Variety (Sep 1932)

Tuesday, September 6, 1932 REVIEWS VARIETY 29 ACADEMY (Continued from .page 28) Budd, and- thlB week the. Street ginger is the candidate. They like their vaudeville here served up hot and hokey, the rougher and more off,color the betr ter. That accounts, for the per- formance's applause honors going to the deuce spotter, Herman Hyde and Miss Moria, and the mild ap- proval accorded Joe Fejer's latest package of class divertissement. It's the neighborhood, and bearing this in mind as a guiding rule, the RKO booker on the house could help things all around; Snappy start given the occasion by the acrobatic dancing exhibit of the Chevalier Brothers and Alice. That somersaulting wiz of the Che- valier family was as usual the high point of the turn, with the same lad • scoring equally as well with the toe tapping. " Herman Hyde has a flock of trick musical instruments and a kit of off-color gags, and his looker part- ner has the figure and the sinuous wiggle, with the result that they turned out a crack combination for this spot." Kids got a hefty kick out of Hyde's operation of the gimmicks on his violin, flute, bull fiddle, etc.-, arid the oldBters . .chortled expan- sively over his gummy witticisms and honky-tonky humor resorts and the frequent gyrations of the Mona torso. Customers held up the pro- ceedings after the duo's walkoff, to bestow upon them a couple of extra ovations, ' Daphne Pollard was slow in get- ting them warmed up. Finished, smooth touches of the artist as re- vealed in her first two numbers Was a little beyond them, but when she Went rough and tumble with the flirtation scene, abetted by a park cop on the straight end, they were hers, every man, woman and child. It was down to earth hoke and they revelled in it. Still the topnotcher Of comediennes 9f her class. Miss Pollard has something that can hold and satisfy them on all levels of the cultural ladder. Buck and Bubbles found no diffi- culty in carrying them along from the very start Stubby boy's adroit Angering of the keys passed off .without much of an appreciative ripple, but the 'gags, tap dancing and warbling kept the laughs and plaud- its coming in bunches. Boys in- jected into their blues numbers a Yiddish chant that brought a mur- mur of amazement and a special vote of recognition. Smattering tjf walkees when the Joe Fejer musical ensemble got. un- der way. Response was listless un- til the repertoire went popular. To- ward the close of the act, however, one classical number Inspired a substantial response, with the noisy enthusiasm of the few making up for the Indifference of the many. Danoing of the Towns and Knott duo Was a thing of impressive grace and got some recognition, but not as much as it merited, while the prima donnish soprano of Lelana Riviera fared moderately. Odec. GOLDEN GATE, S. F. San Francisco, Sept. 2. Only RKO house oh the Coast boasting stage entertainment, the Golden Gate,- is getting a better break on pictures lately arid busl- : ness is up. Current week, though starting Off with hottest of season's weather, ought to end healthily with U's 'Back Street' pulling. ' Horace Heidt's band, the feature, stage attraction, is playing the Ave vaude acts from pit and closing show with, their own stage turn. This week band does Ravel's 'Bo- lero* with girl dancer, and it's one of the best tunes bunch has done In four weeks here: A number with bottles, glee club offering, imper- sonation of Helen Kane and a mili- tary drill are, other features done by boys, who' are clicking neatly With customers. Heat seemed to sap the ginger out of ticket buyers and five vaude turns didn't cop any applause honors. Bruno Weiss trio opened wlth'acrobatics and pole work. John Bowers, former picture player, was a weak deuce, a kid assistant giving the'act whatever sock it had with banjo, guitar playing and singing. Sharon De Vrles Revue, six girls, two men and Miss de Vries, held trey spot. Phil Rich did nicely with his old man characterizations, an unbilled fem aiding. Hector and pals, familiar dog act, next to shutted, doing well. Bock. DOWNTOWN, L. A. Los Angeles, Sept. 1. -Going.into a twin bill policy, the Downtown has cu'; its vaude bill from seven to five acts. Opening night saw little improvement in business with the house less than a third filled for the initial per- formance. Features are 'Big City Blues' and-'Ride 'Em Cowboy,' both Warners. Vaude acts are poorly selected and spotted. Three singing acts follow in sequence in the middle of the bill. Opening act, McKeown Fam- ily, tumblers, nine people, show a lot of bodies, but little talent.. Clos- ing is the Kiddie Revue, a dancing school act of 15 kids. Youngsters go through the usual kid dance stuff. Outside of the relatives they draw; j.ct means nothing. School is start- ing next week.- Local theatre pa- trons only get this type act during the vacation period, when they are too numerous to be entertaining. Three acts sandwiched in between contain what little entertainment the bill has to offer. Nee Wong iri the deuce spot okay with his fa- miliar uke playing and imitations. Novelty of a Chinese getting hot on rhythym is still good. Mead Anderson and Co. follow. Miss Anderson, a local soprano, is backed by the Sequoians, male quartet which worked in the coast company of 'Girl Crazy.' Vocal rou- tines are the same as the quartet did in the show. With a special drop the act looked dressed up and pleased moderately. Hill and Ammon (New Acts) next to closing, were the hot spot of the bill. Miss Amnion, a torrid blues singer, and Hill, a trick piano player, whammed their way through three numbers. Both are good per- formers and with their present ma- terial should get somewhere. Universal News clips filled out the bill. Call. ORPHEUM, DENVER Denver, Aug. 31. Stone and Strain, assisted by Helen and Elsie Risoll, opened the vauide with an act developed locally at a school of dancing. Turn got. a nice hand. On their entrance, Stone and Strain, men, do a routine and sing 'It's About Time.' One of the femmes enters and does a hardshoe tap, after which boys- sing. Drop parts showing college < layout with 1915 Ford smeared with wisecracks. All four do novelty dance, sing and go into dance fadeout. With a little more work this act would do. Harrison and Elmo are back with their crap game, in which one poses as a greenhorn, and trims the other, getting laughs with the language of the game. Their entrance is clever, One asks questions out of the 'News' and other answers out of the 'Post.' Everyone here knows "how the papers 'love' each other. Femme enters and sings indifferently, but does better in tap . number. All three sing 'Good-bye Blues' and off o. k. Joe Herbert and girl pull some chatter, some of it old, do a little of this and that, and close with dance. Baby Rose Marie, radio star, gets over, but was handicapped by se- lection of songs. Floyd Gibbons, fastest talking human .in the world when ori- the radio, an interesting item. - - Said that on radio .usually had 10 to 13 minutes and rehearsed several times In order to get in all possible, but on the stage he had more time arid too fast chatter would get all tan gled up. His talk had to. do with personal experiences in China' and Washington during the China-Jan and bonus wars. He spoke for over half an hour and held 'em. His radio appearances have done Floyd plenty of. good from a publicity standpoint. The' House record for the time Huffman has had the Or- pheum was broken on the opening day and holdouts were rule all week: West 'Masters pleased with an other of his uniformly : good organ solos, and Howard Tillotson and or chestra furnished excellent music for the vaude: 'Hold 'Em Jail' (Radio) credited with a share of the nice gross. GRAND O, H., N. Y. This spot compares. In. operation with the Palace, Broadway. The G.O.H. spots third run film product, while the Palace is now Broadway's third run vaude spot, playing acts after they show at Loew's State, Paramount, Capitol, Roxy or all. The G.O.H. screen currently is Metro, but the vaude is indie. Single screen feature is 'Washington Masquerade' (M-G). This and a Zasu Pltts-Thelma Todd show makes the spot look like a Loew house. In other respects the Grand runs like any regular combo except when it doubles features. Acts present include Al Gordon's Dogs,, Bobby Bernard, Dance Olympics and Ray- nor Lehr. Dance Olympics (New Acts) is a girl dance flash. Bernard now duets, this time in comedy chatter and songs with a brunet. He used to tour with three assist- ants in a comedy skit. Late afternoon show on Saturday (3), change day, didn't provide as enthusiastic an audience or as big a one as has been seen here. Might be due to the Labor Day holiday. However, if the audience, which comprised a goodly number of kids and women, was not enthusiastic neither was the stage talent. Lehr has been seen to better results. Here with a couple of stooges, Lehr would fare better if absenting him- self from the stage during some of the stooge episodes. Opener Is Gorden's dogs, doing the usual. Gordon fronts in full, hounds appearing according to sig- nal. Okay turn which could meas- ure better with decent lighting. Vaude ran to 43 minutes with news- reel and trailers rounding out. Ehan. PARAMOUNT, N. Y. (Continued from page 27) ' Lilly' ditty of Mahoney's. Except at the opening, where it belongs, Eddy Duchln's band goes to work to furnish the stage band accom- paniment for the rest pf the show. Whole motif of the unit is radio, announcements of acts coming over the amplifiers and main setting, atop a building, passing for a broad- casting pen on atmosphere, It's effective all the way. Mahoney's routine is substantially the same as in vaude, with little knuckling down on tiriie. On top of the 'Lilly' vocalthenics, there's the floppo dance material and the xylophone number. His is one of the few acts that isn't lost in the quarter-section operi. spaces of big picture houses. Even Mahoney's' personality reaches to the arctic- cooled loges where people, are Wish-. ing they had their overcoats with them, despite getting exercised by laughs.. Price makes a generally smooth showing of himself but could whittle down a little in spots, particularly on announcement bits. His trio adagio spasm, with the gill-size Price as the gal, is his strongest moment. Okay on his impersona- tions too; .five of 'em. Early they're of Ed Wyrin arid Harry Rich man on bits. These are the best, followed by Chevalier, Cantor and Jolson. Nothing even approaching nice smut anywhere in the proceedings. Maybe it's because the air has taught most of its children to be clean. : Of the radio talent, only- one, Novls, is from NBC. Mills Bros, arid Stoopnagle and Bud are exclu- sive CBS attractions, while Price; origirially: on CBS, for Chase & Sanborn tea, has just taken on C. & S. coffee, for NBC. Eddy Duchin, formerly at the Central Park Casino has a sweet outfit, but little oppor- tunity. Miss Froos has been on both networks. She did very nicely Friday night. Picture, '70,000 Witnesses' (Par), should materially aid the draw of the stage folks, especially on strength of word-of-mouth. No room for anything else on show ex cepting Paramount News and usual trailers. Char. None of it very smooth. They break nto 'two' for a moment with a springboard contraption for one trick and some fooling. Hardly strong enough to warrant carrying the springboard prop. Finale is back to the opening set, but with most of the.girls as.dwarfs carrying huge baskets of silks which conceal their height. Duval produces more fabric, which is placed in a cabinet back stage. At a shot'this is taken up to reveal a girl in the riildst of billows of silk. Another shot and the baskets break away to show the girls in whlto satin court costumes. Works smoothly and provides one of the best sock finishes in recent F-M Ideas. FOX, BROOKLYN Brooklyn, Sept. 2. Shakeup in the house division of the show at the FOx, Brooklyn, brings back Sam Jack Kauffman as leader and shoves in Rosa Reo as organist. Kauffman is an old fav, at this house, and his entrance Is the signal for a- burst of applause. Another hand-smacking episode when • he finally swings into jazz, and a third demonstration when he goes to the stage for a piano solo, Kauffman clowns it to the taste of the Brooklyn audience and reaches the heights of comedy when he mops his face, cleans off the piano, polishes his shoes and finally, .blows his nose, using the ' same towel. Under it all Kauffman is a sound conductor when not in the limelight arid leads the rest of the show intelligently and without ges tures, but when the spot shines he needs only the zinc-white map. He has all of the .other clown tricks. They don't care so much for music, but they respond to .comedy, so he delivers. Proffered a nice session and pleased. Miss Reo or Rio (they spell it both ways) tries hard, but lacks the magnetism to. project her person- ality. Her. good humor lacks spon- taneity arid does not register. In addition there's the usual Fox news- reel and a Magic Carpet, both pro- jected on- the wide screen. Small stuff fills 41 minutes With the Fan- chori & Marco 'Mystery' Idea doing 34, and 'The First Year' lor the feature,' which probably Is respon- sible for the better than usual busi- ness. Duval, a magician, who is clever with handkerchief production and manipulation, is the feature of the show, sinte it is partially built around his act, though headlines go to Joe and Pete Michon. Wynne Wayne, a blues singer, completes the artistic roster. Opening is a permanent set with a gallery at the rear and a set of modernistic stars, winding their way to the stage with a silver fountain to complete the detail. Opening is a line of 12 girls in black trunkless tights and black lace bodices, an effective set for a routine mostly toe and smoothly designed. Girls are all good lookers and know their footwork. Wynne Wayne is on for a. couple of numbers arid cleans up with 'Kicking the Gong.' Nothing out of the ordinary, but competent, and the crowd went for her strong. Duval.on next for his first crack, simple handkerchief work, but deftly done, though it is riot diffi- cult to perceive most of his pick- ups if one knows where to look. Effective to the general spectator and nicely worked. Line back for a dance in cloth of gold costumes,"' nothing extraordi- nary, but well done, and then a close to 'one' for the MIchons. Sailor costumes suggest the usual thing, but they try to vary their work. Much of the verbal comedy sa?s here, because of the size of the house, and not so hot where it is heard. Mixture'of talk, acrobatics, knockabout and burlesque magic. IMPERIAL, TORONTO Toronto, Sept. 2. Wet weather and the annual Expo just nosed the Imperial out of chalk- ing up a new house record when the Gaynor-Farrel duo held this house last week in 'First Year' (Fox).. Flicker has gone to the sis- ter house for a second week's run. Knevels' deluxer .has 'Horse Feath- ers' (Par) to follow and still hope- ful of topping the record, an aim that is. feasible, considering that the rear was jammed" with standees at a last show that went on at 9:46. ■ Showmanship technique supports a stage bill that might have wor- ried if not such strong screen fare had been offered. Despite the fea- ture film's draw, Knevels has gone ahead and turned out a workman- like stage bill that gives the cash customers more than they deserve for the six-bit outlay. Prez opens in full-stage with mixed line of six boys and six girls; males in fult dress, toppers and dress coats; femmes as check-girls. They're on in two before a cafe drop with arch for hot -routine and scrim up. for a night-club set, this embellished by mechanical cut-outs of a colored band In heroic, propor- tions. Petch and Deauville go into an eccentric that had a mild recep- tion arid Holland and knight trail for a class ballroom number that scored on flash. Boy Is in talis; girl in black satin trimmed with white fox; nifty wardrobe that adds to the finish of the number. Rudy Kaye is out in one for two familiar pop warblings that have no trouble in scoring and . scrim flies with girl and bby line-up back before the nite club set for a swift eccentric that pleases. Dezzo Retter closes , first- half In his standard self-wrestling act and gets' a nice reception. . Jack Holland and June Knight next in a class rhumba, in which the waltz tempo and movements overcome any attendant torso-toss- ing. Girls and boys back for group lngs as Rudy Kaye into another vO cal. Fritz and Jean Hubert back for a comedy drunk bit with pair in full-dress and identity of latter half of act not guessed until she doffs topper and shakes out golden curls Turn a solid click. Janice Walker out for a solo high-kick bit, Holland and Knight back for a fast waltz routine ,and mixed line back for company round-up. Jack Arthur takes the. baton for an English hunting medley, plt-<band in hunting pinks arid black caps.' No tie-up ! with stage, or screen, but number goes over with the person- ality of the Scot leader. Cartoon,' organesque ' and newsreel plus 'Horse Feathers' (Par). UcBtayr FOX, 'FRISCO San Francisco, Aug. 27. Much has been written and said about selling seats . with trailers. But the Fox manager, Herman Kersken, has a new , twist In his drama trailers that ought to be a tlpoff for other de luxe managers throughout the country. In this show Kersken dramatized trailers for next week's pair of at- tractions, ' '70,000 Witnesses/ on the screen and tab 'Irene' on stage. 'Witnesses' trailer is worked into the newsreel, while behind scrim screen a. football, player on a tread- mill and with neat lighting effects lends punch to the idea. On 'Irerie r Kersken used house's stock vocal chorus of 18 behind a scrim singing exceroi from the show as trailer unreeled. Both caused murmur of comments among audience and sold coming attractions if anything could. Current week's lineup Included Will Rogers in 'Down to Earth' with FiM's 'Town and Country' Idea on'stage and Frank and Milt Britton's band as added attractions. Stage frolic ran 40 minutes with line of 10 girls (instead of F&M's previous 16) doing several novel and difficult routines with basket balls, ropes and hurdles. Brlttons had usual hoke band stuff, including breakup instru- ments, etc. Went well. BrOx Sisters, now blonde, brunette and tltian, pleased with group of har- mony numbers. Novak and Fay got over with comedy aero stuff, and Mildred Perlee contributed pair of dances; Finale was a 'Rain on Penthouse' scene and well done. Walt Roesner's overture was 'Mood Viennese,' medley of Vienna tunes, nicely done.- Bock, PARAMOUNT, L. A. Los Angeles, Sept. 5. ( Nicely . balanced presenatlon that shows class from curtain to curtain. Staging by Danny Dare has the show traveling at a fast pace. Ed- die Stanley, on his first week as in. c, scored strongly and should get a run out of the house. Though most of his material was familiar, tt was sure fire. Ho probably figures that if they laughed at it in 1920, it's still funny. : Opening is minus the usual chorus routine. June. Worth, with an acro- batic dance consisting mostly of back bends, which sold well- Ap- plause carried over to Stanley's next introduction. Sona andLoomifl, male acrobatic tapping arid acrobat duo, followed. Boys should have been spotted farther down in the bill, as they proved show-stoppers. Team is new here and offers main terial that Is fresh. Manual, magician, next with card production. This type of work, usually lost ih a big house, landed neatly through Manual's showman- ship. He only did the one trick. Chorus followed him doing several flower, egg and handkerchief pro- ductions to a tap dance accompantv ment. Manual staged the number. Inez King came forth with a blue" number, accompanied by Georgle Stoll on the violin. Miss King^was just back from a two-week vaca- tion, so received a good hand on her entrance. . Singer is building as • local fav. Stanley and Bonnie Poe .next. Stanley clowned at the piano with Miss Poe, a boop-a-doop warbler having a tough time trying to work ' above him. He finally slowed down, allowing her the final chorus. Evelyn Preer, colored blues singer here three weeks ago, on for the finale. She sang 'Kicking the Gong* With the line backing her up with a hot snake hips. .; House was capacity for the 8 p.m. performance Thursday, opening day. 'Love Mia Tonight (Par) gets the credit. Full house. went for the stage show to. the limit. . Georgle Stbll's pit band romped through a medley of Harlem tunes for the overture to good result*, with Miss King singing one chorusL* When the band moves on the stage; Stoll does not conduct. Leaders personality is missed. He is a fe*» tured' attraction at the* house and should be used to the fullest .'extent. Keeping up this class type stage show should help the house. It'll make friends, though if the picture Is a weak sister, the world'B best stage show means nothing.: Call. . , . ' ■■" / ■ Hollywood (Continued from page ()'. ^ those who owe dues, 25 having faH been dropped for delinquency. 8piegelqlass' 8tory Quest Leonard Splegelglass, Fox atoiS chief, leaves for New York on flj story and play hunt: ' 1 • 8tock to 'Rasputin': : Barbara Baroridess jumps frdflfi .. Cleveland stock into the 'RasputUf cast at Metro. Operating F-WC House Principal Theatres takes F-WC's Criterion, formerly operated as a downtown run house, Sept. £ Policy will be straight sound, secx ond run. Wants 8tory-for Dix Radio wants to purchase 'Jorgea* son' from Paramount for a Richard Dix stellar. . . , '8afari' for Paramount Paramount gets 'Safari,' Pan} Hervey Fox's story of the Nile. Wylie Off and On . Paramount recalls Philip WylH from New York for dialog on Island of Lost Souls/ Another Team on Script Malcolm Stuart Boylan and Haft* vey Gates get a try at ,the script at 'Lives of a Bengal Lancer.' Par has again taken It out of the storehouse, 8ells One, Adapts Another Mayfalr buys- 'Independent Ladles? from Jack Neville, then assigns h*m to script of 'Sister to Judas.' Briskin East Sam Briskin left here for a New York vacation. Harry Cohen goes east on his return for a Columbia directors' meeting around Oct 1, ' Horsley with Bow John Horsley picked out of *) tested for lead in Fox's 'Call H*| Savage,' starring Clara Bow. La it Flies East Jack Lait flew to New York Safe urday (3) after fixing up scripts sold . Charles Rogers and Edd; Small. LeMaire to N. Y. Rufus LeMaire left for New Yo^g to look over. shows and story mafc terial for Fox; For Lowe-McLaglen Both Paramount and Fox **£ looking for stories suitable for Ed- mund Lowe and Victor McLagiejj, Duo to 'Guilty as Hell' (Par);'- "