Variety (September 1913)

20 VARIETY NEW ACTS NEXT WEEK Initial Pr —•ntation, First Appearance or Reappearance In or Around New York Qua Edwards' "Bingville Cabaret/' Fifth Ave. Tom Lewis and Sam Ryan (Reappear- ance), Fifth Ave. Lynn Overman and Co., Fiftli Ave. Bigelow, Campbell and Rauden, Fifth Ave. Jean d'Esta, Fifth Ave. David Bispham, Palace. Alfred Brown, Union Square. Emmett, Crane and Co., Union Square. W. Uessems' Third Generation (6). Acrobatic. 30 Mins.; Full Stage (Palace). Palace. The Uessems are a foreign act. Six people are in the turn—four actual workers, the other two being attend- ants. There is one girl in the act. The Uessems do a combination of several kinds of variety turns, from club jug- gling to perch work, that equals that by the Willi Bros. In between they show hand-to-hand and head-to-head balancing, doing this also on a balanc- ing ladder. The feature of the act is a young man who does not look over 20, medium sized. He is the understander, carrying the tallest of the group, who is considerably larger than himself, over the stage in balancing positions. A little boy. is greatly liked on his ap- pearance. This kid also does a head balance with the girl, who at all other times does only toe dancing. While most of the acrobatics as performed are familiar in one sense or another (ex- cepting the balancing ladder portion), the Uessems do it more cleanly and better than the most, besides having that finish of style that the conti- nent only seems able to supply, and they have improved upon the others, not forgetting that they do in one turn (including some altogether new tricks) what vaudeville has been accustomed to see in several different acts. As a for- eign acrobatic combination The Ues- sems are somewhat remarkable and un- questionably an excellent turn of their kind, but the act runs altogether too long, and is totally devoid of comedy. It is well dressed and makes up a "sight turn" through the various sizes of the people in it, but could be work^pl faster, and where the full time is not required to fill out a bill, the act should be asked to cut down for speed by the elimination of the club and hoop matter, the club stuff especially not being worth while in comparison with the remainder. Nor is the ballet stepping by the girl important. On the small big time The Uessems could be used for a headline, when the act could be made to draw. Sime. Three English Girls. Dancing. 6 Mins.; Full SUge. Union Square. Three unmistakably British females performing the steps, acrobatic and otherwise, from the old-fashioned Eng- lish "girl acts." Cartwheels, leap-frogs, high kicking with tambourines, splits, eic. The poor girls worked strenuously for half a dozen minutes to no effect. JoU). Florence Tempest. Sings and Dances. 28 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Drop). Union Square. Considerable time and care must have been exercised on the present vaude- ville offering of Miss Tempest. There is a special pianist and a man to do a bit of a recitative duolog with a little stepping. Then there is wardrobe and a unique drop. All of which surrounds several songs by the miniature male im- personator. Miss Tempest first appears in dress suit and sings "Chase Me, Girls, I'm Single," and "Don't Blame It All on Broadway"; changes to heliotrope sack suit, rendering "I'd Make Some Hubby for You"; next change is to evening gown with opera wrap, to sing "Go Get That Guy"; wrap doffed and "There's Something About You" is first done alone, then skirt is lifted, displ:iy- ing flimsy lingerie through which may be seen a girl's underpinnings. Knte^ man (Herbert Hofmann) for duolog and some neat soft-shoe dancing, during which the back drop is slowly lowered and the other side of it is shown, pano- rama fashion, which changes the scene to a moonlight on the water. The lit- tle woman's familiar eye-rolling and other mannerisms designed to depict rhapsody are employed throughout. All five songs were rendered in precisely the same way, whether in male or fe- male garb. And the "rhapsodizing" was lacking in virility. It is no easy task to sustain a "cutey-cutey" personality through five songs. Jolo. Julie Ring and Co. (2). "The Man She Met" (Farce). 23 Mins.; Full SUge (Opening in One). Fifth Avenue. "The Man She Met," "An amusing playlet of contemporary conditions" (this is the program's allegation of material fact), is a very labored and unconvincing effort. Miss Ring plays with a certain grace and some humor, but the sketch is a bungling piece of construction. The fun is all forced and obvious, although there are a few bright lines. James Norval and Cort Karpe, as a clubman and waiter respectively, work hard, but win small reward. The sketch swings on the point that the Clubman has invited the Girl, infor- mally met on the street, to dinner in a lobster palace and finds that he has left all his money in his other clothes. When the time can be spared from enriching this situation, the Girl takes the waiter into her confidence and ex- plains that she suspects the Clubman is the person who stole her purse yes- terday on the street. She maneuvered him into the rendezvous to find out. It then becomes plain that the Club- man, indeed, has the purse, hut he found it and is quite blameless. When the purse is found in his possession, of course there is a fine misunderstanding, but he discloses the fact that he is a college chum of the Girl's brother. Then the waiter brings the Clubmai>' the wrong coat, in the pocket of which is a fat roll of money, and the difficulty over the dinner check is smoothed out. The opening scene in "one" is Riven over to the casual meeting of the Girl and the Man before a street drop into which is worked five minutes of give and take conversation. Monday night the Fifth Avenue audience did not o|^ce laugh wholeheartedly. Ru9h. Ed. Miller and Helen Vincent. Songs. 16 Mins.; One. Fifth Avenue. Ed. Miller has a big, rich baritone voice that is all to the cream for coon shouting. Wherefore he goes in for ballads. Miss Vincent is tall, willowy and pretty and has a high, rather nasal soprano, which, however, works into acceptable harmony with .that of her partner. In a pretty pink^rock she was a pleasing picture. If the pair could dance a bit they would enhance their offering. However they do not talk, for which thanks is due them. Their singing is easy to listen to and they look well in evening dress, and they very wisely confine their efforts to the department in which they ex- cell. Altogether they offer a pleasing lif{ht number. Hush. NEW SHOWS NEXT WEEK Initial Preaeutation of Legitimate Attractions in New York Theatres Fredrika Slemons and Co. (3). "Liz" (Comedy-Drama). 19 Mins.; Interior. Union Square. "Liz",is a good girl, and no raving beauty. She and a younger sister, who is pretty, work in a department store while father, a "Tad," spends most of his time getting soused. "Liz" has worked hard to let little sister get an education. Sister comes home and says shes to dine out with the boss's son. "Liz" fears the worst. Enter boss's son, saying his auto is "without," they'll go to the Island, have a "swell dinner" and some "fizz water." Little sister goes into other room to get dressed. "Liz" confronts the dress-suited temp- or, tells him she knows the character of the place, etc. He asks her how she knows. Then you think you are going to hear how "Liz" once fell for the auto thing, but no. She tells him it all happened to a friend of hers who went wrong and committed suicide. Boss's son declares he's on the level and wants to marry little sister. Re-enter sister. "Liz" shouts: "Mame, he's all right!" First rate big small time sketch. Jolo. Nevins and Gordon. Talk and Songs. 16 Mins.; One (Special Drop.) Columbia (Sept. 14). Gordon and Nevins played their new act Sunday at the Columbia. It is in "one" before a special drop represent- ing the interior of a hotel office. The couple are drummer and typiste. He dictates a letter to his firm, with dialog and "gags" sandwiched in, also songs, their final number going over strongly. Each time the typewriter puts one over conversationally on the drummer, he acknowledges by giving her a card of a friend of his, another drummer, until she has a selection that runs from shirtwaists to shoes, each card being good for a gift. This grows funny as it is repeated, and there are laughs in the cross fire. The act could stand two or three minutes out, to be obtained by speeding it up. The drop, while well painted, is very barren. Nothing is shown excepting the bare hotel lobby. This makes their background cold. The man does nicely in his flip light comedian way, and the young woman has some personality. She makes a change in costume. The act looks all right. Sime. "The Marriage Market" (Donald Bri- an)—Knickerbocker (Sept. 22). "Shadowed"— Fulton (Sept. 24). Nance O'Neil and Co. (3). "The Second Ash Tray" (Dramatic). 19 Mins.; Full SUge (Library). Palace. Nance O'Neill gave a shrill moaning scream when she thought her lover was lying dead in the conservatory leading off the library at the Palace Tuesday evening aiid that stamped success on this morbidly dramatic playlet written by Gaston Mervale. It is called either "The Second Ash Tray" or "In Self Defense." The program prints both titles and you can make your own choice. After letting loose the agoniz;- ing yell. Miss O'Neil went temporarily insane in her character of the wife of a drunken naturalist, who made snakes his regular business whether working at his trade or fighting booze. After his wife and Harry Trefusis, her lover, got through talking about the old man, he had nothing left. But he was a wise little fellow, and as played by Alfred Hickman, really real. This Hickman is going to show up a whole lot of legi- timates who have acted in vaudeville. He's some regular acting person, and as for Miss O'Neill, that is conceded, though she did overplay vocally her insanity. Miss Nance with her staring eyes and rich, deep voice well simu- lated a crazed person, but the masculin- ity of her voice while speaking didn't seem possible. This playlet will gel over, but it needs an O'Neil and a Hick- man to send it across. The locale is India, where reptiles form the greater portion of the fauna. James Dar- ragh is a bug about them. Mrs. Dar- ragh (Miss O'Neil) is a bug over Tre- fusis (Hugh Dillman). Trefusis comes around when the husband is away. He had left that same afternoon for a snake he had heard about in the wilds. But Darragh met the man down the street who owned it and he had it with him. So the husband came back, saw the re- mains of a gay life on the library table, and wanted to know who poured the smoke in the second ash tray. Soihe sleuthing. Mrs. Darragh said it wasn't Trefusis, swore it on the cross, then asked her husband not to throw the snake in the conservatory, but wouldn't tell him why. Darragh, after some heavy repression, concluded the snake would have to live somewhere over night, and cast it into the flower gar- den, box and all. The box hit Trefusis, knocking him unconscious. The hus- band commenced to have trouble with his heart about this time, and drowsed off while his wife looked out to see who was left, the snake or Trefusis. She saw her lover's body and started screaming, but recovered when her hus- band conveniently died in the next room a few moments after. Anions' dramatic pieces "The Second Ash Tray," with its present cast, will rank with the best. »*?<mc. If yon don't adTortlM In VARIETY, dont advortlM at alL