May 17, 19 2 3
MUSICAL COURIER
64
AMUSEMENTS
B'way and 38th Street. Evenings 8:15 Matinees: Wed. & Sat. at 2:15
KNICKERBOCKER THEATRE
Pop. Wed. Mat. Entire 1st Bale. $1.00, 2d Bale. 50c., Orch. $2.00 Henry W. Savage offers The Comedy with Music Sensation
״The CLINGING VINE”
with PEGGY WOOD and a Brilliant Singing Cast
Book and Lyrics by Zelda Sears	Music by Harold Levey
B’way at 51st St. “Subway to Door״ EDW. BOWES, Mng. Dir.
CAPITOL
World’s Largest and foremost Motion Picture Palace
Beginning Sunday, May 20th
Mr. & Mrs. Martin Johnson’s
“TRAILING AFRICAN
WILD ANIMALS”
The World’s Most Perilous Camera Expedition
CAPITOL GRAND ORCHESTRA
Erno Rapee Conducting CAPITOL BALLET CORPS—SOLOISTS
(Presentations by Rothafel)
Theaters under direction of Hugo Riesenield RIVOLI BROADWAY AT 49th ST.
Thomas H. Ince presents
"SOUL OF THE BEAST”
with Madge Bellamy A Metro Picture
NED WAYBURN presents the BEN ALI HAGGIN tableaux "DU BARRY”
With Music by VICTOR HERBERT FAMOUS RIALTO ORCHESTRA
RIALTO BROADWAY at 42d ST.
Second Week at Popular Prices
Cosmopolitan Corporation presents
"ENEMIES OF WOMEN”
By Ibanez—author of “Blood and Sand”
With LIONEL BARRYMORE and ALMA RUBENS RIVOLI CONCERT ORCHESTRA
cinema tribute to John Howard Payne and Home, Sweet Home was sung by Barbara Rowie, soprano, who was so nervous on Monday evening that she did neither herself nor the song justice. A very effective setting had been furnished, showing an old homestead with Miss Rowie wearing a costume appropriate to the period when the song was written.
C. Sharpe-Minor at the Wurlitzer again proved himself an organ wizard in his travesty on Poet and Peasant. Last to be mentioned, as far as music is concerned, but first on the program, was the overture, Old Tunes, played by the orchestra with its customary spirit, with Joseph Littau and Ludwig Laurier alternating at the conductor’s stand.
The feature picture was Thomas Meighan in The Ne’er-Do-Well, shown at the Rivoli the preceding week. Another number which was moved from that theater was The Cla-vilux (color organ), with George Vail at the console. A Max Fleischer “Inkwell” cartoon completed the program.
The Capitol.
Vanity Fair, Thackeray’s great novel, as cinematized by Hugo Ballin, was the attraction at the Capitol last week and it was interesting to note how great were the crowds which went to see it. It would be interesting to know just how many were familiar with the story and just what percentage of the audiences were drawn there by this comparatively easy method of learning the story. It was a picture well worth seeing. Mabel Ballin made an ideal Becky Sharp, and she was supported by an excellent cast which included Hobart Bosworth, George Walsh, Harrison Ford, Earle Fox, Eleanor Boardman, Willard Louis and Robert Mack. By special request the Dance of the Hours from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda was given with Mile. Gambarelli as Day and Alexander Oumansky as Night, assisted by the Capitol Ballet Corps. It was capital. Impressions of Rigoletto included an orchestral prelude, minute by the ballet corps, Cara Nome by Editha Fleischer; La Donna e mobile, by Frederick Jagel and Max Brefell alternating; and the quartet with Feline Falco as Madelena and Desiree La Salle as Rigoletto. It was exceedingly well done and thoroughly merited the enthusiastic and long continued applause with which it was received. Erno Rapee conducted with verve and held his forces, orchestral and vocal at all times well under his control. The Capitol Magazine and the organ solo by Dr. Melchiorre Mauro-Cottone, chief organist, and C. A. J. Parmentier, assistant organist, were warmly received.	May Johnson.
Sam Fox Completes Negotiations
Sam Fox, head of the publishing company of Cleveland which bears his name, has been in Europe since February, spending much of his time in London, Paris and various points on the continent. Mr. Fox’s first reason for going abroad was to enter into negotiation with one of the foreign publishing houses to handle his extensive catalog. The Musical Courier has just received word that Messrs. Keith Prowse & Co., Ltd., London, will be the sole agents in that country for the complete Sam Fox catalog. This is indeed interesting news owing to the prominence of such an affiliation between two publishing houses which occupy undisputed positions in the musical world. It is understood that after a short vacation Mr. Fox will return to America.
De Vere-Sapio Resigns from National Opera Club
Clementine De Vere-Sapio has resigned from the National Opera Club of America, of which she has been first vice-president since its foundation.
Musical Comedy, Drama and Motion Pictures
tion the excellent performances given by Sydney Kirkpatrick, Laura Bowman and Arthur Ray.
Notes.
Some weeks ago Henry W. Savage let it be known through the columns of the Musical Courier that he was very anxious to have singers apply for his new musical comedies, and evidently from the recent report of an audition, the applicants were numerous and of an especially good quality. In fact, the report from his office said that several of the voices were of grand opera calibre. Many of these aspirants for the light opera were given contracts by Mr. Savage and will be seen during the coming winter in his new productions.
The cast of The Clinging Vine, now enjoying such a successful run at the Knickerbocker Theater, contains many new names in the light opera field. This new talent is always welcome and Mr. Savage usually depends on the studios in New York for them.
Yasha Bunchuk, first cellist of the Capitol Orchestra, will be one of the soloists during this week. This week he is playing Orientale by Cui and The Swan by Saint-Saëns.
A1 Jolson returned to The Winter Garden on May 14 in Bombo, which it will be remembered he played for some months in his own Theater at 59th Street.
Caroline, presented by the Shuberts, has been one of the outstanding musical successes of the season. Tessa Costa, the charming little star, has had a most unusual run at the Ambassador Theater. The splendid cast that supports Miss Costa includes Helen Shipman, Harrison Brockank and a chorus of good voices. The entire production is one of the most artistic that the Shuberts have offered in a long time.
On Tuesday evening, May IS, the Shuberts brought Do Drop Inn, starring James Barton, to the Astor Theater. This new musical attraction follows Lady Butterfly which has been seen for some weeks at this theater.
Harry Askin, manager of John Philip Sousa and his band, announces that the present tour will begin July 21 and continue through until March of 1924 which will conclude the thirty-first annual tour. It is understood that negotiations are completed to take the famous leader and his band to England. The entire plans for the tour have been arranged, so it is said.
The Rivoli.
Home, Sweet Home Week at the Rivoli was the occasion for a most interesting tribute to John Howard Payne. A program note declared that this famous song “was sung for the first time on May 8, 1823, at Covent Garden Theater, London, in Clari, or The Maid of Milan, an opera for which John Howard Payne (1791-1852), the American playwright, wrote the libretto, and Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855), the noted British composer, wrote the music. The song is sung in the first act of the opera by a peasant girl who is held in a nobleman’s palace against her will. The role ■on that occasion was sung by Anne Maria Tree. The opera failed but the song has lived. More than 100,000 copies of it were sold in a year, and the publisher is reputed to have made $10,000 on it although Payne. gained neither recompense nor recognition for it.” Pictures of Payne and Bishop and of the original Home, Sweet Home (still standing in East Hampton, L. I.) were shown, and there was a historic reproduction of the premiere of the song, Beatrice Wightwick, contralto, singing the number. Miss Wightwick has a rich contralto voice of unusual beauty and gave the number with a sympathetic insight which awoke a response in the hearts of her hearers.
J. H. Foulds’ Keltic suite served as the overture, Josiah Zuro and Emanuel Baer conducting the Rivoli Orchestra with their accustomed skill. Lillian Powell is a fascinating dancer and her interpretation of Hugo Riesenfeld’s Veil Dance scored a success quite individual. The feature picture was The Rustle of Silk, with Betty Compson and Conway Tearle, rather different from the usual run of features. One of the most interesting pictures seen in many a day was Captain F. E. Kleinschmidt’s Adventures in the Far North, a seven months’ expedition of hunting, whaling and photographing as recorded by Mrs. Kleinschmidt in her diary. The photography is excellent and the subjects quite unusual even for its kind. For instance, there is the picture of a mother polar bear and her cub, the boat following the pair for a long time. Finally the cub is lassoed and then there follows a fierce battle by the mother, and as her reward the young one is finally released and they swim away, the cub being towed by his parent.
The Strand.
The overture at the Strand last week was Melodies Populate, including Beside a Babbling Brook, Wonderful One and Crying for You. In the cinema Odds and Ends some very fine pictures were shown of the ocean, birds, etc. This was followed by a novelty, The Porcelain Clock, in which there was a tenor solo by ׳Luigi Giuffrida and dances by Anatole Bourmann, Mile. Klementowicz and Mile. Bawn. Interesting pictorial news of the world was enjoyed in the Mark Strand Topical Review, and Kitty McLaughlin was applauded following her rendition of One Fine Day, from Madame Butterfly, accompanied by the Duo-Art.
The feature picture was Scars of Jealousy, with Frank Keenan, Lloyd Hughes, Marguerite de la Motte and Edward Burns. There is some splendid acting done in this film and there are many thrills, including a few good fights and a miraculous escape from a fire which almost consumed the hero and heroine. The first part of the picture takes place during the reign of Louis^XV, when one of his noblemen escapes the Bastile by coming to “New France.” One hundred years then elapsed and the scene shifts to America and deals with the nobleman’s descendants.
A Larry Semon comedy, The. Barn Yard, and an organ solo completed the program.
The Rialto.
May 6 to 12 was Home, Sweet Home week at the Rialto, in celebration of the centenary of that famous song. It was sung for the first time on May 8, 1823, at Covent Garden Theater, London, in Clair, or the Maid of Milan, an opera for which John Howard Payne wrote the libretto and Sir Henry Bishop wrote the music. There was a
Last week there were an unusual number of openings for this time of the year. The all-star cast of The Rivals was presented at the 48th Street Theater by the Players’ Club under the auspices of the Equity Players. The cast included Macklyn Arbuckle, Sydney Blackmer, McKay Morris, Francis Wilson, J. M. Kerrigan, John Craig, James T. Powers, Mary Shaw, Violet Heming, Eva Le Gallienne and Vivian Tobin. Performances were for a week only and it is to be hoped that these performances will take place more frequently.
The Apache, a play with a prologue and an epilogue, opened at the Punch and Judy Theater. Taken in its entirety there was not much to recommend it.
Uptown, West.
After a series of successful matinee performances Lincoln Osborn’s new play, Uptown, West, moved to the Bijou Theater, where it should have a long and successful run. It deals with the question of intermarriage between the Japanese and the Americans, but treats the subject in a rather unusual manner, the American being the woman—a woman of the majority, eminently respectable and not especially clever. The outstanding work is easily that of Henry Herbert, as Sakamoto, the Japanese husband, whose pathetic attempts to blind himself to the fact that his wife does not love him and rigid adherence to duty precipitate the tragedy. It is a role of extreme difficulty, since one is naturally inclined to side with the wife, but Mr. Herbert played it with such delicacy that never for an instant did allegiance wander from his tragic figure. Florence Mason, good to look upon, played the part of Mildred, the wife, in most realistic fashion. In fact, the most prominent characteristic of the work is its realism. They are all average people in a more or less fundamentally usual situation and the audience is prone to forget that it is not actually looking upon a chapter from the real life which it knows. Carlton Brickert as Allan Reed, the remaining link in the triangle, gave a performance of decided merit, making the returned lover an honest, upstanding young man one just couldn’t help liking. Special praise is due Angela Jacob for her remarkably fine presentation of Mrs. Golfarb, the kindly neighbor whose crudities and never-failing tongue gave her opportunity for some excellent comedy. As Sarah, the janitor’s^ daughter, whose careless tending of the baby results in his death, little Frances Victory was splendid. Grace Heyer as Florence, Mildred’s dope-taking sister; William Podmore, as the doctor, her husband, and Edmund Norris as McCarthy, the janitor who must be called the superintendent, completed a cast of unusual excellence.
As the title implies, the setting is on the upper westside of New York, and the residents of the metropolis will find much to appreciate in the stage business.
The Mountebank. ־
On Monday evening The Mountebank—founded on William J. Locke’s popular novel of. the same name—was presented at the Lyceum Theater. Norman Trevor was the star, assisted by Lennox Pawle. As far as the play goes, and an evening’s entertainment, The Mountebank was thoroughly satisfactory. There were many scenes, particularly the first two and parts of the third, that were unusually good, and sufficient action and climaxes to hold the attention of the entire audience. Norman Trevor has been seen in many and varied offerings in the past two years, in fact, almost too numerous since his great success in Enter Madame for an actor of his gifts and talents, and there seems no real good reason why The Mountebank should,not have a very strong appeal to those who wish to be amused. The part of Elodie was played by Gabrielle Ravine. While the role was exceedingly difficult and most exacting at times she managed to give a pretty clear cut character sketch. Lillian Kemble Cooper as Lady Auriol, though the part was not long, managed to give a very fine accounting, but naturally the entire action centered around■ Petit Patou, the leading role, assumed by Mr. Trevor.
The criticisms regarding The Mountebank did not all agree as to its merits, but viewed impartially and without malice aforethought we recommend it highly.
For Value Received.
For Value Received, a melodrama by Ethel Clifton, opened at the Longacre Monday night.' It is interesting though perhaps not gripping. Very clever indeed is Maude Hana-ford’s characterization of Beverley Mason, the attractive mistress-secretary of Almeric Thompson, the noted novelist (Augustin Duncan). She rises to splendid heights at the end of the second act- when she proves not a “penitent” sinner, but a defiant one who justifies without apology what she has done. Augustin Duncan gives a splendid impersonation of the blind novelist, although the part was a rather ungracious one. Harry Blakemore, as Anthony, the negro servant, does some very clever work. Louis Kimball, Cecil Owen, Eleanor Griffith and May Hopkins did their parts well.
Salome.
Those who attended the opening performances of the Ethiopian Art Theater on Monday, May 7, at the Frazee Theater were unanimous in proclaiming the success of this new movement. The curtain-raiser, The Chip Woman’s Fortune, a short one-act comedy was exceptionally well received. This intimate glimpse of family life showed the players at their best and Evelyn Freer in the role of Liza delighted and captivated the audience and the other members of the cast deserved much praise. Throughout the series of ludicrously funny situations and scenes they performed as though they were living and not merely acting their parts.
The versatility of the principals was cause for much comment when Miss Freer appeared in Salome in the title role. So, too, for Solomon Bruce who in the masterpiece of Oscar Wilde’s played the part of Johannan. Though many declared that the comedy piece was unbeatable it seemed as though Oscar Wilde had the Ethiopian players in mind when he penned Salome. Their rich, velvety voices lent themselves admirably to the vibrant, passionate lines of this great work of that great epigrammatist, Oscar Wilde. The magnetism and personality of Miss Freer held the attention of the audience at all times; Solomon Bruce as Johannan was consistently interesting nor should we neglect to men-