Miss Herford, with a series of four stories, entertained in parlor fashion. Her announcements of her various little stories are so frightfully trite and so lacking in any attempt to interject personality into them that they almost spoil the character studies themselves. Her present reperoire [sic] includes “The Matinee Girl,” “The Five and Ten Store,” “The Hotel Child” and “The Baby in the Street Car,” all more or less well known but still laughable.
Long Tack Sam and his sextet of Chinamen athletes placed a solid hit in the third spot. The Oriental is certainly a master showman. There is something doing for every second of the twenty-odd minutes his company holds the stage, and it is all done with a view to holding the entertainment at a pace. Speed to burn is the answer, and it was appreciated by the audience with hearty applause.
Monday night’s performance got away at eight sharp with the overture, followed by six minutes of Kinograms, after which the Johnson, Baker and Johnson trip pulled down a combination applause and laugh hit with the club juggling and hat throwing. They started the show speedily, only to have it slowed considerably by the rather dull early section of the musical routine of the Hughes Dup. The piano and cornet opening, followed by the cornet duo, seemed to take all the pep out of the proceedings. Later with the banjo routine and the popular stuff on the saxophone at the close the act pulled out with a corking applause return from the upper sections.
Reddington and Grant caught the walkout brigade, and to a decimated remainder bounded on rubber and turned thankless somersaults in a special set. An attempt at wit with a musical instrument before one of them played it as he revolved in air filled because of the situation in the aisles.
Moss and Frye, after piling up scream upon scream with their unique wit and uncompromisingly ludicrous dialogue, superinduced by fidelity to character and artistic maneuvering of their own manner of absurdities, slipped down on a fitting finale and drifted off instead of banging out. This team needs go bombardment to establish its worth, but if applause is desirable they might give it some thought.
Hampton and Blake strolled on for a knockout. Having attained a spot this confectionary pair tore the house to a frazzle with huge punch laughs and unbroken admiration and attention. Hampton is an extraordinary light comic; Miss Blake has a wicked way of shooting comedy cracks. Between them they stole everything in sight, and in view of all circumstances, may be credited with the legitimate hit of the bill.
Worden Brothers opened before a special production set, playing that old double, a mandolin and guitar; long time since that pair has been on the big time (the instruments). The men go from their seats on the floor to their backs on high pillars and juggle barrels and iridescent globes on their feet startlingly well finishing by playing their stringed machinery in that posture as they climax their trick stuff. Very pleasant, sure and bull’s-eye opening act. Went bully.
14 Mins; Two. Al White is singing five songs, running the gamut from popular rag to the sentimental ballad. He carries a pianist using a grand piano.
“Ordered Home” 25 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Scenery). “Ordered Home” is a playlet of love and war. The scenes are laid in Malabang region on the Phillippines, which allow of picturesque and unusual scenic effects. Rudolph Berliner, director of the orchestra at the Palace, is the author is more ways than one, as he is set down as the maker of the book and also part composer of the music. Franklyn Underwood staged the piece. Raymond Barrett wrote the lyrics, and Raymond Midgley staged the musical numbers: so it appears that the offering has about as many authors as the average musical comedy. There are several pretty songs, and the presence of native Filipinos gives color and atmosphere. Darmerel is debonair, as of old, and sings his songs well. If anything, the act is slightly too long and needs speeding up a bit. Just as this time, when war and patriotism are topics of the world over, this little story of love and duty ought to please as it did last Monday afternoon.
Aileen Stanley, the “Personality Girl,” went for big score on seventh. She gave eight or nine numbers in all, half of them being encored. Miss Stanley is recently out of William Rock’s “Silk and Satins. But for her vaudeville return the routine is all of published numbers. No doubt some well wishers aided in the returns, but Miss Stanley’s ability to handle lyrics is exceptional, and through that she won a lot of legitimate appreciation. With “Broadway Blues” she did excellently, and did more with “Bimbo” than several others using the number could do evenly together. There was a new novelty number of two, not yet established. Miss Stanley stands out from the usual, and it would be interesting to see what she could do with restricted material.
