15 min. in 2. Spl. A ventriloquial novelty and the big surprise finish got a fine hand.
Coleman and Ray promised much on their opening, but failed to come through. The girl opens with a song before a pretty special cloth, setting, the man making his entrance for a ventriloquial bit, having some very good gags and fairly good as a ventriloquist; but they both miss showmanship. On walking off the man takes the dummy by the hand and they both walk off, the dummy taking step with the man. This seemed to strike the audience, getting a good hand.
Marshall Montgomery was fifth, moved up from the after intermission spot. Kramer and Boyle took the descent. The ventriloquist had easy sailing with his dummy, and was prettily assisted by Miss Courtney, who played the hostess perfectly. Montgomery, in addition to being one of the best of the voice-throwing fraternity and cashes heavily as a result. He attempted a brief monolog at the completion of his act to give the staff time to set for Nonette, and got by with two stories. Montgomery is still a good ventriloquist.
A.C. Astor, the ventriloquist, fared much better at the hands of the Palace audience than he did last week at the Riverside. There were two reasons: The first is that Astor seems to have speeded his act a little over the preceding week and the other that he could be heard in the Palace, whereas a great deal of his material was lost in the big uptown house.
Lewis and O’Hara, next to the farewell, started with a hoked spiel about a beautifying salve, and introduced the unprepossessing Mr. Lewis as a sample of the before and after using cure with the accent on the after. Lewis then vocalized a few to encouraging results with the former Lewis and Dody ventriloquist bit, closing the at to a hurrah. O’Hara is a capable straight with Lewis holding up the feature end handily.
15 Mins.; One. Fred Weber is offering a very ordinary ventriloquial turn that will pass on the small time and that is all. He opens with the boy dummy and runs through usual routine. His best bit is with “the crying baby,” which he thinks so much of that he repeats it until it loses all value, becoming tiresome. With his cry-baby and a good routine he could work out a comedy act that would take him along nicely. An idea is all he needs and this seems to be lacking at present.
Princess Radjah and Co. followed, and danced her way around the audience and into their hearts, making way for Frank Gaby, who stopped the show. He opens as a photographer and gets a lot of comedy out of this bit, also impersonating an English lord and doing his specialty, the ventriloquial bit. His accomplished mannerisms of putting this original stuff over proves him a showman of high grade.
Lambert and Philippe, a two-man comedy turn, were a laughing riot third with a bunch of lively hoke bits. The finish of the turn, a ventriloquial burlesque, with one man holding the other on his lap, is almost identical with the ventriloquist bit identified with Felix Adler’s act for several years.
Marshall Montgomery ventriloquized himself with customary effectiveness. His material has been augmented by making stock of the White Sox players and other current bits. All found a willing response until he finished to laud [sic] applause on six feet curtains.
Coleman and Ray have a production ventriloquil offering, the stage setting in [sic] striking, but they employ familiar gags. Just the same, they registered strongly with the crowd here.