Variety (May 1930)

Wednesday, May 28, 1930 NEW ACTS—REVIEWS VARIETY 45 ACADEMY (Vaudfilm) ■VThy shouldn't It be a good Idea to tip oft the booker on what sort «f material a special unit Is going to have, so he could diversify the Burrounding show? Then he might pick out a couple, of comedy turns to pace a singing and dancing flash unit" and maybe lay off spotting more acrobatic dancing turns No. 1 end No, 2, Apparently the booking offlce here had been led to suppose that "Uni- lorms" was going to be an animal act or anything but a song and dance flash with an acrobatic epecialty featured. What happened Was this: Bill etarted quietly. No, 2 had Reading and Boyse, two acrobatic boys and a great, acrobatic dancing girl. Next were spiotted Parker and Baab, flash dance turn with the Philippine Or- chestra. Interlude of comedy in Joe Brown- ing's monolog which wowed 'em and then into "Uniforms," which turned cut to be a song and dance flash largely built around the acrobatic specialty of Armand and Perez, two young equilibrists who might have been „ the Reading boys all over again. "Uniforms", is a Fanchon and Marco "Idea" unit. Crying need for comedy must have been apparent to anybody and to meet" the need they inserted as an afterthought the mixed dialect team of Frank Hunter and Mae Perclval into the unit, where it certainly didn't belong. Result of the whole hit or miss scheme was «. shapeless show where a great deal of first rate talent was made to seem mild and dull because the running had no pace or tempo. The spotting of the • Reading- Boyse and the Parker and Baab team one following the other was disastrous. The former said the last word in acrobatic stepping and ttround acrobatics and the Parker- Baab turn following was an anti- climax. The girl of the Reading- Boyse trio is a whirlwind in con- tortion and stepping, a looker and has everything, while the hand-to- hand work of her two boy friends is on a par with the best of this style of work on view anywhere. They ' work smoothly and without parade, doing such feats as a row* of flip- flaps into a hand-to-hand from the ■ floor all in an unbroken routine. Three of them finish in a whooping tumbling routine, concluding the act here all in "one." That effectively killed off the Par- ker-Baab opening in full stage with ^tbe dancing pair opening in a mild ballroom routine before their six- piece Philippine stringed orchestra Act built slowly in an uphill fight to overcome the handicap, and won out by a narrow margin on the strength of the girl's frenzied aero batic finish. Browning fitted nicely, having the first try at laughs and by one of those curious things in vaudeville grabbing them at the start by his quiet opening, in get up modeled after the cartoonists' idea of a blue nose reformer. Hoke talk in lecture form kept him going nicely and the topical song finish with intermin- able comic lyrics to the "Hallelujah" chorus got him a strong close. He had to stall while the pitmen climb- ed out and,shifted to stage band assignment for the Fanchon & Marco unit and even then there was a full minute dead wait. Vnit didn't get what it deserved here, because the px-ecedlng special- ties had had first chance at about all the unit had. Opening is poor with a stereotyped song intro by Sylvia Shore and Helen Moore bringing on the twelve boys in pairs in the uniforms of various sports— baseball, polo, football, yachting, finally aviation, and a pair in con- vict stripes. ii,acn Doy partnership gives a sample of stepping and then drop flies to full stage for the band in summer uniform, with Armand and Perez posed, the understander seat- ed reading and the mounter in a one-hand stand on his licad—held up on a concealed support, as it tui-ned out. Boys .went into their turn, a first class gymnastic exhibi- tion, but with the edge off becau.sc of the earlier display. i^uth Hamilton, blond singing comeditnne, was poorly spotted in here for a rowdy, strong arm com- edy session with the m.c. which did little to help. Minor bits with comedy involv- ing the band leader who does vague straight m.c'ing and then 10 min- utes or so of Hunter and Pcrcival's "AVopQlogy," straight woman foil- ing for the dialect comic and do- ing a couple of soprano solo bits for pacing. Hunter's clowning with lariat manipulation good low com- <-dy and helped for badly needed laugh.s. Misse.-J Shore and Moore back and cute tricks in Fi-erich maid costume for bit of neat toe dancing and a corking finish in the twelve boys in brilliant red bell-hop uniform doing a Tiller routine to the orchestra's "William Tell Overture," which is ."ome accompaniment for a unison lap routine. Finish has the boys back in trim military uniform for the punch of the unit and a great idea, the two Efrls being the fliers of Intriratei adagio tosses and manipulation by the dozen boys. Feature was "Under a Texas Moon" (Warner Bros.) and business badly off for this first Saturday afternoon performance with prob- ably a third of capacity downstairs, remaining that way to late After- noon. Hush. ALBEE, BROOKLYN (Vaudfilm) Possibilities for business here cur-, rent week dependent, on what "King of Jazz" (U), direct from Roxy run of two weeks, will do, plus draw of "Willie and Eugene Howard. This is the first date of Howards on return to vaude after touring with 'IScan- dals." , The Paul Whiteman picture has some tough opposition in this sec- tion, with I'aramount playing "Vag- abond King" (Par) and Fox the new Will Rogers' picture, "So This Is London" (Fox) day and date with Roxy. Albee had a near-capacity house at the first Saturday after- noon show, with audience plainly pleased with picture , and show in general. Four acts of vaude instead of cus- tomary five or six, due to length of feature (100 minutes). First on, Beehee and Rubyatte Co., acrobats, who, through setting and other atmosphere, lend the gladiator touch to their work. Troupe of seven follow the circusy traditions of acts of its kind, with the parade very pronounced. In fact, there's a little too much of the gesture stuff. Act moves fast, flashy tumbling getting individual hands. And where did the acrobats ever get that billing? No body will remember it. ■ Dugan and Parker, No. 2 act on this show, weakest of all, and down lightly at finish. Pair apparently cut their routine and suddenly, with a wait before The Ingenues were ready to go on, Male team have a comedy dancing turn, with pint-size of combination doing a Jimmy Savo. Not a bad act, but failed to click right at this house.- The Ingenues third and, due to shortened bill, in next to closing, this leaving the Howard boys to wind up show, peculiar spot for them. No reason why Ingenues couldn't close, since Howards work in one, as did act on second. The girl band is a great attraction, topping anything of its kind around. The 21 young, women who play in the band and double for varied bits, including singing and dancing, call themselves "Girl Paul Whitemans of Synccpation." Not a bad descrip- tion, that. Nicely filling up stage and dressed after the manner of a nlcture house presentation. Ingenues represents an attraction that's no- tfteably off the beaten vaude track It's practically a unit and well staged by Boris Petroff, one of Publix's presentation builders. In doubling for various numbers, they are so effectively handled that the impres sion given is they are a show in themselves. Got over very .strong, nearly tying up things. Willie and Eugene Howard olfei-ed the same act that they did before in vaude for years,, with the familiar crossfire leading up to Willie's im personations of various stars. This time he mimics George Jessel, Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, doing Jes- sel's song in "Lucky Boy" (Tiffany), one of his talkers, and as other two would have done same number in that picture. Song double used for the close, with team across as big as Ingenues. Vaude bill ran an even 60 minutes at the Saturday matinee caught, and, with length of feature, ho room was allowed for anything but Pathe Sound News and trailer. Char. FILM HOUSE REVIEWS EMBASSY (Continued from page 43) India." She .speaks ensrc-isingly of the present situation in India, en- liglUenin;; her hc-arers specilicully on the kid marriage question -anO the recent law pa.sscd to curb that. Material is handled in sequence this week, with clips on similar .sxibjcct matter together. Itoutining show thuswi.«<e deprives' it of the variety aspect it otherwise might have. At opening four different clip.s on navy and air are .strung to- gether and a couple clips later Danish .coldicrs are parading, with the topping clip of IJcnniark's king on his morning riding jaunt, unac- companied by guards. CoiiHidtrahle Japanese and British iiiaK-rial. also strung together, including belles of Japan in spring dance (very unin- u-resting) and that country's an- nual df-rhy. Following British .cav- alr.v h(ir.s.r-s in drill, poorly pliolo- i,'rjiph'>d and only mofU-i'ut'ly e.-i- riiing ;iuto race. In laughs column but not oui- -^tanding are Georfre Mf-Manus. lU-ar.'-t cartoonifct. puling a conpl" (if gags; Dartmouth .•;turtf.nts giviiur iiuniorous toufh to shorts for all ....(a'^ions, and the Duke of l'ork'> vf-ry obvious nervou.sne.'-.': in making ;i spffcli. Vandf ffulij'-ft.*- as publicity stiint"; are Clare Carter leading girls in dance number at Hollywood restau- rant. New York; .Mary Rizzo's toe dance down Broadway's hard as- phalt bed; Junior Orlando's pop voice at a Newark lawn party and Ruth Hammai-quist, 14-year-old opera protege, doing her stuff while posing for her profile. Clips total 28, with division Fox- Movietone 15 and Hearst 13. Fox toi^s Hearst decisively on im- portance of subject matter in new layout, with F-M havin.ir first 9 on program as laid out. Better routining, despite items and nature, would be attained by .splitting the F-M and H-M clips up differently. Running time fiat 45 minutes, as usual. Char. PENN ("All Aboard" Unit) Pittsburgh, May 24. Teddy Joyce, m. c, makes this one as far as IMttsburgli is con- cerned. Joyce, who virtually broke into the show business here when he came to the Penn.unknown two years ago and stuck around for 12 months, is apparently still popular here, though not quite the pash rage he was at that time. He's a much improved performer, and about the most energetic worker in the m. c. field. Nice opening hand after Chester Hale troupe had exited following opening, gave Joyce,an opportunity for one of those "glad to get back" speeches and he used up his re- maining time with a single song and a shadow dance he popularized here during original engagement. A loose-jointed dancer of the soft- shoe school; this is his strong poirtt and he takes advantage of it. Trouble with the rest of the talent In "All Aboard" is that It's all old stuff. -Quick repeats threaten to kill oft a bunch of these variety turns and there are two of 'em here. Josephine Davis, who first came to Pittsburgh about a year and a half ago with Hughie Clark's band act, has been around three times since then, and is still doing the .same act. Rube costume, the old "sure 1 know that story, I was the farmer's daughter" gag and that stuttering sonig. Same goes for Seed and Austin and their burlesque antics. Boys played Penn only a few months ago in a Publix unit aiid just before that were caught at the Harris, when that house was doing vaudfilm. Okay if an act would at least get a single new angle for a repeat but these turns haven't varied at all. Next to Joyce, only stand-out in whole affair was Four Emperors of Harmony, Negro quartet and great on the harmony stuff. For encore, baritone did "Old Man River," good, but would have been much better had all four come back. Hale girls young and fresh-looking, helped compensate for some stale routines. At that, it must be a job for Hale to cook up new stuff each week and his groups very rarely are common place. Picture "In Gay Madrid," ^vith organlog, overture and Hearst Metrotone news rounding out bill. No kicks coming on biz here today. They were standing in the aisles despite the heat. Cohen. YORK and KING With Tru« York, Bud and Jack Pearson and Raymond Ring. "Old Family Tintypes" 2S Mins.; Full (Special) Palace (St. V). Chick York and Rose King re- turn from thoir Kuropean and ."-^oiith African tour with a new turn com- pounded of bid bits and new stuff bearing the imprint of Kngl.ind in some of the costuming and puns. At the Palace closing intermission they occupied the stage practically a half hour and their progress throughout was sustained and as- cending. They will wow anywhere. As always' they remain one of the most hard-working anxious-to- please mixed teams in vaudeville. Individually and together Mr. York and Miss King are astute, seasoned and deft laugh-getters. They have surrounded themselves with a pretty, nicely balanced revnette headed by their daughter, True York, a girli.shly appealing figure who incidentally brings the additional advantage of human in- terest to the turn. Two hoofers, Hud ;>nd Jack Pearson, and a pian- ist, llaymond Ring, support. Boy Scout number opens. This .suggests English origin a.s the uni- forms are of that land. Probably present act and'routine was welded together on the other side. ,. High brow or low brow, they all can get and enjoy this turn. Us vaudeville of the best kind. JaduI. CALIFORNIA (Reopened) I-.OS Angeles, May 23. From the Carthay Circle to Main street, downtown, is a far cry, but Fred Miller, who formerly was at the Wilshire spot, is a game show- man. Throwing about $40,000 into the California and rehabilitating it into a fine looking theatre. Miller went to the limit to give the plebian Mainstreeters something to Bee and talk about. Besides com- pletely renovating the house, with carpets, rugs, tapestries, uniformed ushers and the rest of the works, there is Western Electric sound equipment, which hits everyone of the 1,800 scats. Miller originally opened the Cali- fornia, remaining there for five years while turning over his lease to Loew's and operating for them, tiince those days plenty has hap- pened to the hou.se. (Joing through a checkered career it had finally reached ah almost obsolete stage when Miller, out of show businf-ss for over a year, decided to take an- other chance with it. His prr-scjit leas'-' is for 10 years, with the Lan- kfTshim estate retaining owufrship of the property. How sillier expects to make a go of it is a moot question. Lof ;ulon is against the house, although th'- r-laborate electric sign hung across the street reaches for blofks in that section. A seeming mistake is thf' tap of 65c for logos, .lOf nightly ffir the rf-st and 25c-3r)C duiing the (lay. Too com plicat'-d and mucli too high for an out-of-tlic-way .>^pot likf this. \Vhere the pii''tuif-s .will fortir- from is, of cour.s'-, tlif m;iin. thing to consider. It looks, likf t!i" indif- ni.'irket most of thf-' way un- |f-ss Miller can grab off Home ni;ijor s'-'ii7ids, Mfanwhilf, the operating nut ol the hou.se iy. around $6,000. with a few more grjind added the opf-ning week for a .'••jila'-h on pub- )i> ity, f)pf-riing night wa.". a flf'p a."-; f.-ip IS ba)l.\hoo went. With ail th<-- I'-.jiij sr'a^gle^• and llgbv*-- o-;' is in:'.. Art FRANK and Co. (10) '.'The Maine Squeeze" Skit with Numbers 30 Mins.; Two and Full (Special) Palace (St. V.) Art Fraiik has been with Publix units since last seen, in vaudeville as a two-act with Ann Wood, who is his principal support in this larger, more pretentious turn. Frank does an old G. A. R. veteran, a pip characterization for comedy and shaded with just a touch of pathos. His comedy dancing is the topper. Wisp of a story has two show girls stopping at a garage In West- brooke, Maine, for gas and oil. Ro- mance between the garage attend-- ant and one of the girls while the other (Miss Wood) kids with grand- pop. Old gent has a Civil War vets' band which the girl converts to jazz, It all makes for light, breezy com- edy-strengthened song and dance diversion. Logical next to closer for anywhere. Some reduction of length might be an advantage, par- ticularly where time is needed. For four act Orph bills, of course, the more time the better. Support is very able. Miss Wood is a pert, smart and cute come- dienne. Vivian Peterson kicks nicely and looks pretty. Tom Ross knocks a couple of agreeable tenor num- bers. fcSnre-flre vaudeville. Land. PAGE and CORTEZ Comedy, Songs, Dances. 14 Mins. 125th Street (V-P). Man and woman, former doing comedy sailor. f;i)-l first affects Span- ish senorita and then goes American and Hawaiian .so-so. Caught here with stage band show. Went over okay here but strictly neighb ma- terial. Girl sings to mild effect and dancing only so-so. Man's stuff is mostly grotesque panto. Also plays steel guitar. On the guitar biz the man Is good and ought to stay. Comedy is neither new nor telling. even the curious stayed away. In- side the house was. fairly filled, with about 700 seats reserved at $1 and the rest thrown open at BOc a cop.v. Miller has no definite policy outlined, though a 12-hour grind daily is established. If a picture shows promise it will run as long as it can stand up. I'remiere film Is "High Treason," English made and released in this country by Tiffany. Blllboarfls all over town preceded its opening for a week or more. Booked to follow this is another Tiffany picture, ".Mamba." After that nothing set so far. Opening program included a Hugo Relsenfeid mu.sical short, ".Seeond Hungarian Rhapsody" (X;- A); I'atho .Sound News; Aesop Fables and a Tiffany two reel stib- ject, "Old Black Joe," About two hours of .straight pictures in all. Spa n. ILL AND INJURED Oeorge Johnson of Mid-City Park, fAlbany), slowly refoverlng from long illness. His wife substituting for him at Mld-(,'ity. f'harles Carroll, manager Grand- r^.'ike, fj.'ikl.'ind, Cal., in hospital ih<'i-f -with heart tro\ible. NEW ACTS Bond and Trent, .«-isier act, re- Diiitf-d. Tliket to Larry Puck for going 1)0 on J.,, I. 'What's the <li£ belwcm 16 and 00 on an open road like tlil.'V fi'.ked La)-iy. "Jjid you ever get hit by a buggy going CO?'' re- .j-ked fhe eop,. LITTLE PEGGY EAMES Songs and Dance 10 Mins.; Screen and Two 86th Street (V-P) Little I'oggy Eames. probably 9 or 10, is the nth member of Hal Roach's pictiu-e "Gang" to go vaude. AVith the exception of Sun- shine Samniy, she seems better suited to the stage than the rest of the 'Our (Sang" alumni. Though I-iltIo Peggy's nianner and style are as affected as her billing—"The Piminutive Scrcenland Darling"— her sweet kid personality plus fair ability combine to overcome a first impression of conceit; the person- ality and ability should carry I'eggy along through substantial booking.s. Whoever routined Poggy's child- ish impersonations of elders for the stage, helped a lot. Trixle Frigan- za, . Helen Kane, Fannie 'Brice, Lenore Ulric, Mae • ^lurray and Harry Lauder take-offs are the meat of the act, followed by Peg- gy's closer, military buck. Brice imitation is in bad taste and not well done, even in Peggy's kid way, while the Mae Murray waltz has been used by about every other little girl kid in vaude. Other numbers okay and when weak, -saved by Peggy's personal impres- sion. Maid Is on to help Peggy in a couple of changes behind the back of sofa. Nothing different about the screen trailer of clips from "Gang" comedies and wouldn't bo missed were something more original sub- stituted. Blgc. FOUR PEACHES and a JAY Singing, Dancing 14 Mins.; Full Stage (Special) 86th St. (V-P) . Nice looking and fast finishing combination of four girls and a boy,' In singing and dancing and with one of the girls at the piano. All youthful, making appearance the first asset here. Opened four-act bill at the 86th St. and showed that It need not be confined to that posi- tion. Dancing gets it away at the start and keeps things moving up to the fini.sh. In between there Is a song by a petite brunet, looker of -.ftWe act, whose -voice deserves a try on the discs. Final chorus worked up as a "tease" with one of the mu- sicians, this girl handling It smart- ly. Few are adept at keeping a "tease" number within the proper limits and this girl Is one of them. Punch of boy's solo dance Is hla spilt work. Tall blonde Is a control kicker and tapper and the other dancing girl a spirited acrobatic stepper. Her's Is the strongest number on the act and Justly spot- ted up toward the finish. Blonde would Improve the look end If changing costume for her second attempt. Lyrical opening with girls sing- ing of the-absence of boys and declaring they'll do without 'em and do their own entertaining. Bioc. BOB ROBISON and CO. (2). Talk, Songs and Dances. 17 Mins.; One. 81st St. (V-P). Robison himself Is working along lines -similar to Robison and Pierce and probably Is the same RobLson. Main strength of the act lies in Roblson's gag spiel about a book, which he is selling, contents of the book supposed to be "hot," He has a,»wlft line of chatter and delivers in the manner of a flash street vendor. Comedy material la fairly healthy and he gets results in laughs. Assisted by a shapely young lass who sings and dances with lots of pop and Is good support. Other as.sist Is an old man introduced as the doorman of a house. He does a little tap dancing and some acro- batic dancing, which gets over in view of the semblance of old age. At this house Robison also acted as m. c. for the other acts on the bill. EDITH BOW Songs, Piano. 12 Mins.; One. Hamilton (V-P). Tiny brunette with personality. Male pianist. Series of three char- acter .songs, starting with old fa.sh- loned girl and going through the modern gold digger and pretty red Iiajam suit to the party girl In scrimpy evening outfit. Last bit is dramatic style and voice okay all the way. Costumes changed on stage, Miss Bow stripping each time to api)ro- priale dress. Went over big hei'e. Okay most anywhere. One weakness In act is that jiian- Ist takes to chatter. Doesn't be- long. MARTIE MARTELL Songs• 8 Mins. • 125th Street (V-P) IJruneiic l<iriker, priiduct of I'lib- lix unit.s and J{ollywo(.id studios. rosse.>;sf..s voice with Helen Kane angle, »,ijt used for Ruth Kiting style. Caught here with stage band build up. rje.'isant tJuder such arrangement bur not too strong. .Meaninfe alorie 111)'. Mii-alflit Ming stuff would pay no divjdendv. Cofclunied okuy.