Variety (Nov 1929)

S6 VARIETY FILM Wednesday, November 13, 1029 PARAMOUNT, N. Y. ("3d Anniversary Revue"—Unit) New York, Nov. 9. Three years ago this Vi^eek the l*araiijount. became a distinctive link in Broadway's show biz. The precedent it established then aa the ace of the Publlx theatres, to- gether with its particular type . of stage presentations, has made it a standard torch bearer athong.. the popular de luxe picture houses , in the country. In three years a lot of things can and have happened. And on the oc- casion of the Faramount's third birthday a significant mark ia noted in its gala anniversary revue. If this lavish and expensive stage show is a symbol, then the trend of picture house entertainment in gert- eral, a,nd that in Publix theatres particularly, may be expected to undergo a variegated if not entirely radical change. Publlx was first in assembling the stage ba:*d policjr and now it appears it is also parainount in dis- sembling it for the sake of creating a new and different style. In its anniversary unit, it succeeds bnly as far as going back to the original, nucleus of the presentation ■■ idea- variety. Of course, with embellish- ments, evolving color schemes and scenic magnificence, but just the same it's vaudeville in essence. Jack Partington has done a craftsman-like job With the stage end of this unit. Lighting, settings and blending o2 colors plenty nifty, but despite the composition of a long list d£ excellent talent,. the show sags, lags and peter i out long, before the finale, and even, the fln- inshing touch is not as dynamic as might have been.' Originally this ,show"was built, speciflcially for New : York, Brooklyn and Boston. Publix intends to tour It over the/circuit eventually, either intact or In con- densed version. Very likely the lat- ter will be the case, as the evident, cost of the present layout seems far above the average house budget. Xiineup Includes Barto and Mann, Dave Rublnoit^ Yorke and Johnson, lioe Brothers, A. Robins, Stone and Vernon Foursome, ViviHn Fay, SjiQlMllIatlng Syncopators and the Fred Evans dance ensemble of 16 iflrls and eight men. Imposing ar- ray with- plei;ity individual p.unch, yet somehow or other the unit .doesn't show It. -Four oi.the seven principal turns have dancing of one sort or another^. No matter how spotted, confliction . couldn't possi- bly be avoided. With the show carrying no band on stage and minus an in. c, it's every. act for Itself, with atmosphere of the uhU more vaude than picture house like, Leaves a cold gapi after each spe- : clalty, which In vaude would be okay but not on a picture house stage. Opening is very pretentious and promising. Evans' ensemble appear from pit with made to order birth- day greetings, -ambulating to the stage as RubinofE comes out to con- duct the orchestra from the pit. The 10-mInute overture, arranged and interpreted by Rubinoff, Is possibly the staunchest Item^in the layout. Rublnoff's aptitud^ for syncopating the classics and *culturlzing jazz gives him a standout spot in the show, which he make doubly good by soloing with the vjolin. Under Rublnoff's baton the Paramount musical aggregation sounded like a top notch symphony and that's say- ing a good deal. From that point the unit's tempo recedes, bringing out the I^e^Broa In ''one" for a well prepared eccen- tric routine of steps that because . of its manner of presentation be- comes ordinary. In front of a band and woi'king with an m. c. these boys might have gained impetus Same could go for Helen Yorke and Virginia Johnson, songbirds, recently at the Palace, New York, where they were a substantial, hit Girls open cold here, in front of a draped set with their "Painted Dolls" duet, going from that to an operatic arrangement of "St. Louis ^ Blues." Latter number Is further m enhanced and elaborated upon, with ■ dance diversions by the line girls, W.. giving a classic scope to the num her in presenting It a la "Carmen' and "Rhapsody Irt Blue." Vivian Fay, nimble toe worker, registers solidly in the interim with a pip solo routine that is show stop ., ping. Miss Fay is a California prod uct, having first attracted attpntion while with the coast "Good News' (stage). A cinch for picture houses Robins, foreigner and the one man music store, is another click- ing adjunct to the show, ringing oJLjlaughs on sheer prop manlpula tv39is on his person and imitations of musical instruments. Robins has a novelty, that is international in appeal. Barto and. Mann, features of the .unit, hold up the nethermost .enc with their usual knockabout antics of comedy dancing and acrobatics. i^HIghHght-o£-their--atuff^IauatillJtlie. femme Impersonation, burlesqued by Mann and abetted by, Barto, It'; laugh piroof the way they do it Two outstanding scenic flashes in the "Rhapsody" number and the fantastic klngdoip of gold display, featuring the Stone-Vernon adagio quiirtet for resounding results Adagio trios and foursomes are common, but this group remains in class by itself for trick routines bordering on the sensational, finale Is a bizarrfr'«l|air oi£ bright and gaudy colors, enlisting all the principals in the layout around a display of stars set in motion for an effective flash. Beautiful but not potent. Unit runs 55 minutes flat, and considering ingi'edients could hardly be cut to advantage. : On ' the regular house program Jesse Crawford contributes his weekly organlog, this time a timely specialty in line with the birthday spirit. iHis three console numbers are "Sweeter Than Sweet," "My Song of • the. Nile", and "Satisfied," Slides are worked in a panel of a large birthday cake on stage for atmospheric blending. . Paramount Sound newsreel cp-r- ries but two items with Richard Dlx in "The Love Doctor" (Par), the feature, running but B8 minutes. iHouse well filled but far from capacity on the third (sujpper) show Saturday. FOX ("Jazz Temple"-^Unit) San Diego,'Nov. 8. Fox launched another, under the Harold Franklin regime in this 3,200 seatre . which was constructed at around $500,000 mark; and gives the impression of costing double. House is in French, renaissance With a Gothic blending ih architecture, tw;© stories in height and is located^ at tiie beginning of a new business dis- trict. Considerably removed from the other local houses, of which the Fox organisation operates seven, the town Is undoubtedly overloaded op seats with the possibility that the operating here EMBASSY (Newsreel) New York. Nov. 11. Well diversified program of 24 Fox and Hearst newsreel clips, about equally divided between the two contributing services and well worth anybody's two bits. Biz at this house Increasing steadily and indications are that it won't be long before this Innovation picture house program runs Into several midnight showings. ShoW runs 50 minutes and at the eiarly Monday night screening the intimate Ein- bJ^sy, 568-seater, held close to ca- pacity. Armistice Day had four of the clips bearing on that event, mostly addresses in favor' of outlawing fu- ture wars. Fox, as usual,' has most of the real spot news. .The N.- Y. U.;- Georgla game showed up with un- usual cleairness and Is the best of the action stuff unwound. !» the human Interest line there is Mrs, Macy's graphic explanation of the manner In which she taught - the deaf, dumb and blind Helen Kellar to talk and Mrs. Albert Falls pledge of allegiance to her convicted hus- barid and her belief in his ultimate vindicatioh. For laiighis there is Philadelphia Jack O'Brien's reminiscences: Adblph Lewisohri's German folk song knd Ted Sahdwjnft, heavy- weight fighter, being put through ia training session by his mother. Fox's were tlie original "voice with the smile"; Mrs. Henry Ford reading heir speech before the farm and garden- organization which she he^ds; Mussolini :. addressing . his troops; Coolidge receiving the first copy of his recently published auto straw pkirt anU comedy brassiere getting couple laughs and then en- tire ensemble on stage with sort of fountain effect on raised platform haying the Kemmy contingent, Grazer, and few of girls posing. Act staged by Elizabeth Freed- man, a recruit from the Gamby-Hale school, Miss Freedman hais brought number of novel and fresh Idesis to the F and M ranks and from staging 9,ngle surpasses many other F and M producers. Fox Movietone News, ."Bouncing Baby," a Hal Roach Our Gang com- ery, served as miscellaneous enter- tainment to "Young Nowhere's" (FN), starring I^ichard Barthelmess, Busi- ness first show opening day about three-fourths co-pacity. UnV' iSt^ 3SS?1;a:;^b;^"Somiig| b^^ islandsr trut^ ™,ni ..oloft fh» ahiit-1 Tay Pay' O Connor in a talk against war into this port, will raise the shut Interior of this new house Is gold Hearst contributions were N. Y, U. GAPItOL ("Fan Fancies".Unit) . New York, Nov, 8, .. House is laying it on heavy for its 10 th anniversary and Arniistice Week. Just how thick the frosting is can be realized from the 164 min- utes the show is running. That's not cohducive to a speed turnover, but it's a lot of entertainment. And it is entertainment. Stage, end is only consuming 38 minutes: "So This Is College" (M- G) is runhing 97, and a prolonged overttire of war-time tun^s, -aug- mented by war cUpis flashed through a, wide angle lens to. a big screen helps make the show one of those lOO-car circus trains. Audience would probably be just as well satisfied with a shorter show,. although if the boys want to splread it the natives won't squawk If the nienu holds up. The turnover is not the patron's concern, except other .words, the 9:30 performance is breaking a:t 12:14. They're apt to stay up. that late, because of the picture. "Fan Fancies" is Jlist about what the title Implies. Finale has show girls elaborately costumed to repre interior or tma new nouse »s fo*^ Kjirfa leamine the rudiments of those who have gone suburban. In t?e FOX FSrVltTlrru^nd^l^1^ revue, I other words, the 9:30 nerformance in^^^flnar fthree Hearst reporters jailed in wl^<.^«t??n +hrhri^c«^^^ refusing to violate I'^^t-^t fiini «hm V^^^^^ iLrt^ and a news iource confidence; geese be- I?tHlr .i,fiT?o?^«v IttS^ readied for Thanksgiving Day, either sl^n^^er or pay att?nt^ ^ steeplechase racing. City has a population of 130,000, oth<»p rlins also Times Sauare , » - ^- --- wlth^the floaters heavy for wing L^JJ^f ®^ J^^^ ,ans of all nations, each girl season each year. Navy and Marine gjol^ra an^^^^ ^^^^^ corps help with an average of ntes^f Sm new^^^ In the revue mknner. Besides that to 12,000 men on shore leave weekly.!"'*** " ^ ■ ■> ^j^^^.^ are Kate Smith and Sunshine City how has around 12,000 seats. Sammy as the. specialists. Both Stage shows and weekly change t OF WCj QTATF won hearty acclaim Friday night bills brought over from the Call- »-VfiiTT kjai>aK« Corpulent Kate sent over two fornia which now goes into a long I (Black and Gold-Unit) pops and had to come back to en run policy. | t ftd ati«»o1m -Nrnv 7' I core on the last one after trying For the opening the Franklin out . . . Los Angeles, Nov. 7. , . , i.. . • ♦ . iTanrhnn flTiH Marpo of late have scram, or reduce, by bowing Into fit brought down some 200 on a ^anchon. and ^ 51st street. Good songs ought to special train including stars, exe- g?"* iy<>r J|i>^^°"^/' keep Kate's weight down, espe- cutives, etc., and put them up. for S-tai„men^^^ '^^^"y ^" picture houses on those three 4ays at the El Cortez, new ^JV^W"")®^^^^ and five shows. Songstress hotel, ?nd shipped them-back to K IjJijJ of ^entertainmtn? T Us 43 ^^^^^^ lose 15 pounds this week ^h^lVeSnSbSV ""s^i'rS JSSnutesf I^n^t'^aTnlf tha" in Ir ' " J^!^ l^oo o «»r;Sl trv thrthlfntre Should be cut down. Starts oft from mile .and quarter route. And it was I maintains to end a $5 opening, unheard of here, but it clicked. About $9,000 in the till for the initial show. Opening, stage fiash was a com bined Navy.and^Marine^ worked with tassles and when pieces playing the National Anthem | with a comnr-unity chorus of 75 With the formality disposed of C. Sharpe Minor did th" prgkn pre aniblfc, xo oir I and m. c. leads the stage swing Al Lyons is tl^e^™-«;'theme song of "Street f^:°!".l^^Z'^.'^^i^i rL^^^^^^^^^^ This gives Guy Buccolo,:one house as he is a standard local fav. Proven with a two-minute reception Opehing. has 25 of the girls, in' combination, of. black and gold sou- brette frocks dpihg fast tapping and ensemble stepping. Have for back- ground the g and g drops which elevated for full stage give appear- ance of home draperies. With cur- tain up Georgie StoU now in sec- ond month a:s musical conductor of the musicians, a chance to chant nr.r.A ^r.r.^r^r^^ hr.v with an excellent t^e gong he did in the picture itself. ?eTsonamy?^a?s7a"^^^^ stage setting all black and gold Miss Smith would be a cinch on the coast. They've got hot singers oui there, some.they dote upon, but Kate listens as being able to spot em a couple. of ditties and reap just the same. . Which reminds that the eastern- splashes still look pretty good. There's hiore solidity near the Atlantic. Carli Elinor would be enraptured by portions of "Armistice Echoes," the overture. Spasniodic blaring of brasses and drums, but picking its spots. Entire pit crew, looking the size of one of those Big Ten bands if you're not used to it, bedecked in olive drab and overseas caps, with a male chorus . of 10 or 12 voices. Big screen impressively re vealed and counted, though no real reason for the brief encore the mu- Lyons started by i^^apes, with Arnold Grazer, ballet gicians took. Newsreel followed as ROXY (Presentation) New York, Nov. 8." In distributing' the feathers for the production department's ben* nets this week a large plume be« longs to Harco Montedoro. respon- sible for the gorgeous costumes worn in the stage divertissement. La Fiesta," that jnakes the adjec- tive - "colorful" seem puny and ambiguous. Only the purblind or downright doltish would fail to react to these jaanalng tableaux, stagefulls of mov- ing splendor, trappings that would make a legit musical producer ill ait heart and probably dyspeptic. Spanisyii is a motif that gives the artist lots of elbow £.l)ace. He Caii employ :a big. palette the entire rainr bow, and the output of a.11 of Japan's cocoons. And with a nice , elastic budget, the possibilities take wing up there, with those ethereal castles dream-credited to Spain. In taking the big Roxy st ge cre- ations'for granted, Broadway also takes for granted that b.'g-wheeled back stage machine of which Leon Leonldofe Is chief mechanic. Once In a while those technical boy^ and girls are entitled to take a bow with the. actors. It is the function of a trade re- view to appraise, rei>ort, and, to some extent at least, apportion credit or blame. But who could do niore than guess the contributions to these* staggering stage shows of, say, Clark • Robinson, the art direc- tor; Russell E. Markert, Florenco Hogge, and Leonard Massing, heads bf the ballet, and Erno Rapee, re- isponsible for the niusical support? "La Fiesta" is not extraordinary except as the Roxy average is. There have been more pretentious efforts but not .more delightful to the eye. This one is so surpassing in the flow and mingling of color that Jt arrests consideration, for what it represents in time, effort, inspiration and vulgar mazuma. Feature of the week, "Romance of. the Rio (Srande" (Fox) naturally .be- ' Casloned the Spanish highjinks. And blended nicely. In the hewsreei section, always important here, Julius Rosehwald again scored as America's most de- pendable Movietone speaker; This Chicago ;. philanthropist surprised and tickled the country last> spring by some horse sense about rich men arid their average mental voltage. Now he comes through, with more horse sense about the Wall Street ci'ash. His reasoned optimism in the face of the calamity howlers should have, a tonic effect. He wda warmly applauded here. Land. ' dohS nop medley having 40 pieces dancer, on pedestal and effective, a Hearst mixture of silent and in the Pit^ ^h^n aFox s^^^ Cowan and Grey, two youthsrthen sound split between International a«lr which came one of^^^ Co- ^^^^ P""*^^ with and Metrotone shots fuSi^ "SiuJ SympUnle?' Lue^ acrobatics on ground and grotesque Sunshine ^ Sammy didn't have "SDrinc Fever ^ and dance steps. They make way for. much trouble making 'em like it, concedfd almost as iood arFahchon ^axln^ who chants num- Two colored youngsters, assisting anT MarcoT "Jazf Temple^^^ after which 12 of tl.e choristers, co-operate favorably, and Sammy's The Skeleton Dance" both Disney in male evening attire with toppers taps clinched. Usual complement cLtoon subject? Sta-e £n^^ ''^nes, back her up in song and of 24 girls weren't particularly ifos AngelS a few ^^^^^^^^ She is fine looker, good step- smooth on their routines, but suf- had Lucielle Page and the Four Per and chanter, and must have been I ficed from the costume angle, Walt Cheer Leaders added. House has kayo with a floor show. Girls again [ Roesner restricted himself t permanent chorus of 12 girls in ad- onjor tap stepping with routine bit dltion to the units. During inter- difllerent from^average done by the mission George Jessel . introduced F and M^gals heretofore some 75 celebrities. Screen feature Leo JV-ilmot out for grotesque tap was "They Had to See Paxis" (Fox), and rhythm stepping ties up the Overhead will hit around $12,000,1 show, bringing Miss Hamilton back ducing numbers and specialties in rhyme, not a happy thought, but has the stage band in good shape for playing the show. Two Instances of trailer footage ^^^^ on the coming Garbo picture and with hVu^e caut^d to do V n average I *or knockabout danCe to tune of I standees Friday evening; Show un Of $15,000 to $18,000 ORATANI Hackensack, N. J., Nov. 8. Una. I "Merry Widow." . • necessarl^ long, perhaps, but note- Georgie iStoll and Red Cochrane worthy in being able to Stand up in charge with' topical song patter for 16 minutes short of three hours with punch gag re'Rev. Shuler,.local tear 'em up pi'eacher. "Big laugh locally and carried the boys through Ace cinema of Hackensack built | with an otherwise unfunny ^line of. I patter. Girls in ankle^length cos- tumes, black and gold, resplendent opening d.-iy. Sid. by Fabians four years ago and now operated by "Warners. Spotted in northern end of Main street, 2,000- seater and 30,000 population, locally and nearby. Operates on semi-weekly change With scale topped for 25c afternoons and 40c evenings, excepting week- ends at SOC'top. When caught had "Fast Com- pany" (Par) as feature. Fox Movie- tone News and "Felix the Cat" comedy. Wired and no orchestra, with Le e W oodbury at organ. . No oppositToh ibcaHi^ since lite Stanley-Fabian inte^sts sewCd up the town prior to the Warner take- over. Originally the OritanI had to buck the Lyric, operated by independents with vaudfilm policy, booked through Keith's but taken over and scrapped by Stanley-Fabian to pro- tect Orltani and still dark. » Gets the class" trade locally and nearby and rated a .iponeymaker. Edha. picture Come down runway in back of band, to see Grazer, who has been on pedestal for 25 minutes, do a PROCTOR'S 23D ST. ., New York, Nov. 11. Jlist another theatre! Once the bright spot of this crosstown stireet —now a fading light. Like the routine of fast toe stepping and neighborhood in which it is located, swinging gilded baton at same time, the customers are fading, too. . If Grazer tied show up during h a brief anybody walked into this joint stay and held up music for subse- smiling the screen would crack, quent girl parade. With idea title Men outnumber the women at still held up for costuming girls go least 2% to 1. Some kids but not through vairlous tap steps to make many. There are 1,200 seats here, way for the Three Kemmys, with about 500 on the lower floor. Mon EJva Ivey, who looks the last word day night biz was off. At $4,000 on adagio and gymnastic feats, it's a big week here, and, $2,300 is BdyrallWil^rcin'-apWa^ the girl around, then go into pyra- Orchestra about half empty but mid gymnastic, feats, closln.'; with first balcony pretty weir packed the raising and bringing down of Gallery a question and six cus- one of their number with head and lomers in the boxes, feet, understanders holding mounter i One reason for biz was offered on "bridge," and concluding with as the third day of same program, men walking off with man in this around one and one-half days too posture and girl under, him in split much for a picture down this way. posture. Show stopper and biggest Feature was "The Great Gabbo" single applause li{t house has had in (Sono-Art). Proi?ram also included many a day. a couple of shorts, entire bill run For finalle prelude Wiimot ouL in I ning 132 minutes. PALESTINE New York, Nov. 8, "Why didn't you took mahme?" ''She vill hev ter rnln? de beby to- morrer night," . Two minutes later—the same guy talking to the same party in the same .stage whisper that res:*ind9 through the house: "I'm sittln' bverrr dere," point- ing to the location of his seat as he swings his arm about almost side- swiping a half dozen or more cus- . tomers around Rosle. It's done nearly all the time at this house, located a block or two . above Delancey street on Avenue B, right in the thick of a section where every building is a neighborhood by itself and the. boarders pr- the rent. There's some kind of a shop hold- ing up every structure.. Theatres here are as close as opposing foot- ball teams in action with the pop- ulace often getting tangled in the scrimmage as to where to go. Those that p-ck this house are mostly Jewish neighborhood house- wives and garment making girls with just a sprinkling of Italians and a Russian or., two. Many come escorted but the preponderence are emales, many tagged with their kid- dies. •■ It's not an usiial sight to see pa- tient fathers carrying cups of water to their wives or their kids, and it's quite the custom to eat one's dinner here while watching the show. Rela.- . tives sitting back of each other often will exchange jokes regardless of the passengers around; Nobody .seems annoyed. The house is built on the Arena style and has a balcony. ■ Only went talker about two weeks ago. Al- though the neighborhood is thick with people and swarms of humans drag their feet by or hang about the front .of the theatre, a barker is retained to attract' biz. Gaudy banners, heaps of lobby displays and. all kinds of photos about the front and in the lobby, making the place look like a. circus tent. The barker attracts biz by mut- tering unintelligible English sounds and by banging"with a stick on one of the lobby frames. Fares are 30c, for adults and 20c. for kids. Customers carry an air of Tcareiess-disregai^r'They "just "want to laugh and everything goes. The actors on the screen are a bunch of cheer leaders to this mob who are royal rooters, set to go at the slight- est sign, Program changes thrice . weekly. This night saw the last of a two- day showing of "The Cradle Snatch- ers" (Fox), ,a talker; a silent Bob Custer Western, and a Mickey Mouse cartoon in sound. Entire bill ran about 139 minutes.