Variety (Feb 1927)

VARIETY E DIT a RIAL We^ocMlay* F«)>ruary 8» 1927 RIETY Tradt Mark Reffisteicd MMshMl Weekly by ¥AK1KTT, la«. Slme Silverman, PresWent 114 West 46tb Street New Tork CItj IHE WOiP''ON ALL INDECENCY •UBSCRIFl'IQN: AttsmL. IT r»r«lffn. ••Vl« CoptM II .20 Cents VOL. Lxxxvr No. 8 IS YEARS AGO {From Variety and •VHpp^r") Max Keinluirdt had just pi*oduced an tUkbMWto ymkm of *Oedlpus OrMk drmma, in Xioiidoii. Engliah seiuMitiou o£ the hour was th« reported eiicMremMit by Sir Al. fred Butt of Sir Beerbohm Tree for ▼audcville. doInK a piece adapted from KipUnc^'s short atory. "The New York dnily ••r* P**y« •"^ •f* *?• eeii»ored» fre« prm- tmn not hm left to exploit hiiflized ikk of oourt. (An edttortal >h Uie N«w York morning "WwM." /•», N, |»lr/ ■ S Grace Van StuddiCord (who died In Indiana a tew days airo) had Blend her tour with nn openitle oompany in Denver, and waa on her way to New York to negotiate for Another vaudeville appearance. District Attorney Charles S. Whitman had begun John Doe pro- ceedings to investigate the vaude- ville agents on chalnKeB of demand- ing excess commissions. The offi- cial circularized the vaudeville per- formers, but few volunteered In* Marcus Loew leased the Herald Square theatre from the Shuberts, wkm^hM U ftaM RlBlMkrd Hyde of Hyde & Bchjnan, and proposed to run it with pop vaudeville. The house was converted into a theatre firom the old AqoarliiBi. opened in ^^877 and at thftt time (1912) the 'original tanlv unw under the stage. After the aquarium the house bad iMI fM» »'0lretia. 7AiUETr m US SLANG *Tlio 'AUdorlcan Mefcury* recently paid hiuh compliment to 'Variety.* the theatrUnl weekly, in a special article. The praise is late. For five years I have been contending it is the most thoroughly readable and the worst written publication In the world. O. O. MeWTTRW (in his syndl«ated column). iVe an eaey out to admit everything. Theatre admission prices wore in process of reeuljustment. Henry Mmo reduoed hia ih i hu i r aeats for ' Little Boy Blue* at the Lyric in the belief that "cheap vaudeville and pictures" were cutting into the upatair* itttK. >€kiiflei - W i nlH m M m had some time before raised front orchestra seats from |2 to 12.50 at the Criterion when he noted that the hichaat prieo Mia aald Iteet ffoir Jalm liar# in **?nio Oay lord QuejL*r At the premiere •! pillingham's ■hmM l ei i dy t thraip' ^ Rhr^r/* one Mons. Maurice, dancer, new- comer, was hailed as the probable liero of a metropolitan vogue. The Harvelloiia Millers imm* tn by Eddie Fay. Opening the same week was "The Talker" at (Ha M«rrhi. the caht in- cluding TuUy Marafaall and Pauliiiie Lord. SOYEABSAfiO (From Varlrtu and '•CUpprr") A formal rodr of rules for base ball had taken form sufficiently so that it ornild ho printed as repre- sentlnpr play by all claaaea of clubs The entire set Is here published Section 3 of Rule 11 provided tha ho player eiiliM be' efkahie^ after the beginning of the Kecond Inning except by reason of ill n ess o T: in- Jury. Section 2 of Rule fV covered Icpal pitched balls. In delivery the pitcher's hand in .swinging forward must pass below the hip. A ball delivered aiFO# and was Illegal and If throe such lIloRnl balKs were thrown in one Inning, the umpire eould declare the game forfeited. Reflections on th« Browning Case The sponsors of the varlouB bills at Albany and Washington to set up a censorship of books, magazines, the stage and the radio look at this moment like men who had set out aameatly to remove a wart from the face of a hIppopoUmus. All the Indecency now purveyed by books, maga^ zlnes. the stage and the radio combined Is an in.signiflcant trifle com- pared with what is produced by the courts of law working in conjunction with the BOW UMold Journalism. No speotacio over produced on any stage In this country Is a match for the spectacles now rognlarly pro- duced by the courts, and ntjtliing printed In any magazine or book openly on sale descends to the depth.s or reaches anything llke^thc audi- ence of the Ublolds. it would be the sheerest hypocrisy ahd: It would be downright cowardice If the Legislatuiv were to put the theatre or the book trade under a censor while It left the press free to WjoU the legalized fllth of the courts. ' \ ' ' V ^'. This combination botween the courts and the ublolds li^s produced a situation for which there Is really no precedent. If j'ou take the suc- cession of cases—Arlmckle, Khinf^lander. Tral'.-Mllls. Browning and Chap- lin—and consider how they are worked up by officers of the l&Wi by lawyers and journalists, how they are projected, and how they are ex- ploited for profit, it Is evident that what we have hero Is a series of national spectacles put on for the amusement of the crowd. There Is no pretense possible that tlieae spectacles are for the purpose of ventilat- ing the processes of justice or that, like a realistic play or novel, they add to human experience. There la no thought of Juatice in them, and from the point of view «>f truth and realism they are nine-tenths fake. The whole atmosphere of them is fraudulent. They are produced by swindlers, for suckers. ' ' ' The nearest analogy Is to be found In the Roman circus'and the iSpanlsh bull-flght. The real vice of these tabloid spectacles, like the vice of the gladiatorial sho^y and the buH-tight, in that they are a senspal in- dulgence in the suffering of others. It Is a dreadful thing foi^a crowd to sit safely In a concrete amphitheatre and work Itself up iitto spsSsms of delight when the bull gores the bowels of a helpless horse. It Is an equally dreadful thing when a large part of a Nation sits at its break- fast-table and indulges itself In an orgy of imaginative participation in the vteaa and griefs of unseen newspaper ohtfracters. This is a wholly different kind of thing from the frank animalism which in th6 Bible and Homer, through Chaucor and Sliakespcare to the great modern novelists, has been a permanent strain in human nature. These modern spectacles are not ribald. They are not gay. They are not searching. They are not profound. They are a Insy and solitary And safe Indulgence In the vices of others. There are naive libertariyinM wlio comfort and delude themselves with the theory that If only everything were printable, and if every tiding 6ould be photographer, we should arrive at a condition wh^rie nothing wotild shock the moralist and nothing would e.Kcite anybody. They point out how harmless the old Police Gazette and the old pictures of actresses in pink tichts seem to this generation, and they argue that bnco you have said the forbidden thing it losee its potency, and' the ."Ovil, such as it Is, cures Itself. This theory was Invented by men who had seen the terrible consequences of the old reticence in educating children for' tllo o^tperlenco of SOX. But when they invented it they hhd in inlnd a totally dllferent situation from that which these tabloid spectaclea have ireated. Moralists like Havelock Ellis have fought against prudery In order to establish. the riglit of tlie individuul to an undistorted, candid lidlieation in the facts of his sexual life. The new moralists did not take Into account, because they.did not exist, these national'spectacles In which a wholly distorted representation is made the main preoccupa- tion of great masses of people of all ages and all states of mind. The theory of tho purging power of A^anUness does not fit these spectacles. It may be that when the tabloids have squeezed the last bit of sensation out of the Rhinelandcr case, for example, their public would then be bored with another spectacle dealing with miscegenation; that after the Browning case their public will for a time bo immunised against further Interest In the psychopathology of ah old le^or. But what In the consequence of that boredom and immunity? It means simply that In order to maintain their circulation the publishers of the tablolda have to look around for a new case which haa some hitherto unexplored variation of the sexual theme. The effect of the^e publica- tions Is not to educate and to satisfy a normal curiosity and appetite. The effect is to make an appetite that cannot be satisfied by ordinary means, and to create a demand for a sensation that wUI whip it up again. This new Journallam is like the procurer to an old,roue who nas daily to tempt him with new excitements. The situation which we have described here has its roots deep in our modem urban civilization. That it Is a progressive disease is fairly evident, and that the remedy. If there Is one. Is not simple Is no less evident. Tho«e who think they can cure it with another law are almost certainly deceiving tliemselves. Those who think they can dismiss It as trivial are almply refusing to let themselves realise what these spei^tacles sre and where the demoralisation is leading us. Those who wish to centre the responsibility upon a few Indivldiial publishers have not given much thought to the problem. This is no superAclal blemish on ihodom civlHsatlon. This la a deep-rooted disorder arising out of an Infinitely complex series of cattses which involvd modern education, modern religion, the family, our Industrial system, our traditional moral- ity and our incomplete knowledge of human nature. The only conclusion of which wise men can rehlly be certain is tliat they are only beginning to underitahd what It is all about. Since Mr. Mclntyre says fur five years he has Icuown our secret, thoro'a no need to conceat lt longer. But lt*a not Ave years. Odd, that Variety has been the world's worst—It's only a little over two years. Before then we had a rival, the "Times Square Dally," which proolaimed iUelf without dispute, the world's worst daily." Naturally when the rival disappeared, Variety remained alone, un« equalled, undefeated and uncared, the world's worst, but as a weekly, not a dally. We don't want to be the worst every day. Once weekly Is plenty. And because that little snip, "Times Square Dally," had no pride is no reason for us to become a dally jtiot on aceomH Of a oham* pionship title. And now for the noise! It's commencing to open up in a way ^hat Variety is becoming a big Shot, now and then. As the worst In the world, as Mr. Mclntyre so ardently at^ted, afllrmia« the opinion in *'The Mercury" which confirmed his own, as he c\almed--and justly—Variety tlkought It was on the pathway of the learned when Columbia University adopted this fable as a text book for the college's new business course. That waa aome pick by Columbia where the profoaaora must bo near- sighted, but it was aome pick Just the same. Ton oan tell that to tho children. Columbia didn't pick Variety because It was the world's worst. Columbia didn't care. Columbia must have liked the sound of tho Capitol doing over $60,000 every week. Once in a while if Variety printed the Capitol did over |60,000 that Columbia prof would have said to the boys: *'You cittn't betlev^^ everything you road, Oapeclally about the show business" although the show business l»as b*-en somewhat re- lieved through absence In the Browning case. But every week and $60.- 000 and Columbia may have said: "Boys, that picture game must bo some business. Let's dig hi.** And sO they wahtod Variety every w^ek to prove to the students that thoiro la ah awful h>t of coin in picturea. Which leads up to the big noise. Columbia is not <he single college to read the world's worst every week. There are others. Several otIMnra. But thO others are not reading it for the business end of the show busi* ness. The others read It for Its slang. Leastwise tiiey call It slang. Odd called it the worst written. IHMiiaps Odd doesn't like slang. But the other colleges ultilize Variety as a weekly example of slang, aa they dall ii. We don't or didn't know it waa alang. Somebody called it Jargon and somebody else called It terrible. We don't call u anything. Just write it and let it go at that, for Odd and the other boys to kid us about it. ■ .■•' Hsre's ths big shot and in a way we hate to slip It across. One of the professors of English, tiie kind we don't know, wrote to a friend in New York, saying: "You must read 'Variety.' It's the most modern example of American ilang we have ever aeen. Much better than Mofioken's ''American Language'." Menekon la H. L. Mencken, editor of "The American Mercury." That shows how worst we are. to send over a slam against a paper that almost and near-boosted us. And his "American Language" Is in 600 pages. Maybe Variety will have a special number some day of 600 pages. Try to find us that day. Must walk out on that one. And please don't think this is a plug for Variety in Variety. It's not. It s just set In this type to advise those who say we are terrible that we are. Because if we had wanted to plug Variety, we could have quoted what else Mr. Mclntyre said: "That it's the most thoroughly readable pub- lication In the world," although niaybe wo stuck in "In tho world ' that Odd only meant for the worst written In the world. Anyway, Odd isn't near-sighted. The other day Variety gave a new show in burlesque a very good notice and its producer sent over six bottles of good booze. We know it's good booze for we have tasted all tho bad in Manhattan. We don't send boose around ourselves because they say there'a aome law about booze, but if any of tho'^e guys who asree we are the world's Vorst gets thirsty^ this address is 154 West 46th street. INSIDE STUFF ON LEGIT NOTES Section P of Kule V set foi th that Upon taking his position at bat, the striker could call for a "high ball," now ball" or "fair ball ' and the pitcher was required to serve him such a throw. _v ■ *' Surrender of an ambition Is recoi'dcfl in this pnrapiaph imder the heading 'The Ring"; "Mike Cleary has opened a hohie shoeing and blacksmilhing shop at Ninth street and Passymuuk avenue. Philadeli>hla and intends herp.tfter to attend strictly to business." Sunday vaude has been dropped at the Opera House, New Mllford, N. J. It had beeh playlns three acts and pictures. The latter re- mains. Winslew and Steele* comedy skaters, return from Au' (j Mlin l<'(»b. 3 to begin a t«>ur of the Orpheum Circuit, opening In San Francisco. St. Nicholas avenue alM»ve Cen- tral park was the favorite course for drivers of fast horses attached to aleigha^ Footer Dewey, former private secretary to Bohs Bill Tweed, was lr)jMrcd v/bile 8|)cedlns his mare ' Lizzie," 2.:;i at 126th Btreet and St. Nicholas, when he Johnny Ryan, api)earlng In cab- arets and pictuio houst's in Chi- cago, la now nlavimr fllm theaties with a girt Jass band. Tipica Orchestra of Mexin*, 38 musicians and eight soloists, may be given aome weatern vaudeville dates following the concert dates now booked up. S9lU4ed .with ghother jpccdat.er. i week for a four weeks' yacaiiuu Oofothy Bryant, executive aecre- tary of the Chorus K<iuity, left last in Havana. Nellie Melville, Miss Bry- ant's assistant, will sssurae charge of duties pending the latter's re- turn. Chsriie Freeman, Interstate Cir- cuit booker, and Mrs. Freeman arc on a fortnight's tour of that chain's Texas houses. Fire destroyed the house, Rcadstown. Wis. insurance carried. A question of stage rights to H. Leivi( k s Hebrew play classic, "The Golem' has been settled with S. Hurok. original sponsor of the Hablma Troupe, Joining forcea with Max R. Wllner and Bdwln A. Relkin for an eitthl-weelc presentation of the play Wilner*« Irving Place theatre. Hurok's presentation of the Habima Troup*^ at the Mansflelrt and Cos- mopolitan in the Knglish stage centre has been financially a loss to the extent Of f40,0f0, although an artistic succesa Playing In Hebrew, the move downtown Is a partteular bid for the Yiddish trade alth^ugli the learned tongue Is beyond average Yiddish ken. new . oiK«ra Only small Judge Walter C. Kelly has gone to Miami for his annual winter's rept. He wttt greet tliw Oiants at .^jirusuta when they start tha train- ing siMson. , Bobby WalBon'fl run of the play contract with Charles Dillingham was voided by mutual agreement between the artist and producer. Equit.v was not concerned, according to the artist. Watson asked for his release from Dillingham two weeks before "Oh, Please" was scheduled to open In New York and was told to stand by, by the producer. Meanwhile. Watson was collecting MOO weekly under his contract. Wat.son was given his release at New Haven, following anotfier request and his statement to the producer that he didn't think the part suitable. Watson, contrary to report. Is not to be added to the cast of ".ludy." After making a wide search for a mif>sing negative of "The Right Way," a prison picture, produced under the late Thomas Mott Os- borne's direction, It was found In Mr. Osborne's vault In his bom;* town, Auburn^ N, Xi He nry Hull, In "Lulu Belle." received an offer from Famous Players* LanKy fur u iJlt ' tmt Uwi w ee k In i t had t e doolln t a e h e h a s a •^'plsy nr pay" contract with Belasco and picttire work Is "out." Ben y. Grossi, radio editor and reviewer of tho New York Daily News, is the author of "Whera'a Your Husband?" his maiden play current at the Oreenwich Vlttago theatre. To all the shows employing chorus men Actors' I'und has .sent a bul- letin urging every man to Join the Fund at the earliest possible nooment. The fund has and Is sllU doing & ^i» mP s nwtf fitf chorus men. who sick l^fid deitilule have been gtvea AMmediute aid although not members.