Evening Star Newspaper, January 17, 1932, Page 43

Stage,fl Screen and Music Reviews AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star. . Motor, Aviation, - Radio Programs — WASHING TON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 17, 1932. e SKORAN” REITH'S -STAGE MARIAN MARSH = SUNDER EIG Greek Ti;agedy Draws But Opinions Differ Greatly as to Merit Washington Evic]ently Has Its Own Ideas Con- cerning "Electra”—Explanations and Hopes for Discouraged Theater—-\Vhoopee Called For. By W. H. GENTLE peep of protest reached this department during the week, beseech- ing tender consideration for “the current theater in its hour of sorest trial.” The writ: discouraged, perhaps, but not de- feated, feels that “we are doing the best possible under the c cumstances And maybe she is right. And yet, it seems hard to believe it. What with George ‘White’s “Scandals” lamenting that | “The Thrill Is Gone”; “The Cat and the Fiddle” watching “The Love Parade Going By”: “Everybody’s Welcome,” explain- ing that “You Must Remember This, a Kiss Is Still a Kiss,” and | the colossal hit of the year trans- | ferring its singing from “Our | “Country” to “Of Thee I 8ing, | Baby,” earnest effort appears to| be doing something, if mnot| “our best.” The theater prob- | ably is discouraged. Perhaps | that is why Crosby Gaige is not going in just now for Chan- ning Pollock’s “Wake Up Amer- ica!” but turns, rather signifi cantly, to “The Police Inspector” instead, while Jed Harris is loo ing after Michael Morton's “Alibf’ and Maxwell Anderson is being urged to revise his “Payment De- ferred.” This merry jumble of varied entertainments, however, must be left to New York, where they are brewing and stewing, that Washington's prospects may | have their due attention. BEFORE passing up the lot to the graybeards of Gotham, however, it seems a duty to clear up a doubt about Katherine Cor- nell's announcement that she is to appear in Sidney Howard's lat- est, “Alien Corn.” Lest the sus- picious should infer, from the stage’s recent tendency to climb 1to politics, that it is continuing jts efforts in that direction, it should be plainly and emphati-| cally understood that the “corn” in Mr. Ho rd’s new play is the corn poetic, not the corn poli cal. Ray Henderson, poet, pla right, play-doctor and press representa- tive incomparable, pausing for a moment, even neglecting Ethel Barrymore and suspending the loitation of Katherine Cornell. | tily rushes forward to explain that the biblical story of Ruth and Boaz was in 1d when Mr. Howard conceived his latest drama that its suspicious title w plucked from a line of Keat's “Ode to a Night- ingale,” instead of from anything dealt with by the Volstead act In order that eve ma}(:l be happy, why not pass this incident alorx)apgi with the other levities of the day to a world that longs to smile? I\‘OW that Washington has seen “the greatest drama of mod- ern times’ meanin . of course, “Mourning Becomes Electra,” the de of enthusiastic com- s flowed from the gifted critics w York may find an uction in variant opinions in the National Capital v that it alters the eternal verities at gll, but simply ti establishes the sad fact ths folks do not think alike. Vagrant comments caught up in the lob- bies were interesting. Those who had enjoyed the advantages of a thorough talking picture training agreed—and at once—that “the {)lay is Jverpadded and far too ong and tiresome.” Others de- clared “the whole thing just awful.” Those who know all wbout such things admitted that what some called “a psychiatric syiiogism solved dramatically” 1s indeed ‘“a modern tragedy de- veloped with ancient technique.” Many of the elders who still affect to nurse the proprieties with their souvenirs felt that more cheerful amusement is prefe to the cold comfort of the library classics. But there was a con- se! s of opinion that curiosity will be the most ardent patron of Mr. O'Neill's newest work. One emphatic amateur dramatist went so far as boldly to express the opinion that Mr. O'Neill had bet- ter be careful, or he will lose his men: le laurels to some modern genius'tirely new style of music arrangements. A. A. A. and the Willard, | emotional when Landvoigt. who melts his plot and injects the he writes his Greek trilogy. So it goes. One chap, with commanding self- control, however, broke up the symposium with his brusque prophecy that “what human beings want is whoopee. Greek | tragedy ain’t going to be fashion- able, if I know human nature as it operates today.” And there you are. The noncommittal are very much nonplussed. * x HTEEN# * ND now for the lighter side of | life! For three solid weeks, as the press agents say, the National | will claim attention—and how! | Just at our door is Jane Cowls well remembered “Smilin’| Through.” But now it comes with | another title, its sadness a| bit lightened by music and some | of the joy of living. They tell us| it has been well done, without in| the least sacrificing the original story and its sentiment. Close| behind it is “The House of Con- nelly,” presented by sincere artists | of the Theater Group. It is a| folk play deeply imbedded in the | soil. And after it comes—oh, joy | of joys!—“The Band Wagon,” de-| scribed as “Max Gordon’s massive and perfect revue.” With all that has been printed about it, certain- 1y, this attraction will make the| fters of the old National—or the | New National, as you will—ring, provided, of course, the National, old or new, has such things ana they can really ring PR | "THERE is on the statute books what has been termed a “drastic” child labor law, which, if enforced, would send the talents for the theater which repose in our high and other schools and even in the chirches aglimmering into “in- nocuous_desuetude,” that favorite limbo of Grover Cleveland. when he was President. Its purpose is good and its enactment seemed entirely proper when the law was Its inflexibility, however, makes it a burden upon the de- velopment of our culture. Effort is being made to modify it so that, under prescribed conditions, boys under 16 and girls under 18 years of age may be given a spe_clal per- mit by our District Commissioners to appear in theatrical presenta- tions upon the stage. Careful in- quiry has failed to develop a V. reason why the amendment pro- posed should not pass into the law. Had such a law been opera- tive in the /early days of Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, her famous brothers, John and Lionel, and even of William Gillette, John Drew and Mrs. Fiske, it is claimed their budding genius would have been cut short—maybe, as in the case of grandfather’s clock— “never to go again.” But cond tions in the theatc - today are dif- ferent from those that then ex- isted. Besides, child prqdigies are becoming numerous, increasing perhaps more rapidly than are the good actors the st::ge demand x ok K% T the Shubert Belasco the stage will be dark this week. But next week will bring a revival of “The Student Prince,” the de- lightful old Heidelberg story, with which all the world is familiar, ana after that the bookings call for Fred Stone and his famous daughter Paula in their sumptu- ous musical comedy, “Smiling Faces.” Both will find a hearty welcome (‘z)m those who know | and love their theater. i Creator of N;Jvcl Music‘ ’l‘)!E throbbing, pulsating music which has made his original Cotton Club Orchestra world famous is not Duke Ellington’s only bid for fame. without the orchestra for which his ors set the tempo on the fvory piano keys, Duke would be Tecog- nized as a composer of weird, distinctive melodies, such as “Mood Indigo” and “Black and Tan Fantasy,” which have become identified with his band. Other orchestras might not interpret them as successfully as the musicians under Duke's personal guidance and supervision. But he would have written them anyway, as an expression of the melody and rhythm which has been surging within him since boyhood. His ideas are said to have created an en- alid | Even | Heralding a Prima Dorna. ERTRUDE LANG, prima donna of “The Student Prince,” which comes to the Belasco Sunday, January 24, does not hail from Russia at all, as has been generally related in Broadway accounts. She was born on the Chicago west side shortly after her parents had come over from Russia. Her mother was Luba Paritz of the Russian Grand Opera Co., and of the wealthy class. | Over in the old country Gertrude | undertook to follow in the footsteps of | her mother and private singing 19&-‘ sons were provided. Then the father died, and mother and child returned | to America. After an audition con-| Gucted by S. L. Rothafel (Roxy), in| New York, the young singer was launched at the Capitol Theater. | J. J Shubert was much impressed | with her singing and eventually she was | engaged to play the role of Mitz in| “Blossom Time.” From “The Daring | Duchess” and “White Lights” she went | with Leon Errol in {'Yours Truly,” then |for a period in faudeville, to Roxy | | again. and then “Maytime.” Now she comes in the 1931 production of Sig- | mund Romberg’s “The Student Prince.” 8. Return to Vaudeville. V/AUDEVILLE, the polite term what was once known as ‘“the varieties” which was actually wiped off the face of the earth around Wash- ington with the advent of the motion picture, seems to be once more climb- ing back into its own | The latest champion of its renas- | cence Managing _Director Hardie Meakin of the R-K-O Keith's Theater, and well he might be, for Mr. Meakin was in the glorious heydey of his life | when Roland Robbins and the B. F. Keith Theater were enjoying their | proudest days. Roland, rather than give an_ inch, preferred to dash into | the seething sea of commercialism, and the talkies eliminated the B. F. and | substituted the R-K-O in the moniker | of the famous old theater at Fifteenth and G streets But Hardie | ten the glaries for Meakin has not forgot- of those days, and he | has not " rested, since assuming the | | managing direction of the old theater, | | in trying to bring back to it that which | had apparently vanished forever. Fad-| ing receipts under the picture policy | have played into his hands. The pic- | ture diet alone did not help to a full- | gIOWn appetite. It was too shadowy, | with all its “concourse of sweet sounds.” ~ Hardie wanted vaudeville, and, at last, he persuaded the powers- | that-be 1o give him a rich cut, or a| rare decoctior you will, of that| oy the days of long ago. el The indispensability of real flesh and | blood in an entertainment, which other- was noisily feathery, also dawned ypon the magnates. ‘And now R:K-O Keith's takes up the scattered Mnks |to mend the broken chain of years g0 which had been laid away among |the souvenirs when B. F. Kelih's faded out. Hardie has vaudeville now, | and with it & new policy of opening his new bill on y instead of Friday of each week. H, ik © wants the world h C‘orpmumty Institute Events. | | SEVEN unusual events, featuring | | ) music, literature and other matters |of varled interest, will be offered | lon alternate Tuesday evenings at Gen- :Yr‘:lmgom[mu[n:\y Center by the Com-~ T nstitute f “half-season” prices, ' “or.0Bw0R 8% 19, at 8:15, Stod- | datuesday, January | dard King, “a jester of royal descent,” whose humor plays over ail i el | be featured. King is the “go-ahead- and-be-funny man" with the Spokane Spokesman-Review and is well known |8 the author of “It's a Long, Long | Trall”; “Grand Right and Left,” and “I | Like M,\mN:)ckl’)Ps Wild,” ' W e followed by y] Ellery Walter. “America’s supreme ad- venturer,” Febr Iy 16; Herbert Adams Gibbons, world traveler, March 1; Clara | Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain, March 15; Albert Squier, word-builder |and master of camera raft, March 29, and John Erskine, who will speak on ‘Music In Our Daily Lives” April 12. | Information and tickets may be had at the Community Institute office in Pranklin Administration Building, at |the T. Arthur Smith Concert Bureau, | SSMILING THROUGH? NORMA SHEARER and ROBERT MONT “PRIVATE NL |C:J.éMsE‘/Ry CoLumMB/a CHAEL BARTLETT and _NORMA TERRIS NATIONAL JAMES D\JNNM ETEAMY *DANCETE! LILYAN TASHMAN *THE MAD PARADE® METRQPOLITAN Sta/ge and Screen Attractions This Week ON THE STAGE. Opens tomorrow evening. GAYETY—“Flapper Follies” (burlesque). This afternoon and NATIONAL—“Love Is All” evening. ON THE PALACE—“Tonight or Never.” FOX—“Dance Team.” EARLE—“Under Eighteen.” evening. RIALTO—“The Secret Witness.” METROPOLITAN—“The - Mad evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. R.-K.-O. KEITH'S—“Ladies of the Jury.” SCREEN. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and This afternoon and evening. Parade.” This afternoon and COLUMBIA—‘Private Lives.” This afternoon and evening. Growth of a Theater ‘HE Group Theater, Paul Green's play, “The House of Connelly,” to the National Theater Jan- uary 25, sponsored by the Theater Guild, made its debut on Broadway only last Fall, but already it has a his- tory. ‘This very production of the Green drama was hailed with cheers and it attained enough popular success to establish the Group Theater. An- other play, “1931—” by the Siftons, has already been offered in New York, and now the organization makes a brief tour of the principal Eastern cities to play “The House of Connelly” for Guild subscribers. In February, 1928, two young men who had been connected with the The- ater Guild, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, assembled & group of actors to do experimental work aside from their professional activities. Their in- tent included rehearsing one or two plays, with more attention given the in- dividual actor than in producing: world. Public showing was no part of their plan then. They hoped, however, that by developing actors they might lay the foundation for a new theater. Waldo Frank and Padraic Co- Jum offered plays for unofficial tryouts. So, without remuneration, the group rehearsed day after day for over 17 weeks, The first private showing of their work, despite the enthusiasm of 4 the orthodox | which brings actors and actresses, showed that the | hour had not yet arrived to step out as |a definite producing group. Intensity |of rehearsals was relaxed, but those most interested continued to meet, usu- ally each Fridy night late, so that those | engaged in current plays could attend. | Always they talked of organization. Late !ast Winter Miss Cheryl Craw- ford came into the picture, taking her place as director along with Clurman and Strasberg. Miss Crawford had been casting director for the Theater Guild through a term of years, and re- cently she was made assistant to the board of managers. With this new alignment, a decision was made to go ahead and start the new theater, The first step was to assemble actors, |a genuine “group,” not so large as to | be unwieldy, but large enough to pro- | duce any play reasonably and function- ing as a permanent company. The three directors gathered avail- able actors—in particular, who had been faithfully attending discussions | —and went into details with them, | proposing definite policies. Finally they selected 25 actors, and with these they retired early last June to a farm near Brookfield Center, Conn., to begin re- hearsals lasting 10 weeks. The actors were not paid, of course, and they never gave a formal performance. Attention centered on “The House of Connelly,” and finally all the rehearsals were devoted to Mr. Green's play, It Fanchon-Marco Celebrate. LAST Priday, marked for TFanchon and Marco, concentrated musical shows day the 10,000th Sunkist trade mark) American public. years ago to become producers. idea was to condense the highlights of & musical comedy into 40 minutes of entertainment for presentation in film theaters. Their idea was so successful that now, 10 years after their first Idea was produced in San Francisco, they are producing shows for Fox Theaters throughout the country and many more. Only & few months ago Publix Thea- ters thought so well of Fanchon and Marco Ideas they discarded their own stage entertainment department and signed up for the Sunkist shows. Instead of garnishing their 10th birthday anniversary cake with candles Fanchon and Marco will introduce t the stage fans of America their 10,000th dancing girl. Every year they have brought to the stage more than 1,000 new faces, many of which have gained fame on Broadway, among them Mary Lewis, Frances Williams, Abe Lyman, Jack Haley and Nancy Carroll. The Fox Theater is continuing the Fanchon and Marco tenth anniversary celebration locally by the presentation of the “On Parade” Idea, featuring Natacha Nattova, Four Flushers, Paul Sydell and Spotty, Joe Rose and 16 Sunkist Beauties. SEeEe Pl U Merkel! (QNE of Hollywood's most untheatrical girls, Una Merkel, is the heroine of “The Secret Witness,” the current plc- ture at the Rialto Theater. Una is said to be natural, frank and | kindly—characteristics she couldn't help but have, coming, as she does, from | Kentucky. Her first big success In pictures came |in" “Abraham Lincoln,” when she was | seen as Ann Rutledge opposite Walter | Huston ‘as “Lincoln.” ~Her greatest | stage success was with Helen Hayes in | “Coquette " s Una Merkel loves the novels of Sigrid Undset and Sheila Kaye-Smith, Paul Whiteman’s music and French cooking. On the other hand, she hates narrow- | minded people, yellow wallpaper and | bad films. d ‘Though she was married early this month and believes that matrimony and a career can be happily combined, she is superstitious and likes the legiti- mate stage. Indeed, she declares she will return to it, but the movies keep her so busy she hasn't had a chance Mystery stories are her fuvorites. Movis G e et Flunch MMARIAN MARSH, whose first star picture, * Under Eighteen,” is now | at the Earle Theater, is said to be in- | irectly responsible for a clever mew camera device by which the intensity of studio lamps is so mellowed and fil- tered that the most elusive light and shadow of the hair can be protographed | with extreme accuracy. “The invention, which will be used by Warner Bros. and First National, is the work of Herman Schloss, a comparative newcomer to the studios, He was asso- ciated abroad with Josef Ferenc, noted | Hungarian photographic ~ expert, and | brought to this country. | "It was the conviction of the cele- brated visitor that the cameras were missing something of the blonde beauty of Miss Marsh's curls, which is said to | have led him to his valuable discovery. _— seemed to give most scope to the com- | pany and at the same time it had gen- | uine importance as drama. But the Theater Guild held producing rights to the play and application had to be | made to that established parent organ- ization. The guild asked Mr. Green's opinion, and after he had expressed | satisfaction with rehearsals, the guild released rights, sponsoring the group’s production. ~ All of which furnished considerable ground for satisfaction after “The House of Connelly” opened at the Martin Beck Theater on Sep- mfi?ér 29 and seered the success that it 3 Y "4 famous producers of called Fanchon and Marco Ideas, their tenth anniversary of production and on that Beauty (a° Fanchon and Marco chorus girk was introduced to the Fanchon angl Marco are & sister and brother team, who left the stage 10 ‘Their GLOR 1A SWANSON STONICHT QR NEVER' TORFAL A Not the Pla Writin‘g Man—But S cates a Revival CCORDING to Dan Toth- A eroh, playwright, screen writer and many other 2 kinds of writer, Hollywood is a mean place for the profes- sional pen-and-pencil plugger. (Mr. Totheroh’s play, “Distant Drums,” was recently exhibited at the Shubert-Belasco.) Westward |of the cactus country, in the | depths of the studio acres, a man who wields a typewriter as a liv- ing is considered a miserable and 2 negligible quantity. The word “writer” spells frowns and verbal mutterings, and the fact that a company takes you under its wing is a matter of such little import | that it is better not to mention it |at all. | _ The littlest man of Hollywood! Such is he who fits letters to- gether to spell words and words | to spell thoughts and thoughts to | spell bread and butter. Even if European shores dripping with Nobel medals, when you get into a studio and take off your coat you are just a scenarist—and a cenarist is a humble being who |is considerably less than the | proverbial mole hill. | Mr. Totheroh, who helped in the verbal sequences of such pic- tures as “The Dawn Patrol” and others of equal import, bases his statement on personal experi- ences. While he admits having enjoyed much studio work, he | also admits the above and the | truth that the player is the thing |and not the playwright. Mourn- fully he exclaims on the infinite waste of material and time on these shores, and the long, drear hours when the “moguls” are making up their minds what they want—and then don’t want i The glamour of publisher’s pink tea parties—famous in Manhat- tan—is so far removed from Hollywood that the author in comparison becomes a shabby |and a scrubby thing. No idolatry |surrounds him —no lady tea | hound pats him soothingly with | praise—no work that he has pro- | duced raises more than a care- | fully stenciled eyebrow. His pedestal at once becomes a kind of mourner’s bench, from which | he is summoned from time to | time to add a dot or a dash to some ethereal studio idea—and | his author’s crown, which has| | helped him so advantageously through Eastern subways and hot- house eulogies, has tumbled for- ward onto his'nose and is taken at all. “A writer is the lowest form of man in a studio,” says Mr. Toth- | eroh—and this probably because |you don’t see him or hear him, and don’t expect to “plug” him | before the public. “For months | he may lie idle around the lot— and then suddenly—and this very | likely after complete stagnation | for several months—they will find out what you can do, and you | do it.” In other words, when you | are signed you are signed for be- ing,a writer—presumably a good |one. After that if they can use you its fine—and if they can’t— well that's fine, too. they have Author X under their wing and if suddenly he can pro- \ duce a “Skippy” or a gangster | | story, then hurrah—if not hurrah, | too—but it's hard on the writer. | | Remember Mr. Wodehouse's sad laments? jNEVERTHELESS, the studios ‘ must have their spoken and | unspoken word, and as the new‘ year launches into its full stride | they must have their stories. The |word has gone around, too, that picture magnates (this from the Motion Picture Herald) are in| | search of original material, since the prices of “best sellers” and pop- 1 ular plays have soared up way be- | * % The Player’s theTh;g, you have been splashed with a | Pulitzer prize, or wandered over | off in haste lest it be recognized | At least | ywright, Out " Where the Studios Grow ;Aut]‘nor Totheroh Explains the Smallness of the earch {Or Stories Indi' in This Species. By E. de S. Melcher. yond their reach. So, in the new order of economy, while story buy- |ing is at a standstill, a great hue and cry has gone around for tae writing man. It would seem, then, that sua- | denly Mr. Totheroh's sad-fated writing man has risen in the | scheme of things, and it might be | of interest to mention the kind of | story and play which the studios | have purchased for their use_for the coming year: i | Paramount, for instance, has | the play “Tomorrow and Tomor- | row,” by Philip Barry; “Two Kinés |of Women,” based on the Shei- wood play, “This Is New York " | “No One Man,” from the novel oy Rupert Hughes; “Dancers in the ’\Dark‘” an “original” by James A. | Creelman, and “The Miracle Man,” | by Frank L. Packard. (This i3 |only a very small list.) United Artists has just bought the rights for “Cynara,” the New York The- ater success, for Ronald Colman. |M-G-M has such works as | “Strange Interlude” (remember | having dinner in the middle of |it?), Hall Caine’s novel, “The | Christian”; “After All,” the play | by John Van Druten, and Uptoh | Sinclair’s novel, “Wet Parade.” R-K-O has Margeret Ayer Barnes’ novel, “Westward Passage”; Dis- trict Nurse,” by Faith Baldwin; “Symphony in Six Million,” by Fanny Hurst, and “Women Need Love,” which is an original story by Ursula Parrott. Warner-First | National has “The Poor Nut,” the | Nugent play; the Freidman play, | “Mendel, TInc. Edna Ferber'’s novel, “So Big,” and the Vida Hurst novel, “Tarnished.” Uni- | versal has the rights for the Milne | play, “Michael and Mary”; “Adven- |ture Lady” and others, and Tiffany | has the Wexley play, “The Last Mile”; “Hotel Continental” and | the Suta novel, “Silent Thunder.” This will give you an idea of the | sort of thing the studios are buy- ing—and not buying. “Originals” are strong for the market. In | other words, Mr Totheroh’s shab- by writing man is perhaps ccming |up in the world RS 1Boy Actor Thanks The Star. | ‘WAY out there in the seething mass | of ambitions, hopes, fears and jeal- | oustes of Hollywood, there is a boy actor }Who is “waiting for a break,” closely following the comments upon the pic- tures in which he appears and very, | very grateful when his name is men- ilflom‘d along with those which usually “hog the spotlight,” to use a crude pro- | fessional expression. David Durand is his name, and he had a role in “Rich Man's Folly,” which | was shown at Loew's Palace the first | week of last December. The Star critic. in reviewing tne picture, wrote, “David Durand’s work, as the very young som of the ship magnate, is different from the | customary juvenile effort in thay it | shows accurately the changes ' emo- tional quality.” David saw it, in his Los Angeiés home, |and among the holiday greetings that | flowed into The Star office from all | corners of the land was one from the boy screen actor. “Dear Mr. Critic,” he wrote. “I want to thank you so much for the fine praise you gave me in ‘Rich Man’s Folly. I always try to be exactly the character I play, instead of just David. But this was a hard one, because I'm not really very quiet, and this boy was. I never got my break yet, but may be I shall have to. That's all.” It was signed | “Very truly, David Durand.” Knows It All ¢ ORAN,” mystic and crystal gazer and headliner at RKO-Keith's Theater this week, is said to have at- tracted such large audiences elsewhere that it was decided to bring him to Washington although it required a re- vision of his “route.” Koran is first a showman, and that, with his claim of being able to look into the future and foretell what is going to happen, he has achieved quite a vogue both as an entertainer and “ad- v:ser." H'Bu:{:we" q\:teauons from the stage on ess matters, matrimony, love and finance. - }