Variety (September 1917)

,1 .,, VOL. XLVIII, No. 4 NEW YORK CITY, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1917 PRTCR TEN CENTS CRITICISING THE CRITICS ON THE NEW YORK DAILIES Wide Variance in Opinion Expressed by Metropolitan Re- viewers. '^Criticism'' Often Sacrificed for Flippancy. Paralleled Newspaper Reviews on Recent New Plays Tell Their Own Story. "Curtain!" The season of 1917-18 is with us, and from now till the buds bust anew, the Rileys, Rosenthals and Rockinghams of the marts and related byways will have their grins over the quips and quibbles of printed speech in stage criticism, and the children spawned of the art muses their elations and their tears. Tis a merry world, lads, and for the many who guffaw there must be victims who slip and sprawl and break their feelings upon the ice, and whether they be pushed or shoved, what avail, so long as they evoke the emotion derisive and uproarious. Already, despite the few rounds of the clock of the new span, nineteen new productions have bumped their way through New York's none too wide stage doors, and in their sur- vivors, breathe a native ambition to be heard and to persist. Those that came and have already gone got the journalistic impetus to the junk heap and some of those that hang on do so in the shadows of fates sealed soon or late to join their fellows of the rubble, if the wish and published wisdom of their newspaper recorders find favor with the gods. Already, too, with the morning young and the sun ruddily blazing, the first weeks of the new life the- atric are huddles of pilgrims back stage in the shelter of their own world, shrinking wet-eyed and dis- mayed—the players told here and there in screeching public prints that they cannot act or act too much ; the authors informed they are vain pre- tenders; the producers warned they are impostors. Alas! That the Aladdins of the playhouse, those who labor in the search for new treasures, those who essay to interpret them, and those who report the finds cannot seem to find parallel roads. With all fresh art concepts beyond the seas bleeding from wounds that will be slow to heal, the horizon is all />ur9, and how much might be done to enrich us of the flesh and us who are to come after, when the records of the theatre of our times shall be scrutinized and our endeav- ors and, perhaps, paucity, furnish riddles for posterities. Stage art in the wilderness, and no Moses! Every wave of ether aquiver with drama as it has never quivered before, all mankind seeth- ing in an alchemy of infinite situa- tion to evoke visions of tenderness, truth and beauty, and our voices still or muffled, our tongues clanking with chains forged on the fires of the cocksure, the inept, the indolent, the arrogant, the stupid, the venal, and the envious jurors of the public press. In theatrical Manhattan shambles is a synonym for premiere. The hail to playwrights who are expert, deft, exploratory and productive is reluc- tantly loosed; the sneer for misdi- rection or incompletion, a gully that stretches to the jowls; the welcome to the fledgling aspirant, a raucous gloat as of a ghoul adrool over the discovery of fresh and tender meat. Tell the faculty this and their waist- coats expand with the choler you bestir. Egpd! Would you throw garbage at the gods! That is a privi- lege they reserve for themselves. Lower in the scale by leagues than the creative force, criticism is an art. Its inspired votaries are entities vi- sioncd to see truth even in darkness— "to see the object as in itself it really is," as a gifted critic once defined his function. Presupposing scholarship, comj^rchending intimate familiarity with life in approximate variants of the elements that must go to the tinc- tures of drama, coiiu'cly, farce, trag- edy and otlier pa^^inp forms of playhouse expression, lie who would accept the responsibility of town crier for the mimes and masses must he crrdcntialed with his vellum. lie must know. Mere weavers of words won't do. He must know life in the raw as well as in its prr.p^rcssive .^tate^ of exnlt.ntiori. H? mu'^t know his theatre of otlirr countries, other times. lie must he "there." We may only po forward, we human crea- tures, by the aid of torches hla/ing the wav to truth. P>ut what confu- (Continued on page 17.) ONLY PICTURES IN BERLIN. A report by returning travelers from Berlin says that only pictures are now drawing business to the theatres of that city. Theatres playing legitimate produc- tions or vaudeville arc somewhat scarce. The Wintergarten, a famous Continental variety hall before the war, has given up that policy, with the Apollo trying it instead, but without much success. The reports bear out the stones of- ten carried by the dailies of the pres- ent general conditions in Germany. ZIEGFELD'S "GIRLS DE LUXE." A trio of the girls now in the "Fol- lies" have been dubbed Ziegfeld's "Girls de Luxe," because they have been taken to Boston with the com- pany to open the show and remain there one week, after which they arc to return to^New York and become members of^^iss '17" at the Century. The transportation for their return has been arranged on a de luxe train and therefore the appellation. The girls are Lillian Tashman, Gladys Loft- us and Dorothy Leeds. GARDEN'S BIGGEST CHORUS. The largest chorus of girls ever as- sembled in a Winter Garden production will be in the forthcoming show there, as yet unnamed. There will be 107 young women of the line in the pro- duction. Another Garden record goes to Rufus LeMaire, who is booking the Sunday vaudeville concerts there. He is the youngest man who has held that posi- tion. "A DREAM," SAYS ELLIOTT. Chicago, Sept. 19. William Elliott was in town last week for his first survey of the rejuvenated La Salle, of which he is a co-lessee with Comstock 5: Gest. After inspecting tiic house and seeing tlie turnavvay business of "Oh Boy" he remarked that the "whole thinj? was like an Arabian Nipht's dream." Beginning this week the Saturday niplit top was raised to $2..S0. with the boxes at $3 per seat. Two-thirds of the house is dis- posed of by the ticket agencie., for every performance, they petting $3 per seat, because of the .SO-cent premium paid by them to the box office. BAYES IN COHAN REVUE. Al.out the first encrac^emcnt for the Georec M. Cohan Revue (Cohan fc Harris), to be prodiiced around Christ- mas time, is that of Nora Bayes. Miss Baves' vaudeville enpagements, prior to rehearsal time for the produc- tion, include two weeks (October 1-8) at the Palace, New York. MARBURY'S BOOTH SCHEME. Elizabeth Marbury and Freddie Mc- Kay are planning an innovation at the Booth theatre. Their scheme is an in- timate musical show, to start at 9 p. m. nightly and run until 1 a. m., with m bar in conjunction with the perform- ance. The bar and promenade are to be in the present lounge room. A revue type of entertainment is proposed, but it will be more or lets disconnected, so that no matter what time any of the audience arrives there will be no story thread to pick up. CAMPS OWN THEATRES. Ayer, Mass., Sept. 19. A chain of theatres which will handle pictures and vaudeville is pro- posed for the big National Army can- tonment. Camp Devens, ucai here. Maj. Reginald Barlow of the 302d In- fantry, a New York actor, is behind the move and has given it a wonder- ful push. Already officers of the various com- panies now in camp have contributed $5,0(X) toward the $50,000 needed for the project. After the theatres are opened it is planned to charge 10-15 ana all profits are to be divided for the benefit of the company funds. ONLY CITY WITHOUT VAUDEVILLE Tampa, Fla., Stpt. 19. This is probably the only city of Its size (35,000) in the U. S. without vau- deville of any kind. The picture houses in town are prospering accord- ingly. The Tampa Bay Casino will play road attractions commencing October 22. when "Stop, Look, Listen" is booked. BACKING WINTER CIRCUS. Los Angeles, Sept. 19. Negotiations are under way to es- tablish a Winter Circus here, the scheme to he financed by Charles Chaplin, William H. Crane and Charles Ringling. LITTLE THEATRE MAY NOT OPEN. Winthrop Ames may not open hit Tittle theatre this season. His production of "Saturday to Mon- day is scheduled for the Booth, follow- ijUT the run of "De Luxe Annie" there. 2D NIGHT SHOW FALLS OFF. Chicago, Sept. 19. Business in the outlying vaudeville houses which lately opened for the sea- son have uncovered that the second eveninrr shows have fallen off over th6 attendance of last season. The reason appears to he that a considerable pro- portion of youn ▼ men have either joined the colors or been accepted in the draft. Heretofore the second nipht shows have largely been made up of youmfer audiences than those drawn for the first.