers. 'What-a-lfan Hudson next ' Is harmlessly held do'wn, doing stooge for Laurie which, at $400 a week, makes him the - world's highest priced stooge:- Hasn't any act of his own to speak of.' He's Just a pawn .for. Laurie. 'Lady, from Nowhere' (Chester field) oh .iscreen. . AP^^ FOXv BROOKLYN (Continued from'page S7) -with Jenks and running through Chief Clearsky. Latter, an-Iroquois, sings In tenor and gags about him- self for a: single'sblo to. -wipe up with a-take' ofl -on the 'modem dances,' showing how they ar6 re- lated to the old Indian style, of hoofing on the plains. Kanzawa Japs, six, finish the program with some crack risley work. Shorts on the progratoi as- addi- tional screen' fore Include 'Mickey Mouse' cartoon and a 'Curiosity' piece. Fox News on wide , screen and some trailer' stuff. Unit runs around 40 minutes^ against the fea- ture's 66. Lyman's 12 minutes and eight for Ron . aAd Don make an hour's stage entertainment Bhan. Stock Market Paramount, Newark Newark, Nov.. 13. Not a great show/but it has mo- ments.' One Is furnished by the Robbins Trio, skaters, two men and a girl, who stir with startling stunts. Another high point Is made by a contortionist with the Matt Shelveys, dancers. He produces most of his distortions quickly while dancing, but does one amaz- ing'inversion of his body slowly to acclaim. . Two men in this act alsO please with fast acrobatic stuff, In- cluding good comedy bumps, tum- bles and tangles. Eight girls appear.several times before their own sets In novelties. First, In the seml-dvk they ma- neuver beating drums, then in di- vided skirts and carrying huge green fans they dance and' form striking patterns with the fans, and, last against a black-and-gold background they weal- a few Inches of spangles and trail black-and- gold marlbou and do taps on a short flight of stairs. The Paige Sisters and Billy Kelly have the merit of being'different. A bit of a story with Kelly making love to three, sisters separately. Finally their mother serves aS a background for danclni; in which two sisters please. Kelly Is pretty weak, but he' sings and dances with each one of the girls, and at last with three. Act needs tuning up. Gale and Carson In depression costumes without any pants dance, while a girl sings. Besser and Bal- four arouse laughter with nonsense, and they sing. These acts are not "among the mentioned moments. The' bill is unusuoUy short and la eked out by comedy afj <vell as the usual Par news. 'Touchdown' Is the feature. . House going toward capacity when icrt early. Austin. (Continued from page 7) weeks the Orpheum senior stock was selling at a premtunf over Its parity In con'verslon into RKO. Minority Opposition . RKO stockholders ' promptly moved for some protective cam- paign, but whether they will be able to make any progress at the stockholders' meeting set for Sec. 10, -or will be able , to oppose tlie operation through court - action, seemed to d^end largely lipbn 'Where stock control lay. (Consensus In the Street was that, If the ne-w plan Is made effective, It will mean the control of the property by Gen- eral Electric. RKO's announcement makes It plain that RCA will take iip subscription rights left to lapse by the stockholders, and It is taken fOr. granted that the' finances will, come from the - RCA ally, General Electric . : Apparently' the market fotind no favor for RCA's part In the opera- tion, for that stock, noted for Its sponsor's ability to defend It a^nst attack, waid battered to a new;, all- time low of 9%, compared to Its low near 11 during'the crash.of Oct. 5. Whatever the effect upon stock- holders of the new RKO pronounce.- mehti the situation seemed to-have no . terrors for the old Keith bond owners, for dealings In that , secur- ity-: were at a minimum and the priceeven.edged up a fraction. Sug- gestion here Is that perhaps the bogy raised by the .receivership ref- erence inlght not be so. threaten- ing;. ' Perhaps the bondholders felt that If .'the receivership loomed with Immediate menace,' the. company would itrobably have-, waited for a move from the bondholder, or from other creditors. Instead of raising the cry of'Wolf; Itself. Another bit of hews that carried the reverse o't cheer .amoiife holders of amusement stocks was the an- nouncement of Warner Brothers of the Intention to revalue Its common stock at par of $6 " instead of $26, another case of defiatlbn In which the. 1929 fad of stock spUtups was being reversed. Effect of this ma- neuver was to. create a.'strlctly book- keeping surplus of $69,306,193, by a sort of accounting magic. Old shares at $26 represented a liability of $78,311,263,'since the shares were carried on the books at what the company received on subscription. Marking them down to $6, of course, automatically transferred four-fifths'of. that sum to the credit side. Transaction^'of course, has no efCfc^t upon; value of the shar.es, 'which still riepres'ent' the same part- nership equity per share, but the fictitious silrplus Item did not ap- peal favorably 'to the bondholders. Wdmer . loans slumped shiarply; de- clining 7% net to 42% on relatively heavy dealings amounting to $146,- 000, largest turnover of an amuse- ment lien In the bond section. Other bonds were quiet and strong, with a Jump of 3 points In the Pathe loan, which also goes to discount the .idea of On RKO receivership, Pathe hold-^ ing a large sum of RKO notes, out- come of the Pathe purchase some months ago.' While the' fireworks were going off In Warner and RKO, Fox stock remained qiiiet dealings running in Ismail volume and price changes only fractionally downward. ~ Theatre stocks, of course, would have sold off during the week tirlth- o.ut the fiurry in RKO, since the ket spurt. The recovery had been . based on sensational advances In grains, cotton and silver principally, and. when it . became evident that speculation had played' an abnor* mally large part In this development instead of it being caused by baslo improvem.ent there was bound to be a severe reaction. Point to examine at this time Is whether last Greek's correction was sufficient'to clear' the atmosphere or. whether :addItional liquidation' Is likely to depress security prices further. Chart readers maintain that the tape action is not a conclusive Signal for a broad decline, since the losses from the peak of the recovery amount to only about one-third of the gain front the October lows to the recent peaks, ai normal correc- tive reaction. The Bea'r Picture ISowever, a large number of piv- otal stocks have broken resistance levels; certain Important rails, N. T. Central in particular, have sl^nk to new lows for a generation or so, ani all signs seem set for a break to test the bear market lows of Oct 6. The meeting of -Congress. Is only a few weeks distant, and that 'clrcum- ,'tance carries possibilities of market disturbance. The bullish Influence of possible war in the Far East ap- pears to haVe passed, and basic bus- iness has done little to encourage a - belief in nearby trade revival.' Last week brought an aggregate decline of 46.points in. 16 Issues of- 'Variety's' list as against ah aggre- ? gate increase of 4 in' three Issues.. . Widest break was in Eastman Ko- ' dak, one of the few. surviving $100 stocks and lately subjected to wild- fluctuations. Drop came In the face of continuance of the regular rate . opd also the usual extra of 76 cents. Drop of 2%. In Loew was signifi- cant of thie special disfavor in which amusement stocks are held for the . time being. Inspired etatemenia that.found th'eir 'way Into print made it look almost certain that the direc-. - tors at their next dividend meeting due yesterday (Mon.), would votl the annual $1 extra. The Loew pre- ferred was one of the few Issues to . show a plus mark. Consolidated ' Film Industries, which had been doing extremely well marketwlse, gave way rather Sharp- ly, even on minor volume, both issues losing more than Z points. Company is reported to have Im- portant operations-'under"way, and' the stock could easily be made a' spectacular performer under pool sponsorship. Late In the 'week there were evi- dences . of support In Paramount which under heavy offerings dipped closed to 14,. but rallied nearly a full point while the. decline was continu- ing elsewhere. ■ lacorporatioiis Oklahoma Hormn ThMtre Corp., Henrietta, Oklii. Capital tlO.OOO: Charles Btain, Baala Uarle Blain and J. T. Richards. ' OALIFOBNIA Sacramento, Nov. It. 'Screen Genu, Ine., I.os Anseles. Capi- tal stock lOD shares, none subscrllied. I.oyd WriKht, Snmuel IS. Wright, Charles B. Mllllkan, Richard H. Qoldwater, Herschel B. Green. Duela* Teat-hefs BoslacM Assedalloa •f Jmi Aniceles. No, capital stock. ManrlceJO. Knsell, Charles Uosoonl, Bllsa Ryan, . Wanda Kmier, Earle Wallace. _ Name «( Spanish; American Plcturee^ l^ers had been pushed up rather h" ' t^o"'** to Standard Sound By.. rapidly as part of the general mar^.^ Summary for week ending Saturday, Nov. 14: STOCK EXCHANGE Bales. Issue and rate. High, 800 American Seat 8 1,400 .Consol, Film 814 . 2.200 Conscl. Film pfd. (2)..'......... IBH 20,eS0 Eastman Kodak (8) 11714 12,000 Fox, Class AM) 8 170.000 Gen; Elcc. (1.60)............... 88- 14,000 Gen. Tbea. Eq. n ........'. IH Kellh ., .. 45,600 Loew .(8),... 48% 1,000 i)o prcf. (614)...... 8414 400 Madison Bq. Garden 4 ' 700 Met-G-M pref. O.sa),.......... 24' 6S0.OrphV.prer.. 10% 88,400 Paramount ($2:80 Stk),......:.. 17% 2,600 Pathe E^xcliange....1 1,800 Pathe, Class A 4 831,000 Radio Corp........... 14% 177.800 RKO 614 WO Sbubert 1% 40 Unlvciwl pref. (8) .40 68,475 'Warner Bros...... 7 700-1)0 pref. (8.85)....'.'...'.. 2114 121,100 'WeStlDghouse (2.S0)... 6214 800 Zenith Radio IH CURB 300 Col, Plcts. (.76+) v.t.c. (.7B-(-). 6 2,800 So Forest Radio......... 2 4,000 Fox Theatres.'. 114 8,300 den. Tbca. Eq. p(.'.... 1% 1,400 Technicolor 4K 2,000 Trans Lux, 2% BONDS $42,000 G'n. Thea. K<i. '40 H'H G,000 ICellh U'a, 'lu..,.. HI 22,000 Loew O'B, '41'. 04 14.000 Palho 7"s, '37. .i 70 8,000 Far-Kam-Losky O'i, '47.... 7.', 40,WiO Fnul'ub Sli's, '60 70% 0,000 Kliuben en 4 JM.00O Warner Urvs. O's, '80....> > 48 Low. 8 6% 13% 106% OH 80% IH .88% 82 ' 8% 23 8 14% % 2% 0% 8% 1 89% 814 18 48% 1% 6 1% 1 1% 8%. 2% 10% 60 ei 76 7214 «0 4 42tt ' Netcb'g. -Last, (or.wk. 8 6% 18% 107 6% 81 '1% 25 bid ' 89% -2% -2% -2% ^7% 88% 4 24 «%- 14% % 2% 10 8% 1- 40 6% 18 44% 1% 6 1% . 1 1% 8% 2'.4 10% CI 82 78 72% 67 4 42!4 +1% + % +2 -m ■ -2% -% - H -4% -2% -1% -8% -6% -% - « - % + % ' +2 —2 -»lfc