Variety (September 1913)

VARIETY EVA TANGUAY Says If by singing my "I DON'T CARE" song, Gaby Deslys acknowledges she LEARNED SOMETHING in America, then I AM SATISFIILD CORRESPONDENCE Uilett otiierwli> ■oted, the followiiig rcporti arc for tht cmrcnt week. "*'^«oLf ""*" CHICAGO In Charge ^—^^^——^—— TABI£TT*8 CHICAAO OFFICE: MAJESTIC THEATRE BUILDING McVlCKER'S (J. C. Burch, mgr.; agent. J-L-S).—It'B a pretty poor vaudeville enter- tainment at McVlokera' this week. Just a look at the bill w'll be convincing enough. Chester's Dogn, Namba Japs, De Kock BroH., Sweeney and Roon«y, J. Albert Hall and Co. and JImmIe Brltt. There Is a bill of six acts with the Namba Japs and De Kock Bros, acrobatic turns, following each other. Swee- ney and Rooney. hard shoe dancers, and J. Albert Hall iind Co. the only act with women In It. JImmIe Brltt, the headllner, easily the hit and cIiiRB of bill. When a flghter comes under the head of class It Is going some. Jiirrtfs Is t>}ero. In Immarulite ev<>nlng dress, he tolls his ffw stories of the ring In a sin- cere and convincing manner nnd his voice carried all over the Inrge house without any trouble. McVlcker's Is a hnrd house to talk In and Is a sevcro tost on n story teller. The stories went very well nnd the recitation In flKhtIng togs hroiiKht the ch.imp back for a neat speech. Jimnile hap Improved gr«'atly In his staRo doportnunt. Ho tolls his stories bottor. Is more nt home on the stage and hns (Icvoloiicd a bunk smile that gets over. It'.s .Inst a question of storlon with him now. He riuiillflcB ns a monologlat aside from the OHmc The name cnrrles weight for his re- ception from a capacity house at 8 o'clock In the evening was very big. ChoBter's Dogs la a prrtty sight art. but It la quiet, and one which ■should bo on a hill with plenty of ilfe and not two or tlir<o dumb ncf.s. Namba J.-ips Is good enough for iiny of the big time housoB. The ground work :ind pednl .lug- gllng fine nnd the kImonoH .-ind drops of the ♦•labornte .Tnpanese sort. It's a dumb act, however, and one on a bill Is quite enough. De Kock Bros., four In number, are not so good, although strong enough for the average small time show. It's also a dumb act with- out comedy. Some of the tricks are good and pasB muster easily, but all have been seen before and following the Jap act It looked pretty tame. The costuming needs brighten- ing up. Sweeney and Rooney are also dumb. It Is a conventional hard shoe dancing act with pedestals and stairs to relieve the mo- notony a bit. There Is little novelty, however, and the boys are but ordinary dancers. J. Albert Hall and Co. gave a travesty on "Ham- let," which la very good. The act Is funny and the travesty Is handled In a highly sat- isfactory manner. There have been few of those acts that gained any more laughs, and for the pop time It could easily be featured. Where "Hamlet" was more thoroughly un- derstood the act would be even more laugh- able. For big time It would need a little spood and a few more bright Interv.ils. The bill needed the laughs supplied by Brltt and the travesty badly. DASH. PAI.ACR (Mort Singer, mgr.; agent, Or- phoum Circuit). —The Palace has class this week, hut aside from this there Is little to recommend the bill. It needs comedy badly. It could also frfand novelty and variety. The shows at the big houses all look too much alike. Raharet Is headlining principally be- cause Hhe married a Chicago millionaire a few weeks ago. H« r act Is little different fmm tb.it which she showed over here for Wil- liam Morris a few years ago. If anything. It Is not as pretty. The boat of the dancea Is a Spanish Tango done with J. Florldo. This will excite Interest because everyone at pres- ent Is doing the tango and all are on the lookout for a new twists or turn to pull on the buncli ^^ ^^e next gathering. They will be busy doing the Saharet stuff. Kathleen ClifTord changed places on the bill with Sa- haret, going on six Instead of nve. Mlsa Clifford Is doing her same act. She held In- terest until her third change, and then the act waa practically over. From that time until the finish she worked In silence. The changing behind the screen Is of no Interest now, and aside from the boy's clothes, there Is nothing to the turn. An entirely new rou- tine of material Is needed from "Apple Blos- som Time" to the flnlsh. Walter Lawrence and Frances Cameron bring along more class. They were down next to closing and the audi- ence waty highly Interested In the musical comedy couple. Frances Cameron is an un- usual looking girl for vaudeville and her corking soprano voice Is a delight, while her simple though graceful dancing came as a surprise. A good personality and a charm of manner aid greatly. Ralph Lynn gets the billing over the piece In B. A. Rolfe's new one, "The Purple Lady," and this Is as It should be. for Lynn Is the whole show. The production is not there, nor are the numbers or anything else about the piece. There are three principals besides Lynn, and six chorus girls. It starts and ends with Lynn. Some- one has been kidding Charles Olcott. In or- der to be classy someone told Charles to buy a dress suit and one of those hats and he did. Now If ho wants to become human again and help his specialty he will dig up the sack suit and sell the dress outfit to a grow- ing hard shoe dancer. Olcott did well. Sur- prisingly so, considering the familiar, stuff that he Is doing. Homer Miles played a sketch on the top of a New York tenement house. It Is the pureat sort of rot. Involving four people. A kind-hearted Janitor saves two famlles from going to smash with a bunch of cheap heroics and sloppy sentiment. Borden and Shannon tried hard. "No. 2." and Just about missed going over right. The act seems to lack that essential something which is always eluding the trying vaudevllllana. Kddle wears a high hat and a dress suit, so does Kathleen Clifford and so does Charles Olcott nnd so do the chorus girls In 'Tho Purple Lady." Big time vaudeville will soon ho called silk hat vaudeville. Romalo and De I.ano opened with some head balancing and athletics. Monday afternoon the house was filled on the two lower floors. Saharet and Thaw pictures doing the trick probably. The Thaw pictures are a scream. "No matter what he is doing he always thinks of his mothei;." is the line thrown on the sheet. Then Harry Is shown eating an ear of corn, and some of that audience applauded. It must have been some dyspeptics who think that eating corn Is impossible. DASH. MAJESTIC (Lyman B. Glover, mgr.; agentg, Orpheum).—Thaw pictures appeared to be the real headllner this week, although Henry Woodruff topped the bill. The audience In this home of "refined" vaudeville applauded Thaw and hissed Jerome, In the most ap- proved style, and took the mind back to the good old days of the BIJou, on the west side. These pictures closed the bill. Taken as a whole, the show was some better than any that has been seen In the house In some time, and even at that, was rather quiet, and a little tame In spots. As to the headllner, well, he was seen In this sketch "A Regular Busi- ness Man," at the Princess last season, so he had nothing new to offer. It was briskly played, however, and gained considerable ap- plause. This act was sandwiched In between Edna Showalter, a grand opera prima donna, and Joe Whitehead, a "nut" comedian. Both did very well, and Whitehead really put It over, In a nice little way, considering his place In the bill. Mme. Showalter has a good voice, and It Is well trained. She sang two florid opera arias, then tried a ballad and closed with the everlasting and Inevitable "Last Rose of Summer." She received an ovation. Svengall was on In "F" place and he excited much curiosity with his myste- rious musical act. Elsie Terry, his confed- erate at the piano, sang nearlya hundred songs on whispered suggestions from the audience, and gave a very satisfactory performance Martin K. Johnson, who went around the world with Jack London In the "Snark." showed a lot of pictures of people he en- countered on the trip. Mr. Johnson lecturea In a high voice with a nasal twang, and some of his pictures are a bit disgusting, but on the whole his talk and his pictures were worth while. Delmoro and Lea, neat and Intelligent, received a great deal of applause with their athletic act next to the Thaw pictures. Eva Taylor and her company were on in "D" place with the old sketch, "After the Wedding." The absurdities of the little play caused some little laughter during the run of the act, but did not reap any harvest of applause at the close. Erdman and Ru- bens, In comic songt, and piano numbers. IF YOU DONT ADVERTISE INT DON'T ADVERTISE AT ALL