Judge — February 25, 1928 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

Salvation, Incorporated How a Good Girl Went Right and a Play Went Wrong BY Grorce Jean NATHAN HE trouble with Sinclair Lewis that he is read by too many writers. After reading him, a lot of these gentlemen conclude that they can do what he-does very much better, and so consequently add to the dejection of the literary and theatrical world. Since Lewis turned out “Elmer Gantry” it would seem that dozens of short-story writers, novelists and playwrights have made up their minds to show him what's what. Yet the only result thus far discernible is a snapshot of Lewis that he sent me the other day displaying him seated behind a copious Seidel of lager in a Berlin malt-parlor laughing his head off. The latest boys to take a hack at the Lewis sort of thing are the MM. Howard and McArthur, both other- wise modest fellows. Their hack is called “Salvation” and was recently displayed to the public gaze in the Empire Theater. It essays to draw the character of a female evangelist of a McPherson-Utley blend and suc- ceeds chiefly in producing a character very much like Little Eva. Like Little Eva, the character in point undeniably has a certain appeal to such persons as admire blonde hokum, but as a study of an evangelist it leaves some- thing to be desired. Trying to hold the dramatic mirror up to Lewis’ pro- file, all that the playwrights have done is to take an exhibit like George M. Cohan’s “The Miracle Man,” put skirts on its central figure and leave out of the paraphrase all of Mr. Cohan’s theatrical skill. Earlier in the season, we had an- other such attempted cuckooing of Lewis’ materials in a play named “Bless You, Sister,” that ran for a shorter time than it would take Dr. Lewis to order up a fresh litre. The present effort, like the earlier one, em- phasizes the sincerity of its holy- howler and exhibits her as a sister to Pollyanna. With this point of view I have no quarrel; there may be such girls; there may, indeed, be just as Liberty Number of Judge [% this corner, Pauline Lord, star of “Salvation” Photo by Edward Thayer Monroe many of them as there are frauds. But in the theater, if perhaps not always in life, it takes adroit presentation to make such a baby convincing, and in making her convincing the MM. How- ard and McArthur have not been happy. Much of this is due to the shoddy fabric into which they have inserted their character. That fabric is embroidered with so many cheap wisecracks and with so inferior a grade of playwriting that, before the course of the evening is one-third over, Humpty-Dumpty may be said to be sitting pretty in comparison. It seems to be the idea of many of the boys who are trying to write plays around here that you can get any kind of play over, however sour it is, if ua enly you put enough sassy cracks into it. It is apparently the custom of these lads, first, to try to write a good pl. secondly, to read what they have written and to decide that it isn’t much good; and then, thirdly, to try to sneak it over on the boobs by intro- ducing Osgood Perkins or some other such joey into the cast and having him periodically interrupt the dull manu- script with snappy and presumably very comical allusions to the female dachshund, from whom the villain has descended, and to the resemblance of the character-woman’s face to a Ger- man pancake or a wet sponge. 1 vation” has been confected after this formula. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 21] comicbooks.com