Evening Star Newspaper, September 6, 1925, Page 31

—— —_—————. A \ \/ 7 ews and Comment delightful stock company at the National for 16 weeks tomorrow night will have a chance to humor their tastes in a broader ficld. season opens. Theatergoers whose attention has beerf concentrated upon the | he Suniay Star WASHID 7, / GLORIA SWANPON Columbia 'y Metropolitan. l CORINNT. GRIFFITH~Cestral i LILIAN > BINA Moore ~Mutual NGTON, D. G, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1925 A\musements BRAITHWAITL. Nattonal § | “The GetaWay." Courtney Sisters. Automobiles photogla;s This Week - At the photoplay Houses This Week. RIALTO—“The Iron Horse.” Shc METROPOLITAN—“Shore Leave.” ning. wn this afternoon and evening. Shown this afternoon and eve- PALACE—"“Sun-Up.” Shown this afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA—"Coast of Folly.” TIVOLI—*“Wild Horse Mesa.” AMBASSADOR—"“Shore Leave. ning. CENTRAL—"Bad Lands.” LINCOLN (Colored)—"Wild Horse and evening. Shown this afternoon and evening. Shown this afternoon nd evening. Shown this afternoon and eve- Shown this afternoon and evening. Mesa.” Shown this afternoon The three legitimate houses, opening the regular scason, are offer- | . and therein lies the ing productions that make choice of the scene for one’s annual theatrical | which is said to com RIALTO—"The Iron Horse. | parent “fortune A WEEK from Monday, September An event of more than usual inter- |€ruX of the play WS tom senty, S| Current Attractions A FEW vears ago. before bridges and | subways brought Long Island and | baptism a difficult problem. The biting humor of the satirical and sar- wonic treatment of human frailty, or a less caustic but equally humorous treatment of the same theme—which $hall it be? One has one’s choi A difficult choice it is. * kX % 'HE National offers “The Vortex,” by Noel Coward. tigation of certain post-war types of femininity and masculinity from a long London run, is offered for the first time in America. Coward, in the realm of sport, would be called a triple-threater. He wd plays the leading role in “The Vortex.” In a Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and others of undeniable prominence Mr. Coward has been appraised by gome critics as “the hope of British drama.” Mr. Coward is 25. He could have done much worse in the way of carly recognition. * K kX It lists Augustus Thomas as author and Mr. Coward's cas- iresh Mr. wrote, co-produces country that domiciles George HE Belasco has a surprise. lead in a comedy, “Still Waters,” the sixty-third play from the facile pen of Mr. Thomas in 42 years of association with the theater. The play is based upon Mr. Thomas’ conception of the vagaries of a Senator, a conception formed from close association with members of the upper legislative crust as a page boy before the theater entered Mr. Thomas’ The locale is strictly home town for the Capital, but Mr. Thomas submits his work to the “inner circle” without trepidation. Mr. Thomas for 25 years has been devising roles for others to act. The Senator in ill Waters” he found too tempting a morsel to turn aver to another. %R ABEL NORMAND deserts the Klieg lights for the footlights and re- tu the stage at Poli's in a farce, “The Little Mouse.” The theatr s to Bi celluloid experience, so the three-act comedy adapted from the French, | in character” as her movie | as the title suggests, should find her definitely mwdiences know her G5 “The Little Mouse 1ce adapted to fit the figure of Miss Normand, appeared here in the Spring under the nom de guerre, “Oh, Madelon.” At that time it was Jimmy Gleason's show. * kK k AST week was swan-song week for the National Theater Players Com- an t to the genius of every one connected with it. The company st a standard that future repertoire groups will find an elusive target JEvery production was a production of merit, marked by an atmosphere that Tifted it above the usual conception of stock company success. The Capital is indebted to Clifford Brooke, Steve Cochrane and every member f the cast for a happy Summery Mr. Brooke, Mr. Cochrane and the play- are indebted to the Capital for a prosperous season—which cancels all obligations on both sides. “What are members of the cast going to do for the Winter? Washing- ton has a personal interest in each one. Leneta Lane and Frank McNellis W oin a stock company in New Orleans. Billy Phelps, the ubiquitous juvenile, goes to London, where he originated Chester Underwood in “The Nervous Wreck.” Kathryn Givney, Dorothy Tierney, John Warner and Walter Soderling are planning muach served vacations. Thomas L. Brower and Lillian Dean arc fighting off offers to join a stock company in Chicago in the hope of a legitimate engagement. Minor Watson and Edward Arnold, two of the most popular members of the company, are due for return engagements in the Capital soon, the former in a new play, “The Getaway,” and the latter co-starred in “That's That. A * ok ok % VTHE fourth week of the “Greater Movie Season” cuts in with three pictures of promise. Among ‘" -m is “The Iron Horse,” the Wil- liam Fox photoplay depicting the ailding of the first transcontinental sailway linking the Atlantic and Pacific. * Three years went into thz form is one in which Miss Normand has had millions of feet | . which closed a 16-week stand that leaves happy memories as a |“The Getaway,” a play of adventure | {Dy Charles K. Van Riper, sponsored |by the Dramatists’ Theater, Inc., in| |assoctation with Willlam Harris, jr. | It is sald to abound with tense dra- matic situations, with humor and ro- | mance. It has to do with the exciting adventures of a society girl who falls into the hands of an, international | it the moment he is making a | ter a big robbery. | ¢ will be headed by Violet | | Heming and includes Minor \\'a(f«‘nv; {a_Washington favorite; Eric Dressler | of “Goose Hangs Higl fame, F A {erick Burt, Clyde Veauz, Sue Van | | Duzer and Penelope Hubbard. | Ira Hards, who directed “The Thir- ASCO— ARL —Swanee GAYETY—"Follies of the Da [UAL—"Hurry Up, | NATIONAL—“The Vortex." National Theater, there. will | sented tomorrow night, for |time in America, “The play by Noel Coward, | youngest and cleverest of cotempo- o = <ing? | FATY —British dramatists. The piece JOB COOK in “How's the KINg?"| i pe presented here exactly as it a spectacular musical plece, Will| wag done in London, with Mr. Coward be -presented by Earl Carroll at the|in the leading role and Lillan Braith- | Apollo Theater, Atlantic City, the|wajte, Molly Kerr and Mr. Hollis pla: week of September -14, and in Balti-|ing the parts they originated more and Washington the following | 1 ondon. > | weeks prior o Its New York presen-| In this play Mr. tation. Some conception of the care | most graphically what one London exercised in the selection of the 60| critic pleased to call “an isolated “stage beauties to ‘grace the offering | qustbi That such ‘dustbins” do | may be had from the fact that only|exist in London society—and also in | 15 were accepted from a lot of 400 New York and Washington society— | applicants. ! | there is no doubt. But Mr. Coward Robert Milton, producer of ““Orange | has not the slightest intention of pre- Cinders” and other mu-|tending to show a typical or even an as well as “East is West,” is|ordinarily common group of people. R ing the piece. The dances are|The types he depicts are interesting i being arranged by Alan K. Foster of [chiefly because of their abnormalit ‘ Winter Garden and Hippodrome fame, | They are rare specimens that worl | under Mr. Carroll's supervision. Bern-|day people seldom or never meet, but | ard Lohmuller, art director, is design- | they do exist |ing the sets and the construction 18| The first two acts are a bitter com- jalready under way, with Karl O.[mentary on this age of cocktails and | Amend at the head of this work. | jazz. The characters move in a whirl Mr. Cook has always been noted|of hectic and nervy excitement, but | for the novelty of each season’s reper- |ail the time the play gradually pro- | tolre of stunts, but this year he ex-|ceeds to a third act of unexpected | pects to startie- even his stanchest|and powerful drama. admirers. Aside from Mr. Cook’s| This act, with its pathetic, poignant stunts, the entertainment will be de-{scene hetween a neurotic, unhappy pendent upon the book by Marc Con-|boy and his vain and selfish mother, nelly, author and collaborator for|of whose long continued intrigues “Merton of the Movies,” “Beggar on|with voung .men he has just been Horseback,” “Dulcy” and “Helen of | made fully aware, Troy,” and the lyrics and melodies by rare in its effectiveness | Owen Murphy and Jay Gorney. realism. be pre the first Vorte: one of the teenth Chair” and “The Cat and the Canary,” will stage the play. I s Cooko Plh 4Shicen. in | Blossoms, and stark actual filming of this historical subject and thousands of persons of many classes and nationalities were used in the cast. Of interest to the capable Richard Barthelmess' fans should be his current appearance in “Shore Leave,” which was made by John S. Rob- ertson from the play which served as a starring vehicle for Frances Starr, under David Belasco. The original role, which was shaped for a feminine character, was remodeled for young Dick, who will be seen as a United | States “gob"—an interpretation that should be interesting. Another adaptation seen on the screen here this week will be that of “Sunup,” which, as a stage play, found success on Broadway for two years. Its author is Lulu Volmer and the theme toucheés on the lives of the North Carolina mountain folk. It is said to be a true and engrossing, | study of this type. and by an author who is'a native of the State and B spent I time in thie study of the hill people, KEITH'S—Trixie Fyiganza, vaudeville rncopators, vaudeville. STRAND—Argentine Band, vaudeville, " burlesque. burlesque. Opening the regular season at the | | Vortex,” | author. Coward displays | is declared to be | At the Theaters This Week. NATIONAL—"The Vortex,” drama. Opens tomorrow evening. ill-Waters,” comedy. 'S—“The Little Mouse,” farce comedy. Opens tomorrow evening. Opens tomorrow eve- Opens this afternoon. Opens this afternoon. Opens this ajternoon. Opens this afternoon. Opens this afternoon Basil Dean, the well-known London director, who has staged ‘several suc- cesses in this country, has returned to America especially to_put_on .'The in conjunction with® the Besides the members of the cast already named. the company in- cludes Auriol Lee, Jeannette Sherwin, David Glassford, Thomas A. Braiden, Leo G. Carroll and George Harcourt. After the engagement at the Na- tional, the play will be taken direct to Henry Miller's Theater, New York, where it will open the season. BELASCO—"Still Waters.” William Elliott’s production of Au gustus Thomas' “Still Waters,” a com- edy “on the hypocrisy attendant upon the prohibitory spasms of cotempo- rary government in these -United States.” will open the season at the Shubert-Belasco Theater tomorrow night. This is Mr. Thomas’ first play since 1921 and Mr. Elliott’s first ction since his recent return to Broadway from France. The play, a high and ironic comedy on prohibition, details in three briskly dramatic acts what is supposed to happen any day in the office of a United States Senator on Capitol Hill. Its characters are the Senator, his fiancee, a soclety divorcee; his daugh- ter, her flance, an attache at the British a canon of the church bent on reform, his wife, who represents “The Motherhood of Amer- a Department of Justice investi- , a Senate Office Building hoot- legger and others, who keep “Still Waters” bubbling. In the cast are Elise Bartlett, Mona Kingsley, Nayan Brownell, Herbert Watrous, Georgie Drew Mendum, Da- vid Tearle and Edward Emery: POLI'S—“The Little Mouse.” At Poll's Theater this week com- menpcing tomorrow evening, A. H. Woods will present his latest star, Mabel Normand, in “The Littie Mouse,” a comedy in three acts from the French of Alphonse Poiret by Otto Harbach. This will be Miss Nor- mand’s first appearance on the stage, though she is well known as a screen star. % Mr. Harbach's play is described a (Continued on” Second ‘T'age.) Manhattan much closer together from |ferry, “an “own - your - own - home” |thought was running brightly in the minds of Fay and Florence Courtney, co-headliners at a local theater this week | 1 estate promoters have an eighth sense, a sense of discovering any one with even a slight hankering for a | home, and so in their tours the Misses Courtney had come afoul of innumer- | able such agents, but their siren song was sung in vain, One Summer day during a “lay-off” | period they journeved out to Long Island, and there by themselves they discovered the ideal spot for their home. The property was not a part of a development, but belonged to a farmer, and so they bought acreage instead of buying lots. They built n fine home and called it Courtney Crest, and it has since become one of show spots’ of Long Island. Then came the bridges and the sub- way, and with them innumerable com- muting aspirants. All who saw Court. ney Crest wanted a home in the vicin- The Courtney Sisters talked it over. They reserved a fine plot of ground for themselves and divided the rest of their plot up into lots. These lots they sold at a handsome profit, and so what was once a farm is now the village of Courtney California Has It Kg’nin. (CALIFORNIA'S highly diversified scenery has been used so often and. so effectively us a substitute for scenery in other parts of the gvorld in the making of photoplay Srama that it occasions Jittle surprise to learn that Director Edmund Goulding de- cided that Lulu Vollmer's story of the North Carolina mountains, “Sup-Up,” which comes to a local screen today, could be taken in California with sat’ isfactory regults. Goulding sent to North Carolina for a set of 8x10 photographs of real mountain scenery in that State. With these photographs before him, he des- ignated to the scenery scouts of his organization just what he wanted in the way of mountain vistas and in a few days they reported that the rug- ged mountains in and about Tehachapi Pass in the central portion of Cali- fornia. would do. Mr. Goulding was a little dubious about the possibility of live-oak vege- tation drawing down the fire of critics { upon_him, but by a judicious placing of his close-up groups and keeping the scenery segregated -in long-shot scenes, he avoided bringing out defi- nitely 'befdre the camera a detailed study of the Tehachapi vegetation. In so far as the. physical culture of the North Carolina mountains was concerned. there was little trouble, for it was possible to build with fine veri- similitude the mountain cabins and surroundings 1hat make. characteristic this romantic story of the Carolina hill folk. est to picture patrons showing of William Fox's photoplay “The Iron Horse,” at the Rialto this | week. The story is a record of the wires and rails which first linked the West with the East. When President Lin- coln signed the Pacific railroad act on July 1, 1862, the bill included the pre vision that a telegraph system mus accompany the rails, thus connecting the East and West by wire and rail It was the first means of commun| tion other than stage coach and pony | express George O'Brien, J. Farrell MacDon ald and Madge Bellamy have the lead ing roles, and there is an enormous supporting cast. 1t took three years to complete “The Iron Horse.” Members of the cast and approximately 5,000 extras lived through the rigorous months on the Nevada desert and in the Sierra range, in tents and lean-to shacks, enduring the same hardships so far as the ele ments were concerned, as those expe- rienced by the ploneers they portray- ed. Two complete towns were built and three tribes of Indians—Chey enne, Sioux and Pawnees—were use: To'dress a regiment of troops in the garb of the old West 1,000 costumes were required. The troops came from It Lake City, under command of Col. J. K. McGee. The engines which appear in the picture were the origi- nals of both railroads, having been loaned especially for the purpose. Owing to the length of this picture the divertissements have been cur- tailed. However, Mischa Guterson, di recting the Rialto Orchestra, will offer as a musical introduction to “The fron Horse” “American Fanta: duet between Mile. Annette Royak prano, and Mr. Everett Hardell, te will be an added feature. . s0- nor, METROPOLITAN—"Shore Leave.” Richard Barthelmess will be the star at Crandall’s Metropolitan Theater this week in John S. Robertson's version for First National of Hubert Osborne's | play, “Shore Leave,” originally pro- duced by David Belasco as a starring vehicle for Frances Starr and James Rennie. will be placed by Dorothy Mackaill. Added attractions will include the Metropolitan World Survey, an “‘Our Gang” comedy, added short reels and a musical program hy the Metropoli- tan Symphony, under Daniel Breeskin. ‘Shore Leave” is a romantic drama of the sea and shore in which the prin- cipal figures are a young “gob” and a simple little New England dressmaker who falls in love with him. It devel- ops that she has inherited two price- less heirlooms—one a necklace worn by her mother, the other a three- masted sailing vessel aground in the Ganges River. She sacrifices the neck- lace to secure the fumds wherewith to salvage -the ship, only to learn that the lad she- wished to appoint its skipper has decided that he “ain't gonna live oft'n no rich girl.” Then comes the problem of losing thil #p- The principal feminine role | dill be the bine comedy situations, tender senti- ment and a few genuine thrills. The picture was made with the ac- tive co-operation of the Navy Depart- ment and many of the important se- |quences were filmed aboard the U. |S. Arkansas Other players include Nick Long, who appears in the same role he cre ed on the stage; Ted McNamara, Ma |rie Shotwell, Arthur Metcalfe, Warren | Cooke and Samuel Hines. Josephine | Lovett made the adaptation. The overture which the Metropoli- |tan Symphony will offer will be “iome, Sweet Home, the World Over.” The theme number is an orig inal composition by Mrs. Fritz D. Hoffman, wife of the controller of the Crandall Theaters, who has named her new composition “Dorothy,” and “You're Just a Flower from an Old Bouquet” will be the exit number. PALACE—"Sun-Up.” Lulu Vollmer's romance of the | North Carolina mountains, “Sun-Up,” | produced by Edmund Goulding for Metro-Goldwyn, with a cast including Conrad el, Pauline Starke, Lu cille La Verne and George K. Ar- thur, will be shown at Loew's Palace this week. It is described as an engrossing character study of the North Carolina mountaineer type who are brought suddenly face face with the inexorable demands of the outside world Rufe Cagle, of feud-warring to mountaineer youtt nd moonshine-mak ing stock, is drafted and sent to war with the A. , much to the be wilderment of his mountaineer moth er. On the day that Rufe is re ported killed in action the Widow Cagle gratifies her rekindled hate of | the law by sheltering a deserter, only | to discover that he is the son of the | family’'s traditional feud enemy. | In the meantime Rufe has fought { through the war and returns to belie the report of his death. It is a much | wiser Rufe, though, who returns from France, fed up with killing, and |hnngs into the mountain country a new code that permits the deserter to depart scot-free. The code, how- ever, ts its supreme test when Rufe discovers that a rascally sheriff has taken advantage of his absence to debauch his sweetheart, and the man ner in which he settles his account | with the sheriff paves the way for the climax. Lucille L.a Verne enacts the role of the mother that she created in the stage version. Supplementary features will clude Walter Hier's gomedy, “Off His Beat”; the Pathe news reel. | Topics ot "the Day and orches in- | embellishments. COLUMBIA—"The Coast of Folly Gloria_Swanson’s production, “The Coast of Folly,” will continue as the attraction at Loew’s Columbia for second_week. beginning _this_ufte (Continued on Third Page)