Bosseye Clifford started the show, but didn’t make the house forget the downpour outside. Her posings showed her pouring water from vases in no less than four different vases in no less than four different vases. She sure wears a classy union suit and shows more of it than ever.
Dick Duffey and Hazel Mann found a ready market for their very neat and brightly dialogued “Via Telephone,” offered in No. 3 spot. This turn isn’t designed for a comedy punch. But there is plenty of humor. Both the players are neat workers. Neither can sing, but they don’t make any serious efforts at that and their turn gets a standard rating.
The show was classy but quiet. Comedy was missed until Harry and Emma Sharrock brought on their sparkling personalities and happy dispositions to open intermission. From their entrance down to the old-fashioned hit they registered, the house was all smiles. Maybe an extra laugh came when Miss Sharrock parked her feet on the “ballyhoo box” which has a broken board and cracked loudly.
The Moore and Megley production, starring Corinne Tilton in “A Chameleon Revue,” closed intermission excellently. The billing still mentions the offering as a cycle in five verses, but since the rhyme is no longer programmed the billing line is a bit ambiguous. The producers show care in their management of the act. The costumes are fresh in appearance and little details are well taken care of with the whole turn spelling neatness. Miss Tilton’s work again stood out clearly and her souse stood up as the bets bit of its kind in months. The revue moved at right tempo and drew hearty applause at the curtain.
The finish of the bill was furnished by Mable and Dora Ford in their “Frolics of 1920,” and they managed to hold the house seated with their first three numbers, but as it was then 10 after 11 the house started drifting, but the girls with their final stepping held the greater part of them standing at the back for the finish of the act.
Three acts held the second part after the “Topics” had been run. Bert Errol opened the section and flopped on his opening number without a ripple. A Spanish melody, his second song, got a little better results, and it remained for “Japanese Sandman” to pull anything like a real hand. “In Apple Blossom Tune,” with the impersonator clad in a bridal costume, was a hit. The Oriental number which followed did not receive any great return, but the comedy closing in one was “there.”
Harry Miller, assisted by a company of seven, a male soloist and six girls, and what looks like a carload of scenery, put over the spectacular flash number of the bill. It is a big act, but the results from the Riverside audience, were not commensurate with the size of the production. At that, the only real applause of the entire show came during the offering when Miller stepped out alone and let his feet flay. He can dance, but other than this one solo bit held to working with two girls and naturally had to hold himself in.
There were two really good sketches on the bill. The first was the John Hyams and Lelia McIntyre offering, “Maybloom” with a couple of songs. It is a neat idea, nicely done, but not an act that will ever be a riot. It is one of theses pleasantly quiet turns that are liked but never raved about.
The third hit was down in the second half and delivered by Edith Clifford, who was scheduled to open the late section, but was moved down a number, being preceded by the Russian Cathedral Singers (New acts) who were originally programmed in the first half. Miss Clifford hit home with “Oh, What a Boy,” and followed it with “Going Up.” The first with a slight tinge of the suggestive got over in great shape. Roy Ingraham at the piano sung, “Ireland Was Meant To Be Free” and scored. Then Miss Clifford, after a change, put over “Simple Mary Ann” and “Weaker Sex” neatly finally offering “Nathin’” for an encore.
There was but a few minutes at the opening end of the show that proved real vaudeville, and Henry Lewis, making his return to vaudeville in his former act, was entirely wasted as the closing act of the show. There seemed to be a lack of good judgment in placing Lewis in the final position, although it must be said that he held the house to a man with his foolery.
The Lewis act is identically the same as it was prior to his deserting vaudeville and going into production work. He has the same dressing, and the only bit of the turn that is dropped is the scenery of the “Laugh Shop” with the giggle register. He sings poems, operas and “squidgulums,” and the audience howls. He dances and cuts up generally, and at the finish there was the usual speech, but the applause wasn’t strong enough for him to do a regular number after the act itself was finished. Had he been on a little earlier in the bill there is no doubt but that he would have walked away with the solid hit of the show, that much was indicated by the return that he got in the closing.
