Judge — July 24, 1926 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

JUDGE I E of the most depressing changes that has come about in the native theater in our time is the gradual passing out of the old-time burlesque show, erstwhile delight of all connoisseurs of humor in its undershirt. With the an- nouncement by the Columbia Wheel that it is next season going in for revivals of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and productions of such past Broadway successes as “White Cargo,” with police injunctions to managers of such houses as the Chelsea either to behave or shut up shop and with the authorities of the Mutual Wheel toning down their exhibitions until they are now indistinguishable from so many Epworth League picnics, the burlesque show as we knew it twenty years ago seems soon doomed to go the way of such other estimable American institutions as cock fights, rye whisky and an honest Congre: The signs of the death of burlesque have been in the air these last ten years and more. It was at about that time that the two hundred pound blondes whom once we fran- tically cheered began to send in coupons out of the backs of the maga- zines asking for free samples of re- ducing cream, that the sons of the late lamented house managers, suc- ceeding to their fathers’ posts after four years at Harvard, began to look kance at the scene in which Ludwig Dinkelplatz besought Hyman Finkel- stein to take his feet out of the soup, and that the producers of the shows got rid of the old backdrop represent- ing the Casino at Monte Carlo, a lovable standby since the Civil War, and bought in its place a second-hand set of scenery from the Casino at Broadway and Thirty-ninth street. It was also at this time that the NG the SHOWS * by Geonpe Jeam Nathan ¢ “No Foolin’ Globe) —Or eminently tasteful and attractive 1 "s enter “Scandals” (Apollo) —George Whit Panoual, it Howard taining annual, if you overlook thi Brothers. “Sunny” (New Amsterdam) —Dillingham's best card, pl Marilyn Miller and Jac’. Donabue as partners. “Cradle Snatchers” (Music Box)—No tunes in this one, but more laughs than any other show in town, “The Great Got Brown” (Klaw)—Eugene ill’s meritorious dramatic study of pre- se and hypocrisy. “The Great Temptations” (Winter Garé One of the Winter Garden's best. Tak cheroots and patent cigar lighter along. “The Merry World” (Imperial)—Not much, but it has two funny sketches. “The Shanghai Gesture” Chinese make-up. (Shubert)—Sex in Night in Paris” (Casino de Paris)—You Pei theater in New York. aff That Of" comedy. t Mrs. Beam's” (Guild)—Fairly amusing comedy laid in an English boarding house. “Vanitice” (Carroll)—The Messrs. Tannen and Cook give this one a lot of bounce. (Hudson)—Still going (Wallack’s)}—Cheap farce- “Alias the Deacon” for no reason at all. “Abie's Irish Rose” fortissimo. “Tolanthe” (Plymouth)—Excellent revival; Winthrop Ames’ best job. “The Patsy" (Booth)—Weak little comedy with only Claiborne Foster to. make you forget the price you paid for your ticket. (Republic)—See above, “Love in a Mist” one. (Gaiety)—Nothing in this “Pomeroy's Past” (Longacre)—Agreeable light foolery by Clare Kummer. “One Man's Woman" (48th St.)—Awful tripe. “Sez” (Daly's)—Ditto ditto. “The Vagabond King” (Casino)—A well-sui musical comedy version of “If 1 Were King “The Man from Toronto” (Selwyn)—Dull stuff, “The Last of Crook stuff, wit! Mrs. Cheyney" (Fulton) Ina Claire at stage center. “Garrick Gaicties” kins. “Grand Street Follies” This year, pretty poor. "he Cocoanuts” (Lyric)—The Marx gents and their valuable humor. “Kitty's Kisses” (Playhouse)—Bad. “The Girl Friend” (Vanderbilt)—Bad. “Is Zat Sof” (46th St.)—Diverting comedy in the vernacular. (Biltmore)—Melodramatic flup- (Neighborhood) — “Kongo” doodle. “Craig's W favorite play. “One of the Family” (Eltinge)—Tedious fare. “Song of the Flame” (44th St.)—Top-heavy musical comedy. " (Morosco)—Mr. Pulitzer's (Garrick)—Bobbie Per- | this diverting one in the coolest | X a burlesque entrepreneurs began to feel the first faint symptoms cf morality and to wrinkle their brows over the scene in which the Irish comedian inquired ironically of Babe La Gervaise, the prima donna, why she wore her bustle in her shirtwaist, and why she wore two of them? Up to this period, burlesque had been gay and carefree. It was as left alone as a pretzel in Paris. And it flourished to the delight of all and sundry. Then came the first ripples of the blue waves that were presently to drown it, along with so many other things that once brought happiness to the humble Americano. To-day, it is but a ghost of its former self, and that gho: yearly getting more and more shadowy. Soon it will anish completely. On the stage where once we boys applauded the spectacle of the great Al Reeves pointing to a blonde hippopotamus and asking if anyone in the audience would give him a quarter for her pro- vided he threw in his hat, there will be only a tenth-r. te performance of some stale tenth-rate Broadway hick- pricker. On the stage that once held “Krausmeyer'’s Alley,” upon which no less than seven Presidents of the United States were fed in their gala youth, we shall hear nothing but the prayers of Little Eva. On the stage that once gave us, to our eter- nal joy, the money-changing act, the scene in which the German and Hebrew comedians pretended to be waiters in order to fool their wives and the scene wherein the Irish comedian got an eye full of flour when he talked into the telephone, we shall see nothing but a belated copy of the totem-pole number out of “Rose-Marie” and an imitation of the Tiller girls. Not long ago, in a burlesque house (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com