Variety (Jan 1929)

40 VARIETY REVIEWS Wednesday, January 16, 1029 VaudeviDe Reviews; derella." That goes for the Idea, talent arid mounting. Miss Sparrow Is an attractive danseuse whp res< Istors, also dressing, with her mag netlc personality. The act kids the Cinderella theme as abused on Broadway. The support comprises a neat ap- pearing tenor, sister team, . elon- gated dianclng comic and another mixed team of eccentric's. All fit In neatly and contribute helpful spe- cialties with the combined result a smash hit. Just the Iclnd of. flash vaude . audiences should go for heavy. Edba. 86TH ST. (Yaudfilm) Comedy in four acts out of five partially wiped away the stains of mutiny aboard the ship on which the feature film, "Scarlet Seas" (FN), centered. Enough blood in the picturie to make any audience see red, and then enough comedy on the stage to make It laugh. Comedy In four acts out of Ave. That's quite out Tof the ordinary. . Frank X. Silk (New Acts), bur.: lesque name in a vaudeville house, should have been the laugh hit arid wasn't. He had the supposedly sweet next-to-closing spot, with lit- tle, cause. But for two special songs, opening arid finishing, Silk's monoi- ogistic material was almost as sad as the feature lilm. That should be a good reason for Silk to grisib a talk writer who can write something better than the obviously home-bre'd stuff now usedi r '• Good coniedy start, however low, with Little Jim (New Acts), wres- tling bear, two plants and a straight, all meri. Jim is the beat.. He's more of a novelty than a. comic, though sufficient comedy is derived from a slapstick and slaps. iri "the. face by the plants, so it's a comedy act. Falls, Reading arid Boyce were in form and deuced it. With its youth, appearance, .daricing a.rid acrobatic excellence, this is orie of the best and most logiiial iiuriiber two acts in vaude, in spite of its silence. It would, be logical and just as good a No. 2 at the Palace as anywhere. Only the tendency of placing these three kids on a bill opened by a:ri- other dumb act should be avoided. Renie Rlano is a comedienne far ahead of her sketch arid company. Silk and Miss I^anb are about in the same boots, although Miss Riano is considerably bett.er oft from the standpoirit of mat^rfal. She is easi- ly a big-time comic, but her "Love School" skit doesn't prove it. Renie's hit here did not contradict that be- lief. Billy "Wells and the Four Fa-ys, featuring Wells' pantomime ania laughable dancing and hplding a lot more In the efforts of the three Fay girls and theic nominal brother, fol- lowed .Silk to close the show. The layout had three comedy turns In succession, with a fourth opening the bill and the deucer the lone se- rious item. Usual Sunday night capacity—or unusual? - . Bigei 58TH ST. (Wired) (Vaudfilm) Mae Murray, back from, the flickers, copped top honors ot the first half show here Sunday niglit. With a capacity house, she was given an ovation ori entrance and even a more prolonged one at get- away. Blonde and agile Migs Mur- ray wafted her way through her dances as if floating on air, reg- istering in each and recalled for "Merry Widow Waltz" and a cute getaway bit. Solis's Marimba Band accompanied her for the dances, some given as solos and others with male dancing partner unbilled. Helen Arden and Three Musket- eers opened and. got over in a classy song and dance revue. Miss Arderi is an attractive dancing ingenue with pleaisarit singing voice. . Her support is a riiale trio of singers and daricers. Ryan Sisters went over rieatly in the deucer with harmony numbers spaced by flip "chatter and register- ing. Benriett and Richards, male twosome, were successful in stim- ulating much applause in return for their likeable- combo of nifties arid dancing. Anger and Fair; iflanked by two males, offered a comedy flash of revue order which kept them yell- ing, thanks to the nut antics of Anger with Miss Fair contributing her daintiness as well; as vocal and dancing to good merit. Got over in a big way In closer here. "Scarlet Seas" (FN) screen fea- ture. Edba. New ANITA STEWART Song Cycl« 8 Mine; with Stage Band Granada, San Francisco : Alter a long period as a picture star, Anita Stewart, oft th6 screen except Intermittently . for several" years, made her stage debut as a singer as an added attraction with the Piibllx "Hi-Hatr" unit, hepe cur- rently. Miss Stewax;t opened . cold, but . registered. Her screen chairm and personality of the old Vitagraph days hav6 not deserted her. Garbed In white, her blonde hair stood out strikingly, and thiere were many gasps among the femmes over the youthful personality. Opening with an appropriate number, "I'll Get By," Miss Stewart revealed a soft, high soprano, at no times screechy^ arid warbled with appar- ent ease. "Second number, littlei heavier, waS "Estralllta," which clicked solidly. -For ain encore she sa.ng 6, ballad. Jovita Jordan accomp?inIed, with the Grauada stage band as a. back- groundJ Based on her Iriltlal ap- pearance, Miss Ste^wart looks Hke. :a bet in the fllm houses If her name can now be made to stand lip for the b, 0. EdAcarda. KENNEDY and WARREN (2) Blackface 12 Mine.; One AeademV (V-P) Chicag|o , Possibly an experienced black- face comedy team, but revievvred here because .a comic of ability is going to waste in the cheese halls. The boy has a striking sense of gag delivery, jetting laughs out of stuff that trips over Its own beard. His bony frame arid skull-like head make a prettily handled char- acterization all the better. Most of his ' materiar Is no good and iK'ill hold him back. Comparison of a cow to a baby, .and In very vulgar taote, is an example of how far astray his material has led him. Blacked-up straight In sweater and crooked cap does little to help. The comic should go into the sock to buy a decent script, get a straight who can, sing or hoof a worthwhile solo, aiid elimiiiatiB some of his own attempts at hoof- ing. He has the talent to put over real comedy. Bing. HARRY ROYE and Co. (3) Dance Revue 20 Mine.; Full (Special) Palace (St. V) Harry Roye, formerly of Roye and Mayei and recently the pro- ducer of a number of class dance ensembles, returns In person with three . girls, Dorothy Morrison, Dorothya Magyary and Mary_ Lin- ken, in support. Always rated in the big league—at least for the last seven , years or so—Roye with his present line-up expands his rep. Revue Is not sensational nor overboard on costly trappings, but it is there on talent, tempo, grace- ful routines and routining. Roye appears to have added cloak twirl- ing as a new technique. In a Span- ish number he manipulated a ired- lined dolriiari with some novel variations of his own that brought applause. A class dance act in toto. Land. IRENE BURKE REVUE (3) Songs and Dance 12 Mins.; One (Special) American, Chicago (V-P) Formerly the De Soto Duo, Indian singing turn. Now carrying a youthful dancer, a girl no more than 15 and. probably the daughter. All are garbed in Indian togs, with the stage set in same fashion, tepee and all. Gal is lithesome and not a bad bender. After a slow opening by the older couple^ the. kid saves the finish with a few hot steps' that okay the exit. Should fit In the intermediaries. ' Loop. PALACE (St. Vaude) The current Palace bill is pretty good, but never does it manage to. rise up and get in a real wallop. The hand thing is repeating with. Jan Garbcr this week on the tali end of a cycle of Jazz that included In sequence Ted Lewis, i*aui White- man and George Olsen. Also, as ah Item of careless booking is the similarity between the opening: ^it, Nine Allisons, and the closing act. Dock Shine Troupe (New Acts). Will Fyffe, proriiinently featured In all hilling and at last recognized as box office, experimented witn new material and did nut win his customary high honors, although he had an ample margin when he begged off after the third number, his drunk classic. Fyffe complains of the English music halls that they restrict him to his tried and proven numbers. After all, there Is always danger In the trying and proving. Indeed, it Is this very danger, and the fear of it, that makes slaves and Imi- tators out of most of the show busi- ness, not forgetting Hollywood. Fyffe is an artist of ultra-super versatility and talent and should Ipse no stature for having, deliber- ately chosen to leave out sure fire numbers in his progressive Idea to keep changing and Improving, It Is he who is the superior showman, not the afraid-of-everything-new members of the profession. Not that Fyffe was ever In dan- ger of flopping. Simply that he did not create the whirlwind of eri- thusiasm he has upon preylous visits to the Palace, The comedy department was fur- ther represented by Glenn and Jenkins, standard, and Arthur and Morton Havel, recently with "Just a Minute," a musical in the ware- house. Glenn and Jenkins, who seem to change their gags constant- ly, were not dovetailing in their chatter as smoothly or as effectively . as in previous appearances. The •wricopated bootblack Is a valuable adjunct, but once Is enough and ex. hausts the novelty. They did well, but more was ezpecled. The Havel boys are a droll pair who sing, dance tuid have a prlce- l^s sense of light comedy. They are doing their old fict, which was the nucleus of "Just a Minute," Harry Archer's tunes and Walter O'Keefe's lyrics, borrowed from the musical, prettily embellish the turn. Ray Huling's trained seal, always reliable and' diverting vaudeville, occupied the deuce. Nine Allisons., the opening turn. Is a wow tumbling and acrobatic llne-up. Harry Roye and Co, (New Acts), dance revue of class dimensions and appeal. Main floor solid Sabbath matinee. Land. STATE (Vaudfilm) .With Jimmy Hussey topping, a pretty fair band (Tommy Chris- tian's) sub-featured, and the veteran Josephine Harmon In a third act, one couldn't perceive tlie remaining )three acts making much difference ^at the State. Boyd and Wall with a snappy five minutes of Iron-jaw, slack wire and contortive acrobatics were satisfac- tory enough openers. Clark and O'Neil are there in speed, but the two-man act Is still a disjointed bit and number sequence. No. 3. Billy Purl and Co. (7) with Purl of Billy House proportions and style, bespeaks of more genuine talents, but with that Impossible farce it's a case—with 11 of the bottles missing. If from burlesk, as he suggests, he couldn't miss with any of the old bag of trlx; why this hopeless and hapless routine? Clocked for 26 minutes. It rari for days. The life-saver was Josephine Sa- bel,- 63-year-old vet, who is cast for an Impossible role In the farce, obvi- ously Just for the afterpiece. Came the dawn and Josephirie Harmon assisted by Florence New,- ton. That's the billing, split over two cards",.- each name sharing an annunciator placard. Same routine of knockabout hoko with .the young partner as contrast to MiSs Har- mon. Comedy is broad, thick and fast. Anything for a laugh and plenty of returns. Jimmy Hussey, with Jack Allnlan Btraighting as the copper, was in high gear with the usual Hussey- lams, Including a couple of dialect £jjitties, both old boys but originating with Hussey and done with distinc- tion. They still like the idea of a Bon of Erin giving an imitation of a son of Aaron. Tommy Christian and . his band eIos(id, Here's a dozen jazzists Who, .,™bv,.theaeL.day3=ot.,v-eEsatIle=stage^band^ entertainment, still manage to click nicely, chiefly on the music. Nor Is it flossy orchefjtral stuff. Those heavy arrangements are certainly a thing of the past and wouldn't com- mand half the attention that the impeccable Christian does with his equally dapper assistants who merely dispense good snappy synco- pation In orthodox fashion. When they play the "Tommv C.'hi'isLian Ktonip," jin original con- ceit, no inisLukirig but that it's tlitt stomp and torrid; not honky-tonk cacaphony suddenly gone swank. That applied also to, "St. Louis Blues," their routine encore closer. It wasn't heavily orchestrated; It was brisk and punchy, and that> chorus vQcallst, while he didn't quite sing the unexpurgated. lyrics, was sufficiontly faithful to the original to lend the Handy blues classic the necessary wallop. Christian's band is further forti- fied strongly on collective appear- ance. Without boing baHyhooed as collegiate, they look more ,campus-y than many another self-styled var- sity aggregation. The band pos- sesses a drummer-comedian, Art Barnett, who is an individual card and suggests strong personal poten- tialities as a performer.' Jimmy Flynn plugging a Remick catalog made the overture spot worthy with chorus slides. The cus- tomer's liked Flynn's voice. The song trio included "Revenge," the theme of the .Del Rio feature cur- rent at the State. • M-G-M and. Fox- Movietone news reels preceded. In the .latter, the cutting of the Julius Rosenwald address 6n economics was bad. judgment. "The Chi philan- thropist was made to jerk sharply frorii one expression to another in quite a freaky manner. Biz good all Over, Ahel. ACADEMY (Wired) ' (Vaudfilm) First half bill at this Fox aeer acceptable but not up to standard. The tipoff must have gone around after the matinee Monday since there was plenty of room Monday night instead of the usual standees. Plenty of flash and sight features on the six-act bill that badly needed a couple of good comedy acts to make It jell. Seven Candreva Brothei's, danc- ing cornettists, opened with an ac- ceptable Instrumentation and hoof- ing, splitting the offering into three ensembles and a ©ouple of solos. Cortini,, male magician with girl assistant, followed with a conjur- ing routine that held. Lifting coins out of air arid paper trick clever and mainstays of the act. They liked It. Lillian Morton, singing comedi- enne, had a song repertoire Incor- porating a couple of dialect num- bers that tickled. The getaway ballad with accompanying recitation was overdone Monday night, losing most of Its wallop probably due to the comedienne's inability to gauge her stuf^ for the large house yet. Despite Miss Morton grabbed a good hand and came back for an- other straight number that fared much better, the latter done as an encore. Guy and Pearl Magley Revue clicked In next niche« on ability and class. It's a six people song^nd dande revue built around, the danc- ing team with their contributions, especially the adagio, copping, A sister team, harmonists and dancers, girl Solo dancer and male pianist In support, doing, their stuff between the three major contributions of the Magleys. Buster West galloped off with his hoofing. Flanked by his dad, John West, and unbilled blonde girl, West hoofed all over the place. Act is practically the same frame as always, A semblance of comedy is thrown in aqd helps but It's Buster's footwork that counts.- Mbdena's Fantastic Revue, nine people singing and dancipg flash, closed and got over. •'Harmony en- sembles of mixed sextet were ear soothing while the contributions of the dance team were far above average. Probably the bookers counted too heavily on Lillian Morton and Bus- ter West, Individually, to fill the comedy void. They were not enough. "Beware of Bachelors" (Warner's) and Movietone features In screen division. Edba. JEFFERSON (Wired) . .(Vaudfilm) GrOod bill, but slim attendance at the opening show Sunday, gra,dually flUing for the middle show. Five stage acts, Winnie Llghtner on Vltaphone and "Scarlet. Seas" (F- N) as screen feature. Gladys Joyce and Girls opened with a nice combo of instrumcntals, singing and dancing, presented like- ably and riiaking good for the spot. Foster, Fagan and Cox, male trio, clicked with sonie good harmon- izing, handled legitimately and oc- casionally topped off with welcome clowning, Jim and Marion Harkins prac- tically did a double act, first with an ;.ab.br.oviated--edition--Qt=-their--Ghat*- tcr iand song twosome, giving way later to "The Family Ford," for- merly done by W. C. Fields. De- spite having been around before with Fields the car skit Is still there. . Harry Hlnes clowned his way to usual good results In next to shut with his "nance" gags tickling espe- cially and mock delivery of ballad.<i also grabbing laughs, Ida Mny Spjirnnv ixncl Co..clns- Ing, h.ave a g.on^ in ''Kkldiiig Cin- 81 ST ST. (Vaudfilm) Quite a show at this house the first Imlf and an accidental oddity In layout which lent the initial Irii- presslon that It might be an ex- -perlmental-Mea-In-booklngr^It-de-^ vlated so n^uch from the orthodox styl6 of bill plottlnfifcathat the sus- picion prompted a check-up with the subsequent conclusion that it iust happened that way. It placed Marion Harris, closing a six-act lay-out and okay any- way because of the Barthelmess fllm feature following. The laugh wow was the Michon Brothers, lirobably the greatest act of its kind In the world. The Michons were (Continued on page 49) AH SAN LU and Boys (4) Dances and Music 12 Mins.; Full American (V-P) Ah San LU ostensibly Is a' Chinese girl wholijias put in con- ^sjderable..jtim6^1e!^nlng.-.^ batic routine. Her steps for the most ixxrt run along the contor- tionlstlc stripe to musical accom- paniment. The "boys" appear In native Chinese garb, first showing their country mode of muslcking and then going In for stringed numbers with three banjos predominating. Act closed the first part at the American. Did fairly well Mark, Acts JAN GARBER and ORCH. (16) 30 Mins.; Full (special) Palace (St V) Jan Gorber, nariie bandsman, foU lows Whltemian and Olson at the Palac9, an Invidious sequence, since neither In reputation or perform- ance do the Gerberltes compare with the other two organizations. But judged individually the band Is Impressive. It «ever heats up; to wow temperature, yet It grooves easily, and keeps up a breezy pace and a pleasant level of entei-tain- Thent. A ve ry attractive dancing team, Kay and Jack, Interrupts the mu- tslcal routines for some colorful stepping that enhances the band's value for vaude. There Is the usual sol- stuff, vocal -and pedal, from various of the band boys and some "business" fo^ laughs. It Id done neatly with nothing attempted that Isn't within their range of talents. With Its Colunibia ' records for background this band should be an okay feature for Keith or other yaude, If electing to remain In this departnient. (iarber has been around the vaude" circuits befoVe. liand. FOUR SIDNEYS Tight Wire : 8 Mins.; Full American (V-P) Soniethlrig about the general lay- -out here,: in personnel and routine that Indicated the Sidneys have, been in. the varieties for some timci Three men and a woniah. Oldest of the quartet doesn't do wire work, affecting comedy. garb arid putting a dog through some trained stunts. The youngest of the meri par- ticularly the younger of the two who keeps busy on the wire Is a capable performer. He handles him- self gracefully. His standout ac- cording to announcenient was "the longest jump ever done on a wire" wherein he leaps across four chairs. The feature trick of the other man on the wire was a somersault without the aid of a pole or balanc- ing fan. Nothlrig extraordinary but as a whole effective for what is done on the wire, . Mark. BENNETT-DRURY and Co. (4) Dancing'. 16 Mins.;'One American (V-P), Chicago Mixed couples and youthful in collegiate attire. Girls look good and count for whatever the act may be worth. Two boys, while pass- ing in hoofing, try for comedy with no results. They should stick to thei leg work and cut the comedy. Of which they haevn't the slight- est conception. • ' With the two gals showing sightly limbs and attractive faces this turn can get by after some trimming. Best. Item Is a radium treadmill, effective for the finish. Loop. ALLEN and FRANCIS (2) Song, Talk and Dancing 10 Mins.; One Academy (V-P) Chicago Light eortiedy deucer with too filany blank spots to attract." at- tention. Man starts by singing a Spanish ditty with red blanket thrown, over his shoulder, and breaks into a few very familiar gaga when, his girl friend comes out. Then she sings a ballad like nobody should, v From then on It's eccentric hoof- ing, the gent doing his best stuff for the act's only interfcsting piBriod, and the girl coriilrig on to finish with him in goof costume. Passed cold. Bing. FRANK X. SILK Tramp Monologist 12 Mins.; One 86th St; (V-P) Frank X, Silk was a prominent name in burlesque. He's probably still 0. name In burlesque. But what's In a burlesque name to- day—It!s:;^mostly--dame-^ariywayr---=- Silk was among the best tramp comics In burly. He should be just £l3 good a comic. In vaude, but hot With, burly material. That's his present fault In vaude. Burly ma- terial. His broad double entendre Just doesn't belong. Silk Is making a riitstake and wasting excellerit hobo characterization upon the'-wrong kind of an' act. Special songs at start and finish. Bige.