Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1930, Page 55

| ;_Théa an ter, Screen d Music rt 4—14 Pages [ =S— AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star, SUNDAY MOR ING, FEBRUARY 16, 1930. Motor, Aviation and Radio News | SR CHARLES FARR MARY DUNCAN “City Girl” Fox ELL and - In CONRAD NAGEL and it A LEE - _/n"Second \Xite " RKO.kesths Happy Theat Still in E BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Wise men of the theater have often reiterated the morose epi- gram, “Shakespeare spells ruin.” Like most epigrams, it lends the force of brevity to the expression of a partial truth, and earns mental gratitude by not wearying the mind with modifications. Following a style of word play much favored in British wit, this epigram is made the basis of fur- ther smart phraseology by the simple process of flat contradic- tion. It should be announced without hesitation in the interest of truth as well as smartness— “Shakespeare Spells Success.” * x x x This is far from meaning that in the bright lexicon of the Eliza- bethan drama “there is no such word as fail” (the quotation often attributed casually to Shakespeare because the play “Richelieu” fits 80 nicely into a blank verse reper- tory), but on contrary it points to the success that can come only from life devotion and the defeat or natural survival leaving be- hind many competitors. In each of the decades there is some one Shakespearean actor supreme in popular acceptance, a monarch of the territory he has selected for his particular theatric king-! dom. | e It is now Fritz Leiber who has battied his way with the rapier| of Laertes or the broad sword of | MacDuff through myriad combats| with a Hamlet or a Macbeth that leave him at last undisputed mas- | ter of the field. ok e A true instinctive Shakespear- ean actor loves work, and does not reconcile himself to ease. He is a reminder of the Chicago news- aper reporter who inherited a ortune, but who was so trained to energetic action that he never could accommodate himself to his new circumstances by learning to walk slowly. Fritz Leiber could very easily have made up an in- teresting week by using, say, three plays of popular appeal, perhaps “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” and one of the comedies, taking the benefit of favorable criticism and afford- ing opportunities to his patronage to enjoy the satisfaction of goods that have been locally guar- anteed. The reception given his “Hamlet” indicated a readiness to accept him as a favorite inter- preter of this role -without de- manding the repertory test of technical versatility. * ¥ % % ‘This actor prefers, however, to toil incessantly from one end of the week to the other, with wildernesses of splendid scenery to be continually re-explored. Many attentive spectators will re- call the studied simplicity of the Ben Greet stdge settings with as much satisfaction as the opulent elaboration of the thoroughly modern scene. One inexorable s | livery in terms of genuine human- ric Reunions vidence. rule concerning = Shakespeare seems to be that he must have either no scenery at all or an un- limited abundance. * ¥ ¥ % An especial interest attaches to the jungle films shown at the Na- tional Theater because of the radical experiment they represent in testing the co-ordination of speech with pictures. While it is impossible to bring home the trumpeting. of the elephant, nor the weird chant of the aboriginal cannibal, a very shrewdly de- signed setting is employed to rep- resent a drawing room audience, with Mr. and Mrs. Martin John- son conducting a hospitable enter- tainment and apparently display- ing a marvelous collection of pic- tures to appreciative friends. It must be admitted at the very out- set that an explorer compelled to lead a naturalist’s existence in efforts to interpret sign languages could scarcely be expected to master the modern arts of elocu- tion to a degree that would rival the demonstrations of the Shake- spearean group engaged in rivalry not far away. The method has the advantage of a definitely re- hearsed series of descriptions ac- curately delivered. Startling as the talking film becomes in its realism, it has not yet made up for the lack of the personal figure on the stage. A sound picture lecture is still far away from cap- turing the honors from a Newman or a Burton Holmes. The little intermission talk by the Boy Scout brought a neat and spirited de- ity that caused young Dick Doug- las to come prefty near being the star of the show. Another arrival from the realms of remembrance will be Mitzi. who has sung many roles since “Sari,” which she will interpret again for Washington audiences. These audiences lost no time in assert- ing themselves as her stanch ad- mirers. Eleanor Painter, whose career has been garlanded by many miles of typewriter ribbon moistened in the ink of compli- ment, will restore the charming melodies of “The Fortune Teller,” assisting to give new emphasis to the distinction of the current sea- son as a time of reunion for cher- ished friends. Revived in a Talkie. "THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST.,” David Belasco’s mas- terpiece in the field of melodrama, is about undergo its third meta- morphosis. Revived this Winter with considerable eclat at the Metropolitan Opera House, with Maria Jeritza doing|to do the leading honors, this erstwhile play, then opera, is to be transformed into a talkie. First National is contributing its talent to the unfolding of this sto before the microphone. But who wiil m the heroic gal, and who will be e =7 e |[{UGO TRIO- Fox (§tagce) /\Ia'f'ional RAMON NOVARRO and DoOROTHY UORDON- /7 * Devil M Gypsy Dances in "Sari.” MME. ALBERTINA RASCH . is, a Hungarian, born in Budapest, a close friend of Emmerich Kalman, the composer of “Sari” and a member of a famous family of dancers, her parents and grandparents having been stars in the royal ballet in Hungary and who had the great distinction of dancing before nearly all the crowned Leads of Europe in other days. She herself is a maker of famous dancers, This season, she says, she has placed with Mitzi, in “Sari” what she claims is the best class of dancers she has turned out for many years. Explaining why, she says: “It is the first time in my career as & dancing teacher that I have been akle to give vent to my emotion in poetry of dancing through the medium of the native Magyar airs of my country. Most all the attractions that I place my girls with are of the odern type and the dances are the same, but in “Sari” I could give way to my teelings toward my native music, and was also very happy in that most of the young ladies that I placed with the company are of Hungarian parentage. ‘Their wild abandon in the gypsy numbers are natural for them, for it expresses their feelings in their native dances that I would be utterly unable to convey un- less they were native born. I have put my whole soul into the dances in “Sari,” and I am very proud to say that where- ever Mitzi and “Sari” have appeared we have received wonderful mention.” Basil Dean to Film "]éscape" BASTL DEAN, the English producer, whose alignment with R-K-O Pro- ductions was recently announced, will make as his first Anglo-American pro- duction a film version of John Gals- worthy’s play, “Escape.” Under the arrangement with R-K-O and Mr. Dean’s company the Associated Talking Pictures, Inc, the American company offers the English firm finan- cial backing and the use of some of its players. The production will be made, however, in English studios under Eng- lish direction, and will be released on both sides of the Atlantic as “Asso- ciated Radio Pictures.” Mr. Dean is well known as a film di- rector in this country, having made “The_Return of Sherlock Holmes” in the Paramount (Astoria) studios last Summer. Posed for theA.Gay Nineties. THE “old-timers” gathered together by M-G-M for a review of the gay 90s, to be called “The March of Time,” have done their little duty and scat- tered again. Joe Weber and wife have gone to ukulele-land. Mr. and Mrs. Lew Fields returned to New York, where Fields is a musical version of “Huckls- berry Finn,” the shades of Mark Twain permitting. DeWolf Hopper and his helpmate are visiting in Oakland. Marie Dressler remains on the job. Hollywood couldn’t do without that girll She compares herself to a brook, not that she’s babbling, but says she bewhiskered Sheriff is a question still very much in the dark. fears she must go on forever. And it's ok. with the fans, ay Care” b, =] CLAIRE. 3rd LUCIAN LITTLFIELD- . /> NoNo Nanette” Me-fropo//f‘afl MiTz1- " Sart” | [RicHARD ARLEN and MARY BRIAN- /" Burning Up" ALLAN ROGERS- “Master of Ceremores'| Fo/sce DororHy MAckaiL and |AN KEITH- /7 TJhe Great Divide “ Farle Victor Herbert’s Music. BY WALLACE MUNRO. HY is Victor Herbert popular? The answer, in all probability, is be- cause he composed music that appealed to the many, not to the few; because he composed music that you could re- member, that you could sing, to which you could dance, and music that carried its message home in a tempo expressive of the soul of the man who composed it. Edward Ellsworth Hipsher in writing of Victor Herbert said: “Victor Herbedt was one of America's most earnest advocates of true music. In his way he did more in spreading the gospel of good music than most of the classicists, for he reached the musically untrained and taught them to appre- clate the difference between music of the day and music of all time. His lightsome art was a stepping stone be- tween the trivial things of temporary appeal and the more complicated | classics, which are appreciated by the limited few.” Victor Herbert composed tuneful music because he loved the lilt, the animation, the verve the harmony of those com- positions. He played with his airs just as joyfully as a kiddie would play with a doll, If he succeeded in adding a new twist to an already . composed theme, he glorled in it as much as a mathematiclan would in solving a problem. . He loved his work, and the success and popularity of his compositions reflect the devotion of the master. Just 17 years ago this month Victor | Herbert in a friendly chat with James | Francis Cooke, the eminent musical authority, made the statement_ that “the musical public is commencing to cry out for melody—real, beautiful, en- trancing melody.” If these two men could meet again today, it is not un- |likely the same remark would be ut- |tered by the same man, but with a | greater ‘reason for making it than he |had when he really uttered it. |, Why? Because tastes change just ‘the same as modes change, and music is no exception to the general scheme of things. For a long time past the music- loving public has been satiated with by- products of Tinpan Alley. The pro- verbial worm has turned, and now a demand is made to revive some of the Iyrical gems that have been for a long time laid away as relics of the past. In comic opera and the lighter forms of melodic expression the wheels of con- ventionality revolve with a regularity akin to the changes in public taste for the drama. The compositions of Offen- bach, Audran, Planquette, Auber and Lecocq were the vogue for a time, just as_were those of Gilbert & Sullivan, Lehar and Strauss. But then another form of harmonica arrived, and the melodies of the masters had to give way to the syncopated measure of a school that possessed neither breadth of tradi- tion nor symphonic beauty to insure its perpetuity. This season finds the evolu- tion of taste again circling, and we are back again to where we were almost a quarter of a century ago—with Victor Herbert the reigning king of melody. Stag’c and Screer; Attractions This Week NATIONAL-—Mitzi in “Sari. morrow evening. Opens tomorrow evening. POLI'S—Eleanor Painter in “The Fortune Teller.” Opens to- GAYEiTY-“Hindu Belles,” burlesque. This afternoon and eve- ning. FOX—“City Girl.” This afternoon and evening. PALACE—“Burning Up.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“No, No, Nanette.” This afternoon and eve- ning. R-K-O KEITH'S—“Second Wife.” This afternoon and evening. EARLE—“The Great Divide.” This afternoon and evening. RIALTO—"“Woman to Woman.” COLUMBIA—“Devil May Care” and evening. LITTLE—“Passion. This afternoon and evening. (second week). This afternoon This afternoon and evening. Another Great Collegian. CCORDING to rumor, and what not, one of the few times the Metro- politan Opera's famous tenor, Mar- tinelli, did anybody a favor by not ap- pearing at a song fest was when, stub- bing his toe, the crippled warbler was not able to get to the “Spring Festival” at the University of Michigan, thus necessitating the substitution of an undergraduate, one Allan Rogers. To this—one might vulgarly call it “break”—such cities as Paris,” London, Berlin and Stockholm have been said to take off their hats. For, as a result of this unexpected opportunity at his alma mater, the youthful Rogers was wafted not only to the Elysian shores of Chi- cago, as guest soloist with the Symphony Orchestra, but soon after was trans- ported to fog-bound London, where he sang to a supposedly enraptured au- dience. Still later he was called to the Nordic region, the land of the great Garbo, where, amidst the elegancies of the Royal Opera, he again demonstrated the spiritual quality of his rare voice, which reaped the rewards of the just later in the production of “Rose Marie.” Now, after a vacation in other cities, this popular young man comes back to the Palace, with a new selection of songs, a brand-new baton, and—what will you? His _Ougmul Creation. UGH HUNTLEY, who will be seen as “the other man,” the chap who nearly wrecks a young couple’s home and happiness with too ardent love- making to a young wife who had a no- tion she was being abused, in “Second Wife,” the attraction at Keith's this week, created the role in the play on Broadway from which the piclure was adapted. With Conrad Nagel as the husband, Lila Lee as the “second wife,” the lov- able Mary Carr as the aged family ser- vant, and sensational little Freddie Burke Frederick as the stepchild, the picture seemed to have an_irresistible cast. But Russell Mack, who directed it, didn’t weaken on that account. He wanted it to be flawless, and so he wired Hugh Huntley in New York and signed him without further ado. “Second Wife” is Huntley’s first talkie and he went to Hollywood for his first visit to help make it. Years however, he played opposite Olive as, the first Mrs. Jack Pickford, HinDA \NYANSON ELEANOR PAINTER; “The Fofiune—féllgr - frthe Chammty Scere ffrom ™ XOMAN TO WOMAN Rial+o adorable little comedienne,” of “Sari,” proudly boasts that her clates that she knew before she became fampus. poser, philosopher, musical director of “Sari.” Mitzi and Her Compatriot. Mml. for years identified as “the Yartin came to the United States 22 " the star | vears ago, and for the past 17 years has is a native of Budapest, and company is largely composed of Hungarian asso- been practically associated with promi- nent Broadway producers. His works | have been published all over the world, in the old days|and he is the only musician in the |world to give Kalman's score unabbre- Born in| thing; Hungary, the son of a famous newspa- | Baron Huenefeld, the late German avia- per man and political power, Joseph |tor, he is the only man in the world Among them is Paul Yartin, com-|viated. musician and the| Yartin is also famous for another for, it is claimed, outside of Yartin, he received his education in|who can do anything with a monocle in Budapest, Vienna and Rome; was class- | his eye. If he becomes involved in & mate of Emmerich Kalman, the com- | heated argument with any one on the poser of “Sari,” at the Royal Academy |subject of art or music, no matter how of Music in Budapest, the famous msu-‘exclted he may become, the monocle tution foundéd by Liszt, who, after mak- | never drops out. ing his degree of philosophiae, pro-| Mitzi calls him her “ever-present Ty made a “Chevalier of Italy.” ceeded thence to Rome, where he was | minder of the beloved Vienna” she loves to remember. director, the Community Drama Guild of Washington is perfecting plans for the presentation of its second full- length play this season—John Tobin's mediaeval comedy, “The Honeymoon,” at McKinley Auditorium, Friday and Saturday evenings, February 28 and March 1. lure of fifteenth century Spain, scenes of quaint old inns and mediaeval cot- tages and courtly ante rooms and audi- ence chambers in ducal palaces. Its carefree life of the countryside will be costumed in the colorful, picturesque garb of the period and dances of the peasantry and the court will be intro- duced. Miss Kruger is well fitted to direct this masterpiece of John Tobin, friend and admirer of William Shakespeare. She 'has had wide experience in classical roles with Sothern and Marlowe and with the Ben Greet Players and others. Four years ago while playing an im- portant role in the George Kelly piece, “Daisy Mayme,” in Philadelphia, Miss Eva Le Gallienne, director of the New her to join with that company, then Just at the beginning of its career. Miss Kruger accepted and came to Washington with Miss Le Gallienne in March, 1927, at the National Theater in silent pictures. He has been a stage veteran for 15 years. 4 in “The Cradle Song,” and other suc- cesses of the early Spring. Since then The piay is to be given with all the | York Civic Repertory Theater invited | | | Plans for “The Honeymoon” ITH Alma Kruger of the New York she has appeared in many New York Civic Repertory Theater as guest\C}:V‘C Repertory successes, notably as e lady in “The Lady From Alfs queque”; as Mme. Bourrat in “MI Bourrat”; in “The Master Builder”; “The Good Hope” in which she played Ellen Terry's famous role; in “The Liv- ing Corpse,” and finally just last week in the revival of “Hedda Gabler,” play= ing Aunt Julia, to Eva Le Gallienne's Hedda, with Jacob Ben-Ami, Josephine Hutchinson and Leona Roberts. Marie Moore Forrest, executive secre= tary of the Community Drama Guild, has general charge of the production of “The Honeymoon.” Raoul Walsh's "Find." AOUL WALSH on a recent European fling in search of puichritude per- fection, it is sald, came upon Katie Karlin, who was dancing and singing at the Winter Garden, Berlin, So handsome did'he think her face and physiogomy that he signed her at once for the films. She is to have an important part in his next production, says the director of “The Cock Eyed World” and “Hot for Paris." Just what kind of a part | she will have may cause some specula- tion, as the pretty fraulein cannot speak a word of fluluh. But then, perhaps she doesn't need to talk, or it might be in another one of those silent talkies.