Variety (November 1908)

16 VARIETY RIALTO ROUNDERS. Sam S. Howe is an excellent Hebrew comedian, one of the best on the stage. He plays a natural Hebrew, a characteris- tic type, and his makeup is on a par with that of Julian Rose. The "Rialto Rounders" this season (playing Eastern Wheel time) is a good burlesque entertainment, better than last season's show. Now that has been said so no misunder- standing should arise through comment- ing on an excellent comedian miscasting himself, as Howe does, and has done. He is committing the same error of being too much in evidence, first part, olio and burlesque, always in the same character. Although it is admitted that this season were not Mr. Howe so prominent, "The Rounders" would fall down, for he has no support, with the exception of Ed Anger, a very acceptable Italian in the opener, and Bert Harvey, a "cissy," who is not objectionable. It would be useless to mince words re- garding Harry B. Yokes. He is not a good "Dutchman" nor does he play well up to Howe. ■ The women principals, mostly large fe- males—too large, in fact—are Julia Heitz- man, Anna Goldie, Lillian Franklyn and "Mile." De Vora. None of them can sing, although all are comely, the Misses Heitz- man and Franklyn believing in tights .where they appear often, look good and ,<big. One girl in the show who knew how to deliver a song with some life in it -n-Would do wonders for the performance. Miss Heitzman sings "Yama" to not a hand, and makes a very pretty laughing number sound and fall flat. There is a chorister in the "Yama" who is allowed to holler too loud, spoiling the choral effect. "Taffy" in the burlesque is hardly recog- nizable. The sole number in the first part to ob- tain an encore was "When Dreams Gome True," a quartet selection which has been • a standby with the show for ever so long. The opener is new and called "Fun in the Subway." It is given a very good set- ting, and legitimately written, so much so that no fault can be found because the women principals do not change their cos- tumes, although the chorus does. Several nice dressing schemes occur, the pret- tiest being "The Fluffy Ruffles" num- ber. There is an unpardonable breach of burlesque ethics, eitquette or whatever it may be termed, when these same costumes are again worn during the burlesque, "A Day at the Races," the same old piece with the same funny horse. For comedy the first part has a re- vised version of the foreigner who black- mails through his wife, and this is where Anger plays well. For the finale, sparring bouts between the girls bring some laugh- ter, giving a very good ending. "Mile." (why the "Mile."?) De Vora is a pretty little girl, intended for the sou- brette, but she does not dance, a shrewd move, until the olio singing and dancing act of Harvey and De Vora, which, with the assistance of a "pick," is the hit of the show. It also contains the tastiest dressing, the onion shade of brown clothes capturing the prize. Mr. Howe is now acknowledged by the program to be the author and stager of "A Broken Heart," his olio sketch. Mr. Howe also wrote the two pieces. As ever (Continued on page 10.) THE TRAVELERS. "The Adventures of Issy Cohen," a two- act piece which forms the basis of the en- tertainment, gives evidence of at one time having had something resembling a book. But only the shreds remain, making a perfectly unintelligible jumble of "bits" and dissociated incidents. The first part particularly is a patchwork. The bur- lesque is much better. It has a back- ground of picturesque atmosphere against which the clowning of the comedian is excellently contrasted, and this went some distance in redeeming a show which had started under a largo handicap. The show is a new one in the Western Wheel, belonging to Herman Fehr. Harry Martell is said to be interested in the property likewise. Charles J. Burkhardt is principal comedian and likewise made the original production which, according to report, has very little surviving in the present arrangement. Insofar as Burk- hardt's work has been allowed to stand the show makes intelligent entertainment, but there are passages for which he denies responsibility. Most of these are machine- made and wooden. For example, the first part was put on only a few days before the end of last week's engagement at the Empire, Brook- lyn. It contains a rough Roman travesty, stretched out to unreasonable length, and a long "bit" involving the tiresome busi- ness of the "egg trick," both of which have long since outworn their usefulness. Burkhardt as the Hebrew is his old self, with the funny "slide" and his clean- ly-dressed and well-handled characteriza- tion. In his support are Charles Ledegar in a German role, and George McFarland as the Irishman, both' of whom play capably, but in rather conventional style. John W. Murray is the "straight." Dave Rose, playing an Italian, is the "goat" of the company, being the object of a good deal of rought treatment by the other comedians. Of the women, La Dora is the only one that fulfills the requirements of a sou- brette in the matter of appearance and graceful dancing, but her efforts are en- tirely confined to three dances introduced as specialties during the two acts. She docs first-rate toe work, perhaps the best that appears as a permanent member of a burlesque show this year. Her curious imitation of clog dancing on her toes and her steps with flexible ankle movements drew repeated bursts of applause. Con- nie Hamilton is the prima donna. She is of immense stature and might have been used as an effective foil for the diminutive Burkhardt, but instead was permitted to amble through the pieces with nothing at all to do except lead a few numbers. In the burlesque she wore tights. Ray Anderson has to carry the respon- sibility of the soubrette role. She looks well and has a fairly elaborate wardrobe and does nicely with the numbers al- lotted to her, but there is urgent neces- sity for a really lively soubrette. The olio is rather poorly put together. There is only one woman in this portion of the show, and that is Miss Hamilton, who does a polite singing turn, not very enlivening. The others were McFarland and Murray, conversation and songs; Charles J. Burkhardt and Co., "The Ital- ian" (New Acts), and Charles Ledegar, comedy bounding rope. Ruth. ORPHEUM. With Harry Lauder the big feature at the Fulton Theatre, the Orpheum in Brooklyn is offering a tremendous bill as a counter attraction. A rather light bal- cony was probably due on Monday night to the conditions which always obtain on the eve of Election Day, but the orchestra was filled to the back rail and there were standees behind. The list of features is impressive, any one of the three underlined numbers be- ing strong enough to headline a Williams' show. Alice Lloyd got the big type and was probably depended upon as the draw- ing card against Lauder. The little singer was in an unaccustomed place (No. 4), made necessary because of her playing the Colonial also. She sang five songs in all. Mclntyre and Heath are held over for the second week, and instead of their "Georgia Minstrels" have put on "The Man From Montana," which is almost new again. Some of the talk has been so widely current since they first used it that it lacked the element of surprise, but the ridiculous character relations between the two are handled as only Mclntyre and Heath know how, and the pair were easily the laughing hit of the bill. Clarice Mayne had an important place next but one after intermission and walked away with it. Her impersonations are skilfully done, Harry Lauder being the only one not convincing. In place of Connie Ediss, Miss Mayne is imitating Clarice Vance singing "Maria," a splendid bit of mimicry. The accompanist deserves to be named on the program. He has a lenack of making really funny parlor clowning and is a first rate foil to the graceful mimic. The Belleclaire Brothers were called upon to close the show, a large task for any act. Their routine of matchless band-to-hand balancing which forms the opening is a striking exhibition of grace and acrobatic style, and the sensational finishing leap rounds out an immensely interesting number. The first half of the show was a bit short on comedy. John and Bertha Glee- son and Fred Houlihan opened. Theirs is a prettily dressed anfl nicely laid out singing and dancing turn, with frequent costume change, lively dancing and varied incident, moving with speed that makes up for the absence of comedy. The Clarks offer a banjo playing act in which heavy concert effects are de- pended upon pretty much. Several imi- tations were announced, but they did not materialize. It takes a lot of imagination to recognize "voices" in the duets. The house liked the number, however, and the players took an encore. Carlin and Otto in 'The Battle of Too Soon" (No. 3) had the first call on com- edy. The travesty drew solid laughter, but there is an unfortunate disposition to pun overmuch. It's all "gagging." A touch of seriousness from time to time would give it better light and shade and throw the burlesque into sharper relief. The finish has been changed somewhat, the act ending with the "sinking" of the Sandy Hook, a rather bad finale. Harry Tighe scored a big personal hit in spite of the sketch, "Books," which has some rather tiresome passages. Two songs contributed to the entertainment. Winsor McCay fitted in nicely, follow- ing the intermission with his quiet sketch- drawing offering. LINCOLN SQUARE. After the Lauder box-office tumult of three weeks followed a peaceful calm in attendance at the Lincoln Square Monday evening. Alongside the crowded condition during the Scotchman's engagement, the theatre presented about the same appear- ance a prohibition meeting would at the Metropole. It needed a great big card to draw back those who came to see Lauder only, but the Lincoln Square program this week, while carrying standard features, pre- sented no strange name of prominence as an attraction. The Four Mortons headlined and car- ried off the laughing honors of the show, which could have been arranged more to the audience's pleasure on Monday, the opening half running somewhat "dead" with a "dumb" aerial act opening, fol- lowed by Mirsky Gynt, a boy soprano (New Acts), to be succeeded by Alex. Carr and Company (No. 3) in "The End of the World," playing a return engage- ment in this house and requiring thirty- four minutes to do it in (several minutes too long) while Allan Shaw in coin manip- ulations was a quiet act for the "No. 4" place, the first half closing with Mr. and Mrs. Bob FitzBimmons in another drawn- out piece. After the intermission, things picked up. Vasco, "the mad musician," making his American reappearance, opened, and proved the applause prize of the program, his varied and swift playing with the nicely staged setting suiting the house down to the ground. The Mortons had their happy talking, singing and dancing act %o keep up the pace, and Bill Dillon, who came after them, in the hard position of one before the closing number (in addition to songs after songs) did right well. He would have been in the list of winners on any other spot. Dillon is getting away from his' orig- inal idea, that of singing comic songs in travestied clothes, Mr. Bill should adopt one style and cling to it. "Somebody is Waiting for Me," while containing a catchy chorus, is out of his atmosphere, both in the lyric and dressing. The other three suits worn are excellent, especially the "union" "Princess" suit, a very funny combination. The opening and closing songs are suited to Dillon, but the one mentioned, and "Playtime" are not. "Playtime" would be a hit had not "School Days" been written. Mile. Alexandra and Bertie opened the bill with their neat aerial act, they mak- ing a reappearance over here as does Allan Shaw, who returns to his native land after a long absence. Shaw is a neat palmer of coins, al- though his first work, commonly called "My Dream of Wealth," showed nothing new even to his expression of "This is a Painful Experiment," as he apparently passes a quarter through his knee. Some slow palming was very well done, and the final trick, named by him "The Ani- mated Coin," is his best. In card palming, Shaw is not so skillful. To occupy the stage for fifteen minutes with palm- ing alone is difficult. Shaw should at least have more comedy patter, or shorten, or extend his act to include other matter on the same lines. The Davis-Gledhill Trio (New Acts) ended the show. Sime.