Variety (Aug 1937)

52 VARIETY VARIETY HOUSE REVIEWS Wednesday, August 4, 1937 LOEWS STATE, N. Y, Ip .the light. o£ vaude's condition in the past several years, the . cur- rent stage show at this house looks lijke an accident. Three, of the fLv6 acts are in the comedy class, and till. this week it didn't appear as though there were that many laugh turns left in all of vaude. That much risibility-shaking in one show nowadays is news, but the State's booker didn't let matters re&t there. He topped the layout with b.O. via the Gus Arnheim orch and opened it with a slack-wire novelty that's okay for suspense. Totaling all this and adding to the William Powell-Luise Rainer co- starrer, 'The Emperor's Candlesticks' (MG), the State'should arrive at a ■ healthy gross. Comedy .acts are -Charles 'Slim' Timblin, doing his colored preacher turn; Stuart and Martin, one of the . outgrowths of the original Mills, Kirk and Martin trio, and Luis Zin- gone, sleight-of-hand worker who paces his act much along the same lines as Fted Keating. Of the three, Zingone is weakest in getting lau!*hs, but that's <chiefly due to his piling on the talk too thickly .and ^Iso his habit -of stuffing the punchlines. His appeai-ance and, his magi9, hpwever, are okay. Stuart (and : Lash) and Martin have been teamed about a year and their improvement in that time has been steady. Right now they rate as one of the better male comedy acts''around, runnings the gamut, of ' low hoke, gags and singing in 14 • fast minutes. Timblin's turn, though standard for years, is still plenty socko ori the comedy end. He's in next-to-closing with assist from an unbilled mixed team, while Stuart ahA Martin are in the trey slot and Ereceded by Zingone. Opener is ton Francisco, who starts on' the slackwire as a dsunk and then ne- gotiates a difficult handkerchief lift and some wild swinging, before bow- ing off. '' Thev^Arnheihi orch on the State's Btag^e, arid the Arnheim orph in its . recent appearance at the New Yotker Hotel, are two different com- ' bos in tone. In the State this crew oif 13 musicians is blasting as com- pared with its sweet,inusre for the hotel's dance sessions. And most times that foj'te b^ass work isn't any tdo musical. ^ . -T^Vo , excellent specialists, Meta . Carlyle, hoofer, and June Robbins, , torcher, plus the Rhytbmanlacs. swin.?y quartet, ol'musicians out of the band, lend plenty to Arnheim's impression here, Mjss Carlyle de- - livers but one rhythm dance routine; Miss Robbins smigs two songs, 6f which 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' IS by far the best, while the Rhyth- nianiacs swing two songs in what - Arnheim classifies as the '52nd Street manner.' Four boys ar6 diwi^d up as bass-whackfer, xylophbnist, clar- inetist and guitarist and they're good _ musiciains. Arnheim, unlike his debut in the east as a maestro at the Palace back in 1929; is now almost strictly a baton-waver. His only piano session currently is for a medley of three songs he wr6t6 a few years ago. At the Palace he stuck to the piano throughout, but the switch was prob- ably necessitated by recent trends, ■which forced maestros to double as m.c.s. Stage Show in entirety runs 69 minutes, the Arnheim band taking up 28 minutes of that time, and biz openmg night (Thursday) was okay. Scho. EARLE, PHILA. Philadelphia, Aug. 2. Earle's stage show is well-rounded and generally entertaining although lacking in marquee draw that house has had of late. Clyde Lucas, not as yvell known here as some orch lead- ers, has a well routined, fast-moving program and audience showed more enthusiasm than any Earle crowd has in some time. Show opened with the orch (15 men) playing 'Twelfth Street Rag,' following with a medley of current hits. Boys look neat in blue and ^fl'ay outfits and background is at- tractive and not garish. Unusual feature, noticeable from the start, is doubling ability of virtually all the members. They jump from one in- strument to another with bewildering ease, playing one as well as the other. Lucas himself does a fine trombone , solo of 'September in the Rain' and . then takes part in a vocal trio ren- dition of 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Oft' that rates and gets a. good hand. After that, the first of the snecial features is spotted, a dance offering by Joe and Betty Lee. . "They're a good-looking young couple. Start- ing with graceful ballroom waltz, , they follow with a faster dance with a Spani.sh air and end up with a modified and. restrained truckin' number. All three are well done. The orch' then gives a noveltv. 'Nero,' which has plenty of comecVv effects .and registers strongly. Lucas' brother and partner, Lyn, sings 'Wher.e .or When' with a pleasing tenor and has the audience with him. :Two marimbas are then hauled out and various members of the orch .handle .the sticks skillfully with Lyn Lucas singing. He demonstrates that serious ballad singing is by no means hi!* only forte bv his very amusing version of a (Jhin^man singing a rhumlm-in Spanish. It's top-notch. • Seven member.'' of the orch then cotne down to the footlights with their violins , and play 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.' 'Pansy,* the human horse,, is then introduced by Lu-jas, .Florence Mayo, a shapely blonde, brings this remark^ able equine on. Act is- one of the best of its kind, with both front and hind legs doing remarkable athletic and dancing stunts. The Martins who 'play' them are introduced by Miss Mayo at the end. Three vocalists follow, singing 'Little Boy Blue,' and Lucas does a bit on his trombone. That leads into a short but effective finale. Pic is 'Fly-Away Baby' (WB). Water*. TABOR, DENVER Denver, July 30. Mildred Harris Chaplin tops the stage show, and unlike many from Hollywood who have been in Den- ver, she doesn't just say *I hope you like me'—she goes ahead and sings and makes audience like her. But why spot a mike smack in front of Ler face? If the loudspeaker sys- tem is necessary put one on each side of her and let the crowd get a good look at her. She's easy to look at. She's best impersonating Hefen'Mor- gan singing 'Those Little Thmgs You Used to Do.' , Gus Murcay & Co. use harmonicas and do a good job of it. The blonde femme gives Gus a run for his money when it comes to getting re- sults from a mouth organ. Roy Dove juggles to open the show. Uses three balls, three cigar boxes, fou^.hoops and Indian clubs. Okay for an 'opener. The line does the usual three rou- tines, first a gypsy number, with gay- colored costumes and with Fred Rawles singing. Beth Seymour pleases with novelty sold dance. In the swimming hole routine girls wear one-legged, checkered • overall suits and large , straw hats. Lolly Garris, one of them, sings. For finale the girls, have-long skirts split down the front so they can spread them with hands. Second time on they have colored'balloons. Virginia Per- kins, of. the line, - does a neat solo dance. Back drop splits to reveal one of line with bunches of colored balloons and- acts parade as curtain falls. 'Good Old Soak' (MG) on screen, and crowd only fair for first show Friday.' Rose. MET, BOSTON Boston, July 29. Variety and good production make this bill satisfactory. Talent ranges from solo ballet to Waldorf's Boxing Bear (New Acts), and in between a fair assortment of conventional vaude. . Niela Goodelle, singer, is fea- tured. Although there was no indi- cation from the matinee crowd that she was well-known, there' was plenty of. evidence that they liked her work. Possessed of a sweet voice. Miss Goodelle stands out like aVmillioh. Wise in the selection of numbers, 'Johnny One Note,' 'First Time I Saw You' and 'God's ChiHuns Got Rhythm,' she demonstrates her versatility to okay returns. Another soloist on the bill, who has too little to do, is Piroska, su- perb ballet dancer. His brief bit is the highlight of. one of the brightest production numbers ever staged at this house. The 16 line girls do a ballet number to introduce Piroska, and ^s the number opens, the scene is set so that the audience gets the impression of sitting on stage, look- ing out- into another auditorium. Footlights, shining into the audience and a backdrop depicting a theatre interior. At this point one gets the thrill of seeing a Degas painting come' to life. The footlights, then black out, scenery turns aoout,. and the set is reversed so that the girls now lace the real audience and the production returns to the conven- tional. John Lonergan,. line direc- tor, and Leo Morgan, producer, both rate bows for this gem. Masters and Rollins, have quite a fiing in a nonsensical session of hokum,, gagging and eccentric danc- ing. Miss Rollins is tall, loosc- .iointed and puts rippling rhythm in her bumps, and her gawky, goofy hokum gets the mob. Master's big moment is a good, but Conventional eccentric dance that climaxes in slow motion work, earnings him some potent plaudits. Next-to-shut is George Prentice and his Punch and Judy specialty that registers well with both chil- dren and adults. To set this scene, a gypsy camp, the booth projects a colorful woodland eft'ect that grad- ually fades to the actual settin.s; in which violinist Mario Mantini, from the house orchestra, is soloing 'Play Gypsies, Dance Gypsies'-to create at- mosphere. Very effective, William El Gota and company fill the deuce with comedy xylophone woi'k. Billed as 'world's greatest xylophone player'' El Cota i.«! nothing more than a good pei'former on the wooden cleats, and his comedy is never hilarious. His clowning of 'Lazy Bones' is excellent, however, and a good closer of the act. His femme partner does an okay daffy ballet bit, Georgie Hayes -is featured in ac-, robatic. toe dance number in the oppning line routine. 'Exclus'v;?' (P<u-> is the featu'-c. . Fox. ORIENTAL, CHI Chicago^, Aug. 2. House is becoming slip-shod in its v'aude operation; it is seeking the easiest way' out of every situation, and is not making the niost of its op- gortunities. Instead of trying to righten up every little good point, it is simply letting itself go by the wayside. Current show is a sad example of this growing habit of being 'sloven. They are presenting a hopelessly draggy, wilted and soggy show, where it might just as easily have been a bright, beaming and catchy performance. On the show are three 'picture' names, Pop-eye, Betty Boop and Gene Austin. On the screen, in addition to 'Wild Money' (Par) is the line-up of the Walt Dis- ney Academy Award cartoon win- nifcrs. The whole cavtoon idea might have been spliced together in a frothy type of stage show that would have meaning, lilt and lift. . But instead they run it off in vaude style without taste, build-uo or showmanship. They have Pop- Eye in the person of' Harry Foster Welch working all alone on a mam- moth shelf. Behind set, far back in three, is ■ a crummy black drop against which is set a small, cheap boat cut-out. It looks like a postage stamp against that drop. Welch looks awfully lonesome uo there on that wide, bare stage. He does a small- timey routine, imitating guitars, cal- liopes and jewsharp. It's cheap stuff from every angle, and makes a soggy doucer. Mae Questel is senarated from Pop-Eye by a chorus routine seem- ingly spotted without reason. Her Betty Boop still good vaude. Han- dles herself smartly, getting every- thing possible out of her 'dute' style. Her 'Dangerous Betty Boon' number remains okay stage stuff. Makes good appearance, but should stop pulling at her shoulder piece. It be- comes annoying. Fortunately Miss Questel works in one with a pianist, so things don't look so barren. But they're back to an emoty full stage in the last act with Gene Aus- tin, even though he works right up against the footlights and mike. Aus- tin has lost plenty of beef and doesn't look like himself. But . he comes through well enough on his vocaliz- ing. His two instrumental helpers aren't of any real help. Pop-Eye, Betty Boop and Austin make it three singing acts. Opening act of Gene Granese also has consid- erable warbling. It's an old-fashioned comedy act with Italian dialect, and not particularly suited for this housed Real click of the entire flve-acter was the acrobatic turn of the Gilbert Bros. Always the finest of finesse on .gymnastic bar routines, they turned in a bang-up session here on Friday night. Show lacked bulk and there was nothmg to hold it together. It tended to fly apart every minute. The possi- bilities for a production setup this week to build a genuine 60-minute show that would have bulk, depth and meat were there, but the house neglected to make proper use of them. Gold. TOWER, K. C. Kansas City. Aug. 2. A good picture invariably brings a letdown in vaude section. Pic this week is 'Willie Winkie' (2(Hh), Just about tlie roughest bill pre- sented here in a long time. Both from physical and production angle. Jaw whacking, eye gouging and conk hammering pace the bill's dreary course and it's all left to cute 5-year old Patsy O'Connor to gather the pieces in her capable hands and give the bill an excuse for its existence. However, her routine is thrown to- gether with total disregard fpr the physical endurance of a child. The whole bill with the exception of the tiny Miss O'Connor leans heavy to eccentricity. Roy, Lee and Dunn, male hoofers, open cold with knockabout and soft-shoe. Two of them put over a nice drunk bit. They finish with rag dolls. Stevens Bros, and Big Boy, lour hnen and a Russian l?ear. can't make up their minds whether they want to be another stooge act or an animal turn. As stooges tliey're boring and as an animal act—^well, the bear is a nice clean-apoearing animal who probably longs for the steppes more than he does the four-a-day. The men burn a lot of energy rassling the bear. Jack and Bill O'Connor open for the Four O'Connors (there are live, however) with hoofing and ga.agin? that would ordinarily tadie but bv the time they're on audionce is a bft weary of knockabout. They brin? on their mother, Effie O'Connor, who still does a top tin-ie step and also a kid brother, Donald, who sing.-?, hoof.s and gets jerked about by his older brothers. Palsy O'Connor then moves in for 'Irish Eyes,' and when thorou.u;hl.y winded by some fast taps tackles an- other tunc. Line treits on decked out in kilts. They,fling long cnouu^h for the recently scrammed Miss O'Connor to don kilts and reappear with. Harlan Christie who paclcs a bag-piD, for a flash finale. 'Which .^ivcs the bill a tie-in with the screen f(>-'iiire. Line is seen midway iw the hill in a Mickey and Minnie Mouse routine. New S'xos amoiig the ponies, neat lookers, too. John C(rfvin, 18-year-old local canary,- barytones a pop to fine re- turns. With more' experience back of the guttered mazdas he'll be oke. A comej. Judy Conrad's orch is on the stage. Hoyt. LYRIC, INDPLS. Indianapolis, July 3D. Noble Sissle orchestra and revue perform a nice job on stage here this week. Outside of about two acts, they don't do much but they 'sell' ii big and their smiles nxake the show play well. Sissle, who claims this as his home town, having attended Butler college here, has been played at the Lyric for a week each summer during the past three years. The house adds a couple of acts to bolster his special- ties and . the ads plug, it as Sissle's own revue. Gordon and Rogers and the team of Chilton and Thomas are added. Working well down in the show, the former team opens with comedy tallv that is fair and then goes into some 'break-a-leg' dancing which stops the show cold. Both boys are dressed in loud suits and that with their vigor- ous 'selling' put them over. Chilton and Thomas, more polished dance team, work in the closing' spot just ahead of the finale and do their usual pedestal dance routine. They go well, but Gordon and Rogers have made it tough for them. Sissle has' done his best to separate their ap- pearances by presenting a couple of band numbers between the two acts. One number is 9 Gershwin tribute, 'You Can't Take That Awav from Me,' and the other 'Bugle Call Rag.' The remainder of the show up ahead is Sissle's. His band opens with 'I Got Rhythm' to get away nicely. Edn^ May Harris is on sec- ond, singing a chorus of 'Love Is Good for Anything That Ails You,' and then dancing for a finish. Four members, of the band, introduced as the Swingsters, form a hot combiha-^ tion around the microphone in the next spot to do two fast numbers to good results. Billy Banks, band's soloist and comedian, does two num- bers to a moderate reception. Sissle himself, who has a modest, self-ef- facing nanner that pleases, takes the spotlight next to contribute an origi- nal dramatic recitation with a med- ley of music as a background. It's the real sock in the first half of the show and then Sissle brings on Gor- don and Rogers who' carry on well. The entire show is played by Sissle's band from the stage. The house band is vacationing. 'San Quenlih* (WB) is the picture. Biz was good Saturday afternoon with a capacity house at the second of the five performances of the day. STATE LAKE, CHI Chicago, Aug. 2. Traditions don't mean a thing to this house any more. They've got the house band woi'king the first half on-stage, and the second half in the pit, complete reversal of the. usual procedure. But cover up by present- ing a fast' bill of good, solid vaude acts. So good that enthusiastic regu-' i^rs of the State-Lake audience were ready to let any and every act halt the show. And, by the time the Bor- rah Minevitch Rascals - (minu:s Mine- vitch) are finished, it's easy to see that the upsetting of traditions was a necessity. Had the harmonica foot- ers been spotted anwhere else except .lust before the picture, they'd have held things up indefinitely. As it was, the applause backgrounded the picture dialogue for several minutes. And that's unusual. Every bit of the enthusiasm was deserved by the Rascals. That they play fewer class-tune arrangements makes no difference. They're "better vaude without them, especially since the comedy has been developed to its present high i>eak. In the com- edy, everybody works to Shorty, and he comes through with a character- ization which is artistry. A little more careful staging would be desirable, with the boys doing the bits working down a little more. Working up, the rest of the gang blocks therni off from half the audi- ence. Bobby Pincus, around so often he's looked upon as. a home-town boy, uses sections from his several rou- tines, and gets his goofy humor over. Dance lesson, Helen Morgan burly, little girls, bits are all in, as is some gagging with new blonde stooge. Her contributions to the Pincus act rate only fair. Sings and hoots a bit, but seems to lack a sense of comedy. Captain Spiller and his three seals fill the deuce snot. Latter handle themselves much better than does the captain, from the standpoint of showmanship. Clicked here. Toy and Wing, boy and girl Orien- tal hoofers, have an act that's class. Until he goes cute with his talking. Then they have to do another of tliejr banrr-up tap routines to wear off the bad taste. Finish off with ac- robatic stufl' which includes flying splits, and, if he hadn't talked to the audience, the audience would still be talking about thcip. House line comes through with only one routine this Week, as the opener, but it has the combined ef- fect of three. An acrobatic turn this time, with every girl doing special- ties, which would be a credit to an individual act. They got applause, and how! Picture is 'Armored Car' (RKO). .•jnd business at third show, onening day, good. Loop. CAPITOL, WASH. Washington, July 31. Straight vaude back this week, but following house usual' policy of working it in through novel manner the informal touch is at. the outset when classic ■ overture, introduced dead straight, • is .ihterrupted by stonip rhythms behind curtain, turn- ing out to be Vic Hyde's one-man band. Curtain open to find Hyde banging away on his paraphernalia- filled stand and, after bit of debate between Pit. Maestro Lampkin and Hyde, he takes over for regular act House went for the. novelty,-: although they were obviou.sly more impressed with.idea than with his music, Wind- up playing three trumpets and tap- ping at same time got hini off with nice hand. Newsreel follows as usual after overture and then into regular bill introduced by Lampkin; First is Bert Nable & Co'., whose acrbbatid cat pantomime went over nicely. Girl in. modified cat tap costume gets by oka with contortionist dance and two cats back .oii for flash finish. Act ends abruptly, audience. assuming girl is used for others' costume change, but sudden close leaves 'em at peak. Guy Robertson out on ramp next, greeted by light hand that makes it obviousvhe isn't as wiell known as was expected. 'Never in a'Million Years,' 'Was It Rain' and 'September in the Rain,' all sung straight, are just songs and his two dialect stories, well told, but lacking wallop, are just stories. It's when he gives 'em 'Song of the Vagabonds,' after ex- plaining ■ the; setting, that he really wins the house. ..Took two -bows and could have done encore, but rested on what obviously is his top number. ' .. ' Wind-up is return here of - Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Crawford and their two Hammond Organs, this time backed up by 13-piece daiice band. Directing with baton while seated at organ and getting up to movable mike .nearby to make announcements gave turn informal air that went over big in straight organ shows, but with band it Was a little fiat, -Whole show .seemed to. be. a clash between specr tacular dance tunes and soothing organ stuff, Both were surorisingly eood and house went for 'em, but Crawford's aim to maXc a unique blend didn't blend. . One of best fea- tures of band portion was use of quartet of euphonium horhs,' which Crawford claims are being, intro.-. duced in dance unit for first. time. Big and boomy, they look and sound plenty smart and arrangements make full use of them. Mrs. Crawford's .solo is -'Chloe' and Jesse gives 'eni 'When Day Is Done.' both socks. Fin- ish with hefty flash on 'Merry-Go- Round Broke Down' and applause lasted through trailers. Pic is 'Slave Ship' (20th) and biz fair. Croig. Embassy Ne'wsreei, N. Y* Japanese-Chinese war crisis is a terrific life-saver for new program. Otherwise, most of topics are mark- edly dull, even usual freak and comedy clips being below par. And the sad part of the current newsreel coverage of Jap-Chino difficulty is that nobody has actual, recent battle picturization. Consequently, Metro's 'News of Day' and Fox Movietone fill out the Enibassy headline subject with views of marching troops, maps, charts, soldiers on the great Chinese wall and generals inspecting fighters or exhorting their followers. Both do an elegant photographic job but M-G-M has grasped the dramatics of the situation with its cheering crowds in Tokio seeing the army boys off to the front. Little at- tempt to explain warlike situation in detail, though Fox -outlines the ambition of Japan for additional tei'- ritory in commentation and chart. Same reel unfolds the review of Hawaii-U. S. army as indicating American preparedness in the Pa- cific. Paramount and Fox cover Spanish civil war from alnrost strict- ly loyalist side of the front line, but neutral in comment. Fox also de- • picts Franco troops celebrating the anniversary of the rebel-loyalist con- flict's outbreak. Nothing exciting here. After that it's the old" familiar 'freak' news that gains most atten- tion, with sports, fashions, spot news and comedy taking a back seat. Fox, IVletro, Paramount and Universal lead the way in choice of material and manner of handling, last named probably showing the most inge- nuity. Universal has a string of deft clips which include use of gla.ss bricks in a publishing plant building; a Long Beach plane that folds up for a •parage »nd really flies: an elephant bathing beauty; boy horsemen train- ing, at Rome, and Hollywood film beauties wearing furs, with animals to match on leash. Also chins in later with »n inventor who claims to have harnessed the .sun for cook- ing, a French avirntion meet, beauties at » Maine girl'.s camp amd fatal bandit killing and wounding of pal in the southwest, Pathe rloes best with sports, giving a neat story on the Sarazeh golf vic- tory', and' a.diviu!? meet at Mohawk. Reel has only four otjjei* shots on (Continued on page 63)