Variety (December 1909)

IS VARIETY THE EMPIRE SHOW. This Tom McRae is a handy little fel- low to have around a show, and particu- larly one not strong, as "The Empire Show." Jesse D. Burns has put on a new first part, "A Night in a Rathskellar." He is using the burlesque McRae had last season on the Eastern Wheel. It is called "The Two Pikers." McRae is one, and the whole burlesque for that matter. His "hare-lipped" performance brings a laugh a minute. He has good methods and handles dialog effectively. "The Rathskellar" skit is a good idea, taken from the Mike Simon act which appeared for a few weeks in vaudeville a eouple of years ago. While the idea is good, it doesn't seem to have been handled right, for the greater part. If Mr. Burns will proceed in this sketch as though the eating and drinking place below the street (where the piano is for the purpose of making music) was for visitors to have some fun, "The Rathskellar" should de- velop into a big entertaining opening. As it is now, the piano does not go into action until near the finish, and only then does "The Rathskellar" secure the "atmos- phere" necessary to it. McRae is the "tough waiter." There is a Salvation girl (Lillian Washburn) and sufficient characters, but they are not made to blend or stand out excepting MoRae. There's no getting away from the fact that when but one of ten "numbers" re- ceive an encore, something is wrong some- where. "Good Luck, Mary," sung by Cora White in tights to Luella Temple (as the girl) received a light round af applause, enough, at any rate, for the orchestra leader. This young Miss Temple is a nice, pretty girl, with red cheeks, normally it is imagined, though Luella takes no chances, and smears herself with rouge. She has a great pair of eyes, but without much understanding of how to use them, and Luella doesn't believe in silk stockings or tights. When a young woman must wear one pair of tights all through the show, as Luella does, she might at least have them of silk. This is the poorest kind of dressing for a girl. Probably no one in the house overlooked that pink pair of fleshings when Miss Temple appeared in the burlesque singing "Jungle Moon" still wearing them. Excepting a couple of fair- ly good looking costuming schemes, the dressing is quite ordinary throughout the show. Something seems to have gone wrong with the numbers. In "I've Lost My Gal" one-half the chorus appearing had hunting costumes on. There was no earthly con- nection between the dressing and the song. It happened in a couple of other songs, indicating numbers had been changed about or replaced. During the show the scheme of bringing on half the girls to back up the song leaders was followed often. There was a bit of careless dressing as well. In "When the Tide Gomes In" the girl who led it was shy of a belt. Even though her suit was not made for one, it looked that way. Some one of the prin- cipals did a half-hearted "cooch," and there was an "Oriental" affair called 'Tearl of the Harem." It's almost too bad that chorus girls for sixteen, eighteen or twenty a week must be called upon to indulge in a near "cooch." There are some chorus girls in this bunch of seven- teen, more or less, who can likely recol- lect more about burlesque than is recorded in history. A few will pass for looks. One is a really good looker, but none of the women have voices, proven almost disas- trously when McRae in his song "Won't Go Home Until Morning" makes each of the choristers sing a verse. Their voices sre so weak or worse that McRae should frame this up for nothing but comedy. In "The Two Pikers" McRae gets in his funny work and a quartet there is a big scream. McRae makes it so funny any- body must laugh. Miss White sings "Billi* ken Man" in this, but "I'd like to Live in the Moon," programed for James O'Neal (of the Garden City Trio, New Acts) was not sung. Since the Garden City Trio, with its three men, holds all the good voices of the organization, it would seem policy for the men to sing as much as possible. It is this burlesque, with the olio, that holds up the performance. Rose and Ellis and Barton and McCue are new acts to this section. Each is under New Acts. They do much for the vaudeville end. Miss Fontaine has a contortional specialty to open with. J. Theo. Murphy and Miss Washburn have a "two-act" in "one" with some talk and songs that Murphy puts over to much laughter. His verse in "Marching Through Georgia" is very good. Some of the material is a trifle spicy; just enough to make it enjoyable. Other of the matter is not new, but it made good. The Wheelers may have been added last week at the Eighth Avenue. Wheeler is trying for new thingB in juggling, and approaching more the Jap style of per- formance. One new trick with a large and small parasol was unusually excellent, though six misses were made before he accomplished it. Miss Wheeler looks well, having a couple of her own tricks. If Wheeler will insert some comedy to live up to the tramp costuming, he ought to be able to place this act in right. There are several principals. Tom Nolan is one, playing a light-waisted Irishman at first, and the same sort of "Rube" afterwards. If memory is right Tom Nolan and Cora White formerly did an olio turn, but they are not doing it now, un- less to replace The Wheelers in other stands. "The Empire Show" will pass. McRae takes care of that. To those not seeing him before, he is very funny. With the opening of "The Rathskellar" brightened up, good, swinging numbers introduced that must be encored, Burns may yet have cause to be proud of his show. Sime. WEEP FOR MAY. May Flanagan, known to vaudeville art- ists as the telephone operator in the New York Theatre building during the regime of "Advanced Vaudeville," and later in the same capacity as reigning patroness of the switchboard of the Joe Wood establish- ment, was married recently. The bride- groom is an electrical engineer, and unex- pected orders sent him away from his happy home Monday to take up a post along the Panama Canal line. So May re- mains in New York a weeping bride. "MAJESTICS." "The Majectics" was the first of Fred Ir- win's shows to strike the Big Town this season. Mr. Irwin has made very few changes in the show from last season. There are one or two new faces, and per- haps a new song or two. "The Majesties" was a bully good burlesque show before. It is just as good a one. this year. Even with the many current reports of huge amounts spent on productions, the bur- lesque producers will have to take off their hats to Irwin when it comes to putting on a show. There is consistency and reason for things in an Irwin show. "It's brain- work, you know, brain work" (apologies to Arthur Prince). That expresses it, how- ever. Anyone at all familiar with bur- lesque will recognize this after watching the show for fifteen minutes. It runs a solid two hours and a half. In all that time there is never a drag to the action and not a tiresome minute. Everyone in the show works. Although the two comedians are featured, no one is slighted because of this. Twenty-six women are carried. Five or six are prin- cipals, but none has any hesitancy about jumping in with the chorus and working in the "numbers." It is a good-looking lot of principal women that the show displays. The cho- rus is not at all lacking in this respect, although one or two of the costumes show the effects of hard usage and do not help the girls In their'desire to look well. There are several numbers miles ahead of the general burlesque standard. Prob- ably the best is "I'm Thirsty All the Time." A male chorus of eight men and the two comedians back up Joe Bonner in it, and it is a real delight. The number took from six to N nine encores, although it was in the show last season and just as popular then. A number with all men participating like this one is a novelty. "Marie from Paree" lead by Marie Hart- man, is a ripping number, and through the sensible handling of it by Miss Hart- man, becomes a winner. These French things usually—are sad affairs, but Miss Hartman does not try to squeeze a "Ze" out between each word, paying more at- tention to "getting it over" and putting her efforts into a gingery manner of do- ing so. "The Best of Friends Must Part" and "Dinah Lee," both lead by Evelyn WalkerT were fltTO among-the well-worth- mentioning. The first is a direct steal from "So Long, Mary" in "45 Minutes from Broadway." It is excellently han- dled. The latter accomplishes results en- tirely from staging. The effect with the chorus are about the top-notch in "number producing." "Fatty" gave Edith Hollander a chance to break-in. It is a good "kid" song, helped along by the comedians. "The Latest Fad" brought out striking dressing and figured among the best. There were several other numbers, all capital. The pieces, so far as plot is concerned, don't amount to much, concerning two Germans abroad. While Irwin was putting on a good singing show, he didn't forget that a burlesque show to be good must contain laughs. There is comedy and good comedy galore. Gus Fay and Joe Hollander are the fea- tured comedians. Both are good "Dutch- men," admirably suited to each other. Fay is the short, fat type, laughing all the time, while Hollander is of the tall, thin variety, with a face that is com- plaining continuously. The pair work all through the show without any familiar burlesque bits crop- ping out. In fact, there are not any certain* periods laid aside for business. The com- edians just happen on; sometimes alone, sometimes in the middle of a number, not interfering with anyone else, however, and bringing laughs at every turn. In the "French Prison" scene, two men are a scream for fifteen minutes. There is something funny in every "bit," and they get the most out of all of it. "The Last Quart" (the stealing of the contents of the pitcher of beer) made the house laugh as much as ever. Fay and Hollander do a great deal during the performance, at every appearance they are welcome, and their excellent work goes a long way towards making the show, the show that it IS. All the honors don't rest with the com- edians, though. The women principals do their share. Florence Bennett has big type on the program, and there are many ex- cellent reasons for it. There may be one or two women in burlesque who can tie Florence for wardrobe, but it is a certainty that there isn't one who has her beaten. It isn't wardrobe alone however. Miss Bennett can carry the dresses, and if she did naught but walk across the stage in each gown, that would be enough. A "Brinkley" number was led by Miss Ben- nett, who takes second only to Annabelle Whitford for "the tall and beautiful." In several other numbers Florence was prominent, and her presence supplied a classy dressiness to the stage picture. Evelyn Walker, also a pretty girl, but in a much quieter way, was a delight. She has a good little idea of her own about putting a song over which might not exactly agree with Sophie Tucker's, still it is much more pleasing to the ear. Three numbers fell to Miss Walker's lot. and each proved a winner, Marie Hartman came nearer a soubret than any of the other women principals, although she is hardly in the soubret class. A good-look- ing blonde with plenty of ginger and mag- netism Marie holds her own with the others. A couple of numbers besides a very good imitation of Eva Tanguay kept her in the front. Marie fell down a lit- tle in the wardrobe department. It is not good form to wear the same dress in both acts. Edith Hollander had a bit to do here and there, and acquitted herself nicely. Miss Hollander wore several pretty and becoming frocks. Magda Dahl, billed as "The American Nightingale," sang a couple of songs in a pretty voice. It probably would do just as well to cut out one of the songs, hold- ing "The Last Rose." One of the Lussier Sisters, a great, big girl with the best- natured face imaginable, has plenty to do, and through her size, mainly, put over several big laughs. She should be told quietly, but firmly, that she is no prima donna. Her voice all but wrecked one number. Several of the men had odd bits, and each in turn did exceedingly well. A bet- ter crowd of men has probably never been placed with one burlesque show. Roy Cummings gained a little hand for himself, with some fast dancing that au- gers well for Roy. He might have been given more to do. The Cohan imitation i