Variety (Apr 1930)

60 VARIETY FOR LADIES ONLY Wednesday, April 23, 1930 RITZY It looks as though Frances Wil- liams will marry Alan Jones, who plays the piano In "Fifty Million Frenc-hmrn," Alan's wife. Bertha Jones, recently sued Miss Williams for $100,000 for alienation o£ Alan's affections. Jones formerly played In the Yellow Cab orchestra In Pilts'jurffh. Frances, whose name was Jel- lineck, is a daughter of Maude Wil- liams, actress. In the fall of 1928 she wa,s reported as about to marry Howard Lee, millionaire polo- player. Lee previously paid court to Hilda Ferguson. A few months before that Miss Williams was reported engaged to Charles Kaley, orchestra leader at the Granada theatre, Chicago. Kaley was awaiting a divorce from. Alpha Lanee, modiste. Hollywood Studios Have Two New Departments, Good Taste and Humor Versatility KIsIe Thompson, organist at the Brooklyn Paramount claims to be the most versatile organist. Wien relieved at the con- sole, she sings and dances to entertain the lobby crowd. London Marriage In London recently Denning Miller married Alison Powell, da.ughter of Mrs. James D. Powell, of Maplewood, N. J. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wise Miller, of New York. His mother was Alice Duer, and, as Alice Duer Miller, has written many success- ful novels and plays. She is a cousin of Katherine Duer, who divorced Clarence H. Mackay, and then divorced Dr. Joseph A. Blake. Dr. Blake, a noted surgeon, had previously been divorced by Catharine Ketchum, and finally Inarried Florence Drake. Mrg. Duer Blake Is the mother of Mrs. Irving Berlin. Eugene Walters Finally Agrea Eugene Walter and Charlotte Walker ought now to feel satisfied they are divorced! He finally secured' an interlocutory decree in IjOs Angeles on the grounds of desertion, supplementing a divorce granted him in Delaware some years ago. First a reporter on a Cleveland newspaper, he was later on the New York "Sun." He served In the U. S. Cavalry, and became an advance agent, before gaining favor as a playry'rlght. "Paid in Full," produced In 1907, was his out standing success. . Miss Walker, daughter of the late Pinckney Walker, British Consul In various southern states, made her etage debut in 1893. In 1900 she yro.3 with "Miss Print," and in 1907, leading lady In Belasco's "Warrens of Virginia." On every studio lot in Hollywood there should be a Good Taste De- partment to watch particularly over the women's wardrobe and tip off producers to what well-born, so- phisticated women do and do not wear. Ostensibly they spend much time contriving backgrounds to convey an aristocratic note, and then ruin the effect by having the mistress of the menage appear In a gown that would be suitable only for a masquerade. The department would teach the needed lesson that rich- ness is not always obtained through glittering rhinestoned and sequlned applications. They would prevent actresses appearing for a quiet din- ner . party (as one does in "The Furies") wearing a bedazzling court fown with back decolletage creep- ng dpwn to the hip line. There should also be a Sense of Humor Department to curb the grand utterances that are exempli- fied in "The Furies" dialog. Every one In the film goes around having beautiful thoughts and expressing them In as many words as pos- sible. Despite these drawbacks and that the murderer's identity doesn't come as a surprise, "The Furies" is an arresting picture, with at least two good performances ■ to sustain in- terest. Marie Dressier, Cannuck Marie Dressier to be starred In Metro pictures, was Leila Koerber, of Cobourg, Ontario. She made her Btage debut in 1886, as Cigarette In "Under Two Flags." In 1892 she was In "The Robber of the Rhine." ^In 1896 she played Mrs. Malaprop ■ in "The Rivals." Years ago Marie 7 ran a concession at Dreamland, Coney Island. She has many friends In New York society, including Mrs Oliver Harriman. She was once an Intimate of Mrs. Oliver Belmont and the late Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish. Nina Olivette tied the Palace show into a little knot Saturday afternoon with a nicely routined comedy-dance offering. The co- medienne's likable faculty of poking fun at herself, added to excellent dancing, sent her Into audience fa- vor which culminated in a burst of appreciation after a screamingly funny adagio burlesque. The turn is well groomed. Florla Vestoff, held over with Ben Blue, repeated her success of last week with her clever combination of tap and ballet work, A Spanish dance, added to Ben Blue's toreador number, which will be better with repeated playing, makes it more definite, proved that her work is not limited to style. Paper dress styles were exhibited by Lestra La Monte, female im- personator, who removed his wig every few minutes in an attempt to prove that he was only kidding. Tailored costumes were badly fitted and dowdy, but elaborate show girl gowns were cleverly de- vised and as successful as If done in fabric. Gowns of crinkled paper fringe had rare beauty. The Harrington Sisters, announced 'Little Rosebuds," wore the sort of thing you'd expect Little Rosebuds to wear, and were liked most In their familiar gold-digger number. GattI in 1910. In Melbourne, where her name was Frances Adler, she was In musical comedy, starting in the chorus. Trained by her grand- mother, Mme. Slmson, music teacher. Her aunt, Frances Simon- son, sang at the Metropolitan a generation ago as Mme. Frances Saville. May Collins has rented a pent- house apartment at 175 East 79th street. She appeared this spring In "House Afire." Corey Ford, of the "Vanity Fair" staff, has a ter- race apartment at 433 East 51st st. He wrote the satire, "Salt Water Taffy." Harry D'Arrast. film di rector, has rented an apartment at .455 East 57th st. The Maudes Cyril Maude Is making a talker version of "Grumpy" for Paramount He starred In this comedy in 1914 Born In London in 1862, he first acted in Denver in 1884, in "East Lynne" with Daniel Bandmann. Son of the late Capt. Charles H. Maude, grandson of the Hon. Francis Maude, he is a greats grandson of Sir Cornwallis Maude, first Viscount Hawarden. His brother, R. W. D. Maude, married Jenny Goldschmidt, daughter of the famous Jenny Lind. His first wife w«.tj the late Winifred Emery, actress, and In 1927 he married Mrs. Beatrice Ellis Trew. His daughter, Margery Maude, Is married to a New York society man, Joseph War- ren Burden. She returned to the stage this spring to appear in "The \iivals." The son, John Cyril Maude, married Rosamond Murray, Baston society girl. "Drags" in a Mansion . Many well known people attend the various public "drags" held in New York each season, but some of the private affairs are more sensa tional. Among the most Impressive, because of the circumstances and background, are those given in the palatial residence, one of the most famous in New York, of a multimil- lionaire wliose name is outstanding. The parties are given by this man's butler, during the protracted ab sence of the master and mistress. Not only is the master's cellar called on to supply liquid x-efreshment, the mistress' wardrobe is ransacked for silks and satins to adorn the host and his friends. Frances Alda's Creditors Frances Alda, who divorced Cattl-Casazza, and retired from the Metropolitan,. has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay the Winter Holding Co. $3,338 for back rent for her suite at the Alwyn Apartment, at 58th st. and Seventh ave, John I.- Carr, Interior dec- orator, previously obtained a de- fault Judgment for $1,546. Joseph Caplan, another decorator, sued for $1,110 for fixing up the Alda home at Great Neck. In 1927 J. Jacckel & Sons, furriers, sued for $2,462. \Mme. Alda first sang at the Metropolitan In 1908, marrying June Walker's Apartment June Walker has leased an apart ment at 307 East 44th street. She and her husband, Geoffrey Kerr (pronounced "Carr"), had the lead ing roles in Belasco's "Bachelor Father," Born in New York, she got her start as an extra girl at the Es sanay Studio in Chicago, along with Gloria Swanson, Agnes Ayres, Col Icen Moore, Helen Ferguson and Virginia Valli. In 1918 she was in "The Betrothal," at the Shubert, in New York. Later she made a hit in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." Geoffrey is a son of Frederick Kerr, English actor, who changed his name from Keen. NINA OUVEHE MAKES KNOT OF PALACE BILL A HoDywoodian in New York By Cecelia Ager '■ —^ SWELL CUBAN BAND At 86th St.—Lynn Cantor There With Grace Hayes' "Snap Shots" Lynn Cantor, using Grace Hayes' "Snapshots" at the 86th Street, has also fallen heir to Miss Hayes' cos- tumes^or, at least, their designs. Her delivery Is similar to Miss Hayes', which means that she han- dles the numbers well, all but the giddy granddaughter bit, unsulted to her. Her closing song Is one of those soupy, melodramatic patter things that audiences should laugh at, but don't. On the bill making its American debut is a perfectly swell Havana Orchestra led by Don Justo Azplazu, dispensing soft melody against the smothered beat of Cuban crap gad- gets. Between numbiers are special- ties. Warm Ballet at Capitol Leaves House Undecided Capitol patrons, accustomed to circumspect entertainment, may be surprised at Chester Hale's saucy little pantomime to "What Is This Thing Called Love?" in which the ballet, assuming langorous postures In negligee, retires to separate cover- lets of an enormous $atln bed and goes . Into the. kick routine that caused so much comment in Car- roll's "Sketch Book." A blackout terminates the actipn as gayly dressed. cavaliers enter and divest themselves of their coats, prepara- tory to retiring. The number is delicately staged, but really quite amazing corning from a cinema house. Silence that greeted it after the first showing on Friday indicates the audience didn't know just how to take it. Rest of the entertainment is ex cellent stuff. Rosemary, pretty col- oratura, and the Sydell Sisters, who nearly kill each other in a hectic Apache number, are there. A Hale line-up la beautiful and quite away from the trite color com binations of usual precision num- bers. Frocks are of the puffy ballet type graduating from white, through the dust shades, to black. The com- binations are arranged beautifully in dance manipulation. Crawford and Broderick Helen Brodorick and her husband, Lester Crawford, of the "Fifty Mil- lion Frenchmen" company, In which Holpn has made one of the out- standing personal hits of the sea- son, have been living all winter in the Hotel Schuyler, but are opening their house at Freeport, L. I., an- ticipating a summer run at the Lib- erty theatre. The Crawfords, who were In vaudeville for years, have a strap- ping son, Uroderic'U, who plans, after leaving school, to eireunniavi- gale tlie world, workin.ir his way. Daddies, Lovers, Plots "Guilty" is another story of dad dies who differ and children who love. Added feature has circum stantial evidence returning to con vIct the son, whose father had used it ten years previous to jail an enemy. Virginia Valli is always Virginia Valli, never a change of expression or even different coiffure. Miss Valli wore a good looking sport coat of printed linen with stiff double collar; a silk frock was pretty with its small ruffle topping the skirt flares which came to different heights and a similar ruffle on the upper sleeve, odd neckline. MARRIAGES Harry Van Hoven, Baltimore pub licity man, and Helen Q. Hammond daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Augustus Quandt, of 3436 Piedmont ave., are to wed in the early fall. Lillian Wallace to Thomas Vil lastrega last week In Reading, Pa Couple are leads with Jack Erick son's musical comedy company, Pat RooneV, 3rd, to Doris Dawson April 14, at Lynhurst, .N. J., by the town's mayox*. Carl Henderson, agent, to Dor othy Sauter, of Babe Egan's ''Red heads," April 12 in New York. Minister-Showmen (Continued from page 1) Dorothy Stone and even Mae West p, with Mayor Walker and Police Commissioner Whalen, have been there. Religious faiths of his a,ttractions don't bother the Rev. Mr. Reisner. Sole condition Is that they draw crowds—and they do. The pastbr's press agent advertises the attrac- tions In advance, amounting to an Always a good show at the Chelsea. M. E. Church. Introducing the attraction of the night, the Rev. Mr. Reisner's talk will go something like this, while holding up a dollar bill: "This Is a lowly dollar bill. So lowly Is It that it ivill not even pro- cure an admission for you into any legitimate theatre. But not so here —and here you have the biggest of stage and screen stars. My boys will now pass among you," he In- forms the congregation, significant- ly, and assumes a Billy Sunday at- titude, extending the dollar bill: 'Who will 'fade' me?" Still Another Congregation "fades" the pastor with a vim. Dollar bills float into the baskets brought around by "the boys." None of the dollars go In the "special attractions," they being present merely as guests. Money goes towards the $5,500,000 fund be- ing raised by the pastor towards the construction of the Broadway Temple, 30-story structure to con- tain a house of worship, apartments and offices. On other than Sunday nights there are talkers, with wiring equip- ment donated by Warner Bros. No charge or admission, but couuec- tions are always taken up. For his showmanship, the Rev. Mr. Reisner gets $20,000 a year, a duplex apartment in that part of the Broadway Temple already erected, and a Cadillac car. Rev. Mr. Reisner has a compe titer in the Rev. George Maychln Stockdale, pastor of the St. James M. E. Church, in Harlem. Rev. Mr Stockdale goes In for more sensa- tional stuff. Just now he is having six girls of the congregation taught to drot> with parachutes from speed ing airplanes for church publicity purposes. Quincy, 111., April 22. When "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was advertised for a Sunday night show by the First Congregational Church, its pastor. Rev. Carl Glover, nearly passed out when he 'beheld- It. Not the old Uncle Tom, of Harriet Beecher Stowe's but the jazzed up film version of the Duncan Sisters "Topsy and Eva." Congregation liked the picture. BIRTHS Mr. and Mrs. Jim Wong, of the Yuong King Chinese acrobatic troupe, at St.. Vincent's hospital Sioux City, la., son. Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Williams, in New York last' week, son. Father is the actor. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Faber in West Hempstead, L. I., April 4, son Father is in vaude. Mother has re tired. Third child. Marcl.i Nordi, formerly on the "Graphic" and with the Frank A Munsey organization, has been added to the R-K-0 publicity bureau to replace Kay Merrill. Nobody .says "E.\cuse me" when,, they bump into each other. First nights here are a plunging let-down after Hollywood's picture premieres Sometimes tralflc lights permit a three-block jaunt.. iTop-hats with dinner clothes are the province of shorti rotund fellow,?... .Very young- sticklers for tail coats... .Finest food in town cooked in west side speak- easies.... There is no escape from anagrams... .Orchids and gardenias are cheap enough for everybody.... Women who watch those things wear neither fern nor ribbon with their flowers.... Rubbering Slcill of taxi drivers developed to gouging by half-inches... .Fruit hereabouts should make the Cali- fornia markets hang their heads.... Cops are indulgent and forgiving,... Everybody wants to be told about Hollywood.... Saleswomen manage somehow to be last words of style for their customers... .New York saleswoman doesn't believe you want to buy....Folks who used to do crossword puzzles in the sub- ways now turn to the theatrical re- views Importance of Hollywood ' picture chatterers is deflated to normal. Prominent actress in a Guild play wears short socks with high-heeled slippers.. . .Recently released talk- ers usurp the prerogative, from ths stage for suggestive lines and situa- tions Restaurant-night-club on Broadway is called "Hollywood." and a picture house likes the name,. too.,. .Apartment Interiors have gone from "modern" to "romantic" For evening women concentrate on the make-up of their eyes Gala staterooms on trans-Atlantic boats are half last year's price Crosstown traffic jerks just like Hollywood Boulevard and Vine.... Lay Offs Actors off the boards awhile keep in r"actice cluttering up the bene- fits.... Fancy picture-set Childs on 8 th avenue calls itself a Spanish Mission"..Even so, small Inves- tors can't keep away from the Mar- . ket... .Lily Damlta is carrying ori the De Lysian tradition she estab- , lished for herself In Hollywood. New York radio programs actu- ally entertain... .Capes on every- body, Broadway to Park avenue.... Philip Barry's intermlsslonless play was a mean thing to do to the first-nighters... .Womien are walk- ing out of the expensive^ shops in strapless slippers Long, slender feet are fashionable... .Local press agents are all authors but prefer to be called press agents, now a more honorable profession. Rough on Tan Rancho golfers lose their suntan In New York very quickly playing . bridge It's impossible to find • a bad steak In New York, as impos- sible as it is to find a good one in Hollywood.... Short-legged golfers have discovered that turning up their, sweaters at the waistline will make their legs look longer For- mer capacity speakeasies in the . Times Square sector are keeping a lamp burning in their windows, waiting for their customers to come back from Hollywood Hollywood in New York puts up at the War- wick, or at the Elysee If the wives are east-side conscious... .All ac- tors are waiting to be tapped Holly- wood... .Whereas Hollywood's idea of a blissful job is anything at the Paramount Long Island studios. Women Needed Newspaper advertisements of the avenue shops stress the beau- catching qualities of their dresses .Local musical comedy is lan- guishing for won^en... .You can't .see the clothes because the kaleide- scopic modernistic windows of the avenue shops make you dizzy.... When .a New Yorker exiled in Holly- wood returns he eats oysters for a , week New Y'ork taxis are fancier than a picture star's new automo- . bile In all New York drug stores you can get Russian dressing on your sandwich Musical comedy ingenue? are imitating Gertrude Lawrence—it looks so easy and fashion writers Lois Long, for the same reason....In New York it is the duty of the columnists to tell you "the thing to do"—in Hollywood you have to use your wits... .Local repartee begins with "So what?' and finishes witli, "Check and double Check," a plague not yet visited upon Hollywood.