Variety (March 1909)

VARIETY 17 DOCKSTADEB'S MINSTRELS. New York was very kind to Lew Dock- stader and hia minstrels when at the Qrand Opera House. The city registered a sub- stantial liking for the blackface veteran by turning out adult size audiences during the engagement. And well it might. The organization is offering a splendid, whole- some entertainment. Thanks be, there is remaining one department of the- atrical recreation that is immune from "Salome" dancers, social evil problem plays, Oriental "wrigglers" under infinite disguises and flaming ladies of spiritual misgivings, but steady albeit shady source of income. There is no posing or dodging about the aim of a minstrel show. It hasn't any "message." It's got to be a funny show, first, last and all the time. Else it dies conclusively and with dispatch. Docketader's outfit lives up to the re- quirements. It does not compare with the Cohan & Harris organization in elaborate features, nor does it make any pretense to follow the fast pace set by that firm in expensive production. But what it does offer is an evening of consistent light en- tertainment. Some of its humor is old and perhaps familiar, but by no means dull on that account. Somehow it isn't possible to imagine a minstrel show with- out at least some of the reminiscent inter- locutor-end man dialog. The performance moves with the snap and speed of a well-knit vaudeville show, with the possible exception that the first part is a trifle too long. This portion ran from 8:20 to 0:45, and when the inter- mission was declared had about worn itself out. There was unlimited variety and shift of scene in the rest of the pro- ceedings, and it was noticeable that the latter half of the evening witnessed more applause than the former. A neat device is employed to hold the specialties together. For the finale of the first part Lew Dockstader, in the char- acter of a dusky scientist, and Al Jolson, Ms assistant, sit down to a feast of a Welsh rarebit, and go off to sleep, lulled by the subdued singing of the glee sing- ers. The Professor has a project aimed at the exploration of the North Pole, and the rest of the evening's proceedings are grouped around his dream adventures in getting there. For a close Dockstader and Jolson are discovered again seated at the same table still dreaming, and their awakening is the cue for the final curtain. This general layout of a show is an im- provement upon the traditional division into first part, olio and afterpiece. It gives the entertainment some vague sort of continuity and supplies enough of a running story to bring the show into an approach to a unit. Also the old-fash- ioned stiff formation about the stage is abandoned in favor of less rigid grouping. The opening scene shows the singers and comedians in red coats and riding costume lounging about the Possum Hunt Glee Club. A sextet follows, led by Pierce Keegan, and the first part runs to its fin- ish with an entertaining succession of musical numbers and comedy passages. Lew Dockstader himself, of course, is the chief figure in the show. He has not a great deal of talking to do, but when he took the centre of the stage to unlim- ber his battery of rapid-fire story telling, the house went into an uproar. Dock- stader holds his own as one of our beat story tellers. Toward the end of the first part he puts over three short, catchy songs, "Broke," "It Looks Like a Big Night" and "Welcome to Our City." "Poli- tics Under Water" was his specialty. He made his appearance from the turret of a submarine boat with a ridiculously recog- nizable make-up as President Taft. The setting pictured the depths of the sea, and as Dockstader wandered around among the sea weed, he delivered himself of a running fire of comment upon political personages and affairs. All his talk is topical to the minute and cleverly con- structed. Next to Dockstader Al Jolson had things pretty much his own way. Neil O'Brien, the comedian of the organization, was his only competitor. O'Brien had a "foolish coon" character that aided him materially in the business of winning laughs, while Jolson was rather on the polite order. Other vaudeville features were the com- edy sketch by Neil O'Brien, an adaptation of the veteran afterpiece "Dr. Dippy's Sanitarium," in which O'Brien, of course, played the "Patsy." "The Left Hind Foot of a 'Rabbit'" was an incident in the "dream travels." It showed the scientist and his assistant captured by African savages and gave opportunity for plenty of rough fun, including a burlesque box- ing bout. There were eight important numbers in the opening piece. Of these Jolson's "It's Better to Have a Little Too Much," Will Oakland's "Again, Sweetheart, Again," Neil O'Brien's "Everybody Looked at Me," Will H. Thompson's "Years, Years, Years," and Rees V. Prosser's "There's No Love Like Mine" were the best liked. The musical program has plenty of va- riety. Solos and ensembles are nicely ar- ranged and placed skilfully, and there are few of the heavy choruses that sometimes weigh down singing organizations of this kind. Beside which the dressing is always bright and first-rate staging has been em- ployed to maintain an attractive picture. Rush. "FLOPPED" TWICE. Chicago, March 11. The Chadwick Trio, dissatisfied with its position on the Majestic bill this week, left it on Monday before appearing, play- ing at the American the same day. On Tuesdav the act left the American, and has not been heard from since. May 1st is coming. Captain Stanley Lewis will not return to the circus field the coming season. He is booked up in vaudeville for several months. Apdale, the animal trainer, is working at the Bijou, Brooklyn, this week with his right hand bandaged where a monkey feasted n couple of weeks ago. On Tues- day night one of the bears sampled a finger on Mr. Apdale's other hand. If ac- cident insurance companies would accept animal trainers for risks, they (the train- ers) could loaf nearly all the year around on a comfortable income. THE NEWLYWEDS. Philadelphia, March 11. The more one sees of present day musi- cal comedy the more one marvels at the readiness of patrons of high price attrac- tions to accept material which wears the earmarks of constant usage in burlesque for years aa up-to-date comedy. This is very apparent in "The Newlyweds and Their Baby" at the Adelphi. A crowded house welcomed the piece, and so warm was the welcome that the extension of the engagement here was announced on Tuesday. The makers of the musical comedy have struck a happy thought in basing a comedy on a situation advertised in the colored prints and founded on a series of cartoons, which bear the same relation to art as the piece does to the stage gener- ally. Aaron Hoffman and Paul West have produced a book of light texture, basing their story incidentally on the abduction of Napoleon, the Newlyweds' baby, by the proprietor of an incubator establishment as an advertising dodge; the substitution of a midget by a young man in love with the baby's aunt; the entering into plot by the midget, who is in love with the baby's nurse, and a hunt to kill on the part of the incubator owner's brother, who has been bitten by a dog. In this mix-up there is but slight use of the many humorous experiences of the Newlyweds and the baby as pictured in the cartoons of George McManus, but the "crying kid" and the "Da Da Da" are there, and in associating these with the cartoons is where the audience is expected to realize the comedy effect. George P. Murphy, who has been closely identified with vaudeville and burlesque for several years, however, does more for the comedy end of the show than the story of situations, and he scores princi- pally with much of the material he used last season in burlesque. One of the big hits among the liberal sprinkling of musical numbers was "Das Gartenhouse," and it was not done as well as when last heard in "The Tiger Lilies." The entire second act was Murphy's, and his success was unmistakable. He not only took care of his own lines and busi- ness, but built up the "Can't You See I Love You?" number by Jack J. Black and Carrie Reynolds and the mimic song by Flavia Arcaro, into solid hits, the latter being the principal hit of the show. An interpolated dance by Mrs. Newly- wed (Ruby Ray) and a prettily staged number, "Every Baby Is a Bouquet," were the other features to stand out for spe- cial notice. James E. Rosen won indi- vidual honors in the dual part of the baby and "Major Knott Much," the midget; William Clifton and Ruby Ray as the Newlyweds; Irving Brooks, the abductor; Jack J. Clark, the plotter, and the Misses Arcaro and Reynolds were the other prin- cipals. There is a bunch of show girls and a lively double quartet of "ponies," who work hard and do well with the dances arranged by Julian Alfred. Most of the music, by Nat 1). Ayer and John W. Brat ton, is reminiscent, duplicates of "Meet Me in Rose Time, Bosie" and "Esquimo" bring most noticeable. The piece is beautifully costumed with several novel effects in dressing, and the staging is adequate and attrac- tive. (Ji'O. M. Young. COLONIAL. This week's entertainment maintains an astonishing pace up to intermission- No better vaudeville arrangement has been seen hereabouts for a long time. Just as the show is at the top of its stride, however, it takes a doleful slump and never recovers. Midgley and Carlisle fol- lowing the intermission just about got past and then Marie Dainton (New Acta) put the show to sleep. Johnson and Hardy, next to closing, were unable to bring the audience back to life and "A Night on a Houseboat" only fairly filled the requirements of closing feature. To all intents and purposes the entertain- ment was over at the exit of Midgley and Carlisle. Mueller, Chumm and Mueller started the show off splendidly with their brilliant stage setting and fast routine of hoop rolling and juggling. The members are using more of the team formations) and in an unusual degree keep the stage occupied with motion. The string feats at the finish are handled cleanly and the exchanges work through without slips. The Bootblack Quartet were "No. 2." They might have gone a long way to strengthening the show had they been transferred to the latter end of the even- ing. In the early place they scored the undoubted hit of the bill, judged by the volume of applause. The Quartet open with the familiar "bootblack" routine, the clowning of the comedian (a grotesque messenger boy) being held down to rea- sonable limits. While the latter holds the stage in "one" with a few minutes of nonsense the others change to neat brown sack suits and a nicely handled number makes the finish. They gave three encore* Monday night, a particularly catchy series of comedy tricks. One rather suggests the "Old Oaken Bucket" bit of the Big City Four. They bring a washtub, glass of beer, washboard and tiny union suit on the stage, one at a time, singing meanwhile, "Mary had a little tub, Mary filled it full of suds, . Mary had a little board And washed her little duds." The boys handled their comedy quietly and do very little talking, but managed to keep the laughs running at high speed. The Willy Pantzer ,Troupe are using a> new entrance for the larger of the midgets and not a little of the routine is changed. A brother of Willy Pantzer is arranging an acrobatic turn along the lines of the present troupe and his midget is being worked in Willy's act to "break in.". When the second turn is staged Willy's troupe will go back to its old routine. Mean- while Willy's top mounter is having it pretty easy. His routine is shortened and the smaller top mounter works through five minutes or so of straight acrobatics at the finish, beside the comedy tricks that keep running through the act. Charles Kenna scored a complete suc- cess with his carefully drawn character sketch of the western medicine "fakir," and the swift patter of (lash talk. He has a capital story toward the finish in which he illustrates how different members of a family, all a'llicted with a peculiar twist of the mouth, try to blow out a candle. The tale is skillfully worked up to a screaming climax. Mav Irwin and Co. (New Acts) closed the intermission. Rush.