Variety (August 1919)

* r * *r^* '' 1 . n: ip: . n it?s I ll life fiEE- I If. H \u / .H" ■■■•-• . -' ' p VARIETY DINNER TO MARTIN S. OWENS PROVES GREAT WELCOME HOME Gallant Police Officer Guest of Honor at Affair Arranged by Fred McCIoy, Manager of Columbia Theatre. French High Commissioner, City Officials and Others Present. Diamond Pin Given -*• Hero. Entertainers There. One of the greatest social events of the decade from the standpoint of municipal importance- was supervised successfully last Wednesday night at the Palais Royal Restaurant by Fred McCIoy, manager of the Columbia the- atre, New York, when he staged the dinner for the police department of New York welcoming home Capt. Martin S. Owens, who went abroad as the official representative of the department in the European war to drive the ambulance donated by the Honor Legion of the force. Owens returned with honors from every al- lied nation for the valiant work done in line of duty. McCIoy has been working on. the dinner for several months. He is one of Owens' closest friends and the de- partment, recognizing his prowess in J f. ff !. Captain Martin S. Owen*. matters of this kind, delegated him to handle the whole affair. McCIoy first began the grand welcome by sending two boats down the bay to meet the transport bearing Capt. Owens home, the boats carrying members of the de- partment and personal friends of the hero of the force. Dignitaries of every branch of the municipal departments, including His Excellency Maurice Cazanava, High Peace Commissioner of France to the United States, were seated around the banquet dais to welcome Owens back to his native city. Police Commis- sioner Enright, John H. McCooey, democratic chairman of Kings County, and many judges, police inspectors and others of importance in the municipal service, were among the speakers who voiced their praise of Owens' behavior while abroad, but McCIoy struck the keynote of the gathering when he said, "For your two years of exceptional service to the department and to hu- manity itself we wish you that full measure of reward you so abundantly deserve." At the conclusion of his speech McCIoy presented Owens with a handsome diamond tie-pin as a token of appreciation from his friends. Owens w*r practically nominated as sheriff of Kings County by Bab Hall, one of the entertainers who took part in the gathering. Hall scored a terrific hit with his impromptu type of verse. Others who entertained were Frisco and Loretta McDermott, Skipper and Ashley, Totp and Olga Cook, the latter a daughter of a police captain. Miss Cook brought the gathering to tears when, with her' arms around Capt. Owens, she sang "Laddie Boy" to Gus Edwards' accompaniment. It was a triumph for burlesque with) Mr. McCIoy in the chairman's role, for of all the active heads of theatricals McCloywas the best suited man for the position, with < his large acquaint- ance among the members of the va- rious municipal departments. Among other things said of Owens by the burlesque manager were: This gathering of personal friends, tble unofficial rejoicing" assemblage, hearty, sincere, and without ulterior motives, as It assuredly Is, Is but a meagre contribution to the gratitude that . has been ao richly earned by our hero and honored guest. | If any soldier deserves well of his country; If any soldier merits the rec- ognition that finds expression In sub- stantial material advancement, I respect- fully submit Captain Martin S. Owens can not he overlooked, when his record at the Front 8ball come before the constituted authorities of this city. (Applause.) For your two years of exceptional ser- vice in the Department, and to humanity Itself, we wish you that full measure of reward you so abundantly deserve. We want you to take from this banquet hall tonight not only memories of good fellowship, sincerely and honestly ex- pressed, but as well this token of our unbounded admiration and high esteem (presenting Captain Owens with a dia- mond stick-pin). , May I ask every person present to an- swer my question—Has he upheld the reputation of the Police Department of New York? (Cries of "Tou bet be has." and great applause.) There were two days during that horrible carnage over there when every man of .the Police Department of this city, from the Commissioner down to Its lowest member, must have felt his pulse quicken; must have felt an unusual pride In his membership in that body; must \ have felt In his soul, without being able ' to account for it, that something, some- where, had happened, of which he was In- timately a part. Mr. Toastmaster, they were two days in which the Police De- partment of this city received the homage of the civilized world, at the hands of two of the world's greatest and moBt il- lustrious leaders. Owens was there- Owens was always there when the voice of duty summoned him to stand up and take what was coming to him. On the first of those two memorable days, our New York policeman, working in such a way u s to uphold the reputa- tion of the department, and with the rag- ing Hell of battle shrieking in his ears, was approached by a courier, who thrust a paper In his hand with the brief ex- clamation, "From the Commander-in- Chief." Mr. Toastmaster, that communication was signed by General John J Pershing, and was sent to the Police Department of the City of New York, through its des- ignated representative at the Front— Policeman Martin S, Owens. (Great ap- plause.) Mr, Toastmaster, when the great Gen- era) pinned that Cross upon the breast of Martin S. Owens, he pinned it upon the breast of every member of the Police De- partment of this city. AJ Green Leaving Detroit. Chicago, July 30. Al Green, orchestra leader at the Temple, Detroir, will leave Detroit for New York. Green has been at the Temple for many years. DIPLOMAS FOR CRITICS; On the strrnes of the Starkeye Press of Philadelphia, and fast assembling for paging and booking are the ad- vance sheets of just what a certain John Keats of the Penn state thinks of the theatre critics of America. . John wants a government dramatic institute, where only diplomaed grad- uates will be permitted to pass judg- ment upon the plays offered for pub- lic consumption. The critic of the critics says everything theatrically critical in America at present is all wrong. John doesri't like the ^things done here in the name of stage criti- cism nor the way they're done nor-the men who do them. He concedes that William Winter approximated some- thing of the quality demanded in one who is jto be the guide, counselor and friend oF" the men who would inter- pret the muses of the theatre. But he says that Winter was prejudiced, and that the late reviewer for the\ New York Tribune was wholly wrong in his strenuous advocacy of the Shakes- pearean extension. Jawn concedes that the late Charles Frohman did more for the American drama than a thousand critics could do or undo in the encouragement the manager gave to writer's through the moneys he dis- bursed in advance royalties. The in- fluence of Sardou. Dumas, Balsac, Murger Du Maupassant, Daudet, Feul- let, and Du Maupassant's model, the author of* "Madame Bo vary," Jawn thinks worked wonders in stimulating the dramatic impulse of this country, and the author traces those influences to certain plays produced by Ameri- can writers, inspired, Jawn thinks, by. their French forerunners. Of German fossils, John exhumes Lessing and his fables, Kant and his critiques, Claudius and "Sorrows of Young Werther," Lavater and his "In- fluence of the Imagination," Von Goethe and his "Confessions of a Fair Saint," and other works, and Von Schelling and his "Plastic Arts of Na- ture to show how much the pioneer impressionists affected the later Ger- man drama, which in turn affected America through the German plays adapted here by wholesale after Au- gustin Daly introduced the practice. The author of the criticism of critics has some nice words and phrases in his paragraphs making up a total of 358 pages, ard is exhaustively and im- pertinently personal in tying tags to many of the theatre's reviewers that he arraigns. For years the writer has observed the field of criticism in this country, has compiled the published opinions of paid writers of stage plays in more than 2,500 American cities. Some of the best critics he found, he says, in small places, where the comparative absence of economic pressure helped a reviewer to clearer thought of the real meanings of life, as reflected by the Greatest Dramatist, the Creator and Reviewer of all and everything. John thinks New York critics the most worse, "a motley of hybrids," he styles 'em. Chicago vivisectionists of the drama he calls "intellectual popin- jays, for the most part, who air both their ignorance and their vanities singly en occasional week days, and offend doubly on Sunday, with their misdemeanors mainly blocked para- graphs of verbal periphery void of sense or real information for the player or the public, their several vanities as clearly indicated in their several facets of manner as the oxi- dized ornature on a peacock's tail." New York's critics he classifies "for the most part licensed brawlers of coarse speech and purblind vision." Jawn professes to have dug into the early personal histories of the critics of N. Y, Phila., Chi., San F., Boston and other cities, and states that what he writes is deliberate judgment. "Provincial" is his designation for the point-of view of the average American critic of the theatre of America of today. The author points to what he defines SHEA'S NEW $1,500,000 HOUSE. Buffalo, N. Y.,^uly 30. The Shea Amusement Company has purchased the. Root property at 622 to 634 Main street, running through the entire block to Pearl street, where they will erect what will be one of the finest amuse/nent buildings in the country, at a cost of upwards' of -$1,500,000. On this plot having a Main street frontage of 133 feet and a depth of 232 feet, a theatre and roof garden will be built. It will be known as Shea's Metropolitan Theatre and Roof. The theatre will seat over 3,500 per- sons, while the roof theatre will'ac- commodate about 2,000 people. This will make a total seating capacity of both new theatres of over_ 5,500. per- sons. Both theatres will be completely equipped. The theatre building itself will be erected in the rear of the two-story building now fronting on Main street. This building will be modernized and the lobby will be placed directly in the center of that block, flanked on both sides with three modern stores. The lobby will be 28 feet by 80 feet The active direction of the theatre will be under the management of Har- old B. Franklin, who will operate the theatre in conjunction with Shea's. Hippodrome. • The new theatre will be devoted to the presentation of photoplays, to- gether with a symphony orchestra, so- loists>and novelties. When the new* house opens Shea's Hippodrome will play high grade vaudeville, together with motion pictures. Shea's Court Street Theatre will continue the policy m of showing Keith vaudeville. Other theatres owned by the Shea interests in the city are the Majestic Theatre, and the Gaiety Theatre. Mr. Shea is also interested in theatres in Toronto and other cities. BURLESQUE ENGAGEMENTS. Jim Franck, advance agent of the Edmond Hayes show. May Belle, for "French Babies." Ted Symond, erstwhile owner of the late defunct "Auto Girls," will manage Blutch Cooper's new "Victory Belles show. For Bob Deady's new "Girls, Girls, Girls" show: Snitz Moore, Billy Welch, Betty Palmer, Myrtle Cherry, Anne Burke, Bill Lawrence. Charles Quinn and Josie Qutnne, for Sam Howe's Big Show. Charts Fagan, "Girls A La Carte. George Douglas, "Bon Tons." Elvia Bates, by Jacobs & Jermon, to Teplace Zella Russel in "The Bur- lesque Review" in October. BETTER SECOND WHEEL SHOWS. Patrons of American wheel bur- lesque houses are in for some really worth while attractions judging from the rosters and stars of several of the new productions. George Stone.and Etta Pillard, as heads of their own company, operated under a franchise granted Sam Levey, are certain of raising the standard of the second wheel attractions. Like- wise Sliding Billy Watson's show,.the Edmond Hayes burlesque and the new "Girls, Girls, Girls" attraction contain worthy artists in their casts that as- sure a full evening's excellent enter- tainment as the "yanked-up" education of the writers he excoriates, gives many in- stances of graduation from callings foreign to any form of art to the. dra- matic chair, bawls out the venality of publishers who allow their critical de- partments to be influenced by theat- rical advertising, and finishes up with a fine blast in which he thinks that the absence of harmony in the ali- mentary canal, senility and the per- verse human trait that makes a born railroad man want to be an actor—he cites Thomas A. Edison's attempts to go on the stage—responsible for the unfit that get into the dramatic critics' berths. ■ ■ 4 - | — ? :■• i »c