Variety (August 1921)

Fr iday, August 26, 192 1 Iack lait's reviews VABIETY IT xiv BflMIC WORLD OF '21 produced on the Century Theatro roof .f^^Cary Promenade Theatre), by I,ee 2«J^ J. J. 8hubert: music by Ji-an S^varti. L.ew I'ollack. Owon Murphy; and U'rica by Harold Atter due. j^mn HusHty. (.)-'?n Mur|»hy; sceneH by y^laon Uarratt: atiived by Allan K. Principals: Pepfy Drown. Lou Ed- MKiris Kddie HIckey. Clarence Harvey. Wnmk Hurat. CUff Kdwurds. Frank Maw- tJk Drendcl and Burt. Muran and ^yiser, lf«« West, lilora Hoffman. Peam' 9rown, Cfladya Janiea. Ann Toddlnga, IfsrjorU CarviUc, James Uarton. The smart Century roof, cooverted /into t theatre with stationary scatH isd a capacity of around l.UOO, in UHtQue, but might have easily been mtoe even imore alluring. The prom- enade around three ^ides of the au* ditorium is divided between a dance ^ fleer and a aeries of little tables . lining the outer wallti, with Larger tables in the inLerims beyond the ^^^ance space. The primary idea is to furnish a place where a party may dine, dance, tee a show, dance bet\veen acts, aup aid dance, making it a continuous evening from as early as G to as late as 2. There is no convert charge betficen G and 8. after which $1 is punched on the check for each table guest. The seat admission is $[{.80. Thus, if the diner arisen before 8 and promenades until 8:80 and then sees the show, the tariff is $4.40 for dinner and show, plus the price of the dinner. Or. one may leave be- fore 8 and pay no convert for the dance and (Jie view. Or oj^c may i>ome directly to the show for $8.80 and stay afterward and dance un- til 2. There should be smoking in the auditorium, for there arc no parti- tiens between it and the dance-dine areas, and in the latter there is aaoking. The whole thing ueeus the atmosphere and handling of a music hall, and «iuoking would appear to be one essential. The seats have little pitch, an architectural error. But the interor has been richly redeco- rated ao that the circular walls and the outer curtain of the stage, when U Is down, make one unbroken pic- ture in black and white artistry, and the house lighting is soft and sooth- ing. The stage remains where it was. The orche.Mtra for the perform- ance works beside the stage, to the aodfence's left, instead of before it •r beneath it. The dance orchestra vorks back of the auditorium boxes, which circle the rear of the theatre. Jimmy Hussey had been billed as the featured member of the cast for the opener. He did not appear, and hurried changes were necessary to make up the gaps left by his special- ty and his police station scene. Sev- eral principals had been engaged for their e.vpecial adaptability toward the famous Ilussey act. ar^l did not stand out as they would have, doing the snmller bits assigned them in other scenes and in the hastily improvised and recast episod<>s. Jim Barton was pressed into service in a prize- fight burlesque in which HusKey was to have figured, ooming up from the Century downstairs, and savins the scene, which became the finale of the show in the rearranged running order. Jack Dempsey was a guent and came up on the stage, which helped it some. Brendel and Burt carried the com- edy burden with several scenes more or less reduced to vaudeville doubles. In one a clever idea was sprung, the entire act being done to the accom- paniment of mechanical records spe- eially made, cueing in and lending several punch laughs. Other of their sketches seemed a bit nc^w and creaky, natural to first oerformances where so many props and breakaways are used as Brendel employs. The team itood up well, however. Morau and Wiser, the vaudeville hat throw- ers and comedians, seemed crimped by some untoward circumstance in their specialty, which probably should have been done cold instead of as part of a millinery shop scene. It did not go as strongly as it is known it can by virtue of its vaudeville rec- ord. The boys also fitted in here and there witli versatile ease. Peggy Brown, a chorus gradnate, scored perhaps the individual triumph of the night. Sweet and dainty, she stopped the show with a bang in a double dance with Frank Alastcrs. Masters had already found his hit. This little newcomer, however, fol- lowed that with him and lifted it to the night's sensation. She is a beau- tiful creature and dances with mar- velous effectiveness and flexibility. Frank Hurst seemed lost. His voice did not reach, he worked very nervously and was unsteady in lines and lyrics. He looked stiff and awk- ward, and registered only as a clothes-wearer. Gladys James, like- wise, had no luck. Known in the mid-west as a shimmy dancer, she here essayed to lead soubret num- bers and was shown up by the girls behind her. Clarence Harvey worked like a trojan and scored like the practiced old comic he is. Cliff Ed- wards got going well on his black- face specialty, then overdid an «n- ^re, nnif. with the assistance of H«rifL who entered as a straight, taperfd off. liora Hoffman, apparently sent for at the eleventh hour, did a three- song specialty, in "one," in a gown. It seemed slightly out of place, though her personality and voice were far from wasti'd. Her .soug^ were of the lyceum type and not well cho.-en for fly roof-show appreciat on, but she was wurukly inken. Burd and Pearl, a Dutch comic and straight, recently seen in builesque. came out of u clear sky and did cross fire. It .o.jAvil <}ragged in. as it was, and the boys had hard work starting for a while, but got some laughs midway. The finish was an old stag story hammered out into a two-man bit at some length and got a laugh. The applause was promising. Mne West left nothing undone. She wore skin-tight clothes and cooched and wriggled and took falls and vaihped. She was pretty snappy. Her -special song, though it seemed to have comedy merit, did not ring the bell. In the finale, however, her ratiroa wo4-k demanded a couple of curtains. In a tent it would have been a riot. The girls are of the Visual Shubert peach type, and in several riumbers wore daring clothes and in some what uever dared to be clothes. One scene m which they came to life as statues was beautifully engineered, as was a dream song in which the girls' faces were projected on a screen, A Shakespeare ditty, lavishly produced this night worked as the first half finale, proved nebulous and was thrown away. Ann Toddings led nu- merous numbers and played in as many talking skits, but the juggled running order threw her in all in a bunch, and it is amazing that she made the changes. It was not a fair estimate of her possibilities to crowd her fo: but she did all right under the handicaps. In all this show, which no doubt has been considerably brushed up since the opening which survived, de- sp.te so serious a mishap as the de- fection of the principal comic, smells like good roof stuff and should get away with it. But it is not up to the grade that this charming place deserves and probably will get. for it can play to $3,000 a night, not to speak of a cinch for Sunday night concerts, without reference to cou- verts or food-drink intake. It Will, therefore, be certa'n to get some con- centrated attention from its man- agers, and seems booked to become a favorite night life rendezvous. And the world will tell the world that in these days such and a few more such are needed as blessing.s. But smoking looms up as almost an essential. _ /^^,y^ PUT AND TAKE me'nt Co'*"Ta!.'! • % McCormlck'^Si'e- TrWl tV . *"^- "<^''n« Barber. Ham- Trfi. ."^'■/'"**°"- *^»''» Dancer. Andrew I . j^i' 1.-^ "*'^' Enimett Anthony. Pred i'nn^' 'T'o'^ent-e Parham. Hobart Shand I^illlan Ooodner. Mae Crowder vi«i-; Hranch. Vlr,le CousIm. £.sir iJorth JoJ Peteraon. Oeor»e Bruxton. Al Plxto,?, \^mlam^\ alter Rlchemon. Cl.»ude Law- aon. Arthur Ford. Maxle. Eager to ride the crest of the wave stirred up by "Shuffling Along," this colored aggregation rushed in near Broadway, where angels do not al- ways fear to tread. Some angel must have fluttered his wings into this, and up to the finale it looked as though he was badly singed. But that finish may yet save his finish. Irvin C. Miller (a brother of the Miller of Miller and Lyle, the cards of •Shuffling Along") is all over the program and all over the perform- ance. That makes him a half-brother to a hit. If anything hurt "Put and Take" it wag Miller. It is another instance of a straight man starring himself witJi his own backing and making a whole company play straight to hiin. Miller lionizes him- self, is in every comedy scene with- out exception, and toward the end gives himself an entrance that takes two scenes to work up and then flops utterly. There is, throughout, too much ef- fort to be "dressed up" and dSgnified. Only at the very end does it become the novelty that it should be if it wants to survive at all and have any excuse for invading Times Square. Colored performers cannot vie with white ones, and colored producers cannot play within an apple's throw of Ziegfeld and try to compete with nim. On .TOth street another attrac- tion flivved the night before CThe Mask of Hamlet") because Italians wanted to ont-Americanlse Amerl* cans. And here colored folks seemed to have set out to show the whites they are just as white as anvbody. They may be as good, but they're different—and, in their entertainment, at any rate they should remain dif- ferent—distinct—indigenous. Miller especially, sought to outdo all the paleface leading men in sar- torial elegance (on the level, not of the extravairant school such as Walk- er employed), and cast a damper on the good time whenever he did it. A qiinrtet backed away in dress suits when it would have been a success in plantntioTi ^iirnn, - efe. The girls' wardrobe ran to tawdry "gowns" and frocks when they should have been fancifully dreased as nicks. Zulas, cannibals or cotton pickers. There wasn't enough true colored stuff In the show—until that finale. Maxle (of Reisenweber*s) romped in from Heaven ten mlnutei btXoia the last shut-iu. tied the show Into riblK>ns Willi his dizzy hoofing, and led the ensemble into a rabid mob scene ;)f prancing, shouting, moaning, yell- ing, hopping, shimmying, eye-rolling, jviggling. leaping and Ut-throwing. At Just It was retfulur darky business. Two thirds of the house was on its feet and up the aisles, but nobodv left until the last curtain. That took more encores than the re.st of the show put t )gether. by actual demand. Ihat was right, that was unalloved with fooli.sh seek iig after "class." and that was the kind of urausement that, had it been followed all the way, would have made this a sure take in- stead of a probable put. The only flashes of real talent ex- cept Maxic, came from two brown- skinned gals—Cora Green and Flor- ence Parham. Florence ia a juvenile with a childish soprano voite; she must be around 12 yeara old. Bhe sang a ballad fetchingly and then did a light jazz with a whimsical dance that was a riot. The child unques- tionably has what it takes to make a performer that all races will raapond to. Miss Green, a remarkable octoroon with flashing white teeth and hypno- tising black eyes, was shelved during most of the running order. Her best chances came early. As a nifty dancer, as a soubret and a pleasant sight and a snappy bit of personality, she lit up the stage whenever she trod it. In the finale she shone like a gem, working with a sinuoua abandon that was both nature and art—both jun- gle and theatre. Emmett Anthony, working as MiK ler's partner almost always, got some strong Innghs serosa and copped the song hit of the night, "Georgia Rose." a sympathy-plea for the colored girl. Otherwise there waa considerable am- ateurishness of single aud collective work. The "book" was stiff and off the black keys most of the time, and it got about what it deserved, general- ly. Chappell and Stinette, down for a specialty, failed to appear. It was said that they had missed railroad connections aud would be in the next night, Wednesday. The opening had already been postponed without no- tice the Saturday night before, so they seemed very late. The Town Hall, on 43d Itreet east of Broadway, has no gridiron and cannot set flat scenery. Therefore this whole show worked in drapes and could not even fly these, but doaed them into center, which made con- fusion at the finishes of numbers and scenes, and that hurt here and there. Rut for such things audiences allow. Also, the fact that most of the hang- ings were soiled and showed second- hand wear and tear was forgiven, be- cause it was not looked to for a pre- tentious and punctilious exhibit. There were 20 girls in the chorus, and 10 men. In all the company ia numerous enough, and at the finale looked like 100. TJie girls included two or three good workers and about as many good lookers, but did not turn out the pep expected of colored choruses, which should be wild and In perpetual motion. The old Coney Island colored shows used to have the choruses that stepped. This one. like most of the sliow. was undcrtoned and piano. There was little display of limbs and arms, apparently a sad box-oflice mistake, for these children of nature might be expected to bare an occasional knee, at least The talking bits were of the old burlesque school—the gravevard, the bakery window, the comedy band, the bazaar, etc. It has often been said that most of these were originally negro acts. If so, thev have come home again to roost. But It seems they served the white chicken-thieves better than their original dark own ers if that is so. The mere novelty of a colored re- vue near Broadway may get "Put and Take" over. If It does, any colored show can do It. Laif. comedian, and. as n lugubrious prude in this he outshines anything he has e^er <lone. and gets laughs on thinner material than he. with tlie riotous sit- uations he has played ani^ made, is ac" customed to. The girl does ^o into his bedrv>om, but a concession is made to the spirit of these times by not having him ~o in with her. The girl ia doing it all to show bow wrong her father is in con- demning as her brother's fiance a girl proven guilty of having spent a night on a deserted island with anotiier iuti»ir'*"tr' ct^ff.laMzeB the famil" but society, instead of making a pariah of the girl, goes crnzy over her courage, her "New Woman" theories, and the pepper of her disposition. The man wants to marry her. but she calmly refuses. And he is kicked out of the flat, suspended from his club, fired from his job. attacked by her father and brother and general'y made to do the paying. It i<< all settled, and the father of- fers to build him a house aft^r the girl consents to *'right the wrong and aave his good name," and. as the cur- tain falls after all the comp'ications and all the arguing as to whether the man or the woman pays, it turns out that the father pays in both cases. Cleverness to a high degree attends ^very stage of the progress. The con- struction, with a few more deft touches, could be made airtight. It lacks hokum, sorely missed by the be- tween-the-acts hounds—the first nighters—who. in this instance, licked their lips at the chance to be even be- fore-the-first-nighters. But they were probably wrong. The tang of cultured wit, the aura of cleverness, the good Kn^llsh and the attempt at plansible verities whif'h is usually thought not always in evidence, should do so much for "The Scarlet Man" ns dumb- waiters, clothes hampers and hiding in closets. Not that the lines are entirely re- pressed. At times thev call a spade a spade in most shocking bluntness. This seemed to offend no one. ^ It isn't H matinee show for schoolgir's. but it wouldn't hurt them half as much as many worse and better sex farces would and have. The settings are perfect. The cast is adequate. Lait. THE MASK OF HAMLET Paachenako .... Trofln Katla Powell Father O'Fallen. Marx Marvin. . . Mrs. Marvin Margaret Marvin Cecil Owen Aahmead Scott Laura Walker John Todd John R. Amory Harmon Mac Oracor Leah' W Oialow . .. Franceaca RotoM Georfe Berry This is a tragedy by Ario Flamma. Ario Flamma is a young Italian whose plays have had some vogue in Home, and have sold in book form here to the followers of the cobwebby bookshop.1 around Greenwich Village and other hangouts for 'Advanced thinkers." He submitted several plays to New York managera and re- IK>rted to hia compatriots that he was not getting a square deal. So they passed the hat and formed the Excelsior Producing Co., engaged Cecil Owen to direct **The Mask of Hamlet." guaranteed four weeks with an option of more time at the Princ- does the whole piny, offstage. After his body is found, she and the arch- conspirator walk away, into what n9 one knows, ond no one knows wheth- er they make it a twosome^ or §• through life in remorse. It ia all very hazy before and after it is all over. Ceeil Owen, ns the brnins behiiK* the bomb, gives a masterly interpro* tation of the only consistent char- acter in the play except that of the girl. Owen s'lould be seen by every manager and every casting director in New York—and soon, because n« nrobably won't stay ui in^TTnircw' long. He is smooth, he is quiet, ht is sta(*cato. be is utterly plausible, he is dominating and he is theatri- cally terrific. But that Laura Wnlkef! In this awful dramatic mess she wanders llkt a tiger-lily pitched about by mad winds in a swamp. In "The Ghosts Between," »he gave a charming per- formance, but nothin.T justifying tho belief that she had the exquisite ra- diance and the clutching geniiu that she unveils and unbridles here. Her playing must go down as one of tliose deplorable inspired performances lost in the deadly morasses of bad playa She is B panther and a girl in onei a woman and n demon; a child ana a vampire: a devotee and a divinity; a passionate and whimsical human and a fanciful dream. In the third act, following a scene of remorse and anguish by Harmon MacGregor, she has the sam* paths to follow. Hbe follows no one: she biases a crimson flame, leaves the reality of burn and blight, and when she staggers off at the final curtain of this impossible labyrinth of dramatic blundering she is mur- dress with all the sympathy itiore la to give. Ivcnore IMrK^ may blen* again and again the name of Davi4v Belasoo. and thank her stars that Laura Walker is buried by the Excel- sior Producing Company. • Mar(Jrpgor's role, he who weara < the mask of Hamlet (gloom) is an'~' awful thing. He does his best with It. He makes the whole audieoca sick with the unrelieved blab-blub- blab, all about things no one saw happen, largely in words of nm- natural hardness and wearisoma tautology. The |Mrt U more like Lady ^tacbeth than Hamlet. Th« author has not done right by him. The other players, with the excep- tion of (Jeorge Berry, who lends a sturdy vehemence lo a bit role at the very end, are without highlights. Leah Winslow. ns the mother, n rol« entirely of sighs und moans, gives It what anyone could, which is noi much. It is scarcely within the range of possibilities that "The Mask ii Hamlet*' can live its month out. Bni its backers can feel recompensed hjr having brought back to the New York stage such splendid player and'^iutel- ligent director as Cecil Owen, and having revealed the limitless poten- ti.lifiofi of Laura Walker To havn revealed the latter will some day bt to them a aource ^ pride and re- . joiclng. for they have uncovered tm i view a star. ♦ Lait. THE SCARLET MAN Seen at a dress rehearsal Sunday night in the Henry Miller theatre, ihis so-called farce sounded like vioney. It was a clever audience in an aristocratic playhouse. Aud these were advantages. Also. Mr. Dilling- ham gave it atmosphere, and Wi liam Le Baron, the author, gave it o cer- tain smack of smartness, so that it finished with the flavor of naughty wit rather than crass smut. That should prove an incalculable asset to a piece these days in which a girl goes to a bachelor's apartment to spend tJie night in order to create a scandal, a variant of the oldest bedroom farce known, out of which fortunes have been made and remade, and as a result of which, too, theatres have been closed by the po'ice. No chance.of closing this theatre though. 'The Scarlet Man" can pretty nearly defy anvone to quarrel with it. for it has a theme. And the theme is so good that it is almost de- plorable that it should be labe*ed a farce. It is to point out that through the ages dramatists have wept over the wrongs done girls hy men, but they never thought of the wrongs done those men by the girls they wronged It is a peach and it elaborated <^ut perfectly. At times it rings tinny but it wouldn't be a show if it didn't. It is amusinc, it is entertaining, and. by cracky. It a got a thought in it, ant] the thought hits the buTa eye. Of conrat. John Cumberland is the bachelor. That man has been in more strange women's boudoirs and had more atrange women in his than any other player on the stage. But he de- serves the luck, for he is a cracking es. and had an opening Monday. Excelsior is. the curly stuff that they fill mattresses with, and this should afford a soft fall. Mr. Flamme got just that. It was a fall that would have resounded as Ivory al- ways does against cement, except that the excelsior stockholders and some personally friendly folk were on hand to applaud. The applause, as is usual in such humanitarian in- stances, was always in the wrong spot. There were many cries for the author after each curtain, the last not excluded. But he did not show. The (iln.v, as an appeal to general popularity, is futile. It is so ob- viously foreign in its construction that a success would be difficult if it had more of the standard ingredients of money-draw than it has, and it has almost none now. It is ghastly with gloom, soggv with didactic dialogue, devoid of a central love theme, left hanging in the air at the end as to the outcome of plot or theme. The story centers on the Wall street explosion of two years ogo. It pictures the young radical who fired the bomb. It phows him living with a fiery art model who spurs hiiii on to "the cause" though he ia a coward at heart and only driven by his infatuation. He has left his parents, his wife and child. He is under the influence of the ring lead- er, who also seems to love the model. There is a spy who craves her and an artist who maybe does. too. They are not to be blamed for this, for Laura Walker, who plays Katia. is un emotional, exotic, dynamic woman with personality. convi(*tion and power. Nobody ever knows what hecomck of the artist, or why he was there in the first place: the most useful function he performs is to get the newspapers ofter the explosion. lie never appears again. There in « spy. or maybe he isn t a spy—they say he is. he says he isn't, it is never showi* who is right—who comes on twice and wears a tall derbv hat. wliirh is all wrong as he is neither a religious Jew nor a detective; he fades awn? after harsh words and never dents the plot. The wife also comes on and off, but nothiuc happens to her. The boy's fnther. first thought dead iu the explosion, comes up growling, so nothing ha[*i»ens to him. But the . iu h. He tk I murdered hj the airl. It batin*ns as NEW SHOWS (Continued from page 10) The supper show played to a hand-i ful but they like to come early an4 take in the plcturea before the vuude"' ville. By the time the niaht per- formance started the lower floor waa comfortably filled aave for the rear side sections. The song contest Afondays has been quite "Ksful. with no need to flash the request about walking out on the last turn. With the Olympic nearby still dark, it looked as though some of the amateur night talent had switched allegiance to the Jefferaap. One McCarthy, adorned with a wal- rus mustache, resembled a nice polita truck driver. But he touched off a surprise, easing off "^'^•irguerite** in splendid baritone and tne mob yelled for an encore. The three feature turns starting with number five supplied the show's wallop and running in order, three waa a trio of "wowa. The first smash came with Burns and Freda ''^'>w Acts). The house was loath to per- mit their departure. That made it perfect for the hend- lining May Wirth, Phil and the Wirth family, the audience quieting immedi- ately when their card appeared. New settings were used thia week, the rliw being framed in silken hangings. A piano upon a platform to the left is used by Stella at the opening, she and May opening the turn with a song, both girls later coming down into the ring for the sugar bit, which now has ohe horse in the stunt C'Big Joe." who recently died, was also in on the sugar nibbling). It is pretty to note the team work of this family turn. All pull to put over each other's portion and so pro- gressive is the pace that the resultant apiilause comes almost automatically —and there was a roar of it. The balcony whistled in delight and the lower contributed nearly 100 per cent when May finished her flash- ing rouudoutK. The curtain was up again for Phil's concluding comedy specialty, almost as well rewarded. Harry <'ooper, working atralght, fitted {n perfectly for next to closing. At the start he found tough going, with the orchestra weak and ragfed. The violinn and pinno were about the only iiiUKicians who seemed to know what it was about and they were uncertain. The bulk of Cooper'a routine, however, is monologlstic and it got over surely. His orchestrn bit later worked out well, the insistent (Continued on page 3S)