8 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). Whoever laid out this act had evolved a novelty in the way of diving turns. There have been any number of diving acts in the past, some with one girl and some with many more, but these girls will be kept working on the small time. Each young woman has a pretty figure. The opening shows the trio posing on a revolving platform that sinks out of view behind the tank and then reappears with the girls in different attitudes. Six or seven of these pictures are shown and then the diving starts. The act is a very classy number for any small time program, and for full value should be on earlier than the closing spot.
15 Mins.; Full Stage. La Graciosa is offering a posing turn with the aid of lantern side effects and a cartload of scenery. It is entitled “Visions in Fairyland.” There are eight drops of scrim showing scenes leading to the inner circle of fairyland where the beauty poses. La Graciosa is a beauty of the brunette type, possessed of a figure which she exposes in fleshings. After the eight drops are slowly drawn up and the beauty is shown standing on a pedestal a number of slides are flashed on her which make her the center figure of views that seem to be enclosed in a frame. Some of the scenes are well worked out and very pretty, although the coloring is at times a trifle garish. There is a red-fire finish in the form of a “Let Us Have Peace” tableau that brought big applause. Several of the other views shown also brought applause Monday night, especially those showing the water scenes. One fault may be easily remedied. That was in focussing of the lantern. This means so much to an act of this sort every precaution should be taken to have it perfect in the matter of alignment. This act goes further in the way of effects that are brought about with the use of the lanterns. A rain effect and a snow effect are pretty and sure applause winners. The turn shows class.
13 Mins.; Three. A new “girl act” with but four choristers, making the quintet look rather skimpy for a number of its kind. The turn is dressed exceedingly well, with the girls having three changes, all good looking, the final one being a military costume, during which Miss Hyde does her Russian dance. This is the best in the turn and largely aided in getting it over. Miss Hyde was always a better dancer than anything else. She was formerly of Victor and Nettie Hyde. Now she is singing four or five published rags (doing a double version with one with the self-carried office orchestra leader). An English coaster number, in costume, is done by the four chorus girls. Miss Hyde’s enunciation is quite faulty, and naturally interferes with the lyrics getting over. The turn will do in certain of small-time houses.
19 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). “The Shoplifter” is a melodrama of the type that makes its greatest appeal to a small time audience. It contains all of the salient points that made the melos of a decade ago the popular entertainment for the shop girl and her beau. The plot of “The Shoplifter” smacks a little of the Horatio Alger stories. This has been modernized and placed into a set and environment similar to that of the first act of “Within the Law.” There is the mighty boss of the department close-fisted and grasping, the private detective, the shoplifter and all the attendant features that go with three principal characters of this sort. The department store has been systematically robbed for several weeks; the regular house staff of coppers cannot find the thief; an agency man is called in and he locates the crook. She proves to be the sister of one of the former employees of the store, who was injured while working and is at present in a hospital. There is a noted European surgeon visiting America. He is told of the boy’s case and although his fee is never under $1,000 he is willing to attend to this case for $300. Because of the fact that a jury refused to award her brother any damages for the injuries he received by falling down the elevator shaft in old flint-fist’s store, the girl starts stealing to get the required amount. She is caught and confesses and as she is about to be taken to the police station the proprietor’s own daughter is brought into his office in an unconscious condition, she having fallen down the same elevator shaft as the boy .At the sight of his own offering’s suffering the boss undergoes a change of heart and refuses to appear against the shoplifter. The act closed a strong favorite on the American Roof.
12 Mins.; One. Ball players of renown, Mike Donlin and Marty McHale, in their double turn for this season, are showing a very entertaining vaudeville act, considered aside from their reps on the diamond. Of the dialog, it mostly “puns” either Donlin of the Giants or McHale of the Yankees. In this way laughs are secured. McHale sings two solos, with the men opening with a well-written conversational number. The singer has a pleasing voice, a lyric tenor almost, and handles it very well. He got over an Irish number easily, and did unusually well with “It’s a Long, Long Way from Home,” following it. The principal line of this song was again used, when Mike in a recitation got his man around the third base, McHale breaking in there to again sing “It’s a long, long way from home.” Both players wear evening clothes. Mr. Donlin has greatly improved as a vaudevillian. He slips over dialog like a veteran. Mr. McHale needs to get a big more easy in bearing, but this will come with a few appearances. The two work well together. They now need an encore, when Mike should do (and kid himself about) his famous dancing. The act with the names is a good one for big time. They cover in their popularity all cities of the major leagues, and with “the act” to hold them up, make desirable booking.
7 Mins.; Full Stage (Arena Cage). Mme. Andree is working six of the cats in an arena cage of the type that was the centre of Bostock’s at Coney Island. Although her beasts are billed as lions they have the appearance of lionesses. None of the animals has a mane. Mme. Andree runs them through the usual routine of lion stunts; mounting of pedestals and a see-saw. The trainer has the animals so that they are constantly showing their fangs and claws and this lends an added thrill to the act. she works fast and holds the lions for a picture at the curtain. It is a good closing turn.
15 Mins.; Two (Special Drops) “The Girl and the Bank.” A nice-appearing two-act for small time, that is capable of being developed into big time material. The setting is the paying teller’s window of a bank on a dull day. A girl calls to cash a check. The paying teller, who squares the bank by saying it is a “Reserve” one, kids with her. From the conversation, not bad at all and quite nicely handled by the couple, the teller, closing the bank for the day by pushing the clock to three, sings a song. “Why Must We Say Good-Bye?” the title blending in with the clock moving. The girl returns, notices the teller is absent and seeing no one else around warbles “The Garden of Roses.” This must have been a troublesome movement for the couple to overcome, how to get the girl back and have her sing with a “legitimate” reason. Anyway the teller had only left to put on his evening dress, so when he got back, they both sang “Honey Bee,” a rather good number as they do it, with an original bit of business involved that suggests the pair were at one time in musical comedy. Another bit of good business is the best bursting, and on the other hand, they are using the Melville Ellis-Ada Lewis “Should a fellow kiss a girl when taking her home in a taxi?” The trouble with the turn just now is that when they are talking, one thinks it would be well to use a song here and there, and when they sing, one prefers the talk, not because they don’t sing well, but through the selections, expecting “Honey Bee.” Their voices are not for rags, however, but there must be more melodious numbers around the publishers than those employed as solos. Neither voice is strong, and the girl is the better of the two. The young woman likewise has a better idea of getting points over through emphasis of action and expression. These appear to be the same people, or man at least, that Mark reviewed about a year and a half ago when they were working in full stage. He made suggestions then the couple seem to have followed, and they should keep on trying to improve. On the general run their appearance and work, the people in the act should make the big time, either with a better edition of this turn or some other.
22 Mins.; Five (Office). Paul Gilmore and his company rushed into the Fifth Avenue program Tuesday evening, playing a comedy sketch that will get over in those small time houses where the audiences are not over-particular, as to story and methods of playing. Perhaps this sketch was built for the small time. It certainly could not have been intended for big time. There is not enough body to it, for the piece is only held up my Mr. Gilmore’s playing with that remembering a matter of preference. When a bachelor around 45 years says he hasn’t had a kiss for years, and balks away from one with the girl he has just became engaged to wed, it’s on a par with the vaudeville business of a decade ago about the woman a skins what a kiss is. And the Kiss-Moon Song is Heaven compared to it. The Gilmore-sketch story is of the bachelor in love with his youthful stenographer but won’t declare himself. The girl and her brother frame him to ask her. His only fear seems to be that he is too old. Then into the kiss stuff. The girl did the best of the quartet a couple of others having minor roles. There is plenty in this playlet that will make women who have missed much of what it contains laugh immoderately at the dialog and the antics, and they will laugh harder at it in the smaller houses than the large.
Up to 9:40 the only real hit had been that scored by Walters and Walters, man and woman ventriloquists. They scored in a regular way, the house forcing them back after the lights had gone down and up again, with Mr. Walters having a sensible little speech to hand out.
The Walters have a pleasing novelty for an act of its class. It’s uncommon for a double turn in ventriloquism, and especially with one a woman, while there is a boy dummy that rides a bike and the woman leads a “walking” dummy (girl) by the hand. This makes the novelty. Neither of the couple snatches the head off of the respective dummies to allow the audience to see they had not deceived. That’s another ventriloquial novelty. The talk is brief, the singing is done in the childish was as befits kid dummies, and the man, of pleasing appearance, gets hearty laughs when smacking his dummy for breaking in on the other’s song.
Miss Walters is personable and of equal help to the turn. It’s a certain No. 2 for the biggest, and can take care of a better spot in the other houses.
[New act] Songs and acrobatics, 9 mins; one (3), and Three (6). Man enters knitting, carrying knitting bag. Petite miss emerges from it for a lisping kid number, Fair. Man goes to “three” for a session on the trampoline. Another kid number by the girl follows meaningless and mildly received. Its elimination is advisable. He trampolines some more and she enters in a third costume change, this time in rompers, for a few springs. Finish fair.
Cutting that extra number may mean speed which while not a grave fault with the routine as it stands is certainto result in a better kneaded off ring. Good pep house openers.
