Variety (Nov 1932)

Tuesday, November 15, 1932 VAII»E HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 39 LONDON PAVILION Libhdon, Nov. 1. ■With one or. two exceptions this peek's bill is about the best since this bouse ,went continuous vaude- ville, program is varied and smooth running. Outstanders are Tommy. Beilly and Billy Comfort, playing first English date; Condos Brothers, returning to vaudeville after season In 'Over the Page,' the renamed Slurray Anderson revUe, and Frak- flon, the Spanish conjuror. " John Southern; in grabbing the Condos, pulled a fast one over Val Parnell of the Palladium and Bertl Aza of the Leicester Square theatre. Both houses: were dickering • with the American hoofers, with South- ern Jumping In quietly and signing them for a fortnight. Cornalla and Eddie are a coluple of 'humpstl, dumpstl' clowns who make a good ppencr. Eddie; the owner of the ■ act, is an American who has been i. around-here for. years. '.3keets* Martin's ■ apt Is a hodge podge of dialect talk, rope spinning, animal imitations and medley of old-time choruses, always a sure exit..;-, liosle lilpyd, of the famous Lloyd family, in typical 'Lloydian' rnate' rial. Including revival of one of sfs ter ^larle's numbers, pleases. Henry Kegal and Partners, re placing Mlchael6fE troupe of.Rus slan whirlwinders, who are billed for the second week here and have ■ not yet. shown upi due to labor per- mit trouble! repeat their recent Vic torla. Palace success. -Fields and -Rossini, with former brother of the more famous Gracie, fiddle, talk, play violin and piano- . accordion and dance to fair returns Nina Dprla, Italian soprano, here long enough to have acquired fair Ehglish accent, Is pleasing in well chosen repertoire. , CQndps Brothers, closing the flrst half, are the. real ebcki doing three numbers and .stopping the show. Cabaret section brings Naunton Wayne, who seems to work better with the material on the bill. After the Pavilion' Angels, the Condos Young Ladles, trained by Frank Condos. Girls are making first ap- pearance, and after a little more exnerience will prove valuable. Vj'ominy, Rellly and Billy Comfort slipped Into iiondon quietly and Im- . mediately proved a revelation. Boys ' have the kind of personality, plus a couple of freaky yet pleasing voices that will stop most shows in Eng land. Act Is a cinch for this side and will stay here, despite barring clauses and other hindrances, as long as they wish. ?raks6n, the Spanish cigarette chewing conjuror, has played RKO a couple of seasons ago', and Is flrst Irate. Earl Carroll' wanted him for x^hl's current 'Vanities,' but could not get together on the money, with Carroll having to take Keith Clark Instead. .haw arid Stanton, with Billy Shaw, an Amerlcaii who has been here for some time, flrst as a chorus boy in Jack Buchanan and Jack Hulbert shows, have nothing origi- nal In burlesque dancing. . Most of their material Is a pinch on Moore and Reval, an Anglo-American ac.t. Harry Roy and his RKOllaiis make an effective closer. Cost of 1)111 is not more than average $4,000 Miss Petty a bit further back In his own routine. Fei'kins (New Acts) acted as m.c. throughout the show and had a swell time of It, He had the audi- ence with him all the way, and then did about 26 minutes on hfs.bwit In the hext-to-shut groove. How good the lad Is (or is it wrong to call a 300-pouhder a lad?) Is shown In the fact that after m.c'Ing he still could do 26 minutes oh his own and have tp beg his way off. Paul Ash and his band (New Acts), doubling In the pit and on stage closed with a half hour's turn that is sheer Joy to watch. It's a nlciely: laid out, routined and musi- cally equipped outfit, and they had no trouble keeping; the audience lur- terested. Incidentally It is a smart note oh Ash's part that he didn't wavC; the l)aton at the boys in the pit. Getting to be a regular thing In vaudO' now, this dpubllng the stage bands Into the pit. But Ash takes the curse ;oiI that by having substitute stick wielder tintll he walks oh stage, and also by having his men don white coats while shifting frpm pit to set. All in all, .despite those, two rough spots. It's, a highly amusing hour and a half pf stage entertainment. 'Rain' (UA) Pccuples the white sheet, as also a Zasu PItts-Thelma Todd twln-reeler, 'Show' Business,' and the Hearst newsreel. Biz F)i day night practically capacity, which Is plenty In this arena.' Kauf. MET., BROOKLYN A splendid show here currently, almost In spite of Itself. Couple pretty bad snags due to choice of .material, despite which the bill Juris along with ease On the billing most of the big ^pe goes to Paul Ash and Lita Grey Chaplin. In the actual,run-ofC It's .pretty much all ^Johnny Perkins, At any rate, It Is all Johnny Per- kins until he vacates the stage to Faiul Ash, and Ash has no trouble Aoldlne: his own Some doubt as to the advisability of booking Seller and Wills and L«s Gellls on the same bill. . Both are better than average, and neither Is ^strong enough to follow the other. Seller and Wills draw the opening assignment on the current lineup, the first reaction on seeing th6m Ib that it's a shame to put them , on so early, they, being too good. 'Their dancing and acrobatics are almost in a class of their own It was splendidly received here. Les Gellls; second, were their usual Buave selves in their rlsley and flanclng act, and had no trouble •"her. Probably they are the ones «nat should have opened the pro ceedlngs, however, being a bit •lower tempo (at least their opening ■umber Is) than Seller and Wills. .I-'ita Grey Chaplin centers the •how and Is In an unfortunate spot «n this bill. Her half dozen songs ■were nicely received and she got nice hand. But as soon as Ruth *'etty came on In the next act (Johnny Perkins) it was apparent that Miss Chaplin was overshad- owed in the singing line. And Ruth Patty's song opens Perkln.s* act. So as soon as Miss Chaplin, with her tleasant but .unimportant contralto. Is through, on romps Petty to do «ome more femme singing and stop- the show. CENTURY, BALTO. GRAND O. H , N. Y. Hoiir before the final stage show started Friday night the b.o. lass was delivering the SRO message with each drop of the" two-bit piece And the cluster of standees around the rear rail both oh the main and upper tiers stayed that way until after the day's .finis vaude parade had run Its course. Well balanced and substantial film bill. pairing 'Downstairs' (Metro) and -'Crooked Circje* (World Wide), four acts that fit neatly with the tastes here and the tap within the means of the cUentile make up the three chap- ters In the G. O. H.'s success story. It's quantity, quality and the right price for the neighborhood.: Headlined on the stage army is one of the myriad Paul Whlteman auditions winners, Ann Lester. In addition to knowing how to sell a song the girl has good pbyslcal presence and a manner that takes. Hers. Is a case wherein perBonallty overcomes by a wide margin the limitations of a vojce. She did a sustaining stretch over"' CBS, but though she achieved nP outstanding acclaim as a. mike artist, the ether contact sufficed to give her some .b.o. value In lesser vaudeville. Spotted In the deuce here, she fed them four numbers in rapid suc- ceisislon through a mike and piled up enough approval to merit two encores. Customers oh this occasion were eaay to . please anyway. Though this same bill most Ukeiy would Just about get by In the classier nab& auditoriums, to this mob it was great all the. way through and no act had any difficulty In un- leashing hefty returns. That In- cluded Bomby and his Gang, dull and stereotyped in Its construction as a parlor singing turn, but right up to the tastes of the G. O. H mob. To Bomby and his foursome went the task of closing the pro ceedlngs, aind the reception the troupe's reiDertolre engendered sur prised Bomby obviously so much so ^hat he couldn't resist exclaiming at the curtain, 'Geei you're marvel ous!' To the regulars here those drapes and the evening toggery wPrn by the troupe meant class and when It comes to appreciating class the G.O.H. fan needs ho cueing. What got the biggest response were the operatic passages. There's plenty of Latin element in Chelsea now-a-days. Fast terpsy turn opened the show a^d a two-girl hoke comedy, act held the next-to-shut st)ot, with the latter, Maddox and Mack, partlcu larly, romping oflE .to prolonged and unanimous applause. Script that the girls did. the serv Ing from was authored by Harry ■W. Conn, the'same lad tfiat pro vides Jack Benny with his gags on the Canada Dry program. But the mess of stuff retailed by the girls had little of rear comedy merit In it. "That is, as far as Conn's con tributions were concerned. But be- tween the team there's a little comic who knows how to go about squeez-* Ing out a laugh and making the most of It. And also, when the act is about to lay a sample of hen fruit to go diving over into the pit and tangle up with the drummer in a .shirt-pulling contest. That re sort tickled them silly here and socked over the necessai-y walkoff acclamation. . Introductory stanza had Lillian Broderlck and a supporting three some in a mixture of ballroom, ac robatlc and tap dancing and some exercise of the pipes. No easy task tossing Lillian Broderlck' around, her partner did it gracefully and was quick to cover up a lot of not so graceful landing. Little blonde in the act can not only toss a nifty pair of tapping tootsies, but has Baltlmpre, Nov. 11. Last week Loew's startled local show business by -suddenly an- nouncing what amounts to about a 26% reduction In admission prices, slicing the top from 66c; to 40c. It was admittedly a move primarily to aid the weakneed run house, the Stanley, where the fluctuations from profits to red Ink are calculated give thie toughest clrcuU operator a serious case. of Jitters before he could say 'Cut.' Three days later the rlvail Hippo- dromp crashed the dallied with a like reduced scale which meets ex- actly the lowered setup of the Cen- tury. Also came ann6uh<;enients of 'new reduced prices' froni all tbe big downtown spots, Keith, New/ the Riyoll. At the last show on Friday on opening day this spot had an excel- lent house, but Just w)iat credit the cut admissions get is not easily allocated since it was Armistice Day, more or less of a holiday. Be- sides, the picture,, 'One-'Way Pas- sage' (WB) held two fav performers and got oke notices. There. hap pened also to be a iilcely headlined and particularly ientertalnlng vaude show. • When Loew's decided' to cut its prices. here. they Immediately de - elded .that the house, of course^ must .dispense with . the $6,00<D and up headllners. By this decision Loew's .has been forced to. pay more attention to the actual entertain- ment value of each turn booked. The' audience went out talking about this excellently bletided bill, and there's no advertisement like word-of-mouth. . Opening bill was the clever dance' and ^rleaqiilrig. tunf, Rita Roycei and company. Basically there are; only two dance numbers to this act, the neat hoofing bit .by the two' Reese brothers and Miss Royce's single tap session. . But the smart Cagglng, especially ' in the opening burlesque minuet routine, showedi that there's, more than one way of doing a dancing and comedy' act. The one weakness in the turn Is the singing by one pf the. girls In the red dress. Perhaps a more tuneful .song would help. In thfe . deuce came one of the headllher a9ts, Rels and Dunn. On their CBS rep. they were safe In their spot and over. Sang three pop tunes arid one comedy attempt, the lattepu their- weakest number but permissible. Commendable as a rarity among radio personal-ap- pearance acts, in that they wasted no time In sfalllhg .or addressing the audience. Iiii their act and out, a snappy style tbat helped. It's no longer Vox and Walters; just Valentine Vox. But that hasn't changed this vehtriloqual turn, even though the pleasant . Georgia drawl of Miss 'Walters Is missed. There's an unbilled femme now handling the other side of the ventrllo stuff, which means. In particular the: cry- ing baby bit, a bit that never seems to miss. More on the real stunt side is the single duet bit by Vox, giving an Im'pression of two voices at the: ^ame time. Vox Is. using a, larger duiininy. so that it looks Hlte a man, ah Impression that spoils a good portion of the comedy that the 'tough kid* dummy used to get out of the same lines. : Again that point of proper billing must be considered. Here are the Michon brothers, next-to-closlng and the walk-away, standout sock of the show.' 'They stopped It. No other act did.' The applause ran over Into "Will Osborne's curtain. Yet there's not a mention of these boys on paper around town. The Mtchon boys have added two new bits, and both are questionable; one is the one-legged .coffin back-drop, the other Is the duck-bill gag. Osborne's band has dropped full dress for plain white suits,-but it's still orchestra that appears slightly bored, probably a reflection of the apparent Osborne attitude. In the closing number they go into knock-about shirt-tearing rough house. Maybe the bored attitude is best after all. Miss Duncan had been preceded- by an eight-minute.stage wait. It is a tribute to her ability that she final- ly found the target and•ended on the bulls-eye. Al K. Hall Will never get out of the traffic Jam of hundreds of Just-? as-good acts so long as he keeps his-'present routine. A little com- edy surrounded by an abundance of unfunny talk and faking specialties undoubtedly represents thP least appealing of recent Al K. Hall of- ferings. His son," Fred Dale, Babe Garen,, and Peggy McAllister pai'- tlcipate in the aenemlc festival of minor giggles. Perhaps it was the Irish temper that flared up at the orchestra that made Charley King give an .exciep- tlonallvvgood performance/ He was working- against a bad start and working mighty hard. King has a pianist in Marion Chase who gives him a fast, solid, versatile musical support. She Is quite an entertain- er. In her own rlgVt and an ideal couiiterbalance for King. Together: King with his name, handsome ap- pearance, vigorouis personality, and voice, and Miss Clmse with her graceful aplomb,; reliable musician- ship,, and general graciopsness, the result was most successful. " • State-Lake has' That's My Boy' (Col) on the screen and not much siex appeal In that. Biz was bad. Land. Might have been a bit ^ - _ fairer from the management's exceptional looks and figure standpoint to ask Perkins to shove I ■ Odec State-Lake, Chiciago Chicago, Nov. 12, One of those opening days when everything goes wrong had Manager Harry (jroldherg and everybody ielse chewing their nails. RImacs Rumba band failed to show up be- cause of an automobile breakdown. Capt. Willie Mauss, the shortest act ill vaudeville running scarcely three minutes opened ' the show. Charles King deucing started a full twp minutes late as the orchestra kept picking up the wrong cues due to confusion in reheart^ls. Everything naturally looked bad and due allowance must in fairness be made for the conditions prevail- ing. However, even with this mar- gin of generosity It's not a bill that can rate much favorable comment. Rosetta Duncan wasted half her time on' ah old-fashioned here-I- am-ydu-remember-me lyrical' intro- duction whlcli led into one of the weakest special numbers she has ever offered, a one cylinder ditty about about a May da.y party for kids. That in turn led to a serious piano solo by ■ accompanist Pat Casey. But the time sh^ got going with her Topsy characterization ACADEMY, N. Y. Pretty sad down herp currently Five skimpy acts, with the amuse- ment value of .the whole down to about niinlmum. - And less thian a fourth, pf the house occupied for the Saturdd^ supper show. Bills down here haven't been any too good for a long time, -and^t's evidently sho.w-. ing .Itself at. the gate. HarrlS'Twins and Loretta,;a fair acrobiEttIc turn, opens. Boys, are twins and as alike as alike can be. Girl is a. pretty brunette. AH'three are capable, but overdo the attempt to be showmanly, giving the turn the handicap of being too. stagey. Lobo. (New Acts) educated police dog, deucing, Clarence Moore, un- billed. Is the trainer and puts the dog through Its paces. Dog was previously with the Horace Heldt stage band, as also was Mopre. It's a good act -of that kind, though opening the show is plenty assign ment. Chase and Latour are an old and old fashiPned act. They've been ai'ound for 10 years and more and still dPlng exactly the same act In exactly the same way. 'When Paiil Gerard Smith originally wrote It, It was funny; now It's very muph de moded. And, as though the act in itself weren't tepid enough, one of the four principals has to sing a song in atrocious- German, no spe cial compliment resulting to those in the audience that use the lan- guage, and a mysterious and wasted minute and a half for the rest. Sammy Lewis and Pattl Moore in a mistaken notion of comedy handle the next to shut spot. They pverdo. the gagging and underdo the dancing. It's the dancing that should really be emphasized for best results. . • California Collegians for the close They're the septet of college lads with that hokum routine that's very funny In spots, but, too. Is begin nlng to wear threadbare. 'AH American' (U) on the screen. Kauf. ORPHEUM, N. Y. Apparently Harold Lloyd's 'Movie Crazy' Is proving a draw in this neighborhood. House Friday night was near to capacity, with half . week's results, if gait of business continues, coming out the best In some tlnie. The stage holds nothing likely to create a change for the better at ' the box office. It's the usual regu- lation vaude bill of five acts, rating not above averae:e in entertainment, less if anything. Opener from the standpoint of neighborhood vaude is one of the best acts oh the show, Gautier's Toyshop. The kids go strong for this type of animal Pffering, but. so do adults, as evidenced Friday night, Shetlands and dogs" are well trained, for the routines and stunts they're called upon to do, but; more than that, there is considerable nov- elty to the act of a fresh character, plus a little comedy from Gautier himself as a istew. Hal Nelman spotted No. 2. Tramp monologist doing, highbrow lingo is familiar to many vaude fans and okay as a standard act for the deuce niche most anywhere. Rou- tine is a trifie long, 12 minutes. Third act, (Seorge S.. Fredericks and Co., in a skit arPund for some time, is the weakest Pf the five on show. It's - vaudeville of a day that's dying out, with material hung around a familiar, overworked situ- ation wherein the young eloping couple are trying for father's for- giveness. Four people are In the c&at. Of them the wedded pair prove particularly weak. The man Is terrible stagy, while the girl, both on voice and In handling'lines, fails to make a favorable' impres- sion. Most of the materlial of tjhe Fredericks act Is banal and some- times sappy. Conductor and father parts are best: handled. A 14rmlnute stretch, pretty long, done 'by Gould and-Robey (New Acts). Team carries some old gags, but majority of it-sells, and is sold well. Offsetting are the singing bits ' clowned up for laughs. Closer Dave Jones and Peggy (New Acts). This is the Jones and Lee combination back together agflln, with a sister team and male single supporting, pance flash Is a pleaser, nicely staged and rou- tined. . Milt Franklyn's pit mob this^balf tries a medley . of pop operatic numbers with Indifferent results. Char, LOEW'S, MONTREAL Montreal, Nov. 11. Stage shPw lays off the hoofing this week which is something of a boon, to the customers who have had plenty past few weeks. Couple of headllners, Huber and Jimmy Savo, pull down all the plaudits In clos- ing and next to closing acts of the five-turn, 76-minute bill. At that, they didn't stop the show, but they're pretty Scotch in this town. Bob Stickney with femnie . sup- port," opened, seemingly . sieated.. In fork .of apple tree In blosson. Breaks away while girl changes, and Is seen to be on stilts. Girl returns for dance .and act winds up with ^tlpkney .in scarlet tails and stilts, while girl dressed exactly like, gave giant and midget effect.. Better than usual, opening. Morgan arid Jones In second spot, hot-cha banjolsts,. who know their stuff, gave classical medley Includ- ing 'Poet and Peasant' and 'Hun- garian Rhapsody,' closing with prestissimo Jazz. Got a fair hand. Suily and Houghton • next. Girl has a nice voice and her French pat- ter pleased In this city. They go into a speedy taxi scene with mod- ern girl handing modern boy "the razz. This went over about as well as anything on the bill. Sully ends with good tap but it was anti- climax after the taxi comedy. Jimmy Savo, pantomlmlst, in next to closing, came near to stopping the show. Some of his gage pretty near the line. Crowd went for him from the start and he held them to the end. Huber, magician, does the uKUal tricks, some of them not altogether convincing. Packing casts disap- pearance act tied up with local firm as,usual. Act warmed up audience for the picture, 'Crestwood' (Radio), which, with comedy short and newsreels completed the show. DOWNTOWN, L. A. . Los Angeles, Nov. 10. Taking a,dvantage of Its simul- taneous flrst run today with "War- ners' .. Hollywood, house took no chances on passing up the rush of pay customers attracted by 'I'm a Fugitive,' with the result the open- ing stage show this afternoon was prufied to 36 mihs. It was Just so-so vaude \fa.Fe, but with Paul Muni drawing 'erii in by droves the stage bill wasn't so important. Ethel, Lewis and Joe, trio of nim- ble steppers, debutr • presenting a varied assortment'of hopflng, rang- ing from eccentric to an exception- ally well done adagio. Lucie Bruch (formerly iPrltz and Lucy Bruph) in the deqce ewit with a. pleasing violin offering of strictly' seml-Classlcal material. Girl dla- piays marked technique and clicked nicely. First cPmedy relief brougiit by Bill Dooley and Co. in the trey po- sition. Act noticeably chopped, .due to failure of Francis Lee, femme supporter to show up. Comic does a little hoofing, some good roping and patters while working. Straight man does a bit aa a prelude. Act didn't mean much to the opening mat mob. ■ . Rena and Rathburn, man and woman, do an unusually good com- edy talking act, both displaying ability. Man worics on the Frits Huber order, but has a lot of orig- inal stuff. Girl Is good support; and the team deserved what lt~goft CIPsIng has Hassan All troupe of Arabs In the. customary whirlwind' tumbling and fiats of strength. Universal' news and cartoon com- plete screen bill. Opening mat best' house has had in months; . STATE'S 'Z AND OUT Albany, N. Y., Nov. 14. State; which opened several weeks ago with stage tabs and pictures, closed last week. It had put on only two tabs and advertised a third, which was called off. Then the house went on with pictures only for several days be-: fore going dark. HOLLT FICON'S BEO DATES Molly Picon opens for RKO Fri- day (18) on a four weeks' out-of- town tour. Cunning Cleveland, she goes to Chicago; Cincinnati and Kansas City. . Following that Miss Picon re- , turns to New York to organize a Yiddish legit company for a coast- to-coast tour in a musical.