Life, 1928-08-16 · page 30 of 48
Life — August 16, 1928 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Life contains entertainment gossip and humor circa 1928. The main column "Along the Main Stem" (Broadway slang) discusses Liane Carrera, daughter of legendary actress Anna Held, who is attempting a theatrical career. The writer uses contemporary Broadway jargon ("n.g.g." = "no good guy," "freak act") to chronicle her struggles—her show "laid an egg" (failed), and she's launching a new revue titled "The Theatrical Digest of 1928." The sidebar joke features Walter Winchell reporting on comedian Eddie Cantor keeping George Jessel waiting, with Jessel referencing Mayor Jimmy Walker. The punchline subverts the maxim "early to bed and early to rise" into a quip about avoiding mayoral ambitions. The cartoon "The Steam Shoveler's Lunch Hour" shows a laborer operating machinery while eating—likely satirizing working-class conditions or industrial labor. The gossip assumes readers' familiarity with Broadway figures and slang of the Jazz Age era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
—T) Dear Pat Wittarp: I've just come from one of the 46th Street hush - houses after exercising my elbows with — Jack Lait, one of the Mt stem’s veterans, who hypnotized me with tales of people he Perhaps the most arresting Jr... whose “when.” gab concerned Anna Held, immortal mater must have been a grand knew person 10 hear Lait unfold it. The assie’s tag, in case you didn’t know, is Liane Carrera, and she has been toying around with the theatrical producing racket with so-so luck. At any rate, the Stem is rooting for the kid to click and when the locals give anybody a boost, Willard, it’s a safe wager that that per- son is not an “n.g.g.,” which is Broad- wayese for “no good guy.” Liane is the only child of Anna Held’s only marriage, to a South American mil- lionaire. She was born in that allegedly dear old Paree, the year Dewey took Manila. Her mother died of a broken heart in the Netherlands Hotel here. Hating men, she left her estate so tied up that no two-timer could take advan- tage of her kid long, high or often. The pay-off was fixed at wide intervals. So the gal became a Hammerstein “freak” act, and for a spell attracted pretty good jack, but it wasn’t steady. She dwelt on the farm that her mamma left her up near Peekskill (Liane’s dialect calls it ““Peeskeel”) and now and then she took down a little bundle. Lately, how- ever, the prime securities, realties, and other hevedicimeats swelled so greatly in value by prosperity’s accretion that her most recent installment was a handout which took two men to lift. Always artistic, she returned to the theater. Suspicious of guys by heritage, she decided to roll her own productions. So she opened a piece called “Restless Women,” a subject on which she can qualify as an expert. The show “laid an egg,” however, and she is to try again with a revue labeled “The Theatrical Di- gest of 1928” (awful title) soon. She drives, or is driven, about in a Lincoln. Caane _ ALONG THE MAIN STEM they are making their revue entertainers occupy tables Boeween performances to give the joint some tone, I have heard some swell tunes, however. “Sweet Sue” isn't new but it serves to keep you cool and get you “hot.” Then there is “The Lowdown,” a sizzling and contagious stomp from the “Black Birds” revue, and “Meditation” is a lift from one of the old masters, but it is oke The current nifty concerns Eddie Can- tor, who kept George Jessel waiting for over two hours on a corner. When Cantor finally arrived on the scene Jessel cjac- ulated: “Good heavy ens! Where have you been?” “T'm sorry, lo- gized Cantor, “but I ran_ into Mayor Walker.” “Oh, yes?” chirped Jessel. ‘What's he doi: I ntally the revised adage now goes: “Early to bed and early to rise and you'll never be Mayor of New York.” Walter Winchell. She loves her farm, Broadway, nice furs —and a woman who runs a boarding house, because that woman was always kind to her mother whether she had it or not. Her other pashes include the Brook- lyn Bridge, her oo-la-la pearls, osteopaths in crises and a hundred photos of her en- shrined mammy, most of which are dis- played in her home. She hates a lot of pills who weren’t nice to the adorable, unforgettable Anna; men who took advantage of her own forcign- ness, ingenuousness and _inexperience— snoopers and spurious friends. She has a few airtight protectors (one is Lait) who can't forget What, Who and How her mother was, and who have learned to kind o° fancy the kid, also. I hope all of this gives you an idea of the wealth Liane inherited. You're rich no end, Willard, when the “mob” goes for you in a Big Way on this canyon, which, if I had my own way, would be named “Two- Time Square.” The night clubs are still hollering “Uncle!” Most of the smarter places are so sensitive about the lack of business that rey IN THE FLEA CIRCUS In amazement I watched the trained flea do his stunts. “Did you educate that flea yourself?” T asked the man. “Yes,” he replied proudly, “I raised him from a pup. Oo oo Tue Steam Suoverer’s Luncu Hour comicbooks.com