Judge — January 12, 1924 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A GREAT SHOW FOR TEN CENTS by George Jean Nathan T costs one dollar and sixty-five cents to see the new show at the Hippodrome, but it costs only ten cents to get a program. Although I do not wish to be mean about it, I tell only the simple truth when I suggest that, since the program contains about five times as rich amusement as what goes on on the stage, you can have a royal good time by saving the dollar five and simply laying out a dime for the menu. As you know by this time, the Hippodrome has been taken over by the Keith vaudeville people. If you do not know it, the program will convince you, as Mr. B. F. Keith’s name appears in it, ac- cording to actual count and with but three pages still to be figured up, 8.715 times, not count- ing front, back and in- side covers or one in- stance where a misprint occurs and the name has heen spelled with the i before the e. The program enter- tainment, which I hearti- ly commend to all true eurs of the hot and juicy, opens with a half-tone of the Hippo- drome exterior. Above the half-tone, in large . is the inscription, . F. Keith’s Hippo- drome.” Lest the iden- tity of the building es- cape the reader, there is a line below the half- tone, also i in la raps. that s F. Kuith's New York Hip- podrome,” thus doubt- less distinguishing —_ it from B. F. Keith’s Ho- boken, New Rochelle and Flatbush Hippo- dromes. In order, finally, to avoid all confusion the legend “B. F. Keith’s Hippodrome” —_ appears conspicuously on the right and left front of the half-tone, to say nothing of on the two sides of the cut. There are also four or five smallersimilarannounce- ments scattered care- lessly here and there. Under the cut is a fulsome half-page tribute to B. F. Keith by the B. F, Keith press agent which winds up with this choice bit: “It is the ambition and determination of the management to preserve the Hippodrome (B. F, Keith’s) as the exemplar of the constructive, happy and civic ideals of Keith vaudeville in its twentieth century perfection.” If that isn’t worth a dime all by itself, I don’t know the value of mone On page two, Mr. E. F. Albee of the Keith offices, doubt- ss a little sore at all the fame B. F. Keith is getting, prints facsimiles of letters sent to him by Governor Smith and Mayor Hylan telling him that he is There. Mayor Hylan’s letter, incidentally, says that the Hippodrome “reflects the taste and Alice Delysia in the “Topics of 1923” at the Broadhurst Theater. culture” of New York, which, in its modest way, is also alone worth the dime. Page three has a picture of B. F. Keith (Mr. Albee also sneaks one of his own in), together with pictures of some B. F. Keith theaters, the whole bearing the caption, “An Epoch in Vaudeville History.” The text, written by the B. F. Keith press agent, confides to the reader the tremendous genius of B. F. Keith and his associates. The next page, by vay of variety, has a cut of B. F. Keith's Hippodrome, the B. F. Keith being in exceptionally large caps. lest the near-sighted miss it, and surrounds B. F. Keith with photo- graphs of the Prince of Wales, General Pershing, Marshal Joffre, Cardinal Mercier, Gene Di Bishop Mannix, Eamonn De Valera, | Maurice Maeterlinck, = Marshal Foch, a couple of kings and queens, a few Presi- dents, and a handful of dukes and earls. I am told that a picture of Jesus will be added in the near future. The rest of the program is devoted, save for a few advertisements of Onyx Hosiery, the Corn Ex- change Bank’s annual flattering statement and the kind of depilatory used by Hope Hampton, to B. F. Keith, B. F. Keith’s Hippodrome and B. F. Keith’s New York Hippodrome, particular stress being laid, save on such occasions as Mr. I F. Albee works his name in, upon B. F. Keith, with the name printed in bigger and bigger capitals on each succeed- ing page. If you are good at guessing, you may cre now surmise that the program is not backward in telling of the millions on millions of dollars that have been spent to rebuild B. PF. Keith’s Hippodrome that it may be worthy of the first “de luxe” vaudeville bill. Much is made of this bill. It is said to represent the art of vaudeville in its highest reaches. It is said to be vaudeville in its supreme bloom, vaudeville nulli secundus, ne plus ultra, sans pareil, hot do Then the orchestra, Mr. Julius Lenzberg all dressed up conduct- ing, plays a march by Julius Lenzberg, and the curtain rises. There follows the great B. F. Keith vaudeville, “inspired by the genius of B. F. Keith,” in this order: 1. A team of Japanese acrobats who come out in fancy bathrobes, bow, throw aside the bathrobes, reveal themselves in lavender tights, bow again, and proceed to turn somersaults and juggle clubs. At the conclusion of the act, one of the Japs (Continued on page 31) comicbooks.com