Blanson and Edwards closed with a line of familiar but sure fire silent clowning that kept the laughs booming like the surf down at Coney from the moment they appeared until they had run through their travesty acrobatic routine with the concealed wire.
Gallagher and Claire, following, got plenty of laughs with the former Ames and Winthrop skit, “Caught in a Jam.” They got everything possible out of the lines and business and contributed to the dancing carnival with a neat eccentric double, closing with a confortable balance on the right side of the applause ledger.
Eddie Phillips, second, pleased with pop songs, filling in between the numbers with stories, the latter but fairly handled. Mr. Phillips would do well to drop the spotlight for his opening, a fast semi-comedy song. He did a brief bit of stepping at the conclusion that was liked.
Claire and Atwood opened with acrobatics and clowning using for a finish a swing by the man ontop a set house. This is along the lines of the balance done by Bert Melrose and as done by the man in the Claire and Atwood combination, furnishes a bunch of thrills.
Nieman and Harris, a tramp and straight two-man combination, next to closing, stood ‘em on their heads with a line of old-fashioned comedy talk and nonsense. While the stuff was ancient, the method of delivering, was entirely modern. The straight is inclined to talk a bit too loud. Probably he thought it was necessary because of the sixe of the house. The tramp comic, besides owning a real voice, is genuinely funny in a quiet, easy fashion.
Al Shayne, headlining, has no trouble in clowning his way into a hot next to closing. The two “plants” did well in a comedy way, and Shayne cinched his kit by singing “My Gal Sal,” delivering it straight and scoring with the old ballad.
[New Act] Posing, 12 mins; full stage (Special Set). Nahailda poses on a pedestal clad in a white union suit, stereopticon slides clothing her as a butterfly, sea nymph, woman standing in a leafy bower, woman on a sleigh in the midst of a snow landscape, etc. The act is practically similar to all of the numerous posing turns of its kind that have preceded it in vaudeville.
Some of the slides did not fit over well at Keeney’s. This may have been because of faulty projection of the slides themselves.
Nahailda is shapely and pretty. The act may have played around under another name, although the Keeney booker stated that name was correct. With a correction of the improperly fitting slides the turn will do nicely for the small time.
11 Mins.; One. Ferguson and May are an ordinary two-act, relying on the woman’s singing and the man’s playing.
20 Mins.; Full Stage. “The Lollard.” The theme of this new Edgar Allan Woolf sketch is that a man does not look as well in a night shirt with his hair distributed as he does all dolled up. That is why Miss Conelli as the newly wedded wife claims her husband to be a lollard. The scene is in the apartment of an old maid dressmaker. The wife rushes into the apartment of the maiden lady in her nightie and wakes her. The wife tells how she was fooled in her husband and that she is going to leave him then and there. The old maid agrees with her that all men are scoundrels. The wife objects to this, saying her husband is a fine man, but that her hair does not stay the way he plasters it. The old maid has a male boarder (to make both ends meet), and he appears at this moment, in the wee small hours. The newly wedded wife spies him, all primped up, and decides he is the man meant for her. They begin a love match right away, but he is hustled off to bed by the housekeeper. The husband comes thundering at the door and is admitted by the proprietor, who hides his wife in the other room (not with the boarder). The husband looks very ungainly in his bathrobe, wit his hair mussed and his feet in huge slippers. The old maid tells him to go up to his apartment and put on his uniform, in which he appeared when he won his wife, and she would see that he got her back all right. The man does so. He returns and the housekeeper yells fire. The boarder makes his appearance in a night skirt, and the woman, catching the drift, flops in her husband’s arms. The sketch is well played. Miss Conelli as the fickle young wife is very amusing. The old maid as played by Harriett Marlottee could not be better. The male members have little to do. It is a good amusing sketch.
20 Mins.; Full (Special). In this sketch Edgar Allan Woolf attempts to satirize the private lift of an operatic prima donna. Who his model was matters not. The story that the author has woven regarding the domestic difficulties of the prima donna, her hubby and her teacher-impresario are interesting and extremely laughable, but the cast at present needs two changes, one mighty important. The story tells of an operatic star who just wed a young millionaire she is making his life miserable because of the daily routine that she must follow to keep her voice. There is the throat lozenge, the raw egg and the throat spray, and also the teacher-manager. This is enough to drive any young bridegroom to distraction. But the manager conceives a press agent plant which gives hubby a chance to beat up the manager and shows the wife that a career in the home is more important than one before the footlights and all ends happily. The producer must be taken to the task for his stage reporter. Never before has there been such a journalist in history. W. Mason who plays the role of the young husband fails at all time to be convincing Miss Murray very cleverly characterizes the role of the prima donna and W. Richardi as the teacher-manager is all that could be desired. The act needs to be whipped into shape and then will do nicely. At the Prospect Tuesday night it passed with three curtains at the close.
