Life, 1924-01-03 · page 20 of 36
Life — January 3, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page discusses the Hippodrome theater's reopening after a closing announcement, contrasting the old and new productions. The cartoon header shows theatrical masks and dramatic scenes, setting the "Drama" section context. **Key points:** The writer humorously describes their earlier farewell article about the Hippodrome closing—only to have it reopen that fall. They note the new show features the "Sixteen Mineral Lava Beauties" and Breitbart the Strong Man, a real strongman performer known for feats like lying on nails while horses gallop over him. The joke is that parents must tell children "Sh-h-h!" to prevent uncomfortable questions about impossible physics. The column defends foreign theater productions (like the Chauve-Souris and Moscow Art players) against critics, arguing good acting transcends language barriers. A good actor offers voice quality, facial expression, and visual beauty beyond mere dialogue. The underlying satire critiques American provincialism about non-English theater while celebrating physical spectacle over narrative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Anti-Climax after we had written a very sen- he Hippodrome on the occa- sion of its closing, as we thought, for good, that it would in in the fall. A is usually followed by the object's WWE brow last tumental va) dictory to dag: xe just our luck to have it reoper tender farewell from ur, having missed the train ut the Hippodrome was little piece of work, if we do say it, combin- that we wrote kward at th mmoth Playhouse (“mam- cent glance brave haunt the M moth playhouse” was a name did a rer spirits who used t t we got up for it espe- cially for that occasion) and a rather resentful look into the hen the by a hotel. Now t going to build a hotel on the Hippodrome s 1 Sixth Avenue would be occupied y certainly did say that they were . didn't they? with b. © the Hippodrome is open ag its flashing is play- and every one of the thousands of wd into the Mammoth Playhouse each day laughing in his sleeve at the sentimental display we made of last: sprit people wi ours — ‘ course, the new Hippodrome is not really like the ol one For one thing in goes up at the begin- ed to. This change the ¢ instead of coming « is well thought out and nwn as it t ie interests of s: ustom, ¢ conformity lished theatr For another thing ment of the B. f of regular Keith week to week. 1 new show is under the manage 1 will be made up cs, with changes from will make it easier for grown-ups who ve to take different shifts of children to the Mammoth ing the season. It will be from the children 1 weekly-change feature et til they are old en » realize that Daddy is not made of money The features ¢ he opening bill were the Sixteen Minera lava Beauties and Breitbart the Strong Man. The Minera lava Beauties represented Ve or the ¢ Ned “Elysia in a pageant ¢ urt of Happiness.” Other characterizations in the ty, and Mirth, So you will sec that the spirit of the old Hippodrome still marches on pageant were Spring, Fri sed. We can understand how a man may be pow sart, the Strong Man, we are frankly non ugh to bend an iron bar in fancy designs and per- These things Herr Breitbart docs as preliminaries. But e back flat on a bed of up turned nails and lets horses stamp over a temporary bridge which he is holding on his chest, the thing reaches a point where it is impossible for us to explain it to the childre nd we have to fall back on the old ruse of say Sh-h-h-h! You mustn't whisper in the theatre,” trusti that by the time the show is over they will have forgotten that particular question. when he lies down with his ba There was a certain satisfacti however, in noting this incredibly powerful man was suffering from a head- cold. He needn't think he’s so smart. HIS department has never been one to go in for forcign import foreign. We ions in the theatre simply because they are dn’t like the Chauve-Souris, nor the Moscow Art players’ lunges at comedy, and, all other thi being equal, we would prefer to have the lines in a play written in English if we are to spend the evening at it But we can not see the validity in the generally advanced argument that it is impossible to enjoy a performance in a ou know that f you don’t know what he language one does not understand. “How do he is a good actor,” people say, is driving at? A good actor has a great deal more to offer than a mes sage. He may have a voice with a quality like Katchaloft’s, ‘ of facial expression like Moskvin's, cither « ra range which would make an evening worth while. A motion pic ture which contains a series of beautifully photographed effects need have no story at all so far as we are concerned. Even if we knew no It ian, as we do not, the mere presence of Duse is exciting. And we have seldom received a more potent kick from emotional acting than that fur- nished us by Mme. Tilla Duricux in the German version “The Shadow.” The fact that we caught and recog- nized an occasional “gesagt” and “gedacht” had nothing to do with it. In fact, it rather spoiled the effect. What we saw was a magnif ent actress, with the voice and expres- sion and bearing of a magnificent actress, qualities which are recognizable in any Ia uage All this seems so obvious as reall not to need stating, but you would be surprised at the number of people who look askar » have enjoyed a per formance in a foreign language. Also, you would be sur at any one who claims prised at how hard it is to fill a page when there are no new plays opening Robert C. Benchley. comicbooks.com