Variety (Nov 1931)

Taesdayt November 24, 1931 VAUDE HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 33 LOOP-END, CHICAGO Chicago, Nov. 2U it** ia touirb proposition this house la up against With only the one week to offer It means a coiiist'der- Able bciost in salary for an act brought In from out of town. An example this week Js'Johnny Burke. Soldier'•Comic,' with .his same time -weary and worn routine from 19.19, held out for |1,26« aiid got It In measuring, the price the railroad fkre Is counted In, of cour$e. Ac- cording to such mathematics Burke must have jumi>ed from Australia. He couldn't draw water from a fau- eet In a' bridge game they'd call that leading from desperation. Another antediluvian is Tom Brown and his saxophone, brothers^ Not' a note In this, turn has under- gone any change. Brown's walling sax is now dripping with age, and bow. he keeps, his costume Intact is a mystery.' At best the! Brown Brothers Is a fliler, b\it by ho m^ana • co-headline act. Of the rest of the bill the least •aid . the better.. Phllmore and Co. 'turned out an uncertain Juggler with the assistance of two femmes, al- though why two-Is a secret. Small ttmey from start to flnlsh and slow besides. Joe Christy, aided and abetted in his.futile try for comedy by a girl, fell down pretty badly. Maybe he wasn't feeling well, which may alibi, the delivery but not those gags. ■'■■■■■ '. Jean Homiltdn and three boys present a. dancing revue, but It would take a code to decipher wheri Hiss . Hamilton's dancing domes lii. She. does a barefoot twisty to start .with, B song and whistling number is her second contribution, and a ' bow for the finale. That leaves the brunt of the hoofing to the boys, aiid after all they're only there to surround Miss Hamilton. Wade Boots must have been talk Ing to Burke, perhaps exchanging wartime stories and songs. It looked that way when the.J>arltone sudden- ly 'went on a hlnky 'dinky parlcz vous spree. And when he wasn't singing about what happened to that certain mademoiselle from Armentieres . Booth propped himself against the piano for a balladlstlc niood. And It all spelled moiher. This is not the kind of vaudeville that win get the Loop-End any where. " 'Gay Diplomat' (Radio) screen feature. ' Span. STATE . For the beginning of the new pol- .Icy of four shows every day at this tbeatre, Lroew booicers decided on combining a three-act bill with a 'iMlled.down picture house unit. As K stiinds without any alterations the combination is confusing. Pic- ture house - presentations are not conistructed for vaude taste: Each act ends so abruptly and never gets a chance to build to a climax. The sharp exit of the line of 12 girls, . which opened the unit half, brought Audible comment The next two acts of the unit tollowed suit, mak- ing slight waits until' the audience realized each was ' finished and ready for applause. Each of the four acts comprising the deluxe unit are from vaude, with knowledge and experience In that field. If revamped along more of variety lines, the unit should be able to make the grade In Loew vaude houses. Every act in" the regular vaude section was cut in punnlnj time for "the four shows. Bob Murphy, playing papa to his two show business kids, .Dorothy and Dick, did not m.c. the show. It might have been better had he been allowed to do so right through the unit The Murphy kids . are okay all around. They sing, dance, talk and play instruments.' Murphy paces them in dandy style and tops the whole act by singing a mother ballad that brings a solid hand. The aisle stooge Is still In with the bull gag. Murphy and support are fine vaude that pleases always and hevet offends.. . . Worthy and Thompson, two col , wed boy tappers, deucod the vaude .and landed as much with their «eh- lal kidding and darky personalities as they did with fast stepping. The boys step against each other In both slow rhythm and fast tap. Lester and Irving Trio, two men and a girl,- In neat acrobatics made an Ideal opene^ The big chap Is exceptionally fflrong, and flnlsh wick, wherein he picks up both his partners ■ from a prone position on the floor, Is sensational. . '. Chester Hale girls (12) opened jne unit portion with a dance In 'ong dresses. Very pretty all around, but got little response. Hor- ton Spur followed with acrobatic oanclng. Outstandlnsr Is his slow motion golf bit. Carl Emmy's Pets. a tiock ot. small dogs, was nfext Shoved on atop a long table, the entire act Is on the table, with no noor work by the dogs rt all. ISrrtmy jecp.-j up a running flre of chatter lor laughs, the ■ dogs were a source of delight for many kiddies Prcsftnt.. toaf*' • '^'■owning In hl.i reformer •naKeup and opening soog'around same fared llghUy until Into the meat ot his talk. Then it was dif- ferent. One of those thousand verse topical songa for a finish brought him back several times. Lottie Mayer and' diving g'Irls closed the unit . The girls from the dancing line doubled Into this act . Each makes several fancy dives Into a tank reflected by mir- rors suspended In the back. Open- ing of the act has the entire group of girls dressed In costumes walk- ing into the. tank and disappearing, as at the Hippodrome years ago. For vaude this type act seems out- moded' today. Once . upon, a time Lottie-Mayer was a vaude feature of note, . ' ■ Business good np and down. Marx Bros' 'Monkey . Business' (Par) on' the screen, along with newa weekly and shorts. Earl. BROADWAY Trying to find a spot to settle, B. S. Moss , this we.ek brings In a condensed all-colored Harlem floor show, running' 68 minutes and too long, considering whait it has to-of- fer. It's billed as 'Hot Harlem,' is played in. 12 scenes, was staged by Leonard' Harper and is doubling from Connle'is Inn. In its last 26 minutes it's Harlem with some of Its hotness, but ahead of thut not even lukewarm. ; House drew a. better than aver- age crowd Saturday afternoon. In- dicating maybe the floor show thing was .doing some magnet work. Film spools, are wound with 'The Deceiver' ■ (Col), murder, niystery. Not expected to keep the ticket machines Very busy. Auditorium pretty well filled up by 4 p.m., bet- ter., than on some Saturdays, biit at the. early scale of 3Bc, with patrons to stay through ' stage stanza. It ought to be better than this. That Moss has a distinct prob- lem with his Broadway there IS no g&lQsaylng.. At flrist he plunged on revued-up vaudeville, finally dis- pensing with that a couple weeks ago to: get down to straight, un- frilled vaude. Currently he at- tempts something else again. Per- haps the Broadway will become Times Square's only house to pre- sent floor shows a la Harlem. It's near to the presentation style of picture houses when they all used bands on the stage, but In any picture house a ,68-mInute stretch might wreck things. 'Hot Harlem' belles its title ex- cept on the home strech In the sec- ond half, by which time the band as well as the entertainment has started to heat up a little. All the way up to that point it's the cold- est kind of Harlemesqiie. Staging Is at fault along with an apparent desire to pad out Even so, there seems little excuse for Tom 'Fats' Waller's band, with 'Fats' at the piano, being so comatose. The orchestra attempts to go class, keeping away from the ribald blatancy that gives Harlem ' its night life name, and in so doing makes a negative Impression. As well, the artists are left without a straw, to pull at Band does a . medley after the flash opening. It keeps. at It so' long It looks like a concert Is un- der -way, with the piano solo by Waller helping to stretch it A harmony trio appears twice, displaying nice harmonizing abil- ity, but never getting warmed .up. The Bon Bon Buddies, song-dance quartet, fpllowlhg trio's flrst un- toward attempt start to bring some life and pep :nto the proceedings, at the same time waking the band up. but it doesn't last long. Baby Cox, doing a down south number In. good voice and topping with a strut-acrobatic specialty, follows fhe boys. It's a fair num- ber and dissolves it an all-company gro.uplng to back for an unexciting but passably executed . ballroom waltz by Paul Mceres and Glennle Cheeseman. That's the end of the first half, It looks like the end of the show, with a big finale, worked up and the stage darkening out, but that was a mistake. It had been a splr Itless 30 .minutes. Cora dreen Injects some pep Into the second part, doing a Harlem hot that would have been more tepid with better support from tlic bandsmen. She Is followed by Three Little Words, crack kid dancers.: They stick around for ever, nearly wearing themselves out but didn't seem to endanger applause possibilities. By this lime the show has begun sizzling, Biihy Cox following up the trio by leadln? the glrl.s In a hlp- gyratlng routine that had 'em fboth pirls and dudlense) dizzy. . Louis Deppe, in one, singing 'Ole Man .River' separates the warm trend that ha.s been picked up and car- ries on with '.Snako Hips' Earl Tucker. Litter's two ' niimhcrs scored heavily, non Bon. Buddjcs taking up quickly and loading the oompahy Into a noisy fast-moving finale. . Stage Is drcs.sed In one set, with the band nicely spotted half v.ay bcick. Fathe News, Char. RKO, L. A. liOs Angeles,'Nov. .19. Only three locaLl acts added to the four-act intact this ' week, due to Sam . Coslow and his band , taking up space and time. Local a£ts boost the budget to $3,400, getting fClO of this. The Ceslow' combo draws down' 1400 . showing Salary ot that. Figuring a band of 14 .fur this amount is a bargain In any land. Other two locals are Schmidt and NIckerson, acrobats, and Conner.'and Wheatley, singing duo. Intact unit comprises Ann Prltch- ard,. flash dancing act; Art Henry, hoke comic; Cherry and June Prels- ser, kid dancing team; and Toto. Schmidt and Nickersoii open with a class hand balancing routine. Both boys, look good and have plen- ty on the ball. Finish has the un- derstander raising his i>artner to an overhead position ^om a back bend over a chair.' Four bows. Conner and Wheatley In the deuce spot singing two' semi-classical numbers. Man lacks stage presence but' hais .a good voice. Womaii is fair on looks and pipes. Act would be better suited for presentations, lacking vaude speed. Sam Cpslow's band followed .(New Acts). Presence of the Three Cheers, local radio crooning male trio, makes it an act Otherwise it's one of those things 'n'here Cos- low talks about, the theme songs he wrote for. pictures. Ann Prltchard's dancing got heavy ret.urns. Miss'. Pritchard and the flve boys who work behind her have plenty , of looks and talent. Edge was taken oil'her trio's tapping by the similarity of. their work arid costumes to those- 6f. Joe Laurie's trio, which worked the house the pre-ylous week. ' All of Miss Prltch- ard's solbs scored, with her toe whirls the high spot Art Henry and an unbilled girl stooge next. Henry'about, goes the limit 'With blue material. With' belches, slapping his partner's face and roving his hands he manages to bring all the-elements Of stock burlesque Into the theatre. A. good coMlc, it's too bad he can't get hold of some clean material. Plenty of belly laughs, but all ;the results of smut Cherry and June Prelsser next to closing, tough spot for two girls the oldest of Tvhom is 14, But they hold it down easily. June, the youngest, sells the act with personality and loads of talent Specializing on back flips and ofl r}>ytbm tap, she tied the show In a knot Older sister wisely lets the youngster go the limit Both, have plenty of Juv 'It.' Young- ster had to make a speech and used a "you-air drawl. Toto, with his familiar panto- mimic act closed. Nothing new In his act outside of a baby carriage blackout done with a midget who cops a bottle of liquor for a'stow scene with Toto. Kid finally puts Toto .In the carriage and wheels him off. Despite the familiarity of this clown's material, he still manttges to bowl over, the audience. 'Friends and Lovers' (Radio) the feature, with Pathe news clips fill Ihg. the bill. Business ofC' at the second show Thursday night. Can. PALACE, CHICAGO Chicago, Nov. 21. Minor criticisms largely centered In the desultory pace and awkward arrangements of Bomby's (Sang does not detract In any serious de- gree from the essential excellence of this bill. Bomby had the third spot flanked by Marvin and Walter Case and Cass Mack and Oweii on the opening end and Dr. Rockwell and his Adamses on the closing end. Nimble wire-walking In an In- genious setting quallfles Marvin and Walter Case as true and . tried vaudeville. It's a turn to flt into any bill. Scenic effect is ot a wom- an with' her manicured flngers painted on the front wings and the wire seeming to be held In them. That's showmanly. Boys have three or four grade A stunts with par- ticular mention for the back somer- sault unaided by parasol or other balancing props. Leaving the imagination limp at the thought of those five shows a day, Cass Mack and Owen inspire respect for their vitality as well as .their ambitious and hard-worI<- Ing air ' of freshness. Knockabout turns are common these days be- cause the bookers find them an easy pinch-hitter in any spot. This par- ticular sample of the type is an ad- vance nnrt an Improvement. Their sense ot grotesquerie takes them out of the acrobatic division. It Is easy to .visualize the trio doing a lot ot damage to a $5.50 audience. Pianists were not self-effacing on this bill. Vloloting the tradition th.n)t they shall remain as Immobile ds the- fancy palm-plant' or the over- loaded parlor lamp the plani.sts with Bomby and again with the Dancing Adamses astonished everyone liy versatility. And what speclatlios for presumably dignllied lady mu.xl- clan.s. Out ot the library of stondard.<< that constitutes the Bomby turn the girl at the ueVs suddenly went into a tap dancC'Wltb wings and all. It'.s a novnlty and a good one, but rather buried In the'.way everything la in- troduced and routined In this stilted session of "Victor Herbert that ur- gently needs to be re-staged and finished.' ' Imagine a coloratura soprano at Carnegie Hall with a hut comedian cutting her gown oK snip by snip until finally none is left, That's the chore of' the accompanist - for the Adams. With Doc Rockwell doing the purpery. Inclderitnlly, Rockwell has grabbed off a nifty dancing cou- ple in the Adamses. Tiiey ha-ve that polished smoothness, that, swaying theatrically-stressed rhythm, eaclj gesture of the hand, shoulder, and head melting Into a' i>Icture of charming grace, It's the essence ot class. Rockwell, with material largely new, at least to Chicago, left his patients purring. In .appreciation of the tt'cademlc honor the Palace pub- licity used a plllrsquashcr as the symbol in their ads and over, the marquee the mazdas spelled oiit on two -lines r 'Dr. Rockwell, 'Quacic! Quack!' Richard blx .In 'Secret Service' (Radio) got the third and la&t line. Unusual for li vaude head- liner, tp have name and billing thus screamed at the citizenry. Land, Warners Dowhtowh, L.A. Los Angeles, Nov. 19. Second week of Levey-booked vaude at this house is'an Improv'e- merit oyer the opening. Three of the flve turns are. standard ' acts^ The Le Grohs, contortionists; .Ed- gar Bergen, ventriloquist, .and the Four Haas Brothers, bar act. Other two .acts are locals—The Sequoia .Quartet, out of the coast production of 'Girl Crazy,' and Frederick "V. Bowers; soiigwrlter and former big- time act, but for severar years on the coast Bill this week budgets at »1,200. ' • Le. Grohs. open with a hiisky youngster taking place of Ed Le Groh, 'Who is confined to the hos- pital here with'ft'broken back after an accident In- Fresno. Routine is the same used by the trio for the past IB years. . Sequoia Quartet next, singing four n\imbers. . Boys ' dress as cowboys but don't go In for prairie ballads. 'Voices and. harmony okay, but It's the type of act that passed out sev- eral years ago. ' Frederick V. Bowers, songwriter, followed In a flash act billed as 'Dance^ Fantasies.' ' Assisted .by George and Jane Bell and two un- billed femmc dancers-H>ne aero and the other a toe dancer-^lt looks'as If the act had been thrown together on the way to the theatre. Bowers, at one, time a name act, offers noth.< Ing. Ho announces a medley of his former hits, none of vvhlch the audi-, ehce seehsed to recognize. He also song a new number titled 'Califor- nia,' with one of the girls throwing oranges. Into the audience. House Is dark and it sounded like a. hand- grenade barrage when the fruit landed in the auditorium.. Dancing of the Balls and the two girls failed to help the act. Edgar Bergen was next-to-clos- Ing with his familiar smart chaticr and ventrlloqulal work. Bergen, c-.it here vacationing and making shorts for'Warners, Is the class of the bill and managed to hold up the per- formance, coming back . for several gags after his operation scene. Four Haas Brothers,, out here to work in Metro's 'Tarzan,' In which picture they double as gorillas and hop about in trees, closed. Strictly a circus act but pleased in this spot with a fast routine of bar acrobatics. 'Five Star Final* . (WB) in on Its flrst downtown run following four weeks at the Western. Two "Vita- phone shorts rounded out the' screen fare. Business fair at the flrst evening show Thursday. CaU, AUDUBON New Skouras Bros, house policy at the uptown Fox Audubon theatre Friday (20). All the hiirralv was confined to. the stage, where Ed Lowry, direct booking by; Skouras offico, opened as permanent m. c; Sophie ..Tucker was the headline vaude name, and the Fanchon & Marco Idea 'Five Races' was rear- ran.iied to permit Lowry to appear In It all the way; Teddy King and regular house band, former 11, now 13, men, were transferred to the stags . '\vith . the screen showing shorts and the feature,.'The Yello'w Ticket' (Fox), consumed. S3 minutes. Audubon shows run how for: a fuil week,with the price changes; four shows dally and a new ticket booth built on the edge- of the Broailway entrance to expedite ticket. sales. Just how the four shows dally are going to work out Is a matter ot conjecture. Capacity crowd ^ by 2 p.m. Folks arriving at 8:16 found the third show Just winding up with standees plenty. An experimental thing dt this house Is a 15c admission which pre- vails for phe-half hour only and permits-the-ticket-holders to go in- side and stay as long as thcy want- The 15c price doesn't go for Satur- day, Sunday or a holiday. Edrly bird fee then Is 25c. At 1 p.m.: It's: advanced. For the week end ' it ranges from 35c to 60c' a;nd at 6 from >_75c to $1. At '.night there were noticed parked outside some Jersey cars In- dicating that . the new Hudson bridge at .177th street might prove more of a b.o. asset than Imagined.' The first show proved entAtaih-: Ing and colorful. ' It established liowry (New. Acts) as about the hardestrworking m: c,' He Isn't new to the stage but he's new to New York after his five year's' absence, much . of that ' time spent under Skoura;s direction in St. Louis Euid elsewhere. That he may .become a big fav at the Audubon was sug- gested by the applause which greet-- ed him from time to time. It was Sophie Tucker who really blasted the top . oft' the box office. A'nd somehow or. other Soph'not only stays fierenn'lally young' time goes on but' she Is Just much of a stage saleslady as of yore; her voice neither dimmed nor diminished in tone or lustre; her personality oozing all over the place, ^vith Ted Shapiro at the piano. Tho. Fanchon & Marco. Idea had several 'vdiide acts fitted into the Audubon stage, show . adhilrably. Hakuzawa Japs, fi've men, did about the flashiest and niftiest rlsley work seen up town in months; Other stage ttirhs Included the ; Adams Sisters doing a fan dance along the effective lines; not unusual biit jileasing, and the Danny Small dancing trio, ivith the colored dancers going to a hit' The F.&M. unit carries no femme. chorus. So'to give the new Audu- boh opener a feminine background the Stanley, J. C-, chorus girls were brought . over and worked' In two numbers with Lowry. ' The new Skouras policy started big. Lowry made good from the hop. Next Friday (27) a new. Low- ry routine will go in an F.&M. 'Art Gallery' Idea with the Boswell SlB'> ters as the vaude name. Third week haia a' Radio show with' the local F.&M. office laying out a local bill with popular radio artists. Audubon seats 2,600. A full week menu Is still speculative for & nab« In this section. Hark. 86TH ST. ' Business simply brutal lost Sat- urday afternoon; house more than halt empty all afternoon. Even around 5 o'clock; there was no ap- parent pickup, with only a few istraggling In. It may have been the weather and It may have been the show. ' - There was no doubt that'the pic- ture, 'Once a l,ady' (Par), didn't mean a thing at the afternoon show Saturday, and there was' nothing on the four-acter, either, with strcngtb.' The only names that Indicated; any pull we're those of Jans and "Whalen, and they were not doing any draw- ing at the afternoon shows. Vaude part is os a whole pretty quiet, with even Jans and Whalen not able to stir up much laughter or enthusiasm. In third spot, doing the usual Jans and Whalen stuff, but before such a small audience It seemed wasted, Patho hev.-s reel. and an organ session by Arlo Hults. The Invlta tion to sing some topical favs didn't get much. Opening the vaude section Is "Vcr nori nathburn, youthful saxophonl.st, assisted by four women and a man, all playing .snxcs. Act gels Its best results on the ',St. Louis Blues' hnale. Caligary JJro.s. came back for an encore, but why? The 'Scene ln.(!IiIcapo' bit isn't so hot. Some sections ot the entire turn arc pretty .slow, making it liard otherwise for the men to get much on their com- edy acrobatics. Jans and AVhalrn -were followed by IjewlB and Altec (New Arts), closing. Mark. Fox's Counsel (Continued from page 7) for the manufacture of^macKInes for production ot sound record films. Third suit against RKO Is on . Patent No. 1,826,398, described as "an Invention for processes for pro'« ducing souhd -and picture films;"' These patents were applied for by Han's Vogt''Berll.n-'\yilmersdorft, Germany; Joseph Massolle and Jo- sef Engl, both ot Berlin, Grunwald, Germany, the bill states. American rights were transferred to. American Trl-Ergon, it is claimed. 'The patent bh whlcli two of the suits were filed was applied fOr on March 22, 1922, and the other one was ai)i>Ilcd for on March 29 of the .same year. American rights were iHrst transferred to William Fox, of New York, In eath case before transferrence to Tri-Ergon, the bill states. An injunction, first temporarjl**' then permanent is asked, with an accounting'of damagcis. Date for hearing has hot been set, Bills were filed by former Judge Hugh H. Mor- ris, who fligurcd' throughout the his- tory of talker patent litigation here before leaving the federal bench. NEW ACTS Arnold Crazier rehearsing a new flve people act. Harry Mayo and Dorothy Shaw. Joo GroonSvnld (4). Cuckoo Morri.s.sey (Bragdon and Morrlssey) and Co. <4). .