Cowboy Williams and Miss Daisy gave the show a big shove forward with Mr. Williams’ cannon ball catching and bayonet juggling. For a closing trick Williams catches ten cannon balls in eight seconds – actual timing – on his neck, the balls being dropped from the flies at a height of about eight feet. Similar cannon ball stunts have been done before Paul Spadoni, first some 20 years ago, and others, but none have handled the trick in a more daring or showmanlike way than Williams. The team would do well, however, to drop the talk now used or get some real material. Daisy acts as assistant, lending atmosphere to the stage picture through a piquant personality and first-rate singing voice.
De’Lea and Orme are one of those sure-fire small time combinations that couldn’t fall down on the roof if they tried. The woman of the team is a tall, lanky comedienne, who suggests, without imitating wither, both Kate Elinore and Florence Moore, with a dash of Charlotte Greenwood. She’s a natural comic who could raise some little commotion in a $3.50 production just as she did on the Roof Monday night. The man acts as a feeder, and knows his business. With a little brightening and refinement of the material De’Lea and Orme should find the road to the better houses an easy mark.
Frank Ward, next to closing, and De’Lea and Orma, No. 3 divided comedy honors. Ward is a real monologist, one of the very few offering a genuine monologue with all his subjects related and delivered with a finish and comedy method second to none on big time. He does novelty encore that’s about an original as any piece of business can possibly be. This is an illustration of the different kinds of dances, but done by means of manikins on ward’s hands, with his fingers showing the dance steps. If the big time don’t capture Mr. Ward the big time will have to stand the onus.
The American Roof is an institution in its way much like Tony Pastor’s was a generation ago. There’s a certain individuality and character about the Roof just as there was about Pastor’s famous old variety house that many a far more modern and pretentious vaudeville theatre might well envy. Like Pastor’s, too, the Roof has a clientele all its own, discriminating, quick to recognize and appreciate talent and charitably disposed towards mediocrity. And to further carry out the parallel the Roof, like Pastor’s has its own way of arranging the sequences of its bills.
The Cromwells in third position performed quickly and neatly as usual and stood up well there. The juggler looked particularly neat in a white satin skirt and velvet jacket and so far as the house went he was a “she.”
On just ahead was Bond, Benton & Co. (Formerly Freeman, Benton & Co.) with the farce, “Handkerchief Number 15.” The setting calls for a divided stage, difficult to attain on the roof. Several new players in the act gave it a touch of freshness although at first it was had to tell what it was all about. The blonde girl in the turn looked good.
[New Act] Straight Singing Operatic, 14 mins; full stage. A straight singing combination of four males and three females with trained voices. One is a pianist. All are garbed in Colonial costumes. The repertoire consists of a succession of ensemble and duet vocal numbers, all operatic or classical. The harmony is excellent and the act held nearly three quarters of the house in the “before intermission” spot. The straightness of the turn will keep it in the smaller houses, however, for big time vaudeville audiences shy away from the non-comedy singing turns. It’s a great combination for lovers of classical harmony.
[New Act] Contortionists. 8 mins; one (1); Full Stage (7). Stryker makes a bluff at singing a song in “one” and goes immediately to full stage for some contortioning on a pedestal. He does a dislocation, passing a narrow bar over his frame and follows with a back bend and twist picking up and drinking a glass of liquid in the twisted posture. Stryker then dons his discarded hat and coat and effects a nonchanlant exit. The act lacks variety and aside from his contortioning. Stryker’s stage deportment and lack of showmanship ruin the general affect. The opening discarded. It contains neither originality nor merit. His routine of stunts could be lengthened out unless he was cutting under ordered. A fair small time opener.
Delbridge and Grenner sang five numbers and brought back recollections of an operatic quartet. None of the songs was overburdened with “pep,” but they like this sort of an act on the Roof – it lulls them – and they finished to enough applause for one encore. “The Mysterious Wall,: sketch, got to the house through the story it carries, but the two men and the woman who comprise the cast might have gotten more out of it. However, the act is o.k. placed where it is.
[New act] Musical and talk, 14 mins; full (Special). A musical team that has gone in for a sketch setting so as to be different. The drop represents a country bungalow with the woman playing the piano visible through the window. The husband appears he looks like a “light-heavy” who is dressed up in his Sunday best after a siege of road work. He handles the lines for a cross-fire at the opening of the act. There is some comedy with a prop viola and a flute and then a cornet is brought forward for the man to play. After this the woman joins in with a French horn and the two duet for the final number. It is an acceptable small time.
