Variety (Aug 1932)

S2 REVIEWS Tuesdaj, August 23, 1932 PALACE, CHICAGO : (Continued from page 31) posed In the deuce with Fred San- lK>rh. He scored abUdly. Three Cossacka, a whirlwind act, opened and sent the bill ofC- at a gallop. This Is a roller skating turn that ought to stitcessfully overcome any booklQg prejudice against skaters for they are the essence of good vaudeville and present, their stuff in a thoroughly modern manner. Five shows Saturday, first time since last spring. Lono. ORPHEUM, MPLS, Minneapolis, Aug.. 2?, These KKO OrpheUm bills , still continue to improve each week, The current show shapes up along con- ventional lines, but affords extreme- ly agreeable diversion of a fairly varied characteri > It offers isonie new. faces and ' at least two acts which break away from the usual entertainment patterns. The one fault thit some cus- tomers, may find is an entire lack of belly laughs and less comedy generally than one expects of vaudeville; But the show's com- pensatory advantages of a high en- tertainment level more than offset any. such possible deficiency. Opening Is ■ the Bobbins Trio, 'ottering a familiar routine of roller ekating. There la dancing on the ■^ekates, difficult junip3 and back- / : ward glides;. standout feat for : the'finlsh has one of the nieii whlrl- .: Ing at a breakheck speed with the gtrl in his left arni and the other . mjftle-member swinging by the'ankle' ' ^Snoozen Junior,' lediioated dolUe, . . .te an out-9f>'t)ie-Qrdln&ry' dog act 'and . In.: the deucte spot excel-' lently. The .dog obeys his master's brddr without any apparent cue .. Ku;dah(ie: . Demonstrating that . Sndozer has no'fet^ of the whip, Hla.trainer snaps 6ne In hla direc- tion while commandliog him to step across the stage. The dog Ignores ' ihe cordmand until the whip Is laid down and. the ttialner says 'please.' .^■A iffood piece of shdwmanshlp. r^'^f Murray Ijane directs six mouth- : iorgan^ and an accordion player, combining: comedy ■ with - the pop inielodlea invfe pleasing act.' The ybiing. men In Bowery garb play ■ wpU.enough to capture audience ap- plause.. A <colorea midget Is knocked ahout for comedy.:. The same mid- get contributed a couple of fast dances. They-went strong for this . ,: iM5t. ■ ' ; Jordan and Woods, two youthful ' .aewcpmem Jiere, with. peraonajUty ... aind titl^nt to bum, occupy the'heiad- ' Jltaa position and easily merit the' top billing. Here'A a different sort •t act because 6e th« way it's put together. . The. two young men, working through mikes and' with one at the piiano, offer burlesque of the vtitldus poptUat tadlo pregrams. Their patter, u amusing and their Impresslonji of-.the ether stars are ' 0tartUngly acoiirate. - The pair have ah ingratiating sense of humor that disarm* crlUciraoi of a few blue lines. Both boys alhg well. Oiie - Impresslpit is blended into another, Without any 44terrUptlon.' This Is '•a show stopnei'here. Roy and Romero present a meri- torious dance revue to close the show. There are tour pretty girls ' and two young men'and all rate as good dancers. .> Costuming "and staging have class, as does the per- formers' appearance, creating the desired flash eltect, < There's some adagio business that boasts novelty, one matt whirling a' girl Into the arms of the other. The dance aore- iMitics find the men In full dress and two of the girls In evening gowns. .'American Madness^ (Radio) the iCeature photoplay, and a dandy. Also on the aoreen a comedy and Pathe News. A large house ut this late evening show. Beea, dialect olown, as its excuse for be- ing. Best of the show doesn't so much matter. The Pisano . pair make 'em laugh, principally by the not-so-subtle device of doing a. par-, ody for the finish, with the comic beating a bass drum. Rest of the bill's pp.ttern Is as usual. Acrobatia in the . person of the Patcheka Troupe open. Four men and a girl, nien doing somer- saults from a; spring board into two- and-three-highs and making a fea- ture of a double in the air landing in an arm chair held on an ulider- stander's shoulders. Oirl princi- pally dresses the stage. . Standard small timers. - ^ Honan and Arden are a sister act ,workihg:-No.. 2, tall blonde girl at the piano and a sprightly brunette girl doing numbers and 'impres- sions.' They did extremely well in the spot. Dark girl has a first rate bit in an impression of Zasii . Pitts, bringing to mind tiiat this screen-: player' is a. capital subject. It's a. wonder . she isn't imitated more. This girl's rendering' of her eccen- tricities is capital. . She also does' a BHl Robinson, accompanied by a spirited bit of tapping, which, makes the number' rate the finish spot in place of a Chaplin imitation which doesn't belonig at all. . ' ., That leaves the closing spot to be accounted for. It has the Ouy and Pearl Megley Teyue, a loosely ar- ranged dance affair that has several engaging mbhiehts but is! a shape- less.'/ .arrangement which doesn't build and . heeds tightening up; Ainiing at .a varied dance presenta- tion'the little troupe of six have just thrown a number of Ideas' together. Opening with a Chinese bit by the principals, two girls go Immediately into a tap routine. With a. change of back drop the Megleys have a ga- votte' or waltz, girl wearing hoop skirts and man costume: of the minuet days. There Is another lieajp to a trim yoUng glirl doing startling contortion, stepping .and again the scene shifts to a ritzy hotel bar pre- sided over by a Negro who doeia' a first rate bit of buck and winging as an introduction to the principal pair's tangd finish. Revue is just a, jumble Without high lights or bUild to a climax, although all the different people,'do Is nicely ex- ecuted. . . . Ritsh. a. landscaping, grand pipes and' showmanship. But why she should submerge her own Individuality to do imitations Is a questiopu ' Wilfred DuBois opened the show neatly enough with his juggling and his centrifugal-force tricks. But that triple finish is a mistake, since the audience is each time convinced the act is over, only to find DuBols hopping out of the wings again for more. , , 'Crooner' (FN) feature and six Hearst, news-cuts. Business was excellent. , SCALA, BERLIN Berlin," Xlig. U. Much danclQg show in the hew Scala variety bnl. The star is Lur cille-Page, with a prop dinosaurus she-has beeh using: elsewhere. She does not lieed such accesories. ' Starr and Jenkins, first-class step- pers; rate as notables. Falls, Read- ing and Boy show thrilling iacro- batid dances. Gerlys and Dysla are an average dancing number. A sec^ ond Iiucilie Page number is 'Little Morning Dance/ sensational acro- batic and. c6ntortion bit.. - Alfred Gondrell . introduces the numbers as cohferehcier with points well framed for the Scala public. Claire Waldorf . covers the Berlin side of the performance. The clowns, Cairolo, Pofto and Carletto, bring in a circus angle contrasting with the Ilalian singer, Mara Frati,.an artistib highlight. , Enos Frazere on the wire rope with thrilling JUmps and, and. AussI and Czech, whip manipulators, com- blete the bill. Magnns. Cenfxaey, Baltimore Grand Opera House At two bits Saturday aftempon-:- It's 16 cents for ladies, by the way— the Grand Opera House Is a buying opportunity, with its four medium grade acts ih the stage show and a double feature on the screen. May be the Chelsea district .doesn't know tt Is a bargain! This mid-summer Saturday afternoon house was well filled on the loweir floor and fairly- well bdcupied on the first shelf, the old-tltnw being one of those with three levels. Pictures, of course, are more Im t>ortant than the acts and get pretty much all. the marquee and lobby ^ display. . Pair of films oh this lay out were 'Almost. Married' (Fox) and 'Millioh Dollar Legs' (Par), both of them fairly recent Broad way pre-releases. Grade. of film fare at the house seems to have stepped up lately as. Indicated by the tra:iler8 for coming attractions wiilch list several of the more re pent main stem better grossers. Routine four-act bill baoks up the pictures. Nothing out of the or- dinary in the offering, except for the arrangement, which makes sure of a click by getting a solid laugh number next to closing In Fred Pisano and Co. with the familiar Traftto' sketch, which Is based on the surest of all surefire hoke, PARAMOUNT, N. Y. (Contlyied from page 30) booking for, thfe absent Hal LeRoy, who do a brief dance session. Girls, posed about till now; are' off, with liO'wry lAfreducing Marjorie White, 5TH AVE., SEATTLE Seattle, Aug. 17. Ijbangf unit, Fatochon ft Marco production, is a well-balanced stage show with dance aiid comedy as the. high spots. It has a name drdw that means something at the box office. Giida Gray, imlstress of shimmy and savage rhythm, star- ring. 'Guilty as Hell' (Par) is plx fare. Betty Shilton, . organist at this house and well known for broad- casts, has a following,. Same goes for Jules BUffano and his band boys. It's 'Laugh Week' all over Fox West; Coast, so band opens in 'Laugh Overture,' boys masked; crack jokes. Jules tells a shady story which is the pnly thing that , will make one of the laughless lads laugh. Leiaider also puts over a song number with a smile, typicial, and then all the bbys roar in laughter. The unit has a number of black- outs, none so very blUe. Lighting is used In spots and panels to ex- cellent effect. • . Miss Gray In pajamas In first blackout.Is Interviewed by reporter, and she- shows sample of love- making as ih the pictures. Roy Cumoailngs, comedy lead, in another blackout gags a little; remindful of director on 't1>o oot. Then Miss Gray sings 'torch' song, putting the number over, .though she's a dancer. She fiips a cig neatly, too. Line girls and three Crosby brotheiti In steps that run a little too long to maintain speedy tenipo. Cummings in his crazy gags with Florence Roberts, shapely lass^ pulls down the drop he frequently climbs on, and the house, too. Fields and Bell 'fight for. fun' and rate okay tumblers. The big boy, nearly eight feet tall, walks oh to push these fellows over and step one or. two for novelty laugh; . Then the Ubangl girls in wild attire and hotcha steps steam the air for Miss Gray's spubrette from the late 'Hot-Cha! J Alluring anatomical exercise, which for her .own song-and dance Inter-is neatly, and sensuously done in lude, varied by free-hand joshing GIJ?* Gray's artful manner, with Lowry and all of it amusing I The 'Ubangl'. idea does not ma- Runs Into plenty of comedy rough- terlallze until toward the cUmax. house In which the blonde proves « " nicely atmospheric, with she can hold UP her own end of apropos sets and costuming, as well a slakn-bang melee." Dance-off fin- as rhythmic steps and wiggling, and Ish puts a period to a nice moment *" dancing for the windup Baltimore, Aug. 19.; Vaude gdts another recruit In this sectiozi, and. pne that's certain to add plenty prestige to the rehabili- tation x>f that!type^of entertainment.. For the switch of the Century from- presentations to vaude Is equivalent to similar action,on the part of, say, the Chicago or. the N. T. Paramount. This house wds ace. unit spot of the burg, playinj^ Loew and latterly Fahchon & Marco shows.' Of late; since the. click of vaude at the indie Hippodroiue, this arena had fallen into the liabit of billing Its regrular F. & M. units as vaude. For th'at:xeason. it seems Incoh-: sistent to find theP house, which has been advertising Its presentations as vaudevUle, this week of all weeks, forgot.all about the word 'vaude.' Loew's . city manager. Bill Saxton, explains the' abse'nce of the vaude plug, by the fact that next week brings the 'Rio Rita' tab to the stage. The week following, how ever, the big splurge on vaude ez-^ ploitation is predicted. Booking of 'Rio Rita' next week is blamed for the weakness In run ning of ttie current vaude bllL The show worked under hea'vy physical handicaps; there were no real vaude drops, the lights were awry for acts in 'one,' the stage waits were long. All this on the first performance. Lat^r defects were probably cor- rected. Reason for the bad lights, lack of drops and general disarray on the stage Is that the theatre didn't want to go to the trouble of setting^ Up lines and paraphernalia backstage for vaude. this week, only, to knock it all down' the following stanza; when 'Rita' arrives. Georges Carpentler, flash act, headlined,-was a h'oi>eless affair. So slight was the entertainment that this easy mob started marching out in the middle of the turn.: Fot^r girls ih pink dresses and in line cannot mean a'nything here when this hpuse has been accustomed to the regula- tioh 12 and 16-girl lined in. the unit. Sock of the show came next to closlhg, when Mills, Kirk and Mar tin dlsiwnsed mad hokum and knpckabout comedy. This turn is reminiscent of bits in other comedy knockabout acts, but the laughs are still here: Solly Ward In the middle of this fivei-aet layout and disappointing. Ward has better materiflil than this stowed awaif' in the' trunk.; As sisted by a couple of fommes. Ward is doing a turn'involving the wife- and-prettyroutside-attractlon rou tine. On his Own, for the encore. Ward, dragged Out an old-time com edy tune number, and, while not at all worthy of Ward's acknowledge* ability, was nevertheless the best of the turn as ffir as this audience was concerned. " In the deuce was Lillian Shade, something of a newcomer to the provinces. Miss Shade has practi cally everything it takes—perfect s of easy to take comedy. Donald Novis, prize winner In re cent Atwjater Kent contest, is Intro duced i^t some length and. gets the benefit of net production surround- ing him. Sketchy set of a balcony has him i>osed appropriately with a girl fh evening olothse as the backgrounding for a love song, with mere suggestion of action to OAXLAIID OKPH DEAL San Francisco, Aug. 22. Deal is on to return the Orpheum, Oakland, to Fox Films,. owners of the house. RKO has been operating since house was built several years In N u m go with It' At the end stage closes ago. In and the . tenor comes down tol . Fox now I^as four Oakland houses sing two more numbers into a mike, j One of them, the Paramount, is choosing'Trees'ho novelty but good I flark. selection to show off his fine voice, and 'Night When Love Was Bom.' Young man has a rich and sympa- thetic vocal style and an attractive, artless manner that won him his way with this crowd to ah enthu' slastio reception. - Strains of the last song carry on for the line girl's number, slinky dance routine in long, . clinging dresses, with -Karre, Noyes and Le' Baron, adagio trio, on for. that spO' cialty, and all sightly, both the spe- cialty and the girl baickground, All flash stuff is off for the next ten minutes, "whUe Mitchell and Durant, the socking acrobats, com- mit-mayhem t>n each other for a continuous roarr climaxing with an encore in which Lowry gets himsell^ mixed In as an Innocent bystander who^ as usual, '-gets his. Knock- about pair were beautifully placed to give the show jUst the touch of low comedy it .needed and they marked the high point of the - stage show. LoWry then goeg into his single specialty, which proved rather less successful than his incidental ac- tivities up to then. Started with a trick bit for an impersonation of Harry Ribhman doing 'Vagabond Song,' pretending Rlchman was in the wings and fringing on his ongi head, the audience disappointment when they found It was only a stall. Couple of gags with the pit men went well enough, but his travesty stuff , with a kid ballad and a gag blackface baby doll was anyr thing but subtle. Looked as though Lowry overreached in an effort to top hiii earlier and better funnl- ments, which had all the advantage of seeming to be effortless and Finale Is a colorful ensemble built around the line girls in bril- liant red dresses for a 'Minnie the Moocher* Idea done under velienient red lights for a smash hit of pic torlal .staging. A greatly diminished pit crew under Irvln Talbot apparently yt&a figured as needing some build. Tp which end Beatrice Belkin, cclpra- tura soprano, was used as the cen- tral figure 6f a scene from 'Mlgnon,' score of which was the overture selection. Stilted staging. for ; a number- not calculated to stir great interest in a jazzy cliei»tele such as the Paramount's, though they gave the singer's high note the tribute of heavy applause, Feature Is 'Devil and the Deep' (Par), screen problem play calcu- lated tq satisfy, so that it was an all-around • enjoyable entertainment, to which eixcellent business on the opening session testified. Rush, FOX, BROOKLYN Brooklyn, Aug. 19. "With the Paramount across the '■- street making a heavier sitluro-e than ever this week and the Albee around the corner holding its own. the best the Fox has to offer is an anaemic Fanchon & Marco unit and a second-rate ihdependent film that ought not to have seen the light of day putside feature grinds. F.' & M. Idea this week is called 'RhapsPdy of Rhythm.' It features, in quite big lett'ers outside the theai tre, a girl named Betty Ftaser, But becaUse she wasn't feeling well or some other reason Miss Fraser ap- peared only for a half minute at the end of the show and mildly warbled one chorus. Included Irt the unit are, Paul Sydell. who works very nicely-with three clever 'acrobatio pups, and ' Johnny Bryant, a clever whistler,; Foster rnd Van are either an ex- ceptionally good boy and gflrl dance team or a comparatively anaemic - pair of colored boys trying to be funny. Whichever they are, the other team la Crawford and Caskey. Confusion as to Identity is the usual thing, rather than the exception at this thieatre. where no programs are. given and where there are no an- nunciators or any other manner of Identifying' turns. That completes the talent with the exception of a dozen fairly capable and fairly pretty dancing girls. Thing is slop., piiy staged 'With tasteless costumes and scenery, but the talent involved works hard to make it seem pre- sentable. » Somiewhere about center the the- atre spotted'ah additional act, the Delivery. Bbys; from radio. They do one of thbse radio imitation acts with . the heaviest "of the : pair at- , tempting to be cute. Well, that's an idea, but how much a radio act ■■ .means when the audience isn't told who they are Is another question. Screen feature is 'Unholy Love* (Hbffmian). Fox newsreel, a Freddy Mack overture .sans Freddy Mack', and a - Fred. KIngsley organlog. round out what the house fondly hopes is competition. Or maybe the management thinks that there's no Use trying. " KauJ. B£ADINa BLAZE . Reading,* Aug. 22, 'While 400 . people 'Watched the' screen in the .600-seat Central the* atre at Ephrata, Pa., last. night (Sunday), a fire, startihg In., thto' projection bpoth, spread through the celling to the fear of the build* Ing and before it was checked, gut* ted the theatre. Building was 'va«; cated without panic, . Joseph Brenner, Philadelphia* owned the structure. liOss, f10,000^ OUT SOON 1 8TH ANNUAL ben Tell All the SKow Business j^Jjout Yourself The Opening of tfie Season 00 Advertising Copy to Any 'Variety* Office NEW YORK CHICAGO HOLLYWOOD LONDOI^ PARIS