Variety (Jun 1926)

44 VARIETY US I C Wednesday, June 8, 1| TKACING MUSICAL COMEDIES By JAY HOLLY One musical comedy in six makes mopey for Its producer where only on« dramatic or farcical production out of 20 rings the bell. MuAlcaf comedy costs scale from five times the investment a drama or ft farce demands to as much as double five times. Pit an average drama or farce aaralnst even an indifferent musical comedy and the latter will :;et the major share of box office attention. Musical comedy is the most en- ticing of all the varied substances of the theatre for the lay Investor because of its showy character and the general average business even mediocre musical pieces attract. And yet the fleld 'has swallow up more big fortunes than, p.erhaps. all other kinds of playhouse diversion coniblned. But one big musical comedy hit will pay for Ave losing ventures in the same material. Back in the primeval elements of man—explaining another musical- comedy quality that helps for its general favor—ar^ hidden Inherited tendencies that make him respon- slvo to rhythm, concordance of 80und,|^ CQlor. Without his knowing it theVe transmitted secrets of man's spinal cord are playing their part .11 ■ ... toward his deliffht wlille under the influence of a rnuflical comedy. Surprises on a Trip Tracing musical comedy back to Its misty past is a flne, fat Job for the theatre fan with a yen for an- cestries. The student undertaking the trip will get more surprises than any land travel for travel's sake can give him. A doze^ times a dozen books could be compiled from the material at hand or embalmed In old playbills. Oddly enough, no am- bitious scribe has thus far appeared who thought the undertaking worth while. A cursory investigation for the flrst sources of the commodity hike ua back far beyond Shakespeare's time. When the casual inquisitor surveys the early substance he be- thinks at once of pantomime. Punch and Judy shows, the plays preceding the Bard of Avon's thact stuck in a sung tidbit or gave one or more of the players a dittied frolic with their legs. Back farther still you've got to dig, though,. before you'll And the thing beginning to move towai^d what it's since become. You're com- ing through a byway of some city street, for instance, and you see a flock of children playing "Rlng-a- LEADIK ORCHESTRAS JO ASTORIA DON BESTOR and his HOTEL ANTILLIA ORCHESTRA Coral Gablee, Fla. And Hit Orchestra Victor RecordB Management: Music Corp. of America Chicago, III. ACE BRIGODE and HU 14 Virginians Hotel Congress, Chioago Manaccmcatt Joe IVI«4aiaa In the South, It's FRANCIS CRAIG nnd HIS ORCHR8TRA Celombla Records MMhTUle, T rCHARLESDORNBERGER l and HIS ORCHESTRA Exclusive Victor Artists Oycalnv Jane 8 at Macnlfleent Blvnnl Mt. In*, Lookout Mt., Chattanoocn, Tenn. Featuring 'WHEN YOU'RE AWAY' DETROIT JEAN GOLDKETTE Orchestras ▼ICTOB RKCORDS Katz & His Kittens I MAL HALLETT Are Bendy KlttMmr "Mm-o^w"!!! L«i's Cl« VICTOR RRCORDS VINCENT LOP^Z Amerira's Greatest Modem Dane* Lend* AND HIS ORCHESTRA Featured for 5 CoaeecutlTe Seasons on nrondwar PKRMANBNT ADDRESS: Lni Mam. Mgt.t 01IABLB8 SnBIBMAN And His Cata Lopez Orchestra MARK STRAND, NEW YORK Direction WM. MORRIS EARL J. CARPENTER'S MELODY SEXTET NAT MARTIN Club Deauville, New York Personal Representative "TAPS," 1607 Broadway, New York AND HIS ENTERTAINERS ''Veraatility Plu^* Appearing permanently at HUNTER'S ISLAND INN Pelham, N. Y. AL SCHEMBECK SAM SMOLIN'S and HIS RADIO ORCHESTRA EAST MARKET GARDENS AKRON, O. BIGGKST HIT IN TOWN CHARLEY STRAIGifn AND HIS RendezvouB Orchestra Rn rootr—Oritlirum Clrralt • Weekn Miilebnch Hotel KanfiaH VWj, Mo. June 7 to July 18, InclanlTO IXslnff Conn Instrnmentii EzcluiilTel/ MR. AL TUCKER and his SOCIETY ORCHESTRA Kelfh-Orp^euiti Cfii^ciiilts Birectlon Bernard Bnrko and His SOCIETY NOVELTY ORCHESTRA CLUB MIRADOR, NEW YORK Spanish and y^eric an Danee Maaie THE SEVEN ACES "All Ten of 'Em" Columbia Recording Artists Slut Wef<k at HOTEL PEABODY The HoDth'a Finest MKMPII18, TRNN. Faul whiteman Kit-Cat Club London Direction: WILLIAM MORRIS SUMMER SUBSCRIPTION to "VARIETY" $1.75—^3 Months Send remittance with name and address rosy," and while 70a maj not know It, you're looklns at ono of the Tary first moyement toward what haa since evolved to musleiU comady« for the clrole of chlldreiPthat you see moving w^h linked hands and rhythmic feet are hut preservltiff a phase of early savaga llfo In tha aboriginal periods, when, after cap- turing game on onft of their food quests, the hunters, men and women, assembled and surronnded tho oar- casa, the linking of hands and tha circle form being but a savage ex- pression of an agreement that tha food belonged alike to alL The aeons kept rolling on, how-, ever, before any definite articulate movement toward musical comedy or Its formless forerunners took anything like a direction. Sincere Inquisitors seeking only the truth about musical comedy's beginnings must take cognizance of myriad ele- ments of many vapory periods. * Always Dancino QlHs The primary Impulses toward tha substance as wa Know It today would seem to have come out of the early Grecian cradles of the the- atre. Going back fairther than the civilization of Greece, we. know that man got his first ordered taste ^or dancing girls with the establishment of the first market place, or fair, as It was designated, wheii for the first time In the world's history th« many scattered peoples of the earth met at a common centre to exchange their wares. The Invasion of ancient Britain by the Romans brought In the Jesters and bufToons with the romps and lays that so aroused the Ire off good old Queen Boadicea that she issued a scathing rebuke to her subjects, scolding them for copying what she termed the "invaders^ vlcio^s In- struments, tending to idleness and decay among my people.** The kick of Boadleea against what she termed indecencies of physloal contortion on the part of the Roman playboys shows how like today'9 viewpoints of some folk, with their censoring proposals, are with the viewpoints of the ancient British potentate and her sympathizers. Boadicea's kick against the per- nicious effect of the Roman fan- dangoes on her subjects was phrased no less puritanically than recent kicks of the present season right here in Kew York against al- leged violations of good taste and good morals in certain musical com- edy exhibitions that camo under tha censors' ban. The regal prude's proscription read all of her subjects who countenanced the Roman Jest- ers and buffoons' antics into a class of specially heinous sensualists. As the queen herself put it: "Away with aU th'jsb alien actoi J, buffoons and Jugglers and their gatherings, by which persons who cannot en- dure to be Idle may be occupied in worse than Idleness by enemy louts who expose the obscene parts of their bodies and practise such in- decencies respecting them before public audiences as to make a sin- ner blush!" Anterft>r to the Jugglers, buffoons and Jesters of the invading Ro- mans, carrying seeds of musical comedy with them, were the an- cient Druids, who were minstrels as well as priests. The TrVubadours The troudabours of ancient Gaul, with their songs and strums on crude instruments, the early shep herds with their lutes, the clan vocalists of the early Welsh, the cantors of pre-Christian Judea, the dancing dervishes of the Indias. the folk singers of Indo-Europcans, the vocalists of the sagas of Iceland, the Gaels who sang the triumphs of their Brian Borus were others who kept adding to the store of material that Mas later to gain rounded though Mbomplex form and be absorbed by muslcomedy. No question whatever but that America's first seeds of the thing came from Its neighbors across the seven seas. Britain, so opposed to the exhibition of the human form in Queen Boadicea's time, gave us tho major portion of the makings, with France and Germany other sub- stantial contributors. As man got to be a social animal gathering In crowds for his relaxa- tion, the things making for enter tainment evolved one by one here and there along the highways of the world, and these things, even In the very long ago, had in them -tn some measure and degree the very elements that we see In de velopcd qualities in our stage dl versions of many kinds today, in- cluding musical comedy Louis Harrison, an imaginative and lively player in one of our lead- ing musical comedy playbills as this composition is assembled, cre- ated one of the early forms of mu- sical comedy when far back, when Grant was President, hs wroto mad starred ra a pieoo callod ''Sklppod by tho Light of tM Iflooa." Hsr- rison, whose theatrical history date* back in an unbroken chain to tho Globe theatre of London during Shakespeare's days, had advontured some time following the Civil War period In the wrltlhg of a piece somewhat similar, this In his teens, when he presented, with his sister Alice Harrison. "Photos." Men who wrote for the American stage in those daya were few and far between. Yet few as they were plaglarlzation was common. The claims of au author against Mrs. John Barrymore's use of the au- thor's material in ar Edgar Allan Poe play submitted to Barrymore, of recent ventilation, as well as similar claims of misappropriation of submitted material against many other playwrights had their occa- sional provocation in what might be termed the later periods of our sub- ject. Hairrlson,' or Instance, In the Grant t>orlod, the records show, sub- mitted a play he had set down to Willie Edouln. a contemporary. Harrison, theil tihknown locally, proposed thiat Edouin and he star In the proffered writing. Edouin read the Harrison play, shook his head with a motion suggesting re- gret, handed the script back to the young comcdlan-wrlter, and said:' . 'T like the idea very much, my lad. and I'd go in with yOn In a Jiffy, but for one thing: I have a play precisely like It In my trunk!" Louis Harrison's ^irst And whether Edouin had or hadn't a play "precisely like" the Harrison play in bis trunk at the time, it Is in the chronicles of the hour that Harrison that season went out starring with his proffered play "Photos" vvlth his sister, and Edouin went out with a piece that Harri- son says was "precisely like It," labeled, "Pun In a Photograph Gal- lery." The Harrison period of "Photos" was the first in this country when anything like today's musical com- edy had taken form. i. e., a story with songs and dancing. Take a close look at the facade of the New York Garrick theatre of today next time you start to enter It for a Theatre Guild pro- duction of now, and see in certain visible. symbols that this playhouso h«s had several histories. One bf tho signs of former tenancy you'll see Is the insignia of Edward Har- rlgan. It was Harrlgan. a prime New York singer and comedian of earlier days, who built the play- house. Harrigan was one of the first authentic purveyors of musi- cal comedy in America. Harrison, not as old, had preceded him by several years, but the Harrigan out- put was closer to musical comedy as we now. understand the term than the Harrison form. Harrigan had been a San Fran- cisco ship caulker. He dropped his mallet and oakum one day, and with a partner, Sam R.ckey, ' hopped onto one of the Speak Easy plat- forms of the Frisco coast to do a turn they had created, called "Casey the Piper." Rickey was a genius of his time. His spirit \n the rollick and humor of his concepts still lives side by side with Harrlgans In many preserved directions, tricks and adventuring to be found on our vaudeville and musical comedy stages of now. Harrigan and Hart When Rickey passed on, Harrigan took a new partner,- a personable youngster christened Anthony Can- non, whose stage name was Tony Hart. The productions of the pair, stage pieces of full performance len??th. save for the lyric prattllngs and rhythmic gyrations of chorus plrls of now were musical comedies The dlfTerence between the Harri- gan and Hart form of musical piece and the Louis Harrison model of earlier concept was In larger group Ings by Harrigan and Hart. A sing ing and dancing total of eight or nine people had served Harrl.son where with Harrigan and Hart camo extensions tha^ occasionally brought a cost of principals and singing and dancing auxiliaries to as many as a hundred. The grab bag of musical comedy research continually brings up new faces and claims for recognition In the digging in for original sources. The musical comedy Frankenstein had but begun to assemble its vertebrae. The nilin;;8 wcrb to come laterly and slowly. Bo.ston puts its name on the map as a lively factor In the development of the fleld In many ways In the decades following the Civil War. One of Its instru ments wns .Tolin Rlot<=on, a pioneor of the (oiiii i \ s !»i"ntro of two i^en- erations jc^.i. .suMson had money made In the .show busines.s, had an (Continued on page 4C) SUSPECTED PUBLICITY Irwin AbrsfriM Los* Job at Caaa Lopesi Alleged "Fiancee" Had Disappeared *1 don't need pubMcity. I en- gage a publicity agent by the week.** acidly replied Irwin Abrams in his apartment at the Hotel Harding to newspaper men when they inter- viewed him about the alleged dls- appearance of his "fiancee," Dorothy Salohofl. After listening to Abrams for about thirty minutes the dubious scribes went to Vincent Lopez for whom Abrams has been orchestra director for a short while at the Casa Lopez. When Lopez heard the story and was told by the newspaper men they had reason to believe it a figment from ihe brain of Abrams, he announced that Abrams was through with his Job at the Casa Lop^s. Lopes la quoted as saying that hew jtoo, believed it to be a "cheap piece of publicity." "Abrams is through at my place.** announced Lopez. Abrams did not gO on at the Casa Lopez that night. Abrams notified the Missing Per- sons' Bureau at Police Headquar- ters he had reason to believe his "fiancee" was kidnapped and held a captive by a womail,agent of a "gang." He stated that a former female friend of his theatened to get even with him. Since that time Miss Salohoff, said Abrams, has been assaulted three times. The police ^ad no record of theso, as- saults. Once, said Abrams,' Miss SalohofC was trussed up and beaten In a ho- tel near the Harding. She was found lying In a pool of blood, said the deposed orchestra leader. Miss Salohoff, he said, was liidepender^tly wealthy. She was an orphan from Columbus, Ga., and he had met her at Miami, Abrams said. MOBQAH'S BAND TO TOTJB Jimmy Morgan and orchestra left the Moulin Rouge, New York, May; 24 after a four-week engagement. The cafe is due to close for the summer. Morgan's orchestra followed Paul Specht In after the latter left for England. The unit will tour the pic- ture houaes. QOBMAK'S SELLING AGENT Ross Gorman, the orchestra leader and Columbia recoraing artist, has turned music publisher, with Ed- ward B. Marks as his selling agent exclusively. (Mrs.) F. Gorman is general manager and George Ramoy, professional manager, of the new enterprise. FELICE lULA, COMPOSEB Baltimore. June 1. Felice lula, leader of the RivoU Theatre Orchestra hhre. Is author of "In a Little Garclen," which Sha- piro-Bernstein will publish. Dumont at Chicago Theatre .'hlcago. June 1. Adolphc Dumont has been selected permanent orchestra leader for Bal- aban & Katz' Chicago theatre upon the discontinuance of the rotating policy for orchestra directors amonff the Chicago, Tlvoli, and Uptown theatres. Jesse Crawford is the permanent organ soloist for the Chicago. Dupont's Decorating Studio Chicago, June 1. Floyd Dupont, former Broadway produccri at present staging cab- aret revues, has opened an interior decorating studio in conjunction with his producing activities. Mr. Dupont has just completed the Bridge, road house, and Is now remodeling tho Lincoln Tavorn. America's Most Beautiful Ball Room Iviin FVanrlncU' Hft<»«»n I/ontlon Orrhfmtra. I'layinir worM'ii f.1 riKms h a n <1 n iml priTufc don- Mil!^. ^TA mil .<-)«.> A I ttl 711 SF.OTl;