Variety (Apr 1930)

Wednesday^ April 23, 1030 TIMES SQUARE VARIETY 09^ Broadway Chatter Alma Smith working. Doris Jay has moved again. June Carter Waddell quite ill. Kay JJazelle out of Abbey Club. Georgia Paine packing to ▼Isit the folks down that in Louisiana. Mary Reid, head of the Tillers, leaving for coast. . Caesar Romero and partner opened at Montmartre. Sddie Green is back at the Krazy Kat after a vacation. Al Spengler sick, but office run- ning. Rosalind Greene and elster teamed for vaude. Sdlth Thayer is recovering from her recent auto accident. Irene BeasJey has lost her gift pencil. One of those picture teas netted only two critics very recently. Most colorful colored stories be- long to Jack Cohn. Nelda Nincaid and Violet Arnold noTT at the HollyAvo6d. Ruth Rich is exploiting Sasieni pipes. ■ Mike Simmons uses a new razor every day. Chai-lie Elnfeld's pash is handball. There's a reason. Irving Kaye Davis has changed lawyers. Max Lief's favorite is "going down an alley for laughs." Kdna Thomas, who sings spiri- tuals, a "Little Show" prospect. Ada B. Peacock, costumer, has returned to Paris. Automat sold matzohs in the slot during Passover. Best meeting place in town is the Paramount on a Saturday night. Gloria Swanspn wired she does not want a Broadway show. Frances Gershwin another to make picture test this week. Mary Jane Warren cooks her own meals. Arthur Brown is at the Ever- glades, with a Hollywood prospect. ■ Gordon-Haddon, who wrote "My Uncle King George V," cabled Irv- ing Strouse from London for $30. Fox Athletic Club is doing its spring dancing at the Astor Hotel tonight (Wednesday). Guys sharpshooting for columns are heading the way of the Morn- ing Telegraph. Brad Browne and Al Llewelyn are permanently with La Palina's broadcast. The woman staM and the men Bit at the Hollywood when the show is on. Will Hays goes on the air in Washington, May 7, at the banquet ©f the Motion Picture Engineers. Even the big chains are now ask- ing artists to radio free, despite usual audition. David Owen of the Columbia oys- tem used to profess at Northwest- ern University. Ax'thur James is now spilling air two ways. He's scheduled over WABC April 23. Lew Fields giving a loud "smack" to Herbert Fields when kissing his eon ^ood-bye. Herbie Coastward. Dorothy Blake Reed sails May 3 to join Hubby, Lou Reed, appearing abroad professionally. . Bill McKenna's parents celebrated their golden .wedding anniversary in Jei-sey City, April 12. Every time Sidney Skolsky stays out late with the boys he takes «andy home. The "Journey's End" company will be the guests of the Green Room Club midnight, April 26. Paul Gulick, Universal's publicity director, returned Monday after a week's illness with the flu. "We can't iget the title in lights" is the. kick against "All Quiet On the "Western Front." Friars are giving a night to Joe Frisco at which J-j-joe will be the toastmaster. Johnny Dunn, toastmaster of "Blackbirds," is organizing a band ci his own, to take to Paris. Floyd Snelson is manager for Julia Coleman's Hal r-Vim-Vogue establishment. Newton Levinson, Wall street broker and w. k. main stemmer, takes his vacation next week. Will spend it in New York. A. J. Balaban is .scanning shipping lists to pick steamer that will take him and Mrs. Balaban for a Euro- pean vacation May 16. New kind of Broadway party Is the "mural" where the girls pose while a painter paints and the guests repose, Evelyn Laye sailed for London yesterday (Tue,sday) to remain six weeks. She is to return in Juni? for on© picture for Goidwyn. Maybe coincidence, but the B4th St. precinct station and the Club Abbey are on the same street—three blocks apart. Robert Riskin and his wife <Miss Fitzgerald), who wrote "Many a Slip" have finished "A High Com- edy." Ruth Goodwin, whose molars, bi- cuspids and incisors have been wired for two years, Is taking the strands oufi Steve Barutio, head man at the Paramount, is the youngest man- ager of a Broadway deluxer. He's in his early 20's. Silver Gate, Harlem, was scene of Louis Sobol's initiation into the Harlemaniac Society. Lee Posner officiated. In between Par pictures, Charles Ruggles will do a eix-week stretch in vaude. Starts May 3 at the Palace, Chicago. Sally and Ted O'Shea, out on the coast, say climate and all, notwith- standing, they're willing to come back if agent sees the right spot. John B, Goring, manager of Cri- terion, is on a three weeks' vaca- tion on the west coast. He flew out by plane. Josephine Hall, colored songstress, appearing at the Cotton Club, Har- lem, sailed last week for Ernest Rolf's revue at the China theatre, Stockholm. Three tons of candy and 5,000 live baby-ducks are part of a collection of giveaway tleups arranged by Ben Serkovich for the exploitation of Mitzi Green, 11-year-old player. George Murphy and Julie Johnson, who closed at the Club Montmartre Saturday, left for the coast where they will open in George Olson's new club in Culver City, Sani Palmer, of Publix produc- tion department and editor of the "Publix Entertainment" house or- gan, is back after an Illness of three weeks. "Scotch racketeers who want some one bumped off \have them "taken for a walk." Second Scotch gag ever in "Variety" and first outside a box. 1 Joseph V. Reed, Denver million- aire and partner of Kenneth Mc- Gown in theatrical productions in New York, sailed for Paris to study French stage production. The bull In Ben Blue's act at the Palace caved and the act took an- other pause Saturday night. Veteri- narian consulted said It must have been the weather. Anne Rubin at the Broadway Paramount rates a bow. from all Publix chiefs who never fail to chat with her when visiting the theatre. Goes tor Paramount heada, too. Walter Simon" has quit the Tri- angle theatre and by his own an- nouncement says he win mot write the proposed revue with Roy Mc- Cardell. Local p. a. explointlng Park Ave. matron shoved her into divorce to ready her f6r Broadway show. His rriistake was when the court records revealed the woman's age and k. o.'d her show ambitions. Unusual facial features of a cer- tain former Sliubert chorus girl will bring her a picture contract if she can drop 50 of her 160 tonnage by end of summer. She's making the Jry. Lou Abramson, secretary Indie Theatre Owners, Chicago Ass'n, re- ported engaged to wed Ann Barr, Universal exchange, and niece of Perce Barr, Education sales man- ager, here. Another benefit went that way when the T. P. R. O. A. held its an- nual at Erlanger's theatre. Good show and plenty of talent but few customers. Looks like Broadway is off those things. Nett Graff, of Abner Rubien's of- fice, burning because two other girls in the office had their names in this column befoi'Oi she did. Just a squarer. Got to be nice to some girls. When the Gaudsmiths wired Max Richard, their agent, to cancel Lan- sing, Mich., as they had to appear in naturalization court, the agent telegraphed back: "Naturalize dog, too, so It won't happen again." Freda Jackson of Billy Pierce's studio, was severely Injured by be- ing struck by a taxi. Girls at the studio volunteered, to dO;4>er work until hfer return. Her spine was near fractured by the accident. Bob O'Donnell hopped Into New York last week with his wife, Lovey, from New Orleans. The Publix theatre operator for the south hopped back again Sunday night, leaving Lovey behind. South- em hospitality, either way. Jed Harris bethought himself of a little bon voyage gift to John Byram, Richard Watts and Don Chatter in Loop The C. A. Leonards are going to fly to New York. Madeline Woods bandied a pen- cil in the Benton Harbor, Mich., spring blossom beauty contest. William Hollander finally drove his old jailopey Into a Junk man's backyard and has got himself a new Linc'n. Marcus Glazer is wearing a bandage. headgear' since diving through a windshield while on hl.s way to Cincinnati. Tom Carmody tried to do a Sara- zen v?ith a piece of paper and a new driver oft the top of his watch. He missed the paper by a mainspring. Miles Ingalls, New York bound, got a champagne headache and a set of golf clubs from his associates on the R-K-O floor. A press agent with a hxmiorous slant on matrimony went into a slushy phone, conversation with his sweetheart in his ex-wife's pres- ence. He's the same one who went to the ex-wife's wedding with some one else and Insisted on giving the bride away. LONDON NOW DULLER THAN EVER AT NITE London, April 11. London's just dead. Ever since the Byng Boys of Broadway, ■ new nam© for Scotland Yard since the police chief began to interest hlm.self in nite life, started their habit of popping in places and doing things, London goes home to bed even earlier than usual. London's nite life has mainly been peopled'by foreigners and a small mixture of. show folk and gadflys. Real London, in general, knows as much about the joy parade as the mayor of Monkeyville. Real London goes to its theatres, clears out at 11, sips brown liquid it imagines to be coffee, and trots off home by the tube, hitting the suburbs and feathers well before midnight. The other London, the little bit made up of foreigners 'ar\d news- paper clippers, used to stai't getting lively around 12. They ended up around six a. m. Nowadays, if h© wants a class break in this line, it has to trot.out to roadhouses.along the river", crawl- ing home through police traps all along the West road. Not more than 10 dance clubs of any size left in London. Most of the sup - and - strut parades get largely internal residence patronage. Wliat dives there are advertise their respectability In the tabloids and fairly shriek their existence in elec- trics and commissionaires. All to remind the Byng Boys they're just dance dives. Nowadays, if a place gets an ex- tension till two, the proprietor makes whoopee. Reminds him of the dear glad days beyond recall. Most of the dives fold mostly around midnight, with two extensions until one a week. Best sign of the terribly respect- able air of the London dives these days is in the sandwiches. There's a crazy drink law hete which pre- vents you drinking after 11 unless you eat. Stunt used to be to hand round plates of sandwiches which no one touched and serve the drinks under 'em. These days they're as fresh as college boys—and folks eat 'em. Any New Yorker wanting a rest cure ought to book himself in the London nite belt.' He'd be taking exercises before breakfast after a week of It. Skene, three newspapermen who sailed for Europe aboard the Mil- waukee Saturday. . Instead of the regulation package and so forth, he arranged for $100 worth of credit in the ship's bar for the boys. Idea two-thirds okay. Byram does not imbibe. Another member of the Lombardo family has been added to Guy Lom- bardo's band, at the Roo.sevolt Hotel. He is Vic Lombardo, 19, sax player. Orche.stra now has four members of the Lombardo family, Guy, Carmen, Lebert and Vic. Aftfr theatre dinner tonight ("\N"ednesday) tp Joo Frifbrrrg at Gerson'a in the Hotel Somerset. Women there, too, as though Joe were one of those pretty face "scroen muggs. During tho dinner Charlie Freeman will be tried for commit- ting an a.«-K.iult with Intent to kill upon his wife, Carrie—and, having failed! Inaccurafe Biographies Sid Grauman By Claude BLiyon Hollywood, April 19'. , chuckled. "You're a smart boy, SIcV* Sid (Gee Whiz) Grauman, father of prolog and mother of log-rolling, has repainted the oldest Rolls Royce in the world ami is ready for his comeback in the show business. He will handle the showing of Howard Hughes' film air Marathon, "Hell's Angels." When the picture opens at the Egyptian, Grauman starts active duty. Meanwhile he has time to cruise around the world or order a ham sandwich in the Brown Derby. Grauman's childhood years were a varied lot, as his father was an engineer and had no idea where he might want the kid to meet him with his lunch. As a result Grau- man became known up and down the Coast as the Vagrant Toter. Other children threw stones at him. "You Jupt wait," threatened little Sid. "Some day I'll got my father's gun and shoot my Initials in you." "^^'hat are your Initials?" taunted a big bully named Pat Casey. "What?" answered Grauman, lookinj," in his hat. They weren't there. The next day Grauman met his father in Yuma, Arizona, and they sat under the town's lone'tree while the elder Grauman ate. "Dad,'.' said Sid, "how's chances on crashing a public school? I mean for alphabets and numbers, and things like that." "Haven't you been going to school?" asked bis father, incredu- lously. "What did you do with that nickel I gave you last week?" "I spent it," Sid confessed, "on a girl." Grauman, senior, turned away and he said. "You never .commit youi** self, lie reached into his overallg pocket, "Here's a dime," he said. "Go bu; yourself a public school." Sid looked at the coin. "Thh* isn't a dime. It's another nickel." "All right," said his father. "Ju»t buy the flrst four grades. And meet me in Wyoming tomorrow with two corned beefs on rye and plenty of mustard." Moving In his period of primary educa- tion Sid attended more than 30 pub- lie schools. Then he became ft newsboy in Nome, a freak show owner in 'Frisco and a hoke king In Hollywood, His tlieatre career started In Frisco, where he was part owner of a store theatre playing 17 showB daily. He would have played more^ only his acts had to sit down now and then. In Los Angeles later Grauman started his famous prologs at the Million Dollar theatre and reached' his climax with stage shows at the Chinese. People came miles to see Grauman, his hair, theatre and pro- logs, decided Grauman's p. a. When Fox-West Coast took ovei" his theatres Grauman went into re- tirement, "Only jpne thing will bring m« back into show business," he said. "Somebody will have to a.sk me." Several moons passed and Grau- man was standing on a.corner, "When are you going Into show business again?" asked Howard Hughes, passing by, "You asked me I" yelled Graumnn. "Hell's bells!" exclaimed Hugh6«. "'Hell's Angels'r" shouted Grau- man, as his first day's work. Chatter in Paris Free weighers so jammed the side- walk traffic Walkover Shoe Com- pany's free. Toledo scale ordered re- moved. Bill Henly, here since the war, among -first American Jazz band leaders to remain here, operating his ne\r Taverne, a roadhouse at Bou- gival. Frank, popular barman, from the Cloche, on the Left Bank, now In charge of the food and drink em- porium at the new Belgravia hotel. Meurice hotel, catering chiefly to nobility, not so snooty now with biz off and issuing list of new arrivals Congress of Headliners Marks Morris' Benefit Benefit performance at Carnegie Hall Sunday evening brought out an /mpre.'slve aggregation of headlin- ers which played a long bill to an audience that nearly filled the big house. Event was for the Jewish Community Center and .Social Serv- ice Fund of Saranac Lake, which Is the pet hobby of William Morris, who promoted and carried through the entertainment. Novel features included the flrst local appearance of Mltzl Green, child film player and daughter of Joe Keno and Rosle Green, who did a remai'kable song and dance turn beifore Paul A.sh and the Paramount stage band. Youngsters' Imitation of Moran of Moran and Mack sing- ing a ballad was a riot. There were three masters of ceremony starting with Solly Ward and finishing with Bugs Bacr, with Lester Allen presiding midway through the evening. Horace Heidt and his band with- out their instruments but working as male singing group, opened the proceedings, not forgetting the dog which has been taught new tricks during their foreign travel. Arnaut Bro.s, made one of their rare ap- pearances without the white face makeup and clown garb. Harry Lauder sang a sentimental ballad without a trace of accent, which left the audience a bit stun- ned. Joe .Smith and Charley Dale did "Dr.. ICronkhelt," their old .•sketch and panlked this mob of In- alderf, and so did Jack Pearl with the old croKS fire of tangled speech. Othnrs were Ben Blue, KalrofT, Maurice .Sfhwartz, the Yiddish ac- tor, Borah Mlnevlt'ph, Jans and Whalf-n and Hflr-n Morgan. Show ran to midnlL'ht. to local press. Formerly felt U didn't need the publicity and main- tained their guests too class to welc oomo that sort of publicity. H. Wolf Kaufman, ex-Broadway scribe, p. a'ng the Hotel George "V, sold that swell hostelry two plane* to meet boats at Havre and Cher- bourg and transport guests direct from the port of arrival to Paris, eliminating tedious boat-train rides. M. R, Werner, author of "Bar- num" and "Tammany," In Paris, en route to Moscow. - Going to study the Soviet sitiiatlon with a possible tome in view. Tex Gulnan reported coming over for Leon Volterra's son who's open- ing a cabaret 'specially for her. Rudolf Frlml brought over twtf Fords as gifts for friends in Prague and his own flashy Cord. The doggy buggy was a local sensation when Frlml drove it off the "Europa," Frlml here to get away from It all, especially Sam Goidwyn on whom ho took a run-out powder on tho Coast, refusing to write for the sound-screen under certain condi- tions. A vicious circle of American pro- fessionals In Paris right now. Over- doing the usuar rough stuff consid- erably and something may bust out in a nasty way. George Jessel coming abroad on the "Europa's" maiden return voy- age decided to democratize the boat and not restrict "roiralty to Lady Mountbatten and a few other titles abroad. He gave every passenger hokum names such as Leftenant- Col. Glnzberg of the Ludlow St. Dragoons; Capt. Lefkowltz of the Dclancey Guards, etc., and made 'em all like it. Just a life-of-the-party youth, Jessel in Paris admitted having recovered his "nerves" re- sulting from his own "Joseph" flop and the Wlllard Robertson play -llJe produced and financed, Mrs, J* (Florence Courtney) came over to join him. ILL AND INJURED Nif;k Ilolde recovering from an operation for hernia. Now at home, Charles .Stewart greatly improved. Marie Tracey, secretary to J. J. O'Connor, R-K-O film booking of- fice, operated upon for appendlcltia In Lutheran Hospital, New York, last week, recovering. .Sam Bcrn.<;tcln laid up with a .'mall bone broken In his foot at hl.s New York hime. Hut when .•^ifpplng from Bond building ele- vator.