Variety (June 1923)

NEW ACTS THIS WEEK Thursday, June 21, 1989 CRANE WILBUR, with SUZANNE CAUBET and Co. (2) "McNamara, Bad Man" (Dramatic) 19 Mint.; Full Stage Fifth Ave. Formerly in vaudeville. Crane* I Wilbur baa devoted the last half dozen years to pictures both as an actor and author. He also con- tributed a number of sketches to "vaudeville and several full-length plays by him were accepted by Broadway managers last season. Of them "The Monster" fared best. It was a thriller which had a fair atay in New York, then played out the season on tour to much better business. The principal aid ia his "Mc- Namara, Bad Man" is Suzanne Caubet, who is either a niece or god-dauffhter of Sarah Bernhardt. The titling on a short film intro- ducing Miss Caubet with the fa- mous star had it one way, while the blTing specified the blood re- lationship. Wilbur enacts the name role In this western story, which enfolds within a cabin, the abode of Su- zanne and her father. The Latter Is off in the woods and his pretty daughter is alone. She catches a glimpse of the bad man through the window and ^telephones Ser- geant McKenzie of the mounted police that the wanted McNamara Is on hand. McKenzie is at Sing- ing River, ten miles away, but Su- zanne promises the officer to hold the fugitive. McNamara turns out to be a very polite bad man. The girl feeds him, but finds it easy to make him do as she wishes, such a. ; sitting with his back to the dopr and lay- ing his gun on the table. Becom- ing suspicious, the fugitive decides to be off, but the girl holds him up with his own gat. She hasn't the nerve to pull the trigger, however, aa he walks into the barrel. She hates him because she hates all killers, but when she hears his story and finds him wounded, her heart opens and she protects him. McNamara tells of a fair fight in Which a dog lost, a man who had betrayed his sister, taking her to the wilds and deserting her when she was about to become a mother. After that he faints from the pain of his wound. By a trick the girl hides him when the officers arrive and they depart on a false scent. Wilbur is a pleasant, healthy- looking bad man, affecting a sjight Celtic dialect. Miss Caubet played her role with spirit, she, too, talk- ing in dialect, doubtless a natural one. Of the two mounted police, the part of McKenzie is a small bit, the other being an extra. "McNamara, Bad Man," holds interest. It is not exactly a thrill- er, the play of words aiming for atmosphere rather than dramatics. There is no bad language nor a pistol shot. On the strength of the Wilbur name the new playlet has an edge and usage for big time vaudeville. Jbcc. 1 ROSE 3ELDEN and BROTHER Acrobatic 7 Mini.; Full Stage * Fifth Ave. Rose Selden and her brother are skilled acrobats, possibly out of an- other act. Theirs will fit the open- ing or closing spot in the big bills. The routine is partly equilibrlstic, partly hoop manipulation and some juggling bits, with the latter two factors subordii.ate to the first. Miss Selden assumes a one foot balance on her brother's head for the most spectacular of the hoop work. They Juggle balls, while head to head, the girl again the topmounter. For a finish she ac- complishes a hoop stunt while as- suming a one hand stand on the strong-necked young man's head. Perhaps an element as valuable as any other is that Miss Selden is one of the best looking girls ever noticed in this kind of endeavor. On closing it wis a pipe for her to hold tho house. Ibrr. TEMPLE FOUR Male Quartet 15 Mins.; One City. A mighty good harmony organl zation with volume. Three men \ straight with a blick-face comedian Tho latter gets some laughs through corking the other men. Their gags for the main part are either pas.se or not in good taste. Especially of the one on reincarnation. The trio, working straight. dr*M neatly in grey coats and White trousers. Their routine comprises an introductory medley, a medley of old-time songs, a bass solo, and at the close of the act several popular numbers. A food mall time combination.. Fred. BENNET and DOWNS Nut Comedy and Songs 19 Mint.; One 23rd St. Two men, comedian and straight, with a novel opening. The straight opens with an announcement that he will show something new in quick changes. Following this he steps behind a screen. A second later a red-nosed, eccentric, nut comedian appears and announces that he will change back to his original character. The procedure Is reversed. The straight starts to sing and is interrupted by comic folding up screen and walking off. After the opening flash the act degenerates Into the conventional applesauce crossfire of released gags which have evidently been culled from all vaudeville. "I guess we're about the best here this week," be- ing a standard crack. Some laughs follow "requests" for numbers to be played on a tin can and a "uke," a "nance" plant helping. Some of the dialogue is de- livered a la Jimmy Duffy and Mr. Sweeney with the comic lying on the stage nonchalantly. His efforts at patter during the rendition of •'Topics of tha Day," a comedy song double, missed widely, due to weak material. The finish song built them Up good returns after spotty intervals where much of the gab flopped. Even at the 23rd St. they have heard the standards. The opening Idea deserves a bet- ter fate than acting as the bell cow for the hackneyed follow up. It Is a step in the right direction and, if properly bolstered, will serve.as a skeleton for a two-act that has dis- tinct possibilities. The straight's ballad rendition was one of the high lights. Con. FOUR LOCUST SISTERS Songs and Piano 16 Mins.; Full Stage 58th St. Four girls in a harmony singing act, three of them vocalizing? and the fourth playing piano accom- paniments and soloing. The rou- tine runs to published numbers with an up to date representation. Harmoy is close and much more tuneful than general run of acts of type, at times attaining a sym- phonic quality that is unusual for vaudeville. Girls are strong on ap- pearance with an ensemble effect of refinement that gives act decided tone. Pianist is exceptional. She .ap- pears to be about 17 or there- abouts and, besides blending ac- companiments in a quiet, unob- trusive manner and in perfect rhythm with singers, does a couple of solos that stamp her as an artiste. One is a rhapsodie with a display of pyrotechnical fingering that is remarkable, and the other an old ballad done with chromatic variations. Both are played with authority and complete mastery of the keyboard. Act can step into early spot on big time bill without a charge, except possibly it might be more prac- tical to work in one. Hell. LILLIAN and HARRY ZIEGLER Hand Balancers 12 Mi«is.; Full Stage (Special Props) 23d St. Man and woman in novel hind and body balancing routine per- formed mostly atop of a special lamp prop. The girl acts as top mount in most of the formations, which consist of her body balanc- ing on various portions of the man's anatomy. One good stunt was her balance on his knees while his body is half bridged, the equilibrium being maintained by a chain apparatus which holds them together. Tho finishing trick is the girl standing atop of a special ap- paratus which is balanced on the mans shoulders. Straps attached to her feet allow her to lengthen out the apparatus, which ascends Into the flies, notch by notch, as she lifts each foot alternately. The con- trivance is telescoped and notched. Her descent is by the way of what resembles a special lamp, but turns OUt to be a trapeze. An Interesting opener for the in- termediata bills. Con. THE DEALANS Acrobats 1 0 Mins.; Full stage Prospect, Brooklyn Two men in ground tumbling routine that runs to a standard line of acrobatics performed with pre- cision and speed, Hhere is a line or two of talk, but no useless at- tempts :it coriiedy to mat the effect of the capable'tumbling. Tuxedos worn adds touch >i < i its. Standard opening turn for pop and Inter- mediate houses ^ llell. BADALI, NATALI and Co. (1) Dances and Piano 18 Mins.; Full (Special) Broadway Badali is a dancing man who looks as though he was husky enough to be an understandor in an acrobatic act Withal he is graceful and as a dancer shows some Inter- esting floor work In a solo number. However, Badali's best work U w!i<»n he is on the receiving end in tho opening number when Natali does seme fifing leaps through the air and lands in his arms. Natali is a corking combination of class- ical, toe. Jazz and acrobatlp dancer. The girl is a wonder and the com- bination proves a distinct novelty in these days when a man and wom- an dance team finds it so difficult to present something that has not been previously seen. The "and Co." is a pianist who plays the accom- paniment for the dancers and solos twice during the act. The stage is set with a eye in which a center arch has been cut and behind ibis a curtain of gold is shown. Here Badali makes his first appearance with Natali In a posing bit,.brief to be sure, but long enough to suggest that this is going to be an acrobatic act, for both he and the girl are so costumed as to sug- gest this. After a single pose the pair come down stage and their first offering Is a double of the clas- sical order with Natali acquitting herself admirably on the leaps, Badali handling her with infinite grace. Then comes the piano solo and after that Natali in a toe jazz number that found immediate favor with the audience. Badali in elab- orate Russian costume follows with a corking floor dance that Is fast an.l won out In applause. •For the finish is a bit of panto- mimic flirtation in a waltz, followed by a Jazz nui \ber. In setting, costuming and dancing the act proves a novelty that will go anywhere in the fastest vaude- ville company. Fred. RITA GOULD Songs and Piano • 20 Mins.; One City Rita Could at this time is doing the best act she has shown In her entire career as a vaudeville single. It gives here'an opportunity to dis- play talent heretofore concealed. With a pianist on the stage Miss Gould is doing five numbers, retain- ing her "Bride and Widow" as the foundation and building in both directions from it. At the opening she appeared In a most striking King Tut costume and sang "Peacock Alley Sally" that got over nicely. With her second number came the surprise; Miss Gould in a plain brown costume re- lieved in white with a mammy- baby shoes ballad. It was a real work of art as she sang it. Then came the "Bride and Widow" bit, sure fire for her. A "Shiek" num- ber was the closing offering, with "Babbling Brook" as an encore. There is something about this turn of Miss Gould's that Is going to go a long way toward definitely placing her in the ranks of standard singles. Incidentally, she is makir.g her changes almost with the same rapidity as a protean artist, and this does away with the necessity, of a piano solo to cover up waits for changes. Fred. LA SORA GILMORE and CO. (2) Piano, Songs, Dances .2 Mins.; Full Stage, (Special Drop and Cyclorama) 23-1 Street. Man an*" woman dancing team and .voman piano player. The act opens on "one" 1 efore ^ special drop showing a spider's web. Af* r a meaningless opening song the turn goes to full stag>. where a cycle ama carries out the spider web Ilea. The girl in lacy ballet dress Joins him here for a waltz double which is mildly routined. A piano solo by the pianist follows, the repertoire being in immediate need of modern- ization. An old Sousa fnarch was the offering rendered conventionally. As Pierrot and Pierette In cos- tume the couple do an "adagio" In v hich the girl's toe work and eleva- tions stand out. She is a graceful dancer. Following this she make* a change behind the back center of the cyclorama which is r . crim. The visible change brings her out !r> sil- ver clolh dress for i well delivered top SOlo. The man Introduces her next In bridal costume of short skirts, which Is f dlnwc"" by a double dance fea- turing kicks. The act shows noth- ing that will lift It out of the small lime Houses in the 'present rodtlne. The girl ia an excellent da beer, and properly surrounded woul : . land The others are not up io her aver- age. It's a pop flash c>m. HARRY HOLBROOK Singing Marina 14 Mint.; One Broadway Harry Hoi brook, a sergeant of the U. S. Marines, with a private of the corps at the piano, has a sing- ing specialty that should be sure fire for the pop houses. Holbrook has a strong but uncultivated bari- tone voice that he usea rather ad- vantageously and hia accompanist handles the music box very well, but both lack showmanship in selling their accomplishments. Holbrook's opening number is the Marine Corps song. It will be ap- preciated by those who know It. It should be sold to the audience with a brief introductory speech. He handles this number very well and follows it with "My Buddy," then with an arrangement of "Love Brings a Little Gift of Roses" in which he hit several sour notes. A piano solo is next fitted in and the closing number is 'Road to Manda- lay," well sung, the encore being another service song of "Left, Left, Left" title. It la a good finishing number. Fred. STANLEY QALLINI and CO. (1) Shadowgrapher 10 Mins.; Full Stage 23d Street. Gallinl adds one or two new touches to the shadowgraph art by using props and going in for color effects. His finger acrobr.tics, how ever, follow the well worn trails. His sheet Is set in three behind which he projects his shadows. An effect of a woman making up at a dressing table was well developed. A similar touch was a thesplan making up as Mephisto, Dante, Focb, etc. The edge was taken on this by the use of a prop for the dummies, head, the hands merely handling the make-up and wigs. "Sammy Leaving The Rhine" was another touch that, while novel, didn't show any particular finger skill. The finger reproduction of animals was just fair. The act qualifies as a mild opener for the intermediate and small time bills. Con. COAKLEY and SUBERS Blackface Songs, Talk, Dances 15 Mins.; One 23d Street. Two man blackface turn, both veterans. Coakley is of Coakley and Dunleavy, and other turns. Amiel Subera is equally well known in cork circles. The act opens with Suber'i song interrupted by Coakley as a "wench." Crossfire of Old and re- leased material follows. Coakley has a song and dance next the song "Dear Old Moonlight" an old timer, and the dance, an "essence." Subers as a colored flapper rejoins in "dame" attire of short skirts, etc., for more crossfire followed by a double song and dance. The talk needs revision, and when this Is accomplished the turn should be an acceptable number two or three for the small time bills. They went very well heJfe In the deuce spot. v Con. MEYER DAVIS BAND (9) Jazz 21 Mins.; Full Stage State Kramer and Boyle, coming Into this act after their own routine, ran away with it to an extent that made the band merely an accompaniment to their interpolated slapstick stuff. When that got wearisome the whole thing thinned down to the tapering off point. Davis* Band is several years too late. It is a straightaway collection of jazz players without any out- standing personality or individual or feature. Kramer pulled off the toupee of the pianist and disclosed a very bald head, whlca would get a laugh any time. Otherwise Davis' Band is no better, no different, no worse than the usual cafe ensemble doing dance music. Just where it comes in as a vaudeville turn is not disclosed. The musicians are efficient and have most of the up-to-date trick stuff with the brass and mutes. There is no leader, there are no cli- maxes, there is no staging, there is no individual performance; they just do a run of modern numbers and finish with "Gallagher and Shean," like all the rest of the jazz bands. ' ■ i • The encores come on the numbers, as encores always do for bands up to a certain point. Therefore Davis* outfit is by no means a flop and is not out of place at all. But it adds nothing to the procession of similar ones and hasn't even picked up the simple tricks of showmanship to Blake itself look like and work like ™ act that has become standard- !■ this season on all vaudeville circuita. iait. ■■■ LAURA ORMSBEE (1) Songa, Piano, Violin 13 Mine.; Ono (Special Hanging) ■ 56th St. One of those sor.rra and piano rou* tines with "class" aimed for, an il- luminated floral piano piece replac- ing the usual lamp shade. The made piano accompanist has a baby fcpot focused on him and Miss Ormsboa works In the calcium most of the IS minutes. The ec g cycle la chiefly restricted, but Is not much of an asset in this instance. The songstress' high soprano does not lend itself well to clear lyric enun- ciation, and the words are lost in the rrusic. This heaviness of song delivery really makes the act light- weight for No. 2 in the pop houses. A strikingly pretty rose and black hanging dresses the offering effec- tively, Miss Ormsbee's sartorial flash on entrance setting the act nicely. However, the songs them- selves do not intrigue the r r. A little vlolining Is mixed in after a costume change. The aale accom- panist solo.' with an effective "gold diggers" number. His hooverlzlng on the eye make-up also would not be amiss. Miss Ormsbee is said to have played around a little prior to this review. She can increase her ef- fectiveness by brightenln- up her song routine. Abel. CONN and HART Comedy and Dancing 17 Mins.; One American Roof Two men with small-time mate- rial and big-time possibilities. Their appearance when the curtain rises is good for A howl, dressed in tight suits and brown derbies, with big, bushy mustaches and vacant stares. Their opening song, start- ing "We are two human beings," has some funny lines, but rhyth- mically it is atrocious, as the words never seem to fit the music. It is well delivered, however, as is the nut talk which follows. A bit of harmony on two harmonicas is in- terrupted by the catch line of the act, "Don't give them, too much." This seems right, as the audience is just about ripe - or more. It is when the boys start to dance that their. big-time capabilities be- gin to crop forth. Both are good and the smaller shows some eccen- tric stuff that would be o. k. any- where. They use the same old bur- lesque Egyptian dance, with thumb- ing the nose and distributing flow- ers from a cuspidor for their finish- ing number. That cools down the audience and sends them off to milder returns than they deserve. However, this team is really there and won't stay on the small-time much longer. » McSOVEREIGN Diablo 10 Mins.; Full Stage 58th St. McSovereign presents a series ad experiments with oiablo spools that Includes tossing the spool up in tho air and catching it with the string attached to two sticks In various styles; manipulating the spool so that it bounces back and forth across the stage to and fro from two silken contrivances; and run- ning a couple of spools on a string over the heads of the audience from the stage to the rear of the or- chestra. The diablo thing was very popu- lar in vaudeville over here about 15 years ago, an importation at that time from Europe. It dropped out of sight the last few years with a Juggling act occasionally reviv- ing it for a trick or two. McSovereign did most of the tricks attempted expertly Tuesday night, but scored a couple of misses, notably in the bouncing to and fro trick. This may have been at- tributable to the extreme heat. A woman assists in a minor way. Act *ill do for opener or closer. Bell PENMAN and LILLIAN Juggling 8 Mins.; Two American Roof Mixed juggling team with a dis- tinctly ordinary routine. They open with a short dance that doesn't mean a thing and should be dropped The usual lino of rubber ball and Indian club Juggling follows. Alt of the tricks appear simple with tho exception of one, combining rope- skipplng and club-juggling by the woman. li.e couple make a neat appear- ance and work fast, the tempo never lagging. THo man Introduces a few innovations, .iuch as a trick balloon and a bouque. of flowers that turns. Into a doll baby, but these all failed to arouse either interest or laughs The need is t»ie accomplishment of more difficult and showy feats