Evening Star Newspaper, May 21, 1933, Page 37

Stage -- Screen Mus ic-- Radio Part 4—8 Pages MARY PICKFORD -LES W SECR X;E HCWARD ox ETSZ — A Word or Two Regarding One of Our Stock Players ;The Theater-coing World. According to This Writer, Awaits Her Big Chance on Broadway. Weekly Plays Are Splendid Training. By E. de S. Melcher. “Critics who are amazed and dumbfounded when an actress who has played on the road and in stock com- panies for 10 years, but who is making her first appear- ance on the New York stage, gives a good performance. * * *"_George Jean Nathan in “Since Ibsen.” HEATER followers, as in the case of the critics whom Mr. Nathan takes objection to, are often high-hat when it comes to the matter of “stock.” The word to some con- notes an insinuation of below-par value in theater offerings. Those sophistically gifted persons who go only to the theater when they may see Lunts and Fontannes and Cornells and Hayes in action, and who never let themselves go ex- cept at a play which has been approved by the intelligentsia, often miss some of the choicest and nicest theater blessings that there are. A stock actress, an actress who knows the ropes, who has trav- eled here and there and every- where, is likely to know more about the theater than a Broad- way flower who has burst sensa- tionally into full-glory fame. The latter may be a fiery brand, full of actions which are first rate and | looks that are dazzling; she may | slouch and crouch and heave and roar with the best of them. She may roll her eyes until you are crazy, and drive you into mad, | bad insanity by the potency of her | art. But she isn’t, necessarily, the | only prodigy that the theater has! to offer. | There are actresses floating | about in the by-ways of our coun- t try who are quite as good, if not | better, than many of Broadway’s | popular idols. Reasons why they may or may not have stirred New York to a fever pitch are many | and obvious. Either they have not walked in at the right mo-| ment, and had to walk out again | before opportunity came (the rea- | son being that they were so much | in demand in the “provinces” that | they preferred to work and eat| rather than starve while waiting | for “fame”) or they have become so firmly intrenched in communi- | ties which are fond of them, that it has been difficult for them to | break away. It is a fact, however, that the| best of these hinterland people | are giving better theater to larger communities than you might| think—and that in these stock | companies opportunity comes to | them when you and they least expect it. S WE have in our midst at this| minute a lady who is a very good actress—who comes, in fact, | near to being a great actress. While she has not made herself known to Broadway as a Mrs. Fiske or a Madge Kennedy, she | has qualities which are extraor-| dinarily akin to them—and if| properly launched we are sure she would win the cheers of Broad- way's best. Leona Powers is a lady of very great charm and_ infinite talent. | She has one fault—the fault of | speaking too fast, of rushing her | words and hence sliding over them, when she gets excited. This, | however, s such a little fault,| such a molehill alongside the mountain of her other abilities, | that after you have gotten over | it, and after she has conquered | it, it is easily and completely for- gotten. Miss Powers has, particularly | this season with the National| Players, proven herself an actress worth writing home about. She has veered from a small, silly role | in “Riddle Me This,” to the chat~ | ter-box lady in “Grounds for Di- vorce,” to the nicely spoken heroine of “Good-by Again” to the mad, mad Judith Bliss of “Hay Fever” fame, with unfaultering zeal. grown in charm, increased in power and gone from onéemotion to another with a grace that when you look back upon it is almost appalling. What, now, is her begt me- dium? It is hard to say. Personally we found her at her nicest in “Good-by Again.” She proved in this that it isn’t necessary for her to be deep in “costumes” in order to be stimulating. It wouldn’t be fair to say that the less she says the better she is, but in this play she certainly accom- plished more with her eyes and manner than she did (through the fault of the play) as the hun- dred-mile-an-hour divorcee in the Ina Claire play. Miss Powers is an example of an actress who has gone far and been given everything except the cheers of Broadway, which she deserves. You will find no more popular actress in Washington, or in any of the other cities in which she has played. Her knowledge of the theater’s tricks are legion. Any student who is devoted to the drama should watch, for instance, the expressiveness of her hands (always a vital matter in an actress’ stock and trade) and the way in which they make some small, trite little emotion seem to swell with importance. Miss Powers knows the importance not only of being earnest, but also of tucking in her sails and minimiz- ing her actions, when a little action will mean more than a lot. She speaks with a dot in- stead of a dash, and she can pro- duce a tear with a smile when other actresses would have to trill on their most violent emo- tion for the same effect. It is hard to say wherein Miss Powers shines more than others. It is the way of the theater, that’s all—that what is least obvious is most effective. It is the loud explosive creations of the stage which you see and forget. It is the little sensitive things which you think you don’t see—and then remember. Miss Powers has that sensitiveness and that delicacy and that grace which few of her sisters in art have. She is a very great asset in a season of stock which is becoming more and more important as it goes along. “Laugh Week” Nancy Garner, who tops the stage bill of the Earle’s “laugh week” pro- ! More than that, she has| AMUSEMENT SECTION Che Sunday Star, WASHINGTON, ROBT. MONTGOMERY MADGE EVANS VHELL BeELOW 7 PALACE ¢ e S NEIL HAMI YTERROR I Outdoor Amusements, GLEN ECHO PARK. ALTHOUGH the season has just start- ed, the visitors are pouring in at the gates of Glen Echo Park. The new Spanish ball room is one of the ace cards in the “new deal” and MacWil- liams with his enlarged orchestra caters to the crowds nightly except Sunday from 8:30 until 11:30 p.m. Other amusements at the zenith of popularity include the dodgem rides, the big dips, the old mill, airplane swings, carrousel, etc. Both the dodgem ride and the dips have the benefit of new lighting effects this year, while the old mill has some jnew electrically operated scenery that is said to be a “knockout.” On the 27th with enlarged sand beach, will open for the season. SEASIDE PARK OPENS. 'AMED for its old-fashioned Southern Maryland hospitality, Seaside Park, Chesapeake Beach, opened wide its doors to the public this week end at the beginning of the thirty-second season of this 1esort. All of the park amusements, the giant roller-coaster, merry-go-round, miniature railway and numerous other attractions are going full swing. The 500,000-gallon salt water pool will be filled and ready for bathers if the weather is sufficiently warm. In any event, the pool will be open shortly. Meantime the chief attraction at Seaside is the boardwalk ball room, ‘where Bernie Jarboe and his Nitehawks furnish the kind of music that makes dancing a pleasure. As an extra added attraction the band is presenting this week end Frances Williams, Washington acro- batic and tap dancer, who scored one of the big hits of the 1932 season.: CHEVY CHASE LAKE. THE new Chevy Chase Lake, featur- ing Bill Strickland's Capitolians, opened for the season last Wednesday ht, Strickland is presenting a tal- en! combination of musicians and introduces four crooners in Al Norton, Lou Dable, Jack McCloskey and Jimmy Taylor. Lillyan Smith is also heard as & blues singer. 'WILSON RIVER TRIPS. ITH warmer weather here at last, hundreds of people have turned |to Potomac River trips as the ideal form of relaxation and pleasure. ‘The Wilson Line steamer City of Washington is carrying hundreds daily to Mount Vernon. The water route to Mount Vernon is one of the most his- toric short river trips in the world. Lou Berman and his orchestra play on the moonlight trips. Organizations are making plans for outings to Marshall Hall Park, as well as moonlight trips, and already more than 50 groups have selected dates for of May, of course, the swimming pool, | D. C, SUNDAY MORNI NG, MAY EDW.G. ROBINSON 3 MARY ASTOR qON — SHIRLEY GREY BOARDY~ COLUMBIA <@ FORREST i ORR ANOTHER . LA NATIONAL GEORGE ARL|SS - BETTE s ATHE WORKING MAN METROPOLITAN DAVIS 59 21, 1933. PAUL WHITEMAN . JEANIE LANG- (KING OF VAZZ/~ R/IALTO < LONG frame building, tucked away between a lunch room, towering sound-stages and a water tower, and looking ltke an elongated garage, houses, A and has housed, more literary fame than any single building in the world. This is the rambling structure known as “Writers' Row” at the Metro- | Goldwyn-Mayer studios. | For years famous authors have come | and gone, noted scenarists have labored over great spectacles of the screen. One | may find Moss Hart, gifted author of “Once in a Lifetime,” weaving dia- logue in the little office where once Basil - King, great novelist of a few | years ago, wove his brain-children into | seripts. A leading literary light of today, such as Willlam Faulkner, author of | “Sanctuary,” “Light in August,” or | “Turn About,” recently filmed with Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper as |“Today We Live,” might be seen treading the corridor where a few | years ago Rupert Hughes paced, con- cocting & new romance for the screen. Charles MacArthur of “Front Page” fame wrote the screen play for “Ras- putin and the Empress” in one of the offices in this rambling building, also Helen Hayes' first hit, “The Sin of Madelon Claudet.” Not long ago Gouverneur Morris, famous in Ameri- can letters, labored there, Robert E. Sherwood has been warking on “Edu- cation of a Princess® following com- pletion of the screen version of his “Reunion in Vienna.” ~Elmer Harris of “The Great Necker” fame worked and 8:15 p.m. and 9:42 p.m. LOEW’S FOX—“Secrets,” at 2, 4:35, 7:18 and 9:53 p.m. shows at 3:41, 6:24 and 8:59 p.m. RIALTO—“King of Jazz,” at 2:44, 4:31, 6:18, 8:05 and 9:52 pm. METROPOLITAN—“The Working Man,” at 2: “Writer’s Row” on “The Barbarian,” Ramon Novarro's latest picture, in “Writersl Row.” The “Row” proved a veritable bomb- shell to the industry 12 years 8go, when overnight it housed the most famous group of novelists in America. In a “greater authors” move —and great authors didn't write often for' the screen in those days—there came to this bullding Rupert Hughes, Rex Beach, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Gouv- erneur Morris, Gertrude Atherton, Le- roy Scott and Basil King, the then royalty of American fiction, An entirely new crop of writers are supplying the new talking screen and the modern celebrities with the drama of today—drama new in form, new in aspect and new of importance. Donald Ogden Stewart, famous hu- morist and screen wit, recently com- pleted “The White Sister” adaptation for the screen in the old building. A few doors down the hall is Thorne Smith, writer of such tales as “Night Life of the Gods,” “Topper Takes a Trip” and other humorous stories. Anita Loos, writer of ‘“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and other sparkling stories, recently finished an original story, with John Emerson serving as a basis for “Lady of the Night,” now being filmed. g L Writers who are now with the studio and others who have recently prepared storles also include John Meehan, Lenore Coffee, Martin Flavin, Maxwell Anderson, Cyril Hume, Gene Markey, Jules Furthman, Oliver H. P. Garrett, Bess Meredyth and Peter Freuchen, famous Danish explorer who has worked with W. S. Van Dyke in the filming of his book, “Eskimo.” WHEN AND WHERE IN LOCAL THEATER NATIONAL—“Another Language,” tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. GAYETY—“Peaches” Browning and burlesque, today at 2:15 Stage , 4:17, 6:04, 7:53 R-K-O KEITH'S—“The Silver Cord,” at 2, 4:01, 6:02, 8:03 and +10:04 pm. Gene Dennis at 3:34, 4:35, 7 PALACE—“Hell Below,” at 2:45, 5, 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. m;..z_'"m: Little Giant” and stage shows, at '3:35, 6:25 and pm. 6 and 9:37 p.m. COLUMBIA—"Hello, Sister,” this afternoon and evening. THE American Theater Society, which presented a number of plays on & subscription basis in Washington and other cities throughout the country last season and which has expressed the intention of continuing activities in Washington during the coming season, announces that subscription blanks kave arrived at the local headquarters of the organization and can be pro- cured by application to Mrs. Sidney &omu at the National Theater Build- A number of the cities which were included last year have been dropped from the list and only those which were definitely felt to be distinct cen- ters of appreciation and support for the best dramatic fare are being offered membership in the American Theater Society for the Winter of 1933-4. By concentrating its - interest in cities which showed a discrimination for the best and by selecting the plays to be offered in accordance with an analysis of the preferences of those cities, gained through the experience of the past season, the American Theater Soclety feels that it will be able to give its subscribers increased satisfaction in the new program of plays. The basis of subscription also has | been changed to accommodate varied tastes and pocketbooks. In all, six plays will be offered, three to be pro- ductions of the New York Theater Guild and three to be selected from the plays of other first-class Broadway pro- ducers. One may subscribe for the en- tire series of six or separately for either series of three. Annapolis Story. 'HRISTIE CABANNE, veteran direc- tor, and F. McGrew Willis, scr writer, will shortly be teamed again\to produce a picture with Annapolis as its background. Merian C. Cooper, execu- | tive producer of R-K-O Radio Pic- tures, has signed Cabanne and Willis to prepare Cabanne's original story, “The Glory Command,” for production. Cabanne, as the director, and Willis, Automobile and Aviation News LAURA HOPE CREWS — IRENE DUNNE \THE SILYER CORD” KEITH’S Bloodhounds and Little Eva Planning Broadway Revival “Uncle Tom's Cabin™ May Give the New Yorkers a Thrill—Good Old Plays Are Proving That They Can Come Back. By Percy Hammonk. INCE the Players’ Club proposes to revive “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” respectfully and with cap in hand, old timers are worrying about the attitude of the new audiences. What will their reaction be when Otis Skinner, as the saintly serf, bares his sable back to the rawhide of Thomas Chalmers’ Simon Legree—who is now, the press agent says, taking lessons on the knout from an expert whipcracker? Will they laugh or cry as little Eva St. Clair goes to glory, accompanied by asphodel vio- lining and the flutter of angels’ wings? ‘When Eliza Harris leaps from ice cake to ice cake in her flight across the Ohio, pursued by bulldogs, will they be ex- cited or not? 1Is there a chance that they will seriously appreciate the com- edy of Marks the lawyer, the drama’s funniest shyster, e: Portia? - Or that they will answer the humorous ap- peal of Topsy and Miss Ophelia? It is said that not a tear save those of disappointment has been shed the past season in the New York theater, and that the only .smiles have been hard and cynical. Perhaps the players will give us warmth by their sincere and dignified “Tom,” show. We need not be ashamed gravely to enjoy the promised performance of “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” My hi es tell me that when Willlam Cullen Bryant first saw the ascension of Little Eva into heaven he sobbed; and that Edwin For- rest, who loathed all performances save ‘nis own, was impelled to covet the char- acter of Simon Legree. Mark Twain thought “Uncle Tom” a masterpiece, and so, the records indicate, did Whit- tler, Longfellow, Herman Melville and Henry Ward Beecher. Senator Lyman Trumbull, Lincoln’s friend and rival (and Walter Trumbull's grand-da), went to see it with Stephen A. Douglas, in Springfield, Ill, and they both pro- nounced it a powerful instrument of re- volt, inspiring, as Mr. Zwieg says of revolutions in his biography of Marie Antoinette, born of idealism among the few and hatred among the many. Dis- missing all of that as comparatively in- consequential, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is important in that it gave Otis Skinner to the stage, when as a barnstorming child he began his career in the Tom role, while I, aged 11, lent my pet blood- hound, in exchange for a seat, to the troupe that was performing the classic in the op'ry house of my cradle vil- lage. 1, at least among those attending the premiere, will cross my hands and feel comfortable in the hallowed quiets and violences of the past. * k% X P. STEPHANS of Tides End, Bay- ” side, Long Island, questions my borrowed report of the Astor Place riots when it says that they occurred on the site now occupied by John Wanamaker. He writes: “Your account of the Astor Place mob is most interesting in this day of ‘Buy American,’ but I think that you are wrong in locating the theater on the present site of Wanamaker's. My un- derstanding is that it was on the tri- angle just to the south. I presume you have heard the tradition that the origin of the feud dates back to the hissing of Macready by Forrest at a performance of ‘Hamlet’ in Edinburgh when the former toyed with a cambric handkerchief. My father was a great admirer of Edwin Forrest and I still have a collection of pictures and clip- pings with which he proposed to in- terweave a life of the great actor. I have just retrieved from the remains of my_father’s library a copy of ‘Colley Cibber’s Apology for His Life,’ London, At the Fox 1822, which I have read with much in- terest; however, he forgets to note that he refused ‘The Beggar's ' when first offered to him, leaving it to his hated rival, Rich, to reap the shekels.” It was an angry feud, with Forrest, the American, calling Macready, the Englishman, bad names; and Macready retorting with the announced impres- sion that Forrest was but a bull; all Americans were vulgar savages. Twenty- two drama lovers, not 17 as last re- ported, were killed in the Macready- Forrest warfare, and many others were lamed. How different now it is when Noel Coward, Miss Beatrice Lillie, Miss Diana Wynward, Leslie Howard and Miss Fontanne, to say nothing of Philip Merivale and George Arliss, are U. S. A. heroes, welcomed with hospitable en- thusiasm as helpful friends from a hos- tile Jand. | * Kk k% LABT ‘week in the Broadway theaters ‘was unique in its upsetting of the Broadway axiom that “they never come back.” Five or six of the best of them did come back, successful plays of Iast year and the years before, too good, in comparison ‘with the current 3 to be relegated permanently to the ash heap. “June Moon,” by Ring : and George Kaufman, again pours its | pleasant acid on the romances of xylo- | phone alley; and Elmer Rice repeats his telescopic views of ordinary life in “Counsellor-at-Law.” “Of Thee I Sing” is home once more, kicking the Government from Supremé Court to Vice President, in the pants and at re- duced rates. John Golden and Miss Rachel Crothers defy the President in his effort to keep prices up and offer their de luxe drama, “When Ladies Meet,” at a cost between the range of any employe cf the Government’s wise and thrifty forest dole. Within a day or two Maxwell Anderson's Pulitzer masterpiece, “Both Your Houses,” will return, after a short pilgrimage to Philadelphia, trusting that since now it is a champion and wears plumes in its hat, it will attract the attention of the numerous but negligent drama fans. I hope it does, because I believe it should be a modern “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” arousing its audiences to parade, bear banners and make Narcisist for or against any subject that happens to occur to their hungry egoism. It may also cause normal citizens to think, if not to act. Next week we shall see the drama in various conflicts with ex- istence--“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” with its old-fashioned cheap, warlike and in- flueatial propaganda, and “Both Your Houses,” with its reasonably calm and ineffective statement of the facts. In spite of their efforts and those of other Broadway dramas, life, one suspects, will go on as usual Silent Film Finished. 'HE much-discussed Sergel Eisenstein filur, “Thunder Over Mexico,” which was financed by Upton Sinclair and shot, in 186,000 feet length over a period of 18 months, has been finally cut and edited by Sol Lesser and Harry Chandlee and will, according to the plans now made, be shown as a road show attraction starting late in June. The film will be released in six reels. The musical accompaniment is the work of Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld working with two Mexican composers, Juan and Francisco Comacho Vega. The world premier of the picture will be held in Los Angeles to be followed by a New York engagement and this in turn by 20 key cities through the United States. With the picture launched in this country Sol Lesser will take the film to Mexico City and there start the picture on what is hoped to be a world tour. As the picture is entirely silent, the first since Charles Chaplin’s “City Lights,” it needs but a change in the 20-odd titles which are scattered throughout the film. £ Co-Stars With Ann. ILLIAM POWELL has been signed by RKO Radio Pictures to co- star with Ann Harding in “Double Har- "’ the screen play of the rei London stage hlt.p > fening Ever since Merian C.