Variety (April 1932)

VARIEty YAUDE HOUSE REVIEWS Tuesday, AprU 12, 1932 JiMMY DURANTE ..Songsr Cdmedy 2S Mins.; One and Pit , Pienn, Pittsburgh Considering the dough paid most flicker naimes for personals, at $3,500 the Schnozzle Is a barpafn. This is the flrist tiine he has ever worked alone on the stage, breaking away from Giaytoh arid Jackson When _he went pictures, and he's a cinch with or withouti Durante is still the mad lunatic, and when he has finished wrecking the orchestra pit this week, the management will have to call in a building crew to repair the damage. Introduced here by Don Barclay, of the regular Lroew unit, the Schnozzle jumps right down Into the pit. and the riot's on< A dozen hats and three or four telephones constitute his sole props, and the mugg sends the music crew as well as the audi- ence into hysterics. There's ho denying the Schnozzle Js one of the few distinctly individ- ual comics ever developeH on the Main Stem. There's, neither rhsrme nor reason to what he does, or to him either, for that matter. A nut comic, he turns the usually quiet and dignified Penn Into an asylum, arid it's a panic from start to finish. Two of his old songs at the piano, the rest of his act is a succession of gags, hoke and firing hats, phones and piano stools in all directions. It's not what the ShnoEzIe does. It's how and why he does It that counts. They never saw him here beYore and didn't know what to expect, but after he was around for five minutes it was evident the mob wouldn't let him go, and it didn't. Durante's solo appearance, at any rate, proves conclusively that he can get by any time, anywhere as a single. Working In vaude or pres- entations, he has the whole pit crew for stooges, and ttiat' all he needs. T^iat and his own rough-house Clowning. Cohen. *PAL8 OF THE PAST* (6) Oldtimers' Songs, Dances 15 Mins.; One Hippodrome, N. Y. One .of the best acta of oldtimers ever produced, including six capable vets, all of whom mix into songs and dances of another day. A good type attraction for family trade in any part of the country. Lineup includes Danny Simmons, do^ibling at hi.c., Blanche Newton, LK>mbard Bros., Annie Hart and Josephine Sabel. Last mentioned, the madcaip of Broadway many, years back, does a hot number not much longer than a bit. She's juat about setting herself strong when giving up. . Miss Newton does a song and dance her father did 60 years ago; the Lombards figure in their Lan- cashire clog; Miss Hart puts over •with plenty of pep ahd sales ability an old Irish number she' socked home at Pastor's 35 years back, and Simmons, in addition to a swell joke, does the 'Irish Rag' number some may remember. Act is nicely routined and doesn't Include too much talk, mistake some have made. Beglstered strongly at this house when caught. Cliar. CROCK Clowning ' 50 Minutes in ^he ring Cirque Medrano, Paris- pai^s, March 30. Packing Medrano, mob is coming to see. his 'new' number,, though Greek's personality is the Whole thing and change of partners and adding: an- accordloii. doesn't effect much change. Act opens with Fiers. accordionist, appearing first, immediately fol- lowed by the entrance of Grock and his nieiw partner, Geo. Lole. Ac- cordloiiist is good enough to be worth staging an act by himself, but his solos are entirely subsidiary in the act to Crock's tricks, man- nerisms and patter, which he carrleis on with his new partner as he .uised to do with the old one. - A notice- able change is that' Grock. has sup- pressed his miniature violin. JU(I2i> WILL OAKLAND (3) Songs 18 Mins.; In Three 86th St., N. Y. Will Oakland frames up a new act for each vaudeville engagement, apparently. For the current trip he is working with three girl pianists, a blonde, brunette and redhead. Act opens.' with stage in black drapes, a flat topped desk carrying, a prop radio set, evidently Intended to suggest a studio. Three large fans are; dtspilayed at right and left and up. center on a platform. Oak- land enters and goes into a special song about his radio requests. Fan oh the right drops to disclose the blonde pianist who tells that she Kas; a request.' In turn the other fans bring the girls in, each for a request number. When Oakland's pipes begin Vo clog, he makes a request for a piano trio, and the girls oblige, resting him up for the finale, which ends on 'Irish Eyes' with 'Song Df Songs' for the en- core—and he gets the encore. Oakland's voice is so sugary that it rather cloys In a lonjg routine, but apparently the audience. here did not And It so; Act makes a good flash and delivers strongly. All the song^s are amplified through radio sets either side of the arch and each of the pianists has a mike In addition to the soloist. SCOOTER LOWRY Songs and Dances 11 Mins. in One 86th St., N. Y. Former tough boy of the Our Gang comedies in a personal appearance, getting over with the favor almost In-.-ariably accorded children who are passably' clever, and making an holiest effort to bat out an act, £ol lowing som- terrible clips from his former comedies. Apparently duped and badly done. Once this Is over the kid falls onto the stage In his familiar rig from the. pictures. Later chdnges to cutaway, for a neatly dressed Chaplin and «winds. up in evening dress and a silk hat; No references to his past work, but he goes into a song and then dances. His jokes are pretty sad. and his voice is not strong, but his nimble feet and a certain likable 1 -rsonality save the act from being a bore to those who are not Inter- ested In his film . connection. He caTinot handle patter and should not l''^ asked to. By. anc" large he gets over to a good score. S SUNSHINE GIRLS Singing; Dancing 7 Min8.;,One 86th St., N. Y/ Not much strength in this turn but a picaser for the family trade. Three pretty girls In some harmony Blnginfir, with on© doing some taps for fair results. Interesting Is tho fact thait the trio doesn't try to be another Imita- tion of the Boswell galg, Thoy don't worry too much about harmOniz- Ine? and making sounds that don't mean anything. Songs a^e mostly, pop tunes but along character lines and more dependent on the words than tho tunes. Which makes tho lassies individual, to say the least. Kauf. PUTT MOSSMAN Horseshoe Pitching 7 Mins.; One Downtown, L. A- Mossman has played exhibition horseshoe games around the coun- try, but this is the first time he's tried to throw ringers on the stage. Audience didn't know what to make of this new type of vaude turn but applauded the boy when he threw four ringers in a. row. Kid Is so green he rehearsed his act by standing in the aisle and tossing the mare's sandals from there, until the manager tipped him off that he couldn't be seen from the balcony. Besides, a shoe might land in the audience. Mossman \yorks with a stooge who sits on the stake, sits in front of it and circles his armd for Moss- man to throw his shoes through. Stooge was very nervous, and jumped at the wrong times. Stake is inoimted in a shallow box with dirt, and was difficult to see from the front rows. Mossman talks, but his lines are more suitable for county fair ex- hibitions than a stage. He was also seen on the film bill, having soine footage in 'Strange As It Seems' reel showing him as a trick motorcycle rider. SONQ WRITERS ON PARADE (7) Singing; Piano 20 Mins.; Full 86th Street, N. Y. Seven song-writers get together in this turn for a fairly novel and pleasing act Maybe it's a bit too brazen and maybe there's a bit too much 6f. the self-applause angle, but son?wrlters have always been what they are. In 1922 there was a similar, turn called 'Song-writers Festival' and previous to that still another ciilled 'Trip to HItlahd.' Different: peqple Here and differently handled. ~. Charley Tobias seems to be the heap big chief qC the present turn. He's holding the center sta^e almost all the time and he does most of the singing. Which Is oka}' becaUse Charley has more stage presence than any of the other lads having Wandered around in an act' of his own for some time. Layout has four o£ the writers, ■Vincent Rose, Sidney Clare, Percy Wenrich and Al Sherman, at grand pianos, which means a plenty crowded stage. Standing up in front are Al Lewis (Sherman's . writing partner), Murry Mencher and To- bials.. Starts by .a little Introductory song all around, with bows for all the boys. Lewis then sings his song .'Tomatoes Are Cheaper' and Tobias follows, with an acceptable EMIdle Cantor Imitation of the same number.' At this stage the lads really get busy talking and singing about themselves. Rose, who evi- dently doesn't sing, is announced as the writer of 'Avalon* and Tobias Sings several choruses of other songs by him. Levis'sings the sbrigs he and Shermaia wrote. Others all sing three or four choruses from songs of their own, with Tobias and Lewlis joining In after the start-off to help out. All got plenty of nice applause hand-outs and the stuff seemed to go pv^r at this house. Interesting to note is that Percy Wenrich's ancient 'When You Wore a Tulip' got almost as hlg a, hand as Tobias' 'Sonriebody Loves Tou,' which Is leading song sales currently. Lewis and Sherman's '99 Out of a Hun- dred' was another nice applause grabber. Call it a freak act, but with suffi- cient entertainment value to click. Kauf. JOE WONG Talk, Songs 13 Mins.; One Academy, N. Y. Early last year Joe Wong was around Avlth a Chinese inandolln band. Later he discarded this for a double act with Miss Futni. Cur- rently Wong branches out as a single, but retaining most of those bits which be used in his preceding acts. This single Is by no-means new, Qlbeit this booking placed. Wong around the metropolitan sec- tion for the first time: Wong Is an amiable Chinese youth with a cute personality that gets him over. His material is a hodge- podge of a few song Imitations and some chatter. Imitates Coluinbo and Crosby, and though vocally dif- ferent, Itas their delivery and phras- ing down to a fair degree. A hot song number and a bit of would-be hoofing closes. ' Gets oyer on his personality, but nevertheless, gets over. PALACE FABER and FORD 'iNTERRUPTIONS' 14 Mins. in One 86th St., N. Y. Aman.and girl working a.galnst the house curtains with the general idea that the girl is a stooge trying to get a chance. She goes for the giggle. stuff and handles It nicely, with the man feeding and not doing much else .other than to give the women a treat. He feeds effectively, and the jokes click over. Girl winds up in ti|rhts, displaying a pretty flsure in a nj&at costume, and tights lnstead_irf-1Jare legs a treat. Notrparticularly strong, but used here /well down on the bill to make a set, and it held up.•' On heavier billV probably will not rate better two or three. Formerly Faber and Wales. PARKER WEINBERG (4) Hokum, Singing, Dancing 14 Mins.; One and Two (Special) Hippodrome, N> Y^ Salmagundi of hoke; stooging, songs, dances- and talk blended to- gether for results that should prove satisfaction with the fatxilly trade. The hoke is effectively separated froin the legit, but there isn't much of latter. Weinberg Indulges considerable talk, playing straight mostly for his stooge and the aero dancer-looker, A second girl is on the payroll for comedy Xing purposes. Plenty laughs come from that as Wein- berg and the other girl are down front,, latter doing an acrobatic, spe- cialty of merit. Male stooge works on the order of Freddie Sahbom. In a dance number he scores heavily. Hoke Includes a little of. nearly everything, plus the prat-kick with the girl on the receiving end. Did fairly well at this big house. ' .. . Char. MURANO, GIRTON and GLORIA Cycling 6 Mins.; Full (Special) 86th St, N. Y. Murand and Glrton were once an acrobatic team that closed with some cycling. . Now it's a trio and there's stiU a bit of hand-to-hnnd, but it's the Wheel stuff that counts. Okay all the way as an either- ciider. I Tricks nrc mostly routine, but nicely handled. One nice trick held for the closing has a girl turning a romplete somersault bicycle and all via the use of a teeter board and , lablo, . Kauf. DEMNATI HARLEQUINS (6) Acrobatic 8 Mins.; Three (Special) Hippodrome, N. Y. , A not very exciting, but well pre- sented, acrobatic act, with members of troupe as clowns. They merely flirt with a couple attempts at com edy, sticking mostly to endurance work, tun'kbling, combinations, etc Passes^for medium time. Running time is a little long and routining not as smooth as might be desired, with tumbling, bits .stuck In at random. Tumblinlp fot the clcje .slower than It might be. Closed show here. . Choir, Oakland's Added 2 Days San Francisco, April 11. M. L. Markowitz putting Saturday and Sunday vaude into his Pre-.nier, Oakland. Bert Levey' booking. The chicken crossed, the street and the comics were seen with ladles that weren't ladies, pniy their wives, plenty at the Palace Sat- urday afternoon. 'Twas the open- ing performance of the new Palace bill; and it won't go down in hiistory as the worst, because it won't go down in history at a\l. At five o'clock, when all good lit- tle bills should be on their w&y to Buffalo, the second half of this one was just getting started. A bit later Ben Blue said It w.** almost Sunday, and that was next to clps- InB, but the final curtain was still further away than a last half in South America. At 5:30 the actors were still there, but the audience had departed. There was quantity galore, though all but a few of the matineel customers seemed to pre- fer quality. Only a few rows left before the last turn was over, which meant a" blow lor the word-of- mouth this. week. Too bad, because this show ne'eds the help' of all pos- sible goodwIU and comment if ever one did, Pola Negri: Is the headllner at the (3 top Palace-after playing the 85c Paramoiunt down the street less than a month ago. . If Miss Negri draws she'll be the first fliin name to have done so at the Palace. Julia Sanderson and Frank ^rumlt, absent from vaudeville for a long while but gainerd of a radio rep in the meantime, may do most of the drawing If any, but both top names are problematical tor the Palace. Miss- Negri scored. '■ Her lines are more suitable to the Palace acous- tics than those of the larger Par, The .layout should warm the hearts of dramatic sketch advocates .who aren't too old to still advo- cate with twb present this week. Bert Lyteli Is aealn doing 'The Val- iant' just as he did back in '23 and numerous times since, with this sketch again more of a personal en- hancement for the player than an aid to a vaudeville bill. It uses Seven minutes to plant a two-min- ute Idea before the star walks on, then takes 20 more to settle the argument. Lytell Is afforded an opportunity to '~un the whole emo- tion scale, and he milks t' e script like a dairy iinald. As usual, it sent Lytell to new applause heights, but it didn't help the show's pace. Milton Berle is m.c'lng on a re- turn trip, and .. though he seemed chiefly responsible for the long run- ning time, the nervy kid sold him- self aU over again with this sup- posedly sophisticated audience. Most of his gags are older than Gaston: Palmer's juggling routine,, which deuced, but Berle h_s a way with him, and they like lilm. Ex- cepting that he crammed most of his stuff into the flrst part, Berle conducted himself like a vet -who knows . everything worth knowing, including gags—everybody's. Working between all the aets,- Berle uses Madeline Kllleen, who used to do her own turn, f. • a sorig- and-dance bit in one spot and an all-glrl troupe of eight stooges In another. Latter arc remnants of Berle's regular turn, which was dis- carded for the Palace engagement. They're a novelty, although the ma- terial isn't. Charlie King also has a first part spot, singing a half dozen numbers out In 'one,' with Bob Hamill at the piano. He's acting and looking more like George M. Cohan daily, which Isn't a bad Idea for a mimic, but not for King, who has done okay up to now being himself. They liked him Saturday. Jay Seiler and Frances Wills, combination of a good eccentric dancing boy and a corking contor- tion dancing girl, are a helpful opener, since the flrst show stopping moment occurs in this starting act, early enough. It's caused by Miss Wills' speclaltj'. / If ainyone had told "aston Palmer a month ago that he would play the Palace this week he probably -would have had the guy pinched on In- sanity-charges. But here, he is. No. 2, but nevertheless here, and doing pretty fine. To those who remem- bered palmer after his long absence from these parts he must have been quite a surprise; to those -who didn't remember he probably seemed new : arid novel. He derives more entertainment value from missing tricks than the average juggler does from perfecting them, a3> he makes all the misses register for laughs. A neat 13 minutes, Sanderson and Crumlt (New Acts) used 30 minutes In closing the first part and drew a mitt plus flowers. The newsreel and rest stall were trimmed in the emergency. By the time the customers reached the lobby for a smoke they were ad- vised to return to their seats. That gave Miss Negri almost as miny walk-ins as the Blanche Calloway colored orchestra, closing, had walk-out. She's under New- Acts also. Ben Blue is sandwiched between the Misses Negri and Calloway and a couple of Berle bits. He's using a rearrangement of his comedy danCe roiitlnes, with one new bit added. Mary Lynn is sub-billed and the title is 'Meet the Wife,' al though there's a blonde ln<the net also. Two stooges -complete the cast. Blue was a big hit, as usual despite a slow start through the handicap spotting. He's one of the Palace standards by now. The idea ia&y be that It they don't grab some of Lou Holt2's business they can at least do his stuff at the Palace. There are no moral HmUs here this week, with the boys golne as far as they can without musclinc in on Minsky. It doesn't sound possible that Holtz, who is dolnjc business up at. the opposlsh HoUv. wood, is also booking the- Pallacci but there are sidewalk reports. , Amidst the flock of stalles pass. In& as bomiedy here currently a bit of Irony presents itself In the Ben Blue act. One of the stooges is Bar- ney Dean, a -wit of note^within the show N business. Maybe: there's something to ^hat the boys on the 47th street beach call 'the breaks* at that. . Bige. dominion; LONDON London, March 29. Charles Gulliver has taken ^com- plete control of the Dominion for Moss Empires, of which lie is ono of the trio of naanaglng directors. Policy of the theatre has at lost been definitely fixed. It involves elaborating the presentations, plus a feature film and a few trimmings. First presehtiettion, -week start in? March 28, Is Dora Maughan's idea. It consists oC Dpra, Stanelli and his band of 17, who are as good as most stage bands around; the Sixteen i)on>inoes, a house troupe of dancers, Fraksori, -who toured America some seasons back, Bobby Olrac, here making his flrst West End appearance, and Eda Peel. Show, which Is dubbed 'Dominion Diversions,' scored a good break by opening holiday week, playing to capacity. Running 75 minutes. It exceeded its real time by a quarter of an hour, but even then was not boring. The enUre cost was about $1,7S0, ^200 more than budgeted, but worth it. It ranks easily about the best of its kind seen In London. Stanelli, once Stanelli and Edgar in the States, did his usual act, haying rejoined his old partner! Dora Maughan, besides doing her act, did a mistress of cereriionies very well; She refrained from mov- ing off and on too much, leaving Stanelli to^ handle the introductions very frequently. Eda Peel; who has been cabaret- ing around London' for some time, is no Ginger Rogers, as claimed by Dora, but is good enough here. . . Qlrac has personality and . can dance. His elocution owes alle- giance to I<ondon Cockney, which is a serious drawback. Earnest study might make him a real proposition. With the exception of. Miisa Maughan, the band and Eda Peel, who stay four weeks, the show will change -weekly. Miss Maughan's major triumph la In discovering local talent. Paramount, Newark Newark, April 9: They liked best in this sh.bw a col- ored boy who isn't even named. He's with Irving Newhoff arid at tlie end of the act does some acro- batic stepping In an original fash- ion. Light-footed and easy, he tied the show In a knot. Ironically enough, Newhoff takes the encores and sings and recites a semi-tragic number! However, he, finally calls the dusky stepper out, who re- peats. Newhoff's act amounts to little otherwise. He appears as a teacher "with a pupil for some ques- tlon-and-answer stuff and his 'pu- pil' wins with an harmonica solo. Newhoff does well with his song, but everyone is looking for the colored boy. There is plenty of entertainment, elsewhere on the bill. Hap Hazard with a girl fools a little and erects a wire on which the girl performs. Hazard follows skipping rope on the wire. He also climbs a ladder bal- anced on the wire, jumps a line of knlyes; and dances with noncna- lanoe. Besides his skill' he hais a nice sense of comedy. Bento Brothers and Rita are brief with some balancing, .icrobatics and risley work. The brothers balance head-to-head for an Unusually lone time, and do other dlfllcult feats. . Peggy O'Neal and coriipariy, a dance act, use their, own set sug- gesting a hotel. A girl dressed as a bare-legged bell-hop introduces two girls and later a yoUng riian, who dance nicely. The bell-hop sings and dances, and they end with all five steppinr. It's mild, but it sat- isfies. A real novelty here Is George La- FoUette. protean artist arid magi- clan.. He starts with a sketch in which he plays several character.s first changing back of a screen and then making several chqinges by simply turning around in fell view; With his company he causes char- acters to dL-^apijear and reappear in cabinets. As a: magician he does one soriea of tricks with small proi)9. alternatlng -with cabinet stunts. His best .cabinet illusion brings several covered figures out of the cabinet and leaves them downstage. \N'lieri the last Is uncovered It is LaFolletle himself. Feature 'One Hour with You' (Par) and house jartimed.