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Singing and piano playing.
The combination of Irene Bordoni and Lieut. Gitz-Rice as a vaudeville attraction carries no special significance. It does add though a $1500 weekly salary to the variety lists and perhaps that amount will more quickly tell the estimated value by the managers than anything else could, in or outside the act. It is rather a sight turn with curiosity directed to watching Bordoni. She has been out with the Raymond Hitchcock show. In her advancement in American theatricals Miss Bordoni has caught the popular favor, and appears deserving of it, though as a singer she must essentially be fitted, twice, in fact, when in a production and when in vaudeville. Lieut. Gitz-Rice without his uniform is at the piano, excepting for a moment when he stands up to tell a humorous story, which, while having its point, is just literally dragged in. Its abrupt intrusion does not add to the class of the turn, which is all class otherwise. Miss Bordoni sings several of the lieutenant's numbers. He sings a couple of his own, besides a medley of others, also composed by him. One is about taking off the uniform and wiring the Peace Conference to start another war, as the girls have no use for a man in cits, or something nearly like that, vivid enough in the idea to impress upon those who have seen Lieut. Gitz-Rice in uniform and heard his songs that he and the songs seem much different with the lieutenant in evening clothes. This is not disparaging comment, only an after the war observation. His music is strikingly reminiscent and with the war flavor of the numbers, besides Miss Bordoni closing the turn singing the French National Anthem, there is a suspicion of a red fire play in the act, particularly for its finish that can not be mistaken. When Bordoni sang the "Marseillaise," the entire house stood up for Lieut. Gitz-Rice as he played. It was reported at one time that making the audience stand by a vaudeville act was barred. Even if they stood they did not applaud as rapturously as might have been expected. Miss Bordoni's best was a French chanteuse, singing in the old style and modern, making it modern through "Madelon." This was her best in looks for in a black flashing costume, including hat, as the chanteuse Miss Bordoni appeared to be more in the vaudeville style than in anything else she did. In the modern part of the same number she reappeared in white, a color dressing scheme she essayed at the opening, with the same effect, for looks, neither to compare with the black. The chic French soubret or chanteuse for vaudeville is for Bordoni, in vaudeville. The ballads and then anthems-out. A comic number was mostly carried by the lieutenant in broken French, with a "Tres Beens" finishing line that got a laugh. The "Chateau Thierry" duet was the most meritorious. Bordoni and Gitz-Rice are of the once around kind, in the present turn, to those houses that are agreeable to paying the price for a heading turn that is entirely devoid of sensationalism, leaving it mild on the stage and at the box office.
Source:
Variety, 54:11 (05/09/1919)