Variety (Feb 1928)

88 VARIETY NEW"A"CTS Wednesday, February 15, 1928 RALPH WHITEHEAD and CO. (3) "Variety" (Skit) "16 Mins,; Two. Palace (St. V) Itoger Gray gets credit for this script wliich aJms to kiddingly re- produce -an entire vaudeville 'blU. Two girls asHlst Ralph Whitehead. !rhis doesn't help. Both Whitehead and Gray are: superior to the mate- rial. Ijaughs are not plentiful, the result being the male coonic is straining all the time and has) noth- : Ing but straws at which to clutch. . A burlesque edaglo with oxie of the girls in ballet attire sponsored the most fun, the lady displaying lots of nerve In some of her letups, pthei; portions are lifeless.. A istralght ballad 'by Whitehead had tbe drapes parting to reveal the girls In comedy costume as illustrar tlons to some effect, but the total count was and Is not h'eavy. . Act. doesn't seem to. build and there are laughless moments which had the house restless. Whitehead Is a standard, performer. . Gray has ideas and a natural sense of comedy. Some script surgery and revamping might whip this into shape. Or maybe it came in too isoon. It's not. especially creditable to either con-^ trlbutor or purveyor as it stands. Sid. THE USHERS (2) Magic 16 Mins.; One 08th Stv(V.P) Man and woman work out novel routine, using the man's fe&ts of ina'glc and fast "mind reading,"' the •woman on stage and man li? aisles. i?Ip of an opening. Drop. in one shows fantastic city of towering buildings, like the film "Metropolis," with windows lighted. Aeroplane Is seen to approach in the sky. Pas- senger, elevator in tallest building shoots to top as plane alights. 6hoots down agait), and man of^the team.emerges from door in center of drop as though he had arrived .ifrom sky. Goes through neat bit of magic, Including trick of threading two dozen needles while In his mouth (Houdlnl Aid this and It was sup- posed to, be. his pToperty-fanyway It's a startler). , Woman then arrives via sky .In 'same manner add after some rather inconsequential talk they go into the mind reading. Method Is strik- ing. Girl identifies articles, giving number on currency bills and other Intricate details. Replies are swift, coming instantly and without hesl tatlon. Cueing system defies dO' tectlon by lays for man usee little tali. Both depart as they came. Entrance and exit alone puts them in. Besides that the work Is clean cut and showmanly. Capital act for small time feature. Ruslt. "ECHOES FROM METROPOLI- TAN" (12) Grand Opera aO Mins.; One, Two arid Full . (Special). Academy ,(V-P) . Extraordlftarlly good . idea. For first time In^knowledge of this re- viewer somebody has hooked up grand opera Idea In shape for popu- lar vaudeville; Ti^ick consists of giving brief bits of the principal standard arias with backing of aippropriate scenery and interpolat- ing impersonations of the musical old masters by the orchestra leader, after the manner of Willie Zimnner- raann of a, decside .ago. In this case, a splendid- singing personnel has been .assembled. Twelve are about evenly divided, men and women, all having voices that pass muster, and give a general Impression of musical dignity at least, even if the acting soirhetimeB is Jnept. Procedure is thus: Placard an- nounces "Mascagnl's "Cavalerla Rusticana" and curtain goes up on drop m stained glass window effect to _ supply backgrjurid or church. Lea'der In orchestra pit bobs up made .up as Mascagni and leads orchestra In characteristic fashion (usually with touch of caricature for comedy), all. leading into the aria with thr-ee principal? and !a small chorus "backlngr. Verdi, Von Suppe, Gounod and Strauss all follow In order, with tl|e pi'ison scene from "Faust" as a climax. Each has a change of drop ■ Bufflcieht to suggest the set- ting, as, for example, a drop with a. prison tower with tenor at cut window for "II Trovatore." At the Academy the whole ofEer- ing was received with every evi- dence of enthusiasm, the foreign clientele there being strong, fbr serious music. Appeal not confined to such an audience. The imper- sonations from pit help vastly for vaudeville. Good feature anywhere. Rush, 8ERLANY TROUPE (4) Posing, Aerobatics . 0 Mins.; Full (Special) Palace (^t. V.) Opens under colored lights, the male quartet in various poses, and finally breaking this with a slow motion hand-to-hand lift well exe- cuted. After that the boys hop down off the rear . platform, doff their white wigs and go to work. Underatandor works from a leg catch perch, suspending his. com- panions by various contrivances, once holding all three by an arm Various formations - underneath the top member make the act un- usual in appearance, and the quiet and ^xpei^t tnianner^ of working makes "it a yaude clnchT "' 'Sid. "" BAILEY and BARNUM iSongs and Dances 13 Mins.;. One Coliseum (V-P) Man and woman combination and Is not to be confused with Barnum and Bailey, the man-slnglng duo. Neither has much voice but their dancing is their standbye, .For good measure the girl throws in an imitation of Harry Ltauder ef- fective where the customers are not too* exacting. Girl goes in for ab- breviated dress and looks well. The man is a hard worker atid scored on his dancing; the girl a.lso flashed good tapping. Mark. JOE AND JANE McKENNA Songs, Talk, Comedy 14 Mins.; One 6th Ave. (V-P) "^--lf-^nothing=el3e-the-oloslng-adaglo- travesty by this youtiiful couple is certain to hand out some laughs. It could be worked up to even greater proportions. Youth starts this duo off nicely, the girl being both attractive and oute-and evincing an unmistakable willingness to clown. Gab. exchange Is not so good and could be bol- stered. Hard workers, the girl dis- playing heavy personality. Easily got over here. if or*. , MILTON CHARLES Organist ' Chicago, Chicago After a brief stay at the Oriental. Milton Charles has moved to the more "select". Chicago. The Oriental, temple of jazz, has Henri Keates again. Chicago showdom has, and probably always will, consider the Chicago theatre as the favorite house of the elite picture patrons. True artistry is striven for at the Chicago more than'at any other theatre In the city—short of the Opera. So, Mr. Charles, when he sits at the Chicago's organ cohsdle must be satisfied and so must the Chicago's patrons, for Charles Is one of those rare Individuals—a . technically per- fect organist. Aside from his tech- nique he is possessed of an ability to inject desirable little "twists" where they are most needed in an- organ x'ecltal. One * of the first organists to record his work on standard- discs, Charles has achieved a national If not international reputation. While he could giet .along very nicely with- out it this reputation is an unde- ,.nlable help along lines of popu- larization. On his opening program at the Chicago were "An Old Guitar and an Old Refrain," "Var- sity Drag" and Llzst's "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" for the finale. Milton Charles is a showman and a musician In a superlative sense, Withl,an_eye_ toj.f.eellngjput _the_ dis-_ criminating Chicago clientele,' he used slides—telling how nervous he was and how anxious to please. Charles might have been anxious to please, he probably was, but he certainly was not nervous. Then, the slides went on. to say, that "Some like pep whll^ some think it's passe," and Charles varied his pi-ogram to please any taste, . Milton Charles Is the Ideal man fot* that console at the Chicago. He should stay there! Loop. MILLARD and MARLIN (2) So ng • Dance • Comedy 15 Mins.; One (Special) Broadway (V-P) The well-liked comedy team are back this season with a now drop. Deliver as usual, only In front of a college campus entrance,. Opens with a chance meeting of ihe^_gQMy^^.MMeivt, and, , the wa sh - woman's daughter in a red check dress. Girl's plaintive vocal de- livery rogisters within the first two minuteSi Marlln has a chow moln number,^ used with the tuna^of "Charmaine." Got laughs. Gags a little moldly but seemed new to this crowd, so may be okey. General line along same lliies as previously, though now containing dllTerent material Filled next to oloslnff satlsfactorlljr. MoH. WINONA WINTER Character Songs 16 Mine.; On.s Pantages, Los Angeles (V-P) Miss Winter who has not been active in the past few seasons, re- turns with a line of material writ- ten by Blanche Merrill and makes good* Impressions of soine of Broadway's feminine notables give Miss Winter's talents full scope, while her: Itidividtial selling points put the numbers over. The blonde statellness of Miss Winter assures class appearance, even wiien she steps out in other characters. Her "Shop/ Girl" is a whimsical sketch with a light dash of hunior whllei another one about the "easy going gal" rings with a touch of piathps. One concerning the ups and downs of a. chorine strikes a true note. For an encore Miss Winter employs, one of her old standbys— the ventriloquist gag with the dum- my. This shiB could eliminate to advantage. It fails to click with her general demeanor and is likely to offset some of the other things. Annette Evans accompanies at the piano, but more or less hidden. Sweet looker, however, and taste- fully dressed.. . ' ' "HAPPINESS GIRLS" (•) Revue 28 Mins,; One-Two-Thres ' Broadway (V-P) Opening is in a flapper school.' Schoolmistress does, a lifelike . imi- tation of Texas Guinan, which . was not, sad to relate, fully, a/ppredated by the customers in this house. Rough, unpolished comedy re- sulted' In strong returns. After yelling "Squattei-vous" to her pupils, the school teacher asked one of the students to add six and six. The correct answer being received, she bawled "C'mon everybody, give this clever little girl a great big hand!" Genevieve Todd: entered tor a hrief hoofing number, followed t'V eight of the girls playing ukes with vocal accompani'ment. . I,yrics weak and comedy lines raw,' but-business registered on all six. All-girl orchestra Is an attractive feature. Start oft brightly, but slow up to allow for soloists. Prolongs act unnecessarily, and none of the soloists strong enough to merit special spotting. Kathryn White ^om acrobatic dance and Rose Brill acts as an- nouncer via phoney mike. A couple of the weaker comedy attempts can easily be eliminated since the act la too long at present. Closing brought a rousing recep- tion. Should do even better out of town. ' Mori. CORTINI Magician 10 Mins.; Full Stage Palace (St. V.) . Cortini works ifa tails and relies upon an avalanche of coins as a finish to send him across, going into tlie audience for this bit. Drojpping coin after coin into silver buckets until they finally overflow and rain down from the flies Is an . efltectlve conclusion . worth the troublie It must take to set it up and clean it up. , Previously it is pretty much a matter of standard routine, Cortini not always being too smooth or perhaps nervous Monday night. Speed, no guns and . the coin finale, are. assets which, figure to see the act. once aroimd to fair enough applause without threats of holding up any show. Bid, CARNEY and PIERCE Pop Songs .12 Mins.; bne American (V-P) Two men, in tuxes, one at plano^ for .routine of published numbers. They slam their stuff over on dic- tion, volume- and some good team work., "rhey are finger-snapping, niammy-singers and constitute a peppy and serviceable deucer. Material indifferent. Land, OTTO and ORETTO and Co. (2) Novelty S. & D. Sketch 15 Mins.; One and Full 58th St. (V-P) Otto . Bros, formerly , did their dancing, turn with a dressing room sketch background. Now: they have elaborated the sketch, using two old timers, Introduoed as Hart and De- Vere, as characters. Boys start, with their dance rou- tine, which is a whale of a specialty on its own. During unison step- ping, one breaks down and other walks off in disgust, refusing to come on when cued. Orchestra vamps several times and then drop rises to show boys in their dressing room for bickering in the Cameron and Flanagan style. One boy says, - "All right I quit the act, I'll team up with my old man." Cue for entrance of Hart who takes boys part in' wrangle. Gray-haired woman in evening dress crashes here, business ex- plaining she Is mother of other boy. In talk it develops she is an old time trouper, and at length Hart recognizes her as his old partner, forgotten during, the intervening years. Surprise! Warm greetings! Why not, put on a four-act. Which is cue to return to "one" where old timers do a cake walk after. cos- tume change, and boys contrasting With modern stepping—black bot- tom tap and eccentric—for the fin- ish. At the 68th street a veritable riot. Will dp well anywhere on strength of the stepping which is really exceptional. Rush. RIVERSIDE (Continued from page 87) ■ valuable co-operation from Dorothy Van Alst and Miss Bernadette, en- tertained auspiciously, They are giving free lessons, according to an announcement in the lobby. Be- tween five and six nightly and. for any and ail who apply. They are featuring a not very* sharply differ- entiated dance called the "gigolo," a good long stone's throw away from-being sensational. After the recess period Sam Sum- mers and Bstelle Hunt resumed the highjinks. Theirs Is a quaint turn, outwardly of little weight yet piling up a sizeable quota of laughs. The hit of the bill wa:) Coram, dapper vehtrllpquist. Besides hav- ing brought the mechanicism of voices throwing to-^ ^eminence, this graduate of the Xjohdon halls pos- sesses a well-Indexed file of gags plus a line of humor not dependent upon puns ibut upon Ideasi The audience enjoyed especially his rag- ging of himself. Lily Morris, next to closing, kept her. stage waits pretty well down. The change interludes timed 30, 50, 30 and 40 seconds. These gaps in the continuity of her audience con- trol undoubtedly hurt , this English entertainer for the States. Also con- sidering the insular nature of her songs her ability to b.ang across a good score is a tribute to her troup Injgr. Kay and ' Lorene Sterling, roller skaters with a camouflaged ■ get- away, closed and held fairly vtroll. Land. Song and Dance ' ' 8 Mins.; One Broadway (V-P) Neat appearance and reliable de- livery. Have a new number called tlie Charleston-Black Bottom waltz, executed with taps. Eccentric buck-and-wing efforts put the act over after a light start. Charleston - Black !Bottom buck dance, as encorsk weakens finish. Jfort. ACADEMY (Vaude-Picts) Mughificent house, the Academy, with all that means in attracting people from the tenement district around 14th street. And for the six bits gate a remarkable show. This week, first half, the headlinor is Francis X. Bushman (In person) with a sketch, "Code of the Sea," perfect for the clientele, both as a draw on. billing and as an enterr tainment on the stage. Holiday matinee Monday, audi- ence late in gathering, but capacity by mid afternoon and standees waiting for the late show. Eight- act bill to back up the feature, which, .with__ the., ^picture, "The Opening Night" (C6Tum161ay, to^ tailed three hours and a, half of excellent (and iexpensive) enter- tainment. All told in the specially section there were more than two score people concerned, ; JTrazers opened, neat for tlie spot, with an operatic troupe probably trying out set No. 2. Called "Echoes of the Metropolitan" (New Acts). Poor placing for the bill and for the turn, but probably only spot avail- able. Jim and Betty Morgan gave an enjoyable interlude of music and comedy lyrics In their quiet, ef- fective style. • . Bushman sketch In. early and not a particularly fortunate placing since It was third turn of running sans comedy. Bushman makes a fine, commanding figure on the stage and here has a distinctly su- perior playlet. Subdued melodrama with a high powered kick at the fin- ish and trickily framed for ap- plause. Fine condensed bit of writ- ing, with .splendid oxposition of .dramaticsttii^y ;.in JLS. jninutes;^IdcaL for the Bushman fanf;. In the big Academy the woman's linos were rnostly inaudible. They insisted on a speech aiKV the movie idol of yesterday spilled neat comedy talk for five minutes. Sammy Pain and Joe Dunn, song- sters, In simple routine of num- bers Including Sammy's "Rainy Day," were meat for the customers who always acclaim. songsmiths warbling their own compositions. The spot would have been greatly bettered by some sort of comedy Interlude, since there had not been a laugh, so far. Indeed the whole bill suffered from absence of strong low comody. ' The Royal Pekin .Tapanese troupe of Jugglers and acrobats had noth- ing by way of merriment to pur- vey, although they have some mar- velous oriental feats in several-de- partments and a fine flash of a background. Sam Wooding and orchestra were due here, but were switched over to closing and BOrns and Kis.sen wore brought up to take the place Here was a riot. Keeping In mind that there had not been a ripple of laughter up to date, the entrance of the pair in their Greek dude bur- lesque was the ciie cue for a roar a roar that continued throughout except for the sentimental ballad by Burns, which is slipped in early to make a change of pace. The paro- dies—one on "Melody Lingers" for example—panicked lem. Then two news reels. Fox's regu- lar service without the soi^nd ef- fects and then a complete news reel with Movietone. The sight and sound selection for this release Is not especially happy. Most of the sound has to bo supplied by the Imagination. Shots at the falling walls In the Fall River fire were at such a distance that the roar was pretty dim. Sound effects of cut- ting . ice in Massachusetts also is pretty tame.,' Then the delayed Wooding ag- gregation, but making up for the delay by their torrid jazz, hot step- ping by the musicians and the crooning blues technique by Edith Wilson; . Those sax and cornet wielders of Woodlngs know their intimate, jazz, getting some extreme effects In hoi'monious discords that are startling. And how that banjo- ist can extemporize oh Charleston twists and black bottom evolutions. Picture not quite up to the spe- cialty show, biit satisfactory release for the clientele. Altogether inter- esting performance, except for the shortage of comedy material, which dulled thie running somewhat. Rush. BROADWAY (Vaudc-Pcts) Three new acts on a. six-act bill and the screen flicker a dud. Busi- ness fair on account of the holiday crowds but not capacity for the afternoon performance. Happiness Girls, (New Acts), pleaser. At a level toned to the understanding of the patrons of this and similar houses. Out of town, they should be a riot. Millard and Marlln, (New Acts), highly polished comedy team next to closing, with a more subtle and entertaining brand of comedy, but did not rate as highly with the mob as the a,li-glrl act. .In the opening spot Bob and Liucy Gillette delivered juggling while Bob attempted What was evi- dently Intended as comedy. In wait- er's makeup. Followed by Lewis and WInthrop (New Acts), hoofers, who finished to good returns,. Al Abbott,. fourth, scored strong- ly with imitations revolving .round a small town amateur show. Rou- tine included yodelling, mouth or- gan and trick accordion with com- edy lyrics accompanying. Bradford and Hamilton, song and dance trio, closed. "Brass Knuckles," (W, B.), screen feature. .Mori. AMERICAN ROOF (Vaude-Pct) Barring a few spots the American. Roof, show Monday ran to small time low comedy. The audience seemed all primed to laugh at any old thing. Gags that bordered on the blue got more than anything else. Not much genuine talent. . Alvin and Kenny" openedv "comic half getting his best laughs through the close calls he has when step- ping In and out of the way of. the straight worker on the Roman rings. Much stalling. ^- . The Garner Sisters, with some topical songs and about five ges- tures, did fairly well, although there is not much variation to the rou- tine.. This due. perhaps to the use of Well played pop catalog num- bers. Darrell and Hobinson (New Act^), got away with their spot, due to the hoko of the woman and the rouRVi way she kidded herself about her sllmness. Then came the real bright spot of the first half, tho Paul Spocht band. That Specht crowd gave the show a great boost in addition to.its mu- sic Interpol.Tting comedy that was relished. They closed the first ii.'irt and closed If well with no di.spoai- tion to overstay, After intermission Howard and ^Ji^<ivyi^ jiolgjied ing. They make a stAb'at sliij^mgr ljut their .stock is hoofing, ami get them by abundantly. Cooke and Langdon were i>loaf<- ing, a dnsh of comedy and a bit of song. Scott Bros, and Vernon (New Acta), grabbed off the com- edy honors and were a. big help to the late bill. Closing was the Gautier animal act. with a pony do- ing tho main work. On the acret^n "The Divine Woman" (M-G-M). Jfarfc.