Evening Star Newspaper, November 9, 1930, Page 57

Theater, Screen and Music DoroTuy JORDON ans ROBERT . MONTGOMER)/ ol Catering to the Public By W. H. HILE it is still the custom to decorate heroes who have scaled the heights in battle, the man who endeavors to serve the public in letters, art and otherwise, particu- larly the theater, is not so often summoned to the spotlight to re- ceive the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Perhaps, in the wide range of the deserving, none has better cause to complain of the neglect of those who should praise than| David Belasco. In almost any | country where titles, trappings and such ornaments count, the work of this supreme master of stagecraft, the devotion he has tiven to service of the public and he sacrifices he has made in health, time and money, long since would have been recognized with the bestowal of the title of Bir, or what would you. America, however, being short on titles and | really caring little for that sort of distinction, save, of course, in a social sense, as it were, and art meaning nothing in the wide, wide world to our national Legislature, the failure to adequately honor Mr. Belasco’s eminent services has been a sort of national oversight. It is not, of course, intended to intimate for an instant that Mr. Belasco cannot count by the| thousands admirers of his art and | his exquisite ability as manifested | in the theater. Far from that. But, as a rule, the general public has a way of shouting its head off in praise one day only to denounce as vehemently the next. Its honors ‘are transient; they fail to adhere permanently, and Mr. Belasco has had them of all kinds. Yet, withal, the mere | mention of the Belasco name in| connection with a play is suffici- | ent to at once attract to it serious | and ihterested attention, and a| performance inevitably establish- es jn its audience the fact that David Belasco never lacks in ardent admirers. He has shown ‘Washington in his latest produc- tion, “Tonight or Never,” that he is still the same great Belasco of gore in selecting a star for the rightest spotlight and in shaping an attractive theatric setting to receive that star. * % ok % ERHAPS he who seeks to cater to the public in the theater should not be sensitive; he should take success on an even keel when it comes, and never be tempted to read his sails in the face of a umph.” Whether he likes it or not, he must needs be daring, for far too often the public taste will shun a Passion Play to stray to spicy farce, or to an even more serious departure in manners, and the willing caterer must be pre- pared to make the leap. And then what happens? The critic, the scathing critic, and oh, how he can rub it in sometimes! The in- ustice of it all lies in the fact - t the displeasure invariably is visited upon the luckless public servant, never upon the public which tempted, nay, demanded, the thing censured. There are too, when a critic may fail h the point and to lose en- . Gigely In his arbitrary observation Yo #he Rough '~ In " Zove zzte oarle Landvoiqt. deep and abiding virtue which may lurk in a sordid surrounding. In such a case who merits the re- buke? Mr. Belasco, more than once, has borne it undeservedly. However, perhaps it's the fate of war, and all effort toward an end, even a noble one, is war in the world’s stern judgment. It's a tough task, this trying to serve the public. i (GEORGE M. COHAN, who broke into the theater as an awk- ward, ungainly youth with a saucy toss of his disposition and feet that clattered like castanets in steps that set the youngsters of his day wild with the spirit of emulation, now, with locks that gleam like silver, is sitting on the top of the world, haloed with the glories that come to the actor, the author, the playwright and the| producer. Nay, more, for there| are those who say that Mr. Cohan is the mystical leader who is to pluck the fallen theater from the depths and plant it with a re- sounding comeback where the public must sit up and take notice. Be that as it may, Mr. Cohan| needs no eulogist, for from a very modest beginning he has, in a/ career that fairly/ bristles with surprises, won the call to high honor, if not reward, in his pro- fession. To the onlooker it might seem that his fame has been won without effort, but onlookers do not always see everything. Gifted | with a versatility denied to many of his associates, he has succeeded where many have failed; he has been acclaimed when even the mighty have been humbled with chastisement. Apparently, he is prepared to go on doing that very | thing until “all is over over there,” | to quote his famous song, and ap- | ply the quotation to the present | scramble of the stage to hold its cwxhcommercially with the screen. He has the happy faculty of mak- | ing bad plays good and of really writing plays the goodness of which sometimes escapes observa- tion until he himself leaps in and helps to act them. He also has the reputation of playing with clean things, and of letting sex problems severely alone. One doesn’t have to take a risk either with Georqe M. or his productions. Incidentally, it is said that “The| Tavern,” which he is now bring- lr;g to Washington, is his favorite play. * ok ok % WITH the language of the poet, “Marseilles,” the work of the young French dramatist, Marcel Pagnol, is being introduced to Washington. Also it comes rec- ommended as “one of the leading successes of Paris,” which might give us pause, not because a Paris success may not be a great dramatic treat, but because so often things anything but savory have been lpunched with a sim- ilar label as the best way to at- tract the curious eye or the mor- bid apoetite. Manager L. Stod- dard Taylor of the Belasco, how- ever, is also giving the play his/|a; personal indorsement, and it ought to be good. Gilbert Miller, famous as an_international - behind "lnl’um" ducer,’ is AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sundiy Star, WASHINGTON, D. O, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 9, 1930. NCREE CGEORGE M.COHAN a0 ISABEL BARING - In N The Tovern - National Scere 7¢offl * RENEGADES - Fox NATIONAL—George M. “The Tavern.” EORGE M. COHAN in his first Nation-wide tour of “The Tav- ern” is announced for the Na- tional Theater, this week, beginning Monday. He will be seen in the role of the Vl{l- bond in this celebrated satire of old- time melodramas, which was revived at the Pulton The- ater, New York, last Spring. Virtually the same players at that time are as- sociated with Mr. Cohan now. It will be re- called that “The ‘Tavern” was first turled upon an un- suspecting audience in New York in September, 1920. Even the ecritics were baffled. Not until the final act, in which the mad- ness of the whole thing was revealed, did many of the re- viewers suspect that Cohan was poking fun at the old school of mystery. the- ater. The original run lasted a year at the Cohan Theater, and then the play moved over to the Hudson. Later several companies were sent on the road, but Mr. Cohan never attempted long stays during his appearances as the arduous Geo. M. Cohan. the Vagabond because of role, the longest he ever played. The scene is laid in a tavern where gather all sorts of strange characters on & stormy night. In wanders a lone- ly vagabond hoping for drama among the peculiar people around him, who takes it into his own hands to set his own stage. Things soon begin to hap- pen in the most unusual fashion. The Governor of the State, his wife and his handsome daughter arrive. There is & hired man also who remarks, “What's all the shooting for?” And then— Surrounding Mr. Cohan are Robert Middlemas, as the tavernkeeper; Theo- dore Newton, as tavernkeeper's son; Kathleen Niday, as the hired girl; —_— which abroad bore the title of its hero, “Marius,” a gallant and high-hearted youth, who had a penchant for seeking the glamour and splendor of life in far places. L "THUS our theater will live for the current week, and ad- vance notices, as the genial press nt is wont to call them, in- dicate that it has yet another week of life that promises enjoy- ment for Chol‘e who mfn’% wares. Cohan in| Jack Leslle, as the Governor; Eda von Buelow, as the Governor's wife; Isabel Baring, as the Governor’s daughter, and Willis Claire, Edward F. Nannary and | Joseph Mackin-Nerney. BELASCO—"Marseilles.” Wl'!'fl “Marseilles” as its American title, Marcel Pagnol's French suc- cess, “Marius,” Gilbert Miller's second production of the season, comes to the Shubert-Belasco Theater this week, be- ginning tomorrow evening, with mati- | nees Thursday and Saturday. | Pagnol, the author of “Tepaze” sug- | gested “Marseilles,” the name of the South of Prance seaport, which is his | native city and where the action of the play takes place. As “Marius,” Pag- nol’s drama, is still having a successful run at the Theatre De Paris. Mr. Miller promises an excellent Mil- ler cast, including Alexander Kirkland, Dudley Digges, Hubert Druce, Alison | Skipworth, Frances Torchiana, A, P. Kaye, Douglas Wood, Colin Hunter, Arthur Lysons, Natica de Acosta and Henry De Koven. GAYETY—"Oriental Girls.” TARTING tomorrow evening, the Gayety will introduce supplemental features that always take well with the crowds. As an added attraction to “Oriental Girls,” the current show stars Jack La Mont, Hebrew character comedian. Featured also is the famous Jerrl . McCauley, one of . the popular soubrettes on the Mutual circuit. Others include Prank O'Rourke, George Wag- ner, Dutch character; Jack Baker, ec- centric funster and impersonator of Al Jolson; Joe Lang, Sally Van, Gladys Leland, toe dancing specialist; Made- line Le Verne, acrobatic dancer, and Lela Leta, prima donna. The chorus girls are given oppor- tunity to enact slave and dancing roles in “The Pasha’s Dream,” a fantasy with an Oriental dancing climax, one of the show’s higl. spots. The supplemental features will be in- | troduced Mondays, Wednesdays and Pridays. VARDI-YOALIT RECITAL WEDNESDAY. AVID VARDI and Eva Yoalit of the original Moscow Art Theater Hhbi- mah will be heard in a dramatic recital, Wednesday evening at 8:30 o'clock, at the Jewish Community Center. Both artosts were born in Russia and have concentrated their efforts in the development of an extensive personal repertoire which notably displays the art of Vardi in humorous pantomime and Mme. Yoalit's Oriental imagery in recitatios ns. David Vardi, it may be remembered, directed the luction of “Dybbuk” at the Neigh! Playhouse, in New Jermi : MECAULEY-"" Gayety NATIONAL—George M. Cohen , evening. BELASCO—“Marseilles.” evening. RIALTO—“The Cat Creeps.” noon and evening. FOX—“Renegades.” EARLE—“Love in the Rough.” PALACE—"“The Virtuous Sin.” and evening. COLUMBIA—"“WHOOPEE.” LITTLE—“Unguarded Girls.” BY EDDIE CANTOR. INE of the hardest things in the world, next to buying a winning stock, 1s to write a good skit. A revue must have them, or nothing else mat- ters, I have written over sixty revue skits in the last 10 years, 40 of which have played a season or more in the best revues in this country and London. Of course, I didn't receive any royalties on those that played over the seas, but they earned me the distinction of being an_international author. I had a lot of new ideas for the sketches, enough to make a revue, and took them to Earl Carroll. “That’s the baby,” I shouted, and, donning a robe, I passed.under the sign reading: “Through these rtals pass the most beautiful girls m the world.” Carroll was interested in the p’mx:oaltlon. only he was & bit suspi- cious. “Eddie,” he sald, “these jokes are yours? They don’t belong to any one, do they? I mean, after I bfiy them, nobody’s going to sue me, are they?” “Earl,” I replied, “after you produce them, nobody’s going to sue you but me—and then only for royalties.” In all fairness, it should be stated that the ;flg'-{:mblve - arriving every make abouf paper that I know.of. o TP ork, luction which was accorded very nigh praioe. Anyway, the skits were produced and, METROPOLITAN—“The Life of the Party.” Motor, Aviation and Radio SKIPNWORTH- / \J By Marseilles - Belasco e Maids In SCrty Service - Fox (S7age) W/INNIE LIGHTNER | Stage and Screen Attractions This Week ON THE STAGE. in “The Tavern.” Tomorrow ‘Tomorrow evening. GAYETY—“Oriental Girls” (burlesque). ON THE SCREEN. This afternoon and evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—Rex Beach’s, “The Silver Horde.” This afternoon and This after- This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. . This afternoon This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. “It’s a Sketch!” under the title of the Now, as the author of oddly enough, “Sketch Book.” that show, I would like to deliver my | ¥i lecture on sketches, mainly for the benefit of those boys out in Hollywood who will have soon used up everything | pe. they remembered having seen and will have to start writing. A skit is usually in a revue and is usually placed between two big musical numbers—giving the stage hands a chance to set the stage—and it should always be funny. The skit should not be more than seven or eight minutes in length. It must finish with a big laugh, technically known as the “black- out.” I don't care how funny or clever a scene may be, if the finish flops, it isn't any good! Very often a sketch that critics turn up their noses at is one that the public will laugh at for months. In writing a skit I always get the idea first and then work on the “black- out.” Very often the ht finish doesn't come, and often it is the contri- & new “top” for it at almost every re- hearsal, but not one seemed to click. It was only after “Sketch Book” had | the been ths blb’:,l:l:l' - mont finish was given wmmwmeolmphn‘:lvln it, in an ad lib minute. In closing, just allow me to say that this w’( & sketull and IRENE DELROY- EVELYN DRENT- News KAY FRANCIS ans KERNETHMES I The l% . rtvous Sin?-Palace R In NThe Silver-Horde “RKO Keiths “Roar China’ ' and Uproar By Percy Hammond OVERNORS of the Theater Guild are moderately embar- rassed by the in which some of their subscribers have received “Roar China.” A number of these formal playgoers, aroused by its war cries, have written to commend the guild for its valor in presenting a masterpiece so outspoken in its protest against the bad habits of civilization. * At last, they chorus, we are permitted not only to hear from Soviet lips, but to see with Soviet eyes. ‘They urge the guild to interrupt more frequently its program of trivial enter- tainment with the red-fire alarums of the inflamed and explosive proletariat. Others deplore the fact that it has given sight and sound to radical complaining. Although I have no official informa- tion on the subject, I am assured that the guild in producing “Roar China” is not animated by a desire either to aid or to retard the revolutions. It is one of the most prosperously successful and conscientious institutions of this happy land, and it has no reason to stimulate the prevailing - attitude of discontent ith doses of hostile: propaganda. As the world's leading dramatic impresario it is interested in whatever happens in the theater wherever the ptheater may . Thus “Roar China,’” and angry, one-sided and earnest chromo from new Russia, appealed to it as a lusiy and picturesque curio, and it presents ii as that and nothing else, Those who re- theatrical veracity, the cruelties and injustices heaped 1upon the helpless white invaders are pic- tured as arrogant, contemptuous, mur- derous and mean, treating the helpless coolies ‘as if they were vermin. A vielous -American trader kicks them around and refuses to pay a boatman his fare simply because he to a superior race. Two cents, says he, or no g. Thereupon the cheated sailor drowns stingy passenger and pre- cipitates an interracial crisis. The British navy becomes indignant and demands the sacrifice of two innocent Chinamen upon the altar of a vindictive Anglo-Saxon revenge. Unless two peasants, however guiltless, are executed in public, the captain of His Majesty's Efigtlel‘?lp Cockchafer will obliterate city, sparing no men, women or children. The victims, the: gard it as a soap-box from which the | their guild reiterates the weak and eternal verities are overestimating the guild's ambitions. ‘The original aim of “Roar China” was to fill the Nationalist Chinese with fury against commercial invaders from Eu- rope and inciting them to plunge into the communistic whirlpool. Its ridiculous failure is an ironic em- phasis on the drama’s impotence to ange any line of human conduct, no matter how theatrical its method of It may be that * crocodile character was pene- trated by the astute Orientals and found to be a Caucasian snare. Or it is pos- hey did not come under its n TR to make important’ t any rate, it lop so far as its e , and the Chinese pr peculiar ways, much ure of the Soviet Repy its pef was cer} col the drama. theme of “Roar China"Qis the lon of the pathetic Chifase rapacious Anglo-Saxon barbarial Ulustrates, with many