Evening Star Newspaper, June 30, 1929, Page 51

AMUSEMENTS. ! HE closing of the National, Rialto il and the Little Theater will cre- ate a good deal of a gap in s ‘Washington’s amusement world. ' ‘When Manager Cochran’s stock group departs these precincts they leave fi.lflng pictures inecomplete control of the situation along the main stem, and motion pictures, as such (since not all of the suburban and neighborhood are not wired for sound), entire masters of the city's theatrical destiny for awhile at least. | It is & situation far from unusual in American cities at this time of the year. | Those peering forward to the eventual annihilation of the legitimate stage by dialogue and sound pictures may see scme significance in the local state of affairs. The fact remains, however, that a promising season is booked for next year on the legitimate stages and New York producers are a-bustle with lans. Filmdom’s sway will hold abso- | ute only until the regular Fall season | rolls around. 'HE Rialto, Universal's Washington house, will, “in_all probability.” throw open its doors again in the Fall, it is sald. Beginning with tip-top busi- ness with “Showboat” some nine weeks ago, the Rialto has had what the man- agement calls & “fair” box office, with 1its subsequent bookings sloping away as hot weather came along. A vacation seemed dictated by simple business principle. The Rialto is a large house and it has a large overhead. Universal has had none too strong a st of pictures available to a town | such as Washington, accustomed to the first run features and specials of most of the other big companies. *“Show- boat” ran for four weeks, and could have run for five, it is said. But “Broadway,” another top-notcher, which might have been calculated to do_good | business here, is tied up in New York, where it opened at the Globe May 27. Universal's plans for the new season bid fair to provide the Rialto with good material, if the local house decides to reopen. Recent announcements dis- closed that the company has a program calling for the expenditure of $12,000,- 000 on silent pictures and talkies, the | whole list to be dedicated to Carl Laemmle, the company's president, as | a tribute to his 20 years as a moving picture producer. There will be 332 subjects, varying in length from 12-reel supers to single-reel cartoons. Seven are to be prismatic features with spe- clal music. “Showboat,” “Broadway” and Paul Whiteman in “The King of Jazz" are the super-productions listed. JOH'N IRVING FISHER enters his fourteenth consecutive week as mas- ter of ceremonies on the stage at the Fox with the current picture, “The Black Watch.” Prior to his entrance upon this type of showmanship Mr. Fisher and his piano were in vaudeville in a sketch called “The Nut.” The Fox announces & schedule of all-talking pictures for the next six ‘weeks. Beginning wfl‘.tl; “P}'fltflx Hellill—l " on July 6, the pictures wi & yhi.nd ‘That Curtain,” July 13; “Masquerade,” July 27; Rose,” August- 3, and Music,” August 10. TBE latest information on the Metro- politan’s new cooling plant 1s that 1t will begin to function on July 4. On the evening of July 3 (midnight, most likely) the Metropolitan will have ‘an advance screening of “On With the how,” the Warner Bros.' Vitaphone roduction entirely in color, with dia- ogue, song and music. The picture will be opened to the public the fol- lowing Saturday, July 6, for that week. ‘This technicolor production has ex- cited wide interest. One of the chief problems confronting the motion pic- ture industry, now that sound has been established as an asset, is the securing of realistic effects in color. The con- junction of color with motion picture photography is, as a matter of fact, al- most as old as the movies themselves. As éarly as 1895 the first color film was shown at the Cotton States Exposi- tion at Atlanta, Ga. It was “Annabelle the Dancer,” a hand-colored film from the Edison kinetoscope. Simultaneously, in England, experi- ments were being made by Edward A. ‘Turner, & chemist, who finally, in 1901, interested Charles Urban, an important in the British film trade, in his forts to combine the three primary colors on the screen by means of pro- | " In 1903, at Turner’s death, his work . 'was taken over by another, but years ' passed and no progress was made. One day Urban went to Paris on business. | A street vender selling postal cards at- | tracted his attention. The cards came | mercial value. | man color film which he saw in Berlin and Screen. in pairs, one red and one green, and were transparent. Each card depicted an ordinary bit of landscape, but when a red card was superimposed upon a green card and held up to the light the result was something quite different in the way of pictures. Urban rushed back to London and in 1908 came the first public showing of the new color pic- tures, trade marked Kinemacolor, and based upon Urban's observations in Paris. But the process proved a costly failure in America. In 1905 a group of engineers in Bos- ton set about to invent and develop a process for taking pictures in color. Up to that time and since many millions of dollars have been spent in the endeavor to perfect a system of color pictures that would have both artistic and com- A number of these en- deavors were successful as long as the film was shot in daylight with slow motion and with carefully selected col- ors. But when the cameras had to be set up in a dark studio and the pictures taken by artificial light, and when no check could be set upon the motion, the the costumes, the sets or the make-ups, the systems were failures. These engineers who sought to pro- duce color pictures worked for five years, and at the end of that time had evolved a method which they be- lieved would satisfy their needs, though they had got no further than a lab- oratory process, In January, 1910, new capital was interested in the ven- ture; more years of experimentation followed, with an expenditure of $3,- 000,000, and this laboratory process evolved into what is known today as Technicolor, feasible either in daylight or artificial light, and requiring no slowing-up of the movement of the actors, Quite recently other processes have been announced both in this country and in Europe. The inertia which pre- vailed for so long in the industry it- selt in regard to color photography seems to have been overcome to a cer- tain extent, considerably affected, too, by the advent of talking pictures. Lorenzo del Ricclo, in charge of the experimental laboratories for Para- mount-Famous-Lasky, tells of a Ger- which was so sensitive that it revealed the blush on the cheek of an actor who had accidentally coughed on ciga- Tette smoke. Such delicate shadings, while they represented almost perfect color work, were as yet too costly to attain in practical commercial usage, del Ricclo sald. “On With the Show,” however, rep- resenting as it does the first combina- tion of color photography and sound, should interest Washington picture- g'oelks as much as it has those in New ork, ATE Smith, whose birthplace was Washinglon and whose present address here 1s 2152 ¥ street northwest, is billed 1n a current Vitaphone feature at the Metropolitan as ine “Songbird of the South.” There are many who will recall her 42-week season of “per- sonal appearances” with “The Satur- day Nighters” over the radio here, as well as her appearances at the Metro- politan and Earle. Before that she had a considerable number of professional engagements with clubs and groups in Washington. She was in “Honeymoon Lane” on Broadway and occupied a star “spot” in vaudeville until very re- cently. Tl-m Little Theater announces a list of interesting pictures from which it will select its attractions when the theater opens again. The date of that reopening is as yet unsettled. “It may be eight or ten weeks; it may be only a month,” one is tol The list includes the following fea- tures: “The Adventures of Maya the Bee,” “Eleven Who Were Loyal,” “The Village of Sin,” “The Man Who Cheated Life” “At the Edge of the World,” “Berlin After Dark,” “Pawns of Des- tiny,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “His Late Excellency,” “The Doctor's Women,” “It's Easy to Become a Father,” “Nos- feratu the Vampire,” “Husbands or Lovers” and “Moulin Rouge.” Special attractions contemplated include a re- turn of “Shiraz,” a reshowing of “The Life of Beethove a reshowing of “The Weavers,” “The Light of Asia” and “Mechanics of the Brain.” ERBERT RAWLINSON'S absence from the coming week’s revue at the Palace will be purely temporary, gleaners after information are assured. Mr. Rawlinson is to make a Movietone short and will resume his mastery of ceremonies July 6. i Oll of the outstanding classics written by an American, Longfel- low’s “Evangeline,” remains after more than 60 years as much of a literary mystery as ever. ‘Was Evangeline & real Acadian girl ‘who endured the tragedies which befell her people and more to search the breadth of the Western States for years for her beloved Gabriel, or was the ideal of Longfellow’s poem but a creature of his imagination? Or was there a girl of another name who lived the life of the Iyricized Evangeline, her identity known only to the man who wrote so master- fully of her romance, her devotion and her triumph? History shows on $ame of its blackest pages the details attendant upon the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in the middle of the eighteenth 'centurv. The Acadian settlement in Louisiana today teems with tales handed ‘down from generation to generation and which bear out many points of Long- fellow's poem. But on the subject of most importance, the origin of Evan- geline herself, there is a wide diffes ence of opinion and considerable con- tradiction. Some interesting facts, yet by mno means a positive proof that there was an Evangeline among the Acadiang de- ported from Grand Pre, have been re- vealed by Edwin Carewe, who has com- pleted the screen production of “Evan- geline,” with Dolores Del Rio playing the titular character. Longfellow was born at Portland, Me. mot a great disiance from Nova Scotia, and although it is sald he never visited the locale of his famous poem, it is ible that he did, or at least had own men or women who knew the intimate details of the Acadian settle- ment. Longfellow never visited Louis- 4ana. yet he describes it accurately and musically in “Evangeline.” One report states that the poet Jearned of the adventure of which he wrote one evening while attending a dinner at the home of H. L. Connolly, yector of a South Boston church, with Nathanjel Hawthorne. It is said that Connolly had heard the tale from a parishioner who had known the Acadian girl who lost her lover when the British deported the towns folk of Grand Pre, and that the girl had spent the re- maining years of her life in search of her flance, finally finding him in a ospital. Judges James D. Simon of St. Martin- ville, La., states that his great-grand- father told the stoy of Evangeline to Longfellow while a pupil of the poet at Harvard, and in his book, “Acadian Reminiscences,” Felix Voorhees relates ithe story his grandmother told him while a boy—the story of an Emmeline LeBiche, whom the grandmother adopt- ‘ed and renamed Evangeline—God’s lit- tle angel. Behind the old Catholic church near ‘the banks of the lazy Bayou Teche at ‘St. Martinville, La, is an unmarked ! grave which Andre A. Olivier, historian the ‘ol of Evmefi;:;. et Ty !"In his m_Longfellow says tha ‘ l'lnl!l!nepg:l burleg in a churchyard 1in Philadelphia, alongside the un- marked grave of Gabriel, her beloved, | yet Pal T. T. Graham of St. e district, points to as the burial} Mystery Literary terhood of the Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity of the Quaker metropolis. One report states that Longfellow first called Evangeline, Gabrielle, then in writing of her, re-christened her Evangeline and made Gabriel her sweetheart. Another states that Em- meline LaBiche, later named Evange- line, walked from Maryland to the banks of the Mlssiulfl?: and when she found Gabriél in Louisiana and learned that he had married another and broken his vows she lost her reason and died without recovering her mem- ory several years later. Other reports refer to Gabriel LaJuenesse of the poem as Louis Arceneaux. That some of the characters of “Evangeline” really lived is brought out in the family of Rene LeBlanc, a no- tary of Grand Pre. Marie Louise Le- Blanc, a direct descendant of this character of the poem, lives in Scott, La. However, the poet states that Le- Blanc, the sage of the Acadians, lived many years in Louisiana and another recorder of Acadian days states Le- Blanc- died on the long march from Maryland to the Mississippi River. Opinions differ as to how and why the “Acadians refused to meet Gov. Laurence's stern request to take up arms for England. states that the Acadians came to Can- ada when it was a French territory. ‘When the British defeated the French | in Europe they enlisted the aid of In- dians in winning Nova Scotia from the French settlers, and the Acadians, forming a community at Grand Pre, declared they would accept the new rule but never bear arms against France. Another record states the Acadians planned to fight for France in a second war against England and that Gov. Laurence deported them only after a number of Acadians had sailed from Halifax to fight against Great Britain, their action giving him the idea that the remaining Acadians would start internal trouble in Nova Scotia. One interesting episcde of Acadian history is that when the ships of the crown deposited several hundred half- starved, half-clothed Acadians on the shores of Maryland, Charles Smith and Henry Brent met them, offered them homes and for three years a majority of the deported people lived in peace and contentment on the Smith-Brent estates in Maryland. Only a desire to join the loved ones separated from them caused the Acadians to leave Maryland for Louisiana, the strongest French section of America at the time. After weary months of travel on foot the Acadians from Maryland arrived at the Poste des Attakapas, now St. Martinville, La, and _established a most Interesting and roductive sec- tions of the South. ¥ direction of Commendatore Guiseppe The success of this season’s seven presentations has been followed by the announcement that there will be a 25- week season in the coming Winter. The pha have all been, and will continuc to be, in Italian. Despite the difficul- Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, believes that the Acadian girl's ashes lie ‘in a A | wault which s the property of the sis- ties of language, a great many Ameri- ‘ cans have group. One _chronicler | settlement which is today one of the, ‘The Italian Art Theater, under thc! | morning trip is made at 10:30 o'clock. { Fox program, starting August 1. Sterni, appears to have won a definite | place in the New York theater world. - THE SUNDAY - STAR, WASHINGTON. D. Outdoor Amusements. GLEN ECHO PARK. Glen Echo Park announces everything | ready to give the usual Fourth of July| crowds the time of their lives, All amusements will start at noon and con- tinue until midnight. Free picnic tables in shady groves will be available for familics who make a day of it at the popular_resort. The Washington Rail- way & Electric Co. will start car service at 10 am. and maintain its usual prompt schedules. Thrills galore, equal to the popping of the biggest firecracker, await young | and old at the Maryland resort. "They will be found on the big dip, higher than ever this year; on the airplane swing as it zooms around a wide circle, on the derby racer, the carrousel, the old mill and down in the midway, where fun and surprises greet the vis- | itor at every turn. Throughout the | park will be found refreshment stands | of all kinds. On week nights there will be dancing in the beautiful ballroom to the tunes of ~McWilliams' popular orchestra, | which for the Fourth will provide new | entertaining stunts. On the Fourth, as at all other times, admission to Glen Echo is free. MARSHALL HALL. Fourth of July celebrants are advised by the management of Marshall Hall, & delightful river resort a few miles away, that ample entertainment for the holiday awaits them at that point, to which “the steamer Charles Macalester makes dally trips from the Seventh street wharf at 10 am., 2:30 pm. and 6:45 p.m., except on Sunday, when the In addition to the beautiful grounds | of the old manse, which are ideal for | picnic parties, with ample tables and | seats giving a sweeping view of the Potomac River, there will be the added | entertainment. * afforded by aeroplane | swings, roller coaster, carrousel, skooter | and similar devices, ‘with free dancing in the pavilion at the riverside. Gaynor-Farreu Plans. ANET GAYNOR and Charles Farrell, who_achieved fame on the_silent screen in “7th Heaven” and “Street Angel,” are to be introduced to the PUDIIC in an entirely new way as eatured players in talking, singing and dancing productions. Tests have demonstrated their ability to adapt themselves to the new re- quirements of the sound screen, and they have been cast for featured roles in the musical comedy, “Sunny Side Up,” which is to be part of the 1929-30 The roduction has already been started by avid Butler. It is to be an elaborate spectacle, with stage embellishments by Seymour Felix and book, words and music by De Sylva, Brown and Henderson. Their second picture, in which there will be music and singing, will be called “Playmates.” This is to be directed by Frank Borzage, who also directed “7th Heaven” and “Street Angel.” They have already completed their first dialogue picture under the direc- tion of Mr. Borzage. It is called “Lucky Ster,” a dramatic story by Tristram ‘Tupper. Color 1: Match. ¢TURN on the moonlight. the love scenes.” Such directions will be common soon from motion picture directors, is the belief of William J. Cowen, director of Radio Pictures. “Give us the red flash- es for the fight sequence. The lovers are coming into the forest—shoot the soft green,” is a strong possibility. ‘The progressive director sees the pass- ing of the flat, gray tones on film, such as we see today. A light suitable to the emotions being depicted will flood the screen. Soft greens for forest scenes, blues for the ocean, yellow féf the fire- light sequence in the old “homestead, orchids and silver for moonlight, and a rosy hue for the sunrise scenes will soon ible, along with sound pictures. “We are all suceptible to color as well as to sound,” says Director Cowen. “An Eastern laboratory has perfected the in- vention which throws the color desired on the entire film. does not con- flict with the color- process already in use which shows a myriad of bright colors on the film. The new discovery permits only one tone used at a time, Just as gray is at this time.” Cowen believes that love scenes will be much more effective when surround- ed with soft lights which blend into the proper settings—green for gardens, sil- very moonlight, etc. Shoot WilTTake to the Air, THE forty-two airports of the Curtiss Flying Service, it is announced, will be used henceforth as transpor- ;tlon bases by First National Pictures, c. In each airport, air service, available on one hour’s notice, will be used principally by Pirst National Pictures salesmen to travel from city to city in their territories; also to send motion- {flcture prints and sound discs for talk- ing pictures from the First National- Vitaphone studios at Burbank, Calif., to key citles throughout the country for distribution and exhibition, materially cutting down the time between the completion of a picture in California and its presentation to the public here and in Canada. ‘The airplane service will be used also to carry stars from Burbank to distant locations where it is desired to make scenes and to leading cities to make personal appearances in local theaters, returning speedily to the studios to re- sume their work. “SNAPPY” ABOUT TWENTY YEARS AGO n constant pal of the As a young lnnrrle: WATCHING THE SUNSET 5 ON A Review of Theatrical Aff HE English, it is said, regard our national shortcomings with an animosity unnatural to the ma- ternal instinct. Our juvenile habits in business and the arts often anger the mother land, and it | has been known to criticize severely our speech, dress, HNustle and etiquette. Even our battle manners have given England cause for umbrage, and our persisting as a selfish creditor is looked upon as gauche. To mitigate this h tility of parent to progeny many he: ing influences are in _motion, not the least of which is the Theater Guild. ‘We have sent many plays, players and cinemas to London, but few of them | have been able to toot the harmonious | peace bugles. The™moving picture em- bassies, they say, have misrepresented us as a race of sinners, addic to mur- der, alcohol, sentimentalists, sword swallowing and tucking the napkin be- |neath the chin. Their efforts to im- | prove the relationship between hearth- | stone and prodigal have been, according |to the diplomats, undiplomatic. Just | when all was ominous for continuation {of the ill-feeling the Guild moved “Porev” to London, and followed that maneuver by appointing “Caprice” to be another emissary of good will, You will be delighted to know how well the Guild’s “acting company” has shown off in England. As we say in America, its performance of *“Caprice” took Fleet street as easily as Pershing took Cantigny. reviewers for the daily Mwlp:gfl‘ welcomed the enter- tainment with all the glowing stereo- typed terms of hurried journalism, ac- claiming it as everything from “effec- tive” to “worthy.” Alfred Lunt's art did not enthuse the West End drama lovers as violently as did that of his wife, Miss Lvnn Fontanne. She was quite the herolne of the exnedition. Psalms were sung to her expatriate his- trionism, while her brilllant Wisconsin i helpmate, Mr. Lunt, was dismissed, in one gazette at least, as a “clever Finn.” The wisest critic of the drama since Mr. Walkley of the London Times |joined his fathers is, in my opinion, Iver Brown, as he writes leisurely for the Saturday Review. In his comment upon the Theater Gulld’s “Caprice” he sings sanely of Philip Moeller's magic stage direction and of the miraculous cfficiency of the players in their excit- ing grooves. *“‘Caprice,’” Mr. Brown says, “lacks | solemnity and solidity of structure, but its characterization is wittily profound, and the portrait of the boy is a charm- |ing study of young enchantment in the | opening ‘world of adolescence. Douglas Montgomery develops the picture beau- tifully, and Alfred Lunt is delicious in the wise folly of the lawyer. The man's blend of self-knowledge and self-love, of noble impulse and absurd weakness are all made exquisitely manifest in the mixture of a stiff carriage and a twink- ling eye. Miss Lynn Fontanne's bril- liant raillery and command of the situ- ation are the right match for Mr. Lunt. The vartnership is a very rich one, but it does not overweigh the poice of the play. Every character has been filed to the finest point of significance by actor, author and producer. Nobody who cares about the art of the theater can afford to miss so rare an exhibi- | tion of its pleasures. Fancy the ‘talkies’ after this? The thought nauseates.” WILLIAM COLLIER, JR.. AND EDNA MURI couple in the film version of “Lummox§ Herbert Brenon directing the picture for United Artists. WARNER BAXTER AND LOIS MORAN, Starred in “Behind the Curtain,” a story of Death Valley, filmed with the Movietone. THE BROADWAY STAGE airs Along the White Way By Percy Hammond. Mr. Brown is disappointing, however, in his contempt for “Coquette,” a more muscular display than “Caprice” and a better exhibition of the showman's knack. “Aweary,” says. Mr. Brown, “of America’s guns and graft,*hootch and hoofers,” he turned to “Coquette,” ex- pecting to find in it a verification of Mr. Mencken's pucklike ‘“Americana.” ‘To Mr. Brown's conservative mind “Co- quette” was but a Los Angeles melo- drama, clumsily written, awkwardly performed and altogether a provincial faux pas. He was unable to sympathize with the soft little Southern magnolia girl, & victim of sex coquetterie, and the avenging instinct of an Alabaman father whose daughter had seduced an innocent boy friend. Miss Helen Ford, a prominent Broadway musical come- dienne, impersonated Coquette in Lon- don. Perhaps the role would have been more dppealing if Miss Helen Hayes, the creator of the part, had played it. * ok ko NE of my favorable underdogs is ‘Will Morrissey, & shaggy comedian not quite theater broken, but at heart a sometimes amusing ape. Every now and then he comes out of his kennel to bark and to bite, thereby arousing the interest of those who have no other interests. Mr. Morrissey is known as a ild of misfortune, baptized in calam- ity and reared amid, the sour distresses of the show business. Trials have beset him at every step of the uphill way and he has fallen frequently, only to get up again and resume his plodding through the dust and heat. Often he has been in the hands of the bailiffs because of an empty wallet, and it is said that (lie Actors’ ity regards him with admi. ration and a doubt as to his ability to pay his players. Most actor-managers would despond under similar disasters and defeats, but Mr. Morrissey grins at tribulations, ever hoping that one of his “turkey shows” will please the public and thus reward him for woes. After period of uncertainties and struggle, eep It Clean” began on Monday at the Selwyn. It was a rowdy vaudeville, composed of the usual items, considerably fouler than most of ils kind, and containing at least one pun that for sheer depravity gives the dirt- revue impresarios a t to shoot at. Monday night’s first nighters greeted it with silence. The other misbehaviors in the show were the customary Broad- way offenses, emphasized now and then by too enthusiastic performers. Mr. Morrissey started the play with a prologue in which he was dunned by his creditors—from Miller, the shoe man, to the Edison Co. He confessed that “Keep It Clean” was a turkey show and that its permanence was 4 matter of conjecture. Jauntily he ad- mitted that if it lasted a night or two he and Miss Midgie Miller would be able to resume acting. Miss Miller, by the way, was a ray in the darkness, giving an intelligent imitation of Miss Beatrice Lillie and joining her husband in some of his candid pranks. looking and competent, she. was an en- l.trf;lnln' contrast to most of the other stuff. Besides Mrs. Morrissey's endeavors there was a cleverly libelous imperson: tion of Noel Coward by Ted Marcel and some excellent drill dancing by a ballel of high-stepping pupils of Russell E. Markert. Also a proficient band, led by Jimmy Carr, and popular hoofing by Prank Farnum. To me the most comic actor at the Selwyn was Gene Oliver, who played an assistant to thc district attorney’s office, assigned to the purification of Mr. Morrissey’s revue. Douglas Stansbury, a handsome bari- tone, did some effective shadow boxing as he fervidly rendered the ballads of the show, and Mr. Morrissey himseif was grimly humorous. In his familiar antics in the aisles he paused to shakc hands with a dramatic critic, not know- ing that he was a dead-head. “Did you pay for your seat?” he inquired. ‘“No, thank goodness!” was the answer, mak- ing the press one up on the drama. Expensive Glass. VITAPHONE talking pictures are “shot” from a sound-proof booth, through a glass front that is a trifie less than two feet square. The glass used in the pflnclplnooth in the .stu- Brooklyn was made by one of dios in the most sclentific optical firms in Ger- many. It took many weeks in the mak- ing. Several sheets of glass failed to pass the required tests. The cost of the oscup plece of glass was over Ty — PRINCESS ralioh "ioVanke 1 “THE_FLYING_FI » st .Av SYLVAN _ S o Barking Troubles: D?‘U&xiflg FAIRBANKS in “THE IRON C., JUNE 30, 1929—PART 4. Stage Notes BAYARD VEILLER has safled for London with a pley on which he collaborated with Becky Gardiner. Sir Gerald Du Maurler is planning to act in it, with Gilbert Miller as the pro- ducer. It will probably be a late August production. Eugene O'Neill's “All God’s Children Got Wings” had its first public per- formance in England at the Court Theater recently. It had been privately produced at the Gate Theater Studio in London three years ago. The new production was made possible by the fact that a large number of Negro actors and actresses were available from the cast of “Porgy,” which fin- ished its Tun a little while back. Taking a “big_wallop” at the “popu- lar fallacy that Shakespeare has ceased to function in our theater,” Beauvias | Fox, writing in the New York Herald- Tribune, gives the following interesting statistics as his opening shock: “ ‘Mac- beth’ netted more than $18,000 at the opening performance of its Chicago engagement. ‘Macbeth’ grossed $10,000 at a Monday matinee and evening per- formance in Toledo, Ohlo, three months later. There was a ‘Macbeth’ riot at the first Wednesday matinee in Detroit last January, hundreds of people with tickets being unable to pass the crowds at the ticket window. And on the last day of that Detroit engagement 10,000 people paid to see the performance in the Masonic Auditorium.” No less than seven organizations were touring with 18 or 20 different Shakespeare plays | last season, Mr. Fox notes. Three com- panies, incidentally, arrived for en- gagements in Chicago at the same time. Instead of clashing, they harmonized their efforts and presented a four-week “festival.” | Aarons and Freedley have announced two Broadway musical productions for the coming season. The first is by Owen Davis, with music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart. The second will be a musical play composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a libretto by an author not yet named. George White is announced as ha ing begun work on his new “Scan which will probably open in Atlantic City in Mid-August. ‘The Village Troopers, who have taken over the Provincetown Playhouse for an experimental theater, will con- fine their productions exclusively to the plays of authors who live and do their writing in New York. “We are not looking for the great American drama,” said the director recently, “but for the great New York drama—and it has yet to be written, or at least to be brought to light.” The invasion of Paris by the “Eng- lish-speaking spirit,” largely American, is illustrated by dispatches that show that in the past few weeks there have been three English-speaking produc- tions in the trio of auditoriums housed at_the Theatre des Champs Elysees, two musical comedies in English other playhouses, two dramatic produ tions in English in yet other theaters and a round half dozen productions translated from the English. “Paris, from an American standpoint, is r placing London as European headqua: ters,” one observer notes. | ‘The ceremony of laying the found: tion stone of the new Memorial The- ater at Stratford-on-Avon will take place on the second day of the Shake- speare Summer Festival, which starts tomorrow. There will be a 10 weeks’ season. The Memorial Theater is to be built at a cost ‘of $750,000. It will contain a large stage, an auditorium seating 1,000 persons, large foyers and a refreshment room leading to the ter- race. It is hoped to foster in Shake- speare’s town an ideal similar to that at Bayreuth in Germany and to send to all parts of the world trained com- panies of Shakespearean players. John Galsworthy’s new play, “Ex- iled,” which opened in London recently, nearly caused a riot, so divided were critics and audience alikke as to its worth. One newspaper called it “Gals- worthy’s worst play”; another rhapso- dized about it as “the soul of England made articulate.” The plot concerns a conflict between a mine owner and the miners. John Drinkwater, English playwright, author of this season’s “Bird in Hand” in New York, and many other successes, is to tour Spain, lecturing on the drama. He will compare the dramatic offerings of New York with London. Raymond Hitchcock, sufficiently re- covered from his recent illness to travel, is to leave Chicago for a Summer at Colorado Springs. In September he plans to return to Chicago to reopen “Your Uncle Dudley,” the play in which he was being starred at the time he was stricken. ‘. oy “Strange Interlude” is booked for the middle of September at the Hollis Theater in Boston. Jane Cowl and her new play, “Jefiny,” ended their Ply- mouth engagement a week ago. Almost $150,000 has been raised to- ward the building of a 500-seat play- house in San Francisco, report has it, which, when completed, will be oper- ated by an organization modeled after the New York Theater Guild. Maxwell Anderson’s “Outside Looking In" interested Berlin greatly in the early days of its production there last month and promised financial as well as artistic success for its author. The mp characters, ‘“Oklahoma Red,” “Baldy” and “The Arkansas Snake,” as well as the brightness of the play's set- tings at the Schiller Theater, caught the imagination of German audiences, especially in the contrast of unbroken expanses of prairie with Germany's topography where “even in the most rugged section there is alw: a beer arden just around the corner. AS COOL AS AN OCEAN BREEZE AT F ST. AT 13TH. Cont. from 11 NOW PLAYING A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY TALKING SEQUENCES WITH AN ALL STAR CAST —ON THE STAGE— Second Edition “RAH RAH RAH” with ART FRANK LOEW’S COLUMBI F St. at 12(h—Cont. from 10:45 SELCOND BIG WEEK A Paramount Picture FOUR MARX BROTHERS In the musical comedy hit THE COCOANUTS " EATON OSCAR SHAW ALL-TALKING—SINGING ~—DANCING—LAUGHING ‘WIT] MARY ‘'KMUSEM ENTS. Holdiilg Their Own Es talking pictures against the onslaught of hosts of players from the speaking stage, in the opinion of Jesse L. Lasky. Lasky said that legitimate stage play- ers would not supplant the popular mo- tion picture stars, as has been predicted by many commentators since the advent of talking pictures. “There have been many new faces on the talking screen in the past year," g said. “There will be many more. of the newcomers will be recruited from the speaking stage. In the main, however, have come to know will maintain their places in spite of the present fierce competition for roles in the talking pic- <ures. “When Paramount bagan making talking pictures, we had between 40 and 50 players under contract to us for their exclusive services. Without exception, every one of these players has now played in talking pictures. With very few exceptions, all of them have demon- strated that they can talk and talk well. At the same time, Paramount has used many players from the speaking stage. TABLISHED motion picture stars | are mcre than holding their own in | the stars whom the public| ‘The comparison shows us that the silent picture players have little to fear from the influx of stage talent. Almost every Hollywood producing company has imported stage talent from New York. Almost every Westbound train brings additicnal stage players. “Many of them will succeed, but when the excitement of the new era has sub- sided and talking pictures are regarded as the usual thing, results will show that the stage stars will have falled in general in dislodging the screen stars. “The chief reason for this is, of course, that the screen players have a big advantage over the stage people in that they are established and know screen technique. The chief advantage of the stage players is that their voices are trained. The fact is generally over- lcoked that most of the successful screen players have actually had stage train- ng.” La Gaitie Francaise, one of the few French theaters in the United States, has lately closed a successful season in San Francisco under the management of Andre Ferrier. MAKE YOUR ENTERTAIN- THEATERS Oireckio The Mos Heard, pestuouss pmuculaf Paramount’s S Drama F. ST. A MENT A PLEASURE By relaxing in the comfort of a Stanley- Crandall Theater. productions Theaters. Enjoy the Outstanding in Washington's Finest Rull;lasmm 435 4 Love-Melody ROPOLITA T 10TH e NEW POWERFUL Sweeping You Onward to Your Gre: atest Screen Experience GE ORGE CROFT mt's Al More 11-Talking Picture Punch world"—Mor: “Wolf of m, Wall Street”—More Thrills Than the “Dragnet” EXTRA--KATE SMITH “The S the WARNER ongbird of e South THE FIRST 100% TALKING, SINGING, DANCING PRODUCTION IN NATURAL COLORS ADVANCED MIDNIGHT SHOW WEDNESDAY JULY 3rd, 11:30 P. M. ST. REGULAR SHOWS: ART SATURDAY AT THE METROPOLITAN AMBASSADOR _coi*%e*¥w. TODAY_LUPE VELEZ and GARY COOPER in “WOLF SONG.’ (8ync. COLONY G Ave. & Farrasut se. TODAY-JEANNE EAGELS in “THE LETTER." (Talking.) Vitaphone et and_Singing). @i a st NE TODAY—GEORGE BA( TODAY—JOHN BOLES and Ria " S (All-Talking and 1230 C St. N.E. NNE EAGELS (Talking). HOME TODAY—JEA! Act. SAVOY TODAY— in “THE Vitaphone 14th & Col. Rd. N.W. Great Special, CENTRAL_ 9th St. Bet. D and B TODAY--MILTON SILLS in “LOVE OND THE DEVIL (6yhe) Wies phone L. A WeRhatdy 5 "AVALON ¢ 2. TODAY—JOHN BOLES and GAR- QDAY QN BOLES ’&ol’luf' (AIIO-TI?HI!I and 3 < - YORK &~ ave- s TODAY—JOHN BOLES _and