Judge — May 3, 1924 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

THE HEAVYWEIGHT COMEDY CHAMPIONSHIP hy George Jean Nathan POA PRIZE FIGHTER Were to lay elaim to the heavyweight championship honors on the ground that he had: knocked out, in due successiun, all of the Singer Midgets, the only possible answer would be a nimble horse laugh. Yet there are le number of persons still left who take seriously claim to heavy y a conside Mrs. Fiske ht histrionie comedy honors on the score that she has in the last fifteen years triumphed over a succession of plays of a distinctly Singer Midget quality. It would seem, after these many years, that Mrs. Fiske is afraid to risk her reputation with the kind of play that would put up any fight against her. out, she timidly vason in and. season declines to fight any play her size and devotes herself instead to mere histrionic shadow boxing. It is thus that she preserves her standing as an unbeatable comedienne, IL is quite possible that Mrs. Fiske is the first-rate comedienne that her seconds claim she is, but some of us sitting outside the roped arena feel that it is about time she n to give us some proof of the fact. That proof is once 1in nol Vouchsafed in “Helena’s Boys.” the latest. specimen of midget. dramaturgy with which she has put on the 4 \ dramatization of a Saturday Evening Post story, he play is so feeble U Mn. F ‘ ss. A Uhird-r have not the slightest difficulty in convineing her audiences » comedienne would that she wats three times better than the material with whieh she was engaged. Mrs. Fiske, ina like manner, gets eredil. for licking to a frazzle a play that is already half dead before she squares off in f of it. The whole business is just a trifle pathetic. We shall begin to believe in Mrs. Fiske’s eminence more deeply when we are privileged to see the results of a pitched battle between her talents on the one hand and a decent example of high comedy writing on the other. “Helena’s Boys,” by ina curtain speceh, is her hatest discovery in the way ofp writing genius—it will be remembered that Mrs. Fiske been dour most intellectual Americ Mrs. Erlich, who, the star announced actress—""Helena’s Boys,” as Lwas about to say before E rudely interrupted myself, is still another of the Younger Generation dinguses. These plays dealing with the Younger Generation are all very much alike. In the first act the Younger Generation is shown telling its parents that the latter know nothing about life and in the last act the Younger Generation comes on with its tail between its legs and owns up that. the old-fashioned way of doing things is perhaps best afler all, Mrs. Erlich’s masterpiece. bumps along on the rusty old tracks. Mrs. Fiske’s next play, lobby rumor has it, will be a drama- lization of a story that originally appeared in the St. Nicholas Magazine. Continued on paye 2 are there goes Mirandy over into North Dakota—wonder if that gives me grounds for desertion?” comicbooks.com