Variety (Apr 1934)

Tuesday, April 3, 1934 Plays Out of Town Sweet Bells Jangled Philadelphia, April 2: Latest vehicle for Jane Cowl looks artistically as promising as any- thing she's ever had, hut certain aspects of the theme make it doubt- ful for popular success, .Sheldon Bennett and Shepard Traube are listed as producers. Author; .Reginald Lawrence, is; dealing with an interesting angle, of deranged mentality. He. handles the theme delicately, and with restraint, but the idea may be distasteful to some theatregoers. Most of the. critics here, raved, but there were complaints from patrons. Story concerns one Meg Pember- ton, who goes insane when, just be- fore her child is to bo born, . she learns that her husband has •been unfaithful. Baby dies in childbirth, but mad Meg persists in believing that It lived and also that her err- ing husband had gone away on a long journey. A noted psychiatrist is brought in on the case, and his suggestion is that an old girl friend, Janet Dodge, come to the house to live and that she and the husband try, gradually and gently, to win the wife..back to sanity. As. is not a,t all surprising, the two, being thrown much to- gether, fall in love. In the end, an-r other doctor reverses the. advice of the first, sends the friend away and tells the husband to court his wife all over again as, even in her clouded mind,, she has sensed the attach- ment of hubby and friend and be- lieves she is not wanted. There are many very touching scenes in 'Sweet Bells Jangled' and, several highly emotional ones. In fact, the action is ,unusually'tense from the curtain rise to the end, and if one will accept the theme, he is bound to be much impressed by its unfolding. Certain elements of the. characterizations—especially that of the central character, may not' stand up under analysis, but they- make for terrifically powerful dramatic conflict. Although much heavier, Lawrence's play resembles Pulton Oursler's 'Behold This Dreamer,' in which. Glenn Hunter appeared about five years ago. That, although a well-rated play, was failure. Capital performances, all along the line help 'Sweet Bells Jangled 1 greatly. In fact it's the kind of play that requires the most delicate and sensitive handling. Miss Cowl, although the central figure, has by no means got the biggest, part. In fact she's comparatively little on the stage, but she does have some tre 7 mendously effective scenes. Her • role is made particularly difficult by reason of the fact that she has to «arry, nearly all the time, bundle , of clothes which she, in her deranged state, insists on thinking is her child. Mary Phillips is- capital as the . girl .friend and so is Minor Watson, as the husband. In fact, he has one of the best roles he has had .in a long time and a tough one, too. The two doctors are portrayed by Clyde Franklin and. Eugene Sigaloff, and Florence Edney contributes one of ■ her usual shrewd character por- trayals as a nurse. Donald Oen- slager's one set is in fine taste. 'Sweet Bells Jangled' is a thought- ful and Impressive play. It. remains to .be seen whether its theme will be accepted. Waters. Moon Ballet, is strikingly effective. Ail the boys re capable, but El- mer Jacob Myers who plays the- King with a make-up like the Sow- low comic strip, J. Ellwood Dough- erty,as the seductive June East/ and Samuel Walter Gregg, Jr., as August Pickins, are outstanding. ., A tour of Pennsylvania cities will; follow. 'Easy Pickins* is a good show and a credit ,:the organiza- tion.'. Waters.-;. BROADWAY REVIEW Shows in Rehearsal One More Honeymoon Farei : in three acts, presented at the Little, March 81, by John Nicholson and Ned Brown: written by Leo Reardon: staged by Nicholson. . Chuck McAffoo......... v. .Charles ,Harrlspn Richard I. Mason. ...,... .Bur.ford Hampden Ramona, St. Clair.; ....... .Sally Starr Nancy Devorev • Ann ■. Butler Wanda Rutledge..... Alice FJemlnR Henry Rowland..Gepree Pembroke 1'odkee.locodeekasomoko... ."Will. H. Phllbrlck Miss Rutherford,.. Alrhlra Sessons Charles Lummus.. Harry Hanlon 'Are You Decent' lbert Bannister) Bijou. Mig Saw' (Theatre Guild. 'Broadway Interlude' (Ham- merstein and DuFor) Masque. 'Stevedore' (Theatre Union) 14th Street.. 'She Loves e Not' (Lon- don) (Wiman and Weatherly) :46th Street. 'Late Wisdom' (Mark New- man) Little.. Wash. Battle on Tkowaway Ducats May Bring Treasury Dept faquiry BALTIMORE GETS FIRST LEGIT THIS SEASON DUCAT OWN PLAN Saturday was the wettest night of the season, but, the boys who i-e- vie-yv plays slunk out mumbling that they'd rather brave the downpour than take any more of 'One More Honeymoon/ Trooping started at the end of act one and the third act found only, those reviewers who sing in the rain remaining.. Plays can fool the orltics sometimes, but hot this time, for the only Holy Week entrant is (or was) amateurish. Surprising if it holds the boards be yond the opening performance. It's about a young fellow who goes broke in the bug exterminating busi- ness; Good riatured newspaper- woman steers a rich widow into the runt's apartment and he marries the matron, taking her to Iceland on >a honeymoon. The long winter night was figured perfect, for that SOrt of thing. They bring back an Eskimo, a guy with a 21-letter name but with a new kind of bug exterminating juice made out of fish. To prove he is an Eskimo he eats the goldfish. Then a spinster 1 anthropologist grabs, teaches and marries him, and he sells his bug stuff for a million bucks. There is more to the story hut it doesn't matte*. Most, of the cast names looked strange and so was the acting.. Curious, however, to see Will H. Philbrick cavorting about as the fat Icelander PoOkeelocc- deekasomoko. He. was amusing for a moment or so. Sure was a wet night, but the show was wetter. Ibee. EASY PICKINS (Mask and Wig Show) ---- . .Philadelphia, April, 2. Maslc and Wig Club's 46th an- nual musical extravaganza turns out to be one of its best, although club saved money this year by em- ploying no professional talent any- where. Dances were directed by a Wigger (Francis J. Kellyi Jr.) and he's done a capital job. Settings and costumes were also designed by the boys, and they deserve plenty of credit. 'Easy Pickins' concerns the Pick- ins Brothers (August and Septem-r ber), two scientists who set off . to explore the stratosphere together, with June East, a lady of buxom ..and voluptuous, beauty, the kind commonly associated with Mae West. They land-on the moon and one of the explorers (August) is ac- cused by the Lunar King of alien- ating his wife's affections. Second act mostly concerns August's trial at which, among other things, he is accused of causing the cows on the milky way to go on strike- Much of this trial scene is very amusing ^indeed ^aWr^wRTi^ir Tot^of ^Wrm rhyme,. it is also quite clever and more adult than most of the books of, college shows. Joseph P. Fellman and S. Bick- ley . Ileiehncr have contributed a corking score—ohc of the host a Mask'and Wig show Iras ever 'pos- sessed. Outstandingly tuneful num- bers are 'Old Man Moon,' 'Nasty Man,' 'Loneliness* and 'Easy Pick- ins/ As previously noted, the dahoo evolutions are intricate and very Hampden Gets $7,000 In 4 Shows, Seattle - Seattle, April 2. Four performances at 55 cents to $2.20 netted Walter Hampden $7,000 here. House seats 1,400, so this kind, of biz is close to capacity. Hampden laid off during Holy week; goes next to Salt Lake. L. A. Memory' Readied Los Angeles, April 2. Rehearsals for the Myron. C. Fagan production of *Memory,' which he authored, and which, will star Helen Morgan, begin tomorrow (3) at the Biltmbre, with the drama set to open April 30. Kurt Ames (Leort Waycoff) gets the male lead and Erin O'Brien- Mporo the top femme part. Also in cast is Jackie Searle. Miss Morgan will warble one ditty. P A Fool There Was,' by Stella Unger and Fred Fisher. . Fagan will direct, with Irving Strouse handling publicity; Aiding Binyon Hollywood, April -2. - In - the cast . '$tooge,' Claude Binyon-Joe Mankiewicz play based on the Binyon yarn, are Leo Chal- zel, Ferdinand '• Munier, Jerry Fletcher, Valerie Stevens. Wm.. Russell is directing,, with Opening., tentatively ; set for the Threshold, new Hollywood legit show window, around middle of April. roadway's theatre ticket brokers were told to present a plan of ticket control when the additional open hearing on the code is held in Washington next Tuesday (10) William P. Farnsworth, deputy ad> ministrator who succeeded Sol Rosenblatt, bluntly told the tioket people at the code hearing at the capital last week that if they didn't have some plan of their own, one of the several ticket plans already pro posed would be accepted. In the two day and night sessions, a majority of the time was devoted to tickets, in one phase or another. There were revelations which apr peared to surprise Farnsworth, de- spite the welter of confabs on tickets prior to, and during the hearings. Comment of some officials interested in straightening out the Jegit. situation was to the effect that entirely too much attention was de- voted to ^tickets and that there were other problems as important. Independent brokers, those grouped outside the • big three— McBrides,. Postal-Leblang. and Tyson (Sullivan-Kay)—were repre- sented by attorney Stanley Fowler. He declared that most of the pre- ferred tickets for some shows and particularly the 'Follies' were alloted to the three leading brokers. It was claimed, that 270 of such tickets virtually shut out the inde- pendents and 180 tickets went to one agency (Tyson), that, number later being reduced to 150. He charged that his clients therefore had to obtain tickets from that agency, paying 75c. over the box office price and, if sold to customers with- out additional charge to hold their patronage, there was no profit. Argument was in support of the indie plan for the right to make a resale charge, which would double the present allowable premium. Otherwise It was figured that if rules covered the price phase .of ticket distribution there should also be rules making for a . more even allotment, Shuberts di not subscribe to that idea. J. J. Shubert was pres- ent with his attorney but withdrew after becoming indisposed, not how- ever until after declaring that the Shubert theatres would ,dispose., of tickets in their own way. John and William McBride be- came angered during, one session, being' particularly . excited over a clause in the proposed control plan put forth by Philip Wittenberg, a New York attorney. They objected to the idea that any ticket alloted to their agency, if found in another broker's hands would be presump- tive evidence of violation and might lead to suspension. McBrides, Postal-Leblang and Tyson are ^for continuing the pres- ent rules, although during the win- ter they had criticised the Code Authority's system. Baltimore, Baltimore's this year ia a. return, of legit in double dose, both spots breaking the bar- rier tonight (2). Maryland hangs its first show this season with 'Dan- gerous Corner,' initialer of . secutlve shows Woe and Leyenthal are skeded to send in. No cut-rate or English pit system policies will be pursued, a straight dollar admission being the tap, and half that for matinees. As in prac- tice throughout the W. & L, wheel, the Maryland builds the sets, for each show. No public mention of stock affiliation, is being made, W. & L. also receiving ho formal billr irig as the shows' presenters. Plays are simply being hawked as ', roadj shows. Fordls, UBO house, also relights tonight with the Charles Emerson Cook Players/ new resident stock troupe. Marks the first stock out fit in this theatre in six years, and that was a summer troupe. Cook's original group put in fifteen weeks up. at the Auditorium during mid winter, finally succumbing to a combination ot Lent and unfortu- nate weather breaks Feb. 24; Cook is tossing but the first ball with 'Men in White,' Harry Ellerbe and (Miss) Lee Patrick in the top spots, plus Calyln. Thomas, Joseph Eggenton, Lawrence Keating, Rosa- mund Merivale, Helen Pitt, Wallace Acton, Oscar Westgard, Daisy Lpv- ering and Allan Kaye. Addison Pitt is the stager. Prevailing 85 cent top nites and 40 cent mats will In- augurate a new low tariff for stock hereabouts. 'Hell to Pay' Parker, Boston Transcript Vet Critic, Dies at 67 HARTFORD IIOSW& L'S _ Hartford, Conn., April 2. Hartford is giving Parson's.Thea- tre a good bit of money on the Wee & Levcntlial stage presentations. Two shows so far - this season, one had Beverly Bayno and Herbert Rawlinson in 'Dangerous - Corners' and the other, Pauline Frederick in 'Her Mnjepty the Widow/ Both netted quite, a lilt of change, al- though the house was dark for elose, well done. One. special number, ato two years. 'Hamlet' for Brooklyn Omaha, April 2. Hart Jenks, studio director of KOIL, Omaha, has been invited to play the role of Hamlet, in a pro- duction to be . presented by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and T^iemWs^biT'Aprll "21T ~ " r — ~" Invitation to play the part was extended by J. Augustus Keogh, di- rector of productions at the insti- tute, who was formerly associated with Jenks in two seasons with Fritz Lienor's Shakespearean reper- tory company. Production will be given a mati- nee and an evening performance in honor of the anniversary of the Mrth of William Shakespeare. , April 2. Henry Tyler Parker, knOwn to Show folks . throughout the United States as H. T. P., one of the most authoritative and colorful drama- critics for the past 40 years,, died Friday (30) after a' week's illness, from pneumonia. H. T. P., as he signed himself, was on The Boston Transcript for 40 years arid one of the few inter-urban editors of drama whose opinion was rated as meaning something. His reviews were always brutally frank and yet commanded respect from authors and managers. He was a colorful ividuallst. One of his pet phrases was 'Hell to Pay/ employing the initials of his name and for several decades it has been a dramatic biz legend that 'Hell to Pay Parker says—/ He always wrote in longhand and never answered a telephone. Once a year he would come to New York, and always, stop at the Murray Hill hotel, preferably in a back room. Frequently,. too, he Went to London. After being in New York for some years as the Transcript correspond-: ent, he went to London for a few months in 1899 as representative of the Boston paper and the .New. York Globe. In 1903 he left the Tran- script to become, music and drama critic for the Globe in New. York, but two years later returned to his first love. He never wandered away, after that. Parker had a strong dislike, for censorship and wrote many virile and bitter articles oh the subject. His writings were decidedly of the old school, but outstandingly stylistic. He was a member of the Harvard Club of Boston and the Stage So- ciety in New York, and had entree to many exclusive clubs in sev- ^al^uT'opean^caprtlSls. ~ T "^ He Was unmarried and, 67 years old at the time he was stricken. 'Following a recent ruling of the .Treasury Department that 40 cent admissions on passes to legit shows is tantamount . to cut-rates and therefore, calls for the payment to the government of 10% on the face, or box office, value of. the ticket, the New York collector of Internal Revenue is preparing a claim, for back taxes against theatres which have . .exacted "'service charges' on passes and against Leblang's cut- rate agency. Inspectors estimate that around $75,000 will be the.-total sought from Leblang's.. Amount claimed from managers using the pass tax collec- tion is. more or ..less undetermined. Among those principally concerned are the Shuberts, who started the system of collecting 40 cents per person on.'free admissions,' describ- ing such levies as 'employees admis- sion,' 'employees beneficial fund* tax. It is hot believed that the intent of the law is such as ruled by the Treasury Department insofar as cut rates are concerned. Until it was decided that the letter of the rev- enue act called for 10%, on the ac- tual box office price, Leblang's did hot collect the tax. Since the agency did hot actually collect the full per- centage on its, cut-rate sales, it is expected that the claim will be settled for a lesser sum* Eisner's Argument At Washington, attorney Mai- Eisner, former tax collector in New York, appeared to argue against the Treasury ruling. He .was given five minutes, but presented a brief In which he. showed that tickets sold at cut-rates were accompanied, with taxes that really meant that the purchaser paid 20% instead of 10% —that if a $3 ticket is sold at half price in Leblang's. the new ruling calls for a tax; of 30 cents, whereas, it should hot be more than 15 cents. In other words tax is beihg col- lected on money not actually paid, he says. Since the ruling, Leblang's has been collecting on the. box office, or printed value, of tickets but on the reverse there Is a, stamp that the stubs should be retained; so that should the ruling be upset the pa- tron will be entitled to a refund. As regards the collection on passes, that money has actually been collected by the several man- agers using that practice. Under the ruling, if 40 cents U. collected on a ticket priced at $3, 30 cents is due the government. Doubtful, 'there- continued on page 58) CLUB BUYS 'OF THEE' PRODUCTION RIGHTS Springfield, Mass., April 2, •Of Thee I Sing' opened at the Court Square theatre tonight under the auspices of the Kiwanis Club, local talent as to cast and chorus being used, but with the original Sam H. Harris production. Man- ager was paid $2,000 for the use of the production* but It is likely the settings will remain .hjerer at the request of the showman- Cost of ringing up -the curtain Is estimated at not less than $7,000.. Show will be played six nights,.top being $3. While a profit on opera- tion is not expected, advertising In the souvenir programs approxi- mates $i 5,000... Show was staged by Bib Day, former stock manager. Last season the Kiwanis staged 'Show Boat' here; 'Yoske Kalb' on Coast Los Angeles, April 2. Maurice Schwartz comes Into the Biltmore for a week starting April 30, in his Yiddish play, 'Yoshe Knlb.' It's hlH first trip ot the ('oast. Dallas Stock Dallas, April 2. Boyd B. Trousdale's Players open- ed Sunday (1) at the newly, mod- ernlzed Uptown, Stock company had been playing, at. the President, Des Moines. SEATTLE'S 1ST OPERA -. — Seattle-^nril.-2 JSeattle will have its first taste of gr'arid opera at pop prices for five days, opening April 23, when the San Carlo Grand Opera Company will be at the civic auditorium. Prices scale from 155 cents to $1.10. Eli'sson-Wh'ite is presenting, with Bill McCurdy handling in north- west, including Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, B. O. Advance sale looks big.