Variety (Jun 1939)

VednceJay* June 21, 1939 VARIETY HOUSE REVIEWS VARIETY 4S WeBes, Who 'Scared the World; Gets A Dose of It from the lATSE in Pitt Pittsburgh, June 16. Orson Welles & Co. (18), Jack Lonnv with the Sfatler Twliis, To - i^, fc Howard, Coon Creek Girls ^ Daie Brondv's orch (16); 'Cap- toin Fury' W A). Orson Welles may have scared haltch out of the rest of the world, but-it took the Stanley backstage Sew to scare the wits out of Orson Welles. More than that, it prac- tleiUy undid him completely at ope25iB show today (16). turning Jhe whole thine into the worst Sasco ever to leaden the heart of an **^ewtWng—but every thing!—hap- nened to Welles and his condensed version of The Green Goddess.' First the screen prolog came on up- side down with the sound accom- paniment blasting the ears of the customers to pieces and even ex- tending for a minute or so into the sketch itself; then the noise effects went haywire when the boys re- membered to put them on at all, and finally the stage mikes picked that particular time to go berserk and iound off a series of buzzing blasts right through the dialog. Welles stepped out of character at the outset, begged the audience's forgiveness and asked permission to start all over again. The mike buzz- ing promptly • stopped and then started anew. By this time, Welles and his company had gritted their teeth and decided' to go through the motions anyway. Half the lines were lost completely and the others were meaningless. At the conclusion, 'the man wio scared the world, then charmed It'—that's his current bill- ing—mopped a furrowed brow and apologized profusely for the fiasco, and a more earnest, gracious apology has never come from the tortured despair of any actor. Welles was plamly sick about i^ so much so that, he even told the patrons they could get their money back at the boxoffice and that he'd stand per- sonally resjxinsible for the refunds. He meant it, too, but a checkup re- vealed that not a sing:Ie retiun was made, a tribute to Welles' sincerity. All in all it was a performance no performer could have possibly ever conjured in the dread of his wildest nightmare. Even so, it seems that Welles Is making a mistake in try- ing to set down one of those old vaude sketehes on the stage of a de luxe picture house. It's too inti- mate an entertainment for such spacious quarters. Feeling is that he would nave been much smarter had he written a piece especially for his p.a. foray and presented it like a regular broadcast, without the costumes and scenic effecte, and with the cast spread around a series of mikes In the studio manner. That would have been- enough illusion in itself and Welles would have had no worries about the voices of his playerq (his own carriies anywhere) reaching into the upper recesses of the balcony. Under the most favor- able circumstances, lot of the lines ■re bound to be lost. Welles took the whole thing like •.major, had a heart-to-heart talk with the crew after the perform- ance, told the boys It was just one of those things and by the second show everything was going smoothly and the getaway fiasco was nothing but a horrible memory. Rest of the show, tagged to the •Goddess' sketch, brings back recol- lections of the vaude that Is no more. Opener Is a typical No. 2 act of old. Jack Lanny and the Statler Twins in a session of musical com- My-type dancing. They're good hoofers, gals are classy platinum looken and tapping of all three is nice without being spectacular. Trio works too hard, however, and should make things look a little more casual Th^'re followed by Jack Talley ana Terry Howard, former coming on ostensibly for a baritone solo only to be interrupted by MUs Howard with her rompers and iddy- Wddy-klddy characterization. It's a howl for fte first few minutes but Miss Howard makes the mistake.of repeating her cute gestures too often ana they grow a bit repetitious, ^ver big, though. Preceding the wellM act, which closes, are the Mur Coon Creek Girls (New Acta), »om radio and who hit the news columns when they entertained for ^g and Queen of England at the »™te House. Pemme hiUbilly loupsome can learn a lot about shwmanship, not to mention dic- „^^, getaway, about double owning show take of last four jweeks. with WeUes enUUed to the ''ows. Cohen. LYRIC, INDPLS. Indianapolisi June 18. Henrj/ Busse orch urtfh Dick S;'^**>»>. JJucJty Youno, Vi Mele, VrtHSu * 3 Trojons, Dale winfhrop; 'Man Who Cored' (WB). aw?*1^***. disquieting stories "oout ua having an entirely new band, Henry Busse brought the new orch to the stage here and dispelled all doubte about iU merits. His musical arrangemente still retain the characteristic 'Busse Rhythm' and his new men reveal nice form In playing for the acts besides doing their own numbers in clean-cut manner. He uses six brass, five saxes and four rhythms. Also new with him are Dick Wharton, baritone; Ducky Young, comedy vocalist and trumpeter, and Vi Mele, femme singer. Young is a show-stopper with his baby-voTced Three tittle Fishies' and 'Jimmy Had a Nickle.' He encores with a comic trumpet specialty. Wharton also wins plenty of mitt-slapping in crooning 'Wishmg' and 'Our Love.' Miss Mele does 'Lady's in Love' and 'Angels Sing.' Weakest of the Busse additions, she nevertheless was forced to encore with 'Don't Worry About Me* when caught Busse's trumpet solo work is nicely spotted throughout the bill. He does his expected 'Hot Lips' at the opening, later taking oS on 'Heaven Can Wait' 'I Cried for You' and 'When Day Is Done.' He also serves as an efficient emcee. Added acts are okay. Dale Win- throp contributes some swift tap- ping near the show's opening and the Three Trojans work next-to- closing with an abbreviated but socko four-minute session of tum- bling. Busse follows them with a handspring or two of his own dur- ing the closing band number to win laughs at the final curtain. Wally Brown and Annette Ames hold down the show's middle spot solidly with their comedy. Brown works cleaner and with more assurance than he has showp on previous trips here. Show's running time was 60 min- utes Friday night (16) at fourth performance and house was filled. KUey. FOX, PHILLY Philadelphia, June 16. Blue Barron orch, Charlie Fisher, Russ Carlisle, Ronnie Snyder, Allen Holmes & Tiny Wolf, Eddie Old- field & £ddie Ware, Sinclair Twins, Adolph Komspan house band; 'Tar- zon Finds a Son' (M-G). Sticking to its new formula of ab- breviated and skimpy-budgeted stage shows, Fox this week, nevertheless, achieves one of the brightest and most entertaining presentations of this type seen here in a long time. Principal credit goes to the versatile Blue Barron crew, which, with only two acta to assist it, provides 45 minutes of show with seldom a dull moment The music is quite a relief from the jive now heard on every stand; it's not only sweet, but good. With four rhythm instruments, one dou- bling on an electric guitar; five brass, including a bass horn, and a trio of reeds, band has plenty of instru- mentation for a change of pace, and uses it to full advantage. It's not so much the music, however, that makes for the pleasant stage show, but the ability of the men to double into other forms of entertainment Barron m.cs and is, unfortunately, ita weakest link, alUiough not ob- jectionable. He sticks mostly to straight, matter-of-fact Introes de- livered in a manner devoid of per- sonality. Among the members of the organization who shine are Russ Car- lisle, warbler; Charlie Fisher, trom- bone pumper, who also vocals; Ronnie Snyder, guitarist, who hai an. uncanny ability to whistle from somewhere down In his throat and Tiny Wolf, 300-pound bull fiddler. Carlisle occupies a position in front row center of the aggregation and, aside from the regular vocals, does the song titles, an idea used by Sammy . Kaye, et al. Carlisle sings a couple more bars than merely the title, as most other bands do that use this scheme. Nice looking lad, he has a pleasant baritone with a wide range. Chirps 'If I Didn't Care,' 'Wishing' and 'Sentimental Over You.' Weakness is in poor phrasing. Fisher has a somewhat similar voice, but suited more to novelties— as are his looks—than ballads. While his 'Married an Angel' is only medio- cre, he's swell in an adapted version of 'I Must See Annie Tonight' with Wolf. Latter, In answer to Fisher's 'plea,' struts out as Annie, with a pert hat and neckerchief. It's socko. Fat boy follows it with an aptly re- written 'I Must've Been a Beautiful Baby' and has the rafters ringing with the palm-pounding when he sends his 300 pounds into a tap dance. Snyder's whistling is not very pretty watehing (his lips and jaw shake as if palsied) but it's novel and rhythmic, which, with the lad's infectious personality, make it diffi- cult for him to get off. Does 'Bumble Bee,' 'Stardust' and 'Nola,' last a pip. Allen Holmes comes off his trumpet stand to play a wide assortment of instrumenta, brought to him by Wolf. The Choii^ntire band in vocal backing of the various warblers could be well eliminated in its pres- ent weak condition. 'Other acta are Enmiett Oldfield, as- sisted by Eddie Ware, and the Sin- clair Twins. Both are strong. Old- field and Ware do a comic risley routine, which not only shows off their stunta to advantage but is good for a flock of laughs. Oldfleld's phiz alone is plenty for the start of a good guffaw and he carries it through with a dumb stooge attitude. Sinclair pair are tapstresses. So-so on looks, they're attractively togged to take full advantage of their s.a. Routines original and one of the gals does some nifty splita. More atten- tion to precision, however, would help a lot Herb. CAPITOL, WASH. Washington, Jujie 18. Twenty Rhythm Rockets, £ight Reynolds Sfcaters, Franfc &. Jean Hu- bert, Marc Ballero, Doris Dupont, Bert Walton with Michael Spryn, Corrine, James Quinn, Harry Spurl, Hi-Tom Word, Yvette Rugel: 'Won- derful World' (M-G). Thirty-nine people take 65 min- utes to put across this one a^embled by house producer Gene Ford und^r the title, 'Old and New Faces.' They make it as complete , a sample of. vaudeville, yesterday and. today, as anything to hit town In months. It's well-staged, well-paced, and has enough talent and showmanship to send 'em home talking plenty, evep if it doesn't have any sock name for the marquee.^ Even the pit band geta steamed up and comes through with an over- ture, including 'Beer Barirel Polka' and Three LltUe Fishies,' with maestro Phil Lampkin, drummer Ralph Fox and two norn-tooters'do- ing solos on the baby talk for smart hands. Show geta off with Rocketa simu- lating Ice skating ballet on roller ^ates behind snowflakes on scrim. Snow scene dissolves and Reynolds Skaters, eight gals In gold spangles, take It for seven minutes of whirl- wind spins to score solidly. Frank and Jean Hubert follow in battered tails and white ties for smooth round-up of all the stock. Inebriate pantomime and- some of their own, sock coming when one takes off hat and proves to be blond gaL Marc Ballero imitates Fred AUen, Bing Crosby, Ned Sparks, Wallace Beery, George Arllss, Charley Butterworth, Stepin Fetohit, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Armetta and Joe K Brown, using cigars, hata and an occasional wig to Increase the illusion, which often is surprising. Encore is Imita- tion of The Shadow' into which he works vocal iinitatlons of cops, fire siren^, motor boata and airbrakes for smash finish. Line follows in black spangled gowns for sophisticated softahoe ballet to 'Sunrise Serenade' with clever shadow effecte. Doris Du- pont young brunet in -black and white . Alice-in-Wonderland garb, gives two fast tap routines, nothing unusual but - smartly executed and geta across. Bert Walton saunters out next In top hat, brown suit and battered cane to announce he is the intermission and everybody is stuck with him for 10 minutes. Thanks to his razzing of the acta before him, the pit band, the audience and him- self, they like him. Deadpan stooge, Michael Spryn, who he calls on 'to get me off the stage gracefully,' scores with baritoning of 'Masquer- ade Is Over,' while Walton parade:! around ramp with huge shotgun. Pair rate three bows. 'Old Faces' end of the business be- gins here with Walton introducing Corrine, gay, chubby bundle of middle-aged pep, as 'one of those who sang right m this town for your grandfathers.' Travelers open on stage-within-a-stage, complete with old-fashioned backdrop and foot- llghta, and Corrine turns emcee to present James Quinn, grey-haired buck-and-winger, for successful turn; Harry Spurl, veteran acrobatic dancer, who does cartwheels; Hi- Tom Ward, called 81-year-old 'last of the minstrel men,' who tears off 'When You and I Were Young Mag- gie' in a sour tenor that wows 'em; and Corrine:s own specialty, 'a song I sang here 30 years ago,' being a mixture of 'An <5ld Time Tune' and 'Annie Rooney,' to strong hand, Yvette Rugel, who works indepen- dent of the oldtimers' section and uses downstage center mike, walks off with the show, liowever. Effec- tively gowned and sold as a one- time star who has emerged from re- tirement she wraps her soprano around 'My Man,' 'Soipe of These Days,' 'My Bill' and an aria from 'l^raviata' to stop the show cold. Rockets, in striking black and white Gay Nineties getups, close with an elaborate cakewalk and everybody is on for the finale. Biz oke. Craig. Fire Destroys NItery Sheboygan, Wis., June 20. The Delmar nitery, formerly the Hollywood Gardens, burned to the ground Thursday (15). Amount of damage and cause of fire are unknown. MUSIC HALL, N. Y. Leonido^ productton with Betty Bruce, The Waldos, Rita ond Rubins, fielo Sziga, Glee Club .under Wil- liam Reid, Rockettes, Corps de Bal- let, Music Hall symph directed by Emo Rapee; 'Sons of Liberty,' (WB) short, 'Clouds Over Europe' (Col), reviewed in this issue. Being different this week the Rockettes open the stage show, They impersonate chimney sweeps hoofing on a roof-top. Tops' is the current motif. 'Roof-Tops' is succeeded by 'Mast-Tops,' giving the Glee Club cause for going nautical. T^e Big Top' introduces the Waldos, a trapeze turn, and Tree Tops' provides a summer garden locale for the finale. Rockettes do' a bit of fooling around with brooms, break and change style several times, finally lay aside the sweepers and start raising those gams in unison. Whiereupon the audience raised ita mltta and re- sponded, when caught William Reid manages to Insert some movement and business into the song-sesh, largely devoted to a special number, "niree for Jack,' by W. H. Squire. It concerns the tra- ditional fickleness of sea-farers. To obviate the need for striking the set and the glee club on the bows, terper Betty Bruce participates in Uie end of the sailor interlude and then im- perceptibly, slips into a single, whence she carries on. Thi£ reflecta a more adroit scene-shifting than has sometimes been the case with the glee club. Miss Bruce Is a stylist on the wing, Even in the vast spaces of the big house, her easy coordination projects that element so often missing In mechanically proficient hoofers— personality. Girl dances with her whole chassis. Shoulders, arms, hips are expressing rythm along with the melodious puppies. She's recog- nized by the aud here as a performer with solid authority. - Three attractive-looking glrl-acrO' bate, the Waldos, are next to dosing with a routine that the M. H. seta off with clever use of spotUghta and uniform ground aides. Apparatus Is unusual and so are the stunts. High point is a three-way upside down spin. Two of the girls, leaning downward and holding ends of a rope in their teeth, spin- from their foot suspendories, while the third re- volves rapidly mid-rope. It's a combination of angles, agility and flash. Bela Zsiga, playing a seldom' encountered mltteleuropa musical gadget called the cimbalon, gives a nice Hungarian goulash novelty touch to the final scene. Back plat- form Is dressed with people and lighta to' further a drinking garden picture which, however, serves no particular usefulness and tends .to de- tract from the optical appeal of the ballet girls who, perfprmlng to The Blue Danube' with short skirts flying, seem to call for solid, high-colored contrasting set-off, instead of the over-detailed emtiellishment that draws the eye away from them. A smash adagio team. Rite and Rubins (New Acta) also participates. Warners' short in praise of Hayman Solomon, Jewish patriot in the Revolutionary war, drew ap- plause Thursday night With red- coated viUians (in technicolor). It was an ironic subject just - after newsreels largely devoted to the King end Queen of England. Land. HIPP, BALTO Baltimore, June 18. Gene Krupa orch (14) with Irene Daye; Bemice Stone, George Andre Martin; 'Five Come Back' (RKO), Gene Krupa seems to be just what the doctor ordered for this time of the year. With most of the educfr tional emporiums winding up their seasonal sUnta and the Inmates raring to go after exams, the line forms early and often. Krupa has taken on some style and finish since his last appearance here and his combo reacte in fairly ex- pert style. Pacing the doings from his seat at the hides, he opens nicely with 'Bugle Call,' and changes tempo effectively with medley of sweet stuff made up. of 'Sly Old Gentle- man,' . 'You Grow Sweeter as the Years Go By' and.'What Goes Up Must Come Down.' Bernlce Stone in routine of aero hoofery follows, after which Krupa goes to town on 'Wire Brush Stomp,* giving a showmanly and entirely ef- fective demonstration otj drum whacking. It makes a gog^spot for the band s vocalist Irene T>aye, who dishes up 'Deep Purple,' 'If It's Good I Want It' and 'Don't Worry "Bout Me,' all smoothly delivered and well received. Flashy band number, with all the lads thumping on tom-toms in rhyth- mic arrangement of 'Some Like It Hot Fantasy,' announced as from Krupa's film stint in 'Some Like it Hot,' is effective and holds pace solidly. George Andre Martin follows with miniature dancing dolls wrapped around his fingers, which he handles to simulate sock hoof routines. Sup- plies a pleasant Interlude and a satr isfying iiortion for those stubholders not leaning toward jive. Biz okay. Bum, STATE, N. Y. Benny Fields, Fiji D'Orsoy, Stuart & Martin, Continentol Thrillers (3), Ruthie Barnes, NTG Revue with Dorothy James ond Jitterbup team. Ruby Zuerling house bond; '£ost Side of Heaven' (U). . The State's show this sesh suffers from overabundance, poor routining and laxity.' It runs at a leisurely and haphazard pace for better fhan 90 minutes, when just two-thirds of that would be plenty. It's all done in the revue idiom. Ruby Zwerling's house band has been shitted from pit to stage and in front of the crew sit a dozen NTG femmes at-tables, giving it a nitery atmosphere. Working -through the show, clowning with every act, are Stuart and Martin. M.c.'ing seems more or less left to chance, with Nils T. Granlund handling the reins some of the time, one of his gals at another, Stuart and Martin when the spirit moves them and sometimes nobody et all. NTG and the comedy team open. Lads do fairly well throughout their lengthy stay, using every old gag and bit of business in the book. They make some attempt at war- bling to guitar accompaniment and do a few fair stunta on a banjo. In addition, their lowdown comedy with NTG, Pifl D'Orsay and the Continental Thrillers, skating act help to make all those tiums more palatable, even if it does slow things at times. Benny Fields Is In next to dos- ing, preceding ,the skating turn. Travelers could easily have coma together following Fields, with the roller trio eliminated, for a much stronger finale. Fields, who's been doing nitery dates for the past year or so, clicks much better in that at- mosphere than on the stage, al- though he geta a fair, reception here. He errs at the start by opening with what he calls the 'Vnilte Man's Spiritual,' unfamiliar and not too good. What he needs, to trade in on the nostalgia wrought up by his name alone, is a famlltar tune right at the outaet 'Lullaby of Broad- way,' which he does later, would have been a setup. He also does 'Angels Sing,' 'Alexander,' 'Shad- ra(^ and, of course, winds up with 'Melancholy Baby,' one of the finest bita of song salesmanship in show business; Some of his preacher pat- ter Is weak and unhcessary, whild the Introduction of his wife. Blossom Seeley, geta a generous hand. Miss D'Orsay precedes Fields by a couple of turns. She suffers from lack of material, tossing together a hodgepodge of her heaviiy-accented Eatter and songs. Does an Ella ogan with 'Loch Lomond' and then turns to a dubious kissing lesson with Stuart and Martin that some- times skirts, and sometimes doesn't even do that, the border of good taste. It's an old D'Orsay routine. Between Miss D'Orsay and Fields is Ruthie Barnes, ' tapstress, A looker, she's attractively togged and exhlbs some nice routines and clear taps without, music. More. show- manly, however, would be for her to bow off after her second number and come back and do the third for an encore, instead of offering noth- ing for the bends, as now, after us- ing all the allotted time on the orig- inal appearance. Continental Thrillers, In the wind- up, are a mediocre trio, two guys and a gaL After usual stunts, they ask for volunteers from the house for spins. Fat-woman stooge ap- pears, providing slapstick comedy which Is aided by Stuart and Martin.. NTG's portion Is given over to hla usual flock of pretties. He geta no response from the house with his by-now badly tattered 'ah-h-h' stuff and fades out to let one of hla femmes; Dorothy James, warble. Her looks exceed her vcical ability, which is little; in 1 Get Along Without You' and 'If I Didn't Care? Granlund also has with him a pair of jitterbug, terpers whom he builds up as recent contest-winners In the south, but who have been with him for at least a year. Kids are ultra In some nifty routines and click as solidly as anything In the entire layout Herb. KEITH'S BOSTON , .jj, Boston, June 16. "• George Beaity, Four Step Broth- ers, Joe & Jane MeRenna. Dom Bros. & Mary (3), Great Yocopis (7), Eddie RosenuMid house bond; •Tumbleuieeds' (Astor) and 'Fixer Duffon' (RKO). A six-month run of stage shows ends this week with one of the best variety bills of the season. With George Beatty as m.c.. almost any lineup geta a lift but this week he has some real entertainment to in- troduce. Four Step Brothers, smart colored hoofers, open. It's a socko curtain- raiser and makes It easier for Jo« and Jaiie McKenna 'allowing. The Steps ripple off smooth precision hoofery In the stop-time and waltz- buck departmenta and present an ex- hilarating finale with spectacular wings and flying snlits In a chal- len"' routine. Their music is har- monized nicely with the taos, and (Continued on page 47)