Variety (Nov 1929)

Wednesday, Novembet 6, 1029 VAUDE HOUSE WEVIEWS VARIETY 47 Mlnele rose up to the Pathc star the conclusion^ of her ast. Miss Joy seemed . to deeply appreciate thlB simple token of esteem. Rou- tine unaltered, Miss Joy's dressing numher and her Impresplon of the French star who tries.to break Into films, closing, found hearty re- sponse ainonB TorkvlIlelteB. ■Star's pianist, .Mildred Brown, eoiild greatly improve her make-up, There's so much red In the cheeks. That may be aeen "^clearly from the tack of the theatre. With Miss Joy's act needing the Btage lis fa' back as; "three," she was spotted third, with Bob Hope next to closing, and Arthur Petley and Co., aerial novelty, closing, Alpo a full-stage act at opening, Hear Prudlna, with a dance flash, and No. 2 . turn with special scenery In one and a half.- Hope (New Acts) managed to get through next to closing satisfactor- ily enough, but the sting of some of his gags stand a chance of being taken out If the. Keith office feels badly the day they are heard or re- ■^orted. Material; at opening of KHOpe's act not so strong, but dur- f Ing Interlude with unbilled girl as- r Qlstant on, It goes surefire In a big I way. • .n . looking for lines good. Keith atidlences should' not hear, office may .find some also In Bond and Elinor's act (New Acts), in the deuce spot. A couple are honeys, especltLlly the reference to "black bottom,'- but no one's morals will be endangiered, despite Keith's ob-^ vlous worry .over anything founid In bin here. Maybe that's another thing wrong with vaude, too Sun- day-scho6Ilzed on the same stages where talkers seein to say and do what they please. Jfor a* No. 2 act, Bond and Elinor got across nicely, their drlnglng bit being something different for a Blis- ter, team. Closing act (Petley) stronger than «fCerlfig on reverse end of show. "Dance Vanities," being- a flash, could have been put On the other end, but In view of way Petley's trampoline casting act, with Its comedy and cleverness, gets across. It's Just as well probably things are as is. Hear Prudlna heads, "Dance Vani- ties/' very similar in routine to act •Variety" flies has listed as "Dance Vogues," and caught two years ago. Running time that act, 18 minuteis, pi'esent one, 15. ' Preceding vaude bill, James P. Thomas,', theatre organist, offers "The Gang's All Here," collection •f special "and. pop stuff, thrown oh ' screen with Invitation to audience r to raise their voices In song rather than protest. Among numbers get- ting plug are "Through," "I'll Al- ways Be In Jjove With You," "Am -I Blue?f' "Baby, Where Can Tou Be," "Wedding of Painted Doll" and -You're Mean to Me." The organ ballyhoo Is stretched out a little long, but Thomas won his point finally, getting customers to loosen up on pfpies. Pathe Sound News filler. 58TH STREET (Vaudfilm) A feood show first half, and no 1>allad singers. Acts flopping in this vicinity have found "Old Fashioned liady" or "Mother Machree" a greater pulmotbr for comeback than the flag in other spots. But Satur- day night they all flagged both, Baclanova, Russ vamp from •creen, truanting In vaude since the chirpies went In, came nearest by *nnouncIng she'd soon be an Amer- ican citizen. No ..flags but plenty of applause. For better spots some- one can edit It out of the gab. Jack and Blllye Cavanaugh, mixed, opened with whip snapping *nd roping, adequate for spot. Burns, West and Dale, three men With two under cork, clicked with a hodge-ppdge of nifty nonsense *nd songs. The boys under cork taock off a joint and are dividing tne spoils when a copper mooches Jn. After that It's mirth provoking «rossflre. Boys are ; spotted next In durance vUe, with copper prom^ islng to release If they make good JTlth Instrumental stuff. They do. Good comedy act that can develop xor next-to-shut spot. Baclanova. assisted at plaiio by rrof. C. ShvedofC, followed and copped with gab and song reper- toire. The screenster stepped out in on^ to a. big hand, remained on to explain that she knew so leetle Eengllsh and asking pardon 'cause her Eenglish she's broken up." Then tu full for the piano and three se- lections, flrst In Italian, Cherle In ajngllsh and a French song for get- away. Palm slamming at tne walk- off gave the gal from Hollywood tne show. Block and Sully, mixed team, en- nvened the humor division with DUffoonery and songs topped with -•anclngi-- U8ual=-flrtatioh-gab-and ■ocks for the boy—on the ja^w. ^ything to make them howl and «ey did. A nifty couple with a nifty act that went sweU. Vernille and Holland, mixed flancing duo backed by Verland Btring Quintet, class with a cork- mg dance act The waltz and adagio topped. _ "Past Company" (Par) screen feature. Blis fair at middle show Saturday. EdJ)a, RIVERSIDE (§t. Vaude) X;ess than a half-dozen completely filled rows on the main floor Satur- day afternoon. It should be established by now that the only possible chance of bringing the Riverside back.to a re- spectable Status lies in quality of bills. With the sort of layout the Riverside has currently, house can't do a thing. Safe bet tliat a good many payees would not have returned for the second half of this bill If Intermis- sion hadn't been abolished. Started walking early anyway, and on none other than the next-to-cl6slng niche —rthe punch spot, supposedly,; on. any bill. Lots of things went wrong the opening show. Two stage waits of annoying length, caused by Ana- tole Friedland's mob, and Sol (Sould In next-to-closlng put a damper on the meagrre handful out front that nothing could rectify. . Friedlahd, with the same night .club revue he's h^d In and out of vaude the past year, held up the midrift in sixth position. Glancing over the .eight turns comprising this bill, there's no mistaking that Friedland's Jamboree topped and was expected to draw. Too bad. liine of specialty girls In the frolic is still the outstanding thing. Sev- eral, changes in other specialty spotjs. Marcelle Trio, adagio com- bination, miaike a flashy showing with their ^trIp)ie routines, though the adagio trio Idea Is being worked to death both In picture houses aiid Vaude right now. Carter Bros., songsters with youth and person- ality on their side, slide through happily, enough, while Lucille Hayes, with the act since Its Inception', is still the biggest applause getter With her toe wbrk. Friedlahd con tlnues to m. c. in front of hfs band with just as much asperity as ever John Steel was. directly ahead of the revue with his standard reper- toire of songs, starting With "Mand'- alay" and winding up^ith "March- ing Home." Steel has gone 4>ack In vocal prowess the past few year's, but he still has showmanship enough to keep' him In vaude. He only did three numbers here without a re quest or encore. Sam Summers and Estelle Hunt dropiped Into No. 4 and stayed over long with their rehashed rube ma terlal. More suggestive now than when last heard. Summers and Hunt have been around too long not to know' dirt. Audience froze up on the act,. Neat openers were the Dakotas and "Chic" Cooi^er, whip crackers and lasso twisters. !Miss Cooper, blonde, peps up the turn consider- ably and also shares In ' the. more hazardous stunts. Next .came Mary Marlowe, vet character soni:stress, With the same cycle of numbers and Imitations of birds and animals She's been doing for a long While. . Miss MarloWe Is a seasoned troilper and should know the value of new ma- terial. Four Diamonds duplicated their recent Palace hit here. ' Father, two son§ and daughter combine for nifty footwork, with comedy, inter- woven nicely^ Sol Gould, doubling from the Pal- ace this week, where he's on No. 4, drew the next to- shut spot. Gould is a lightweight Dutch comic,; work- ing with a girl and two men stooges, and should not be further up than third or fourth position, on a bill. Didn't have a chance iti the ad- vanced spot, with.the onlookers go- ing on parade before him. Closing to an empty house were the Paul Brothers, high perch acro- bats with pleasing but slow routines and formations. Under normal cir- cumstances they might have gotten a break, but not with the way this audience felt Saturday afternoon. LINCOLN SQ. (Vaudfilm) Within 20 minutes after the doors open at this Doew house, Saturday afternoon, flve acts must go on be- fore a cold house. Routines are perfunctory, some visibly cut and everything passes quietly,, The bill opening , Saturday Is In- teresting,, not In performance, but in Variiety's New Act flies. Two years ago, according to the files, the Seymour and Howard re- vue played Proctor's Bth Avenue. Seymour was using satirical skits, sandwiched between song and dance numbers by two boys , and two girls assisting. The satirical stuff fiopped. at the 6th Avenue, but It was pre- dicted the Palace would eat it up. Seymour and Howard aren't at the Palace this week. And all the clever, skits are gone, replaced by one blackout—an Irish Justice bit. Can something be wrong with vaudeville audiences? S«sven"years agQ :atvthe=Broad.way, Saxton and Fg-rrell were a riot. Their comedy sketch concerning a man about to elope with a girl he has just met, and finding she's an Insane asylum Inmate to give the act a snappy surprise finish, was called good substantial stutf for these houses. Seven years is a long time in vaudeville—particularly the past seven years, Saxton and Par-- rell have been outmoded for. all but the small houses. Gags have aged and they haven^t done a thing about it. Moran and Warner were reviewed two and one-half years ago at the how defunct American Roof. Their hoke collegiate song and comedy material was rated strong enough to carry^ but not far. Moran and Warner now are billed as Moran,' Warner and Margie, and Margie is in, for S. a. and dancing. Still far from a riot, but the boys have their eyes Open. In next-to-closing heW Openers Were The Ralstons, man and girl. In arm balancing. Two years ago at the Hip rated good for all houses. Since then the girl has changed one costume to something that seems straight from a Polish wedding, with hat to match. It Is hurting the act, looking bad on an acrobat. • Chase . and- Collins, man and woman, werie mixing songs with talk.four yeeixs ago, Man was. called a fiy.weight comic. The act is now all .singing, with all talk elimihia,ted. Makes a mild deucer, Just'^fts it did With the comedy. Miss , Collins dresses . attractively. Muchly • in contrast to Chase, who sings the first number with his .hat on, al- though he's In front of drapes with a divan. Just a few months ago John Gll- bert was silent. He's talking here this week In "His Glorious Nlght'r (M-G), and they're laughing at his noisy love scenes. A month ago Consolidated Gas Was at 171. Bang. ALBkE, Brooklyn (Vaudfilm) Around different cbrnera, ' but Within shouting distance is Rudy Vallee at the. •, Paramountand Mickey Cochran, .baseball hero of the hour, at the Fox.. And Horace Heldt due next week at the latter. Is It Invidious to point out that the opposition has a way of using talent RKO can't or w'on't, or any way doesn't, hold?„ Saturday's line-'Up at: the Albee ran: Davillas, Ryan and. Noblette, George K. Arthur, Julius Tannen and Albertina .RasCh. About as good as It sounds,..namely, fair. Davillas are springboard. aero r bats, male and female. Dressed and mounted nicely and swift In move- ment It opens with briskness and brightness. Ryan and Noblette who have the modern mahner In nonsense with- out enough material or strength tor next-to-closihg make out very nice- ly in the deuce. George K. Arthur employing some of Al Boasberg*s less excruciating quips and preceded by An unusually long film clip Introduction has an ample ■ margin due almost wholly to his lightly facetious style .of kid- ding himself. His . reception was genuinely hearty ahd as he wisely eschews anything dramatic In the abominable style reciBntly. inflicted on RKO audiences by that other ex- M-G-M player, Roy D'Arcy, he Is twice welcome. Tannen's easy command of the situation was again demonstrated. He rattled on to the tickled delight of Brooklyn's half-holiday mob. Not the least of Tannen's assets Is his lung power; /No asthma there. Keeps away the sing-sbngy tone that often creeps Into monologs. Albertina Rasch has had far bet- ter ballets than this oiie. Ahd those orchestrations are a bit over-fancy attracting attention to themselves rather than helping the dancers. Ballet girls should not be .asked to do hot jazz, either.. "Great Gabbo" as the screen at- traction. Thi9, lat least, RKO kept frond Fox and Paramount. Land. FOX, B'KLYN (Vaudfilm) Chaotic, disorganized, abrupt and a bit tedious is tlie current combi- nation of vaude, stage band, and Fanchon arid Marco unit. Appor- tioning of responsibility would re- quire a senatorial Investigation, Boyd Senter Is m. c, but a. girl, Betty Newcbmb,. male impersonator, actually discharges the duty. Sen- ter plays five of the 33 instruments he is credited with. Generalizing about girl m. c.'s may be a little uhfalr, yet, with Fanchon and Marco newly addicted to this variation and on the showings to date, it remains, to be proven that girls are adapted to this sort of thing. In their emulation of masculine patterns, girls tend to lose the ap- peal of their .own sex Without pos- sessing tlie canabilitles of the men- In the -present case it's accentuated by Miss Newcomb wearing inen's attire a.nd attempting to do a ballad in the masculine, vigorous, punchy way.: With several dozen choruses. Poor showing of, bill may have been due , to inelusion of special talent augmenting unit for the imi-, portant Brooklyn date, where • the opposition is, Rudy Vallee at the Paramount and'RKO. vaude at the Albee. Running order was aWk- Ward, although as ■ good as the hodge-podge . of material probably Would permit.. . In getting from one act to another thex'e were puzzling hesitations on every body a part, chatter that Beemed to omit important things and Obvious expectations of laughs that never materialized. With ah extravagant build-up that could flt John • Gilbert If he ever takes a flyer in vaudeville, a . nice-looking, suave, agreeable but certainly not famous actor named Arthur Brown came out and kidded potntlessly with the girl m. c. Brown In turn brought on Mickey Cochran, pride. Of Philadelphia's baseball champs, who revealed a lot more poise and histrionic ability than any ordinary person would an- ticipate from a baseball player. He at least was deflnitely a.n added at- traction, having previously played locally for Keith's. Two-man team named McDonnell and Bates (If name correctly caught) have some good knockabout Ideas, but resort to vulgarity. Their hokum is basically In need of no risque, trimmings. They use a grill room gag about "when bigger and better women are made, we'll make 'em." Not worth the smair laugh obtained, and Soph Tucker used It months ago on the reverse. Liillian Price belittles, tlie classic "I'm an Indian" song of Fannie Brice; Muriel Stryker offers' her standard gilded Indian routine, and. In further keeping with the "Indian Summer" moti^ a Cherokee gent hoofs in the Broadway manner. And girls to beat tom-toms and dance In feathers. . Stage band wore Russian smocks regardless. • Land. ACADEMY (Vaudfilm) Ltong show ran 'way overtime opening day (Saturday), the. 86- minute feature, "Salute" (Pox) Jam- ming the running. SIx-a.ct vaude section lengthy enough Itself for quite an evening's entertainment. Standee business, with Joe Laurie the closest approach to a draw on the stage, bq the picture must have counted. 14th Street mob was pie for Lau- rie, who can monolog them Into, spasms down, here as few others can. The second typical New Yorker to Jimmy Walker. Flash act opened In Marjprle Lane and Co., Miss Lane assistfjd by four dancing boys. Still Just another flash, with o'^ without Miss Lane's complete turnover from prone posi- tion on. the floor, now a popular stunt With girl acrobatic dancers. It's the number of the act. Al Kapp and Tish. smart chatter- ing mixed couple, with musical arid dancing flnish, a good deucer. When Mish Tish rips oft the iskirt and demonstrates the sheer hose, most everything else forgotten. This turn better than average. Some playing should lift Its head. ^ "Irving^Edwards-talfccd ar few,-mo.=. ments in ''one" before going to full with his IB-picce girl band, the flash entry of the bill. Not bad enter- tainment, the girls much better mu- sicians than beauts, but It's a listen- ing, not a looking, turn. Laurie next-to-closed behind Mo- dena's Art Flashes—more flash, vocal and musical. Some big-time moments in this turn, though no preponderance. More than suited at the Academy. £ige» GRAND O. H. (Vaudfilm) With "Cockeyed World" running 115 minutes the Grand booked In but three, acts, the vaude being of the caliber one now expects In this house. The man at the door pulled a new one Monday night. As he herded the late comers Into the main door he remarked that some of the people already In had sat through several shows. That's a pip from an ex- hibitor's standpoint, Vaude comprised the Happy Har- rison animal act with the "unrldable mule." Second turn. Remain and Castle, with Remain doing a wench with a circus parade of feathers on his dress and head. A few isongs and ah exchange reminiscent of the old Savoy and Brennan act that hit 'em between the eyes down In the 23rd neighborhood. The two men stuck about 18 minutes, some ad- hesion for here. No. 3 the dancing, singing and faandbalanclhg work of Rhea and Sahtoro Co. Something of a novelty to have tW,o ,men istep out and do some neat hand-to-hand balancing. Effective. ■ Trailers added to the picture fare. On the silver sheet was a popular song with the audience expected to sing the words. No response. iTarh. 125TH STREET (Vaudfilm) . Once a fair tester for acts, this house now has become a pushover. Anything goes, and the gUy who gets the razz when he walks on will get the big hand when he exits. .=About-the-on]y--whlte=spotJcftJn a colored neighborhood, and the cU.stomer.s are plenty hardy, mostly Italian stock, with a sprinkling of the Irish. : Caught on a Saturday change, the supper show was interrupted at least twice by the good old rasp- berry from the balcony, Walter Clinton and his Invaders are still traveling. Their presenta- tion this time "In Germany," and they are aided by a permanent corpg of eight dancing girls called RKO Steppers. Four regular acts make up the rest of the presentation. These, in the order of their appear- ance, are: Constance and Capo, Bristol and Bell, Sands and Doone^ and Morton Silver. AH new acta.. Nearly every act got the razs when It went on, but went off to.a big hand.. Pi^esentation . opened > with ' the dancing girls in two quartets, one set clad In Dutch outfits instead of German. Dance fairly Well, but carelessly maneuvered. Constance and Capo, male hoofers^ then trot on for one of those regular da'nce rou- tines after an opening song. Took three bow«. Bristol and Bell, man and woman chatter and dance duo, followed. Fat turn. Bobby RoHlns, member of-the band, gave a song that also began, with a razz and ended with much hahdclapplng. Sands 4ind Doohe; man and wom- an duo. If refraining from dancing and sticking tO Hawaiian crooning and guitar /stuff, might make a good act. Morton Silver, black-faced bari- tone, told the drbwd he wished hiB mother was present to see the re- ception he got. : No razzo., Feature, "Past CJompiny" (Par). Biz only fair, handful of custom- ers In balcony, and floor- less than three-quarters filled. 81ST STREET (Vaudfilm) Good intermediate layout here'ifor. first half.. Although weak on com- edy; It has everything else and plays evenly. Five acts and "Fast COm^ pariy" on screen. Three White Flashes, male trio, opened and over.. Balancing and acrobatic, routines on rollers. One handles the hazardous stufC, while the others in fancy skating and whirls. Manford and Claire, mixed team, in song and dance act regls'teredi especially the precision tap double and the man's jazz solo a la Frisco. Wanzer and Palmer, mixed duo, with another man, in a mild skit, but got plenty out of It. A lit dame driving, home Is socked by a'moving van with lingo hinging on' the smashup. The girl's ahjciety la throiigh having her first husband hidden in the car and expecting :her- present mate along. One of >the rough truckhien fixes It and she offs after exchange of much repartee some funny and mosUy not. Good charactek* bit, hut somewhat fluffy for even, vaude. Chain and Conroy had cbmedy all their own, but didn't sock as heavy as -they should for laughs, depend- ing upon. .the harmony singing windup to pull them bVer at this showing. Comic Is Okay, but needs something better than material .at hand to roH them. U. S. Indian Reservation Band, 18, led by Chief ShiinatonsL; copped the show In^ closer for novelty and In- strumentation, The Injuns are backed by a Woodland ravine set with waterfall effect and setting sun for opener, band playing sym- phonic ja:^^ arrangement of Indian songs. Chief Shunatona plants aii Indian dance effectively and hops all over the place for subsequeht baton wielding. Band follows with three American jazz selections In torrid tempo working up to a strong blare finish. Went over big. Biz away off Saturday afternoon with scarcely quarter of house oc- cupied. ■ mia. HIPPODROME (Vaudfilm) Surprise of surprises! Orchestra almost fiill for the after luncheon show a.nd the first balcony sprout- ed a good quantity of heads also. Perhaps the first pop priced local run of "The (jreat Gabbo" puUed them In. But two turns this week, total of less than 20 minutes and leaving more than double that time to be entertainingly filled In by Art Lan- dry's orchestra and the R-K-O gals. Id. These gals prance around alone, making their faults, lack of grace and general shortcomings too ap- parent. It wouldn't be so bad If they could work behind a specialty dancer who would detract atten- tion from the girls to herself. Landry's collection Is not as indi- vidually entertaining as other stage bands. When It comes to dlishlng the Instrumentation the^ boys do a neat job considering tile size dt the house. Xiandry realizes this and leans heavily oh the brass. ^ Landry has A personable smile and m. c's straight, no quips or crossfire In this bunch. Che of his boys, Georgie Tapis; only individual enter- tainer, was the highlight of the bill, jleU.v©xlx»g.^iaij;ast^ set^f^ tjips^mixed with eccentrics. and cleaning with" swift rolling taps on his toes. .. Turner Brothers made the most of their six minutes and did WeU. Especially liked, was their hokum and knockabout acrobatics. Leg- mania, eccentric and tap nicely. Arthur Henry and Dorothy Mar- tin are doing practically -the same turn as when Henry billed the act (Continued on Page 70)