Variety (Apr 1930)

Wednesday, April 2, 1930 NEW ACTS VARIETY 53 BOB RlPA (1) Boy Juggler 10 Mins.; Full Palace (St. V.) Bob Bipa, youthful Juggler, came here from England, but he. looks like a Swede. He Is a juggler spe- cializing with the ball and stick and follows the style of Rastelll, Felovls and Serge Flash, who have preceded him. He lacks their finesse arid smoth excellence, but he is a boy In his 'teens and his youth gives him a distinct edge over his older rivals." Rlpa Is a line act for any vaudeville bill- Boy Is blond, a bit gangling and nice to look at. He must have start- ed early or learned fast, for he ac- complishes the most dlfl^cult of the standard ball and stick stunts with agility and in an assured manner. One of his minor tricks, In which he balancs«s a ball on a mouthed stick while leaning backward, looks new. A man, perhaps the boy's father, Is on several times to pass him the tools. Bige. CARROLL and DAVIS (2) Songs and Dances 13 Mins.; Full (Special) Jefferson (V-P) .Betty Carroll and Wally Davis are' doing the same turn Jeanette Hack- ett has been using for more than a year, apparently by arrangement. Wally Davis, who. here takes co- bllllng, was one of Miss Hackett's former supports, as was Dan Hur- wyn, specialty dancer. This turn somehow lacks the warmth and personality which the danseuse. Miss Hackett, injected into It. Miss Carroll resembles Miss Hackett strikingly. So much so, that the Introduction used for Miss Hackett, bringing up her reserh- blance to Great Garbo, Is also used to Introduce Miss Carroll. Miss Carroll has not the terplschorean finesse which her forerunner pos- sessed, but she does put her dances over neatly. •Wally Davis, former lead for Miss Hackett, acts in the same capacity here. Introducing the dance numbers by specially written song numbers. Dan McCarthy plays the wealthy sheik. Dan Hurwin fills in with the same 'olio specialty dance here as when with Miss Hackett. The "Bad Girl" song number, Into which Is blended "The Dance of Death," I| the same, even unto_the stair roll which climaxes the num- ber. Ditto for the "Dance In Hell" number. New personnel does nicely despite comparisons. JACK GERSON Songs 7 Mins.; One Coliseum (V-P) Weak" material for the better class neighborhoods, with nothing in the eeven-minute routine standing out. Absence of comedy to relieve straight routine of three songs con- spicuous from crying necessity. A couple minutes of sure-fire talk may make all the difference In the world, but If Gerson can't handle talk any better than numbers Is a question. Gerson .was..booked here lor an apparent purpose. That was to not only fill the No. 2 spot but to also appear as m. c. In an amateur frolic of some- pretentiousness arranged especially for the house. Opening with a jazz number of conventional brand, Gerson swings Into a song having to do with the wife's dieting and closes with an amber-spot ballad. Comedy number misses on the laughs and the ballad lacks that touch. Showmanship and style are elements that would have helped had they been present. Down very weakly. ' Char. MARIO and LAZARIN Songs 10 Mins.; One Hippodrome (V-P) Apparently this turn has been playing around for some time, al- though not In "Variety's" New Act file. Mario, many years ago, was with another chap, Lozan. Mario and Lazarln are two boys, both pos- sessing excellent voices, easily adaptable to the du*t harmony they USt). Boys duet from start to finish, ^opening with a pleasing ballad In ■which they weave excerpts of other songs. Closing number Is' an op- eratlcetravesty, using comedy lyrics of their own Invention to the tunes of familiar operatic arias. Smaller boy has exceptionally strong tenor. Other, sounding like a baritone, is no slouch at tonal delivery himself. IlKRAZY KATS" (8) Tumbling, Comedy 9 Mins. Full (Special) Hippodrome (V-P) ' Filler quality with little talent and getting rating from nbvelty angle presented by costumes in mimickry of comic cartoon cat and Farmer Brown as in film fables. Attempt at comedy is mostly face- tious. Group comprises one girl and seven men. Of the latter two are riildgets and provide most of the limited laughs.. Act usues a badly designed drop purporting to be a roof top but as shown looks like on the level with the street background. Slit doors In drop provide avenues for tum- blers to wing In and out. Opened on 6-act bill for fair re- turns. DEEP RIVER ORCHESTRA (10) Songs and Instrumentals 18 Mins.; Full (Special) 86th St. (V-P) Wlllard Robinson and band are recruits to vaude from radio. They have something out of the ordinary in Robinson's numbers and arrange- ments. Coxnbo makes for an enter- taining act that should get along In vaude. It was liked Immensely here Sa.turday and should set bet- ter with additional playing. Robinson, ' ■ composer, handles piano throughout, spots several vocals acceptably with Miss Ray Daniels doing dance accompaniment to most. A radio broadcast with Norman Brooksire as announcer prefaces with . an Introductory spiel. The broadcast idea is car- ried out throughout by Robinson for his vocals. "Something About Religion," semi-spiritual for opener and "Truthful Parson Brown," synco- pated sermon sung by Robinson next "Ploddin' Along," "Sing. YoU Sinners" and "Cottage For Sale" rest of rep and all clickers. Robinson handles his numbers for tops despite unassuming delivery with the band boys suflBciently tor- rid accompanists to please also. Satisfied In closer here, but de- serves better spot. Edba. FRIEND AND WELLS Comedy 13 Min.; One Bushwick (V-P) Al Friend about seven years ago was with Eddie HIckey, In a turn presented much In the same man- ner as this though using different material entirely. Hickey is now working with a tall stout chap, billed as Officer Wells, giving Wells the billing of the part which he plays in the act, comedy copper. As It now stands, the turn holds much room for improvement. It contains quite some humor and should have no difficulty pleasing the neighbor- hoods. Friend Is in erractlc civilian at- tire with Wells In a cop's uniform. Comedy crossfire between Wells as a "nut" smuggler and Officer Wells Is too Inane to get over before any group but that of a small time gathering. Wells foils, with Friend handling the punch lines and in nine out of ten gags the crossfire is so old or obvious that on a can guess Friend's comedy response before spoken. After that bit the act becomes stronger. Wells goes Into the much played out "Marching Home" deliv- ered in a oke tenor but this Is fol- lowed by a substantial comedy ditty duetted by both. Closing song, an original lyrical pai'ody to the tune of "Have a Little Faith in Me," will be cut by the R-K-O censors if Friend and Wells don't watch out. It's that kind. Still, It's sti-ong for laughs and the lyrics didn't appear to fease this neighborhood one bit. Just the opposite. It proved the strongest bit of the turn. LANE, HOWARD and NOBLE Comedy 13 Mins.; Three (Special) Jefferson. (V-P) Fred Allen is given credit for au- thoring this piece, which will do him small good, for skit Is slow moving and doesn't contain one solid gag In the entire proceedings. Personnel Is composed of two girls and one boy. Opens with one slim girl forced to stay outside her apart- ment house, which the backdrop represents, due to the lose of her key. Male of the turn, as a mllk- ma.i, drifts by, and there ensues the familiar flirtation chatter. In this case the crossfire is weak In punch comedy. A tall, dark girl, playing sister to the other, enters, whereupon for more talk, and the newcomer war- bles "What Do I Care?" All three then vocal and go Into comed/ patter iabout milk and Its source, this being the most substan- tial laugh bit In the whole act. Tall, dark girl rounds out with a legmania specialty. It's a good enough basic Idea for a comedy turn, but with the present material it's, only an Idea,. MARINOFF CANINES Novelty Travesty 18 Mins.; Three (Special) Jefferson (V-P) Novelty dog act, evidently foreign, projecting the canine cast In a trav- esty on "Volga Boatman," which gets plenty of laughs. Male trainer handles, prefacing act with a trailer on screen explaining nature of the act and cast. A marionette bit with a mannlkin as trainer putting the dogs over for routine jumps and hurdle stuff was another laugh-getter, with the en- suing travesty drawing yellg. The (Jogs wepe all costumed, rep- re.sentihp characters from the Russe drama, even to the extent of shoes enacting what happens when the husband roturns unexpectedly to find the other party poaching on his prpperves. Barks instead of gunplay and with the canine cop haulinp off the drunkon husband and the othor two following in boudoir attire for cur- tain. Animal.s exceptionally trained and provide sufficient novelty to set tliem In either opener or shut on any bill. Went over with a bang as pacemaker on la.^t half bill here Friday night. Edba. CHRIS CHARLTON (2) Magic 20 Mins.; Full Palace (St. V.) Less than half of the 20 minutes used by Cljrls Charlton, English conjurer, are devoted to the two stunts that put him over. These are the "inexhaustible kettle" mid- way of the turn and a now twist In disappearing girl for the finish. In between a lot of Incidental, familiar and time killing magic stuff. In- cluding many wasted moments with a boy plant who turns stooge. From the kettle into about a dozen glasses Charlton pours all varieties of drinks, from beer to fancy green liquors, simple chemis- try, but interesting on this side where we are said to have prohi- bition. The vanishing girl disap- pears from full view in an open- faced cabinet, suspended In the air. She had to jerk the lever twice Saturday afternoon and almost muffed. It worked well enough, at that, to provoke a gasp and send the turn across. Charlton is a pleasing talker, and gains the necessary confidence im- mediately. What he must do in vaude over here is cut the weak matter and make It snappier. The stunt in which he disappears from a suspended sack to show up in a policeman's uniform was ama- teurish and got a giggle. Bige. MEDRANOand DONNA (8) Flash Act 20 Mins.; Full Fbrdham (V-P) Medrano and Donna's dancing. In an apparently new setting, is now done before a Latin musical septet in place of the former jazz band, while the new supporting girl is a singer Instead of a dancer. Aside, from when the girl, Lillian White, Is" on, the Spanish atmosphere Is always used, in the principals' dancing and the band's music. Act is on a par with the best of the many other Spanish dance fiashes and should go about as far as the rest of them. As with the others, it all depends on whether the money Is right. What they all run up against Is the bookers' contrasting opinions re- garding the right nioney. Medrano .and Donna, established team, are expert tango and Spanish hoofers. Band is novel. In that it contains two concertina players and churns out some interesting music. Miss White sings pleasantly. Both women are lookers, especially. Miss White, their appearance meaning a lot to the act. Bige. JOHN R. WALSH Songs 9 Mins.; One State (V-P) Straight singer of the concert style, doing a routine cycle of songs accompanied by a girl at the piano billed as Ruth Johnson. She looks high school, new to show business. Little showmanship about the turn. Walsh sings four numbers, all sentimental ballads or lov© songs, chosen probably to. display his agreeable baritone, but monotonous for vaude. . . No. 2 and made slow going of It until the finale when spirited hand- ling of "Crying for the Carolines" pulled him out safely. As presented here, just an early filler, due to absence of the vaude quality. Rush, SMART SET REVUE (7) Flash 12 Mins.; Full (Special). Lincoln Sq. (V-P). Principals are Mary Ferguson, and Del Val who once teamed In a mixed double, but now In. new flash that carries Mary Brian, blonde dancer and a four-piece band. Ferguson and Del Val execute usual tango, waltz and marimba dance in good order and with able technique and Miss Brian okay as long as she sticks to hoofing. But the band fails to holdup. Latter even try to sing for no good rea- son or result. As Is good for No. 1 In the neighbs. Better music group and other changes would lift act. Closing here on u-act bill, got fair hand. ERNA RUBINSTEIN Concert Violinist 4 Mins. Roxy (Pres) New York . Young liungarian girl violinist producing exquisite music Held the enormous Roxy to hushed attention and took three logitimato bows, un- u.<;ual here. Only one number, "Hejre Kati" at Roxy, With two or three good selections "would be a nice vaude class act for the bet- ter spots. Nice appearance in modish black velvet gown. Surencss, sweetness of tone and impressi"ve finger tech- ■nique characterizes her playing.. * Land. SIM MOORE AND PAL Aero Comedy 7 Mins. One 81st Street (V-P). . Male duo working in .street clothf-.s and artists' caps. One op'-nn with chatter that stamps him a.s Engli.sh. T.'sual loud talk with intf.'lligiblr; words and aero burlesque on me- diocre plane. Played second spot for sonif laugh.s aft'T following a mild musi- cal turn. is>ighbs and No, 1 in quality. JIMMY CARR BAND with Silver Slipper Revue (19) 35 Mins.; Full Palace (St. V.) Series of specialties, some of them good, one of them excellent, before a stage band of 10, with a conduct- Ing-m.c. announcing between num- bers—a stereotyped specialty turn, badly directed and containing noth- ing new. Mills arid Shea saved it and May Questella helped them do It. These two turns- were added to the night, club people from the Silver Slipper, New York, for the vaude time. Carr Is far from a good m.c. How- ever he may rate as a pacer In a cafe has no bearing on his stage effectiveness. His personality just Isn't and his habit is to waste words that carry no meaning. The specialty people would be better with just the announcement of their names, without the non-building build-up. Mills and Shea, comedy acrobats with some excellent straight feats, were the big part of this 35-minute act. May Questelle, winner of an R-K-O "Helen Kane contest" some time ago and at the Palace before, took second place on her cuteness. Patsy and Mlckel, mixed dance team; Dorothy James, tapping look- er; Babe Fenton, toe tapper, and Van Lowe, tall young fellow who does a typically night clubby bur- lesque oriental dance in full dress, are the Individuals from the Slipper. Just tossed together. Bige. FAYE and BANNISTER Revue (5) Dance Flash 16 Mins.; Full Academy (V-P) Whirlwind dancing by the prin- cipal pair, repeated with few vari- ations in three routines. Is stretched to pull this flash out of mediocrity. Something better than "vvhat now ac- companies Faye and Bannister's fast stepping would assure that stepping of results. This way it has a lot of sameness. Two-man hooflng team and a girl, who sings at the piano as accom- paniment for the boys' solo dance and before and after does some dancing herself, are the support. The girl is there first with appear- ance and secondly, bad second, with dancing. Boys are much better with their soft tap work. Nothing notable In the scenery department. Women attractively costumed. Bige. KENNY and GREEN Sister Act .12 Mins.; One 86th St; (V-P) Jean Kenny and lolpen Green In talk and a couple of songs. Ground- work for cross talk Is credited'to Ned Joyce Heaney, but plenty of the gags are in the public domain, viz.: "I don't sleep very well." "Have you tried Flit?" Girls appear with golf bags and some of the chat has to do with that pastime, but not in any effec- tive way. One does the haughty dame, the other the kidding tom- boy, although this angle doesn't de- velop very well. Just a collection of well-used cross-talk gags by rather likeable girls. Songs Interspersed fairly well handled, with the second hav- ing amu.sing lyrics. No. 3 here, which was probably a step too far along. Rush. FOUR CRACKER JACKS Singing and Dancing 9 Mins. 125th St. (V-P) Poor turn, of no marked merit. Helped along by the atage band which backgrounds all turns at this house. Two mixed youthful couples deal- ing mainly In dancing. Strut on. with four valises, which turns out to be made ,of wood frame work and upon which they do the ma- jority of their legmania. Some warbling between dances. Not much singing, all the better, as the voices were none too good. Serve mainly taps. Into which they weave a bit of eccentric hoofing. Closing number, drunk dance, by the quartet, strongest pillar. But even this was mossed up by one of the boys, who danceC as though suddenly afllicted with lumbago. Can stand plenty of improvement. JONES and" WILSON Talk 16 Mine.; Two (Special) Jefferson (V-P) "Two boys working in heavy black- face. Neat delivery of good mate- rial puts it acro.ss. Boys, working in front of street drf p rcpre.sfntlng the slim").s, derid«' each other with Ifizily dcliverf;d crossfire, rcmini.scont of Amos 'n' Andy Boys play down^Tnd-out negrofs starving for a V)lte to cat. Wander off into bf-lltlling each other for their lack of culture and knowlcdK", from wlilch bit most of the lau;,'lis emanaf*. Smallf-r of the two drrlvcs many laughs from compounding In- dicrou.H "words to Impre.u.s his part- n'-r. Tall boy foll.s .smoothly. Winds up with thf> small chap strumming a guitar while the tall ono supplies a bit of Rtrntology. Should find It ea-sy cuinji aiuwiifcrc. SEALTIEL (1) Sleight-of-Hand 10 Mins.; One (Special) 81st St. (V-P) Digit sniper with finger graceful- ness of a dancer. Okay anywhere. Frenchman, Sealtiel speaks broken- ly, which aids his act for comedy aim, but would go better If he tried softer and more deliberate pace In speaking. Opened In this counU-y at the Club Richman, Broadway, and later appeared at a Greenwich Vil- lage resort. Better here than in the clubs. Belongs on the stage. Big returns. Otherwise same assortment of tricks as in the club performances, but uses a hired plant who is smart enough not to assume histrionic at- tempts. Assistance gained from curious audience customers. Among his most ingenious devices for en- tertainment is changing his neckties without visible proof of tampering. Makes about six such changes through act. Also picks assistants' pockets as they concentrate on his card tricks. _ Usual card tricks are employed, but the manner In which Sealtiel manipulates Is swift and rhythmic, and stamps him out of ordinary. Hollywood Dailies (Continued from Page 23) shooting the rehearsal of an entire production before starting on th© regular print Is declared impractical by Pathe officials. . . ^ Ros© Hobart, New York legit ac- tress, given contract by U. George Bancroft Is baking out a cold at Palm Springs, Cal., so pFo- ductlon on "Cave Man," Paramount. IS delayed. Herman Wobber, coast head for Publlx, Is vacationing In Honolulu. Ralph Crablll filling post during his absence. Lola Lane has a play or pay con- tract with James Cruze productions whereby her salary during the nejcCEtn. five years will total |480,000. Charles Levin has left the M-G production staff to j<jin the Bill Perl berg agency. J. P. Kennedy has bought the screen rights of "Purple and Fine Linen from FN for Gloria Swanson. Corlnne Griffith mad© It as a silent four years ago. • John M. Stahl's first directorial assignment under his new two-pic- ture contract for M-G will b© "R©- mot© Control." He will have no ed- itorial or production supervision. Erie Kenton, who recently left Co- lumbia, has been engaged to direct one picture for M-G-M. Jack Oakle's first starring picture for Par will be "Social Lion" Instead of "Mcrton of th© Movies." Vir- ginia Bruce -opposite. Clarence NoMstrom la due next week to play th© lead In "Spring Fever," M-G. William Scully, recently elevated to directorship by Fox, has been relieved on "Alcaltraz" by Alfred Werkerreplace, Howard Selter, brother of William Selter, director, is now an agent. First National Is negotiating for Laura LaPIant© as a featured con- tract player. Because of their work In Warner.s' "See Naples and Die," Olsen and Johnson, from vaude, are now under a term contract there. Upon completion of her work In Young Man of Manhattan" at Pair's L. L studio, Claudett© Colbert will be brought her© to co-feature In "Manslaughter" "with Fredrlc March. George Abbott will direct. Canadian capitalists bought the Vine Street theatre property fend two other sites In the same block for $1,676,500. Theatre property sold for $800,000. Th© Vancouver syndi- cate, represented by Joseph H. Dia- mond, plans spending $3,725,000 to build three height-limit buildings, with an office building going over the theatre. Wallace Beery testified before a coroner's jury that George Maves, his pilot, Mrs. Maves and Lynrf; Hays were riding in Beery's plane without permi.sslon when they were killed in a crash a few days ago. Loew's Friday Openings I'ittHburgj), April 1. Ldf.'w thf'iitrfs here, Penn and Aklino, go from Monday to Friday openings this week. They're tho la.^t in town to g(;t away from the begin- ning of thf) wceK opening. Not a theatre hero opening Mon- day, exc<^pt Gay^ty with sllfnt pic- tures. A year ago anything but a Monday opening was virtually un- heard of.