[New Act] Comedy Sketch, 14 mins; full stage. An old standard sketch formerly titled “A Tip on the Derby.”
The story has to do with a middle-aged couple. The husband likes to play the races and is expecting a telegram with the low down about “Mabel B.,” a horse he owns a share in.
Wifey is expecting a wire from her brother Pat, who is to call on her. The telegram arrive, each opening the wrong one and the usual complications.
It’s a good comedy offering for the smaller houses, the situation appearing new to the present generation of theatregoers, or at least now at the Harlem.
36 min. “Tom Walker in Dixie.” Second time for this sketch here and it was well received. Got plenty of laughs and finished to a big hand. It is a bit long, but very well played and with the special settings, held interest throughout.
Harry Bond and Co. in a melodramatic sketch with bits of comedy took three curtains. Bond is a clever performer and acquits himself with due credit for making this act what it is.
Hugh Herbert and Co., offering their “Mind Your Business,” from the typewriter of the actor producer, found considerable favor. The piece is in the nature of a revival, having been in abeyance with Mr. Herbert’s strict adherence to vaudeville producing recently. It has also been played on the small time by a minor company, but the present trio is a corker. The man supporting Mr. Herbert, who doubles in two character roles besides his original (that of Sam Simon, of Simon & Hirsch, bond brokers), is worthy of commendation.
Graves and Edwards, a man and woman comedy sketch, with the comedy lacking, came next, and went through their routine of talk with the same effect as though doing a dress rehearsal. They worked hard to keep up with the running, but the act misses, and they didn’t get a ripple out of the audience.
Maurice Samuels, a comedy skit with two men and a girl, Samuels doing Wop character, opens in full with a set of the inside of a flower store, later going to “ons” for a few minutes to talk, and then returning to full stage, having several heartthrobs throughout the playlet, makes four very pretty changes in costume. They were heavily bombarded with applause.
Valeska Suratt, the recurrent manifestation, looking like two-year-old and playing with that lithe vigor which attended her when she was a singer, when she was a dancer, when she became a film star and when she is, as now, a dramatic actress. Suratt spells vigor, fibre [sic] and animation, and she decks this with rare taste in dress, colorings, atmosphere, settings and detail – everything about her and the playlet, “Scarlet,” is daring, vibrant and positive. There is nothing manby pamby in anything attending it. The star and the material have at times perhaps been criticized, as all things human are, but no one ever said they lacked red blood.
Supported by an acting cast, with no posers, every one giving an account of the part assigned, “Scarlett” stood up for Miss Suratt at least as powerfully as it did last season. It took hearty laughs, was interspersed with applause, and at the finish drew seven honest curtains. The matinee was packed as a tribute to Miss Suratt’s drawing power, though it was the week before Christmas week and the unseasonable heavens sent splashing rain.
“Summertime” which Lewis & Gordon are presenting with Lorin Baker, is funny. Its line are filled with flashes of more than average humor and some are truthfully salient. The central character, the abused husband, reminds one of the plays which have been built around Ernest Truex. Nevertheless Mr. Baker acquits himself creditably, emphasizing the knowledge that goes with high comedy.
Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Barry were the first to receive a reception. “The Burglar” never went better. Jimmy Barry’s “rube” characterization seems to improve with age and Mrs. Barry’s laugh is laughing the audience into merriment just as niftily as when the team started back in the old Pastor days.
Oliver and Olp, with a stage full of furniture and props, tortured out some laughs. The act, “The Bee-Hive,” was the second sketch on the bill. The program says it was written by Mattie Keene and Leo Well. It doesn’t sound as though it took two authors to write it, though it looks as though it took wagons to haul it. A rainstorm finish saved it and it took three curtains here.
