Variety (Mar 1929)

Wednesday. March 20. 1929 VAUDE House reviewis VARIETY 81 ORPHEUM (St. Vauda) . . IjOS Angeles, March 19. ftunday ntght at the IjOs Aiigeles /ivnVieuSni is UKe the old Monday Sl^^^at theTl^lace. New York £ attendance.^ The Bhow people of Slftown and Hollywood, are again iSuiii in the new weeUy Orpheuna ffiS U opening night. Thto mob £"co1d on the inalde and hot on^the antoWe. They applaud everything mental reservations. a; feasual obsiBrver would say thait rtt Sunday- night bunch Is the Joftest on earth, or that a tombstone , Solid get ah encore on the Qrpheum That's partially truA They ^ the encores an* some Xall for SiBm Like Nick- liucas, headllner S. this show. Next to dosing he atfl a jnarathon of encores that Sftuld make the Rice or Wilson Brbthera holler for rebates, Lucas and Olsen'and Johnson, the tatter holding «v« tof a second , mdc. are the money marks on this bl^ Good shows of late in. this ■ house have brought back the former Sunday attendance. But the good bJlta have siBnt. upMthe overhead so ;?ftr' that It Is unllk^y even with ' Si improved buslnesa the house has ' be«n af)le to le^i^ out.of the red. As the leading wig 'timer of the ' West and shortly .to be possibly the ■ only Orpheum big .timer left, the local Otpheum, p^lir maintains a top ^e of $1.B0 for .\freek days. This' Is 'a heritage of 'tlie -Helmanrcrazed daya and Is something for the R- ' K>0 bunch to-'l(iok':lnto. This EO- .oent'town is dlsszy wltli-blg shows at ■mail' prices. ^ Tlie .Orpheum has, a capacity of ^nearjy 2,500 and ehoultl. . te 4ble to compete with the heavy. ' etcture performances on a smtUl ' .veek-day scale.' ."If '- might tadUr^ tliictt6v a third' sho^'Saturday and ' SlAiday to hop.''It Into the black -jrbimatter what you<'thlnk of the -bake in the OIseiV!Jo)uMo»-turn/ ^ bQys wlth:..thelr act have thlp '-tinni sewed up. <:Besldes the hoke, ' however, intelllgeh&e comes forth in ;a '^uple of blackouts—one on - '"Sin^^ Interliide'* quite good and eitremely timely since- the Guild's ''.'long distance bunker la on a run -ihel'e 'ln a local house. The Olsen- ; Johnson turn closed the perform' ance after 11:1E wlth.no one walk' to«..., ">: .iiom a break-In at Fox Phlla ^'dtljpiila two or . three years ago at .'4250'.'Nick liUc^s Is now a topper ;at 11,200. That' crooner with his gul&r and In «t' fi;ock' suit Instead , et'a'' tux at night makes 'em take "'It'*'That Nick greatly resembles ' 'V^olfle Gilbert doesn't appear to be :4 liability In' this city, f .Somebody slipped over a local . ■adagio dance team, Don Lee and VUa. Louise. Local and looking^ it. They say Don's pop is in a thrifty ' iattto business and Don should listen ' lii^'that. The atitomoblle Industry i'doesn't sound. so badly after you j-watch Don. There's a small com- [iWoiy. aqd much,shawl with fan. .r'waylng. for Spanish dancing. ,And J the auto biz foi^ a young man still ' holds' opportunities. i^ter the SUndi^ matinee the bill was'.'juggled plenty. Sidney Marlon vgot the best of the breaks. Tanked \ot)tK>f next to closing at the after- . ,iio4)n petf orma|ice he closed the first .part at night. - That made an ^ct in «n.e. .just before - intermission. . Marlon may be funny in his own . .tight and he's, funny enough for vaude while sure&re for the family ^ade, but Marlon harks back to me_breat day^i of Sam Sldman for : his Dutch ideas'of comedy and pro- . nuneiatlon. Many say Jack Pearl ■ and let it go at that, but it still ' fevalns Sam Sldman. ' Marlon did better at night, in the easier spot ' (Ad, also became: a part. of the pisen-Johnson afterpiece, as did I'ucas and some of the others. ! Jack Benny in his fourth consecu- tive week as m. c. has a record here •S'i ""'y ^ overstaying m. c. out because of changing his own Mt weekly, in his fourth week and a new act, the house staff saying ^«nny is doing his best turn. In Jt is Mrs. Benny, Benny lll-adi- visedly refers.to her as his wife. Jack Is a personable boy. Sticking lor four weeks he's apt to pick up • ^""i® oame admirers out front. They ; rfWld renialn Bold. tor Benny's re- ' ™n> here, which Is aliAost positive, would lay oft the Intimate public" **** missus to the paying In handling the bill as It runs, ri^l"?^ *8 l>rlef and bright. Cer tainly for this show he's worth a v"t,?n the stage and by proper nanailng should be made to be worth ; more In the lights. ' it^,fS^^ Warren, In their mixed • 22=?'! «?>nedy turn, number three, iS? Braacks opened ana Olive Olsen not caught—with h«?.5"*J'<=*8 t'la.t If they don't make fliero this week the __^!L^5Sl£,.2_on't be caught either. ^anny Cairns' Melody Band Is P'feks old j„ the pit. In 12 unn!.^Kotxl and Play S'J*'''' '^«» "■ '«»• Buch a short ttiftw 1^ * yaude performance. They SbL^ «t"«zed also to back "up on we stage whenever required. biJn- i.^??^^*«'a' convention is ,,?}"? l>eld here dally and hlghtly •Mef. And Soph T ■ next week at $4,000. Sime. PALACE (St. yjiiide) . Just a fair elghi-aot show for the Palace, the Palace audiences and the Palace scale. The perhaps In- evitable slump . arrived after six terrific show and gross weeks at the ace house of the circuit. There has been' no apparent cheating on the salary end. This bill appears to be as costly (in salaries) as most of the recent ones and well up to the $12,000 average. That is to say, there Is no obvious cheating on the salary list as a whole. But close analysis reveals that they did have to economize here and there to remain even within the 12 grand limit. That's something to ponder over; the Pal- ace hard pressed to economize to stay under $12,000, the same Palace that expanded a yearly average of around $8,600 a week for all bills to a month oi* so ago. Three acts this week represent a probable $9,000. That's three ou^ of eight acts. The Benny Davis <^ang, Frank Pay (with Bara Stanwyck) and Harry Langdon are the heavy ihoney three. A pretty expensive foundation to start out with, and the show shows the result. Nary a genuine punch In the first part until the arrival of the Davis band and specialty turn, and Davis la cloWng the first part In' a repeat engagement at the Palace. A good start with Large and Morgneri^^nother Palace repeat witnin less than a year, because this team of monopedlc acrobats Is a > good one at second look as-well its at' Urai. And . then a l^ooklng break in the deuce, occupied by Amerlque and'NevlUe and th^ Neal Sisters, (New Acta). On paper this dance, song and In- ftrumefltal fiaA Isn't Impressive. Newness sticks out all over'.; and ,tKe turn Is at the Palace untried. Tet it held 'and landed well aa a tliuBti might be expected to here, and that's a break. EI Brendel end Flo Bert were .surprisingly off form Sunday after- noon. 'Material is -the answer. "Beau Night" is very much below the Brendel-Burt average - and shouldn't have been chanced at the Palace. The usual excellent playing of dumb Swede by Brendel ,ani^ th' straight dame by his partner' has^ been handicapped for want of soniethlnc^ to work with. Brendel has been In films since last In vaude, and la making use of the extra mugging-techqique he probably picked up In Hollywood. But the Brendel mugging and ^Iss Bert's one song (pop) are all that count until the breakaway suit, fin- ish, which ha^ always been the Brendel -finish, so nothing new. In contrast, Mary Haynes, No. 4, recitedilots' of smart stuff in four lyrlca^talk-songo, and made a good job of her -16 minutes. 'What she should le&m, however, la the'prpper way to use a, broom. The b^om ehteirs Into the housewife number. Miss Haynes sweeps the flpor while Slnerlng, Her. strokes are - short, choppy and mlilus Any follow through whatsoever, as in golf. The easy, graceful golf swing meets the ball squarely. The same principle applies to dust. Davis and gang (20), doubtleiisly the speediest band- act in vaude. plowed through 84 minutes and made them seem like 10, Benny had to speak oS in "one" after the an- nunciators had declared intermis- sion. It was the first solid kick In the first-port and badly neede<1. Harry tAngdon opened the second In his parlor skit, "dChe Messenger" (3), an enz that, as-an act, la 'way short of the talents of its-principal player. The material scarcity In both the Laitgdon and Brendel-Bert turns is similar and had about the same effect—that of the players get- Ing over themselves, but not be- fore meeting more than one obstacle along the way. Langdon would have done vastly better by returning to his old and well remembered auto skit. Like Brendel, Langdon depended mainly on muring and goof characteriza- tion and was far from himself when struggling with an indifferent script Following the full stage action, which was laughlesa but for Har- ry's facial business. I,angdon ap- peared before the drape, for five min- utes of Intimate talk, and topped off with a . comedy dance. That dance lasting about a minute brought more response than all of the preceding 17 minutes. Frank Fay. singling with a plan' 1st (man) and bringing on his pIC' turesque frau for a finish, ad Ubbed and flipped himself over In 29 min- utes and landed squarely as a next- to-closer. If not actually doing so, Fay has a method of seeming to be making up his gags as he croes along. He'probably does BO percent of the way, but it looks like 100 percent. Plenty of laughs In the current hodge-podge. He picks two fights with the wife and walks out on her through the audience, but It's all squared both times, On the last BtroH-Fay-pulled-the-trlBger-ot-a. blank .22 In the rear and then yelled "He's dead." Whereupon the missus went Into a Charleston. When at the Palace, Fay devotes most of his time to material that's strictly for that house only. "WTien away he's smart enough to ten them something they understand.-It Is equally lacking In continuity, but jiist as good In Its way. From the looks of things right now, when Fay Is through, playing In stock at the Palace, it will be time to tear the house down, . Leach Lq Quinlan Trio, veteran aerial troupe of .three women arid a man, closed to many walkouts. It's a rarity at the Palace when they stick through a silent closer. Show was speeded up all along the line. No stalling and over long before 6 o'clock. Business short of capacity Sun- day matinee, though not much. Floor filled to the banister, but box- es ragged. Early arrivals reaching to the street were roped off In the lobby and were gawked at by the departing ones-. More than <>ne guy probably thought he got Into the Paramount by mistake. It was noticeable t^at house didn't fill until 2.30. Looks like the early start on Sundays needs some broadcasting. Bige. FOX (BROOKLYN) (Wirml-Vaudfilm) The RKO Albee npW has some real opposition In downtown Brook- lyn, as will the other Brooklyn rlalto combination houses, -with this switch. of policy from a presenta- tion house into six acta of vaude- -vlUe—and what, -vaudeville.!. Get a load of thia show: Manhattan Steppera (1^), KTeller Sisters and Lynch, D6.ve AjpoUon Revti'^ Dooley and Sales, Blossom Seetey with Bennie FleldS and JImmIe Carr and his orchestra. Six wow acts and Fox'eT 100 per cent talker, "SP4ak' easy," now -in' Its second ^eeU at the sister house, the Roi^ 1^ Man- hattan, and .current at' -the Brook' lyn. stand. Jack'Iio^b is .iiow' booking Fox's as a vaudeville' house on .a fuU week policy with , shows t^ start on Mon days hereafter. Current' show, un- der the ' picture hoHise schedule, opened Saturday a^cl wlUsplay .nine days until n^ Monday. Something bad to 1^ doi^e about thia house and It loola like they've done it. Fox's $7,000,000 investment with ita 4,600 seats was not gross- ing what It should almost from the very start, although ..the advent of ' ,e Brooklyn-Paramount proved the final touch In crimping the Fox's grosses. The Paramount Is playing Tox - Mix and his fantious na^, Tohy, In person tMs Week, to buck the Fox's change of- policy, but according to first two days' biz It made, little difference. The door, man and ushersi who -are compar- able to the' walteirs bad coat room crew of a nite cliA or roadhodse as true barometera, of trade,"Say there never waa'',a :such a. rush -at this house, although they recall that "In Old Arizona" recently pulled 'em In a-plehty.. Frank Fay -was originally- slated to be part of this Show, 'to make seven instead of six acts, but LoCb and the house management fa;ced an embarrassment of riches and-called it off. Fay, Instead, is back again at the RKO Palace in Manhattan.' As it is. the Fox's six acta looks like a $7,000 pay roll; with two- sevenths of a 'week extra consider- ing the nine days. At that dough they should do busfaiess. Change ' of - policy also entails three shows dally vrith four on week-ends as against the previous four-a-day picture house grind with five frolics On Saturdays and Bun-' days. The juvenile Manhattan Steppers (12) with concerted rhythmic danc- ing, variegated by other interludes, opened. Edith Van and Dave Kraft are featured. Keller Sisters 'and Lynch, standard harmony trio, next The Dave ApollQii Revue. wlth.Dan- zl Goodal, Irene Smith c^d the Ma- nila Sereqaders Is a thoroughly sat- isfying reyuette. Apollon's own ver- satility Impresses from the start. J, Francis ;booley and Corlnne Sales, variety veterans, panicked the BrooklynlteS while Blossom Beeley with Benifle Fields, just out of "Greenw^h Village Follies," more than sustained the topllne dis- tinction. Miss Seeley rdnialns .a peer among jazz song delineators, 'With Fields a worthy and sturdy co- worker, J^mle Carr, the self- styled doctoi^ .of melody,' with his jazztsts, closing were the final top- off fiash. The. 60 and 76-cent scale on a grind remains. With shows of this type, plus the Fox Movietone short and full-length pictures. Loeb should do. for the Brooklyn house what Edgar Allen did for the Acad- emy at the time that house first opened. Allen, then Fox's vaude- ville booker, faced the same prob- lem at the 14th street house, where Fox's own City and - Keith's Jeffer- son was doing the -combination pol- icy business in the neighborhood. The Academy 'waa a dud until Allen convinced his auperlora that the- ca- pacity permitted $8;000 shows to a four bit grind and put the house- across. The '4;600 capacity at Fox's. 'BroSKiyn -oertalnly-permita-ffc-repe— titlon of a similar booking coup, al- though -admittedly the Academy never had- the strong opposition the Brooklyn house has, what with the Albee. Paramount',- Strand, -Loew's Metropolitan,- not to mention the neighborhood houses, the art-y Mo- mart, the St. George's sure-seater on Pineapple atriit (no klddln') and the like. . A.UI. STATE (Wired—Vaudfilm) Considering Lent and a pretty goshawful five acts of vaudeville. George Jessel Is dra'wing 'em nicely with "Lucky Boy," the feature. George Price was slated for head- line honors, but Healy and Cross substituted as a last-minute switch. a regular thing. If the filcker feature Is a particular smash, the State cheats on one act and cuts do'wn to four. As It Is, they've hooverlzed the stage .portion down from six to five acts, giving Fox Movietone News a> spot as a fea- ture. Considering the 100 smack- ers' rental for the sound reel, that's almost as much as one of those yard - and - a - quarter deucers they formerly spotted here to round out the usual quota of six acta. With JesSel still an unknown screen quantity. It actually behooved the Loew bookers to fortify a dubious filcker draw 'with a sturdier stage presentation, but seemingly they doped it otherwise. /Perhaps they figured, and in a measure aright, that Jessel, if no place else, Is sure' fire on Broadway, Be that as it may, the variety section was far firom satisfying. Two dumb acts followed in sO' quence, the Three Flying Henrys and the IJme Trio, a twofold repe titlon- as to type and numbers. The Henrys are aerlalists—usual caster and flyer and eccentric comic relief, in this case, the anchor '"man" (bearer) Is the femme of the trio. The Limes are a contortive nov- elty, with "the gollywog" pseudo- puppet the backbone of the presen- tation. The porters manhandle and contort the /seemingly Inanimate prop in unusual manner, extraordi- nary at least so far aa the elasticity of the contortlonlat Is CMicemed. Trey hisld "Ship Ahoy," lone of thoae nautical revuettea of sl:k peo' pie, equally divided-as to sex,'with the usual silly complications when the three frails don gob attire,' The ensign, of course, Iq chairacterlstlc stage fashion, falls to recognize the amorous situations between the pseudo-gobs and the real- sailors as ahythlng but "nance" stuff, That'a about the scope of the comedy. De M^ and Lester are the featured pair; former is the comedIenne,vand Lester is this outstanding aero stepper. Ed Healy and Alan Cross are a curious anomaly. Doing their Van and Schencklsh planologs4or a deC' ade- now, they seem to have been standing still for some time -or making little nobble progress other than the natural establishment of a rep In the . biz as good song pedr diers. About thp most noticeable embellishment -recallable Js their present flair for raiment, flashing becoming formal evening attire, toppers and the usual props. Their-song delivery Is about the same as it was' 10 years ago. Cross still carries the lyric burden >and Healy still lets -fals trick tenor get out of control when l)lt,tlng the hlgli registers and acting up too strenu- ously. Unlike Van and Schenck, the team hasn't yet grasped - the full significance of lyric values, as well as the advantages of special or- chestrations, special material, dis- tinctive patter and, above all, the strength of novelty and story lyrics. They do their Tin - Pan Alley stuff almost as orthodox as the tune- smiths fashioned It, -plus the'stock professional patters and extra choruses. Healy and Cross, as a standard team, guarantee the music men as much of a plug as do Van and Schenck or any other song salesmen, and should be In position to command the "extra special'' at- tention which only a professional manager can ordain on an act's be- half. Let them hold out for special and restricted versions, and Healy and Cross 'wUI surprise themselves, for, after all, they can handle the material—If they only had It. They should shop around In the open market for their stuff. If they did so, they'd not be doing those two similar type songs about childhood reminiscences, starting off with the same Introductory, "I wish I wuz a kid again." Not that-Healy and Cross, after all this negative discourse, didnt click. In truth, they stopped the show; perhaps they jockeyed a hit unduly to force the stoppage, but tie it up they did. The fact re- mains that the boys, with proper thought cart advance themselves considerably and Increase their professional value twofold. "Masterpieces," closing, was an 11 people fiash featuring Lola Brava. They combine posing and musical specialties. In retrospect, for comedy returns, the Fox Movietone News reel got the biggest guffaw when one of the Siamese Twins (GIbbs sisters) as- sured the other, who Is about to be jaiarrlcd,_lJial_;.IJui<UtJi«L.wJlLJake good care of you, Margaret," Not until the literal significance of this penetrated fully did the Stat^ mob roar, but eventually they got It and laughed almost right into the first act. ' Billy Barnes at the console was the overture Interlude, The Fox and M-G-M (silent) news reels fol- low and then the vaudeville, ^bel. DAVIS (St. Vaude) Pittsburgh, March 19. Layout here this week starts out great, goes flat In the middle 'and Uien picks up for a fairly Imposing close. Not a name' on the bill, ex- cept Edna Wallace Hopper, who's purely a femme draw and out en- tirely as far aa typical vaudeville entertainment Is concerned. Plenty of youth and lookers on view, how- ever, something this house hasn't seen In a long time. Even with paucity of names show doesn't drag and is acceptable fare though not the calibre of two-a- day. Runs well over two and a halt hours, which Is too long for what talent there Is. First halfs only quiet spot Is Miss Hopper closing intermission, but last half too much of same thing with two miniature revues. Best Monday afternoon mob In long time, women predominating. Audience went for everything and turns weren't selfish, giving several encores and more than once doing themselves more harm than good. Everybody -was In jovial mood. Opening nad Mazrella's Bird Cabaret with two' femmes, putting pigeons, chickens and parrots through acrobatics, dancing and imitations. Scenlcally perfect, ttae- turn novel and got returns, unusual for oi>ener. Familiar deiicer was Freddie By- ron ^d' X^ldle Willis ,ln a dAnce ' turn that came'libar stopping .the show. Boys do some trick stieppjnjj; . that combines Patrlcoia and . |%t, Rooney.'. Got a great hand. < Book-. -. ers' have been feeding consistently; good deiice diance' turns here, but' this one Is cream of lot. Toby Wilson, third, In a skit called ':"Oh, Henry," was -well liked; Carries a crackerjack dance team.- In Sidney and Peggy Page, though latter loses something by singing. Talklpg is ^nly sp-So. but when'She warbles It's gwod-bye. Next to in'-^' . termlsh came ^ith Kvans and Ray Mayer, and they cleaned ' up In Sreat- faahlont ^layer's mucrging ckling- the femmes, and some - whiskered'gags getting by solely on-- dellvety. Turn was a natural. Miss Hopper closed the half and - things quickly took torn for. worse. Ten minutes of film, showing her before and after, slowed the act . dbwn, and her ga^ plastic Bur>' ^ery and drab.flnlsh with some exer- cises did her ho good, Something a- little snappier tor a close wouldn't - hnrt , Carl Swjm and Jean Carroll, as- sisted by two men and two attrao- tlve girls' at the pianos, op^^^ed... after jlntermlsh with a dance, r^'rae; tUEit was fast but couldn't qfilte,.' make the grade;' - Larry Rich and Cherle followed In a' proKoguis. to" their band meti which' tilosed.. This didn't nie^ •' thing and. gave -the band a'handi- cap to start yf^tb. Musical, aggre- gation'is 'ibf ft<JBp the hot nunfbecpr but Idsea Its'^liectlv.^nesS Jn mjldly senUm'ental^'iiiLnnbera Rich st^ed'' on too long, almtfst 40 minutes. jDean Twins also danced In ..pool- ing, which gave bill plenty of ei$p-ff pel's. After Bjpron-'Willis turn,- no- [' body could ekcel in this line apd everythingsuffered. Cfthen. ' ACADEMY iWired-VaudflIm) . - Acts going down to Mr, Fox's ■ Academy have two things now to bear in mli)d. First, that no. mat- ter what type or Strength numerl-' cally, position ^slgnment -means notlilng, and a slash of time can lie expected^ so that the house can- shoot its complete stage and' screen show in by 11:30. Acts that may be allotted 26 or 40 minutes oi^ other programs have to chop here-, and the same'condition is non as- serting itself in other Fox houses ib the city. This cutting was noticeable in Monday night's show, although the apparent slashing right in the opening act. N. T. O's "Broadway Ehres" (New-Acts) didn't appear to^ hurt It to any great extent, as there ' was plenty of dancing to follow In subsequent turns. Bobby Henshaw and Relatives (New Acts), due to the addition of band, three specialty gals besides himself, his brother and sister. And. this act, which would be placed tar-t ther down on any other bill, was on No. 2 and, following the Gran- lund "flash," didn't ftfre badly In this deuce spot at all. Two big acts, big In type of pre- sentment and personnel, opening the show and following each other. Is something seldom seen; yet It was about the only arrangement, i Carded next w.£re Pressler and Klalss, but an accident in the after- noon to the male half of the team- put it out of bill. Substituted at night 'was Kitty O'Connor, female baritone. And what a strong pair - of pipes this Irish girl has4 . Not since the memorable days of He- lene Mora has a woman, brought ETuch a melodious baritone register I'o vaudeville:—And'-she-enunelates- got a true test in this big. house well. Her voice and Its delivery and met all requirements. The Markert Dancers next; IS girls with clocklike rhythmic step- ping were a 4ellght and showed VP some of tiie chorine dancing arouhdy, Featured with the turn are Jean (Continued «n page 62).