Variety (Jul 1946)

W^lneaday, July 10, 1946 HOUSE REVIEWS 49 Tidbits of 1916 (PLYMOUTH. N. Y.) arfhur Klein production in asso- J^with-'Hfmv Schumer of the &uth Theatre'intimate reuue in two Y w. Sketches written and directed f W *Sa» Lock; conductor Phil &JnT At Plymouth theatre, 5° v July 8. '46: top. ^ . S Cast' Joev Faye. Muriel Gaines, i« Trent Josef Marais t Miranda.. ft Rolando, Eddy Manson, SEJr? Marshall, Joshua Shelley, Josephine Boyer, Jack Diamond, Debonair* (5).. f^V Simmons. t,iKnr Klein's presentation of the YouTheatre's "Tidbits of 1946." its engaging moments, but^not •Joiieh to sustain an entire evening. ^generally, lacks sufficient body in hold up in the summer heat, and the accumulation of frotlv .in "Tid- bits" is too light for practical pur- P °Snow comes to .the downtown )e- «;ipr after .a pre-Broadway run at the Barbiwh Plaza theatre, with, few of the originals being displayed at ?he Plymouth theatre. The Youth theatre, itself, consists of graduates of the bors>iht belt and minor enter- tainment circuits, and have banged around for many years, without, ac- cording to '(Tidbits,'' accumulating a production effort that could stack up Hi the legit empona. Although the cumulative total of the evening's entertainment is on the minus side, little can be said against the earnest band, of entertainers. For the most part, the vaude and nitery bits presented here come off ex- tremely well. The show has its high spots, which garner a healthy share of applause. Among them are Josef Marais and Miranda in a charming presentation of South African folk-ballads, the Debonairs' (5) tap-ballet interpretations, the: ro- bust tenorlng of Robert Marshall* and the longhair terp rib by Jose- phine Boyer. Although show contains comedy, there's no sustained tieups, and the single political satire, and the psy- chiatric rib, are not too contributing to the. evening's entertainment Joey Faye and Jack Diamond, vet- erans of the burley circuits, bring in some skits that flourished in the pre-LaGuardia era. Femme foiling is by Miss Boyer and stately Sherry Simmons. ' However, Miss Boyer impresses as an item worth watching. She han- dles lines neatly and has a good sense of comedy. Other factors in the show include Eddy Manson's virtuoso harmonic^ playing. Muriel Gaines' song-selling, affable emceeing by Lee Trent, and meaningless Latin terps by Carmen and Rolando. There's sufficient material here for a couple of vaude or nitery. displays, but hardly enough for a legit effort. Jose.. when Kitty Murray walks on the stage costumed like a broken-clown slap-happy zany. Pair do a soft- shoe routine ' which winds lip in rowdy jitterbug mayhem with Rochester • on the receiving end. Fast.finish garners heavy mitting. Capitol, Wash. . Washington, July 5. Hurold Barnes, Dale Belmont, Bobby Gilbert, Harrison & Fisher, Sam Jacfc Kaufman's House- Orch; "Dark Corner" (20th). 'Capitol comes up with a solid bill this week, designed to lure stay-at- homes into the theatre over the four-day holiday weekend. . Headliners of bill are. Harrison & Fisher, back in vaude after their tour with Olsen & Johnson. Team does the two numbers they regis- tered so solidly with in "Laffin Room Only'-' — a: comic-pantomine take off' on the standard classical adagio, and their version of the grim, dd-or^die school of tango teams. They are strictly top drawer in.this field, and are hit of the bill. Harold Barnes opens show with a smooth wire act, dancing on the wire to various tempos, plus unu- sual exhibition of aero stunts in the air. Does jive, rhumba and adagio with a technique that would click even on terra fir ma. In the air, it stands- out solidly, and is enthusi- astically received; Dale Belmont sings four numbers. Chanteuse performs with her usual full contralto, arid adds interest with some comic business with house orcb. Leads off with "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else," follows through with a jive version of "Come ' Back," introduces a comedy piece and finishes on a long hair theme with aria from "Pa- gliacci." <• Bobby Gilbert, making his first vaude. appearance after 4% years on a USO tour of the world, clicks in his dialect, zany Addle routine. Gil- bert", Avho pioneered on the GI cir- cuit with the first Joe E. Brown unit, gets kudos he deserves for a- hep comedy act, thoroughly clean for the family trade. Comic works from the orch pit as a gag, with orch leader Kaufman playing straight to his clowning. Act goes ove/ well. Entire bill is sparked in colorful fashion by overture of patriotic melodies, played by house orch, with United Nations tableau on stage for finale. Lowe. Strand. N. Y. Spike Jones Orch (12) with Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath, Red Ingle, Dick Morgan, Nancy McDonald, Aileen CoTlwle, Kaye Ballad, George Rock, Mickey Katr; Helen Greco, Dorese Midqley. "Of Human . Bondage" iWB), reviewed-in Variety, July 3, '46. Apollo, !V. V. Rochester (Eddie Anderson) with Kilty Murray, Johnny Taylor;. Eddie Mallory Orch (17) with Pnulette Winbush, Sob Andrews; Mabel Scott, 3. Steeplechasers, Paul & Paulelle; "Strange Conquest" (Col). RKO, Boston Boston, July 4. Dick Stabile Orch (14), Anne TYiolfl, Mlscha Auer, Dunhills, Janie Morgan; Russ Emer; "Without Reservations" (RKO). Apollo this week is cashing in heavily on Rochester's rep in the Harlem area. Marquee value of Jack Benny's gravel-voiced film-and radio stooge was demonstrated by the number of standees during the show despite the July mercury and lack of air-conditioning. Rest of the bill adds up to 75 minutes of enter taining vaude. . Eddie Mallory"s crew of . eight brass, four reeds, and three rhythm back up in standard solid style but without, in this case, prying the patrons loose from their seats. Mu- sic is of'the conventional swing beat with well-balanced emphasis upon the brass section. Mallory's trumpet solos are okay but when he and band try a vocal-workover of "She's Got Hips," the song falls flat on its face. Band also plays "Zanzi" and Cinderella" and finales with "Andy." Paulelte Winbush, femme vocjil- 1st with the orch; pipes "Laughing on Outside" and "You Won't Be Sat- isfied" in routine manner, while Bob And rews croons "Symphony" in a mellow tenor range. Three Steeplechasers, In the open- er, flash some smooth speed terping and comedy boogie-woogie wriggles for solid returns. Paul and Pail- lette, bill's only ofay. act. bounce through some spectacular tumbles on the trampoline, fascinating the patrons with their sinewy ■ triple twists in the air. Mable Scott's warbling goes over with a sock. Femme, handling nov- elty double-entehdre numbers like „H 0W Come," "Gimme a Man." and .Do You Know the Game? " puts herself across via a .'strong bluesy voice and uninhibited patomime an- tics to fit the lyrics. Had to beg off. Rochester comes on twice during the show, the first time midway, in a comedy bit with Johnny Taylor. Pair do a burlesque skit, without much laughs, and then segue, into a ■ -'Get-sweeping dance number which sters. In the closing spot, "*-?"hester reappears with his fa- ■Jl'Har routine ribbing the penny- Pmcning proclivities of his boss Mr. "enny. Act really gets underway ' Anne Triola figuratively jumps out of the screen onto the stage at RKQ Boston this week.' Appearing as "The Beetle" in film attraction, she also swings her nightclub style in person as a neat warbler. Her beetle song gets over well,-and she also registers with "I Said Who," "Laziest Gal in Town" and "Can't Help Lovin' That Man." While presenting" popular numbers with orch, Dick Stabile also displays his skill .with sax. Janie Morgan is a cute soloist and the Dunn ills offer acrobatic dances. Another orch vo calist is Russ Emeri, who wins flam- ing youth in audience. Mischa Auer, the sad-sack funster, plays a concerto number with what looks like grapefruit halves and avoids Hollwyood jokes. All in' all a light show taxing no imaginations yet amusing. Dame, A living definition of corn,. Spike Jones and his outfit might be a jazz purist's bad dream, but the clownish aggregation whips up an hour of solidly packed entertainment that leaves the payees, yowling for more. Dressed in derbies, oversized plaids, button shoes, and featuring a two- headed drummer, Jones' rattletrap band is. just about the whole of a laugh-surfeited bill. Mickey Katz opens with "Old Black Magic," followed by "Clink Clink, Another Drink." Then Dick Morgan is spotted in "Hotcha Kornia." ~ . Belter costuming than the skin- tight satin strapless would help chirpster Helen Greco. Blonde gal sings and sells, in top fashion, "I ve Got the Sun in the Morning." En- cores with "Please Take Me Home This Moment," with blue payoff, for closer to fine straight act that prob- ably could have been spotted better later in the bill. Dr. iloratio Q. Birdbath fills in with, standard animal imitations, in- terrupting his running gags of pour- ing a continual stream of water out of the sousaphone and blowing bub- ble gum all over his face. Dancer Dorese Midgley comes on with a Spanish tap number, then breaks into a sock swing stint to "I Think You're Wonderful." Nice routine is slightly hampered by nar- row apron of the house stage. She shows her shapely gams to better advantage with the second chore. The band trots out its star per- formers for an exhausting yock ses- sion that opens with "You Always Hurt the One You Love," Ink Spots fashion, followed by "Sheik of Araby," Dick Morgan, Red Ingle and Birdbath are again featured in "Holiday for Strings" with harpist Nancy McDonald who does nothing else in the entire show but sit and knit Numerous gags in quick suc- cession bring steady laughter, but blue tinge shows again with Jones', toilet seat guitarlet. High spot.of the bill, for laughs and boffo entertainment, is new member of the unit, Kaye Ballad, who justly garners top returns of the show. . Opening slowly with "You . Gotta Have a Beat" comi- canary croons the Jones version of My Heart Sings," worded like a masochist's moan. Housing, shortage is given unusually clever treatment in "My Apartment," with music of My Man." Has to beg off. Candy Hall and Ingle do "Chloe," then spot moves to George Rock and his trumpet in "My Little Cousin," an ill-disguised satire on musical styles of yarious "name" horn men Bill's closer is situation built into singing of "Glow-Worm" by :Aileen Ca'rlyle,' who comes out of the and introduced as a "great soprano." Show is laugh-packed throughout but could use the straight acts more efficiently spaced to avoid overdoing the slapstick. , Biz SRO when caught. Tomm. New Act Taft Jordan on trumpet and Al Sears on tenor sax. Johnny Hodges, alto sax, grabs- spotlight with a very mellow ren- dition of "Laughing on the Outside" and encore. Ellington highlights the bill with piano work on six of the tunes he helped make popular. Gives standout delivery of such songs as "Three Shades of Blue," "Mood Indigo," "I'm Beginning to See the Light," "Hindustan" and "Solitude." Another socko portion of show is "Transblucency," featuring vocal solo by Kay Davis. Her voice is used sans lyrics to sell the number big. Encore is "Embraceable. You." A second orchestra special is driv- ing arrangement of "Moironome. All Out," featuring potent instrumental work. Al Hibbler, featured male vocal- ist, had audience begging for more at show caught after selling "Little Brown Book," "Summertime," "Fat and Forty," and "Lucky So and So." Businessmen of Rhythm, terp team, click with classy stepping Brog. Slate, .V. V. Happy Felton with Joe Ripley; Chttcho Martinez, 3 Sailors, Pritch- ard & Lord, Rub]/. Zwerliug's House Orch; "The Blue Dahlia" (Par). State's bill, this week, is leisurely paced but nevertheless offers, a good shade of variety despite the fact that only four 'acts, are run off in more than an hour's' running time. .Bill has acts that are familiar to this house with some degree of. b:o. lure in the "Guess Who" radio turn by Happy Felton. Jt's Fclton's contributions that necessitate cutting down on num- ber, of acts on display as he does a 30-minute reproduction of the WOR Sheffield-sponsored session. His op- erations consist of getting partici- pants from the audience to guess a recorded voice with guessee getting $5 if right, $1 if wrong. Jackpot question pays out $25. It's amusing fare for all ^concerned and Felton, assisted ' by Joe Ripley, keeps the audience interested throughout the proceedings. Participants also, get free milk service from Feltoh's spon- sors, and with the OPA currently off, it's a good gimmick for all con cerned. Layout is opened by Pritchard and Lord, who've been away from vaude - for some time, because of Lord's Army engagement. .Pair re turn to do an engaging blend of tap and ballet for good returns. Chucho Martinez, the Mex swoon er who clicked a few years ago in local niteries, is also a long absentee from the stem, But a top-notch singer. His pacing of numbers is often too slow, but strength of voice and wise song selection net him hit mitts. Completing the lineup are the Three Sailors in their familiar zany antics which hit this house nicely. Ruby Zwerling's house crew backs acts neatly. Okay biz when caught. Jo.se. Night Gob Reviews Continued from pare 48 ; DAVID BROOKS Songs 15 Mins. Cafe Society, Uptown, N. Y. A new cafe star has been born at Cafe Society Uptow;n. Nothing sen- sational, mind ipu, but a personality for the saloons who will be reck- oned with henceforth. David Brooks enters the couv.ert circuit at a time when the niteries can stand a few fresh, faces. Recently out of "Bloomer Girl".' where he was the juvc lead. Brooks wisely passed up the Hollywood hegira to go on his own. Hollywood is apparently no lure (lie has a Para- mount dear somewhere in the off- ing) but for the cafe cavorters Brooks looms as a definite person- ality. Opening, with "Evalina." excerpt from "Bloomer Girl." Brooks does a slightly in-and-out routine but, once paced and edited, including a special song or two. he'll be bono. As is, his telling impact is unde- niable. . "Bad Bad Man," "Love Is Like Red Rose," "Amado Mio. "Sleepy Time Gal," "There'll Be No Me to Fall in Love With You make for a fetching sequencing. More important is his engaging boyish quality without being studiously coy. The more relaxed and informal the better his impact. On his de- but, to a rather tough dinner audi- ence, he was an unquestioned cliek. . . ' Abel. Olympia. Miami Miami, July 5. The Chords. Lee Davis, Lucienne & Ashour, Meribeth Olds, Pat Burke & Sylvia Rhodes, Les Rhode House Orch; "The Bride Wore Boots" (Par) . Mildly diverting stage show holds rostrum at the Olympia for current week. Lee Davis emcees and works in own stint with some _ timeworn gags. Delivery helps to sell act and his emceeing is okay. Pat Burke and Sylvia are okay with their, song selling, best being "Falling In Love" and "Embrace- able You'' by gal. The Chords contrib their "Spot- light Bands" chore for good returns. Solid . mining for Spike Jones and Henry Busse takeoffs. Contortionist Meredith Olds gets by with her acrobatics and Lucienne- and Ashour's pat Apache stint brings plenty of salvos. Les Rhode house orch back- grounds acts neatly. Biz fair when caught. Lary.. Million Hollar, L. A. Los Angeles, July 6. Duke Ellington' Orch (16), featur- ing Al Hibbler. Kay Davis, Ray Wancy, Johnny Hodftes, Marion Cox; Businessmen of Rhythm. Patterson & Jackson; "Passkey to Danger'' (Rep) '■ It's a class musical show Million Dollar is offering patrons this week. Paced by musical ability of Duke Ellington, show is a solid hour's of- fering of the best in pop music. Orch takes off with "Solid Old Man" to open for. big response. Marion Cox, vocalist, is next on with "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance. Ray Nance then takes It away with vocal and comedy dancing to. "Riff' staccato," pleasing mightily. He en cores\ with "Sittin ; and a-Rockin',' before orch goes Into special ar- rangement of "Blue Skies," featur- ing Jimmy Hamilton on „clarjnel,. have eliminated the trite Calypso All That Glitters.": OAs to plenty salvos. Estelle and LeRoy. holdovers from last show, click with their terping Routining is classy, making the spins and lifts look easy. Go in heavily for the Latin tempos. Pair are good looking and neatly costumed. Win plenty applause. Juanita Rios is a fiery looking lit- tle Cubano, who tops many of the type which have played hereabouts lately. Doesn't overdo the ciitcnef.s and socks with her "Bunny. Bunny" bit in which she utilizes a bald-paled ringsider for laughs. Another holdover is Marian Nilcs. Trim spin-tapster, works in produc- tion numbers with line and solos in solid fashion. Line, nifty looking, have been given some neat routines by Boots McKenna, producer. Best staging is the Gershwin number. Ken Delaney arid his unit do a nifty job of show backgrounding and play for the dansapation. Al Fried- man pianos the interludes. Lury. Bally Dearth — Continued front pace 5 — giving now. Any change will neces- sarily have to be for the better." Constant Campaigning Metro and RKO, in their efforts to hypo showmanship, have had reps plugging away at the subject at ex- hibitor meetings and conventions all over the country. H. M. Richey, M-G's exhibitor relations head, has been unusually blunt' recently in his speeches at conclaves of theatre- owners'. He: has told them frankly that their lack of interest is costing them and the distribs plenty, in grosses and instead of being . so pleased with themselves at present big business, they should get off their chairs and get back to show- manship. Richey has been pointing out to the exhibs that there are about 80,- 000,000 potential theatregoers in the country; but that the highest num- ber, ever to see any picture was the less than 50,000,000 who turned out for ''Gone With the Wind." The average A is seen by only about 18,000,000 patrons, Richey says, in his plea for a return to showman- ship to grab off additional patrons in compensation for th,at anticipated b.o. decline. Leon Bamberger, sales promotion head for RKO, has been visiting exhib. conventions to make a pitch along the same lines. Most observers are pretty much agreed, however, that neither Richey nor Bamberger is making much progress. As long as the wickets keep spinning without effort, exhibs listen to the exhorta- tions without even polite interest. .Saeeess Despite Inertia Exhib attitude was made pretty clear in a discussion a Variety mugg had with a smalltown theatre owner at a recent convention. Exhib was speaking of English pictures and it was pointed out to him that some of them, with proper exploitation, could be made to show fairish re- turns, at the b.o. "What's the use of troubling my- self," he said. "I just play them on Saturdays with a western topping the bill and fill the house with *ids, who'd come anyway." ' Failure of the exhibs to contribute what the 'distribs think is a fair share of the cost of cooperative ad- vertising preceding a first-run open- ing is also particularly irksome to the releasing companies. Originally, the house did the major part of the advertising, with the distrib con- tributing a percentage of the cost if extra large space was used. Ex- hibs have discovered, however, that in their anxiety to get good open- ings, the distribs could be pushed into bearing more and more of the cost. Result is that now in most sit- uations.exhibs won't spend—or very little—beyond their usual budgets for small space. If the distrib wants bigger ads, he's got to carry the whole brunt. That's not only the case with indies, but with affiliated circuits as well. Loew's, for instance, in most cities has a rule that it won t go beyond $50 in support of co- operative advertising. So the distrib, if he wants to see any more space used, has to provide any cost in ad- dition to that. United Artists' deal with Harry Brandt at the Globe, N. Y., is an ex- treme-example. When UA pix play tiie house (five of them are slated to go to in in succession this summer), Brandt doesn't contribute a cent to the advertising. The distrib pays for it all. EM|iiire, Montreal Montreal. July 5. Bud Lewis, Lulu Bates, Then Lind. Glorin Leroy. Armani Meerle Orch (12), Line (9); $1.50 win. Music Hall Continued from page 3 Top billing for this parlay, goes to Bud Lewis, one of the top mimics to hit this town. Lad has a socko floor personality and gets hefty mitting for his impreshes of showbiz per- sonalities. His routine is smooth, clean and entertaining; : Lulu Bates.gets nice returns, doing the best she can with a rasping mike. She warbles a few oldies and some special material, one item of which could stand sapolioing. Her delivery is her forte,-registering with. "Sugar Candy." "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Coax Me." Gloria Lcioy clicks in some fancy footwork along the legmania idea. Thca Linds' ballet terping in some Russian and Strauss items is effect- ive, but she's not on long enough to be appreciated. Armand Meerle orch is sharp on the show cues, but could stand toning down. Line still among best in town. JByz, okay,. L«:a. I'hc --urt and the Department of Justice for making the decree work practically in matters such, as'that cited above. Committee of five has been named to get the recommenda- tions in appropriate language for presentation to the attorneys draw- ing up the final form of the decree. Another major point of discus- sion was the provision that no mini- mum admission price could be writ- ten into licensing agreements with exhibs. .On the other hand, the court declared itself in favor of a reason- able clearance system. II was pointed out by the. indie reps that this was contradictory, since the clearance system is based on stipu- lated minimum b.o. taps. Inability to include such a provision in the exhibition contract. was feared by the indies as likely to upset opera- tions to the .extent, of seriously hurt- ing grosses. Most of them felt it Vital that they be permitted to set a minimum admission.