Bessie Clayton

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25 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set-Drapes). Assisted by Lester Sheehan and The Clayton Sextet. Pep., Ginger, Paprika and Mustard, Bessie Clayton and her company, and that composes the best modern dancing act vaudeville has had, bar none. When the Bessie Clayton turn is seen, you will think of all the others – and then forget them. Miss Clayton heads and Lester Sheehan assists, also The Clayton Sextet, the latter furnishing the music. It’s 50-50 in this turn between the dancing and the music. The white orchestra on the stage, programmed as The Clayton Sextet is Mel Craig’s College Inn orchestra from Cony Island, and which also played at the College Inn on 125^th street. The “Sextet” has seven clean-looking young fellows, with Mr. Craig leading, adding a dancing violin insert, and another trick violinist is Al Tucker, while there is a trap-drummer with a cartload of effects, including a “fire alarm” number that takes the engine to the fire, also returning, but it isn’t strong enough to make it worth while, unless needed. Besides in the orchestra are two banjos, a piano and another violin. It’s necessary to make the music as important here as it is on the stage, for Miss Clayton’s act might not have been voted such a good one without it. In proof of that, the Joan Sawyer act and her musicians preceding on the same bill were enough. Craig’s men, including himself, played as though they breathed the very spirit of ragtime. It was their music (“Ragpicker” and “Michigan”) that made Clayton and Mr. Sheehan’s Fox Trot the biggest dancing hit the Palace has ever held. The dancers were entitled to all credit for their work in this, but the music carried them along. They just had to dance to it. Opening after termission, Miss Clayton appeared before the cloth to announce what the program had already stated, that she would do a series of dances of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. “Yesterday”  was a Colonial number in costume; “Today,” the fox Trot, followed by their own idea of a Tango, nicely executed with a Spanish movement thrown in for good measure, the turn concluding with Miss Clayton’s own fast tow dancing, such as she did years ago in fast time, hurling a hundred steps into three minutes. Between the dances the orchestra had its opportunities. Mr. Sheehan is a useful dancing partner, and looked well while doing the stepping. Miss Clayton looked truly remarkable, was dressed in that way also, and gave an exhibition of the way to frame a vaudeville act with dancing that commences where the best of the others leave off. It was the fastest and most pleasant 26 minutes the Palace has seen in many a day.

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