Variety (Sep 1933)

68 VARIETY V /i U HEY I L L E Tuesday, September 5, 1933 New Low RR Fates for Troupes of 20 c From Miss, to Coast-Good for Year Los Angeles, Sept. 4. Two-year fight, led by J. C. Rad- cliffe,. transportation manager for Fanchon & Marco, seeking a reduc- tion In rail rates for theatrical com- panies between the Pacific Coast and the Middle West, will terminate Sept. 30, with the Introduction by all major carriers of the cheapest round-trip fares ever granted to traveling troupes. New rate, covering round trip fromi Los Angeles or Sain Francisco, or via either of these terminals to. Chicago, has been set at $89.90 for purely theatrical company move- ments of 20 or more persons, with free baggage car allowance. Via Pacific Coast points (Portland and Seattle) round trip will be $98, with a full year expiration limit on either type of ticket. Previous low round-trip rate from the Coast direct was $144.26, and via the Northwest tariff exacted was $164,20. At the time the new Chicago r. t, rate becomes effective the rails will also inaugurate a new low r. t. fare between Los Angeles and Denver of $64.80, as compared with a present tariff of $90, and from L. A. to Den- ver via Pacific Northwest, $80.50, as against the bid tariff of $124.36. Time Jimit on Denver tickets has l^cen fixed at six months. Renewed Interest Granting of these new low fares between the Mississippi river and the Pacific Coast Is expected to pave the way for renewed interest In road-showing, as a big saving in transportation will 6e' made pos- sible through the new scales. *" • Fanchon & Marco transportation chief received, whole-lieartfed sup- port from rail execs on the Coast, b'ut for' months encountered stiff opposition from higher-ups in the mid-west territory. Radcllffe esti- mates that had the new round-trip rates been in effect at the height of the F&M 1932 road biz, it would have saved the firm upwards of $140,000. Fixing of 20 as the minimum of a theatrical company Is a departure after many years of requiring 25 fares for the free movement of a baggage car. EXTENSIVE COLORED SHOWS AND ACTS Maj. DonoTan Steps Out As VandevSk's Umpire After 16 years as the arbiter of vaudeville disputes. Major Donovaji went oft the job Friday (1), as re suit oi. the managers' decision to disband the V.M.p.A. Arbitration assignment was turned over to Henry Chesterfield, who, with William J. Lee, of the NVA Fund, will handle future disputes. New set up has Chesterfield as rep- resentative of the actors and Lee for the managers. In- the event they disagree, a- neutral outside party will be called in to decide. Chesterfield and Lee also are In complete charge of the NVA's af- fairs, both In New York and at Saranac Lake. B&K Revokes Opposish Ruling^Against Jones to Meet WB Nabe Vaud Under the split of Irving Mills and Tommy Rockwell, the latter con- templates adding revue production, making the Cotton Club (Harlem cabaret) shows a two-edition propo- sition every year, and later also, to put on a white revue. The Cotton Club will have a road company playing the variety houses, while a new show • is' built for the cabaret. The people would thus alternate. Mills also has Duke ISUington's orchestra, another C. C. alumnus, out on its own. Fllington is set for a southern vaude toUr for Charlie Freeman and other bookers. The Cotton Club revue with the Mills Blue Rhythm band, Leith Hill, Nicholas Bros., 4 Flash Devils, Snakehips Tucker, et al., is being expanded commehsurate with the $6,000 asking price Mills has placied on the revue. Meantime, Danny Healy, Ted Koehler and Harold. Arlen are fash ioning a new revue for the nlte club floor, which may Include Adelaide Hall, Berry Bros., Bill Robinson; Bessie Dudley and a flock of Chi- cago colored talent which is now en route to New York by Omnibus. Cab' Calloway's band is already set. Among the factors in the Mills- Rockwell split were the several dif- ferent corporate entities associated, all carrying corporate taxes and ft complicating matters. Besides MiUs- " Rockwell, Inc., there Is Mills Musi- cal Artists, Inc.; Thos G. Rockwell, inc.; F. C. O'Keefe, Inc.; Bing Cros- by, Ltd.; Lawrence Music Co., and a couple of other sub-corporations. O'Keefe is a band booker who has olTlce space in the Mills offices. Rockwell will probably move over to Radio City. Chicago, Sept. 4. In order to protect their own In- terests It appears that Balaban & Katz are calling off their classifi- cation of the Aaron Jones loop State-Lake vaude as opposition. This change In policy is due' to the returh.of the Warner southslde nelgjtiborhood spots to week-^end vaude, with the Warner houses ready and willing to play the acts out of the State-Lake since War- ners have no quarrel with Jones, being minus-a stage show house in the loop. B&K would be cutting their own throats if they stuck to their op- position stand now, since such a policy would result in strengthening the Warner shows to the detriment of Balaban & Katz. Now B&K are figuring that since the acts are going to play the Chi- cago neighborhoods anyhow, it would be better to have them play the B&K spots than the rival War- ner houses. As it has been, B&K have automatically overlooked the State-Lake material, thus narrow- ing down on their choice of avail- able acts, while the rival'Warners, with no such restrictions, have had the pick of the entire field. Guaranteed 35 Wks. Gene Gory, formerly featured In Frank and Milt Britton's band, may do an act on his own in association with Jack Shea. Walter Powell scrapped his band to join the Brittons, being guaran- teed 35 out of 52 weeks. JACK HESS BACK TO RKO Doing Exploitation for Vaude at Downtown in Detroit RKO is putting on Jack Hesa to handle publicity for the Downtown Detroit, Which Is back in vaudeville and playing big time shows of the Palace, Chicago, type. Hess, former RKO theatre pub- licity head," bias been away from that circuit for about two years and last with Paramount-Publlx. Terry Turner, who succeeded Hess at RKO, is also going to Detroit for the Paramount (Kunsky) houses. H. B. Franklin says he believes vaudeville can get over In Detroit with special explolta.tioh. Hollywood, Sept. 4. Jack hess is currently here acting for the indie producers. LOEfS VAUDE OUT OF N. 0. Loew is dropping the vaudeville at the State, New Orleans, after IB years and also after keeping It all summer, just at the beginning of the "new season. House goes straight pictures Sept. 13. Theatre returned to regular vaude last season after several years of presentations, booked both by Loew and Fanchon & . Marco, but In 15 years had never been without stage shows of some sort. It leaves New Orleans completely vaude-less, unless Orpheiun, recently acquired from RKO by Mprt Singer, steps In. Singer has declared, lie wants to play stage shows there, but doesn't know how to get them all the way down to N.O. with noth- ing on the way. down to "break the jump. Singer Is, trying to arrange a deal with the Hoblltzelle-O'Don- oell group to play their shows when they commence on or about Oct, 1, with Charlie Freeman booking from New York. New Orleans has been quite a problem for the Loew booking of- fice for about a year, due to length of the trip from New York and "nothing else on the Loew book on the way down. Lately most of the acts have been making the trip by bus, this requiring three nights and two days of travel. LAUGHLIN WALKS ON ~ UMIT OF TWO FEET Edith Helena's Act F.dith Helena, from years ago, has formed a seven-people act to be known as Mme. Pompadour's Grand Operatic Review. Eddie Meyers is agenting. Spitalny on Tour With Yascha Bunchuk's return to the Capitol, New York, this week, Phil Spitalny takes Ills orchestra and choral combination on tour. He opens for Warner Bros.- in Wash- ington,- Sept. 16, for two weeks and then returns to the Loew banner at the Metropolitan, Brooklyn, for .an- other fortnight. Spitalny will fiy in fbr his Fri- day night commercials for Golden Rod Beer. Los Angeles, Sept. 4. Jack Laughlin quit as stager at the Criterion after T. L. Tally, house operator. Is said to have re- fused extra stage, space for the Laughlin shows.-as promised. Laughlin figured that the Ronald Colman pic, 'The Masquerader' cur- rent at the house, demanded a more pretentious stage presentation than the previous shows, which utilized only the grand staircase leading to the foots, plus a couple of feet in front of the screen. GILDA GRAY (1) Singing 20 Mins.; Full Orpheum, N. Y. The whole world may have rhythm, but Gilda Gray's got mike. She isn't gonna shimmy any more. She's gonna yodel Into a micro- phone. And that Is something to see and hear. Gilda got herself considera.ble rep some years back as a wiggle'r. She could wiggle! On the strength of that alone (plus some expert press- agentry) she managed to become one of the strongest single b.o. at- tractions in the country. Gilda Gray is a 'high-class act' now. She doesn't shimmy any more. She sings <And, between changes, her pianist plays Rachmaninoff. The combination of which, at the Or- pheum, so thunderstruck the cus- tomers, who had come in to see some classy torso tossing, that they didn't even object. For a while. They didn't applaud, either, but to- wards the end of the turn there were a few entreaties from the pit about 'For goodness sake, dance'. Miss Gray throws three songs Into the mike, then goes oflE to change from a black dress to a white, while the piano player cpn- tiriues the class atmosphere with Rachmaninoff, and then comes back for two more. For an encore she gives in by singing 'St. Louis Blues' and Jiggling her dress a bit. The encore is the only part of the act tliat fits. Kauf. From No Stage Shows Minneapolis May Get 3-Cornered Opposish Minneapolis, Sept. 4. The Lyceum, 2,300-seat independ- ent loop house, Is planning to Install the State-Lake policy of vaudeville, stage band and films when It re- opens this month and, If It does so, this city of nearly 600,000 people, now entirely without stage enter- tainment, except for the occasional Orpheum shows, promises to have a surplus of such. fare. it is Indicated that the Lyceum's adoption of such a policy Is likely to mean stage policies for the 4,200- seat Minnesota (Publix) and. 2,890- seat Orpheum (Singer circuit). There Is reasonable certainty now that the Lyceum will .be able to obtain screen product and thus be In a position to reopen. It Is wait- ing for Publix. to wind up Its nego- tiations with the major distributors and is ready to grab anything that the big circuit doesn't take. The Lyceuni also ^ Is hopeful that It may be able to land some of Or- pheum's surplus. The Singer house has 122 pic- tures Un^d up and can usi^ only 62. However, there Is a possibility that the Singer circuit may acquire still another local theatre as an outlet. Golub at Fqx, Riverside Los Angeles, Sept. 4. Harry Golub, last with Earl Car- roll's 'Vanities,' Is m.c.'lng the stage shows at the Fox, Riverside. House plays the stage attractions Fridays-Saturdays. Hash Act Salaries Holding Down To $1,000 Top-$700 Nearer Average Tab with Ken Murray Max • Gordon's 'Flying Colons' as a tab, with Gordon and. Curtis & Allen staging, will go over the RKO time in November. Ken Murray will head the cast. Dates depend on completion of Murray's next talker, Warners' 'College Coach.' It is scheduled to be finished in October. GOULDING'S EOADHOUSE Syracuse, Sept. 4. Quitting show business, Charles Goulding, veteran actor and man- ager, has opened Bi'oad Lawn, road house, at Liverpool, local suburb. Goulding long was associated with Proctor theatres at Schenec- tady and Troy, and lflj>..sl.man and Hoohe.ster, Kochester. Top production money for flash acts this season, from the present outlook, will be $1,000, say the vaude producers. But that top won't, be general, since the scale will, slide downward to a point where $600 or $700 will be about average for.acts built for the best houses. Odd an^le is that the producers figure frointft%|to 20% of the orig- inal cost won't g« Into the show proper, but will be charged off, for recouping later on, as advances to the actors for eating money. Over the summer, witii none of the pro- ducers risking' more than $200 or $30.0 on any turn, the.advance touch overhead has almost equaled the total actual production cost. Only when there is no other way to get it will the producers invest In costly or new special scenery. Likelihood is that with few excep- tions all vaude production for the present will be rebuilt storage stuff. Most of the standard producers have enough material on hand to last a long while, and th^e storage charges have, been tough. Same applies to costumes. Better Talent With the bills for trimmings held down to minimum, the principal ex- pense item in many instances will be rehearsal costs. Average tap around Times Square for the roonis is 76c an hour, plus $1 an hour for a piano player unless the act carries its own. Rehearsals range from a week to two weeks, witli tlie people in action about four hours a day. The shoe stringing, necessitated for all producrs by the uncertainty of the seasons vaude chances, will have its reflection in a lack of flash, although it's not expected to great- ly affect the entertainment value of the average flash act. If anything, the cheating on . mountings may force the producers to concentrate on the talent more..so than in the past. ALLITE REVIEW (12) Dance Flash 12 Mins,; Full Orpheum, N. Y. Somewhat awkward title Is do rived from the fact that the act de- pends much on neon tubing for it^ effects, so It's all light, spelled a Uttle differently. Act comprises a male singer, a dancer of the same sex, a ballroom girl dancer and an- other girl who is more correctly de- scribed as an Oriental than a cooch' dancer. Backed by a line of eight girls who are good looking and rea- sonably accomplished. Act carries three sets of all black drapes in one two and four and about a ton of electrical effects. Summing up gives a good act without the elec'- tvlcal effects and sufficient flash from the latter probably to recom- pense the cdst of haulage. Opens on full stage. Against the black back drape is a huge crescent moon Jn flitter outlined by a com- plete circle of blue neon. Directly below Is a conv6ntIonallzed effect of two sets of green tubes, to give the effect of a moon ripple. Girls are seated on grass mats at the back- holdlng guitars .outlined In red neons. Singer on doing 'Valley of the Moon,' At the end of the verse the Orien- tal dancer comes bn to perform a ritual dance to the moon. Not the usual hip .weaving, aind tummy tosses, but a more, genuine perform- ance. Rep.Iaced by. the other man and woman who mix ballroom and, adagio work.' Closes in two for solos' by the three dancers, the man being' a bit top tall and too hefty for the eccentric .steps he affects, though he does them well. Boy back to sing, and full stage with a panel let down from the flies. This has a circular track which supplies cur- rent to neon tubes about four feet long, each girl carrying a pair which are lighted for effective com- • binatlons, the track permitting, movement about the stage. A brief close-in to one and the platform Is replaced by a jeweled crown four fe^ In diameter directly over a cir- cular platform, of the. same dimen- sions on which the ballroom dancer stands, lighted from below and'by pendant neon tubes which form the bars of a cage. These raise out- ward and upward to release her for a duo dance at the end of which she. retires to the platform. Costuming Is fresh, the first set of costumes being abbreviated, with . the second longer, If not much more' concealing. All dresses have the professional look and do not sug- gest home dressmaking. Appar- ently real money has been spent In. the preparation of this act. Elec-, trical effects are brilliant and sev* eral times elicit applause In their own right, with plenty more patter going to the performers. Original Idea which should be a knockout the first time around and good for repeats. Chic. PAXTON Memory Testing, 9 Mins.; One Circle, N. Y. Memory expert giving a formula performance In naming population of cities, local hotels, theatres, etc., plus remembering numbers of dol- lar bills, etc. The type of act that's strictly for the smaller trade, but could be better as vaude material would Paxton lose some of his the- atricallsm and stagincss. He makes a poor start by reeling off population and other features of various cities like a machine, as. though he didn't have to stop to think, and so fast that it's hard to follow. Uses a few plants for wisecracks and at the finish goes a little dra- matic for an impression Char. RUS3, ELMER and ARMSTRONG Knockabout 12 Mins.; One Orpheum, N. Y. Three lads who've been around before. In different combinations. Start with some falls, go into some nice singing as a trio, back to falls and mayhem, then some fast tum- bling for a finish. There isn't much in the eye- gouging and falling business that hasn't been done before by the other knockabout acts. These lads have combined biz from all of them, added one or two notions of their own and made it all jell pretty nice. Next to shut here and over with- out a doubt. Kauf. IRENE VERMILLION and Co. (4) Singing, Dancing 15 Mins.; Full ^ Orpheum, N. Y. Mlas Vermillion used to be with a girl band. Now she has the three Beverly Sisters. It's mostly dance, with some singing and a. iiice mild flash, suitable for most naborhoods. Beverly girls sing sister fa.shlon and do some nice tapping to po along with it. Miss Vermillion s specialty is splits. She does 'eni b.ackward, sideways, off a chair and off the top of a piano. Pretty cf,- fective. But the trio is at least as good as she. Kauf*