Variety (Sep 1933)

Tuesday, September 5, 1933 VARIETY HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 17 PALACE, CHICAGO Chicago, Sept. 1. Since the time Jack Benny came Into this heated town and cleared some $11,000 for his end In one week of record box-office biz, every name of any consequence has been scratching for a chance to top Benny both at the register and in the pocket. It looks like Sophie Tucker may ffet a chance to toss a new high Into this house currently, since she's starting off on a three-day vaca- tion that's bound to mob this city with customers from every section of the country within week-end dis- tance of Chicago. Friday saw them eralloping into the burg from Wis- consin, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. 'And it's bUU building. Can tell the wagon-loads- of out-'of-towners fllUnPVt^^streets by the toothpicks .„;,..-«f8Ir kissens. Besides the 3La^r Day week-end riot, the headlln^^ets a break by being coupled with 'Morning Glory' (RKO) on the screen. With that double advantage, besides being Miss Tucker, there's more than an even 'chance for a cyclonic new top for this house. Theatre felt the symptoms early on opening day, and switched the plan for a four-a- day policy to five. Indicatipns for the extra show were right; the end Of the first performance delivering a c;-owded lobby and a sidewalk line flown to Wells street. It was a Sophie Tucker re-union performance, one of those senti- mental occurrences in show busi- ness that had Miss Tucker acting almost bashful as she tried to speech herself away. Couldn't be clone and came back for her second encore. There were posies, too. Maybe a stickler for form would Insist on putting the present turn under New Acts, but though she mav change and add to her mate- ri. 1, it's still the same Sophie iTucker act There's an NRA song, calling for a code for red-hot ma- mas. Miss Tucker graciously ad- mitting Mae West and Peggy Joyce as slaters under the skin. Other new material along the same lines, new, but strictly Sophie Tucker. Show here all the way through is jttn example of what a good vaude show can be. Standard right down the line and showed it by the way the acts came up one by one and tossed off a clean blngle. Case Bros, and Marie opened with a wire act that contains two of the best tricks in this type of work, the back somersault and the obstacle Jump. fTwo stunts that can put any turn over. Britt Wood deuced for a jcinch. Harmonica work and talk are audience pie and this mob took It with plenty of whipped cream. ■ After Miss Tucker, in .thei center bf the bill, Joe Penner walked into ianother reception and proved that [With some performers the audience only wants what they know already. In Penner's case this means the re- peat of the song-story of the rabbit and the hunter, the pussywillow i^ong and the comedy hat. The rest was Just to pad out the turn; and Penner is doing it with two old-time ■vaude and hurley bits that are not np to the Penner standard for ma^ terlal, but the showmanship sold them without difficulty. Closing was the Miles and Kover dance turn, the team being very ultra-ultra for the most part and very moderne, which is spelt with ian 'e' for this type of routine', but the closing adagio number was more to the point and understanding of this 6ut-of-town audience. When he throws the girl up in the air and catches her, it means some- thing. But the five girl assistants are drilled into a stilted mechanical routine that can hardly pass for dancing in a variety house. hoke cross-fire act that brings many deserved guffaws, and they wind up with a living portrayal of a newsreel that carries plenty ot howls. Both work smoothly and are oke in the next to shut spot. Closing has Guy Lauren and Co. (3) in their initial coast appearance. It's a combination musical comedy act, with two girls performing credi- tably upon plano-accordions all through, as well as harmonizing. Lauren injects a little too much comedy in his musical renditions. This work indicates he is a talented musician, and it would seem that or two straight selections might help. As it Js, the act registers nicely. The pay customers like tlie trio and that's all that matters. •Captured' (PN), comedy, news and cartoon on screen. Opening mat capacity on the lower floor and bale well patronized. Edwa. ROXY, N. Y. Some day an act is going to flop at the Boxy. And the act will dis- cover, after flopping, that it report- ed too early, before the audience showed up. That's the only way it could happen, because when there's an audience in the house, even the acrobats are next-to-closing calibre. It's a pleasure. The Palace crowds in the old days, who came only to be entertained, but weren't always, and who were known as the pushover patrons of the country, were Ice- bergs toward the actors, compared with this Roxy bunch. There's nothing on the current show to excite more than moderate glee ordinarily, but as it played to the Roxy's packed house Friday evening it looked like the manage- ment was handing out $6 bills to everybody who applauded. Picture is SummerviUe-Pltts' 'Her First Mate,' and there are no names on the stage. So the admlsh price must still be the real headliner here. There's a standard comedy team, three male singles, an acrobatic trio and ah eightsome male singing turn. House adds the customary trim- mings—^Dave Schooler, the stage band and the 24 Poster Girls. With only one woman among the visiting talent this week, there'd be a femme shortage if it were not for the Fos- ter line. Barry and Whltledge are the com- edy standard. The size of the the- atre made no difference to' them. To reach the folks on the Jersey side of the Roxy auditorium requires some yelling, so they yelled. And it landed. This theatre's family-type audience relished the Barry and Whltledge family quarrel on the stage, and the Jokes probably gave both husbands and wives some new answers. When Miss Barry thrust out her arms to sing and Whltledge said, 'Put those oars back in the boat,' six guys In the thir(^ row on the mezzanine started taking notes. Paul Gherrltz Is a roller-skating single who thinks he looks like Robert Montgomery, and succeeds in selling the audience on the re- semblance, although those ears don't help the illusion. He's not in- troduced by name, so that the audi- ence may think it's Montgomery in person. Later on Gherrltz tells 'em who he really Is. He's an acrobat besides an eccentric skater, has some brand-new tricks and dresses neatly. They enjoyed him here, and probably will most anywhere. His is the type of turn that Will develop. The Catchalots have the house line as background for their Rube Goldberg postures and showmanly lifts. Spotted in the middle of the bill and cleaned up in that unusual position for this type-of act. But it is an unusual theatre. DOWNTOWN, L. A. Los Angeles, Aug. 31. Diversified vaude bill currently, isans names but with several of the acts packing a wallop. Following a mild waltz overture, Rena and Rathburn, mixed double, in an in- ebriation dance, reminiscent of Fritz Huber and his sister, start the show off with knockabout hilarity. Pair do a bit of vocalizing in addi- tion to their comedy falls, and both display marked acrobatic ability. An oke opener, that might even fit a little farther down the bill. • In the deuce spot are the Gumm Sisters, three harmony warblers, with Mother Gumm accompanying at the piano. Two of the sisters are grownup, while the third is a precocious Juve whose mild attempts at comedy add nothing to the of- fering. Harry and Frances Usher have a novel act that includes some mystic feats by the male member, includ- ing the Houdini n6edle threading trick and some nifty mind reading, with Harry doing the audience stuff, handling the assignment nicely. BcJth make their arrival on stage aiiparently by means of a mlriiature airplane, which flits across the back drop before attaching to a' moor- ing tower, and both affect exag- iferated flying apparel. Mind read- ing stuff is done snappily, with Harry injecting a lot of personality, plus some clean comedy that helps the pair. A gag flnish; with Frances taking her departure from the plane by means of a parachute is cleverly managed. Wlllock and Carson have a purely Karavleff does his speedy knee- dropping and hock stepping with support of the line under the flnale, bringing the show to a fast^ flnish. Another boy single, unbilled, is the flrst turn. He plays the sax and clarinet and dances while playing either and both. Also spins rope, plays and dances at the same time. He flnished okay. Foster girls have their customary three or four spots, and Schooler, besides m.c.'lng, puts the band through a medley that ran long but was liked anyway. The actual next-to-closer, and bringing the show to an all-Musco- vite flnale, are the Singing Siberi- ans, a troupe of eight Russians who sing both native and otherwise. They wind up with an operatic travesty on a 'the-depression-is- over' theme, and between numbers the leader does an Apollon with Schooler. How they fared here is no indication of their quallflcations for general usage, 6ut their record here at least is clean. Not known who thought up the in-between jokes used by Schooler and the leader, but both had best deny own- ership. An,'Adventure of Tarzan' serial episode on screen, along with the feature, newsreel and a flock of trailers on prices and next week's show; also the NRA trailer that's being used all over. In the average theatre this bulk of extraneous matter, little of which is particu- larly interesting, would be ruinous to the pace of a show, but here the customers don't care What it is, as long as there's plenty of It. Bige. CHICAGO Chicago, Sept. 1. They decided to cut out the breakfast show at this house and haye loosened up on the mldnlght- siipper performance, which means the B&K operators have concluded there's enough business in six shows daily. Though this may slice down a bit on the gross, the actual proflt loss isn't much, when the saving on the extra tariff for the labor overtime is computed. Some musicians, operators and stagehands have been making enough on their overtime salary these past few weelcs to spend a year recuperating from the World's Fair strain. It's a Burns and Allen show this week^ surrounded by three specialty workers, line of girls and the tire- less Sally Rand and her fan. To dispose of Sally, who is now in her sixth week here, the only comment that can be made Is that there is Just about only one way to - wave a fan so that it displays so much and covers the rest. Miss Rand proves that, though the evidence points to the fact that they are still paying coin to the cashiers for the opportunity of seeing how much she can flash if she should lose a couple of feathers. Among specialty workers Is Lu- cille Page, who is on early in front of the line of girls to do her eccen- tric and acrobatic dance. Henry Dunn is another who's doubling into this house, having his schedule arranged so he can climb up on the rostrum here and sing three num- bers, including an NRA rally tune. More to the point for Dunn's pipes is the ballad number. Cookie Bowers was Chautauqua day for the boys and girls ;from the hayseed country, and they Tivanted all he could give them of the barnyard imitations. Bowers has that sleeping-mugg pantomime down to an art, with every eyelish flicker good for a laugh. This audi- ence Chewed up the seats, the women especially going for that sewing sequence. The flnal ma- tron-in-swinuning number is not worthy of its closing position. Burns and Allen finish the show like a production. The house made the mistake of trying to force the use of the p.a. system with this team. They don't need it; in fact, are more effective without it, since their type of work is strictly inti- mate, and there's nothing that kills that intimate touch like a cold pair of amplifiers. After the gags, the afterpiece brought the rest of the performers out for some gagging that was to the point. Everybody in the show was out for the bow- off excepting Sally Rand. She was probably backstage pounding her ear. She's got to with her tripling around town. 'One Sunday Afternoon' (Par) on the screen. Cherniavsky repeated the tone-poem of the World's Fair for the overture, and the Paramount newscllps completed the show. Business continues'terrific, or may- be even gigantic, the lobby holdout at the finish of the flrst show giving proof that the coin Is still in town. STATE, L. A. Los Angeles, Sept. 1. Ed Lowry is back as m.c. after a week's layoff and currently is duplicating his quickly achieved prestige with the house regulars. The one-time St. Louis fav sings a bit, clowns around with the other acts and besides putting the band- boys through their paces, partici- pates in a comedy number with the musikers, all of which helps to make his stay here more popular. Sharing honors currently with Lowry. Is Marjorle White, from pix, handling the assignment satisfac- torily. Miss White Is a somewhat diminutive comedienne, with a knack of pulling comedy without be- coming offensive, and reveals a pleasing • voice in her several vocal renditions. .She used to be one of the White Sisters in vaude. At opening show tenlpo speeded somewhat by reason of Lowry being dated for an NRA ether program, but his several apologtes were un- necessary as the amount of . show delivered was aplenty and anything that might have been eliminated was not missed. Opening is a distinct novelty, having the bandboys playing softly on darkened stage, with a sunrise effect backstage that brings up the band's tempo as the daylight ad- vances. It l.s a real treat for the •IHe regulars, and appreciated- Lowry loses no time Introducing the Tiffany Twins; a.pair of red- headed femi-iea with fetching per- sonalities and some dancing abil- ity, their loutlne including tapp.'ng and a bit of lowdown shuffling. Fol- io /Ing right on are Ross and Shea, comedy acrobats, who, affecting dumb pans, go through a series of rl.sley and hand and foot balancing, with plenty of hoke Interjected. Lowry next sends the band into a peppy number, with all the. boys participating in a rhyming routine that is good for laffs. Then Miss White, who gags with the m.c, does a little vocalizing and winds up by playing a dummy in a burlesque ventriloquial act with Lowry. The little platinum blonde clicks handi- ly and should have no trouble get- ting places in pcr.'sonals. Next In order l.'j a rendition of 'Du.sty Rhop.s,' by Lowry, put over nicely, and then throe of the band boys, labelled Three Loose Screws in a burlesque broadcasting turn. An- other trio of the musicians do a bit of harmonizing, and then every- body into the finale, with Miss White and the Tiffany Twins hot- hooflng It at curtain. On screen, 'Pilgrimage' (Fox) and news. Biz at show caught bad, less than half of lower floor flUed. Edioa. HOLLYWOOD, L. A. Hollywood, Sept. 4. Nothing out of the ordinary in the current Teddy Joyce stage show. Even Joyce, who has been hitting on all eight, is letting down. Carl- ton and Ballew handle the top spot in the presentation with their fa- miliar clowning and dumb-dame routine. Louise Glenn, toe dancer, does a series of twirls for one chorus in a listless manner. Eleanor Journey gives her Impressions of ZaSu Pitts, Greta Garbo, Janet Gay- nor, Jimmy Durante and Mae West. Following closely the arrival here of Florence Desmond, the English girl whose 'Hollywood Party' Is the last thing in impressions, Miss Journey suffers by comparison. Ruth Durrell, local radio , name, warbles two numbers in a good so- prano voice to fair results, though by the time she gets on, audience has caught the listless manner of the performers. Schuder-Ross quar- tet, four 10-year-old kids, warble three numbers in thin childish voices. Their cuteness, not vocal efforts, get them by. Scott and Lambert hand balancing act opens, gets a good reception for the class work. Joyce is content to stall his way through a Charleston and lead the band in one number of the flnale. 'Captured' (FN) the feature, with a musical short and Universal news clips fllling the bill. Attendance at the mat Friday a little off. Call. ORPHEUM, N. Y. The case of the Orpheum is an interesting one. Week after week this theatre gets a conglomeration of acts that are so amazingly bad as to astonish. The Loew office couldn't possibly book the kind of show seen here on an average. Ex- cept that it does. Current week there's a good show in for a change, which is a flne excuse for discuss- ing the thing.. Reason given for the Orph's shows io dual. First, the house has not sufficient capacity for high cost acts and, second. It gets third run pic- tures, after the flrst string of Loew nabes have used them. As a niat- ter of fact, the theatre has 2.200 seats, charges 66c, top and can take in enough, with capacity biz to make money on expensive shows. But, the point Is-^as Illustrated by the current layout—that expensive shows are not necessary. The Tork- ville haufljrau mob that attends this theatre la notoriously easy to please. They don't want or need stars. All they want Is Ave good acts with entertainment value. But they haven't been getting them. To further Illustrate the point, there are flve acts on the current layout, one of them a headliner. The headliner, however. Is the only bad act on the bill. So what? So the mob looked at the other four acts, had a good time and was satis- fled. A four out. of flve score here is about three over average. Current layout starts smartly with the Eno Troupe. Five Orientals who go from pedal Juggling to pole work, to risley. Good work and good flash. Ben Marks and Ethel are In the deuce. Marks is a 'young Hebe comic who's been Just this side of the okay "line for lo these many years. Now, he's over. He's at last got himself a good, funny, speedy turn which will have him in the next to shut groove in intermediate houses in no time. Actually some new material in his act, and new comedy in a boy and girl act is al- most a miracle these days. In the center is Gilda Gray, the headliner. Gilda's gone microphone, which rates her a new act notice. She ^asn't quite flgured out what to do with a microphone or how to make the sounds come out the proper way, but she tries hard. She's gonna make the grade as a singer or linow the reason why. Entertainment commences again with Russ, Elmer and Armstrong (New Acts). Three zanies who do knockabout from a slightly different angle. They're pretty good singers and they can't dance. Essentially, of course, they're tumblers, and know how to take their falls. They've combined all the laughs in all the other knockabout acts around and added^a few wrinkles of their own. Over big. Irene Vermillion and Co. (New Acts) closes the show. Three cute girls who sing and dance sister fashion, and Miss Vermillion, who's a dancer. She specializes in splits and kicks, doing both exceptionally well, Nice,, minor fla.sh act. Picture is 'Another Language* (Metro), bad ^or this audience that doesn't want .sophistication, art, legit or Helen Hayps, Six minutes of trailers too much and not well blended, but unavoidable since Jie- atre has to advertise two pictures aiid two stapTc shows because of tlio split week policy and has an added hunk on tlie NRA movement. Kauf. • PALACE, N. Y. It's the same policy and the same kind of show, but the Palace is now being operated independently, by Sidney S. Cohen. He's taken thQ house under a lease from RKO with an arrangement that calls for a split of proflts, if any, to RKO and "with, latter in a position to reclaim the- atre at any time it wishes. Cohen is well known in Independ- ent circles, not only In New York, where he operated for years, but na- ticnally. At one time he was presl* dent of the M.P.T.O.A and active" in exhibitor politics. In addition tp silent-partnering sotne indie opera-, tlon around Greater New York, Cohen is also advisor to the receiv- ers of the old Roxy, in New Yorly and . the Fox, Brooklyn. It will b^ all right now if he doesn't advise the old Roxy receivers too well on how to compete with the Palace. Cohen is paying RKO $2,000 a week rental. Being an exhibitor who believes in vaude, according to his own admission, he took posses- sion of the Pal Saturday (2) wltfi the idea of continuing the present policy of second-run pictures and flve acts of vaude, latter booked by Arthur Willi through RKO. Just in case Cohen might be a tough customer to supply vaiide tQ, Willi takes no chances on the first week. RKO booker has sent in a corking little five-act bill ot bal-. ance, variety, speed and entertain- ment value. It has all that a policy like this needs to get along, and thia week will be helped at the b.o. toe a happy smile on Cohen'a face the first week by a draw picture, 'Morn- ing Glory' (RKO). The v^ude was booked in on two days' notice. There being no sock platform names on the vaude bill, the Kath- erine Hepburn' feature must be credited with .the nice business in evidence Saturday afternoon in face of fine weather. Labor Day holiday and other drawbacks. Cohen Is continuing the vaude show on the same budget, running anywhere from $2,600 to $'3,000: Shaw and Lee, who need no Intro^ duction, headline the show. They're doing the same old act but dona well at all times, its appeal remains sockful and -the boys themselves funny to look at, as usual. In addition to Shaw and Lee^ laughs come from the No, 2 pick, Evans and Mayer, but they're two entirely different turns. While Ray Mayer and his partner, Edith EvanSr indulge in talk and other comedy material, much of the entertainment value of this act lies in the song numbers of Miss Evans, a type re- minding stoutly of Ruth Etting. That goes for both personality and voice. Mayer tries for fun as cow- boy at the piano. Middle-of-the-blll attraction li^ Nick Lucas, a truly finished per-* former. With his guitar and songd he is material that hits home easily; And can he pjay that guitar! It's . as much a part of his successful go- ing on this or any other stage as his voice and song sales ability. Did. four numbers here. Chaney and Fox, than which there are few smarter dance acts, bring up the rear of the five-act caravan. Team now has a single girl dancer for the purpose of breaking thell^ numbers, and to the routine addi- tionally Fox has added a fitting single by himself to the tune of 'Lazy Bones'. Otherwise flash re- mains the same, closing with that powerfully well-done routine set to music of "The Bolero'. Three White Flashes (New Acts) open. A fast novelty roller-skating turn that has it on the ball 100%, Char. PARAMOUNT, N. Y. Fifteen minutes of Frank Fay in his best Intimate drawing-room form, is the center around which this stage show has been framed, suppleniented with June Knight of musical comedy and pictures. It doesn't make particularly epic en- tertainment for this type of house, but the production incidentals with which the show has been suri'ound- ed help the score to average diver- sion for a Broadway deluxer. Fay's casual asides were a bit fast. They usually are, but for an occasional gag—notably a routine with a planted stooge satire—and for his trimly-turned duet bit with Miss Knight, they returned spirited response. Altogether Fay alone is a bit too fine for picture-house mobs, even on Broadway. His forte is still intimate Friars Frolics ex- temporizing for the show crowd- Miss Knight Is more to the point, doing a hotcha specialty that the man and the girl in the street un- derstand. She's a vigorous worker playing with the certain directness that argues vaudeville training more than musical-comedy methods. Interposed between 'the appear- ance of these two together and sep- arately are two standard single turns and three or four dance num^ bers by a line of 24 girls. Special- ties are by Paul Draper, straight tap dancer who is one of the few solo hoofers who has an individuality of hl.s own. His style of performing elaborate toUh and intricate phyUims with an cffortle.ssj, casual ease that (Continued on page 31)