Evening Star Newspaper, August 3, 1930, Page 53

Theater, Screen and Music AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star. Motor, Aviation and Radio News Part 4—12 Pages WASHINGTON, D05 SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 3, 1930. abag® Joe Cook s JOAN PEERS - Ji"RamorSine” RKO.Keiths Photoplay Attractions | ARLE—Eddie Cantor, “Bright Lights.” | IGH carnival s announced at Warner Bros. Earle Theater this week, with Eddie Cantor, Broadway's court jester, in person, opening Warner Bros. :g\'sr anniversary month in Washing- n | An especially strong program, headed by the redoubtable Mr. Cantor, on the | Earle stage, has been arranged to” in- augurate the observance of the twenty- | fifth anniversary of the Warner Bros. entrance into the motion picture in- dustry. Singing and dancing comedian of many big Ziegfeld productions, Can- | tor offers an entirely new program of | his distinctive songs and stories. He | was last seen here in person as star of the Ziegleld musical specatacle, | “Whoopee.” Incidentally, this is the | first_opportunity he has had to greet his Washington fans from the stage of & motion picture theater. The Earle's special fiim feature is the | First National - Vitaphone offeri “Bright Lights.” with Dorothy Mackaill, Noah Beery and Frank Fay in leading soles. ers in the cast are Daphne Pol- lard, Tom Dugan, Frank McHugh, Incz Courtney, Eddic _Nugent, Edmund Breese and_Philip Strange. “Bright Lights” is described as “a daring, exotic melodrama, with action that shifts from the weird depths of the African Congo to the smart rendez- | vous of New York's ultra-fashionable set.” Additional features include new Vita- phone Varieties, the Earle Topical News | and music by the Earle Orchestra. PALACE—“Way Out West,” Waring's Pennsylvanians. \VD.LIAM HAINES is now pictured | at Loew's Palace in “Way Out| West,” as “bad, bold, boisterous Bill,”| in this new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer screen production, with Leila Hyams, Polly Moran and Cliff Edwards in the | supporting cast. | Bill as a ballyhoo man in a circus is | an expert bull thrower, but gets into trouble with several cowboys and is forced to go to work on their ranch. His Jove affair with the feminine “boss” is enlivened by his education as a cowboy. As a great big he-man of the wide open #paces he provides giggles and guffaws #plenty. A thrilling race, an attempted wnching and daring riding feats pre- sede Bill's winning a wife for himself. Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, hel tlder as “America’s greatest orchestra, are making a triumphant return to Washington with a new bag of melo dies and comedy stunts in “the great- est program of their career” (also quoted). Twenty-five youthful coile- giate entertainers provide 30 minutes of musical entertainment feplete with syncopated symphonies and novelties. Dick Leibert, whose engagement has been again extended due to unprece- Hearst Metrotone News, short subjects | and the Palace Orchestra under Harry | Borjes complete the program. R-K-O KEITH'S—"Rain or Shine.” AN_event of unusual interest at| R-K-O Keith's this week is_the world’s premiere showing of Joe Cook, famous stage star of Earl Carroll's “Vanities” and other Broadway suc- , in his film debut in “Rain or| " his great stage hit, i In “Rain or Shine” Joe is seen as acrobat, a musician, a juggler, a tight- | rope walker, a magician, a singer, a| dancer, and, Jast but not least, an actor. A circus, complete in every detail, forms | the background of the picture. | The story is concerned with the ef-| forts of Joe Smiley to keep the Rainey | Circus running smoothly and profitably for Mary Rainey, despite the villainous behavior of the ringmaster and the lion- | tamer and the tricky habits of the weather man. About this plot is un- folded comic situations of the most ludicrous character. They have to be seen to really be appreciated. It is side-splitting nonsense from start to finish Loulse Fazenda, William Collier, jr.; Joan Peers, Adoiph Milar and 'Alan| Roscoe appear in the cast, and Cook's | stage as-ociates, Tom Howard and Dave Chasen, are not far behind the star in getting laughs on their own account. | A great comic combination is Louise Fazenda and Tom Howard. Frank Capra in directing the picture haps surpa: his former efforts in “Submarine. Flight” and “Ladies of Leisure.” He is said to have a distinct flair for comedy. Freddy Clark and his R-K-Olians, mzhmsfixpmemenwry features, round out e bill. FOX~ eer Up and Smile” and “Peasant ldea” Revue. N the Fox screen this week is “Cheer Up and Smile,” a talking, singing, dancing romance of the college campus and of Broadway life, youthful Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee, “Whis- pering” Jack Smith of “Happy Days” fame, and the vampish Olga Baclanova in the cast. It is a lively, smiling pic- ture of high spirits and we-tlcknnl tunefulness. On the stage is “Peasant Idea,” a Fanchon and Marco Frenchy fantastic revue of what might have happened once upon & time. In it are June Worth, who offers new dance twists de- cidedly pleasing; also Johnson and Duker, whose act runs riot; the Diehl Sisters, a pair of faithful burlesquers with a rare quality of theatrical humor: General Ed Lavine with his “army of fun,” and the Belcher Dancers, 16 boys |and girls who give a delightful per- formance of dance variety and complete the program. Ron and Don, at the organ, go one is thought to have repeated and per-| Dt te) her as ous nts another un- gual organ creation. The (Continued on Second Page. TAGE and &ERE i EDDIE CANTOR- In Person- FRED WARING - Palace (S7a9e) Fox Nursery. LAT!BT news from Fox brings glad tidings of the installation of a free nursery where babies from two months to five years may be “parked” in the care of an efficient nurse. This scheme, which should keep toddling infants from getting “mixed,” or roaming up and down the aisles during perform- ances, and from generally ruffling the | dispositions of fond parents not their own. will be put into practice as soon | as the lower orchestra lobby can be converted into the desired haven for youthful prodigies. | A series of kiddie coops is to be| provided, as well as a tempting array of toys. 'The walls are to be decorated with artistic creations about Humpty Dumpty, Mother Hubbard, etc. All this gratis to Fox patrons. A mother may now take the whole blooming farhily with her to this theater, depositing the youngest with a chaperon who will attend to its cry- ing and other complaints, The mother, in this way, will have nothing to dis- iract her attention from the show. Pathe éeta."Rebuund." JESPITE announcements to the con- trary, Pathe Studios, Inc., siates positively that it has purchased the screen rights to Arthur Hopkins' play, “Rebound.” This announcement comes from E. B. Derr, president of the com- any. Following the presentation of “Re- bound” in Los Angeles, with Ina Claire in the starring role, virtually every producer in the picture industry is said to have offered a bid for the picture privileges, but Pathe was given prefer- ence by Hopkins, because of the satis- factory manner in which that company handled the production of “Holiday, which recently was shown here, with Ann Harding in the leading role. “Rebound” closed a season’s engage- ment in New York in May with Hope Williams in the principal role. The play is from the pen of Donald Ogden Stewart, who played a prominent part in the stage production. It also marked the author’s first attempt as sole author of a theatrical attraction. In an- nouncing the purchase of “Rebound” Mr. Derr did not state who would be selected to uf"y Miss Willlams’ role, but it is said to be a certainty that it will be Ann Harding, Constance Ben- nett or Helen Twelvetrees, as all three are under contract to the Pathe or- ganization, Mrs. i’nt in the Mt;vies. RS. PAT CAMPBELL, one of the most celebrated actresses in the history of the English stage, will make her first motion picture appearance in Play Called Life,” which Chandler Sprague will t for the Fox Fllm Corporation. T DOROTHY MACKAILL- /n GLEN ECHO PARK. HOSE who like to take their fun where they find it may need Glen Echo Park these warm days and nights, for at the big free amusement resort can be found fun at every turn. The ride out there, whether by automobile or along the banks of the Potomac in the street cars, is cool, for most of the way is through a_wooded section. More than 50 amusement devices from which to choose are in opera- tion at the park. Among the “thriller that take to the air are the newly in- stalled Ferris wheel, the airplane swings, the roller coasters, the whip and the derby racer. The old mill, the carrousel and the caterpillar vary the amusement, as do the midway and the penny arcade In all sections of the park will be found shady nooks, suitable for all-day outings. The management has in- creased the number of tables, chairs and other facilities to take care of crowds. Dancing in the ball room every evening except Sunday from 8:30 until 11:30 o'clock to music of McWilliams Band of 11 is a popular feature. CITY OF WASHINGTON. THE steamer City of Washington con- tinues its trips daily, except Tue: day, to Chapel Point, and its “moon- light” excursions every evening. Chapel Point's chief lure is the bath- ing, suitable for expert swimmers and those who merely wade and splash around. All-day picnic parties at the point have 20 acres of ground to roam over and all facilities to help make the day enjoyable. Riding, boating, play- grounds for the children and dancing are some of the attractions. LEILAHYAMS - /n, \Way Qut\West RoNALD COLMAN ond - KAy FRANCIS- & In"Raffles * » Columbra The boat makes a trip every day ex- cept Tuesday to Chapel Point. *Moon- light” excursions are scheduled for every evening of the week. Moonlight parties may dance to orchestra tunes, play. bridge or merely rest in comfort- able chairs, A new feature is the searchlight which plays its beams on important points of historic that dot the landscape along the Po- tomac. SEASIDE PARK. WORD has spread abroad that one of the best ways to avoid the nettle- some sea nettle is to pass up the open water for the filtered salt water in the big swimming pool at Seaside Park, the new amusement resort at Chesapeake Beach. The pool, located just beside the new ball room at the park, is said to be one of the largest in the East, with accommodations for 12,000 bathers daily. Its graduated depth offers op- portunity for all bathers—the swan diver who likes to do his stuff for the admiration of all observers, while at the shallow end of the tank youngsters and grown-ups, not so sure of their social standing in King Neptune’s realm, may enjoy the clear and cool water in their own sweet way. There’s plenty to see, plenty to_do, plenty to enjoy at Seaside Park. You get there by your own car via the new Southern Maryland Boulevard, or via the Chesapeake Beach Railway, whose bright red cars start from the District line and take you to the very door of the park, where awaiting you will be found the skooter, whip, miniature rail- way, airplane swing, carrousel, coaster dip and ever so many more amusements. Screen Attractions for This Week EARLE—Eddie Cantor in person—“Bright Lights.” This "after- noon and evening. PALACE—Warings Pennsylvanians—“Way Out West.” afternoon and evening. RKO Keith’s—Joe Cook in “Rain or Shine.” and evening. This This afternoon FOX-—“Cheer Up and Smile”—“Peasant Idea.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN-—“Three Paces East”—Evening Star Newsreel, with Graham McNamee, This afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA—“Raffles” (second week)—"“Bacon Grabbers.” This afternoon and interest | Dixie Lit Up the Gloom. IRECTOR SIDNEY LANFIELD, it seems, had his troubles collecting the cast for “Cheer Up and Smile.” But when he sighted Dixie Lee every- thing cleared up as quickly as a Sum- mer’s storm. Says he about Dixie: “She's the sort of girl 1 would select for my weetheart if I were a college boy.” Oh Oh!" as they say. “And that's why I selected her for the leading fem- inine role.” As for Arthur Lake, although there is nothing about him like sweetheart timber, Lanfield says: “I selected Lake because he personifies a large and typical body of college boys. His nat- ural spirits, his vivacity and his youth were, of course, prime factors. But I was agreeably surprised to learn that he has an unusually fine singing voice. Since his part called for a boy who was capable of capturing the fancy of radio and night eclub audiences, the fact that Arthur has a splendid voice made me feel certain he was the per- fect choice.” - PO " Kay Francis Arrives. NOT so very long ago the shrewd and eternally wise Paramount corpora- tion imported a certain dark-haired lady of the stage, Kay Francis by name, to play the role of Myra May in “Gen- tlemen of the Press.” Following this she became Zara Flynn in “Dangerous Curves,” & small and not particularly illuminating part; then Zelda Paxton in “Illusion,” and then various and sundry characters in “Cocoanuts.” “Be- hind ~the Makeup,” “Marriage Play- ground,” “A Notorious Affair” and “Street of Chance.” In many of these films Miss Francis was cast as a sleek and seductive adven- turess, whose main aim seemed to be to wreck the life of the hero. Now, thankfully, her cinema life of treach- ery and base design is over. In “Raf- fes” she proves not only that she is & lovely and rhapsodically alluring lady, but that as a good woman she. is even more effective than as & bad. In other words, Miss Francis is now a full- fledged heroine, whose charm is so un- deniable that one wonders why she hasn't been that way before. TaehiCukic in s Fallica:? JFROM the back row of the chorus in| " “Peggy Ann,” a musical opus of several seasons ago, to stardom in the “Follies” is the incredible story of young Mr. Jack Oakie, erstwhile “Sap from Syracuse.” Word has come from the Ziegfeld office that smiling Jack is to act as a sort of majordomo for the Fall presentation of his “Follies.” The tale of this lad, who was once a_stock broker's messenger boy and who literally fled from the Broadway asphalt to the Hollywood bungalows, there to try his luck, is one that is likely to be part and parcel some day of a museum. To be more or less of & nonentity on Broadway, to attain star- dom in the films and then to be rushed back again as star of the “Follies” is a stroke of fortune that Dame Juno must have launched. Certainly no- body yet, as far as memory goes, has emerged in a single leap from the chorus to stardom, especially from & male chorus. The “Follies,” as a matter of fact. will not be the first of the Ziegfeld productions in the Fall. ‘“Tom, Dick and Harry,” the Marilyn Miller vehicle, will precede it by several mk&—&&- tember 22, to be precise. But shortly afterward Jack Oakie, in the flesh, will be visible as Ziegfeld's newest and most popular—probably—gjtar. CONSTANCE BENNETTand ERICVON STROKEIM /> Three faces East” Metropolitan The Broadway Stage By Percy Hammond HEN the curtain rises on “Ladies All” Miss Violet Heming, 8s a suburban sculptress, is to be viewed molding a statue entitled “Virginity.” Her pattern is her parlor maid, Miss Germaine Geroux. The scene is a device of the authors, Prince Bibesco of Rumania and Elmer Harris of Times Square, to establish the comedy’s atmosphere. As an example of the “art of preparation” it is none too subtle, but it serves; and by the time the spectators have become familiar with the model's taleum shanks, shins and shoulders they are in the mood for ensuing disclosures. The play is-about a handsome liber- tine from Wall Street (Walter Woolf). Confident of his ability to bring the sunshine of sin into the gray heavens of virtue, he consecrates himself to sex. Mr. Woolf, whose career heretofore has been devoted to song, acts this comely dragon with the sincerity of a cave man and the insouciance of a Balkan prince. He is strangely agree- able, pursuing his mission with the gay bravado of a Wall Street knight. I was disappointed when he greeted Miss | Heming with the exclamation, “Hello, Beautiful!”—a salute that was aban- doned by the cavallers along with rope ladders, mandolins and purple tights away back in 1914. Some years ago it was my honest | practice to deprecate the appearances of Miss Violet Heming upon ths stage as artificial, a slightly actress addicted to the vice of affectation. It may be that my taste has been vitiated by long association with the drama, or that Miss Heming has made improvement upon her acting. At any rate, she is, in “Ladies AllL"” out of the top drawer of histrionism, a good woman battling nobly and with a sense of humor. A smart carnival, “Ladies All,” wicked but not revolting. * k¥ % 'HE producers have announced their Autumn plans, undismayed by the lull in business. Two hundred shows | and dramas are predicted, a few of which give omens of success. Of the 200, a score or less will be popular and will make money for the managers and pleasure for the customers. My guess, in looking over the drama's prospactus, is that the following announcements for the new year will be the most fruitful in results: “The Roof,” by John Galsworthy. “Marching as to War,” by Robert Sherwood. “The Solid South,” with the profane | Richard Bennett. & , Two, Three,” by Ferenc Molnar | and acted in its principal character by Arthur Byron. “Once in a Lifetime,” by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, with himself (Mr. Kaufman) in the cast. “"The Lonely Way,” by Arthur Schnitz- | T, “Sidelights” and another play by : Gretchen Damrosch Pinletter. | “Scarlet Sister Maiy,” with Ethel Barrymore as a Negro heroine. | “Overture 0,” by the late William | Bolittio. “Torch Song,” by Kenyon Nicholson. . Miss Maude Adams in a sentimental whimsy by John Colton, the dramatist L ras o P by George “True to Form,” The Lunts (Lynn Fontanne and Alfred) in a play by Shakespeare, and Maxwell Anderson, under the auspices of the Theater Gulld. “Canaries Sometimes Sing,” by Fred- erlcsl.onldllm L “Suspense,” an all-male war play, by Patrick MacGill. And, if its title justifies its contents, “Obscene and Lewd,” by Tiffany Thayer. Film —Capital in Danger. “HOLLYWOOD is beginning to lose confidence in itself,” according to Tamar Lane, one of Hollywood's most prudent oracles. What he means is that there is considerable talk about shifting the cinema capital from Cali- fornia to New York. Vs Says he: ‘“Hollywood was/ ideally suited for the making of silent films, but when the new sound cinema ar- rived, several new elements were brought into film production, and these elements are too foreign to the Holly- wood minds and ideals for successful cultivation. The executives who ven- tured these opinions were not Broad- wayites, but regular members of the West Coast film colony. “It is now generally admitted, even by dyed-in-the-wool West Coasters, however, that Hollywood has a narrow and insular outlook on life as well as on motion pictures, and it is pointed out that under such conditions it is particularly difficult for this small pic- ture colony to turn out an acceptable product on a large scale for the entire talking picture public of the country. “Therefore, many believe .that New York, with its metropolitan as well as its more cosmopolitan viewpoints, is far better suited as a talking picture center than Hollywood. Quite s0. But who, as they say, cares? — Annivereury Releases. ARNER BROS, in addition to the six outstanding productions which they originally proposed to release for August, their silver anniversary month, have added “Moby Dick,” their John Barrymore picture, and First National has added to its list “The Bad Man,” the picture in which the late Holbs Blinn_won great success, In the pic- ture the Holbrook Blinn role will be played by Walter Huston, United Artists’ star of “Abraham Lincoln.” “Moby Dick,” of course, is based on ld-l:rmm Melville's story of whaling ys. Cl'ne;;li_er Wins ! Honor. MA!IMGE CHEVALIER has just been elected an honorary member of L'Academie du Cinema Francais, the French Academy of Motion Picture dhe"cnmanship of M Louts Lumere e chairma: of M. Lou! lere, European film pioneer. A gold m emblematic of his elec- tion is being sent to Hollywood, where the Prench star is “The ‘Little Cafe” for Paramount, the direc- tion of Lud: Berger.