Evening Star Newspaper, October 26, 1930, Page 53

Theater, Screen and Music AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Sar. - Motor, Aviation and Radio News WASHINGTON, D. C NANCY CARROLL- *LAUGHTER” Bup AVERILL: Fox (Stage) /r @ Scewe from _ Fox Glories of Drama Season By W. H. SSUMING, as one will, at times, that Washington is at one end or the other of the long, long trail of what professionally is known as “the road,” it would be far, far from audacity to declare that of more importance to theatrical in- terests is the “come-back” of the theater itself, apparently, than all this fuss and turmoil about mak- ing “the road” come back. For never in the experience of those ‘with long and excellent memories can be recalled that Washing- ton' has ever been theatrically more alive than it is at this mo- ment, and it promises to be for at least a couple of weeks ahead. Never, it is believed, has its lure of current and coming attractions been of such outstanding char- acter in real quality and delight- ful promise. Weeks may be re- called out of the past when rival theaters~ jostled in extravagant notices of outstanding plays and layers, but more often tham not have been weeks widely sep- araf in point of time. Washing- ton, perhaps, has always had its| share of good plays and outstand- ing players, but as certainly al- ways after they had the right to be very weary in performing else- | where “on the circyit.” Close ob-4 servers of the trend of the Na- tional Capital have long agreed that its reputation as a show town is excellent, if, in passing judg- ment, consideration be given to the timeliness and quality of the shows that have been meted out to Whose the fault may be doesn’t really matter much, if the | contrary opinion exists anywhere, | More important, by far, is it that | the promise of the current be faitly maintainéd thrbughou and until the buds and blossoms | and birds begin to ‘herald the Springtime, when, it is quite cer- tain, -the exacting theatergoer would be willing to forego the road attraction and content himself with' the promises of Manager Steve Cochran’s stock company, or | with the selected offerings of the | sounding silver sheet and the taiking pictures. “s e 1'!' is quite noticeable that mana- gerial rivalry has become more marked in the theater since the mumber of Fllyhousea catering to ¢ admirers of the living as distin- guished from the mechanical theater have dwindled dow? to a| measly two. ,And while at first blush this-dwindling might seem a sort' of tragedy in itself. the| considerate theatergoer will be more likely to believe that it is really a blessing. Indeed, there seems to season | be a fixed notion, in ly rated quarters, that coun! is rather overdone with s, and that much of the w in patronage both'in Landvoigt. the living and in the mechanical theater is due to the desperate ef- fort to supply attractions, result- ing—and how could it be other- wise?—in the presentation of many offerings in both that are poor in quality and in perform- ance. If such a thing could be possible, one might be tempted to imagine that there was a disposi- tion to get rich quickly somewhere in theatrical operation. However, while this column, as a matter of course, is entitled to its opinions, its purpose more completely lies in advising the public of the en- tertainment which is offered, rather than the entertainment purveyors. .« e e HILE it is true that the new theatrical .season first as- serted itself with no less a celeb- rity than Lenore Ulric, a former Belasco star, it was staggered a bit by her offering “The Pagan to such a degree, indeed, ‘The Pajama Lady” found some difficulty in reviving it, and AGE and SCREEN RAY SAMUELS Earle (Sfaqe) over on him. It may be that Mr. Hays’ authority does not extend into the managerial department {of the motion picture theaters, but whoever may have that au- thority has real cause for display- | ing it in a judicious check of the exploitation that is being circu- lated for some of the recent pic- tures. Nor will the titling depart- | ment of the industry be found wholly blameless of the lurid hap- penings that have startled an or- derly public during the past week. Surely it is not necessary to put over a good picture with sugges- tive or salacious exploitation, either in title or advance notices. | If it is necessary, the fact offers the announcement of even so fine | the strongest suggestion yet pre- | a successor as the David Wark| sented for censorship, and cer- | Griffith masterpiece influenced, tainly nobody with real interest in | the weak-kneed to imagine that|the theater, living or mechanical, there might be a surrender to the|js enamored with the idea of talking screen. The arrival of | ¢jyi] censorship. Ethel Barrymore, more than that | = SUNDAY MORNIN ApoLr FASSNACHT Cas e {CunisTUS . e/ +the Passion PLay’ Washington Aud rf"grium Marca LaRuBIA o Witk GEER- 1r* Becky Sharp™ Na+loal FRANCES FARR- On the NATIONAL—Mrs. Fiske, “Ladies evening. “Abraham Lincoln.” OCTOBER 26, 1930 Joun Mack BROWN and IKKAY JOHNSON: 1/ " Bylly the Columbia G UINN WILLIAM /n College Lovers” /\Ae+ropo|-’+an Stage and Screen Attractions_This Week Stage. of the Jury.” Opens tomorrow This afternoon and evening. AUDITORIUM—The Passion Play. Opens tomorrow evening. BELASCO—Ed. Wynn, “S8imple Simon.” Opens this evening. GAYETY—“Speed Girls” (Burlesque.) This afternoon and evening. On the R-K-O KEITH'S—Amos 'n’ Andy, afternoon and evening. |and laughter, on the other. of “Scarlet Sister Mary,” however, | seemed to stir things up, and fol- | lowing Madge Kennedy with her charming bit of comedy things began to hum in all directions. The current week presents offer- ings to tempt any theatrical pal- ate, with the distinguished Mrs. Fiske and her permanent reper- tory company on the one hand, Nor is that all. In the offing, as the yachting-minded clientele of the profession is wont to say, loom T through the shadowy mists a new David Belasco play, George M Cohan in “The Tavern,” and one of those mystery startlers, “peer of them all,” with others equally tempting further out on the wave. So that, whatever the cause, the new season_ seems to have thoroughly awakened to its re- sponsibilities and with equal cer- tainty seems to be prepared to meet them in a way that should make lovers of the living stage happy in the prospects. D 'UT if hopes for “the road” ap- pear to be clearing and crystal- lizing, admirers of the talking pic- ture—it is all drama of a type, be it remembered—have real reasons for apprehension that all is not well in the literary bureau of the silver sheet. Mr. Will H. Hays may be on vacation, or maybe he is only napping on the job, but in all seriousness Mr. Hays really should be astir in his bailiwick, for somebody is putting something A Real College Boy. ACK WHITING, who plays & leading | role in “College Lovers,” the First | National-Vitaphone picture now at | Warner Bros.’ Metropolitan Theater, is a Philadelphian and attended the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. He appeared both in college theatri- cals and in amateur theatricals gi n {and Ed Wynn, the soul of folly| at the Little Theater in Philadelphia by | a soctety group. Ziegfteld told him if he ever wanted | to go on the stage to come to New York | and he would put him in the Follies. finished his college career, and he had been tempted also by an offer from Raymond Hitcheock. Deciding he had hetter learn the business from the bot- tom, he took a job in the chorus—or | among the “gentlemen of the ensem- le.” as they were called. Later he understudied Hal Skelly and finally played the latter's featured role in Chicago and Detroit. This led to a contract with C. B. Dillingham, who cast him in “Aren't We All?” with Cyril Maude. Some time afterward he ap- peared in Pirst National and Vitaphone productions. Hallowéen at Fox. | A SPECIAL Halloween eve program is | being planned at the Fox, in ac- cordance with the circuit's policy of en- | couraging a national “safe and sane observance” of the cccassion. Unusual Halloween stage features will comprise the program that are expected to pull & lot of mischief-bent celebration from the streets. Efforts will be made, it is said, to enlist the uo&: :; the Folice Department and luca- eventually came about after Jack | FOX—Nancy Carroll in “Laughter.” METROPOLITAN—“College Lovers. This afternoon and evening. PALACE—“Way For a Sailor.” EARLE—“The Doorway to Hell.” evening. LITTLE—“Unguarded Girls” (For " +(GO ve into all the world and preach | the gospel unto every creature” | |is no less the underlying motif of the | | Preiburg Passion Players than of the | thousands of missionaries who have in | other forms carried the message of a risen Lord to the ends of the earth. About Mr. Adolf Fassnacht, the Christus of the Freiburg play. and his company there is something of the missionary spirit. It is their ambition to take the Passion Play into all lands, | presenting in this dramatic form the | old, old story that has been the world's comfort for 2,000 years. When the Passion Play was first pro- | | duced in the year 1264 in Freiburg, | | Germany, it was produced purely and solely for religious purposes. Church- men were the characters. To the simple souls of the Black Forest, where Frei- burg is located, the dramatic form of the story of Jesus was most impressive. Orude though it must have been in Vihose early times, there was yet that COLUMBIA—“Billy the Kid” (Realife screen.) Screen. “Check and Double Check.” This ‘This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and RIALTO—"“A Lady Surrenders.” This afternoon and evening. Women Only.) Opens tomorrow. about it which appealed to villagers and forest people hungry for religious instruction. Seeing the wonderful results obtained by the crude productions, church lead- ers made haste to improve upon the play. - For dramatic purposes the per- sonal devil was given an important role, and the powers of darkness were vit)wdhtdrmlt!cluy against the powers of ¢ lri\almer years, during the decadent period of the play, the devil and imps became almost buffoons, entertaining the crowds with their antics and caprices. It was this condition which eventually caused the play to, be placed upon its present high spirifual and artistic plane. For the Freiburgers themselves found the performances re- pugnant. The Fassnacht family took charge, the personal devils and imps then were eliminated, the miracles were reduced to merg background, and the necessity for the atonement and the sacrifice were emphasized. Except that by means of modern stagecraft the production has become one of the leading pleces of dramatic art, the play is staged now much as it has been since the year 1760, CHARLES McCLINTOCK, business representative for Katharine Cornell in “Dishonored Lady,” conveys the news that despite the present period of depression the oldest form of drama is staging a remarkable comeback on “the road" this season, Mr. McClintock writes: “Recognized dramatic hits, with or without stars, are playing to really re- markable business on tour. ‘Strictly Dishonorable,’ without a famous name in the cast, attracted receipts of $24,- 198.50 during two recent weeks that were divided between St. Paul and Min- neapolis. Our own business for ‘Dis- honored Lady’ has been astounding. We opened in San Francisco and have played since in three widely separated cities, Los Angeles, Chicago and De- troit. It is true Miss Cornell was mak- | ing her first appearance in California, | which gave added interest to her San | Francisco and Los Angeles engagements. Nevertheless, she broke all California theater attendance records during her Tuns in those cities. And she continued | to draw capacity business in Chicago and Detroit. “‘Dishonored Lady’ is an exciting | play—the story of.a girl who poisoned her lover—that was, in fact, built by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer | Barnes on a famous murder trial held | in Scotland more than 70 years ago. | “But I could give you a list of many | other plays that are attracting big au- diences on ‘the road’ this Fall.” | Ma;ie Film Feat_ure. [*“THE BAT WHISPERS," Roland West's new film, has been photo- | graphed on wide film for the mammoth screen, having been completed simultaneously | with the standard 35-millimeter film The entire picture, was made secretly at the United Artists Studio in Hollywood “West, following the making of “Alib1," expressed his belief that the natural progress of screen entertainment would usher in the glant screen as a per- manent theater fixture. Accordingly spectal equipment was ordered for the | United Artists Studio, including cam- eras, sound mechanism and a projec- tion machine. West ordered a 38-foot screen built on one of the huge stages at the studio, since no projection room there was large enough for showings of the magnified film. Then he made “The Bat Whispers” entirely at night, the cast reporting at 6 . sworn to secrecy; the were shown only at night. Bitahs FiliBaughts SM'THE W PLAN,” a British Interna- tional production, which reveals the inside methods of spy and counter- the 65-millimeter film version Been acquired by the R-K-O-Radio Pic- tures Corporation for American distri- bution. The inclusion of “The W Plan” in the R-K-O-Radio program is said to be due to the fact that pictures, no matter of what nation, may expect a cordial re- ception from American distributors and audiences where they possess merit equal to_or superior to the home product. Featured in the cast, directed by Vic- tor Sayville, are Brian Aherne, Gibb| lllchumn. Madeleine Carroll and 'Gordon Harker, ) e spy activities of the World War, has| “Solid South”" Mr, Bennett has Kid * “ NVALLACE BE /n* X5y fora Ssilor | XCEPTING “Girl Crazy” and “Three's a Crowd,” Shake- | speare’s “Twelfth Night” is the | most favorite of the recent Broadway pleasures. This un- usual popularity. is due to Miss Jane Cowl's presentation of the absurd fable swift and graceful essay in Shake- spearean performance, retaining all the play’s imperishable charm of poetry and childish romance. Here you may watch and listen to the old myth as it spins |its careless yarn, and forget its shallow vagaries in. its magic hypnotism. Miss Cowl, her company, and the Swan put | you in a mood to realize that the char- |acters are people of another world, |pagan puppets in a pagan fantasia |than of sex. All you have to do to |enjoy this “Twelfth Night" is to open | your eyes and ears and shut your mind. Thus you will find its persons, as Wil- liam Archer said, as credible as the figures on Keet's Grecian urn, and just as_unbelievably fascinating.” Miss Cowl, whose characterizations in modern drama are sometimes mediocre, is always transcendent in the plays of Shakespeare. Her impersonation of Juliet and Cleopatra endowed those lovely, cadavers with life; and in the present revival of Viola she wins the Stratford cup. Her voice, as Alexander Woolleott has sald over the wireless, is the most beautiful instrument now .em- ployed in sounding the notes of the Bird of Avon. Mr. Woollcott's. “She is tender, gallant and quietly sentimental as Viola and she does not try to give the role the | false sparkle and vivacity of some of her predecessors. She fooled me on Monday night into believing that h speeches were human and Jane Cowl’ as well as the god-like utterances of Time's wisest and most musical ddol. * kK % MANY years ago, when Richard Ben- nett was arousing London by his faultless performance of What's-his- name with Miss Grace George in “Di- | voreons,” I warned him that some day | he wouid be a bad actor. It was my | impression then, if it is not now, that, | prolonged association with the theater | weakens the artistic fiber of the strongest. artist. I cited Bernhardt, Booth, Duse, Macready, David Garrick, Joseph Jef- ferson d Richard Mansfield as ex- amples of genius enfeebled by the toxic fumes of " the stage. Mr. Bennett laughed at my owl-songs. “As I am now,” said he, “so shall I always be, an honest actor within my limits, counter- feiting as conscientiously as I know how the’ spurious creatures of the drama.” This conversation occurred in a skiff upon the Thames, away back when both of us were in knickerbockers. Until his’ appearance last week in made . From John Strand, in ‘What Every Woman Knows,” to Jarnegan, in Jim Tully's hobo expose of Hollywood, he has given no signs of deterioration. But just as I was about to admit the error of my prognostications and crown him as the world’s most Glut.hl:ul player, he showed ce about rebels | where love is more a sense of beauty | The pun is' mine, not ! OROTHY MATTHEWS4 The Doorwa) fv//ale e RV ard JOHN GILBERT= ” Palace Broadway’s Stage Appeal By Percy Hammond , burlesque of an Alabaman near-aristo- crat. can say to Mr, Bennett, “I told you 80,” without fear that he will de nounce me from the stage, because he has abandoned the old-fashioned habit | of scolding his traducers in public, oK K K SOMG should be done to quell the excessive acting of English players when they perform in America. In London, I am told, they are subtle, knowing that every soft. nuance of their | charaeterizations will be understood by understanding British audiences. But in the United States of America they seem to feel that they must stress the most obvious extravagances in order to get their meaning over. Miss Mary Meérrall, in “Canaries Sometimes Sing, is an evidence of this attitude. Her role as a flimsy poseuse, addicted to baby talk and association with artistic vermin, is complete as written by Mr. Lonsdale. It needs no emphatic acting because it is loud enough in itself. Yet Miss Merrall is so fearful of Broadway's traditional unintelligence that she over- acts until we become almost impatient with her. Miss Lillian Bralthwaite, in “A Rhapsody in Two Flats,” is similarly a circus, if she has not amended her first night performance: and the lady star | who played in “Marigold” deported her- | self as if she were an auctioneer. Per- naps they know that their ljttle barks have small chance against the Broad- way shoals, and it is their purpose to strive as hard as they can in desperate circumstanci None of the dramas in which they give these exhibitions is | worth attending. = -— pay- to Be Homely. POLLY MORAN, who plays an impor- tant role in John Gilbert's “Way for a Sailor,” now at Loew's Palace, is one of the few actresses who will not use makeup. She says makeup would detract from the homely face that has long been ‘one of her chief assets in | pictures. “An improvement in my looks would mean a drop in my salary check,” Polly contends. . = Hemmgwsy Story Bought. ‘* A FAREWELL TO ARMS,” Ernest Hemingway's best seller, has been bought by Paramount. The purchase includes both the book rights and the stage rights. “A Farewell to Arms” has just _been uced on Broadway by A. H. Woods, with whom negotiations have been completed for the dramatiza- tion by Laurence Stallings, co-author of “What Price Glory?” . "Meniel. Inc.,” Purchased. THE screen rights - to “Mendel, Inc.” last season's comedy hit of the stage, and the film services of its co-stars, Joe Smith and Charles Dale, have been ac- quired by Paramount. As stars of one and two reel comedies, Smith and Dale have built up a following, and Paramount’s decision present them in a feature-length film is based on that fact. “Mendel, Inc.” is from the of David . Production ot the New York studio ‘early in 1931,