Evening Star Newspaper, January 20, 1929, Page 55

- Theater, Scree an n | d Music e AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star. Motor, Aviation and Radio News Part 4—16 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 20, 1929, CHARLES FARRELL MELBA VIERDAG 2OX / Week of Mucl{ Music; Dramatics t oC ome Later BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The New York Theater has come pretty near being reduced to the position of a curbstone petitioner with a tin cup held o\.lf,1 for pennies and an organette to lure the crowd. The police have again taken a; hand and issued the command| “move on” to prevent traffic con- gestion, leaving the theater at a new disadvantage as it seeks to gain some generous attention. Yet 4f business is as bad as various chironiclers report, it is no more than fair to ask where all the traffic congestion comes from re- quiring distribution of the crowd by opening musical shows at 8:30 | and dramatic entertainment at 15 minutes to 9:00. * % ¥ ¥ A real success is relinquished for the road very reluctantly. “The Command to Love” found a cozy and congenial place for a year in the esteem of a large element of metroyolitan theater patronage.| For almost every play in which| there is a glow of intelligence, practical or poetic, there are audi- ences in Manhattan; if they can only be reached and made aware that their especial line of enter- tainment is being offered. After leaving this city “One Mile Up” changed its name to “Zeppelin” and had the good for- tune to find at the hands of the reviewers descriptive considera- tion which made it perfectly clear that its object was to be a thriller and not a classic. The success of a play like this depends on in- teresting auditors not sophisti cated to a degree that renders| them thrill-proof. * x % % It was something of the same selective type of clientele which held “Command to Love” in in- terest so long, a type which re- gards the stage as entitled to the fullest license in handling per- sonalities and events of the most serious nature for the sake of| securing laughs in the manner of an Avery Hopwood farce. It is doubtful whether Hopwood could have written a play like “Com- mand to Love” because his studi- ous improprieties were always skillfully attained without sacri- fice of plot probabilities or correct character delineations. “Com- mand to Love” is another re- minder of how little real import- ance theatergoers really attach to the stage, whose methods of pub- licity have been so disillusioning as to leave no room for the petted darlings who, on matinee days, found crowds waiting to glimpse them as they passed to a carriage. * ok x % In some countries, perhaps at other times than these, this so- called diplomatic comedy would call for abrupt censorious atten- tion. In order to score a tiny oint the play does not hesitate nation nor to base most important negotiation- on the intrigue in which several suits of pajamas figure with entire authority. Am- bassadors, military attaches, min- isters and others supposed to be taking care of the peaceful under- standing coveted by governments are with their wives or sweet- hearts without exception “de- ceiving” one another. In a very short time the story goes on with- out causing any particular sur- rise. The characters apparently ave grown so used to being de- ceived that they are rather be- ginning to like it. * X X % The latest designation of a very small house is “a bridge whist audience,” ie., an audience not too large to organize a cozy little card party in the smoking room in lcanse the play is not found amus- ng. B ok K 'Diplomacy has figured in the |drama most effectually, notably in Sardou’s play, which as pre- sented in this country took- its title from the subject it discussed boti{ with romantic skill and with keen insight into the dueling ct wits in the contentions of rival atriotisms. Dramas of Washing- on life have introduced the young diplomatic subordinate who sought to make a playground of social life. His role was utilized for the purpose of administering a sound common sense proof calculated to be of some moral benefit in the progress toward a responsible career. A playwright working under the influence of literary standards would scarcely have dared to take the liberty with - | plausibility assumed in telling the story of a handsome young at- tache, who is commanded with sardonic yet inexorable authority to exercise his fascinations wher- eyer they may be made useful in securing aavantage through the influence of a wife over her hus- band. * ok ok x While the farce presses onward into psychoanalysis and devotes some time to laborious attempts to be very profound indeed, the musi- cal play becomes no longer the exploitation of rather rough fun and costumes relying largely for charm on mere abbreviation. Both styles of entertainment have re- versed their methods. “The Three Musketeers” takes its public by the hand and con- ducts it back to the time when Salvini, the younger, was regarded as the one D'Artagnan of his time with never a suspicion in any- body's mind that a Dennis King would appear in a future genera- tion to retell the story with sur- roundings of Ziegfeld magnifi- I cence both of song and scenery {such as the lithe, graceful, young Italian had never dreamed of. A step in restoration of taste and !style has been accomplished by force of the new unity of unlim- ited wealth with artistic resources. The hero of the hour as he is ightheartedly to scandalize the feminine character of an entire shown from one specgcle to the next is again the interpreter of chivalry and the flashing blade. * % %k x “Hit the Deck” bounced merrily on from one week to the next and interrupted some interesting tra- ditions. Kate Smith has suc- ceeded almost as far as Al Jolson did in dismissing any old ideas that the home town is likely to be cool toward native talent, how- ever brilliant success elsewhere may have been. The competition confronting the Savoy Opera Co. has been severe, but occasional dark or near dark houses have given it at fleeting intervals a position almost of monopoly. Local enterprise shows an inclination to theater more of a civic and self- reliant institution .than it has ever been before. With two more stock companies, both dramatic, scheduled for the Nation’s Capital, with such ‘managers as Steve Cochran, Roland Robbins * and Charles E. Cook on hand with managerial supervision, the thea- ter here should become self-re- liant and quite competent to carry on, even should Broadway prove unable to go on tour as of yore, with a dependable supply of new material. The Perils o? Pauline. BLLLIE DOVE found that “The: Man and the Moment,” her new picture for First National, demanded some of the most difficult stunts she had ever known in motion pictures, when her company was at Catalina Island. Although she knew how to swim this picture required she spend long periods at a time in the ocean, once swimming to shore from a consider- able distance and later hanging onto the broken wing and rigging of a wrecked airplane while the camera boats circled her. Neither of these stunts could be called simple swim- ming. Southern California did its best for the star, however, and gave her fine weather during the entire location trip. Rod La Rocque, Miss Dove's new leading ‘man, was likewise given sev- eral difficult stunts in the story, and Director George Fitzmaurice and his crew spent many long hours on the bouncing Facific in small hpats, Resumes Active Work. EN LYON, one of Hollywood's popular juveniles, has been en- gaged to star in Columbia pictures, after an enforced .absence from. the screen due to a freak motion picture contract, which held him as one of the leads in “Hell's Angels,” the spes cial now famous for its never-ending retakes. It has been in production for more than a year and has kept its leading players from working for other companies. Ben, who was recently released after completing his part, has gained great- ly in importance since the advemt of talking pictures, it is said. He is one of that select group of stars who have had actual experience on . the. stage. He left the cast of “Mary the Third,” a_Broadway play, for .the lead: in “F Youth.” EMIL JANNINGS~ | '| In the New York Theaters step in and make the Washington | KATEQ§£AITH ROBERT CAPRON Belasco EDITH tlace BY PERCY NEW YORK, January 19. HE Drama’s recent studies in womankind reveal two very pe- culiar young ladies. One of them (Miss Phyllis Povah) is in “Vermont,” by A. E. Thomas; the other (Miss Claiborne Foster) is in Maxwell Anderson’s “Gypsy.” Those who depend upon the theater for their knowledge of life usually fid it to be a trustworthy tutor. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Thomas give us two especially difficult examples. Miss Foster as Gypsy, for instance, is a carefree nymph, plying her charms in New York’s half-Bohemia. She flits from husband to lovers and back again with nonchalance, since freedom is her native land and sex the least important of its boundaries. When she kisses, she tells her husband or not, for what's the differcnce? She loves her husband, a minor violinist. With all this equip- ment for enjoying herself untrammeled by the ordinary rules and by-laws, why does she turn on the gas and try to end it all? Her newest accomplice (Donn Cook) is not only a brilliant and handsome novelist, but he is faithful in his fashion and a member of the Players’ Club. Her deserted husband (Lester Vail) still adores her and is beseeching her to come back. The New York busi- ness man to whom she is secretary pleads with her to go out with him and to stay as long as he likes, She is | young, pretty, enticing and free, and the opportunities for her to be happy are unlimited. * ok ok Ok 1SS POVAH, in Mr. Thomas' “Ver- mont.” is_much more confusing than is Miss Foster in “Gypsy.” A noble New England girl, bred in the chaste quarries of her native éommon- wealth, she has been a school teacher in Rutland, but has abandoned peda- gogy because she was needed upon the farm. That stony tract of land is stingy in its harvests, and her old, hard-working father is desperate in his perspiring endeavors to make both ends meet. In the midst of his traveil a seductive hootlegger enters and promises PALMER Strand HAMMO? him wealth and ease if he will permit the rum smugglers to cache their im- portations in his barn. He succumbs reluctantly. Miss Povah, however, is rock-bound in her devotion to law and order. No member of her family, from grandsire to grandson, she says, has ever ‘disobeyed the Constitution or its amendments, and she is determined that none of ‘them shall do so. There- fore, when an attractive tempter comes along and seduces her father and brother from the paths of rectitude, she sees red. Rather than have them dis- obey the Sinaic Volstead tablets she shoots the comely bootlegger with intent to kill. Why she should have considered the crime of murder preferable to that of bootlegging is. just one of those things that baffle us in our sitting at the feet of the dramatists. Mr. Thomas ends “Vermont” with his heroine in the arms of a pleasant villain, and Mr. An- derson in “Gypsy” sends us home with the memory of Miss: Foster as she tries to kill herself while making a date with another lover. It is all too complex for the average student of life and the drama, and he is left wondering whether or not he can pass his exami- nations. * K ok ok 'HERE is no doubt, however, about “Follow Thru” and the habits of its singing, dancing and joking charac- ters. Here is one of the most cheerful of the season’s music shows, competent in every branch of the racket, from songs to tomfoolery. An inventory of its merits would include the prettiest dancers in town, pretty- clothes, fiesh comedians, a comic rompance, Llp-toE singers and a honeycomb - hymnbool full of dulcet airs. Of the dozen tunes in the operetta at least 11 are of the kind that attach themselves to the pub- lic’s ear, and there is a mettlesome band in the orchestra pit to inspire the warblers to passionate feats of vocalism. A plot is also present, unobtrusively picturing what the authors call “a slice of country club life.” In it Miss Irene Delroy as a shapely golfing girl loses her heart to John Barker as an aeolian semi-pro, even as he loses his to her. Dreaming 'FITLES mean much to the success of a play or a motion picture. That is why producers will spend big sums for names that have definite box office values. When Anne Nichols wrote “Abie's Irish Rose” she was uncertain of a title, so she selected “Married in Trip- licate.” That, however, smacked of farce comedy and did not convey the | spirit of tolerance that she had inter- woven into the play, but it was the best that came to her mind, It was not until the play was about to have its world premiere in Los Angeles in 1922 that Miss Nichols found the title that was to become famous. “I dreamed that title one night,” she admits, “By that I mean a dream gave me the angle to work on. I imag- ined myself in a great garden, surround- ed entirely by chrysanthemums and roses. As I walked through ‘I saw a_four-leaf clover on the gfound, and just as I of Titles. was about to pick it up I noted a shamrock on one, of the rosebushes. This bush bore beautiful red roses, but all the petals were shamrock-shaped! “Next morning I remembered it, and called the play ‘An Irish Rose.”” But Abie was my central character, so I changed the words to “Able’'s Irish Rose,” That combination of three words sold the idea of the story and conveyed g:e“ principles and ideals I wished Such is the story of a title, the title of the world's most successful play, which is now showing at the Metro- politan Theater, with Charles Rogers as Abie and Nancy Carroll as Rose- mary in Paramount’s film version of the play. it S Ziegfeld's “Show Boat” reached ‘its 500th rformance last and s still strong. L | mand of the regiment,” will eommand CLARA BOw RICHARD ARLEN and"BUDDY"” ROGERS. in “WINGS" Columbia et ighlantra in Baltimore. famed as the “Black Watch,” will at the Lyric Theater, Baltimore, Priday evening, under the auspices of the Friends of Art. Robeit Burns' birthday has been chosen for this performance; and per- mission for the famous band to appear here had to be obtained from the min- ister of defense of Canada, through Duncan Campbell Scott, who, in addi- tion to being department superintendent of Indian affairs, stationed at Ottawa, is also a poet of standing. ‘The visitors will, of course, appear in full Highland regalia, for, as a Scotsman cannot play the pipes sitting down, he must be provided opportunity to march. One ‘unit of the band consists of 18 pipers. Maj. William .Johnston, who will conduct the concert, was with the Black Watch overseas during the war. Maj. Andrew Fleming, second in com- the detachment visiting :Baltimere. The Royal Highlanders of a famous regiment with a glorious tra- dition. It was raised in 1862, became a battalion of the Canadian. militia, served in South Africa and in 1904 was affiliated with the Black Watch, the oldest Scottish regiment of the British army. The history of the regiment be- gins with the latter part of the seven- teenth century, when marauders and sheep stealers in the highlands became such a menace that the Earl of Athlone was commissioned to ze a guard for the maintenance of peace and order. The Canadian Black Watch is the only regiment on this side ‘of the Atlantic Ocean the members of which are al- lowed to wear the red hackle, a battle honor. On their arrival in ‘Baltimore they will be met by the mayor and the 12th Infantry Regiment and will parade to the City Hall. A Washingto:lian's Record. THEHE was one real Washingtonian among -the principals of “The Three Musketeers,” at the National Theater last week—John M. -Kliine, who plays the part of DeTreville. Mr. Kline was born here, was edu- cated in the Washington public schools and still maintains,a- local residence at 3811 Gramercy street, Chevy Chase. Kline made his first stage appear- ance at the old National Theater with Robert Downing in “The Gladiator.” He played Father Jerome in “The Divorce Question” at the old Academy of Music, now called the Strand, Incidentally this was Wil Anthony McGuire's * first play—the same. Mc« Guire who adapted the Ziegfeld musi- cal from the Dumas original. For five years Mr. Kline was a mem- ber of the Columbia Players and for three years with the Poli stock com- pany. He also was with Dennis King when the latter was with the Garrick Players. Kline has g in a number of touring New York produc- tions, including “The Heaven - da is pers,” 'with Leo Carrillo in “The "[HE Royal Highlanders of Canads, | give & performance of Songs and dances | CAMILLA HORN and WARWICK WARD Littre Theater Attractions in ‘Playhouse BELASCO—“Honeymoon Lane,’ " evening. evening. noon. BELASCO—"Honeymoon Lane.” Kate Smith, through the courtesy of Eddie Dowling, will appear in the role which brought her fame on Broad- way, when Charles Emerson Cook pre- sents her with his Savoy Musicome- dians in Dowling’s greatest musical comedy hit, “Honeymoon Lane,” at the Belasco Theater, beginning this eve- ning. This will be the last .chance that Washington theaterlovers will get to see and hear its favorite “blues” singer and champion Charleston dancer this season. Immediately after the Priday night performance Miss Smith takes the train for Chicago, where she begins a headlining vaudeville tour on the Keith circuit two days later. An cxga matinee on Friday at the Belasco Theater may be given to take in “Honeymoon Lane," for it was in “Honeymoon Lane” that Miss Smith burst upon the theatrical horizon two seasons ago as a new and overwhelm- ingly popular star. ' The New _York | press have put her in the same ¢lass with Nora Bayes and Sophie Tucker, rating her one of the outstanding per- sonalities of the stage. . Robert Capron, leading comedian, will appear in the Eddie Dowling role, and Thelma Parker will sing and, dance the leading feminine role. Frank Gal- lagher ‘as a youthful “villain,” Renee Hamilton as a Hollywood star, John O'Nell as the movie dirgctor, Vance Leonard in his original- role of the Dream Man, Edward Metcalfe, Rosa Snowden,. Eileen McEvoy, Helene Ran- dolph, Jack Closson and Robert Burton are others in the cast. “The Gorgeous Garden of Girls” have an excellent op- portunity to show what they can do in the sirging and dancing enumbles.l Some exceedingly peppy and melo- STRAND-—“Stolen Sweets,” burlesque. care of all who want to see Miss Smith | Washington s This Week IN LOCALATHE.ATERS "THIS WEEK ' musical comedy. Opens this This afternoon and NATIONAL—E. M. Newman, “Morocco and Algiers.” This after- leaving behind her rustic knight er« rant. She encoupters many pitfalls, | and in the end decides that love, after |all, is the greatest thing in the world. STRAND—"Stolen Sweets.” “Stolen Sweets” is the title of the Mutual Burlesque show at the Strand Theater this week. Harry Levine and Edith Palmer are co-featured in & company of comedians, dancers queens of burlesque. An added attra tion, La Jade, is an East Indian sensa- tional dancer. Assisting Miss Palmer in the chorus of youthful song and jdance girls are Thelma Lewis, ingenue | prima donna, and Bea Moore, soubrette. In the comedy section Harry Levine will be assisted by Artie Lewis; straight man; William J. Johnston, -eccentric | comedian, and Bob Leonard, & dancing | soloist and comedian. Among the scenic high spots are “Apple Blossom Time,” an intriguing group of pretty girls; “Cottonland,” with its sunflower ballet in which the girls are disguised as nodding sun- flowers; “Chinese. Jazz,” a scene of brilliant Oriental settings and lanterns of many hues, and the “Temptation Chorus,” led by La Jade in her East Indian dance creation. - 3 * . E. M. NEWMAN—This Afternon. B. M. Newman, travel talker, will Ppresent the picture and ‘word story of “The -Garden of Allah,” covering his vecent experiences in Morocco and Al-- glers, this afternoon at the National Theater. The twentieth century has elbowed its way into the desert, permitting the traveler to live in luxury ameng Moors and Arabs who still “dwell- in fif- teenth-century simplicity. ~Wonderful gardens, fertile fields and miles of wav- ing grain, it is explained, ‘dispel the Padre,” and in James Montgomery's “Ready Money." During his lonf. stock engagemen with the. Columbla and Poli Players he had’ the honor of appearing before twhree mud;m—mmg Taft and dious tunes include notably “Little White House,” “Gee, I Want to Be | “Dreams for Sale,” “On'to Holly- | Head Over Heels in Love” and ‘Smile a Little, Las Y The story of "Hnnue‘lmm%‘ con: cerns a little ' country ho I away from home \o—n‘::t‘ll. l;“nn: illusion that Morocco and are all arid. The children of ve in a-land rich in agriculture, flocks of sheep, herds of And stately camels. Not a. country, but much of it-a Bhowarovered tains - tinued on -