Variety (Sep 1928)

Wednesday, September 19, 1928 Vaudeville reviews VARIETY 39 WEST and STANTON Revuo (5) Blackouts, etc. Full Stage Loew's State (V-P) For the finish of. this West and Stanton Revue Is a .danciner opry house hick meller by the five poo- pie that should have been the open- ing of the act. Everything-before It can be thrown oy.t. That mollor is all the turn has. It was just enough to put it over No. 4 at the State. ^ , in-evious blackouts were too long drawn oilt for their slim points. The tramp classical travesty if of any Value at all was carried too long. Turn opens wltil a special droP with the heads of the five people protruding. They .say they don't know what they are going to do ahd that the. audience will, not either. Correct. If the producer is so certain of his email time audiences that he knows this turn cah play as It is, and the price is right, why, then it will play. To get anywhere else, the building m.ight . start, though the dancing meller is far frorh new and not so terribly funny here; only «o much bettor than'all of the rest. Sime. "DOWN HOME" (8) Minstrel Song, Dance, Music 20 Mins;; Full Stage (Special) . Proctor's 86th St. (V-P) Pretentious and lavi.shly produced modern minstrel turn, featuring Josle Carole, supported by Bud and Tommy, dancers; Three Banjo Fiends and the Mindell 'Twins, girl dancers. The special numbers were iwritten by N6viUe Fleeson. Miss Carole Is a buxom soubret, under cork a la Aunt Jemima. She has a powerful singing voice but her articulation and enunciation make the lyrics unrecognizable. She does four costume changes, all in good taste and elaborate. . The Bud and To'mmy combination contributes a coujple of tap routines, also in blackface, arid changed cos- tume several times. The Banjo Fiends handle the accompaniments for everything and also switch to brass occasionally in addition to a singing and musical specialty. The Mindell Twins, in brown skin make- up, do two doubles, smooth and likeable,. . The turn goes in heavy on scenery and costuming. It's bright, fresh and colorful and a welcome Interlude on the intermediate bills. Con. DACK-SHING Co. (5) Eqi{ilibrists 14 Mins.; Three Audubon (V-P) Two women, two boys and a man make up this Chinese troupe that features a series of contortionistic feats by the boys atop the man working as understander.. One of the lads is an amazing bender, do^ ing some difficult contortions when standing on the older man's head or supported by a hand balance. The women do little, one getting In on some pyramid stands. The man is also apparently double jointed, but the outstanding features 'are the two boys. The five use a plate spinning routine for the finish Mark. FOUR STERNLAVS Equilibrists 10 Mins.; Three State (V-P) ^ There Is one man with tliTs^'fpui' man outfit who Is a veritable San- dow on muscular prowess. He handles the three others with amazing ease, and when hanging from a trapeze perch he also shows more o-f his prodigious strength. The act opens with a series of poses, effectively done upstage Then the four step closer to the footlights arid execute one of the neatest, classiest routines seen at the State in many moons. Three bows were taken, at tho close; showing how well they went "With tho audience. Mark. BIRTHS Mr. and Mrs. .Joseph Jackson in Hollywood, Cal„ Sept. 11, son Father is scenarist and motlior is Ethel Shannon (screen). .Mr.^jjid^^Mra._^J^ Eelasco, in Cleveland, Sept.' 1, son. "rathrF"Ts m, of c. at the Branford, Newark professionally mother is Irene Smith. Mr. and Mr.s. Wilson Jones, at Good Samaritan Ho.«ipit,T.l, Los An- geles, Sept. 12, daughter. Mother is Constance Howard (screen). PALACE (St. Vaud) Two legit names: Lucille La Verne, from drama, and Louise Groody, from musical comedy, top the current week's Palace bill. ., Miss LaVernc Is debutting witli an abbreviated version of Lulu Vollmcr.'s "Sun Up," which has pre- viously done service . for the dra- rnatic star. While Miss Groody Is a repeat in a refreshing sing-dance offering that she. has previously shown .at the same liouse. Also plenty of other good material on the show but houj^o not so good, which may or may not irieari that the toppers are not box office for vaudeville. With Miss LaVcrne's act con- suming 30 mlnute.s of "thei running time and several others remaining on overtime the. show ran longer Monday night than it probably will for the remainder of the. week. De- spite pomp and eclat surrounding the star attractions. Buck and Bub- bles, colored -boys, stopped things cold with songs, fodlery. and step- ping preceding the LaVerne act. Not a hoA record for the boys for their, first time at the. Palace. Opening was Arthur Petley and Co.; three men and woman with fast routine of casting and balanc- ing. The fe!j.tured .meniber is ah elongated comic who is. tossed about by the two men on aerial bars and grabs laughs through his falls as bound backs on the casting net.' Goed act. Loma Worth, eye-filling blonde, followed and grot over with her in- strumentation, playing various in- .struments and packing In some ac- companying dances, all handled well. Pilcer, Douglas and Co. set a nifty speed pace with a dance repertoire handled by trio. Buck and Bubbles liext and mop up, giving way to Miss LaVerne In "Sun Up" (Now Acts) with .the dra- matic condensation bringing its star an ovation, well deserved. Miss. Groody, after Intermission, flanked by. Edward Allan, and H. Hiipfeld, offered and scored In a potpourri of sortg hits from her pre vious musicals as well as some others. Allan as gob ha-ndled some neat clowning and planted a corking acrobatic solo, doing the reniainder of his hoofing with Miss Groody, A ^corker of its kind for anywhere, Frank Gaby, next to shut, panicked them on comedy with some breezy nifties and his ventriloquial stuff. Gaby had them rolling with laugh ter throughout arid could have re- mained long; had he wished but took heed to the show having already .orone Over the time limit and offcd gracefully. Solid hit. Gaby recently played the Hip at SOc. top; after a Palace date. , . Gaston and. Andreo, dance team with a corking production, suffered somewhat on returns through having lost the commuter trade be fore getting oh, but more than pleased the rem.ainder with their divertissement. The tearn still em' ployed "Dance of Death" as the wal- lop of the act. Lorna Germalne and Edna Mackejf, support dancers, also gave good account of themselves in (his clas.sy production that can fit in anywhere and go over bipr.. Edha. hoofing, including acrobatic stuff, they will extend their present bur- lesque acrobatics that are now at least getting some laughs, into an entire turn, and let the dancing slide. The act is okay as iz, but the only thing that can pull it out of the present spot is more comedy, and more comedy may send it any- where.. . Nan Blackstone (New Acts) was No. 3, a single singer mixing iip the Vododo with straight. She barely passed, and didn't do that with her encore song. Houso looked too big for the girl. If she spent more time improving her.stage personality anil less imitating others, liko Fuzzy Night for the vodo with the small moveable piano, Miss BKickstonp will more quickly advance. .Just now she looks like a nite club or Cabaret singer. Attendance, the warm Monday evp. not so fancy. Several back rows at 9.30 open, with the sides also light half-.way down. . May have, been good, however, for ■ a Monday, With Broadway business any place not so hefty then. Shfiei LOEWS STATE (Vaudfilm) Jack Osterman is the big noise on the State's. bill this week and the only name fiashed the Monday night's audience recognized at sight Likewise the only turn stopping the performance. Ostci-man (New Acts) had to return for a final getaway .spiel.... _ During the turn, when jBWgging Osterman mentioned he had been in "Artists and Models," at the Win ter Garden, with the show having 7o chorus girls and 25 chorus boys "That made 100 girls," added Oster man. It was about the fiippest gag, he not trying to take a chapce on the v/iseno.ss of the front,. Probably just as well at the Stiato. Besides tho headliner was "For gotten Faces," feature film, with an M-G-M exclusive news short, and "an orchestra overture, the.latter not so hot for a vaude house. Thi-ve Avcre five other turns, with two- flash act.s among thorn. West and Stanton Rfvue (Now Acts) and theUraillo and l>aolo Palo, dancinK act with an orcht-fitra. L.-ittcr clo.sed vauclo portion and not eaught. The rc'vu*'. looks to have boon built .strict ly for Hiuall time. In a burlfsqur trariip' ckis.'-ieiil dant^e a couple o stage hands wore u.sod.- They did .,15? well a.s the otlnTs,' Bol) Anderson and his pony oponi.'d. Andorson has the horso so WirXr aiiTpa^r-rrin-t-fall-do wn,-^^^^^^ tlie .•smartest will be unable to go his cueing. Made an entertaining and sight turn for the full-stage opening spot. Gastloton and Mack two acrobatic hoofing boys, were second. When those boys di-scovor how more valu able comedy is than any kind of 81 ST ST. .(Vaudfilm). This week and henceforth the 81st Street is a full week stand. The policy is vaudfilm, or will be, for Jay C. Flippen and His Frolics, while bright and snappy entertainment, is not vaudeville. It's musical tabloid on a pretentious scale, with riiusic by DeSylva, Brown and Hienderson. skits by William K. Wells, and cos- tumes, scfehery, etc., .fashioned swankily by Max B, Hayes, . Flippen. and his associates were caught at the Hippodrome a few weeks ago and reviewed then in de- tail. What is perhaps newsy and pertinent from Monday night's diver- tissements is the rejuvenated pit orr ehestra of the 81st Street; Some months ago when Keith's ceased being a cloistered order and reverted to business men, one of the first manifestos issued by the secular management was to sweep the cob- webs from, the trenches andi crown yo-de-o-do monarch of the subter ranean mezzanine. By official ukase all Keith houses now ha^;e 14 musi clans, and over all is a strangd new department brought into existence solely to supervise music. J>Jobody ever thought of that during the "old faSces" dynasty. For the first time in Keithi history the spotlight man has discovered the orchestra. Lou Fpnrian, neat-lobking baton marshall, is presiding over the pepped up buglers at the 8ist Street. They rendered "Crazy Rhythm! with something very close to a dance hall sock. This set the customers, and with Aesop's Fables'omitted by some happy chance (althoug^h pro gramed) the show got off like an end run. The Flippen revue occupied the boards 70 mlnuties and surprised by being amusing most.of tho time. A few of the bits scarcely justify the time, they consume, notably, the bar ber shop scene, anaemic idea. The squawks, however, are submerged in the general average of entertain ment. Good looking chorus . .with talent. . . "Warming Up" (Par) on screen, Biz fair. Land. BROADWAY (Vaudfilm) There comes a time in every man's life when he must borrow 10 bucks, wish ho wasn't a trade paper re^ vie.\\er and be assigned to sucli operas a.s that holding forth at the Broadway. A threo-aot bill with the loser a Iti-iHHiplo unit running one hour and hoadoil by IIu.i;hie Clark-, soils for yoc, aided and abetted by U feature fiickei-', '"i'he PbAver of the ,1'ros.s." Either way it's a toss- up, Clai'k and hi.s Gang (Now Aetsli are del)utiiig hereabquis, having been Orplieuniing it all season.: Clark s. backed by Dlek Lueke's Arcad- ians, double quintet, .and . sundry .song a.nd dance Specialists.'who in sequence make you liko it or.else. Opening are Trella and. Coi, family cycle ti'io doing acrobatics while in riVotiori on specially contrived hori- zontal bars, and tx^iiping off with a loop-thevloop effect on a. special rig- up. Act sei?n)s to have deteriorated from a novelty bike turn into a me- chanical exposition. Possibly the chill that pervaded the Broadway had something to do' with the re- action, but so striking Was the nega- tive effect of the act that although the .undersigned, originally noticed it as a new act some years ago he did not recognize the turn at all. Orig.' inally remarking on the woman's shapeliness, the Intervening years prompt a quallficflition and a .sug- gestion against the abbreviated shorts. Olive Olson, deucing it, tried hard to comede with restricted material. Her best effort, however, was. an an- nounced impression of Jariies'Bar- ton's ballroom lizard. An anony- mous pianist sans solo, something to_ be thankful for, accompanies. Miss Olse.n's 15 minutes total one number too long for an act of her type. Biz bum. . Abel. 86TH STREET (Vaudfilm) While only a fouir-acter on the program with two turns running un- usually long, the Proctor 86th Streeter had sufflcierit comedy Mon day to make the bill entertaining. Business good Monday night but the new house is still a novelty in the neighborhood. Two acts following each other at the tag end of the bill held tho main attention, . Jimmy Hussey closed the show.. Ho and company of 15, band, eccentric dancer, fern singer, male balladist and tap step per went right along to a sure-fire Kit; "Jimmy-had four numbers and. for good meaisure! gave them "Nathan, Waitin'V" It still has its comedy sweei>. Prior to the Hussey potpourr came Donald Kerr and Efile Weston with their "Stepping in Society" hit ting in high. Even after the hokum patter between the loads and the assisting sketchlsts Kerr and Weston went into their dances'and rieith'oi shirked a minute. A corking duo o funmakors, arid they .jgct a lot of fun out of their hoko foldcrol. Seems strange that the program still car- ries the name of the late James Ca.s- sady as one of the Co. Tlicre's a new unk in the. .skit yet C.TSsady's name was in big typo in the. lobby ■stands and on the program. The Pioneer Tap Uancors (New Acts) gave the show arr'opening sel- dom scon in this house. Audience recalled them .several times, and after tho lights were on for. the next turn. Nada Norrainc was second with songs delivered in a fine voice. Ilor ::ranK£:^iauJitgh. an d, she _h .l.tji Jiei^ top notes with ease. On one number "sTk' went into a low register that was of a baritone fullness. She display.s culture and at no time does her voice seem to be strained or Btretched beyond a natural range. On the screen, "Powder My Back" (Warner Bros,). Mark. AMERICAN SLICED HIPS (Vaudefilm) Remarkable : how absence of sprightly women specialists takes the edge off a bill. Coupled with that lack, this layout suffered from a sad dearth of strong comedy. Re suit was a listless audience and a dull entertaininent downstairs Mon day evening, " ^ Probably the hit would go to Ly tell and Fant, couple of young hoof- ers in blackface, who a. few years ago Were aspirants for early spot ting. Here next to closing, for which they are light. Preceding them were ■Milton Pollock and Co,, in one of those vapid farce comedy sketches all talk and wooden comedy, in style, humor and tempo dating batik to 1910, • There. are the two important grooves in the heavy spot of the evening running less than pretty good, ' . .. Nearest thing to laughing Inter- lude Was tli6 contribution of Shuler, Harris and Co. (New Acts), bur- lesque bit done in the burlesque manner, with Shuler doing a rich dialect Dutchman and making the tortured English funny. This sort of bill framing isn't going to do.tho family stands a bit of good. With the middle of the show weak, they had chanced upon a couple of nice specialty turns to start and. finish, Apollo Trio, opening,, three fine-looking athletes In gold paint and doing poses such as "Dying Gladiator" as the finish of striking harid to hand and. three high rou- tines. Idea is a good one. Instead of the usual parade upon the com- pletion of a feat, the gymnasts drop into a pose and hold it for an in- stant. Phil and Eddie Ross made a satis- factory No, 2, Two well-mannered and smoothly working singere of what used to be called the raths- keller type. Agreeable voices, and they stick to straight singing with- out talk or business, one at piano and other down center. Then Shuler, Harris and Co, for fair laughs, ' Crisp Sisters and Boya supplied' tho inevitable flash turn, graceful and agreeable number with some likeable feature.*!. The act has splved the brutal filling-in of gaps between dancers rather neatly. Crisp girls are on for a dance. While in their routine, the boys come on to whis- tle, or sing the accompaniment, which incidentally runS on ;until gii'ls arc away. Whereupon boy. song soloi.st or specially dancer steps in for the wait and girls, are back for .another numbif-r before the break has been noted. Girls have an espe- cially nice dance as their second routine, a quiet, casual bit of eccen- tric 6t(!pping.. Act neatly dressed and routined by an expert. ' Louise Wright overstayed for 16 mlhutes. Her character .sohg of an immigrant ^yoman is only fair and the incidental business is tiresomely elaborated, S.amo Immigrant 15 years Later as an advanced fiap was better. .Single character woman doesn't get ■ far at the American, and Miss Wright was no excpetifJn. "^Tfi?Tn==-Mi Itorr-^Pollcrck-^an d---Covi^a- blank in this spot and for this house, con.siderable awakening of interest, in Lytell and Fant, partlcul.lrly for their splendid dancing finish, an'J then Harriot Nawrot and Hoys, skating trio (New Acts), for the close. Jiush. (Continued from i>age 1) being privileged to lay her off for the other 12 weeks. She hasn't appeared on the screen since "Liltio yhepherdof Kingdom ■ Come," made many niontlis ago. In that picture she-Was so plump that thereafter directors passed up her name.with consistent porseveranee. About four months ag" Molly- waa infoinied that, under the circum-^ stances, it w.vs necessary for the obmpany to start her .on the 12- weeks salaryless. peripd, hold over from, the tirst year, a[nd that It would be followed by the open 12 weeks of tive second y«far without interruption, unless she reduced. Miss O'l^iay was also told that when: she did become slender again, she would be back in the fold, drawing salary, even if .it took, her two or throe times 12 weeks to make the grade. In view of the latter concession, Molly signed all the nccess.ary releases. First National made one curious .• stipulation.; It was not that the actress reduce to a certain weight, but that she reduce until she once more co.iild wear, as comfortably as. she. had originally, the first cos- tunie she wore in "The Patent Leather Kid," as a cabaret girL After the .first. 12 weeks Molly wa§ still unable to don the cabaret regalia without bulging, so the eec- ond 12, pheckless • weeks began. About this time, the actress decided that fun was. fun, but this . was something else again. For two weeks she rediiced with might and main and then appeared before thio. executives of the atiidio in the: cab- aret costume according to demand; The ofticial. o.lc; was put upon, her appearance and she vras put on sal- ary again. '' . ' But MoHy had only begiin her reduction. Last week, she went to the Queen of the Angeles Hospital and had several pounds of avoirdu- pois sliced from her hips and legrs. q,nd, in addition, went on a more strenuous diet than ever. . . Later she appeared at the P. N. studio, weak and .walking with a cane, but sylphlike and happy, and expects to see her name on the cast sheets shortly. ORIENTAL (Continued from page 37) to hand out a flock of requests right after that. Ben Blue picked tho tempo up and whammed 'em from all sides. Blue is no stranger here, haying played this, house four or five times in the past. They remembered arid called for some of his familiiar legomaniac .staridbys. Blue's comical falls Is what brought on the deep laughs, and stopped everything for him un- til he begged off. after putting In » boost for Keuger. Colorful flash for the finale in a tapestry tableau coming to life with the characters well plaiced. Them« for this nuniber . was "King, for a Day," put over in style. Preston Sellers, .second* week at the organ here, scored with , a neat little console novelty he called ."The Voice of the Movie Fan," tellers is an experlonded organist and knows all the angles. Loop. METROPOLITAN (Wired) (BOSTON) Boston, Sept, 17, The tilt in week-day prices of a dime more for the eritire house did not hurt business. The fea^ture-was "The Patriot," Town and critics have gone goofy over it. The house orchestra, has been cut and is. nq longer featured under Gelssler in the pit. Synchronization substituted arid camie through clear as a bell, although the few spots where voice, and effects were attempted were just ragged enough to cause unfa- vorable comriient. Picture ran 16 minutes longer , than ,avera.ge and resulted Iri the remainder of the bill being ;rathor unbalanced, the rest of the film fodder being mainly trailers. Gene Rodemlch, the dappei* m. c, is still vacationing, > and Arthur Mirtel, New England's best amuse- ment orgarii.st. Is permanently gone, with the organ no longer fe.atured, Ben. Black came in with the unit as m. c. and scored far bietter than the average substitute for . the prancing Modcrnlch, who goes big with the femme.s. The unit is "School Days," an Anderson, with Ray Bolger, Danc- ing Carr Family, Page Si.s'ters, Lu- cien Laltue and Virginia Ray. It Is a talky, gaggy departure from U)o .nutmaiU KniMl-.:Jlf.^-IUt I'duct 1 ons. and was probably whTttled~'fo-tHe" bono to make .schedule because of the length of the Jannlngs feature. "The P.atriot" was a great break for tljo house, which has been on the public pan In recent months for weak fUma. Libhv.