Variety (Sep 1928)

64 VARIETY Wednesday, September 12, 1928 HERB WILLIAMS STAMPEDES LOKDON HERB WILLIAMS RECEIVES MORE PUBLICITY THAN ANY AMERICAN COMEDIAN HAS RECEIVED IN ENGLAND FOR TWENTY YEARS Columns of Newspaper Space Are Being Devoted to Herb Williams by London's Foremost Critics and Authors, Owing to His Success in the Typically English Initmate Revue, "MANY HAPPY RETURNS" at the DUKE OF YORK'S THEATRE This Page Is Not Large Enough to Publish All of the Printed Articles Written About Herb Williams BUT BELOW ARE A FEW: By EDGAR WALLACE (Noted I'laywTlpht i^nd Anthor) ON CLOWNS The Tonic Value of Herb Williams I have recentlx seen a very great clown, and it was a memorable exjy.er'lence, for great cl6wn9 are as rare as blooms in a garden of aloes. His name Is Herb Williams, and he la the perfect fool. Why ia he a great clown? First, because ho Is very serious and rather pitiable. He la a bald, middle-aged man who conveys the Imprea- sion ■ that he most earnestly desires to do something which he cannot do. I'ou feel that he is Hallsfled thai he can recite and sthg, and you know that ho can neiihor recite nor sing. And your sympathy is expressed In laughter. A clown is successful when he makes you so sorry for him- that you have to laugh at his simulated incompe- tence! And Herb -Williams (who is an American) is no incompetent that he cannot do' anything that he seta forth to do. When he tries to kill a man by hitting him over the head with a cricket bat, the only result being that the bat breaU.s, two thousand helpless people hoot joyou.sly and double ui» in their scats. Chaplin has the art, but Herb Williams possesses the technique of it to the last degree. When, at length, he does .succeed in playing the piano •1' ly you are almost disappointed, for the comic value of a clown is that ho should accomplish nothing that he.sets forth to do. An Outworn Convention When circuses went out of fashion, wo more or less ceased to encourage the training of clowns. In a way this was a very good thing, because the clown had g^o^vn conventional. It was deiiinniled of him that he should wear baggy trousers, that his face should be overlaid •isiv-".Mlnt. iind that he should have a red tip to his no.so. He had become as degraded as his pantominie follow Pantaloon. (Was not the battle cry of the triumphant Venetian "Plant the lylon!" once pro.sli- tuted to ."I'anlaloon" by a Spanl.sh Arnbassador who had rea.son to rrjgrot his pleasantry?) There mu.Mt have been very great clowns In the past whose art was hulf-rulno.d by.the conventions which hid. thoir funny face.s and toned down the natural comicalities with that touch of the macabre which their • make-up imposed. Your modern clown is not ijo handicapped. Ho may perform without his white mask and, in the play of his features, add new. ciualitles to his art. Herb Willlama appears in a revue, "Many Happy Re- turns," at the Duke of York's, and makes the incon.se- quent entry that can only be made in that form ot enter- tainment—in this case, as our dramatic critic has te'sli- fled, a veiw excellent example. His value to the citizens of I^ondon is not perhaiis realized. We know somiithing about sunshine and its benefit; we are (luusi-sclentitlc and appreciate the effects of ultra-violet ray.s; we know Ju.st what effect a good water supply and good drainage have upon the health Of the community. But I don't think the British Medi- cal Association anrt health bodies generally have made a very thorough study of the therapeutic value of laughter. By ST. JOHN IRVINE (Dramatic'Critic I^ndoh "Ohserrcr") Duke of York's "MANY HAI»PY RETURNS" By Herbert Farjeon. Mii«Ie by Harold Scott and B«'T«rIey Nichols This "intimate revue," which is occasionally so intimate that one feels like a "gate-crasher" while it is being performed, has been strengthened by the inclusion in its cast of a very droll comedian, Mr. Herb "Williams, whose solemn countenance is the funniest part of a very comic performance. Mr. Williams' second contribution to-the program was even funnier than his first. He is the oddest fellow I have seen for some time. By REGINALD ARKELL ' (Dramntlc Critic L4fhdon "Calling") Reginald Arkell's Peeps at the Plays Until now I would have backed myself to make a Hat of the world's ten pest comedians. I have laughed with Tjeslie Henson in London; with Crock in Paris, and with Al Jolson in N'ew York. No one, sftid I to myself, could teach me anything new about the funny men of the world. But I had not seen Herb TVilliams. And if you haven't seen Herb "Williams you don't know how funny a really funny man can be. I don't know who he is or where he comes from, .and I don't oare. Hb is the funniest main 1 have ever seen,v which means, 1 suppose, that he is the funniest man in the world, ftfr, as I say, I have seen all the others, and he starts where some of them leave off. He is one of tliose lucky performers who can wander about the world and pitch their moving' tents in any country. He came to England for a fortnight, after playing in Qermany, and he would be in New York now if he hadn't cancelled his reservation; In'appearance he reiaenibles a bishop or a butler. A serious man, you tmderstand, who looks plaintively at the world while the oddest things happen to him. His foud with his piano-—a very unusual instrument—was so funny that the orchestra at tho Holborn Kmpire couldn't play for l.'iughing. So he hanged the conductor! Solemnly, almost reverently—just as a bishop wOuld have done it-^ with a weird contraption that was a cross between a windlass and a crane, he hauled the wretched man out of his seat and wheeled him away into the wings. All very silly, of course, but carried through with such an air of high endeavor that y.ou had to laugh—and laugh—and laugh. By S. R. LITTLEWOOO (Dramatic Critic London "Momlnff PahI") A NEW BUFFOON Mr. ''Herb" Williams in "Many Happy Returns" It was like getting back to the days of the good King Dagobert at the Duke of York's theatre last night, when Mr. "Herb" Williams, the new Anier- ican buffoon, made his first (official) appearance in thrwt clever revue, "Many Happy Returns." Of his success there is no question. The audi- ence literally—and one can use the word with a clear conscience this time—rocked with laughter. It was just the sort of laughter that must have rung round the baronial tables of the time when "beards wagged all." There was no humbug about any intellectual cause. "Slapstick" was a slap with a stick.. Without any cl9wnish make-up, Mr. Williams appears as a middle-aged plaintive gentleman of refined features, who might be a solicitor in good practice or a Harley street specialist. It is only his humor that betrays him. He gets his laughs, by lyreaking a club over the head of a pseudo- conductor, chewing the end of a candle, and eating a banana—skin and all. Incidentally he can treat . the piano like Pade- rewskl or Grock, and can play a different tune with each hand and sing another on© at,the same time. But it is as frank buffoon that he is there, and it is as frank buffoon that he win.s. He Is a standing—and sitting—lesson for the .sophisticated that they are all wrong. Herb Williams' Business Arrangements Are Being Handled by HENRY SHEREK in Association With REEVES and LAMPORT