Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 59

| 'Sf;élgé and Screen News and Gossip AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sundwy Star, Motor, Aviation, Radio Programs Part 4—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER_TS. _—_— MME. SCIIUMANN HEINK — “THE MIKADO” - BELASCO One Play of Past'Week Is Splendid Production, Audiences Slow to See It | Heart of the Old-Timer Was Gladdened by Drama at Shubert-Belasco—Words of Wisdom From a Man Who Knows His Theater. By " W. [H. PTIMISM might suggest a O song as most appropriate for a funeral. Unfor- tunately, however, it isn't the mode. Last week the survey of the theater that was entertaining the gay Manhattanites indicated a morose tone tending toward despair. What the later news will bring, no man may tell at this juncture. But if one be en- deavoring to scale the heights bearing a banner like “Excelsior,” as in the famous poem of other days, one must dissemble, or fall info the general condition of dumps. s Washington, however, dfmng the past week, and at the Shu- bert-Belasco Theater, —received its reward for watchful waiting and was blessed with a perform- snce that might have gladdened | the heart of any old-timer. It was not so much in the play it- self, which had, naturally, a Parisian flavor, as it was in Mr. Gilbert's_production, with an in- comparable cast, a rarity in this day and generation. But, sad to say, the watchful waiter, mistrust- ful ‘of advance reports—and who can blame him?—was not there with his discriminating compan-| ions to welcome what he has been| so long waiting for. True. some of him discovered the secre the week closed, furnish comfort e reminiscences during the Winter that seems close upon us..One may not, with impunity, blame him, He has been fooled so o cheery smile and a joyous| d that may of theatricality; 1;,‘1“ his flresid% to be a theater of photography. ften that, mirror up to nature. * * * Mir ut of Iors ° Landvoig:. there is still hope for the nobler impulses in spite of the roar znd whirlwind of the propensities | Even in the decadent theater are | to be found signs that give prom- | |ise and warnings that the wise| will heed. Thirty years ago the | situation in our theater was much as it is today, but without the mad | rivalry of the talking picture.} | Then,” even as now, they were| | going abroad to find what our| | dramatists seemed unable to sup- | ply at home. But then the art of | acting was not given over to the cleverness of imitation as it is to- day, and the great majority of | | folks clearly discerned the differ-| ence. Even our local amateurs| | were doing things worth while, | and our Washington players of,| | today seem inclined to follow in! | their footsteps. Which leaas up |to a recent very important con- | tribution of Lawrence Langner. | who has given 20 years of his life to the theater, chiefly with the Washington Square Players and the Theater Guild of New York Mr. Langner is now closely identi- | fied with the New York Repertory |Co., and his theatrical wisdom | | seems eminently worthy of atten- | tion. | EE [‘HE old theater,” says Mr.| Langner, whose glamour he t before Seeks to recover, “was a theater the new tends * * x Photographic realism comes from. holding the camera up to nature, rather than holding the el reflect light, photographs ELISSA LANDI “WICKED" ~Fox 1931. LEILA HYAMS and JOHN GILBERT *PHANTOM OF PARIS - MALACE. Scene #rom ™ PALMY DAYS” - with EDDIE CANTCOR Bty it CLIVE BROOK and KAY FRANCIS =24 HOURS '~ METROPOL/TAN To Reveal the Truth. TNDAUNTED by that ancient query of the procurator Pilate, “What is truth?” Burton Holmes, as a teller of | travel tales, is to reveal the truth about | BELASCO—"“The Mikado.” NATIONAL—"Fine and Danay.” evening. GAYETY—"La Boheme Girls” (burlesque). erhaps, he has gotten o pmgu?;, in ',hpat”gggmg_ But it are but arrangements of shadows. s sad, nevertheless, when real The repertory theatric art makes its appearance the greatest value to the stage of in our midst, that it is seemingly | today. if it can bring the play- snubbed by those who adore it most. they can learn from those of other ¥ theater can be of | quently wrights and actors the lessons ynysual. days, who knew how to blend|the lecture-traveler's great screen at | and drama |the National Theater on Sunday after- | MOST of the merit and most of poetry, music, color the beauty, feminine an spectacular, of modern produc- tions, legitimate and screen, in these decadent days is found in the advance notices, roughly writ- ten though they be. One seldom, if ever, aiscovers them in the per- formance. They are, like the vi tues of most of their proaucers, to be found lurking in the special stories of the press agent, written with the “boss” especially in mind. Ana this upon the perfectly soun theory that it pays to advertise. ‘Wherefore, then, should critics and column writers burn the mid- a | into theatrical fare.” Mr. Langner | thinks our theater is living too| much in the present, and he asks| iwhat might be the condition of our American and English litera- ture if our reading were limited to only new books. He has some-| thing to say alsorof the dingy| drabness of our theater interiors, “dimly lightea and casting a pasty i pallor over their occupants.” Also ! he says, “We must strive to re- d Place some of our fast-fading great players trained in the school {where ‘one man in his day plays many parts,” not where types are| a lifetime occupation.” Hollywood, the much discussed and fre- maligned urban _community where the motion picture tycoons have set up their citadel, and where the weather is in a constant state of being ON THE. ning. FOX—“Wicked.” He will do this in Washington and on KEITH'S—“Friends and Lovers.” METROPOLITAN—"“Twenty-four evening. COLUMBIA—“Palmy Days.” RIALTO—"The Spirit of Notre evening. noon, November 1. This is to be Mr. | Holmes’ initial offering in a new series of his pictured travel revues to extend | over five consecutive Sunday after- noons. Mr. Holmes, who knows his Hollywood |. and who has been at work behind the | scencs and among the stars, not only | gives it a good name but finds it one | of the most interesting places in (lw; world of today. His camera impres- | sions will include almost everything of | interest in the regicn, from the frivoli- | ties of Agua Caliente to a gala night In | ¢¢ Heink, “but I have a voice big like the Hollywood Bowl. Other topics in the Holmes course are | ¢, = g o ntep o @8 B a0 ee 8 e wide, as far as she could reach. “Why as follows: “New Trails in Switzer- land.” “The Capitals and Countries-of | 1 ¢;,6u1d not sing with a voice like that. When I sing I keep healthy.” Northern Europe,” ‘“Italy, From the AM 70,” beamed Mme. Schumann- night oil in humble effort to up- 1ift the world? It is very like try- ing to climb the rough sides of the chaste Swiss Jungfrau with a| walking stick, or trying to find| the ginger in a grocery ginger cake. Humbug and hypocrisy are the merry little Pucks and Peter| s I Pans of today that are playing t0 develop ensemble playing. Time their pranks with the world of and careful study in training,” he thought as well as the world of |believes will brg success, ana the theater. Angels | with it the restoration to our the- may fly through the air propelled by wires | ater of some of the old color and and pulleys in Earl Carroll’s “Vani- | €xcitement missing today. ties,” but the angels of the godly R and the ancient traditions that‘ESPEC!ALLY to our young as- accompany them are among the | pirants of today does this ad- missing in the creations of the,vice seem invaluable. The theater modern studio, both in the legiti- lives through its players, not its mate and in its counterfeit. scenery. There frequently is too g |strong a disposition among self- AND yet, as the old verse goes, | seekers to exploit themselves, “You may break, you may |rather than good acting, good the- shatter the vase if you will, but the | ater. The self-advertisers are not scent of the roses will hang round an asset in constructing real the- it still.” Truth, beauty and inno- | ater, where carefully selected and cence are still in the world, and |trained talents must be widely |out that all our great actors and lactresses were trained in reper- tory, from Bernhardt to Moskvin, from Edwin Booth to Duse. “In repertory,” he states, “there constant rotation of players in various roles and unceasing effort there are still homes, many of|versed, and where each player can,| them, where their fragrance lin-|if he must, lead or follow, as cir- gers. All the world is not pursuing cumstances may dictate. The the mad aavice to “‘eat, drink and | glory of ambitious promoters must be merry,” though much of it is,| come from the perfection of what regardless of the closing phrase,|is promoted, not at its expense or “for tomorrow ye die.” And so!its sacrifice, even in the smallest He points | | l | is, | | | | Ips to the Ends of Sicily,” and “Paris | and the Colonial Exposition. And so the great-grandmother of opera is preparing to sing again. She < ; begah rehearsals some time ago as Gilbert Miller Promises. |Katisha in the Shubert revival of “The : | Mikado.” Mother of eight, grandmother I\,IR- GILBERT MILLER will favor|of eleven and great-grandmother of ‘Washington with all his new plays | three, she comes trouping across the this season, with the exception of “Pay- | continent, opening the first wWeek in ment Deferred.” with Charles Laughton, | Washington tomorrow evening. the noted English actor, which o) “I am so happy,” she exclaimed, sit- his Lyceum Theater, New Yor | ting in_the front row of the auditorium tember 30. “Payment Deferred” ran for | while the rest of the company rehearsed. over four months at the St. James The- | “These beautiful young voices—all these ater in London. S | children singing “so_beautifully. They Mr. Miller’s first offering in Wash- | are my children, my chicks—we will ington this season at the Belasco The- | have a fine time together. It is so long, ater, “The Sex Fable,” featured Mrs. |45 years, since I am singing like this.” P k Campbell and Roland Squire.| “This is better than grand opera, ya. is second will be Miss Helen Hayes in | Grand opera, ach, you stand like this, “The Good Fairy,” in which Mr. Miller | and you sing da-da-da-da.” She struck himself will play the role of the theat- |a gesture, an arm Fomd high. “Here rical manager in the play. This will be | you sing all the time. All the time his first appearance on the stage in sev- | there is beautiful singing. Ach. I am eral years, and Washington will be the | so happy. I am old trouper always.” first to see him in the part, She struck her chest and made a His third offering will be a new play | cavalier's gesture. Her eyes sparkled. by Philip Barry, the title of which has | I am an old war horse, ya!” ot vet been decided. In addition Mr.| Her children, Mme. Schumann-Heink Miller premises not to overlook Wash- | revealed, had tried to dissuade her. ington with ~Payment Deferrsd,” for | “They tell me ‘Mother, you should he will bring it here directly after its not do it. It is too much work and New- York o excitement.” So I laugh and say I like excitement. I tell them I must sing to keep healthy. Also I wiil dance. I must dance like this,” and she went through | the motions of § merry dance. Madame's last-tour was with Roxy's gang a year ago, and she was, as she degree. Real theater is the out- corgneuof God-given talents and expert training, not the literary eflgf't of the press agent. CoLumslA SKETCHES BY NEWMAN SUDDUTH- Stage and Screen Attractions This Week Opens tomorrow evening. Opens this evening. This afternoon and SCREEN EARLE—“The Honor of the Family.” This afternoon and eve- This afternoon and evening. PALACE—"The Phantom of Paris.” This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. Hours.” This afternoon and This afternoon and evening. Dame.” This afternoon and Schumann-Heink at 70 asserted, “the youngest of the gang.” | Mme. Schumann-Heink said that she is in the best of health. “I% is because I live very quietly,” she explained. “I never go out to dinners or receptions. I cook all my own food with my own hands. Look how graceful my hands are from cooking.” The singing on the stage’ attracted | her attention at this moment, and jumping to her fect, she spread her arms to the 50 or 60 smgers. “Ach, my children, such beautiful singing. T have never heard such beau- tiful singing. She pointed a finger to Charles Galagher, who will sing the role of “Pooh Bah." “I am in love with ‘Pooh Bah' already,” she told the company. And in love with Ko Ko, too. He does not want to marry me in the play. But he must take me in the end. He will learn to love me.” Stars of (5ther Days. DECADE ago, in the era of silent pictures, the names of Mae Busch, Alice Lake and Eileen Percy were often in the marquee lights and their volumi- nous fan mail attested their popularity. Their former admirers may now find them playing important speaking roles in Elissa Landi’s picture ‘“Wicked,” now at the Fox Theater. Though Miss Busch is busy thess days ' playing character roles for the audible screen, the other two are only rarely induced to return. Miss Lake has virtually retired and Miss Percy is writing & motion picture column daily for a large syndicate of news- papers, ERIC VON STROHEIM and LILY DAMITA - “FRIENDS AND LOVERS” KEITHS, BEBE DANIELS -“HONOR OF THE FAMILY “ = , EARLE ‘Movies Show “The Road to Singapore’ for William Powell—"A magazines which breathe about as much truth as Eve > found the following comment | William's Powell's first picture for |the Warner outfit: “Here is a |story (say they) of love and temptation in the tropics—an un- beatable combination.” Well, unfortunately, the com- bination was all too beatable, and one is inclined to wonder what ever made Mr. Powell wander | away from the Paramount lot, where he had made himself a | nice little niche as a dapper gen- tleman whose power was a hand- some combination of the mental and the physical, and who could play villain as well as hero and make you believe either or both of them. For some reason the tropics have always intrigued the ro- mantic-minded more than, for instance, the North Pole or even (pardon, Admiral Byrd) the South Pole. To find love in the tropics has been, since time immemorial, a pretty exciting thing, and this because the pulse beats faster there and the flies fly faster and because you sleep under yards of netting and do just about every- thing that you don’'t do at home. Only a few semesters ago a the mention of the tropics the movié moguls ran out into the street to find who had done the mentioning_and why. The hot |spots of the earth, after the dynamic exposing of them by the blond Jeanne Eagles, were con- sidered the most perfect setting in the world for any play or any film, and any one who could write a tropical story was disfi Barrymore's Double. JARREN WILLIAM, the actor, who, it is said, never can step upon the | street in Hollywood without being miis- taken for John Barrymore, or one of the -Drew family, finally has become | reconciled to the inevitability of the tined to pocket much lucre. did to Adam there is to be| upon “The Road to Singapore,” | many awkward moments which result from the_ striking resemblance. In- | stead of being annoyed by the con- fusion he now rather enjoys it. “I used to try to be myself,” he | explains, “but since going to Holly- wood to Work on the lot with Mr. Barrymore 1 have found it useless to resist. More people make the mistake | Hollywood actors tried.their hand at the sun-baked climes—even Charles Farrell and Janet Gay- nor (do you remember them as cunning little dope fiends?), and | but for imperative “No's” from |the lady herself Greta Garbo | i | might have been seen puffing ;L‘]‘"‘ 2 ‘:‘?ém;fr-e“ig“&?‘ss;lr‘;‘;fl{{‘;;;:; |away on some desert isle, fanned ye looi i VREL studlo. | with palm leaves and with a bot- e look alike, end what can we do| fla glluefd to herf lips. 4 “As a matter of fact it is rather| All of«this, of course, occurres flattering. Only recently a charming | yesterday and the day before lady came up to me and complimented | yesterday, and by the time Lenore my’ fine performance in ‘Svengall: T|Ulric got around to playing | am only hoping that the studio cashier | . H o also becomes confused. That would | E:g::(x)\ ;"alf‘eye tfilaet g}f‘gl‘sci;;,‘a‘do}’: be my idea of a profitable mistake.” [{ld, dg SH kLl Mr. William, long a Broadway favor- [1ady under the somber influence ite, appears in the new First National 'of heat was beginning to pall and picture, “The Honor of the Family,” |that romanticism under such hot now at Warner Bros, Earle Theater, Knows His New York. one. Now, suddenly, with William Powell on their hands, the Warner sun blistered in more ways than | M pleasure haunts of the rich to the hideouts of criminals of less fortunate worldly endowment, as dramatized in | the Paramount picture, “Twenty-four | Hours,” now playing at Warner Bros." | Metropolitan Theater; is said to be fa- miliar territory to Louis Weitzenkorn, who made the screen adaptation from the Louis Bromfield novel. Weitzenkorn knows hts New York rand its people, high and low, for in 15 | years of newspaper work he covered every phase of metropolitan life. Re- porter, crime-news expert, advertising man, columnist, short story writer, play- wright, magazine and daily paper editor, Weitzenkorn occupied a front row seat and went behind the scenes as tlie biggest real life dramas unfolded. | became nationally known when he wrote “Five Star Final” It included important jobs on the Tribune, Times, Call, World and Graphic. He was Sun- day editor of the World for seven years. His last newspaper position, in 1929, as editor of the Graphic, is said to have provided the material for “Five Star Final” which had a long run in New -York and later opened in London. . In the early days of the World War, while he was working on the Times, it was he who coined the phrase “Bleed- ing Belgium,” which became one of the most_u ropaganda slogans. When the United States entered the conflict he jolned the Tank Corps. The newspaper career of the man| ODERN New York City from the | Brothers, after a somewhat chill| Winter, delve into their manu- | script shelf and pull out “The Road to Singapore,” a lukewarm version of what was once “Heat Wave” on the stage. And poor Mr. Powell goes under. There is no question that he did or that he does. The person who said that “love and temptation in the | tropics are an unbeatable com- bination” will have to be told that | he is lying in his teeth, because | the trcpics no longer have the old |lure, temptations have seemed much more exciting elsewhere, and in spite of such one-time formidable actors as Mr. Powell and Miss Doris Kenyon (a beauti- ful lady if there ever was one— watch for her when she comes to Washington = to sing) there is nothing in the cinema world that has seemed more tepid or more puerile not what they used to be. They're full of hot and cold running water now, anyway. Almost in the |same breath one is loath to say |that Powell is also not what he used to be. It is hard to explain just why, and yet it does seem In other words, the tropics are | That the | Tropics Are Not What ' Proves a Weak Vehicle n Unbeatable Combina- tion" Goes Wrong——Ncws and Comment. By E. de S. Melcher. N one of. those numerous film | as though some of the old fire has gone out of him—as though his “personality” is on the wane and, positively, as though if given an- other angle on the tropics he might lose altogether what has been up until now a tremendous box office following. % byl IF, now, the tropics have gone out of fashion, what is the cur- rent center of interest and around ! what should “an unbeatable com- bination” be built? With Niagara Falls and the South Pole thor- oughly familiarized and the streets of New York given a com- plete cinema airing, where is the scene or the country which in- trigues most? From the point of view of the theater, the good old Southland seems to be the most favored region of late—what h “Green Pastures” and “The Housc of Connolly"—but the films are wandering too much from one thing to another to romanticize any particular spot. The war— particularly, the aviation angle of it—still is a pretty safe bet, and most of the he-men actors have been aviators at one time or another. But just as Miss Chat- terton has had widely aiversified | roles, and just as Miss Garbo has run from a coal barge lady to an opera singer and all the wa around the feminine character ellipse, so is it impossible to claim that “any one place is definitely “unbeatable.” In fact. one might say that “love and"temptation” goes anywhere, but it is neither better in China, nor in Siam, nor in Alexandria, and no sane producer now shouts “hurrah” at the sight of a lady and gentleman adrift in !a tropical monsoon. While Mr. Powell was unfortu- nately the man to prove that “these here” tropics have lost their "old sting, still any one in |the same position would have done the same. Just because he {isn't himself once doesn't mean he won't be again. Remember | his past—it's a good one. His | acting trophies rank high. He's a man usually of extremely lik- able taste. So when he comes |around again let's hope that ye | Warners will have done better by him and that the local gentry | will still give him a great big | hand. i * ok o % ‘THE most important lady in town this week as far as the | cinema circles are concerned is | Miss_Estelle Taylor. She should by all means be seen and heard at the Fox Theater. And thc most encouraging news of the past week came from Hardie Meakin, who was bubbling over with joy at all the ladies and gentlemen who viewed Ann Harding in her second week at Keith's. And. by the way, those who think that Lew Ayres’ acting days were over when he finished “All Quiet” had | better trot around to the Rialto {and see what he does in “The | Spirit of Notre Dame.” We are willing to wager that one of these | days.Mr. Ayres will be one of our major star comedians—not a Keaton, but . a trimmed-down Haines or a trimmed-up Mont- gomery. Joe Cool: Authoring. ACCUSTOMED as he is to prepar- ing for his shows at least six months in advance of their production, Joe Cook, the star of “Fine and Dandy.” says his next musicale will be titled “The Four Hawaiians,” and he will feature, in person, that quartet of legendary characters. The show will be built along intimate lines and will be notable for its comedy rather than for its hugeness and opulence. Mr. cm expects to have the v_piece ready for Broadway by early [§pring. | |