Variety (Oct 1933)

14 VARIETY V>UIIE¥WHOV$E REVIEWS Tuesday, October 17, 1933 Garden Sundays Indifferent Start; Scale of $2.75, limited Act Supply Qements Aganist B'way Vaud Test here still exist iiriahy people who contend there is a plcLce for straight vaudeville on Broadway; The suC' , of any; ^iich .venture depends on' , whether these people will buy tickets. Others can be attracted, only ' it the shows are bettfer, or at least aa good M tH^ shows in the heavy, lm.es- Square picture house 6p- and Jf-the price IS right. Shuberts' Winter Garden proposition is a Sunday .night afCair ohIy» And what happens here may ttot 'be ah Ihdicatton of what can hai)pen on si full week try.. The first thing that's wrong with the Shubert •C6hcert8' as i-eviyed Sunday night (15) at the Gardien is the price—: t^,75. Other handicaps t|re. the usual Shubert reasons for vsiUdevlUe side venture flops. Gohslderlng; the obvious budjgret and AVhat lie was up , against, Edgair Allen, .booking the Sunday niters, lined'up. an opening bill .-th^ wiasn'i bad. .It contaihed.some real enter- tainment in standia.rd acts. . But. times haye changed, and the chances of laiidliig. a. reliable bill "weekly are not. as good how as In the past. The Winter Garden's big etumbling blbck from the tal,ent vi^wpplnt is the fact that it's a bhe- lilte stand. jFult week theatres pay- ing big. money are having a* difflcult time obtaining inaterial. In the old days thei numerous Shubert shows In town or in re.- hearsai gave thia Winter Garden a fairly, dependable source- of talent. Those Shubert legit slxow contracts provided for Sunday night per- formances by the actor$ at the/Gar- den. And then there was always the ace in the holie—Al Jolsoh. For 11,000 Jolsoh9tvas usually available, and Jolson made the Winter Garden cpncerts. - • Now there are fewer Shubert shows,' and no Jolison.. Wjiat can currently.be secured for the showd will hardly be valued at $2.76 by the public. The Winter Garden's edgto on Sunday nights is the reserved Beat policy, and there must, be a, lot of people Who'd rafiier know where they're going to sit than stand In line at the picture houses. But the $2,75 hei'e may make It Worthwhile to stand elsewhere.." At 8 :30 the house was ha.it empty, ■With the orchestra^ already in the pit. They held up the curtain till a quarter to nlhlB: in anticipation of. a rush that didn't arrive. In.the old days the W;inter Garden usually sold biit by' 8:16, When the show got undeir way last Sunday, night the Winter- Garden was. holding fairly. heavy, but no-where near, a sellout. It may Haiye been due. to the extreme shortage of advertising. Th^ kepi the ppeniBr secret. Re- sult was ah almost entirely profes- sional, audience, who can't put this one over ih the long run* The 'Win- ter Garden 'will .have to depend as much on public attendance as any other theatre. 'Follies Acts. Used The usual gags -were in evidence on this first., bill. Three acta froni the rehearsing Sl^ubert ^Follies', almong the eight. on the show, .while. the flash closer was. the 'High Shoes' number , from. te Shubefts' 'Hold TTour Horses' (JToe Cook), which Is ,the Wintier .GArden?s. reg- ular tenant; In the latter Tom Fai- trico^a, . Inez . Courtney and the show's boy liiid girl line particle .pated. ..The family stuff reduced the cost of the show .considerably. : About midway of the first part the m.c., Mickey Alpert,'conunenced the introduction, of celebs In the au- dience. His tipoft man at the dOor nnlssed nobody. Among those : in- troduced were Fannie Brlce,. Liou Holtz, Ted I^ewls, Denny Davis, Will OsbOrne, Al Herman, Ritz Bros., Joe Pehner and Jack Denny. All were asked to strut their stuffy but few did.. Holtz .came Up for two stories an4 Davis sang 'Margie' from his seat« While Alport was coaxing and Miss Brice politely ror fusing, Billy Rose was burning. It was all pretty rough. The..acts as they appeared, and air standards, were Serge F)ash, Ylvlan Janis, Pepper and Mack, Venlta Gould, Willie and Eugene Howard, Phil Spltalny's orchestra, Gordon, Reed and King and Herb Williams. Alport, firom the nite clubs. Is a straight m.C, who sings alsong and by "no means the comic needed to psice.. a Winter Garden bill. XfOU Foreman, last of the line of Palace pit arlstrocrats. Is the con- ductor here, and that means isood musTc for the .acts.. All that's needed now la some good acts. If- the Shuberts will let Allen alone to book his. Shows as shows rather than advertising plugs for other Shubert Interests, the good acts may come and the Sunday nights may get over. Bige. YORKyiLLE, N Y. Newest theatre In the foreign film field is this 550rseater run by two' Jewish boys in an irlgh neighbor- hood and showing straight German films. Idea is to charge 16c. for mat- inees and a quarter at/night and show flrstrrun German pictures. House has b£en completely done over, decorated, new seats put In, a new. screen, hew acoustics and even a neW booth, AH that is needed' now is customers,. Joe Scheinnian and Al Schiebar are the operators. They've been fighting with another little German house, the Tobis, for' over a year now. Claim they're making a liv- ing out. of the Tobis now, though they've had a; toiigh struggle. They're double-featuring the Ger- man product down' there on split weeks for 10c .and 20c; In the heart of the German quarter at; 78th street, the smaill prices and the 290 seats have made it possible for them to get a break, even though In, or- der to hold up that policy they've had to bring in ia lot of oldies, and repeats. Now they're spreading out In this second house. Reason for it is a curious one. Somebody who owned the theatre. when itwas little more than a istable,~reneged on rent. An insurance company took it o.ver,. The company offered it:- to . Scheihman and Schleber. They offered to do all the decorating and renovating; they offered to give three months free rent; they wanted only $226 a'month rental after- that. Boys figured it was. so cheap they'd better grab it, House cannot be run on a straight German policy. It's too ^Q-r out of TorkviUe, despite it's hame. And . tough enough to sell Germah pic ="tTi!W"Tight? in "the ^hlclc"T)f^^^^ man nabes these days. Without try , ing to peddle them in spot that's cwmposcd of about 60% Irish and al most all the rest of Jews. When the three months of free rent are. up ^hd the operators are pB.y^ne their own money out (al- ibougb they've put up half a year in ia/dvajice) they can switch to regu- lar American films on fifthror sixth- run nabo grind policy. Tha,t way ibey might do well, the house being « pretty and comty little one; Jr<»«A PALACEi N. Y. Palace has been doing hefty busi- ness this past month, or so -and Fri- day, night It wias close to capacity. If there is any doubt that the patrons want vaudeville that was cleared up, for when the last stage portion of the show Was over a goodly percentage of customers walked. ... Bill is a! fast flve-acter, running about an hour. Owen McGivhey was supposed to be present With his 'Manor House Murder' but his settings were .lost in ^transit and Wilfred Dubois was shunted into the going. Saturday morning it was decided to let the show ride as Is, Without McGIvney the planned afterpiece 'You Never Can Tell' was out. That Was where Ben Blue and hls; stooges were slated to create havoc. . ' Two comedy teams followed each other but that wouldn't be so if the protean sketch was present. Art Frank is on third and Blue follows. Both are hits. Blue's clowning takes In the' personable Mary Lynn (Mrs.. Blue), whom he rates as be-' Ing two o.btaves above an ordinary stooge. By the time he gets his quartet on the stage^'the act is a pushover; In the 'Night at Slbppy Joe's' bit he gives 'Vanity fair,* Sammy Ledner's hew night spot, a plug, nillbilly bit sends the Blue turn off to happy i-etiirns, . Frank hasn't changed .his routine to any degree nor does he. heed to. The laughs come regularly to the registering comic and hoofer. Colby„Murry dance revue closes. Present act Is a condehsed version of the dance, routine first out. .It's a fast but unpretentious act. Settings formerly used may have been delayed In arrival or are Out, but turn didn't seem- to need much -more »dresslngj=^ Billed-With-the-act are Billy Glbsoh, Margie Barrett an.d Helen Murphy. Dubois can do things with tennis racket and balls that Bill Tilden can't do. Class juggler who gives the show a fast start. Kay Hamilton In the deuce with a song routine of Just about the right length. She does best with the cloiser, 'That's How Rythm Wias Born.' Picture is 'Ann Vickers* (Radio) Ibee.- MUSIC HALL, NX Effective sImpUcIty Is the key- note of the stage show In support Of 'Henry the Vm' <UA). Picture is reported ih at the highest rental terms the Hall has paid to date> The three units making up the stage portion, may he costing the theatre less than any other to date. Stock groups, such ais the ballet corps, Roxyettes, a few regulars and the vocal shows are all that*s employed. Settings go economical, tOoi staying entirely away from heavyweight, mechanically back- grounds. Nothing dlsiappointlng about the showi but the house" will not learn thai prolonged operatic overtures. With soloists and duets, make the audience impatient. Idea Is okay but ' the Hall invariably • over- does l.t. Four numbers; for . rostrum, are programmed but. one,. billed as 'Bairel-Organ;' with . Belle Flower, Mlscha .Voljanlh and J.- P. Coombs, Was . missing ^ursday night, leav- ing a presentation portion .^ch for the ballet corps and Roxyettes, plus 'Faust.* With Viola Phllo and Jan' Peerce, backed by the XtaU's mixed chorus. StaOw opens with the Phllb-Peerce team and choral ensenable in the 'Faust' - excerpts and., ihuch too. long. .The mixed chorus Is In tWo . lines across stage, With Miss PJiilo iand Peerce in the center, for solo purposes.- Wonien of the ' chorus are seated, the men' standing behind and all In . evening dress. A drop in: two. backs, theih;' A dignified setting, the drop across stage being contrasted by a narr row strip of sea green in the Center.. For the ballet corps, production staff has provided a drop that in- cludes the effigy of a girl, the top portion of whose gown Is marked by a row of sparkling jewels^ These are the hats, of ballet girls whO tyni around to make an entrance down some stalris. Joined byr oth- ers, the.routine ot.the ballet girls Is one of the most ieffectlve yet seen here. The. nuniber by the Roxyettes is also well staged and executed. Set here is a long staircase from upper right stage, by which the girls maJte. their entrance. Three chan- deliers hahg above the stairs* aud that's all there Is on the stage. For this number the muItl-motored curtain pulls lip from right stage, revealing the head of the. long staircase firsts Usual neWsreel only filler and business Thursday night at the 8 o'clock shbw very good. Char. ALEEE, B^KLYN Splash we^ at the RKO citadel across the.hridere. Newspaper ads' announce 100 : artists in its Radio Television Revels and a. tally gives, nearly 60. And . 60 persbns on any vaudeyllle stage these days is a . con- yentloh. Score runs 24 in the house line, eight from the Idving Jewels, about .20 from the Russian Retrels with the others specialists. Ouman -. sky gets this cohorts Off to a fair stsirt, but the finish flops partly be- cause It lacks.fiash and because the NRA. isn't the surefire applause, getter It Was a few weeks ago. Opens with a drop In 'one' with a circular opening; In which a man and woman are about to dial In On television. That's where the title begins and ends.. Drop files (before the couple are fully offstage) and reveals the choristers from the Ru$>s act standing self consciously up- stage. Line oh for a brief routine and then a ballroom dance team to 'moderate results followed by George Dewey Washlnerton with one verse of 'Chloe,' old timer but still one of his best result getters. Line back in cellophane skirts with a solo dahcer * an odd assortment of steps suggesting the Tamara Geva influence. Young chap gives Irnitations of Jessel, JolsOn and Cantor, then a man as Uncle Sam, to sing the 'Open Road' song With half the line in shabby red, white and blue dresses that have seen yoeman service. Other half wears cloaks which open up to go patriotic, but Which, also disclose bodices . of cheap cotton cloth. About as shoddy a set of costumes as has been dis- closed ih a lohg time anywhere. Chortis Is used with Phil Fabello'p orchestra for an opening chorus- overture of Russian airs, with solo singers, a good, dancer: and aomo ghoral work, Most of ... them lack stage presience -and^ ease>,. ..though a. couple of the girls Overwork their expressions. All : okay with this crowd. Paul Sydell and Spotty opens the olio.'. Spotty (dogi changes sex, bre^d ahd color now and then; but the name clings,- He''s using two dogs, both clever per- formers.. He is also using an in- excusably, raw bit of comedy which should have been cut after the first .shaw.-.«=Thet^lbeei^draws^fr.oni»-flu= good class of patrons. Charles Melson gets over with a local topical sohg about parking, and then takes, a back seat to irmanette with her fiddle. When she does a bacK bend and still fiddles the audi- ence digs hahds out and Usies them. Nina. Whitney sings for the Liv- ing Jewels, backed up .by the Albce line girls In exceedingly smart cos- Itumes, the effect of which is de- tracted from by the fact that about ' half the. double dozen jpermlt their under trunks to show below the coi9tume, with a resultant slopplness of effect ' Apart, from this a good sight number and colorful. Bert Gordon found the going tough. His rough humor did not appeal to the audience here and his strenuous efforts te put himself over hurt rather than helped. George Dewey. Washington next to shut with 'Why Darkles Were Born' and 'The Xiast Roundup,' which last hi handled well,: though It doesn't quite fit him. He could have done a third, bht the vshow wajs late and he was 'due back in .a moment .In. the next act, so he let It go at two* Then the lOO^count 'em-^and Into the screen end.. ' Latter includes <Dr. Buir (Fox), the perennial 'Three. Little Pigs' and the neWsreel. 1 >use only fair Friday night, though webbing in the lobby denoted' they expected visitors. : . Chic, Cbinese,. Holly wood: Hollywood, Oct. 12. For the stage show to accompany I'm No Anger at its $1.50 local showing, Sid.Graumah has,provided an' atmospheric prolog to the pic-, ture by presenting -nine applause SLctSi all drawn from the sawdust. Opening night, with one of the acts out because its 'equipment wasn't rigged. It'ran five minutes over an hour. - AsaW's- £:iephants, slated for the closing spot, but cut^ out the first night, now opens the show» which--Is. going through the Graumah process of elimination and bulld-up, since the opening perform- ance always Is a final dress rehear- sal.' . Acts a,re circus outstanders; well- blended, and presented. They- al- most an ■ rate strong reaction, with the May Wirth Family; Ray Hullng and his -seali George and Jack Dor- monde, cyclists; Ferry CorWey,. and Carlton Emmy's pets, getting the best returns.. .David Ross,^ brought ; from-..the east, leads l^e pit orchestra through a punchy overture which la followed by Philip Escalante, wircrwalker, who can speed up considerably. The borihondeo, crack comic cyclists, follow and mop up. They can elim- inate some of their bike polo rou- tine.: Winnie and Dolly, ring, trap and Iron jaW workers, are on next and go ov^r sihartiy on the strength of the man's sensational trapeze fin- ish;- . ^Ehrtmy's hOunds stick to a plat- form and a Jumping, routine, pro- viding plenty of -smooth comedy, Tom Lom^ troupe follow for their regulation stilt work. When Cary Grant, opposite Miss West In the picture, was Introduced, he thanked Gra.uman for using the .act, with which he miade his show biz start. Plenty of novelty in Ferry Cor- wey's musical clowning. Starts off with bell , ringing; so old that it Is almost new again. Then graduates to a zither-like contraption and winds up with .a horn-tooting num- ber. Audience likes Corwey. • Ray Hullng and Jiis seal do their standai'd turn to big returns, fol- lowed by the Wirth family, the closer. Restricted by a small ring, the group, works a bit slow, but the clowning of . Fritz and the hippo- drome finish of May Wirth build up to a fiashy finish and an applause closer. Grauman has provided an authen- tic circuit background, stuffing the stands with dummies. Ringmaster, does a neat job of announcing. Sev- eral clowns do walk-throughs, but fall to tease any abdominal chuckles. Disney's 'Lullaby Land-' opens the show, Lehy.. PARAMOUNT. L. A. Los Angeles, Oct. 12. Full house downstairs rewai'ded the appearance of Rubinoff, called in this week to bolster fTillle and Gus" (Par),- which has only W. C. Fields and Alison Sklpwbrth 10 draw. The Russian fiddle leader ac- counts lor plenty of those present, if his opening applause means anything. He took a trio of curtain calls at the finish to make it bind- Doing four numbers; the band leader.occupies the last 20 minutes of, the stage show. He's intro- duced by . a phonograph record made by Eddie. Cantor, goes into, a, semi-Classic, then two ipops and finales Avith an orchestra specialty. It is In the finisher that the mad Rublhoff. batoh-Waving Is Shifted into high,." Instead of a bow, which he uses as a baton, Rubinoff shold wield a whip. In short, he's the Rasputin of the or- chestra, but he does it so show- manly that they eat it' up, Stradl- Varlus and all. Remainder of the show Is In and out. , Doll GalvIn gets across with some .crooning and. Instrument strumming, Martha Raye is torrid With several scat songs to mild retur-ns^and=-Eoyce-^-and==Marsh,- femme .crossrflre team, scores high, although their material several times hits a new loW for this un- usually clean house. Helen Boyce, with a pan like Oliver Hardy^s, has all the funny answers and is a picture possibility. Formerly out here. In musical comedy. Orchestm stumbles through a ragged rendition of 'Tiger Rag' and the Sunki^f beauties posture Interestingly in a squirm .routine. Lenj/, PALLADIUM, LONDON London, Oct. 3. BI)I this week has nothing out. standing, but Is good entertainment despite the weak spots here and there. Weakest Is local team of Bower and Rutherford, man-woman who undoubtedly have talent,, espe- cially the woman, but material js bad. It Was Only the good nature of the audience that saved them. " After the Sherman-Fisher girls, standard here, comie the Les Man. glnls, two men, obviously Conti- nental, with a classy hand-to-hand balancing offering. Boys have grace ahd physique. Russell, Marconi and Jerry are playing the first dite here since their arrival some eight months ago., rhis despite the team, minus Jerry, Played the house three times when last in England, - some two., years ago. Money difiUcultles was the reason; for their staylnjB: aWay. Al- though on too early, team manages to extract .the maximum amount of laughs , and appreciation, Marconi, with his funny pan- and quaint an- tics, being primarily responsible for the former.. Will Hay and Co., In onie of his scholastic comedies. Is alW'a>s sure- fire here, despite having done most of his vehicles on ■ Innumerable oc'" casions. Peter Higglns, holdover, gets reception on entry, rendering a new set of songs, and concluding' with two requests. He could have glyi^n another encore, but program was Overlong; Berlhoff and Chariot, practically a standard he.^e, give one number to yery good results.;.Garner, Wolf and Hakins, assisted by Jack Egan and Rosemarie, back here after a fortnight in. the" provinces, grOss plenty Of laughs. Act needs a stronger .finish. Lew Stone's .band, froni the Mon- selgneur -Testaurant, are a classy aggregation,, but rely mainly on playing^ each man being an expert musician. Their specialties are not so good while their crooning is just fair. Stone lacks personality, which Is a- hindrance. They also have a habit Of staying on too-long, Billy Bennett, coming on after 11 oclock, which is rather late for: this house, still manages to keep them In good humor. ' . Bennett's act has changed, very little but can stahd repetition. Mickey King, femme aerialist, in .closing spot, had-^ome diflilculty In- arresting the usual walkout, due to the latehess of the hour.. ■■• STATE-LAKE, CHI , Chicago, Oct. l,*). Absolute capacity business with full lobby and. sidewalk holdout at the first show Sunday demonstrates how this house.Is set with t\\e bar- gain-hunting public. Picture 'Moon- light and Pretzels' (U),' which has played previous loop dates both at: the Palace! and the B.&JC. McVlck- ers, proving that the regular loop hounds are not the ones who pat- ronize this spot. Patrons, are strict* ly frOm the neighborhoods as evi- denced, by the nunaber. of children. For It family house the booker has been particularly wise in choosing talent, but there's a bad slip in the type of material being dished out by Frank Donia In the. deuce. Talking In spots is bad enough, but he and his femme partner- are using- some messy hits. Otherwise ,a neat show that runs on grease. Grwynne. opens with his magic act, fast and clean work in- termixed nicely with eaisy chatter for laughs. Continues a vaudeville staple, Donia and femme next and ruined thinirs.. It took the Norman Thomas Quintet to pull the show out of the hole and set 'It riding. An act that has. routining and va- riety in the compass of 15 minutes. Recently played the Palace in the loop, but acts like this don't have to worry about repeating; Sylvia Clark and Bobby Kuhn back after a. long absence. Lil^e a reunion here with a welcoming re- ception from the audience. Vaude material at its best,, though it has been around ' with ■. Miss Clark for some time with the 'missing chap- ter' and 'at the train' monolops still Intact. Of an era when vaude was vaude and the-smacking click of the show. Showmanship and rnatqrial,. Stage show half of the 95 minutes of variety Is m.c,'d by Charles Kaley and a welcome relief, iKaley, one of the legion. of e.x^m.c.'s of the Paul Ash days, introduces the turns with ease lOf manner and. finishes the show with his .;own singing, Using a mike for some unkriowh reason. Two turns extra on the presenta- tion besides the girls. Hermsln Hyde had the next to closing spot with the fall-apai't Instruments and a winner, having to speech himself away. Dave Jones and company dance through most of the opening of the stage show with Jones trying to chatter, in betweeh numbers. Weak on the clowning talk, and kills-the=^T)dint -bf=-hia= gags^by =hi3- haste to get to the finish of the joke. On the dancing everything is smooth; Sldare and Lorra;ine In for acrobatic and contortion work, the latter Sldare's specialty In a drunk routine, Peggy Lee looks like two different girls In this act. Her open- ing danCe number ruined by a pain- ful choice in costume. On her clos- Ihqr routine with Jones in a ballroom tap there is a big improvement That ballroom gown proves she's really a looker.