rart - e g ue hi twelfth and l · gay of spirit and fleet of foot. they were dancing shows, full of...

rART

e gevue e ailsre t Er fencmq hows

Story of Rival r y withZ i e g f e Id Is ChoiceBit of Theater Lore.

By ChcHles Collins.ITH the "Scandals" happilyestablished at the GrandOpera house as Chicago'sonly important summer

'how in four years, a few glances111 the career of George Wh ite, theproducer of this revue [the twelfthin the series since 1919] are inorder. Florenz Ziegfeld, whosesupremacy he challenged with not-able success, has been deified, in asense, by a movie biography; andsentimentalists of the Americantheater, searching for new objectsof hero worship, certainly cannotoverlook the brisk little man whotaught Ziegfeld that revues couldhI' made faster and funnier thanthe lazy, luxurious ••Follies," whichoften seemed about to swoon froma sense of their own gorgeousness.Maybe Hollywood will eventuallytake steps to canonize him also.

1:1'. White is by no means an-cient. He was only 25 years oldwhen he staged his first" Scandals"on $12,000 in cash and $38,000 incredit, and that makes him todayabout 43-al1 age at which life isheg innirig, according to a currentfolk-saying. Nevertheless, he is oneof the demigods of the past to thepresent generation. lIe representsthe pre-talkie theater, the pre-warera, the olden, golden time whenthere were giants on the earth andgeniuses on Broadway.His start in life was as a vaude-

\'i Ie dancer. There is a legend tha the learned his stuff as a telegraphmessenger boy, deliver-ing messagesin Bowery saloons and honky-tonksto an accompaniment of clogs andshuffles, and that one of the waitersw 110, following orders, ejected himfrom certain malodorous premises8' a rhythmic pest was anotherchild of future Broadway fortune-11' ing Berlin, then called IzzyBalin. lIe made a precocious pro-ff'ssional debut, although there was)10 Major Bowes, with his eternalamateurs, to propagandize him as1h~ H dancing messenger boy."

Dimpled Knees ofAnn Pennington.He toured the vaudeville circuits

with a partner named Benny Ryan;hI' got an engagement in the NewYork Winter Garden; he rose tothe proud heights of Ziegfeld's•• fidnight Frolics" on the NewAmsterdam roof. On the way up,while he was appearing with Ray-mond Hitchcock in ••The Red Wid-0"'" he met an adolescent chorusgil'! with dimpled knees which weredestined for fame. Her name wasAnn Pennington. \Vhen White pro-duced his first "Scandals," wit hh imself in the cast, she was hisdancing partner.It is said that when young Mr.

, h ite. supposed 10 have no moresense than the average" hoofer," be-gan to talk about staging a Broad-way revue, Ziegfeld tried to dis-suade him from wasting his money.Perhaps he wanted to discouragecompetition also, but there was anair of philanthropy and feudal pat-ronage in his attitude toward thereckless upstart. White, however,\' liS not accepting any well-meantartvice that year; he went aheadw l h his scheme, Then Ned Way-burn, stag director of many mu-slna l shows, went to White with amessage fr m Ziegfeld. The greatZi gy, it seemed, would pay Whiteand Ann Pennington $2,GOOa weekfor' an engagement in the" Follies"j[ the you g man would drop hisproject.

T Iking Back toZ. Great Ziegfeld.This was White's answer:••You can tell Ziegfcld that I will

gi 'e him and Billie Burke $2,300 a" f'k to appear in my show."This bit of folk-lore is character-

lsI ic of th Broad ay life of thatperiod.The first "Scandals," containing

Ann Pennington, Moran and Mack,Lou Holtz, Lester Allen and Whitehimself, had a musical score by thethen unknown George Gershwin.The death watch of Broadway firstnlghters refused to dance in thestl'eets over it, and the adventure

)

-"

w •ue

TYPE OF"SCANDALSII

GIRL

George White'sII Scandals II c h 0 r u sgirls are almost asfamous for their looksas the late Ziegfeld's.Here is a representa-tive of the type:Peggy Badey, nowfrolicking with fortyothers in thE' latest" Scandals" at theGr nd Opera house.

[De Ml1'JJan l'lao'o.\

might have ended in failure if luckhad not been on White's side. TheActors' Equity association startedits historic strike, but White hadforgntten to join the managers'guild, and so his show was not in-cluded in the strike order. Thus itwas, for a time, the only musicalproduction on Broadway, and itthrived for a four months' run.White's revues have always been

gay of spirit and fleet of foot. Theywere dancing shows, full of blithe,pretty, scampering girls, and theycaught the favor of a dance-madnation. The impresario was alsocoach of the ballet, and he trainedhis steppers with the zeal of aRussian choreographer. Moreover,he aimed to put into every produc-tion a dance for general use by the[azz-hungry public and his infiuencecaused the popularization of suchballroom infections as "the Shim-my," ••the Charleston," and "theBlack Bottom." In his vaudevilleperiod he was the chief exemplarof the ('asHy remembered "TurkeyTrot." Students of American man-ners should jot down GeorgeWhite's name in their notebooks.He has started a lot of social pranc-ing in this country.

Stars from the" Scandals" Cons.ellation.Under White's auspices Paul

Whiteman's national vogue began,Harry Richman rose from cabaretfloors to the Ioottights, Kate Smithjumped into the big radio money,Rudy Vallee became an actor.However, the ••Scandll-ls" traditiondoes not focus around these celeb-rities. It is kept alive, rather, bymemories of Ann Pennington, Les-tel' Allen, Winnie Lightner, TomPatricola, Frances Williams, theMcCarthy Sisters, Will Mahoney,Willie and Eugene Howard, and themany other principals who figuredin two or three of the dozen" Scan-dals."

Dun'"h n

V riety Bill

THE DUNCAN SISTERS, in anew act. lead the stage bill at1he Oriental theater this week.They recently scored a big hit

at the Cocoanut Grove in Los An-geles, and they will present thesame program. Balaban and Katzhave arranged special productionnumbers. The remainder of theshow will include the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight pictures.

The Chicago theater's currentstag» bill offers l he band leader,Ted Weems, ot radio and night clubfame, and his organization, as head-liners. Tn" featured Weems per-Iormers arp Elmo Tanner, whistler;Country Washburne, comedian;Parker Gibbs and Dick Cunliffe,singers, and Perry Como, soloist.The show also contains the danceteam of Abbott and Turner, theRobbins Sisters and variety pel--formers. Next Friday's stage head-liner will be Milton EerIe.

Paul Haakon and his associateentertainers are in the fifth andfinal week of their engagement atthe Palace theater. With him areNina Whitney and George Davis,and others on the program includeBarto and Mann, Eddie White andthe Mangeans.Phil Baker will make his first

local appearance in two years atthe Palace next Friday. He willbring his own revue. Co-starringwith Baker is Connie Boswell, ofthe Boswell Sisters. Others in therevue are Helen Reynolds and girl

Hi Twelfth

CPI

.r c a qoybills

OPENIl'\G:"Triple A Plonghed Un <1e r,"drama. \VPA production at Grea tNorthern theater; opens tomor-row night.

('(,N1'INUEO:

Gf'(Hge 'Whilp· ••. Scandals," Broad-wav rev l.P. wlth 'Willie andEugene Howard and Helen Mor-gan as stars; Grand Operahouse; second week."Broken Dishes," .comedy, byAmerican Repertory company[WP J; Blackstone theater;fourtll week.

WE"RK1,Y CnANG}~';:

Ch.lral(<1 t"~.t"r: Vaudevl l ls ~ nrtclnema : Ted Weems' orchestra,hparlll11•..r.

rebcfI thp/lteT: Vallilp,,\1lp "ndcrnema ; Paul Haa knn , hl'",rtllnpr.

Stat",-J,"ke t"utpr: Vaudeville andcinema; new bill.

Ortenta! t11e1ltPT: Vaudevltle endcinema; Duncan Sisters, head-liner.

Rialto tht"ater: Rurlesque; .JuneSt. Clair in .. Broadway Revels."

Skaters, Irene Vermillion and danc-ing girls, and Ted Adair and RuthLo ng.

G~t Your Tickets NowFor Sunday!OM MI

AND HIS CIRCUS).lOW AT THE COliSEUM

2 Shews Daily-2: 15·8: /5 P. M,Ticket. on Sale at tIre Coliseum Today

15c and 2Sc(Reserved Seats 35c, 75c, $1.00)

GREATEST 0 TAPSTfRS~

SUAVE DECEIVERILL STEELE

$0 $S yOU '-lilt

Critic Weighsat of th

WPA Th terProject Leaders Planningfor Coming SeasonD spite Limited Funds.

By Burns Mantle.

NEW YORK. -[Special.]-His-tory ln the making has away of sneaking up on us.Frequently it is an estab-

lished and often a fairly startlingfact before we really are aware ofit. Take, if you are interested, thecase of the federal theater project.After five months' operation, duringwhich several thousand theater folkwere taken off relief and given jobsIn their own lines of work, a ques-tion arose as to how long the projectcould continue. Current appropria-tions were giving out and there wasno definite, or at least no officlal,confirmation of rumors that therewould be other appropriations totake their place.The federal theater project, how-

ever, enthusiastically has continuedon its way. That there will be addi-tional funds for the summer'swork was accepted as reasonable,seeing no plans to discontinue thevarious organizations and units hadbeen made. Now plans are being'made just as confidently for nextyear's work. A year's lease wassigned last week for the Adelphitheater in New York, which theWPA forces will take over entire-ly-aUditorium, stage, offices, pt c.There is a formal cancellationclause attached to the lease, butthe plans of the lessees indicatequite plainly that they f'xpect tofill out the year's contract.

National Director IsConfident of Success.At a WPA theater opening one

pVlming last week I met HallieFlanagan, the national director ofthe project. She is just back from awestern tour of inspection."When.' I asked, •.are you ex-

pecting to quit '?""We are not expecting to quit,"

she said, smiling confidently.••How far can the project g'O ': "

I asked."Just as fa" as your imagina-

tion can carry it," said she."Imaginations can be stlmulat-

lng, but it always isn't easy to sup-port them," I observed, looking aswise as possible.•.A way will be found," answered

Mrs. Flanagan. And the smile ofconfidence was still working.Well. Watson, what do you make

of that'? You cannot employ deduc-t ions based on former exoertcnees,because this sort of thing has neverhappened before. Ordinarily youmight argue that continuing thefederal theater project is good poli-tics, and that it will doubtless becarried on until after election. 111el1,in case Mr. Landon is chosen Presi-dent, it probably will be promptlydiscont inued as another expressionof boondoggliug. If Mr. Roosevel tis continued in office it may reas-onably be as quickly put aside inthe cause of that economy whichis to accomplish the balancing ofthe budget-if possible.

Question of UnemployedActors Important Issue.But this isn't going to settle the

matter once and for all. Here arethousands of formerly distressedcitizens who now have jobs. To takethe jobs awa~' from lhem would hE'

**

AND HIS BANDPlaying. entertainin9,thriHing dancers at thC'

I 062ND AND COTTAGE GROV~

I flllllmIllIm

'.--

" and l

to put them back on relief. Andt he federal theater is one federalrelief project that is returrunzsomething in the way of cash tohelp finance if s own activities. Itstill is collecting admissions frommany of its enterprises which, evenat a 55 cent high and 15 cent low,because of the large attendance andspacious auditoriums employed, pro-duce fairly sizable sums.Also there is the question of a

people's entertainment involved.All winter, in the metropolitan dis-trict, which is mostly New York,various units of the federal theaterproject have been giving both freeand paid for dramatic and vaude-ville enter-tainments in high schoolauditoriums, churches, Y. M. C. A.'s,Y. W. C. A.'s, settlement houses,etc.At the pres-nt fill''' t1l."sp units

are playing tile publk parks ~iveparks in each boroueh, t!Vfl night';each week-by means o{ pOI't:r.hl"theaters. They ha 'e drawn s ichcrowds to the playgrounds It th ",'"recreation centers ne -er hay seenbefore, and thereby have pla~pd Itsignificant part in the welfarework of the various communi1 ics,It is easy enough to say that thisis a foolish waste of puhlic fundsand should nos be. But it isn't, seasy to explain it to the people 'Nhohave enjoyed the experience of hav-ing this rec ation applied to ttleit'needs. 'or C3.SY quickly to th'nl(

up something 1'0 take il s ph(',both. as a public ,cn"atioll an<t apublic help to the WOl" ers em-ployed,

net' the WE' The te.--What Changes Win F II ow 1That tl1P fedp '<'\1theater PI'oOjc"t

is one <i<1Y going to E'n<i, \~" allkno v. The government is il thebu siness of subsidizing enterta i11-ment (or a short time only, norterunder the Republicans, longer, amay be, under the Democrats.However, the end is coming. Butdo allY of us know what is 4.0 fol-10'-"-' ? Or what reasonably should{OH0W?Wilt ih Vlll';()\'~ ~hl.l••. ,01' <'On-

LA T WEEKS

GUY'LOMBARDOand his Royal Canadians

lit th.

AIR-COOLEDPALMER HOUSE

EMPIREROOM

with thisSensational Floor Show

MEDRANOANDDONNA

World'. FozeDlOJIt Arqeutine Dancfttll

MILTON DOUGLASCHARLES CARRERABBOTT DANCERS

MAKE RESERVATIONSNOW

'No Dinnf'% Retlery& on.Held After 8 p , Ill,

11 + IIAdvertise m the Tribune

"

slderable number of !hem, l\vlngwitnessed how this plan made 11[ein their cit ies more auractlve forlarge numbers of their restlesspeople, decide to capitallze on thisgrowing popularity for cheap en-tertainment? Wlll separate munic-ipalities decide to add it to theireduca1ional budgets as something'that Is. or may become, as Impor-tant as public llbraries lud al'tgallertos ?Is this particular sectlon of relif't

history in the making to be theforerunner of such a marvelous ex-tension of all national theatr rdreams as would be quite beYVnc'lthe vision of men? Or will it a llbe fed inlo the hoppers of final ad-justment in another few monthsand forgotten?Whatever your poJi1 ies, Jt Is not

a Question that you can Iig ht.Iy tossaside and call set t led. Jt may havehpPll unwise to st art it, but bci ngl';1~lted something will have to bedone about it.

l4Ck of Funds Hasn'f

Stopped Group to Cate.To eturn to WPA activilies of

th present, it is quite apparent, asI sta rt cd to say, that whatever tile:::1 I of the funds, t hc1'<' "1'1' noP' sent indicat ions t Itt 11p. pro] r-tis to •• disoontin ed. Last w kfl'oe fit's of fhe \VPA sumn I' en-tel'(ainmp"ts in tbp thcalel' dl (1';Ct

\ 'S tntroduc-d, This i a rev-valof Geoorge R. Sims' :)1 y r- old melo-drama. "Th _ Li hts 0' London." inon •• of (lUI' tal' e t beer halh. Thefedl" allies a[~ nothill~ 'f not "rac-j ica), If lh •• jl('()plf' (' fln' pr ••r-f'1"f'1l('<' for h pr "illl U1pi!' dr m ,1l.11<t th~ s tL (If drama. U, ( is finvif.h 1:>""l', Ihf'ir 12,OV€I'lln nt 'iiig-i\'" it 10 (hem. Til •• people ,",vemado a fuss 0 . "The Drunkard"'iill beer, and" Murder in the Old

Red Earn" vtth beer, so the WP A,·,.,vives ••The Li hts 0' London"w'tlt ••r.1'h, :.;<' n" or thl:'! festtvity-

WILLIE and EUGENEHOWAR

7S-GEORGE"Joyous. Lively.

A SUMMER LAUGH TONICCOMEDY SMASII HIT

"BROI(ENDISHES"

STFl..LAR CAST-Prices 25c, 35c, SOc.Eves, Ex. Bun., 8 :30: Mats. Wed.. se., 2.30

BLACKSTONE 7t:lia"t~.MlliWhg'ROA Federal ~'hell.tre Unit. Harry Mtnturn, Dfr,

,'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!IIlIlIlIIlIlIlIIlIlIIlIlIlIlIlIlIlIlIIlIlIIlIlIlIhCHICAGO GROUP THEATRE62 E. 11th 'S1..l3el. M,c". Blvd. & Waho'hrho Har , 41 fl. Hox OfliC'''' Uueu 10 A.fI.!. 1ft l' ~f.70° Air ('oudi tloned lJy ltuto .D<;1I111Svstem3rd SENS\TJONAL WEEf

1933 1'{]U1.'lfW PRIZE 1'1.fY

"THE OLD MAID"By Zoe Al, in» and na.cn lVhartfJl1

"GIOU!) wclecmerl to Ghtcllto." - ellas. Collins.E"el'y :F:ycnln~ 8 :":(1 ~atllr(la.y Mntin('t' 2 ::10]\'itC'3 $2. $l.!lO. 51. :i(h', Mat. f:\at. $1. jOe

"1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111"

QUIETMOtv1E T

Mr.! n'd Mrs. Zi gfeld.eniOffing _ qui me-mend' lit homel Thatis - Mr. and Mrs.Ziegfeld .s th.." .reInterpret d b Wil-liam ,:towell an Myr-na Loy in II The GreatZiegfeld," whir:h isnow in its thilTl'eenthwe k at the Ell! nger.

old palm garden In 52d street. Ithas been done over by the Iederalsand decorated In the style of the'80s. There are ushers wearing thered or the British military, andthere are checkered table clot hs,Scenery and costume are also inthe tradition of the ' Os, and welldone. The performance employsprobably forty actors, and goodnessknows how many stage hands,ushers, managers, submanagors,and such. The prices are 40 centsfor seats at tables on the floor, and25 cents for seals in. the balconywhere there are no tables.The individual performances are

given with a flourish, but withoutdeliberate attempt to make sportof the old play. 'I'h'e audience iscontent to hiss and pplaud, anrldoes little pounding with its b 1'1'g lasse s, I have suggested that t~ppromoi ers put in a vaudeville sing-ing act or two to liven things up,but I don't know t hilt they w ill,Singing- goes with the beer drama,or should.

els'

Creat NortlJcru-TOMORROW IGHT-

GAT,A 01'1il\INGTJffi l.lVING :NEWSPAPER

"T LE 'AW JDR"

FLAS11 II hit'S IN '/'/11': FlJESilCAS'!, OF 101l ":; f1CENlo~SA DRAM o\TIC ~'R.TUMJ'HA 1"ell..-al Theater Unit

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