Variety (Jul 1937)

60 VARIETY VARIETY HOUSE REVIEWS Wednesdays July 21, 1937 ROXY, N. Y. The Roxy should do better than all right this week with 'Super- Sleuth' (RKO) on the screen, the 20th-Movietonews featurette, 'The Coronation' (in color), subfealuried, and a well-balanced Fanchon & Marco "unit on the rostrum. It's generous and quality enterta[inment Irom every aspect, with the Jack Oakie laff feature the woper climax to light summer entertainment fare. Frank Gaby, Gautier's dogs and ponies, Stanley Pros., Evers and Dolores, Frances Stevens and the versatile Gae Foster Girls —the Boxy'g own version comparable to the corking Rockettes at the Music Hall further east on 50th street- have been combined into generally satisfactory if a bit fulsome enter- tainment. Everything is permitted to run overboard. -Gautier's Steeplechase as be calls his clever canine and pony act al- most tied it up opening.: Stanley Bros, with their knocka^ut acro- dancing, in iWhite tie and tails (and acrobat's gym slippers), next with their contortlve wheels and spills, plus the drunk dance, etc. . Follows Grank Gaby whose cap- tioned 'gift of gab* runs on and on. Ventriloquist has a midget aide and a dummy (A almost like stature. He coiiM and should cut and show up to better advantage. Evers and Dolores with their wire stuff likewise aise over^generotts in their chores. Bk>th work with para- sols as balancer* but he'a fast and daring on the silver thread. Does hocks and time-Step while she pirouets on the Wire. They're fore- grounded by the Foster girls who go from maracas (rhumba) rhythms to tangos, while Dolores essays 'Gypsy Sweetheart'.^ for Ihe tziganc atmb- sphericS. France^ Stevens, apart from being burdened by the baling as 'the biaroness of the btaes^' is a good vocal introducer. She tees off 'Cuban Pete' for the rhumba dance ensemble and in toto looks' well te fit the atmos- phere, besides warbling a. nifty pop. Mijs Stevens (assuming she's the one doing the incidental 'Pete' number) unlike the others doesn't do enough. Per usual the F&M production auspices are impressive aind bigtime. Eddie Paul batoning the Roxy-trench unionists likewise does a good job. Biz bullish at-Friday night's final Abel. show. STANLEY, PITTS. Pittsburgh, July 16. Looks 'like a corking show on paper but it's a drab, colorless lay^ out with oidy one real wallop. For the marquee there's Herman Bing but the mob will have to remember hard the sputtering comic's citiema hits in order to look charitably upon what -he has to offer in person. Backing the presentation is Joe Venuti's band, with the maestro m.c.'ing. A whiz on the- fiddle, Venuti's choice spots are his own. violin solos, with orch's other sections too ■ clumsily pieced to register." Musically, it's a pretty good if not particularly distinctive butfit but the pattern for a stage date still has to be worked out. For one thing, Venuti tries to give *em too much and his superfluous stuff isn't particuliirly good. 'March of Time' satire he uses near the close might go in a night club but it's plenty blue for theatre anj}^ coming right on the heels of some bad taste by Bing, gives the whole show a feculent odor. Band carries pair of vocalists Don Darcy and Trudy Mack. Girl should be moved up. She doesn't put in an appear- ance until right before the finish and then barely for a single chorus. Venuti is also carrying a second femme, Virginia Carle, who intro- duces a series of imitations by specialists in the crew and then goes into a brief session of what's sup- posed to be hoofing. Set-up at first show, however, was all wrong, running order being way off whack and showing nobody off to advantage. Natural closing would be Louise Massey and her Westerners, radio quintet (foitt men and a girl), the only sock on the bill. Instead Bing follows them and then Venuti provides another anti-climax with his 'March of Time' and sign-off. Massey troupe is a good-looking, clean-cut group slickly outfitted in white cowboy regalia and clicking off a series of western ballads in corking fashion. They're good instru- mentalists^ too^ accompanying them- selves, and Miss Massey, who does their announcing, has a self-effacing graciousness that adds to the general effectiveness, Vocal arrangements have been fashioned with an ear 16 ' choral surprises and the five.some had a dickens of a time getting off. Following Venuti's opening, adagio trio of Adair and Richards do a number entirely too slow for a get- away and slows down show. Not that threesome doesn't have something on the ball, but are badly spotted. -Westerners pick it up again, how- ever^ and Venuti keeps the ball roll- ing with his trick fiddling, but de- flation sets in once more, with Bing's appearance. Fillum comic's mono- logue is almost a 20-minute stretch and dull material made it a hard pull with the audience al' of the distance. This was figured to bring x^n the curtain but Venuti made the init. Jake of trying to pull layout t;);;ciher again and unfortunately picked this spot to come up with some of liis poorest bits. Show ran way over- board on time, consuming around 65 minutes and that's a lot of nuuutes for a single sock. • Picture 'Ever Since Eve' (FN) with Par newsreel, cartoon and Dave Broudy's overture. Biz fair at open- ing, three-quarters downstairs and about half a balcony, Cohen. Embassy Newsreel, .1^ Y. New biil at tiiis newsreel house does not want for variety. It's all newsreel, with the two shorts not being especially significant or enter- taining. There are 52 newsreel clips on tap, with the European war clouds again in limelight. Every reel except Paramount chips in with foot- age on the Spanish warfare or the threat of hostility in Far East. Land- ing of the Soviet aviators near San Diego, Calif., is accorded trim cov- erage by Universal, which .specialed the subject, landing the reel in the theatre Thursday (15) night Remainder of subjects are not outstanding or very newsy with Fox Movietone grabbing laurels on num- ber of clips with 16, although Para- mount, Universal and.Metro's 'News of the Day' came dose to it on. foot- age, all but last-named having 10 each. European hostilities were rather tame, with Metro showing refugees leaving Spain and war-torn areas after the battle. Fox pictured prep- arations for counter-drive against rebels. Also gave a brief glimpse of Japanese Emperor givini^ troops the once-over, Jap-China war was treated by Universal with views of recent preparations for conflict, the new Chinese arjhy efficiency and one library shot. Pathe followed much the same ground, though foggy pho- tography suggested dipping largely into its files. Besides Universal's pictures of the latest Soviet flying heroes. Para- mount showed the other Russian trio sailing from N, Y. . With hope for saving Amelia Ear? hart nearly abandoned, U displayed resourcefulness in digging up high- lights of aviatrix' flying career.with- out asserting flatly that she would never be found. Included bird's-eye view of battleship plane carrier, with airplane hopping off in supposed search. Paramount depicted George Palmer Putnam's son joining him as hunt for his wife continues. Both Universal and Paramount vied for honors in torrid wave fancy shots. Latter did fairly much the accepted thing on the' way folks tried to keep cool, but gave an orig- inal touch by showing possible scenes in next winter's cold wave (all library). U grabbed more laughs be- cause of ingenious touches and cleverly staged stunts, stenog in bathing suit at work being tops. Feminine angle was featured by all excepting' Par, with Metro coming out with a 'woman's page,' in which Dorothy Kilgallen does the commen- tary and gets her portrait tacked on at the start. Narration is there, but subject matter is a bit thin, includ- ing a baby nursery, French hat fash- ions, Chinese nurses on a N. Y. sky- scraper, baby lions in California and a bathing beauty contest for - grand- mas. Fair sex break with Movietone was the usual fashion division, this time covering novel hats. Kalhe's fall hat review, taken in theltadio City sunken garden area and Universal's showing of the latest in sportswear, with fascinatihg models. ■ '' Freak stuff jagain was grabbed by U. One showed unusual rodeo bronc busting, climaxing with a sensational 'ride.' Another was that of Oregon man with an air-cooled hat. Third was horseshoe tossing in a lake's shallow water by five bathing gals. Pathe contributed five orphan skunks, a piano instructor making his pupils wear heavy mittens in practicing, and finding gold in a Den- ver street. The Rockettes in action at Paris exposition was superbly photo- graphed by Pox. U covered the re- turn of his troupe to U. S. after the triumph. Situation in. Palestine was accorded comprehensive coverage by Pathe. Death of Senator Robinson (Metro) featured speeches of opposing lead- ers in court fight. Paramount had the wind-up of the Boy Scout Jam- boree and exclusive shots of Roose- velt's son and his new bride as they took a boat at Quebec on their honeymoon. Paramount did a skillful job of showing prize winners of the Na- tional Headliners' Club and their achievements, with pictorial shots of events that copped prizes. Lew Lehr scored twice on laugh- end of program. First with his com- ment on habits of baby seals and second time out, with his laugh-pro- voking dialog on aquarium inhabi- tants in a Paris pool. Fox reel also led in sports doing a bike race in France, Jones Beach swimming, Ry- der cup golf tourney and Australian wrestling between two U. S- champs. 'Excursion in Science' (Bondy)and 'In Shanghai' (Hoffberg) travelag, finish the show. Wear. PALLADIUM, LONDON London, July 7. The London Palladium reverted once more to straight variety bill, July 5, with 11 acts, of which two are native. Majority are American and there are also a couple of con- tinental turns. Joe Ortnes opens neat juggling routine. Splendid act of its kind. He is followed by Archie Glen, comedian, with his well known inebriated character, giving way to Marcy Brothers and Beatrice with their knockabout contortion and acrobatic stepping. What struck the audience as an extremely novel act is Wences, ap- parently a Spanish ventriloquist, who makes up his left hand as a ■face for the dummy. He is a good actor and creates a personality with the dummy. Forsythe, Seamon and Farrell are a riot, as usual, wUh their conglomerate routine. The girl dancer should, however, learn to keep her eyes up instead of down. Wonder nobody ever told her that Closing the first half is Harry Richman, doubling from the Cafe de Paris. He does 50 solid minutes of forensic warbling and story narra- tion. Doing this twice nightly, and then holding an audience for more than an hour at the Cafe, would seem to come under the head of a full day's labor. But Richman seems to like- it; his audiences like it; they pay him a lot of money; he packed the Palladium, with a plentiful smat- tering of dinner jackets, including one worn by Max Crordon. After the Interval, those returning to their seats were entertained by Pablo, a conjurer who makes cards- materialize iand disappear, tosses cigarettes away, only to have them hianifest. either hi his hand or in his mouth a la Cardini, Fayson and Paul Duke. He has played United States. These tricks apparently wiE always interest the public. Raynor Lehr,, assisted by a colored boy, shows the customers more kinds of danciiig than probably any single performer who has come to the Palladium. The Mills Brothers, plus a'guitarist, mak- ing five in all, please immensely with their harmonizing, and Max Miller with his monolog is next to closing. His recent appearance in pictures does not seem to have improved his stage work, which' seems a trifle slipshod. Grip Quartet, billed as an adagio team, comprises - three man ahd ah acrobatic girl whom the men toss about with reckless abandon. More than ever apparent is the abserice of single women. Not one of them carded and only four who work in turns at all. Conceded that Richman is the big draw. He will remain for three weeks of the four in which vaudeville is resumed at the Palladium, and Grade Fields will come in for a single week. She in turn will be succeeded by .the Cot- ton Club Revue from New York for a short season, when the house changes once more to the 'Crazy' shows. Jolo. LYRIC, INDPLS. Indianapolis, July 18. Here's - a show that didn't cost a lot, yet played like a house afire be- fore . capacity audience which ap- parently hadn't heard about the de- mise of vaudeville. The customers at the first evening show Saturday (17) were numerous and generous in response, all of which makes it easy at a performance like this to understand why the Lyric is nearing the end of its third year of consecu- tive weeks of stage shows without an interruption, winter or summer. Tagged 'Stardust Revue' by the management, the . show • features Lowe, Hite, and Stanley, who work in trey spot and top the bill for applause. This is the present act's first visit here, although Lowe and Hite played the house four years ago. This trip out they have omitted much of their crude clowning.- Tlie addition of Stanley, the midget, to the team gives an even better con- trast in sizes between the eight-feet- high giant and his partners. They work fast for about six minutes of pantomime slapping, fighting and rough-house which shows off their opposite extremes in stature and fin- ish to an okay hand. They really sock, however, when they come back to do a military tap routine together In front of a line of By ton girls brought/in by the house. They stop the show and have a neat encore bit which enables them to get oft' in good style. Bert Walton helps the bill out by breaking up his act and spotting it between the other turns in order to serve as m.c. He comes out cold to open the show after a brief off-stags introduction and proceeds to warm up the audience before presenting a production number featuring Sandra and Wyoters, an acceptable dance team, backed up by the Byton line of girls, Banny Ross is introduced next by Walton. Although he is on a bit early, Ross gets off to a good start with the aid of interruptions from his stooge oh an off-stage mike. Ross then brings on his fern part- ner, Maxine Stone, and they do their lan>iliar but effective, routine featur- ing her lazy and bored attempts to dance. After Lowe, Hite and Stanley in the next spot comes Walton's eight minutes of lauglis elicited as a re- sult ot his build-up of a daad-pan stooge who looks like he has one i loot in the grave. The youth has a good pair of pipes and he scores with a solo of 'Trust In Me.' The real punch follows when Walton, after telling the stooge he should use more expression and gestures, gets behind the singer and moves his arms for" him comically as he sings another tune. Walton really ♦sells' it, but the stooge gets all the applause, of course; indeed, so much applause that Walton's introduction of Happy Harrison's Circus, closing the bill, is scarcely heard. It's the usual circus act with dogs, a pony, and a monkey, followed by the buck- ing mule 4or a finale, but its stand- ard lines do not diminish its suc- cess at winding up the show in a satisfactory manner. ■ Picture is 'Ever Since Eve' (WB). Biz capacity with plenty of standees. . Kiley. TABOR, DENVER Denver, July 16, Eye-filling lines, proficient routines and settings that rate top spot keep stage show moving and add to and aid acts in getting their numbers across. Howard Tillotson and his five band men give 'Merry Go Round Broke Down' for the overture, and line in,^ Dutch, costunnes swing into' opening routine. Half in boy and half in girl clothes, each carry several huge tulips with steel points in stems, by which they are planted in stage floor in front of Dutch windmill and cot- tage. Two of line carry sprinklers and give them some water. Line then does a wooden shoe clog. Nina Diavis is'back for her second week vocalizing, but band plays much too loud for her numbers, drowning her out. Second routine sees line togged in high, white toy-soldier white hats, pajama-like suits with bits of red here and there. The jazz routine is fast and shows teamwork with no loafers. Closing routine in formal- garden scene, with half of line- marching down stairs in high col- orful headdress, long, flowing capes and abbreviated shorts, and five in long billowy blue dresses who do a formal dance. : Faith Hoag and Co., the Co. being a two-man horse, rate top spot. Horse goes through usual routine, with per- fect costume lifting it above usual. Faith, in a smart ringmaster suit, cracks the whip, wisecracks and keeps the act moving. Barlow and Benter, with femme in long bright red dress, male in frock coat, clown through, several ball room numbers—with principal busi- ness of girl seeming to be to get her dress about 16 inches above her knees (her legs are unusually long). Finish with ballet number fashioned from lessons by mail. Russel and Fields close with song and chatter, with Miss Fields ca^r- rying the honors. They're olcay when singing alone but spoil it when duct- ings With 'Night Must Fall' on the screen, it's up to the stage show to dp most of the business-getting. Busi- ness good for the first show Friday. Rose. Orpheum, Salt Lake Salt Lake City, July 18. Five Japanese tumblers and gym- nasts, the Kanazawa troupe, virtually steal the show from three other acts on current .shage show. Bill' Teelak, pale hokester, and Sally Payne, good looking redheaded stepper, headliners, didn't wow. They do a good enough act for any- thing but the ace spot. Teelak's gags simulates the hoke variety, and while his delivery was okay he failed to pile up a. substantial score in laughs. Miss Payne, gained a steady rain of appreciation for her dancing chores and a couple of vocals. Interesting sound effects are done by Lynn Mayberry, a femme with plenty of endurance. Miss Mayberry u.sed good shoNvmanship to sell sev- eral harmonica numbers, imitation of an automobile race and flashy dance shuffling off the stage. By Woodbury's band hold a- jam session, with orch leader, who doubles as m.c, playing a torrid rendition of 'Tiger Rag.'. Band also adds piinch to proceedings with a number ot songs woven into a 'vaca- tion city' medley. Everybody in the outfit takes a bow for solo efforts. Orchestra has no little difficulty registering applause wallops. The Kaiiazawa coterie, spotted last on bill, display very expert agility in tossihg and catching barrels in mid- air and jug.gling lithe troupe mem- bers like they were ping pong balls. Act was the liveliest on bill. A white girls assists in setting up equipment lor troupers. Entire group attired in white jerseys, dark trousers, white shoes and work with .a pretentious Oriental backdrop. Their assortment of tumbling accounted for one call- back after another. Incidentally, Teelak and Miss Payne are spotted for a second ap- pearance between band's second number and the Kanazawa. troupe. Miss Payne now wears a blue formal, instead of a .green pair of tights and Teelak goes high in perspiration do- ing ri.^ht ijy his fiddle. :SUm' (WB), sports short and Pathe news reel rounds out th-! bill. Cuss. STATE, N. Y. Benny Davis and his various units are standard State bookings. For current date he gets a break what with the fun film, Marx Brothers in 'A Day at the Races' (M-G) on screen. Mostly a new talent line-up with the . composer-singer-m.c. and its forte is not comedy. No need for that since nearly all the laughs come from the screen. There is good rea- son for Davis introducing his fresh- faces and he got one giggle when Vira Niva was before the mike, yet he is too much in evidence on the platform while his specialists are in action. The Russian girl and Robert Bax- ter, baritone, are about the only sin- gles retained from his previous unit. Miss Niva did well with ter idea of 'Where Are You,' while Baxter's medley was well spotted. Some of the new talent was not oh long enough to gauge their capabilities, that going for May McKim and Her Three Boy Friends. They recently worked with Davis during a "WOR broadcast. Miss McKim ha$ some- thing in the way of a microphone voice and their variation of 'I Can't Give You Anything but Love' was pleasing enough for the audience to want more. Little BjUy Blake was announced as the show's highlight, and, judging from applause, that was correct. Lad is a trumpeter, giving impressions of name cometists, such as Henry Busse and Louis Armstrong, Blake playing 'Beale Street Blues' for the latter and reaching the high finale note as something of a feat. Boy also made his trumpet sound like a trombone^ with use of a tin hat. Anita Jakobi opens activities with acrobatic tap dance routine out. of the ordinary. Mary Fenton was introduced as a blond blues singer,. Davis observing she is a Hollywood bet. - He peps all his people up with - the hope that scouts were out front. Miss • Fenton gave 'All God's Children Got Rhythm,' a number in the 'Races' picture. Mari- ora (New Acts), Ken and Roy Paige (New Acts), McDonald and Ross (New Acts). Catherine Harris, a toe dancer.' was billed, but did not appear in Friday (16) evening's per- formance. Martha Raye, at the last show,' hopped over from the Par across-the-street to make a personal appearance for the songsmith- entertaine.r. Davis did not tarry long in his own specialty, choruses of his more re- cent numbers. One was from last winter's Cotton Club show, and he mentioned he is writing the score for the spot's fall offering. Act ran slightly over 50 minutes. Ibcc. CAPITOL, WASH. Washington, July 18. House has turned out another highly satisfying revue this week; largely by production and staging. Discounting m.c. and line of gals, who carry show, there are only two acts, but total is so handled to giv* the effect of definite bigness. Overture, worked out by Pro- ducer Gene Ford and House Maestro Phil Lampkin is definite highlight. Dedicated to George Gershwin and opening with sweeping medley of his best known stuff, it hits home in 'Rhapsody in Blue,' done with house and pit lights going out and cur- tains opening on piano and stool, both spotted against hazy blue back- ground. Electrically-operated piano plays rhapsody as solo, keys lighted so audience can see them moving as if "Dy ghost player. Orch joins in on finish as curtains close to heaviest hand overture has won in months. Show itself gets under way .with no announcement, curtains opening on Gae Foster girls in sailor tap on full stage against battleship back- ground. Travellers together as Red Skelton, emceeing for second week bounces out onto ramp for rapid-fire chatter. Works this week without cigar and hat business and prediction that he could get by without standard props worked out at show caught, gags hitting the mark through beauti- ful timing and Skelton's ability to follow up a laugh or let it alone. Works into dish-washing specialty, showing how types of husbands sling the soapsuds, which is still in the rough but definitely has giggl« appeal. Alphonse Berg on next with three models who get gowns in ' split seconds via Berg's ability to heave bolts of cloth into the air and wrap 'em along fashionable lines. It didn't wow 'em, but the gal.s were interested and the gents admitted the models were easy to look at before they were draped. Skelton on again with request per- formance of his doughnut dunking demonstration, easily his best specialty, that got house as usual. Then the girls in white, blue and gold contingents, tor moonbeam number which was prettily staged but not very unusual. Skelton on again while girls stand on either side of staircase to demonstrate how half a dozen gents mount steps, winding up using blond a.-; partner for newlyweds entering hotel. Bert Frohman takes over on ramp to warble 'Boo Hoo,' 'Never in a Million Years' and 'You Can't Take It With You,' all high-powered ar- yangenients which he puts oyer well (Continued on page 61)