Hong Ping Chien and Co. (5).

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“Pekin Mysteries.” 24 Mins.; Four (Special Set.) “The Pekin Mysteries” gets across big, and much of it is due to a bland comedian speaking English who is really funny in one feature trick, the stunt production of four-inch sticks that resemble spaghetti and which are inflexible from the nostrils in apparently inexhaustible quantities. Whenever this Hong Ping Chien desires to draw the attention from a proposed trick he proceeds to crackle as though about the lay and egg and then extracts a half dozen more sticks from the nose. There is apparently no question as to the possibilities of “The Pekin Mysteries” as a big time headliner. Opening quietly with a torn strip of tissue paper and a burnt piece of ribbon, the fish bowl trick is done then in a slightly new form through having a tier of half a dozen bowls produced. It is after this that the act livens up, a tiny lad finishing a specialty by inserting a plain bamboo rod into the pit of his stomach and hoping across the stage, balanced atop of the pole. Much time is wasted on the steel ring trick, which is cleverly done with a rather crude switch from the rings passed through the audience for inspection. Hong Ping Chen secures laughter with his solos on a brass pan with a stick following this, and then the real stuff comes, based on the saucer spinning on top of slender sticks. One of the three men, who, with a woman and the youngster, comprise the company, spins three of these saucers on individual sticks and turns a back somersault from a table, keeping the saucers spinning. After double fish bowl production, which was snappy because of the unexpected second bowl, the close was a knockout. A table is balanced on balls, making it really unstable, and one of the company with a glass of water in each hand makes aback-bend until his head is approximately two feet below the soles of his slippers. In this position he picks up a third glass in his teeth and drinks the contents on the way up in a manner that does not allow a drop to spill. He returns to original position with the contents of the other two glasses unspilled and jumps from the table, which topples from its delicate position. The act is well staged, with a fairly attractive special set; but it is the comedy which makes it unusual.

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