Variety (January 05, 1955)

Forty-ninth Anniversary January 5, 1955 Anniversary Greetings FRANCHOT TONE ‘The Road 1 and Its Pleasures one of those damned plays you wrote.” Just before he retired as man- ager of the Iowa Theatre, Cedar Rapids, Andy Talbott found three legit agents in his office. He called lor a photographer and had a pic- ture made of Mary Ward. Mary March and myself posing with him. Never before had three legits graced his office in that Iowa-town. He burst his vest buttons. As I stepped from a plane well after midnight in Winnipeg, there stood A1 Gee smiling. He thought I might be hungry and had waited up for me. As I stopped between planes in St. Paul. Jay Lurye tapped me on the shoulder and led me to the air- port restaurant to swap yarns. My old friend. George McDer- mott, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, came to see me through a downpour even though he was not a well man. just to talk "show business.” My phone rang in Davenport. Ia.. and it was Jack Manley, in Chi- cago. lonesome for someone to talk about the theatre. In Toledo, Leone Hineline, begged me to speak to her pupils in a State Retention School, and 1 never had such an interested audi- ence in my life. They loved my stories about Lillian Russell, Max- ine Elliott and other greats of yes- teryear, and when I reached To- ronto. I found 27 letters from these youngsters awaiting me. Herb Whittaker, of the Toronto Globe & Mail, seeking me out, asked if I would let him reproduce my old Abe Lincoln play, "The Greater American,” for the hurri Continued from page 272 ——— —— plays you cane sufferers. I gave my consent readily for he is such an old friend 1 as man- and it was for a good cause, re, Cedar Venerable Dean Crow, of Michi* und three gan State College at East He called Lansing, was at the station in his had a pic- I auto to meet me which cheered me ard. Mary no end. Lucille Upham, at Ann with him. Arbor, brought her husband, to •ee legits talk about the theatre and what Iowa-town. Paul Gregory was doing in the 5 . “grassroots” to bring it alive once plane well again. r: More I’als i Alex Murphree, drama critic of lhp Denver Post, told me how Charles Laughton had telephoned him one afternoon and said: "Alex, I’m so tired talking to people about world events that I wish you would come over and talk theatre’ to me.” Russell McLauchlin. in Detroit, came all the way to my hotel to ask me a question: "Who was the origi- nal Dr. Watson in Gillette’s ‘Sher- lock Holmes’?” I told him it was Bruce McRae and made him happy. "I knew you would know,” was his thankful reply. In Seattle I was making a broad- cast with Rose Stern, notable com- mentator. "I read your stories ‘Stardust By Gaslight’ and I want to say your story about David Warfield’s last appearance on the stage was true.” Then she told me she played Jessica when he played Shy lock that fateful engagement and his ; audience laughed. They would not take him seriously. They still re- membered his Simon Levy. 1 In Toronto 1 looked up Bob McStay. the Variety mugg. who is also book-reviewer for the Globe & Mail and he showed me the finest collection of books dealing with the theatre, his library running to some 2,000 volumes, many of them autographed. Dave Nederlander took me out to Detroit’s great Northland sub- urb. You w ould never believe it un- less you saw' it. And he has a new 3.000-seat theatre, the Riviera, there for musicals. But I could go on telling you how the legit theatre is a great living breathing institution out in the lands where the foxes say goodnight.” In taking the live theatre, with great stars, to the hinterlands, to places only reached by buses and sometimes no railroads, Paul Gregory is stirring the live theatre ! into a new life everywhere in America. That he has permitted me to help him stir the people throughout our land into a new knowledge of the theatre’s great- ness, is not alone a privilege hut has brought me many happy hours of recollection. I — Kay Francis to Reopen Niagara Falls Theatre Niagara Falls. Ont. Charles Michel Turner, who took over the summer theatre here from Maude Franehot last season, will reopen the house Jan. 24 with Kay j Francis in “Traveler’s Joy.” Subsequent stock bills are listed as Edward Everett Horton in "White Sheep of the Family” for a week in February; Lisa Ferraday and Luther Adler in “Bell, Book . and Candle,” and Gene Raymond in “The Garrison Girls,” in March; ZaSu Pitts in “Miss Private Eye,” and Arthur Treacher, Claire Luce, ( Nils Asther and Sidney Blackmcr I in “Don Juan in Hell,” in April. Outdoor Paris Show — Continued from page 272 pressed through the success of the snake charmer who held forth in an improvised den that was en- closed by posters so battered and , faded that the words were largely obliterated and the painting of the snake, cruelly truncated. . Suddenly, the crowd deserted the snake charmer and rushed to the middle of the block. Here a magician was performing ancient card tricks, but the crowd stood spellbound and eventually suc- cumbed to the old con game—buy- ing a bottle of cure-all. Yes, all this happened in Paris in the year 1954. That evening I went to an old theatre to see a revue. The audi- ence was made up of typical Frenchmen, men and women, old and young, all types, but no Amer- icans. The performances consisted of one continuous series of strip- tease acts. Fully dressed ladies took off everything down to G- slring. What a retrogressive spec- tacle! In sophisticated Paris w here ladies for centuries have walked out nude, a new generation watched completely clad young women laboriously shedding their wardrobes. For the moment. I felt that I was attending a carnival tent show or a fast-fading perform- ance on West 52d Street. Current Stock Bills (Jan. 3-16) Feminine Touch (tryout), by Cl. Wood & Hon Welch — Hilltop — Parkway, Balto (4-16). Hemlock Cup (tryout), by Edward Hunt —Theatre '55, Dallas (3-9>. The Miser (tryout). Miles Malleson adaptation of Moliere — Arena Stage, Washington (5-8). Time Out for Ginger—Paper Mill Play- house. Millburn, N. J. (3-9). INDIA’S SERIOUS DANCE MYSTERIOUSLY SLOWED By N. S. ESWAR Madras. India. In the present transitional pe- riod of this “new” Asiatic State, the traditional emphasis upon dancing seems to have been lost. This is a pity, and a mystery. Even the established figures like Uday Shankar, Ram Gopal, Gopinath, Sadhona Bose. Mrindalini Sarab- hai and Hima Kersarkodi seem to have withdrawn into their shells, possibly for meditation. Dancing in India dates back t» antiquity. There have always been a sect of dancing girls attached to the temples and it is still true that large numbers of middle and upper class girls are studying dance. But this has little impact upon a pro- fessional dance theatre. Last flurry in the Indian dance field was a cultural exchange of folklore troupes between here and Soviet Russia. Additionally the In- dian government has fostered a new National Academy of Dance and Music. R.P.I. LAST 32G ON BOOKINGS Troy. The R.P.I. Field House had an operating deficit of $32,000 last year. Loss from musical and dra- matic events was $9,000. That was revealed last week by president Livingston W. Houston, in the an- nual report of the Rensselaer Poly- tech Institute. Among the show biz bookings during the period from July 1# 1953 to June 30, year ended last June 30 were “John Brow n's Body.’* the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, plus the Guard Republican Band of France.