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Singing and music.
The Bert Wilcox Naval combination for music and song holds eight boys in sailor dress, with the leader in the pit wearing the uniform of a chief
petty officer. The music is mostly from brasses, although at time two violins are played, also a banjo. A couple of songs are sung. In one vocal number nearly all the boys have an individual, verse, some in comedy dialect. While the scheme of putting the number over is a good one, the song itself is too draggy for this kind of a turn. The entire act is draggy, considering that the act has "Jazz" in its title. To make this more pronounced a ballad is sung just before the ending of the turn proper. What the act appears to need the most is a single
boy. who can go out in front of it and put a number over in regular fashion. With the musicians behind him and then again by themselves, playing fast rag stuff, the act, with all of its uni forms, will have a good chance. The manner in which it was laid out at the 5th Avenue last half last week seems to kill its big time prospect, although it should be mentioned the
Naval act closed near a lifeless show and had to contend with that.
Source:
Variety, 54:1 (02/28/1919)