Variety (Aug 1928)

42 VARIETY NEW ACTS Wednesday, August 29, 1928 WALLACE EDDINGER and Co. ••My Mistake" (Comedy) 18 Mins.; Full Stage 8l8t St. (V-P) . Particularly inept is this sketch for one of Wallace Eddinscr's oc- casional excursions into vaude- ville. Idea,might be excellent for a liarnbs' Gambol, but for vaude- ville its comedy shading Is all wrong.: Offered as the feature- of this house for "New Faces Week," audience accepted it on faith be'^ cause of the star's name, but they . . were uniform^j' puzzled, . ; Sketch has a capital trick open- ing. At rise of curtain thug Is re- .. vealed hiding behind chair in living rooni. - Eddinger enters froih oppo- site door and is at table; back to- ward gunman, who takes aim and fires, bullet brealiing mirror" on op- posite wall. Eddinger turns and makes mild protest at breaking of mirror which may bring seven y^ars of bad luck. This eot a laugh, the only honest giggle of the performance. There- after it develops ithat the gunman has been hired to do the killing and . is ridiculously anxious . to. get it • over, While Eddinger politely seeks to co-operate. Dialog reveals that Eddinger is an undertal>er, and as sketch goes forward he tries to make a business arrangrement with the professional gunman to throw trade his way. In the. end it turns out that gurt- man made mistake in room number. Person he was hired to bump off is in 409, not 406, and he exits, with apologies. Shot is heard, and Ed- dinger rings up 409, offering his services as embalmer. Just one of those things that may bave read like uproarious farce, but is an utter bust as a playing sketch. Chester Erskine is the au- thor. Pat O'Brien plays the gun- man. Both men. waste smooth, bland performance in hopeless skit. Rush. JOE and PETE MICHON Comedy Acrobats 9 Mins.; One and Full Stage (Apparatus) Palace (St. V.) The best comedy tumbling act in American show bu.siness. These two boys start where the best of the others stop. They are okay for vaude, produc- tion, picture house or talking short, sure-flre laugh an4 applause, maker in either. Not only do they commede. and tumble, but they.talk. The latter is the single thing left to criticize; They should pay a. writer for talk. Pete Michon is always in a spiral or sliding down the wires of a high platform, always with comedy and always making it. Aftcfr that and a long leap, first purposely muffed for another fall* they finish in "one" for adagio whirling, Pete going arourid the body of his brother Joe like a swift hoop; If any adagio dancers cbiild have done it half as well or half ias long they would still be working- And this Is but a small part, although the big applause finish for the Michons. The falls in number and hazard Pete Michon takes are a wonder in themselves.. Next to closing on a strong Palace bill and one of the three big a:p- plause hits of the show. LORIN RAKER and Co. (4) Comedy Audience Act 12 Mins.; One 8l8t St. (V-P) Liorin Raker works from a side 1 box as a stage femme plugs a re- juvenation method for the elderly girls. Raker gets into a crossfire with .a homely woman on an aisle and it works up nicely. On this particular bill it was a boon, for It was the only comedy on bill, this iliot very particular. . Finish starts a youngster hopping .on for a few kicks and cartwheels previously announced as what the method can do for a grandmother. Climax has the feminine plant go- ing Up oh the stage to bawl out the dancer, who is her daughter. Raker cracks about he'll take the daughter" and get the manager for her, and that's that. Straight woman is the trench over which the verbgil war storms back and forth and does well in holding it together. Cinch for the low-brow houses and nearly, as sure before a more polite clientele. Raker juvenile, from legit and vaude. Sid. tRUCE arid BOREO Dance -Production . 14 Mins.; One and Full Hippodrome (V-P) Rather weak effort to stage a sensational dance production. Opens with promise of dance drama in Hawaiian setting, with burly ma,n wleldinsr long cracking whip over!, two'dancing girls. Principal dancer appears and goes into adagio with man, some good posing and holds by powerful man handler who tosses girl a.bout in striking catches. Gap is, filled by two girls in black- bottom legmania and eccentric rou-i tines, worlcing before a drop in one. PrincipSr is back for mediocre toe dance. Two coryphees return for more legmania, much of it nicely done, and then to full stage again for the finish, another dance pan- tomime, mostly adagio. At back is huge candle with flame effect and man as flame devil beck- oning dancer who is the. frightened moth. . He comes down, and two go into leaps^ catches and holds, with more rough handling, flame devil drawing moth gradually to the can- dle wick iffto which she falls, rising to full height in death struggle to topple over in 10-foot drop to a catch by the handler. Another gap is filled by a girl violinist in a solo. Last episode might make a good bit for a presentation,, but here the whole, extended turn is loose and scattered, due to padding into 15 minutes by the device of filling in- tervals with extraneous material, Itush. '.. '^OUR GANG" COMEDY KIDS Bits and Talk 20 Mins.; One Chicago, Chicago Hal Roach's screen klda make their initial bow in picture houses here. Also the first time on .any stage (vaude) outside of California. They were good then, but viewed now In back of film house footlights look, act and work better .than they ever did before. At $5,000 a week, these kida are .doubtless a bet .for the picture houses today. Early indications at the Chicago theatre, backed by stand-out busi-. ness Saturday and SuhdaV, save surety of a big gross. The Roach proteges are on a va- cation tour away from the studio and will only play airound the east for about six weeks. Members are Joe Cobb, Jean Darling, Harry Spear, Farina, Mary Ann Jackson, "Wheezer" and "Pete," the; dog. Act is advantageously routined, clicking in smooth faishion and easy for the kids. Ray Coffin, publicity director of the Roach, studios, is icting as manager and working with them on the stage. Coffin does the introductory spiel briefly and well, bringing on individually each memljer. Screen trailer is reeled 6ff, with ♦he kids following anr re- enacting the scenes. Joe Cobb, the fat boy, was the ruling favorite in applause, while Farina, the 'darktowner, copped a close'second. "Wheezer," only two- and-a-half-year-old, struck a re- sounding note with the audience, and the dog handed out plenty of lia.ughs. • Kids were in the Publlx unit, "Seeing Things/' though not inter- fering with it in any way. Too bad these kids are not at lib- erty to go along indefinitely. They would be a life saver in any thjeatre. Loop. SILLMAN and COCA Songs and Dances IS Mins.; One Palace (St. V) Perhaps suddenly impressed as an emergency No. 2 turn, unbilled, SHI- man and Coca, likely out of a mu sical, weren't In the best of shape, or form for the big time showing. Leonard Sillman didn't have" the house gauged for vocal volume, with his tone indistinct, while Miss Coca (first name not known) was little better. • ., Both sing and dance, and fairly on the dance thing. The young woman overdoes the selling herself to the audience, with too many art ful glances out front. • and much smiling, but with little variation in stepping. Sillman starts ojff with a blade bottom step that doesn't startle nowadays, and does little after that. His usher bit in uni- form on the service stuff in the- atres, with the Palace also now an example of that, is wholly a lyrical number that the boy's light voice killed off. An impersonation of the Astaires didn't speak -very well of the As- taires. This team had* better re-routine themselves, and cut to 12 minutes. Both are young, the girl quite so, and of talent, not well directed. The boy needs coaching on song delivery, not so . much in diction as in facial poise. . BILLY PURL CO. (7) Comedy Flash Act 28 Mins.; Full (Special) 81st St. (St. V.) Just 21 minutes of burlesque. It reads, plays and has that Columbia touch. If it hadn't been for ; a colored boy Billy Purl brings on in "one" for a hoofing encore, there would have been nothing to disturb the lull. HELEN JOHNSON'S GLORIOUS GIRLS (11) Girl Band 15 Mins.; One and Full . Hippodrome (V-P) Moderately attractive looking group of 11 girls who supply reper- toire of pop numbers agreeably in an orchestral frame-up especially strong on brasses. No exhilarating knack of delivering torrid jazz, and x'outine Is rather mild to follow, the standard rnale groups in .this re- spect.. ■ Billing features Anne Rehri and Kay Hart, girl trumpeters, who sup- ply the instrumentar backing for several fairly Inspiring military bits. Act i;uns along to only fair returns until the finish, when a capital idea . puts them over in totil. Orchestra closes in full, and one of the trumpeters appears in one for elaborate cornet introduction. Drop in One flies to reveal the other 10 in military capes lined up before an army camp drop in the second groove and eajch girl rat-tattlng on a snare drum. Uniforrri costum- ing of red and white and the crash- ing ensemble of 10 drums gives a stunning effect. This simple trick of staging did more for the girls than all their , elaborate orchestral effects. Instrumentation includes three violins, doubling in sax, bass horn, four trombones and . comets and piano, besides drummer and .banjo, last, named girl also pla-ying violin. Individual players are brought out to lead the numbers, a,,nd . four of them 'comie down front for vocal quartet, which could be omitted; here, as .thi, voices aren't equal-to" the Hipp spaces. Numbers had a- certain sameness. Hot music might supply peppy change Of pace, which is needed. As is, turn goes along on-quiet level' up to the finishing smash. It is this which puts it over. Rush.. CHANG'S MANDARINS (5) Song, Dance and Band 14. Mins.; Three Broadway (V-P) This five-piece band concentrates mainly on orchestral efforts, trying vaguely and infrequently for song and dance effects. "Vocal efforts do not make any impression, while as a band the complete force is lack- ing, partly owing to the inadequate orchestrations and the selections used. The nien are ap^tced right across th'e stage, creating an emptiness which could be avoided if the boys were grouped closer. All-Chinese group lends an at- traction to this turn, but needs faster routininff and changes in musical lineup to make the grade. Reception here In closing not very strong. ' MorL TINOVA and BAIKOFF and CO. (2) Revue 16 Mins.; Full (Special) Proctor's 86th (V-P) Adagio team plus demons Taylor, and Crawiford Adams, violinist, in the pit as conductor. Considerable ima'fmatioh .fgpreseKtM itr^ Hum^ bers. Harry Roye program-credited for production, of class calibre arid' should have ho trouble, . . Dancing Is graceful and Interpre- tative in character. Act opens with Taylor behind scrim reciting the late; Joyce Kilmer's poem on trees. That irises in on Tinova and BalkOff posed as silver tree, a neat effect. Several short numbers make for speed and color. Meritorious flash. Land- SHANNON and GERIO BROS. (3) Song, Dancing and Music 10 Mins.; One Broadway (V-P) Three boys in Eton school clothes makeup^ with one at the piano and a team trying to sing, dance and play the violin. Boy at the piano has prorriislng form as a ballad ■sin g er.- and should .de velop _al^ng those lines. The team tries to be versatile without being accom- plished in any one routine. Tapping is only fair and singing terrible. Violin numbers did not score heavily either. With only about 10 minutes to split up, the team should be confined to hoofing and playihg, with the pianist for accompaniment. In No. 2 here boys closed to a favorable reception. Mori. JERMANN and GREEN ^ongs and Talk 18 Mins.; One Audubon (V-P) v A lot of hokc, but well delivered, aided by the acrobatics of the man who takes Some hard falls and bumps. The fern gets some rough handling, but they work so timely laughs -came fast at the Audubon. Billy Green does a drunk and surefire, taking hias falls,- holding bottle meanwhile. Green and Miss Jermann cross- fire, with much of the gagging right up to the minute. Specialties by Miss Jermann, but' the big. .hoke kick, is the love travesty they do for the closer. . "They do a proposal back in the '80's^ and hop to 1960, as it might then be done. Capital burlesque and made all the funnier through the rough handling of each other, Jermann a:nd Green can't miss with their present load of fun; it's aU hoko, but there. Mark. BRUNO STEIN BACH Pianist 17 Miris.; One 81st St. (V-P) BrUno Steinbach attempts and executes enough technical fingering to impress and in three numbers did nicely. No. 2, He's an out arid out pia:nist, takes it seriously and as the audience does, too, it's okay. Only one thing wrong with Stein- bach. He's been misinformed on lighting^ T YbiT can't" convey "the" mood of music, as * the picture houses do, with just a spotlight against a cold drop in a vaude house. If he's going in, for that sort of thing it means a plush drop, a couple of candle stands, etc. Those 5th avenue .and 58th street backstage borders won't give him ai break three times a day. Sid. Purl may be a funny guy In this act at Halstead and Madison, and the outfit is reported in from the west, but how he's ever going to get by in the east with this one pro vokes the same state of mind as those coriiposite pictures in . the "Graphic." Material is deadly. Purl seems to know it,, and the finish Is such that no one knew, the act was over until the quartet of choristers carne tripping out for a bow. To his credit that he didn't take a couple of cracks at the audience—-it was one of those silences. Doubtful if any comic could make something of this script as it stands Purl smaclcs of burlesque, and com edians froni that strata have a habit of being pretty funny guys with a shrewd knowledge of values. It's possible that Purl is simply reading the wrong paper. Anyway, he should dissociate himself from this present burden as soon as possible It all has to do with the devil's backyard. Purl playing a newly iar rived bootlegger. A couple of empty comedy sOngs and numbers Come and go for no reason. Meanwhile a good male straight plays Meph and works his head off by lung power if nothing else, and without a vocal solo. Set is lighted iVi red and typi- cal of what a scenic designer thinks hell will look like. i The dark boy can tap. Of that there's no doubt, Pui-i announces him as his entry in a Chicago dance contest, and his opening seven steps are p|ractically an exact copy of Bill . RcSbinSoH's routine" Iri'^ '^ birdSj" In fact, he workg like Rob inson throughout. Neither Is that any small matter when it comes to the feet. The youth is back for a tap black-bottom .which isn't par- ticularly hot, but his. buck; mirius music is great a,nd sufficient to send him across as' a No.. 2 single any- where. In seven minutes he saved a flopping 2l. '■ Sid. SMALL and ZELLA Talk, Dances, and Songs . 18 Mins.; One Proctor's 86th St. (V-P) Danny Small, colored performer, formerly with several chocolate- hued revues and later in vaude with band, teamed with Creole Zella, light yellow. Act is much too long and lacks needed zip. As a deucer it will slow down instead of build up a show. Shiall sings often and volubly, femme partner beins ozoned on each solo. Long, draggy ballads in- crease the act's general lethargy. Some incidental gagging is pretty chestnutty , with unnecessary ex-^ planations of points that speak' for themselves. Attempt is made to dress the act "smart," Small being in hammer- Claw and opera hat. The lackadai- sical style of working may also be somebody's conception of "class." Natural negro mannerisms instead of artificial imitation of $5.50 mu- sical comedy romantic juveniles is recommended to Small. Land. PUFFIN and DRAPER. Comedy Contortion. Paramount (Pets). Man and givl with former handling the- y oimg . -woman„.Jn , :.s cafo_crQ,w . style. Over strong at i?aramount, in front of stage band. May have done entire act or portion seen but a part. Girl is one oC the best contortion- ists New York has had. Dresses neatly in skirts with man grotesque in a way. Handling and the girl's doubling up in various postures contain more or. less comedy, with turn entitled to comedy classifica- tion. JIMMY ALLARD and Co. (6) "Cheater's Inn" (Skit) 25 Mins.; One and Full (Special) Proctor's 86th St. (V-P) Jimmy Allard, comedian, with three men and three women in sup- port. Wisp of story runs from road house to apartment in city. Allard as a waiter has the goods on two couples who have swapped si>ouses and escaped from the road house during a raid without paying |-their--=chcck-a,-^..===--^ Idea is that Allard will blackmail the cheaters for money to go on his own honeymoon. Comedy is in- jected by Allard, the script having scant humor within Itself. Couple of specialties. Allard deserves bet- ter material. He seems to have comic talents of a very fair order, but. has little chance here. Probably can squeeze bj^, but not , strong. LatuL EARL LA VERE. ^ Talk. One. Paramount (Pets). Earl Jja, Vere enters carrying an accordion. He plays it but slightly, going immediately into a series of gags, using Piaul Ash for the straight. On other stages could use orchestra leader, if using no straight (man or woman) of his own. .gome ^of the gag3_ start j^ ^ th e Frank Tinnoy style, now yoii asiif me. Most of them are Scotch, short, a couple of the others are very old and throe or four very good. Much repetition of the familiar '"How arc you? I'm feeling fine" thing. Le Vere, single, is new around New York, Got along nicely at the Paramount. May have more extend- ed act for vaude. Otherwise No. 2 for big time and mild there, or any where Cor small tin^e. NED SHERIFF and Co. (5) "We're In the Navy Now" Ground Tumbling, and Comedy 14 Mins.; One and Full State .(V-P) Comedy ground tumbling quintet In' gob get-up introducing with an- nouncement in "one," calling two others from the audience. Comedy biz-before the -olio concerned itself with broad slapstick, the boob of the Audience assistants standing .for some smacking corporeal punish- ment on the neck. . In full, the trio is' joined by two others. Ground stuff is usual Ara- bian dervish,routines, familiar gen- erally but consistently effective. Finale punch is built up £is a double somersault in the air, in itself noth- ing 'unusual, only that all he did was a single somersault, causing neighborhood comment on the hoax after the usual comedy byplay building rip Into the "serious" con- summation. . Al)ch.. "GOLDEN DAWN" (3) Acrobats and Violin 10 Mins.; Ope and Three (Special) Broadway (V-P) Girl enters in "three" playing violin, with a garden setting for a baWgr6mfdr^wbfRs-='-lhp="onc"^^ the finish of the first solo aind ends the second number back In the garden. Two golden statues dissolve into a team of boys who go into an acro- batic routine which scored very strongly In the opening spot. Novelty in presentation added to delivery accountable. Posing efforts ar-knowlfdged by the mob. Excellent opener. Moil-