14 Mins.; One. The action of this little skit in “one” takes place in the shadow of the Sphinx. The woman has strayed from a party of tourists and the man is an animal collector for a circus. The lost one appeals to him for direction. Some flip talk is passed back and forth. The man does two songs and displays a good voice. The act can fit in on a small time bill to advantage, although not strong enough for the next to the closing spot.
15 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). A man and woman in a singing sketch designed for the Irish vote. The stage resembles a farm yard scene in Ireland, with a live black crow on a tree stump and a number of doves fluttering about a pretty picture. The man and woman dress in Irish costume of the period of the early 19th century. Both have fair voices. The woman does very well with counter harmony to several of the ballads by the man. It is a neat little small time offering.
19 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). This team has a sketch full of bright lines and something of a story that may pass on the small time. It seems too bad the playing isn’t better. The man is playing a familiar type of rube one-night stand manager, while the girl is the advance agent for a turkey girl show. The man’s rube dialect is bad and his sing song manner of delivery instead of being funny is monotonous. The girl also has poor deliver of lines. If someone took the team in hand and they followed advice there should be no reason for them not getting a route on the small time, at a regular salary
3 Mins.; One. “All wrong.” Two men. One a vaudeville actor acting as relief for a lighthouse tender (just so they can get in about “light house keeping”). This must have gone big in one of the smaller burgs for the team has a back drop with a lighthouse painted on it. For this, they should be billed as a light comedy act. Very light. After the lighthouse keeper sings a song the comedian (German) arrives and three or four gags are exchanged (including lighthouse keeping) and then the straight sings, received lightly by the audience, followed by the comic putting over a parody on “The Curse of an Aching Heart,” which saw the light of day so long ago it’s time to set a tombstone for it. A double number got one bow at the finish.
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.
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.; One. Florence and Lillian would be enough. Nobody would stand for the inferred “sister stuff” after a single look at them. After that the girls want to hie themselves to a couple of publishing houses and get new songs, then get someone to arrange for them a routine, and they will, with the aid of some work, evolve a “sister act” that will go right over the small time like a race-horse. The girls are dressing nicely, have good voices, look well, and it seems indeed a shame that they were not properly advised before breaking in. The taller has a rare voice for vaudeville, outside of the regular prima donnas, and the little girl looks, as though she might be a possibility as a comedienne. Just at present she is working straight and it is handicap. A few weeks with some one who could tell them what to do and pick their material would make the girls a contender for better time. They look fresh, and vaudeville is always ready to welcome new faces, if you can back them up with talent, which these girls seem to have.
18 Mins.; Full Stage. Two women and a man are the principals in this sketch of the popular melodramatic heart-interest type that always goes over in the smaller houses. There is the deserted wife who is left with a baby; the comedy Irish woman (in this particular case the usual janitress and the foreigner, an Italian second-hand furniture dealer) always the one engaged to the comedy character woman. Deserted wife is bewailing her solitary and destitute fate when janitress enters. “baby will die because I have not the money to buy milk to feed him.: is the speech, and then there is nothing for the C.C.W. to do except steal the milk from the dumb-waiter and obtain the good will of those in front of a laugh or two. The Y.D.W. then relates the tale of her early life and also shows how she was brought to her present plight and then C.C.W. again comes to the front and offers her a home. The man enters the scene accompanied by the C.C.W. He is to buy the furniture from the Y.D.W. is willing to marry him and she exists to change to wedding gown. In the meantime Y.D.W. returns and discovers that the man is her uncle and there is a clinch and the C.C.W. walks in on it, explanations follow and a comedy finish. The act is small timey from start to finish and the role of the Young Deserted Wife is poorly played.
10 Mins.; One. A man and woman singing and dancing team. It would be better if they dropped the singing and stuck to dancing.
17 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). “When the Sun Rises” is a dramatic thriller that will serve in a good spot on a small time bill and entertain nicely. There are three people, but the greater part of the work is on the shoulders of a man and woman, the other man, who has the role of dispatch bearer, is most likely the carpenter of the act. the scene of the action is laid in South Africa during the Boer War. An English Colonel and his wife are the principal characters. The hour is just before sunrise, and the scene the interior of the Colonel’s quarters. At the rise the woman reads aloud the copy and an order for the execution of one of the members of the command for neglect of duty, and intimates that she will do all in her power to prevent it taking place. The Colonel enters. She pleads with him to save the boy’s life (the audience is left to infer that the youth was her lover). The Colonel maintains he is powerless to act, as the finding of the court martial has been forwarded to Ladysmith, to the commander-in-chief. Since then the little command has been surrounded by the enemy and all communication the main army cut off. The wife then confesses the boy is the Colonel’s own son, born after he divorced his first wife. The husband decided to forge an order to stay the execution. The first gleam of drawn is seen outdoors and a single shot is heard (even though the Colonel calls it a volley). I: is too late. Ah, but no! Hark! A horse is heard approaching and the despatch rider arrives. It was at him the outpost fired, and the dispatches are from General Buhler, to the effect the boy is to be given a chance to die honorably at the hands of the enemy in case they capture him as the “enclosed papers must be forwarded to be relieving force,” and so the son is saved. The sketch has the makings of a good thriller, providing it is played properly and the action is hastened by cutting some of the talk and the scenery chewing. In the hands of Holbrook Blinn it could be whipped into a real act for almost any time, not excepting the Princess theatre.
