The second half was perhaps not so strong as the initial stanza, but the difference was negligible it’s hardly worth mentioning. Dugan and Raymond, who were down for next to closing, found it a bit hard, due to the time, but pulled out with enough left over to make that curtains accredit at that hour.
Nat Nazarro was doing well enough with his hand-to-hand feats until the two colored boys. Buck and Bubbles, showed, following which they proceeded to tie matters in a knot with their all-around clowning. On for half an hour there was never a let down, and with the finish of one more balancing bit the act was accorded a reception that took them up to the high mark for the evenings festivities.
Rome and Wagner were the inserted pair, not making very much of an impression with their conversation but picking up on the strength of a few high freak notes offered by the girl and her partner’s voice.
Johannes Josefsson and His Original Icelandic “Glima” Co., with their novelty wrestling, made a capital closer, the speed of the attack and defense contests between a wrestler and supposed footpads, holding interest for the four or five minutes necessary to put a finish on a great bill.
Maude Lambert and Ernest R. Ball were a riot opening the second half after the “Topics of the Day.” There is nothing like the singing of one time popular songs by the writer to stir the listless palms of a vaudeville crowd. This pair make their act a family party, in perfect good taste and done in a spirit of agreeable intimate badinage that communicates itself to any audience. They somehow seem to convey across the footlights the atmosphere of “regular folks.” Stage women of ample figure might do well to study Miss Lambert’s scheme of dressing. In the last gown she wears she is a picture of stateliness where a single wrong line might easily have given the impression of bulk.
Flo Lewis, assisted by the colored lady’s maid, “Dardanella,” was a bit of a let-down, although there was much in her flash kidding that hit the “wise” Palace audience. Miss Lewis occupied an amusing quarter of an hour, in spite of a little too much of a colored maid. The personal talk of Miss Lewis’ about getting her new vehicle was plenty of the “just among ourselves” sort of thing. The interjection of the colored girl, however, somehow take away the atmosphere of “class” that one expects at the Times Square Keith house. The hoke is rather obvious.
Eduardo and Elisa Cansino did a fast 15 minutes of real dancing. Their grace and activity not to mention the perfect good taste of their costuming and simple presentation, are calculated to show up a lot of “society dancers,” who make a lot more pretense in billing and parade in stage work. Their colorful specialty likewise fitted in nicely as programmed. Indeed the bill ran off just as printed and the original layout came through 100 per cent.
Mignonette, Kokin and Fred Galetti made a great opener. The turn is an odd frameup and catches attention from the entrance of the three players in the costume of Italian street musicians wheeling what looks like a hand organ. Their routine, aside from the work of the monkeys is varied and keeps the speed up, and the monks themselves are screams with burlesque barber shop scene. They had the house laughing uproariously and put the early comers in an agreeable frame of mind.
[New Act] Piano and dances, 14 mins, full (special). Two girls presenting a dance routine in a set of special drapes, with Hal Smith at the piano and offering the song numbers necessary to the introduction of each dance. The idea is a neat one and rather well worked out. With a little more speed the girl will be ready for the big time in an early spot. The piano player in the weak spot of the act at present; he fails to get his material over at any stage of the act. They open with a double; this is followed by a single with toe dancing, a fox trot double, and then an imitation of Eddie Leonard by one of the girls; a piano specialty by Smith, and a jazz double by the girls at close. The act is pretty and the girls work well together. There are three sets of costumes for the double and two for the singles.
[New Act] Cycling gymnasts, 9 mins; full. Two men working straight and a comedian offering a corking cycling and gymnastic routine. The boys open working three of the high-boys, this followed, by the two straights doing a hand to had on one of high ones. A bit of comedy follows with a large wagon wheel. A waltz by the straights on unicycles was an applause hit. Head to head balancing on a high one was the closing bit which brought applause, it is worthy of the opening spot on the better bills.
