Variety (Feb 1932)

Tuesday, TehrviAty 16, 1932 VAUDE HOUS£ REVIEW! VARIETY 51 itooDed, turned around and etoQd fh^re until Robinson finished. Oth- irg-wlio wore getting up sat down opftln Robinson held an audience fhat not only wanted to walk,, but. had alreidy started to, which Is a fpat for the book.. * Saturday afternoon's attendance wr^wlth and without Meyer Gold- •n'B well-'^shers. The latter guar^ Inteed a hand for tb". four-girl :act^ but weren't needed, .ptherwlse the crowd was tnostly In- for Tucker. They indicated that early and Soph didn't disappoint In her first ap- nearanco hero In three years, The only flaw In Soph's ;turn wJis her dress It was covered with the good told siiangles that the Jadles call seaulns. Soph worked under a white BDOt all the way' and the reflection wtffl bad on. the. gjlms; Not that they couldn't see Soph, for Soph would show up clear in. a London fog But fogs and reflecting sequins aren't an aid to vision.^ , ^ In her curtain ppfeech after hookr InK the flowers Soph said she en- tered the bill on 24 hours' notice. For the record's. sak« she . should have said on 24 hours' notice after a three-day refusal. She was ten- tatively $et several days in advance to play the. Palace with ^George Jessel. But Jessel bhanged his mind when, says BKO, Cantor told him to So soph didn't want to come In' \irith6ut Jessel. Then she r?- oonsiderej!. Biit that's a stnrv. in Itself. Bige. HIPPODROME, L. A. . Ijos Angelies, FelJ. 11. Every city tTi4t Is a vaude center has its Hipp. It's the first chance of the ambitious amateur , and the last stand of the. performer whom vaude has passed by. Occasionally someone more important breaks in n6w material in a Hipp, but that s a rarity. Here on the coaist there are otTier and better places to try new acts, so the Hipp depends mostly on the other classes. C,u,r- rently, "Walter. Weems is breaking In a new act at this house. He's the only act on the bill ^yith a pro- fessional, reputation. Hipp operates on a split week policy using , six acts each half. Bert Levey books the house and has a budget of around $600 weekly for the 12 acts. At one time, Levey, operated the house, but recently turned It over to the owner, Adolph Bamlsh. Top many headaches for Levey. .. .■ ■/ House seats about 2.300 and at present is grossing around $1,700 weekly* with a 10-cent mat and 20- cent evening admission. In addition to the vaude a feature, newsreel and cartoon comedy are shown. For a dime or 20 cents it^s bargain en- tertainment. When the operating, cost is paid, Ramish has little, left on the black side. However, 10 ■ candy butchers, hustle the house for 10-mlnute sessions between each show. Perhaps there Is a proUytjln ttiat for 10 guys must collect some-: thing. HIpp's audlende is a rare mixture ■ of Phillpplnos, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese and white. people. First ' fpUr races, are known as dead pans. That leaves the whites to apprer elate the audible end of the vaude. Acrobats, hoofers, Jugglers and tna- giclans are most appreciated here. Current bill consists of Babe Thompson, trapeze act; Bob and Teddye, man and woman, colored hoofers; Treen and Bar net, femme chatter and dancing; The St. Clalrs, flash dancing act; Walter Weems, mbnologlst, and Lazarloni and Yoa- kunj, skaters. Acts appeared, as mentioned. Miss Thompson's trap act ama- teur from start to finish, not even Including a slide to a heel catch. Even the Hipp's audience wouldn't go for It. ; : Bob and Teddye, colored tappers, Bhowed little. No class and lack , of professional appearance puts, thein out of the running, Treen and Barnet, girl team, have promise, but over-mugg notably. Both dance acceptably but with the one girl's coniedy advantage In her build, they should invest In some material with which they will at least have a chance to riilss the tanks. Straight girl oke but has to take the short end of too much fanny kicking. St. Clalrs, two men and two wo- men, present a fia.sh act which looks as If it w£is thrown together on the ■ way to the theatre. Act opend with a stiff ball room dance by one team while the other two rerhaln in the background, singing.: For a change, the girl solos on the piano and the boy comes in for a tai> routing, which looks as if It was his half of a former double dance. Ah Apache is the closer, with ohe . W thd boys running around .shoot .. mg off a gun for the big finish. A clam bake froni start to finish; .. Weems (New Acts) was too fast lor the mob and looked as If he. was Just practicing using his ,vo1cq in a large apditorlum. Suffering fr«m a bad head cold, he was inaudible : in_fhe.rea.r part of the theatre. Lazarloni and . Yoakum closed with a fast brand of skating, but giving out nothing unusual.' How ever, the Yellow Peril weiit for them strong. ~ 'The Big Gamble': .(Palhfi) was tne main .screen attriiotlon, Pathe hpws clips and Krazy Kat filled the '"ll. Attendance was fair.- Call PALACE, CHICAGO : Chicago, Feb. 13. In the celluloid, 'Ladles' 'of the Jury' <Badio), Edna May. Oliver is dividing laughs with Ken Murray. On/rhe stage here Murray Is keepr ing the'majority of laughs foi; him- self..- ~;'. . ■ - Coincidence of the flicker and the. stage date gives Murray a squared- off/opening giggle. He just gives 'em, 'Ladles and gentlemen of the Jury,' and he. gets a hearty ripple and a reception. After that Murray! has hlsstobg.es. And what the stooges ar^ to Murr ray, Murtay is to Mary Brian, who needs Muriray. . -Miss Brian admit- ted from the gong that she didn't know just what to say, but with Murray's shiowmarily jstooging she got by. She managed a semblance a song,:a: simple hopflng sequence and worked In a: not too successful black-out. Only time she got. into trouble Ayais her attenipt to ad. lib when the cross-fli'e talk "with Mur- ray got involved. Opening dance was also injured, when Miss Brian tossed a. shot, but; even here :Murray came to the rescue and covered up the stumble. Murray has lost his gal stooge, Helen Charleston, whp's holding down a regular spot In: an eastern RKO Intact, but he still has a'cou- ple'of boys who hold up the comedy, These stooges not only are pinch lor walk-on.laughs, ;but manage to grab laughs on later gags and business; Murra;y gtilj has his cigiirs, a .couple of yarns and - his shOwmahshlp; though the clarinet i^; in the moth- balls.- v..; - . ~ ' ilurray and Brian are labelled as separate turns, and are likewise cpmpletely individualized in the pay enevlppes, but ip the actual.working of the show:,there*s ho sharp line of demarcation, to prove just , where one act' starts and the other ends. In the:annunciators Miirray arrives next-to-closlng, and the Brian turn brings up the finale. . . In trey, .Galia-Rini and his siister made up for the lack of clarinet in the Murray interlude. Galll-RIni's pne-manrband. idea has been tried by many, but nobody seems able to get the same results as Galla-Rinl. ' Opening this well-rounded line pf variety were. Jay Seller and rjances Wills in a dancing turn that dem- onstrates that ideas are still around and that they still count. These two ' steppers are not 'particularly proficient on their feet, but they have new angles that make the act a winner. Turn is routined and.cds- tumjsd with an eye for novelty ahd clasi^. Seller grabs the.bulk 'of the idea routines, one with a set of canes and the oth^^r with halves of a hoop on his feet like skis. This latter number gives him an oppor- tunity to pull some excellent novr elty effects. Miss'Wills has an acrobatic se- quence as her specialty. Oke, but the lady is not getting the full punch out of the tricks because of her failure to sufficiently point her stunts for the audience. For the tw'P-spot there was Gas- ton Palmer with straight and com- edy Juggling. Palmer got away to a slow start, but built himself to a solid finish on his clowning, and chatter. Lighting of the turn could be improved, the stage being too dai'k to get the full effects of the quick tricks. Business spurting this week, the house getting away to a lobby hold out at the", close of the first per- formance. Gold. two boys. They lopked only fairly good at this .late stage of the pro-I gram, with riotliing ahead pf them, which is some sort of Indication, of RKO, L. A. Los AJigeles, Feb. 8. Four solid applause-wlnnci's on their real worth. Maybe they got tij^.j^tact unit did much to cbun the general lethargy, however. teract the Ineffective work of the With that over and done with, the trio of locally-booked acts that vaudeville really starts with Yorke filled in before. . Chief merit of the: and JCing. . And even a stagewlse rflll-Ins was the fiact that .the names couple like,this hJid to fight for. th6 made the bill look like money's first five minutes to convince the worth. customers. They got 'em finally. . Opeher, : Louis and Cherie, were and got em without any .manner of yj^^y,..manipulating their bodies in a doubt, but it^was no cinch. -When gj^^^ fair routine of bar. and Rose and Chick finally got in their j.i^g, ^.^^^^ Man's control bit did stride and Avoke the customers up .^ygU jjn^ {he girl as under^ they had a tough time leaving, and stj^„(jei. several, tricks aided in did *o only by announcing ColumbPI getting j^c'ross nicely,^.^^ to_follow. - ■ ■ . .In the deuce spot Zeck and Ran- Cplumbo appears on a ^set similar aolpli, crossfire teain, run. through a to. the one he used during .h s n^i,<j yoytine of tepid material, with Brooklyn Paramount. stay,.;and js, the use of a dummy; to take the kifck in the pants, the only original embellishment, : Audience took it supported by: a , dozen girls, plus a comedy danc0 by Ydrke ahd. King. Columbo sang piily three! numbers. I yei^^tamely Idea is for .XJolumbo to alternate special opening lyrics, neat between this house and thp Audu- Rothes and a good foil failed to bon every four days for a number j^q Danohue much above the of. weeks. It's not a bad Idea and ,^^^1 of the previous act.. Two acts can work put, but the, house will Und in sequence are quite similar have to help out. And so will the | j„ trend, but Donahue's limber booking . oflllqe,- . : 'Charlie Chan's Chance' current film. Kdnf, 86TH STREET legged, dancing was .an asset.. More of the eccentric, ground-covering hoofing would he- welcome. Girl, Hattie Dodds, suffered also,: from so-so., material . . . , I Four: strong acts of the regular Show^is again overweight ^on men> unit followed, all scoring. Anita five of the six turns billing the girls ^ase gave 'em a cycle of song num only in sub-type. -But, the show Kers. adding a Russ and a Geirman plays better, than it looks on paper, chorus to two of her numbers* but chiefly due tp strong, cpmedy va,lues new^v giving that prima doiina im and the. presence of whiat is pwba^ presslon. Even did a bit of hip bly the strongest-nartie among: vet- ] ^veaving on one pop. Clicked eran vaudevlllians for neighborhopd Ledova followed for her full-stage purposes, Pat Rooney and Pat Ul.- act of three great numbers,. :Man-. Harry Rose ofll'oiates as: m;c.,, hattan Serenade,' through which the working with subdued aggressive- KRuss ballet technique was apparent, ness that sells the show without but aided instead of detracted; a strong-arming it on the audience hokum 1880 ballet, number, and a regardless; Many m.c.'s with a runiba, ably aided in each case by smart comedy khalcfc slip up on this Leon Varkas. Pianist did well, fill- point of catching the: right tone Ing.in :with some tricky tinkling, between genlar .ballyhoo . and high ind a Miss De Osso, Cuhan blues pressure salesmanship that alien- singcri did 'St. LoUls Blues' effcc- ates an audience. Rose here turns tlvely in Spanish and filled out th® the trick trimly, ^ building the sue- rumba scene; Banged right over the cessivfe turns but briefiy and help- plate. ■■ ..■ Ing the show's speed; ■ ^Brenas, Fitz and Murphy Bros. ° i - ■c.-A ^^^^ cleaned up with their slapstick and .CeWolf, Metcalf and Ford open- to the top ap- ing, are a^t^ll,dancing juvenile and pia„s6 of the night two sprightly dancing girls, mak-. closing, the Three Lordens, tram Ing an agreeable introductory num- poUne team with a girl who does a ber, Boy is one of those loose joint- ^gj^j, niimber, was strong In that ed dancers who gets odd comedy gp^t^ providing plenty laughs with effepts from the grotesque manipu- their smooth bouncing and catches, lation of the midriff and is a per- ^agf gtunt is a wow and new out sonable youngster besides. Girls go hgpg in for legmania, with a neat bit of House pff, even for Monday night* tapping by a plump pony working U^nh •weaither and lack of love in- in full stage with three low hur- terest in western feature, 'Law and dles likfe obstacles in a steeplechase. . order' (Universal) responsible. Black opera stockings and a tight ACADEMY Even on 14th street, on. the brink of the great divide, you can't kid the customers.' When the Skour ases took the Academy over some time ago they discpvered it was a hpus6 that ate up names. Any kind of .a name and the doors were jammed. Just a good shpw, and no go; But it^.looks now like thP name alonei Isn't'enoughs First half this theatre has seem- ingly, a draw in Russ Columbo About 20% vacant seats downstairs Friday night, however. And the rea son very directly arid distinctly lies in the show itself. About: the poot est stage aggregation this theatres has. played in moons. Even if- the acts on the vaude lay- out werP not all, with a slnglfe ex-, ception,.-ordinary, the theatre itself, through faiilty equipment, manages to^ blight the star ■attraction, Sev era! months now it :has been eyi dent that the. sound reproduction equipment in this theatre is fia.ulty Bad enough for an ordinary act much loss a radio act of the Co lumbo type, and with, vaude getting more and more radio acts it's seri- ous. Static in tlie loud speaker is so bad that it all but kills Cpliimbp's vbice. And it, has to be us.ed, be cau.se without the loud .speaket a crooner is hardly audible Jn this big barn. ' Show opens with the Wan Wan San,' a good enough eight-person Chinese act. Okay openers, with the usual Chinese tricks well enpijgh handled, though cleaning up the costumes or matching them wouldn't hurt. Jerry Coe (New Arts) is an accordion player, who also dance.s and sings. Blrnes and Kaycv Aero next. ? Roy and TRomoro is a so'-so dant:- Ing turn oonsi.ming of four girls ivna rhiriestone bodice make a fetching get up for the number. Comedy opening has some good possibilities, but isn't well worked out, Paramouiit, Newark Weber-and Fields arc headlining. Frank Swanee ^hd Joe Daly, I but the house was not quite flUed young tenor with an agreeable even on the opening night, a holi- presence but little vaudeville knack, day. Opening with an introduction and his piano accompanist, are by, a man they, were Cordially something of a letdown in No. 2, greeted and went into a spoofing of the^turn being entirely straight and radio announcements which was formal In arrlngement, even to the funny- Then came the Pool game s siingS:w^^n ~ stuff. except^that Swan^^^ ^^^'^^^/J^'^^^i^,^ U had tP win •^tfi^^^ ,°r^K?r^ wM^.h h^lna fS; was killed by the sudden introduc- rated nuinbers which helps f^^ Lion of four colored hoofers (Har- speed and variety. Playboys), who danced briefly. Earl La Vere makes his entrance Uvith no connection at all with disguised as a piano accordion Kygijer and Fields. They danced player, and theh turns into a chat-; vvell and were liked. But it was ter merchant, ably assisted by , a gacreli^e bringing them in at all, Mildred Bryan, one of the cla.sslest and then to bring the curtain down woman. ,foUs in vaudeville. She on them after a total of 13 minutes, opens with a soprano solo that is , Opener a dancing a:ct, Hubert full of vocal swank, dressed in a Kinney ,and Girls—the latter nuni- long-skirted afternoon frock and bering four. With his own drape, the whole effect furnishes a polite Kinney does some kicking and som- basls of contrast that later sjiarp- ersaults, and the girls In varying ens the comedy dialog exchanges, combinations dance mostly pn their Le. Vere, riihs to forced punning, toes. Costumes are numerous, niost such as a play upon the names of being the minimum allowed. One .automobile -trade marks in the de- girl sings.. It's not bad. ,. scrlption of a ball camie, but the Lauren .and Ladare brought In a team has a certain character and woman- with an accordion, who con- distinctibn of its own. Another tlnued to play through tiie act with straight solo by the girl to Le various interruptions by a man with Vere's accordion accompaniment different Instruments, He wore a makes nea.t finish. different hat on each appearance legged blonde girl is excellent in control and taps, the brunette be- ing rather incidental. Another man. Dick Delton, doei one song, number In a nice tenor voice, and helps in tlie devejopment of the inconsc quentlal "sketch affair, built on .a kids roughly, an,rt he gets over sonic uncanny facial expression.s. Then with a shift to the.set,He, does with a girl an extended version of the 'sleeping with the baby' gag, during .which he uses the bed as a trampo- liiif^ and throws a-pillow Into the salesman being, paid by each of,the audience. K.ack in onp, the. man and girls to make love to the other, to \ ,^^^^ sing, then the three sing a gag leave the way^ open.for the conquest j;Q„g_ jjali continuing his of Delton, Material I., light, nut | hor.scplay, all pleasing. under Nixon's vigorous clowning and comedy love making' to the girls in turn, makes good enough neighborhood entertainment. Rooney turn, working in 'one The .Six Dominetli Harlequins close with a speedy act that ranks higli in its clas.'j. In wig.i and vari colored costumes, they run through I the endless spins, tumbles, side this time, with Marion pn only for wheels and risley work of a com a final bow, was next to cjoslng, and plicated routine with notable ease a young riot Pat and the boy have and celerity. Once one holds the framed 15 minutes of. neatly blend- ed .Mteppihg and banter th.at.estab lishes audience accord and the fam^ of the name turns . the trick for them ' Rose, took, the closing spot for a sequence of joshing with the Roon- ey.'5;' pore et flls, arid finished to hcavv returns with his) 'Broadway Lullnhv.' Rush, other five, und with two twos hold ing a fftvirth by head and heels they go. flat on tlie. floor and up again Nothing is really new, but some of the eombin.atlons of two Into a sin gle figure' and moving as one arc (ievelop"il into noyeliy, and the class Is the aet'.s owii. They're over, Curiously the. Irripre.s.'-uon' persists that .uevi'.ral. of them are (ri) I.M. STATE (iloslng a show with a sister apt lis a good trick if it can be done, though it isn't done very often. But it's happening at the State this week with the Watson Sisters going , through the last Inning like a .rotary plough eating up a snowbank. With ., a flvc-^act show running 80 minutes and two of this acts rathier brief, they take up more than their full Share of thp time, yet they could come back and stick around some more sp far as the iiudle'rice is con- ccrned. .'' ,■' . :'.', Opening : act , : ^S: Blomberg'is Alaskans, sledge dogs, worked in a , phow set and prefa:ced by a brief lecture by the trainer in front of another Arctic picture. The lecture helps the: act to get Interest in the breed, but the; talking should stop there. Blornberg lis a. better trainer than Goiriedlah, and his itKt^T gags do. not cover up. the paucity of tricks. Best part Is . the cheerful way in which the dogs go about their work with no evident fear of thp whip. ..'There is. one.good clow'ri dog, which alsP does the star trick, . a slack rope'balance, getting on the rope unaided. Apart, from this the . . tricks are usual. ' \ The drop got a. laugh Sat. matinee . when the . next. act^ was carded . as . Southern Gaieties and the olio arose to diisclose the same snow instead o( the cotton fields;-which came a mo-' ' merit later. The routining does as : much for. this tuirn as the various bits,: the act being worked into a fast series in which nothing lasts . long; enough to tire and there ie sufficient variety. to hold attention. Frank ;and Farmer cleaned with a . miniature stair tap .dance with a. five-stair fiight a foot high. Fanny Watson should get a load Of Bonnie Daniels' snakehlps Avrlg- gle. Evidently an anaconda or a boa constrictor, 'but/ she is there alongside the thinner gal. The For^ hart Bpys. harriionize nicely, and "in their numbers Suggest the oldrtlme minstrels,. with Josie Carole contrib- uting a capital acrobatlo bit. In adr ditlon to her ample wriggle. Miss Daniels pushes a couple Of songs over the footlights smoothly and with effect. Closed to a generous hand. , Harry Hershfeld Is Pn third bas«<aj for a brief stay. More of a draw name than an entertainer, though his gags went over nicely as far as they reached, which seemed to be about halfway back; with upstairs out of luck. The Arnaut Bros., contribute their time-honored musical clown bits and close with the bird courtship to the usual g'oPd effect Then the Watsons proceed to mop up., ^'ariny . could get her gags over In Madison Sq. Garden in a : pinch, and if you can't hear her you can at .least see, and that's more or less an evening's entertainment Not a notable bill, but one which pleases arid minus dead spots. At- tendance (excellent at the swing show Saturday. . 'Jekyll and Hyde' , (Par) is the screen feature, which possibly helps. HIPPODROME Buiilness having Its ups and downs everyv/here because of Ir- regular weather, the Hipp Is no ex- ception. Its custoniary good Satur-: day afternoon was again jeopar- dized, this time by spHng-like balminpss that kept' people from go- ing Inside. 'High. Pressure' (WB)/ ' with William, Powell, gracing the screen, wasn't drawing at the Sat. matinee. Stage lineup Includes nothing of especial significance either from the entertainment or box-office angle) but show, .having a lot of variety and reasonably good balarice, is up to the standard expected on Sixth avenue. ■ . Nearest to possible draw Is Vaughn De Lcath, CBS-artist, who lately has been on sustaining pro- grams, She's set in sixth on an eight-act bill, and while making a nice impression •with a voice that's much like Kate Smith's, , her recep- tion here was anything but reassur- ing. Miss De Leath (New Acts) , carries a lot of Weight, arid in that : as well as other characteristics. Im- mediately reminds of .Miss iSmlth. She does fout numbers, accom- panied by a riiale piano team, and . work^ behind a mike, .as most radio • artists are doing In vaude. This side of the end is Frank Con- ville, iassisted by Sunny Dale and ' an Unbilled stooge. Convllle found the going a little sluggish at first, but toward the finish, with his. Chaplin imper.sonation arid taxl- danee material seoring, he got away nicely. The pint-size comedian dis- covered, ,as did other acts on the-. ' .•^how,' tha,t the .Saturday ^afternoon audience was plenty phlegmatic. N6 one reaped riiore than a fair hand, though deserving better. That ConVille impresision of a . Minsky. ■ burlesque girl in a strip number, .which could even / be sweated uP into more of a . kick, seemed to; please the fplks, wliicb may, explain the type audience at- tracted here.. Ahead of Miss De Leath, Jay Mills and Florence Rbblnson (New Acts) foiuul tlic gplrig a little toughi Miss Koblrison's 'clever dance routines aided greatly in getting the tcarii any whore near fair: hit proportions. I'rccedlng, fourth, 'A Porcelain R6- (Contlnued on page 53)