Variety (August 1949)

54 HOVSB BEVIKWS Vedncgday, August 31, 1949 M Gross for O&J at Toronto Expo; Record Crowds at Ottawa Exhibition By BOB McSTAY Toronto. Aug. 27. Chiof importance of the Olsen & Johnson grandstand show at the Canadian National Exhibition is that it will gross close to $400,000 for the 14 performances, and that this amount is already in the kit- tv. This is a 10^ b tilt on last year’s terrific $360,000 garnered here by the comics for a similar chore. Advance sale, launched a fort- night before the opening, was puch that this had to be called off days before the exhibition itself opened,, and it also meant disappointment to thousands of mail-order appli-; cants whose money had to be re- j turned. Such was the frantic buy- ing chaos that quarter-page ads had to be taken in the dailies ex- plaining w hy there were no more i seats for advance sale but that 1,000 up in the 7f>c. section have been held back each night in an attempt to take care of By JOHN GOKMLEY Ottawa, Aug. 30. Drenching rains did not prevent new attendance records being set ever. More than $400,000 was spent on improving the .buildings and $40,000 on the roads in the park. Fluore.scent lighting was in- stalled in all exhibit buildings. Royal Canadian Air Force band followed the Dorsey crew on the bandstand at 5 and played for an hour, spelled Friday (26• by the band of the Royal Canadian MTounted Police. First concert on Mon. (22>, which was children’s day, was given by the 12-piece Palace* N. Y. Slip, Slap & Slide, Penny the Horse, Martez & Lucia, Hal Sher- man. Tattlers (4>. Chris Cross, Helene & Howard, Kuda Bur, Don Albert House Orch; “Red Stallion in the Rockies" (EL), reviewed in Variety March 16, ’49. Capitol, K. Y. David Rose Orch (41) Rpnni^ Rudy. Eileen Barton. Jay Bovary” (M.q, • & shall; “Madame reviewed in Variety Any. 3^ ’4^ at the 1949 Central Canada Exhihi-! band from Bob Ilermine’s midget tion, which closed last night after i a week’s run at Lansdowne Park in the Canadian capital. But the rain did keep the new' records from being as high as they probably would have been with dry weather. Total attendance for the w’eek reached 386.000. This figure is about 3.'S,000 greater than the 1948 week’s total. Herb McElroy declared more room will have to be found for next year’s show. There were show. Livestock competitions were lively but entries W'ere few. The horse show drew big crowds: flovv- ers and vegetables filled the horti- cultural building. Innovation was a continual demonstration of the Wurlitzer electric organ in a rock garden in the floral building. McElroy and the CCE assn., plans bigger things for next year. Already a $400,000 addition to the Coliseum building is on the way up, and a new bus terminal was in more exhibits, but they lacked i oueration. Whether or not Lans and with from item ► Olsen & Johnson production of • •^Grandstand Gayeties,” until Olsen i & Johnson, Marty May, Gloria Gil-, hert, June Johnson. Berry Bros., The Dunhills. J. C. Olsen. Wallace Siebert. Ernest Adams. Patricia Wells. Bill Hays, Jack Joyce, Pat Moran, Nina Virella, Helen Mag- na, Russ Sobey, Billy Kay, Mau- rice Millard. Frank Harty. Staged and directed by Leon Leonidoff: dances by Robert Sid- ney: settings by Albert Johnson; costumes by Billy Livingstone; musical director, Joseph Litau. At the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto. August 27; $2 top. towners. The.se are quickly snapped up nightly as soon as; they go on sale. Reported scalp- ers are getting $5 and $10 for $2 tops. (Notable, too. that advance b.o.' take included $63,000 in American bills, this Indicating the O&.I pull- ing power along the adjacent American side.> | Apart from these b.o. figures,; the O&.I extravaganza before the packed 21.000seat grandstand fol- lows the 0&.I formula, except that, ■ owing to puritan pressure follow-! ing last year’s O&.I performance! here, the zanies have sandpapered ' a lot of w'hat certain local blue- j noses believed to be rough edges. True, this form of stage censor- ship hampers and hurts, but O&J still have lots of back-file comedy material and, this year, have con- centrated on more flash and pro- duction numbers; and while artisti- cally curbed by civic censorship, the two comics can console them- selves with that $400,000 gross. With a short rehearsal 10-day period, the two naturally have thrpwn a number of their recent Madison Square Garden acts into the "C.N.E. Grandstand Gayeties” (sic) but other fine talent has also been included, plus the 96 girls and 48 boys for precision, ballet and choral groups. Jo.seph Idtau conducts the 60-piece pit orch. Apart from the traditional gun- fire. swarms of stooges and scram- bling midgets, the big production numbers are eye-filling in concep- tion and truly gorgeous in co.s- tuming. Here. Leon Leonidoff as producer, and Bob Sidney as dance director, have used mass move- ments on varying stage levels that had the opening night audience roaring its approval. Notable are the min.strel open- ing. the big Spanish fiesta number, the truly beautiful ballet interpre- tation of Ravel’s “Bolero.” Full u.se of further staging possibilities hinges on a wedding party (with June Johnson as the bride) and the dramatic arrival of a heli- copter to take the two on a trans- Canada honeymoon. It’s a seasonal jnlxup, ranging from skating scenes in Quebec to fox hunting in Ontario to harvesting in Saskatch- ewan; but anachronisms likely un- noticed by the enthusiastic audi- ence. Whole 13.>minute extravaganza (no intermission' is a credit to all connected with it. originality. The agricultural end of the CCE w'as okay but held down by the attraction of forth-' coming winter fairs, mainly To- j ronto’s Royal. j Customers came to see three items; Frank Bergen’s midway. “World of Mirth”; George Hamid’s out-of*' grandstand show, and Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. Those items 1 sold the CCE and maintained it while it ran. Bergen did an exceptionally fine job. Besides constructing a spe- cial “Funland” gateway for the CCE at a cost of more than $3,000. all his canvas was either new or freshly cleaned, all co.stumes and uniforms spotless, all fronts and dow'ne Park can be enlarged is a problem. Several buildings, in-; eluding the Capital’s first log cabin, were removed to allow’ Ber- gen to set up his midway to better advantage without competing with outdoor displays of automobiles, farm machinery, and equipment of the three armed services, includ- ing several air force planes. In its second year was a gimmick for selling more tickets but main- ly insuring sales if bad weather arrived (which it did). Beginning several weeks before the exhibit, ad- vance tickets went on sale all oyer eastern Canada, offering prizes in- cluding three automobiles. Gim- mick circumvents Canadian lottery newly painted.! ban by allowing grounds for the shows Sid Caesar’i Chi Date Comedian Sid Caesar is .set for the Chicago theatre. Chicago, for two weeks starting Sept. 9. Caesar closed last week at the Rox^', N. Y. . . . V i *• . structural work Thirty-two rides and 22 made up “World of Mirth.” New items in the Bergen outfit included a well-equipped children’s .section with a miniature roller coaster. New’ on the midway was Nat Mercy’s “Vanities.” plus some new faces in “Doc” Kahn’s motor- cade. I..a.st year’s “world’s largest hor.se” faced directly across the lane a tent with “world’s smallest horses.” new to the “W. of M.” Bergen has also replaced former neon lighting on fronts and rides with what he claims are cheaper, easier-to-handle fiuorescents. Midway got plenty newspaper space locally, mainly through the , organization of Richmond Cox, Spartanburg, W. Va.. army captain I and former reporter, doing Ber- ' gen’s flacking. About the only familiar item in the Hamid grandstand show was the presence of Lee Barton Evans} as g.m. of the show, and even he | had to turn over his m e. stint to Ted Grant because of a foot ail- ment which had him hospitalized before reaching Ottawa. Evans i crew included Joe Bowers as stage mgr., Glen Childers on lights and Jack Glickman batoning the ■ (local) Governor General’s Fool Guards band in the pit. I Matinee and evening programs differed slightly. Afternoon call- sheet listed Josh Kitchen’s mules, horses and chimps; Rosales Sis- ters (from South America', perch act; Johnny Welde’s comedy bears; Sam Linfield and his Krazy Scouts (S' in comedy aero.; Three Barretts, 80-feet high on a trapeze; Linon, tramp on rope; Kirk’s comedy dogs; Dynamic Partners, in aero tumbling; The Harstons (S', teeter- hoard, and Ives Kimrls (2', in a high act. The evening show added the 20-girl ‘Gold Rush Fol- lies” line; Paul Kohler, xylophone; Great Athos. finger balancer; Three Rays, sister acro-comedy; Ben Yost Singers '6'. and the vet vaude turn, Leonard Gauthier’s Bricklayers. As usual, the Hamid show, both afternoon and evening, was top- rung material, offered at $1.50 top for the late show, 50c. in the af- ternoon. New idea in outdoor scenoi'y was attempted, using three-sided sets, changing scenery by a one-third twist of each set Done inside often, it got a good test on the outdoor platform at CCE and operated smoothly. New experience for the local grand- stand was seeing a show in a down- pour, Twice it happened, each time the show went on. wet and uncomfortable, but determined Dorsey appeared twice each day. between 4 and .5 p m., on the band- stand. where since the (X’E began a military band had held forth, and again between 9 and midnight on a special stand and dancefloor con- structed on the bank of the Rideau (?anal. which runs beside Lansdowne Park. Dorsey drew capacity crow'ds each day and rang up a total of 21.000 dancing admis- sions for the six nights, at 2.5c. to get in, 2.5c. a dance. Dorsey fans found it an unusual experience to hear the trombone-nnd-si)ectacIe«: lad toot to the rhythm of diesel engines, gravel-voiced barkers and screaming sirens from shows and rides. CCE Itself did some wrrtk to makjC^ this year’s lhe^f>esl admission to the three-for-a-dollar The Palace bill is made up large- ly of performers who have head- lined at competing Broadway vaudfilmers and as .such is one of the most talent-laden layouts it’s had in a long time. The bill plays smoothly despite an array of seeming conflictions. Majority of the acts are of the dance va- riety, or use terping as part of the turn, but diverse choreo work doesn’t intrude upon each other. The standards on the bill in- clude Hal Sherman, Helene Howard and Chris Cross Penny the Horse, renamed Pansy the Horae, also a w.k. on the variety circuits. Sherman has a fetching comedy turn, with a winning line of gab and dance Impre.ssions. Satire of a sailor tangoing with a nioll is his most laugh-provoking bit and pro- vides a solid base for applause. Helene and Howard, in the next- to-closing slot, hit top returns with their comedy ballroom work, i Their act has been exhibited vir- I tually at every Broadway vauder but they’ve rarely looked better I since the Palace is able to impart ! the added dimension of intimacy, i Chris Cross, similarly a familiar figure on the Stem, has an excel- I lent ventriloquy turn, probably . better dressed than the average ' because of the variety of dolls used. One is a life-sized Mae The big name on bill *s film composer leading an orch of 40 nated, of course, by section. That’s his trademark of course—plenty of strings. And this orch has no le.ss than 22 of ’em. including a girl harpist. It is an average bill for playing values, with Eileen Barton diet ing with her songstering, Renald Rudy dittoing in their slow- the current David Rose, pieces domi- a big siring and strip tickets which can also get the j dame, another is a regula customers grandstand passed the were only ducats. into the afternoon show. Advance sale 100,000 mark. Prizes available by advance Radl4» Mpis* Minneapolis, Aug. 27. Ted Weems Orch (13) u’ifh Russ Carter & Elmo Tanner, Bob Cro.sby until Virginia Maxey, ^ 3 Stooges, Penny Edwards; “Africa Screams” (UA). tion dummy, and the third is a hand-puppet. Cro.ss does well, but might do better if h# puts some volume into his voice. Penny the Horse, with two men in a horse hide and paced by a looker, put on an amusing turn. The comedy is good and customers are reward- ed with a steady laugh-stream. Surrounding talent compri.ses Slip. Slap and Slide, Martez and Lucia. The Tattlers (4), and Kuda Bux. all New Acts. Jose. This stage-screen pre.sentation. almost all down the line, seems made to order for the youngster trade, what with its abundance of slapstick and other comedy. And the enthusiastic juvenile trade, much in evidence among the near- capacity audience for the first of four shows at 1:50 p.m. on open- ing day, a hot Friday, surely whooped it up noisily with high- voltage whistling, as well as other approval demonstrations. But the presentation still also holds plenty of adult appeal by reason of its di- verse and quality entertainment. Bob Crosby, the 3 Stooges and Ted Weems top the bill. Tuneful swing, for the most part, emanates from the four brass, four j saxes and four riiythm comprising the Weems lineup. Crosby, work- ing through the entire show, shares the emceeing with Weems, and both handle their assignments ex- pertly, The band sets a lively mood with its opener. “Rose Room.” after which its good-look- ing Vocalist, Russ Carter, does well ' enough by “Bali Ha’i.” j Crosby sings of various famous ' brothers, including his own clan, in a clever ditty. “B.O.K.B.” Then animated Penny Edwards, a looker, like others in this and most other shows these days, also taps the rich “South Pacific” till with the much- heard but always welcome “Won- derful Guy” to fine results. Fol- lows with a vigorous comedic ren- dition of “Sheboygan” and con- cludes by offering a bit of first- rate dancing. After some tomfoolery with Cros- by, Glenn West, from the band, lands laughs with his distinctive comedy vocalizing, offering a stam- mering number and a highly origi- nal interpretation of “Cecelia.” Billy Blair, rotund ba.ss viol player, steps off the platform to generate considerable mirth, too. as he pan- tomimes and gyrates through “Ding, Dong Daddy” and "W'ho Threw the W’hiskey in the W'ell?” Still among the tops In his line, Elmo Tanner, of the band, accom- panied by the Weems’ crew, scoies with his whistling of “Heartaches.” “.N'ola,” “Indian Love C’all ” and ‘Sweet Georgia Brow n.” The Three Stooges haven’t changed their slapstick, and they don’t have to because repetition apparently doesn’t make them a whit less hilarious. They seem to be at their unrefined best on this visit. f’rosby has a cute blonde vocal partner in Virginia Maxey for “Buzz. Buzz. Buzz” and “Dumb- dr«>ps.” numbers with comedy over- tones. after he solos “Some En- chanted Evening.” The audience le.ipons^ is bofL , H^es. Pala€*e« I'olumbuii Columbus, Aug. 25. Berk & Hallow, The Chords, Fanny & Kitty Watson, Bob Ham- mond’s Birds, Mack, Russ & Ot. m, Wally Brown, Dolinoff & Raya Sis- ters, Pat Rooney, Nick Francis Orch; “Roughshod” (RKO). motion acrobatics with their bodies oh-so-beautiful, and Jay Marshall contributing a fair com- edy turn. Plus which there Is Rose and the orch for the major running time, the show being cut to around 45 minutes becau.se of the picture’s length (114 mins.). The big fault with this orch seems to be that the men don’t seem to have played together enough. And that bandstand! It’s so crowded that the fiddlers seem to be playing each others’ wind- pipes. The sum total is that there’s hardly anything exciting in the band’s pre.sentation, which does the Inevitable Rose composi- tions for their closers, namely. “Holiday For Strings.” Rose himself, attired in dark dinner jacket while the band.^men are in white summer formals, is a self-effacing maestro-emcee, and gets over with the customers on that basis. That’s all that would be required of him if only the bandsmen themselves were able to contribute a greater verve to their playing. Renald and Rudy have been around the Broadway showcases, and they’re clicko, as ever, with their pyramiding and a.ssorted acros. They’re especially esthetic for an act of its kind, because I of their s.a. for the dames, in view of their .strlpped-to-the-walst I manner of working. I Miss Barton has an unas.suming I style, in comparison to most of I the current-day pop singers with their overdone affectations. She has the voice, too, and the cus- tomers liked her. Marshall is standard with his droll comedy, namely the assorted objects that he twists into shape from a pleated gadget. He tops off the turn with a ventriloquial bit with a doll that he fashions with his fist. It’s cute, but the talk is familiar. Kahn. Reaction here to the first New York Palace troupe followed the general pattern established by the return of vaudeville in other cities. Nostalgia hit all audiences right where they had been waiting to be i hit for many years. The oldsters I applauded the acts with high sat- isfaction and youngsters ogled ap-! propriately. The bill, essentially j the same one as opened in New, York, is a strung one. i Berk and Hallow, pair of tap dancers who threw in a few acro- batics, are expert, if just a little too cute for the opener. The Chords met with mixed reception in their vocal takeoffs of some of the top dance bands. Everyone went for Fanny and Kitty Watson, vet troupers whose 1 patter is fast and funny, if corny,! and their songs go over well, too. I A lot of veteran vaudeville-gocrs ' got that old pleasant feeling to see Fanny still using that characteris- tic ge.sture with which -he seems to gather the audience to her with ! one sweep of her arm. : Bob Hammond and his cockatoos put on a smoothly coordinated act which has just the right number of comedy touches. Mack, Russ & ' Owen throw’ themselves about . with abandon to put on a strenu-1 ous act of acrobatics made differ- ent by the peppy midget. The Interrupted patter of Wally Brown is amusing. After a slow start. Brown has the audience with him right through his song on the high cost of romance In old age. Dolinoff and the three Raya Sis- ters put forth an engaging doll dance, and, with the aid of lights and Dolinoff in a black cos- tume, exhibit some neat bur- lesques. I’at Rooney, as a kind of embodi- ment of reincarnated vaudeville, puts the right fillp on the show. Mis casual, easy manner, his effort- less dancing and genuine oldtime show'inanship make his appearance the climax to a memorable evening. The management reports terrific biz. Matinees, surprisingly enough, were stronger than any other shows during the first two days. Hou.se seats 3.000, and manage- ment says it had three full houses the first day, with queues in ex- t istepvs tiipc^. , , . Parani4»unl« Svrapafie Syracuse, Aug. 24, Bud Sc Cece Robinson, Bernie George, Duke Art & Co. (2). Dan- ny Shaw; Hi, Lota, Jack & the Dame (4>, Sully Sc Thomas, Little Walter, Honey Bros. (3'; “Take One False Step” (U). Getting in step with the vaude trend in Syracuse, the Schines launch four-a-day at the Para- mount with a well-balanced eight- act show that brings the customers in droves. Hi, Low. Jack & the Dame are the headliners but every turn draws hearty hu7.zahs. John Sully, recruited from Sully & Thomas, m.c.s and helps tie the show’ to- gether. Bud and Cece Robin.son open with some loose-limbed tap and jitterbug dancing which goes over. Bernie George. Arthur Godfrey discovery, ^ ■)ntributes some clever mike impre.ssions of Fred Allen, Ronald Colman, W’inston Church- ill. etc. There are .sound-effecti stunts, too. like a Joe Louis nghi broadcast, Shep Fields’ rrppung rhythm and plane bombings. A new touch is added in trey spot by Duke Art, who slaps out funny faces in clay the payees amused with light cnai- ter. His transformation of an In- dian chief Into a mother-in-la got the most applause wnen ought. _ . Danny Sh.iw works hard with comic flops and he makes “tricks” that snafu. Best laugh-getter is his the Bus” routine, which had in« payees calling for more. Hi. • Jack & the Dame follow with niiiy vocalizing of “Molly in a “Somebody Loves Me.” * ,i neat musical confession I*® ..u their singing commereial jwst vv jingles like “Dentyne Chewing Gum.’’ and others. Thorn- wit h M u screw ball com Sully as next teams for some edy. playing straight to her antic*- More variety is served ^up who pl*y* to the nexl-to-closing spot by ' ter, French importation, everything from the bassoon I bass drum. . § The Honey Bro.s. bui d no t strong closing teinpo ''’"1 _oing. split-.second acrobatic trtP „ Their encore stunt, using tne band pianist as stooge, i, . . . . . • I • • * with rn..... is socko.