Evening Star Newspaper, January 29, 1933, Page 39

Stag Musi f —— e—Screen ic—Radio AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star, Part 4—6 Pages -— SERGEANT ALVING YORKE THE BIG DRIVE” KEITH’S Importance of Names in Stage and One Picture Kills Its Effectiveness by the He- Screen Plays roine's One Word—And the Hero Might Have Been Mcre Impressive, Says Reviewer. By E. de S. Melcher. VER since “Daring Daugh- ters” was brought to light we have had qualms. Qualms about names and qualms about faces—and what names go with what faces. The trouble began when, in the midst of this Tower production classic, the heroine, a slim, bird- like little soul, acted by Marian Marsh with the conviction of a plays or in the talkies. For in- | stance, in Mr. Coward’s “Design for Living” the two heroes (if you can call two disturbingly un- conventional men that) were | called Otto and Leo. Otto suited Mr. Lunt perfectly. Leo was well | enough with Mr. Coward. And |Gilda was an ideal name for Miss Fontanne. Suppose, now, that in the middle of that warmly descrip- tive scene about love in general kindergarten prima donna, twined | in the first act between Miss Fon- her young arms around the hero’s | tanne and Mr. Coward, the for- neck and murmured a soft but|mer had suddenly called, “Edgar.” udible, “Edgar—I love you!” | Mr. Coward just couldn’t have a e, ga_ S ,y i [wntten it Miss Fontanne Although Miss Marsh's “I love ' couldn’t have said it. Edgar is you” was a normal, if low pres- ! all right in the parlor. But he is sure, rendition of affection, and Dot all right in love. > = There is no rhyme or reason doubtless would have passed for/ this, but it is a fact. Names | muster for casual inspection, it produce a definite mood, just as'w was “Edgar” that hurled us out |music or food does. of an inky sleep. | Novelists have always used the ; L. name Hillery to denote gentle- It is possibly 10 years, or more, | men with a smattering of tweeds since a heroine has dared to speak | and heather about them, who are | WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY o O A 'NAGANAZ ~ Washington's Players COLUMBIA PLAYERS. ITHOUT malice aforethought, the Columbia Players find themselves distinctly “in the trend” with their production of Galsworthy's “Escape” scheduled for Wardman Park Theater on February 14 and 15. the whole name. While Edgar |Kind to their lady friends and | remains one of the obvious heir- | Who automatically wind up happy | < .. lin the last chapter. You have | looms which proud parents afflict | neyer heard of a villain being their children with, it has not | called Hillery. { been quoted verbally to a rugged | Marguerite has always been a | hero since before the waterfall- soft blonde creature, and no| and-snow-and-ice Gish-Griffith mother who knew that her child days. | would grow up to be a rough- | When, therefore, Miss Marsh house Rosie ever called her off- tossed off the name with a slight | SPring that. Marys and Anna- trembling of the eyelids, and that | belles and Johns and Georges watery haze in the eyes which is ‘ and Sarahs and Jonathans have an index of love on the screen,‘mways measured up to the mark several nearby neighbors—who up |and are synonymous with upright until then had been generally at folk who eat their bread and but- peace with the world—bounced up |ter properly and seldom stra Galsworthy wrote this moving play in 1926, but it is even more timely to- day in view of the interest throughout this country in escapes, *fugitives and all details of prison life. “Escape” is the drama of the escape of an English gentleman from an Eng- lish prison farm to which he was sent for accidental manslaughter. Built up of nine episodes, afier a prologue show- g the manslaughter, the play con- sists of the reactions of different per- sons or groups of persons to the es- caped convict. ORANGE AND BLUE PLAYERS. ETHEL BARRYMORE $RASPUTIN AND \. THE EMPRESS COLUMBIA TALA BIRRELL - MELVYN DOUGLAS 1l X, MORNINC ANUARY LOIS M YOF THEE | 29, 1932. ORAN, SING NAT|ONAL R/IALTO DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR *PARACHUTE JUMPER /- METROPOLITAN [ ] in their chairs and began to take notice. And, if they thought that | perhaps the film wasn't quite up y | THE Orange and Blue Players, mem- rom the straight and narrow. | ° bers of the Roosevelt High School Other names go with other |Alumni Association, are rehearsing their | things. Then, again, maybe it is to the mark, at that moment they | because Miss Shearer has the were certain—that here was at | Dame of Norma. which we have least something different. never liked, that we do not ap- When, then, the name Edgar |Prove of her as thoroughly as we was repeated shortly auer\\'m‘d.;Sh"“ld- y § : they bounced again, and when | Can you imagine. for instance, finally Edgar was rewarded with |Mae West as anything but Mae? sweet promises of eternal devo-|If she had been Marguerite West, | tion, there were sighs (or muybem&ulfil’(‘e‘ :}“:;n};i‘e"f %e:"j‘ :J‘;;fofsd cries) or sor:xeihl*ng* or other. ing the much-wedded = Pegey annual dramatic production, to be given on Friday, February 10. Three one- act plays have been selected, one of which will be entered in the one-act play tournament: “The Girl” “Ja: and Minuet” and “Wrong Numbers.” The plays are under the direction of Miss Esther Galbraith and Miss Lois Horsnell. CHEVY CHASE PROGRAM. DRAMA PROGRAM will be pre- A sented by Chevy Chase Community Center in Ben Murch School Audi- ALL of which brings up a very serious point—namely, the part that names play in the talkies. Granted that “Daring Daugh- ters” is not the kind of a film that you would want to wrap up and take home to your mother, it at least presented certain sides of modern life and may have stimulated hopeful young lovers into the realization that marriage is a very wonderful and a very comfortable thing. Although to us it seemed a shabby piece of business, miserably acted, appall- ingly directed and written with a sledge hammer instead of a pen, it at any rate seemed to please a long, lanky lady on the aisle next to us, who clapped her hands loudly with joy when the heroine said “All men are alike” and made other caustic remarks about The drawnier sex. However, even this lady looked unhappy when Edgar hove onto the scene. Whether or not she was a little deaf, or for what | reason, she turned after a minute | to her left-hand partner and said: “Would you mind telling me, young man, if that gentleman’s name (pointing to the hero) is Edgar?” 2 “Yes,” I replied, “it is Edgar.” “Thank you very much,” she | said—and she plunged immedl-\ ately into Edgar’s problems. | Then I looked at her. She was obviously hurt. And it must have been that name. Because, al- though Miss Marsh made many more caustic references to men in general, and although the scenes became more and more animated, the lady had noticeably slumped. More than that, she had walked out before the end. This should prove to producees that ladies do not want their heroes called Edgar. * x X X ‘HE unusual in names has al- ways done well in literature. Therefore, they should do well in Hopkins Joyce (who is now in Hol- lywood preparing for a cinematic | | that she undoubtedly has? The screen up until now has been careful. It has matched its | Ramons, its Gretas, its Marlenes and such like with the proper faces. It has secn to it with con- siderable success that no Swede was ever called Aloysius. _ But the slip in the hero’s name in “Daring Daughters” may have | been the beginning of trouble in | the future. Think what would | happen if Jean Harlow, for in- |stance, in the middle of |Dust,” had twined her, |around Clark Gable and | love you, Edgar!” Tops the Bill arms aid, “I | | | HELEN KANE, Who has a leading position Earle vaudeville bill this week. [4 “Red | torium Thursday evening, February 2, at 8 o'clock, when a talk on “The New venture) had been a plain Sarah, | Am%flcan Drnnil;.;e wilé bg gi{vefix hid Ed- could she h | ward de S. Melcher, to be follo fe cone the amnge) I reading of Rachel Crothers’ | They Think,” by the Troupers of East | Washington Community Center, direct- 4 ‘What ed by Arthur Rhodes. Virginia Sellers, one of Washington's popular young radio singers, will also be heard in a| program of songs. All persons inter- | ested in drama are invited to be pres- ent on Thursday evening. The play-reading, which will be given by Virginia Barrett, Helen Tucker, Ed- ward Finlayson and Arthur Rhodes, is a condensation of “Mary the Third.” VAUDEVILLE REVIEW. TH.E vaudeville to be presented on February 2 and 3 under the aus- pices of the Young People’s Fellow- ship of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is in the final stages of rehearsal. A program consisting of songs, dances. monologues, skits and humorous “gag” acts is being prepared for those who seek diversion. The performance is under the direction of Mrs. Elmer Bowen. Among those taking part are Mrs. Bowen, Carol Simpson, Juanita Berry, Betty Helm, Eugenia Horne, Clarke Conway. Fritz Bauer, Sam Chance and Alen Otis. The team of Jack and Jewel Ray is on the program as well as a group of dancers under the direc- tion of Miss Helen Stuart Griffith. The vaudeville will be presented in the Parish Hall of the church, New Hampshire avenue and V street, and is scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m. Robinson's “Little Giant.” EDWARD G. ROBINSON, First Na- tional star, last seen in “Silver Dol- lar,” left for Hollywood last week after several weeks of vacationing in New York. He will begin work immediately |in “The Little Giant,” an original story written for him by' Robert Lerd, who also adapted it for the screen. “The Little Giant” was formerly celled “Tin Gods” ard will occupy Robinson for about a month, after which he will re- turn to New York to await the arrival of the Robinsons’ first “blessed event.” The heir (or_heiress) is expected in March and Mrs. Robinson (Gladys Lloyd) will remain in New York while her husband enacts “The Little Giant” in Hollywood. The suj cast for his new picture will be announced very shortly, JAMES CAGNEY—"HARD TO HANDLE*-EARLE L 4 Problem worrying over little Willie's pranks may be glad that their youngsters do not have to live through the childhood of some of Hollywood’s most famous screen stars, says Donald Henderson Clarke. Marion Davies started out early in life to overcome obstacles which at that time consisted of large red bricks thrown by some of the tough street urchins living near her heme in Brook- Iyn, N. Y. Her ability to dodge flying | missles is one of the main reasons she | survived to carry on her career to stardom. Norma Shearer was seized by an am- biticn to go in for amateur theatricals at the “awkward” age of 14 years, and tried out for various school plays. She suffered tortures when any of her bois- terous classmates began to guffaw and passed many hours in tears as a result of her stage attempts. Wallace Beery knocked about the railroad yards of Kansas City as a youngster and rode from one station to another by “snagging” box cars. For- tunately he did not slip in any of his rides. Joan Crawford swept floors and washed dishes in & boarding school as a girl, and when she violated a slight rule was severely punished by the school head. However, these depressing cir- sumstances of her childhood failed to dampen her spirit, and she practiced | dancing in secret until the chance came for her to go in a musical show. Clark Gable spent his youth in a small Ohio town, where the only “swim- min’ hole” was a coal-blackened pit filled with rain water. When Clark Children ARENTS who stay awake nights| wanted to go for a swim he had to chance punishment at home, as he usually returned looking suspiciously fixk:e & resident below the Mason-Dixon e The sound of audiences handclapping smote the ears of Buster Keaton when he was only 6 months old. He was carried on the stage as a babe in arms by his mother, and before he was 3 took an active part in their act, which then became “The Three Keatons.” His cradle was an old theater trunk, and he continued to sleep in it until he grew large enough for his feet to stretch over | the end. Jimmy “Schnozzle” Durante started lathering faces of customers in his father's barbar shop when he was so small he had to stand on a wooden box to reach them. When not working in the barber shop he was selling papers in the streets and dodging blows from fellow urchins on ‘what has even then his most prominent characteristic, the huge nose which carried him to a unigue position in New York night clubs and brought him a chance at stardom. ubutisics Renew Contracts. SYLVIA SIDNEY and Alison Skip- worth renewed their acting con- tracts with Paramount this week. Miss idney, who is just starting her third year with the company, will next be seen in Vina Delmar's “Pick Up” op- posite George Raft. Miss Skipworth, who has spent 34 years on the stage and screen, is now working in Marlene Dietrich’s starring picture, “Song of In Washington Theaters This Week. NATIONAL—“Of Thee I Sing.” This evening at 8:20 o'clock. GAYETY—Jerri McCauley and her “Tom and Jerri Girls.” This afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA—"Rasputin and the Empress,” at 2:30 and 8:30 p.m. R-K-O KEITH'S—“The Big Drive.” This afternoon and evening. PALACE—“The Kid from Spain.” This afternoon and evening. EARLE—“Hard to Handle,” and vaudeville. and evening. This afternoon LOEW’S FOX—“The Son-Daughter,” and vaudeville. This after- noon and evening. RIALTO—“Nagana.” evening. This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“Parachute Jumper.” This afternoon and HELEN H Fraternal and Aviation News EDDIE'CANTOR LYDA*ROBERT* THE KID FROM SPAIN" PALACE AYES RAMON NOVARRO NTHE SON-DAUGHTER Fox "T}IC G reen pastures“ 'HE long-awaited engagement of Marc Connelly’s famous Pulitzer Prize play will begin at the National Theater on Monday, FPebruary 13. For this engagement the man- agement of the National an- nounces that no mail or- tele- phone orders are to be accepted. To afford all patrons an equal cpportunity and ample time to secure seats the box office sale will open Monday morning at 9 o'clock, a full two weeks in ad- vance of the opening of this famous stage classic, now in its third year and breaking all at- tendance records in each city played. " .. " The Divine Comedy. “THE divine comedy in blackface,” Marc Connelly's famous Pulitzer prize play, “The Green Pastures,” will come to the National Theater for an engagement starting Monday night, February 13. An all-Negro cast em- | bracing the same players who brought | overnight success to the piece in New | York on February 26, 1930, will be seen here in the play. | The magnitude of scope embraced by “The Green Pastures” is so far-reach- ing as to include the creation, the deluge, and cruise of the ark, the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, the death of Moses and taking of Jericho, the later bondage in wicked Babylon, the sack and destruction of Jerusalem and the introduction of the Christian era, pointing with epic beauty to_the Redemption. With these stirring scenes, enlivened by frequent flashes of humor, and }lmplined by the celebrated “Heavenly { Choir,” functioning much as did the | Greek chorus of old, are unfolded the | playwright's retelling of Roark Brad- | | ford’s Bible stories as seen through the | eyes of Nego children of the deep South, | found in Bradford’s book, “Ol' Man Adam an’ His Chillun.” The original cast, with the exception of one role twice vacated by death, will be seen in the roles each individual artist created, headed by Richard B. Harrison, elderly, dramatic reader, lec- turer and educator, who was lifted into stardom overnight upon making his stage debut in the role of “the Lawd.” Sur- rounding Mr. Harrison are Salem Tutt ‘Whitney, Doe Doe Green, Alonzo Fen- derson, Daniel L. Haynes, Charles H. Moore, Susie Sutton, Edna M. Harris, Anna May Fritz, Mercedes Gilbert and scores of other colcred artists of dis- tinction. —e Wccents Are Out. No matter how charming they may | cound, Southern accents—and in | fact, accents of any kind—are listened to with a jaundiced ear at the Para- mount studios, according to George Somnes, director of the company's voice and dramatic school. Four players, Lona Andre, from Nash- ville; Gail Patrick, Birmingham beauty; Randolph Scott of Virginia and Kent ylor from Dallas, are affected by nes’ ban on accents, for they must sybmit to having the “r's,” “g’s” and other inflections of “pure English” re- inserted into their vocabularies. . In explaining the unusual decree, Somnes said: “Unless players can enunciate pure | English they are limited as to the parts they can play, their work and that of | the studio which employs them being hindered thereby. “Souterners—and for that matter. ! Yankees and Westerners—must have all | traces of provincialism removed from their speech before they can become Y Bersonanly; T Mke the South % 3 e ern ac- cent, but my duty to Paramount is to see that players contract can enact any type of role on & moment's notice.” » Broadway’s Newest Play Details Country’s Ills Elmer Rice. Author of "We. the people.“ Does Nm O'Eer Practical Remedies, Howevcr, and His “Crusade™ Is Hampered. By Percy Hammond. EW publicists are more disconso- late in their view of current woes than is Elmer Rice in “We, the People.” For him no stars shine through the cypress trees as he broods with considerable animos- ity over the long list of his country's ills. Adding to his angry heartaches is the morbid conviction that nothing is boing done to make America again a happy land. Wealth treads unrestrained on the neck of penury. The Nation girds itself for war, ignoring the com- plaints of wrathful pacifists. United States Marines are still in Haiti. School teachers are underpaid and sometimes not at all. There is preju- dice against citizens of foreign geneal- ogy. Banks break, legislators prattle, universities teach wrong lessons, chain journalism exerts an evil power, courts persecute the under folk, and the police shoot at them when they orate in pub- lic places. Thrifty manufacturers self- ishly close their plants when there is no sale of their product, throwing honest toilers out of work. Tilling the soil is unprofitable, and labor is starved and bankrupt. The only items that Mr. Rice omits from his omnibus indictment are possibly the prohibition amendment and Roxy. Being a prosperous artist whose for- or not. In the rige that follows he is wounded by Capital's bloodthirsty guardsmen, an in¢ident which in “We, the People,” Mr. Rice regards as bar- barous. In that attitude he is right. But I seem to remember that when not 50 long ago Mr. Rice himself produced a failure he closed it quickly and dis- charged his actors, ushers and stage hands with as much reason as dots Mr. Applegate in “We, the People.” However, it Mr. Rice is inconsistent as & propagandist, he is faithful as & showman, and is true to the box-office playgoers. The Empire’s audiences al- most shed their furs in sympathy with his one-sided arguments. All the rich and well-to-do characters in the cast are pictured as being successfully knav- ish, and most of the humble folk as helplessly noble. In one scene poverty and protest are exhibited as herolc, in the next luxury and opulence of blood- sucking monsters. Not since Mr. Gals- worthy's “Strife” has there been a drama so passionately and conscien- tiously partisan. It may be learned from “We, the People,” that the remedy for unemploy- ment is employment, that low wages should e made high, that the raising of wheat, hogs. a large family and sweat upon the brow should be as am- tunes have flowered in the hard times, | PIy rewarded as are the labors of the Mr. Rice may not be accused of looking | architect, the financier, the radio clown at things with the jaundiced eye of | OF the successful dramatist. That if envy. His heart is as large as his | the U. S. A. should sink all the battle- pocketbook. and his donations to_the | ships, turn its spears into fountain pens fund of public entertainment have been | a8nd its helmets into brown derbies, war lavish. “Street Scene.” “The Left| Would immediately and permanently Bank” and “Counselor-at-Law” are | cease to plague the earth. among the recent munificences that| If. however, Mr. Rice is frenzied and have brought him gratitude, riches and | fanatic as a missionary, he keeps his a reputation for welldoing. His cir- | head as a theatrical showman. His cumstances, I should say, are well Broadway training has taught him that enough to be let olone. Yet in “We, |8 sermon should be sugar-coated, and the People” he removes his coat,|SO he colors his dark omens with the clenches his fists and lays into the | drama’s tints and rouges. For instance, American scene with vim. In his hon- there is a scene in which one of the est and lusty hatred of it he forgets the | loveliest of the down-ridden school- rules of fair play and kicks his friendly | ma'ams (Miss Eleanor Phelps) lets adversary in the abdomen. The result | down her hair and sinfully takes her of the conflict, if a phrase can be bor- | slippers off in front of her sweetheart, rowed from the sports page. is “in the | 8 handsome slave of Wall street. A box.” That condition hampers “We. the | shell-shocked soldier becomes & victim People,” a little as a crusade. though it | of drink and beats his wife and little does not interfere with its value as a | brother; there are stump speeches, riots, good show. Its 20 acts, swiftly and | bloodshed, romance and most of the smoothly melting into each other on a | Other elements necessary to a serious revolving stage, produce an emotionally | Mmelodrama. At the end an innocent stimulating melodrama played by a | boy. framed by the police and emble- company of the drama’s most believable | matic of Mooney or Sacchi and Van- actors. If Mr. Rice were not so preju- diced and one-sided in his loathing of conditions as they are. one might be persuaded to join him as the final cur- tain falls. It is one of Mr. Rice's indignations in “We, the People,” that Walter Apple- gate, a manufacturer, unable to sell his output, feels himself justified in ceasing to produce it. Reluctantly he shuts his works, though with a clammy indiffer- ence to the welfare of his empioyes. setti, is sentenced to death by a savage young judge, the complaisant nephew of a political spoilsman. The play, though discomfort misguides its tongue and bids it speak of nothing but de- spair, is a lively and rhythmic convul- sion, and is well worth the price that Mr. Rice and the ticket brokers will charge you for attending it. Newman To;y. The plight 6f William Davis, one of his | ** JNDIA TO CAMBODIA,” E. M. New- most faithful and conservative foremen, does not greatly bother him. Since there is no demand, he believes, accord- ing to the cruel law of economics, that there should be no supply. Davis is laid off with scores of others, the mortgage on his home is foreclosed, and he is sent upon the streets in futile search for wageS. Rendered desperate finally, he leads a delegation of the unemployed to the idle factory, pleading that Apple- gate give them work whether he has it At the Fox GEORGIE PRICE, On the Loew's Fox stage this week. man’s second episode of his around-the-world trip, is to be pre- “sented at the National Theater this aft- | ernoon. Among all the exotic countries which exercise a magnetic attraction upon our imagination India is perhaps the one which most powerfully stirs the curi- osity of the traveler. Bombay, Agra, Delhi, Benares, Calcutta, with their teeming millions of mysterious people of every religion, high and low caste, will be brought before us. Dream palaces of mother pear], alabaster and marble, inlaid with precious stones, will pass before our eyes in an endless panorama. We see long lines of pilgrims perform- ing their morning ablutions on the banks of the Ganges in the glory of the rddiant East. Hordes -of fakirs with their frantic gestures as of men pos- sessed or mad will all be shown in & Tiew group of still and motion pictures. An unforgettable spot on this trip is the tropical island Ceylon, inhabited by a gentle, almost effeminate people. Through Burma by way of Penanj g0 to Siam, where we gasp with delight at the wats or temples built of colorful china. (Canals or klangs form the streets of ancient Bangkok and nese with modern thoroughfares recently in- troduced form a striking combination. We go to Cambodia for the “high spot” of the Par East, where we see the won- derful Angkor wat, all that remains of & once great city which in its day was as remarkable as Rome—an ancient Athens recently recovered from the Jjungle. Renate Muller Returns. R!NAT! MULLER, star of the Gau- mont-British picture, “The Office Girl,” which was also shown in some “Sunshine P ly “Marry