THEATERS . MOTION PICTURESMUSIC Mft STtifai

PAKT III SIX PAGES

RESORTS.TRAVELART

SUNDAY, JULY 25, 1920 PART III SIX PAGES

ïïhe STAGE andIts PEOPLE

AsWe Were Saying.By Heywood Broun

COME SEVEN" seems to us a

of no great dramaticanee, and yet ita step in the right

Erection, it serves to scratch or.e ofthe riel which lies open forthe American dramatist. Almost noth-

'^ro has been writtenfor ouiHere bow is a people rich

onal qualities whichmake for drama, and our playwrights

pass by on the other side. Theyfar journeys to distant

¦lands and remete centuries to capturesome of the ¡und qualities of feelingud expression which might be foundin the very men who run our elevators.To be sure, the negro appears now

and aga.ri in our plays, but invariablyical figure. Our playwrightsthat anybody who laughsmust or necessity be a

ky comic figure" In six«. York seasons Ridge ly

only author, to thection, who has made

the negro except on therce.

the negro often uses

which he does not under-craps and, perhaps, even

he joke book tradition infondess for watermelon,

were in depths which are

the exploitation of anylalil ies. The tragic and

of this race whichcompulsory a'.ienship

is consistently overlooked. Prob¬ably this is defensive. Of course, weall know perfectly well that there isa negro problem, but our dramatistsmake us forget to worry about it byassuring us that the negro does notcare a rap about economic or politicalequality if only he can have friedchicken and a little jazz music. Thetheater enables us to overlook everywrong thing we have ever done to thenegro by presenting him as a manwho is having a perfectly hilarioustime.

It cannot be said that "Come Seven"presents any other conception. Its ne¬groes are the traditional folk who askfor our merriment and nothing more.Scratch any character in the play andyou will catch nothing more than aburnt cork comedian. "Come Seven"marks a step forward only in that it iswritten with the confident assumptionthat the theatrical public may be inter¬ested in a play which deals with negrocharacters only. Unfortunately, thereis little variation in the folk presented.The play might well have been the workof the song w si ter who composed theonce popular ditty "All Coons LookAlike to Me."

The one performance in the playwhich seemed to us to capture a sug¬gestion of authenticity was that ofLucille La Verne. One or two other per¬formances were facile and clever, no¬

tably that of Earle Foxe, but they keptto the surface, like most cork products.

"What is a Revuer Is BeingAsked as the Summer Music

Productions Begin Runs^%NE wonders, as he takes his place\£j in the orchestra circle of a Broad¬

way theater to see the latest mu-"«al comedy productions and behold

of vaudeville "sister"teams come and go

*>ut the length of the program°ne wonders just how long vaudeville isWing to hold up under what must beBow a real drain upon its performers.

isual condition has existedftronghout the last winter reason and

nent in almost every»-«ailed "revue" in the city, and unless,

theatrical men aro

going to be swampedr revue" throughout

¦*Qxl winter for severa! seasons to¡lie continue to con¬

to them*"revue? It should

dhere to the recognized meaning°* the term, ntation of some-:nir'E v n done by another in

the Broadway "re-little of "reviewing."

n 'act, almost everything that is done,from the regular acts of vaude-

1:lp. is something very much futuristic;n design rather than something that"R3 tli:** :; the past and now is

being viewed again.The theatrical producers no doubt

a 'nappy idea when theyhigh class vaudc-

ippear, using their vaude-'« acts ¡n musical compdy perform-

We« which they were to stajje as "re-Ms." But not only one or two of these

"fgan'.zation.i contained vaudeville acts-fom the first curtain to the last, butI'lmost all of them did it/ There were»Oae producers who abandoned entirely,

»PPc-ared, any thought of keeping a*«ain thread of thought or "plot," lit-'e »a a musical comedy production need.'ave a P'ot, but sacrificed everything10 the popular appeal that might beSained by the presentation of rollickingWng and dance numbers or a half-doxcn

Cerent girl and music acts straightfrom the vaudeville circuits.A« we consider* this drift vaudeville-

*&r<l in the musical comedy stage, weei* back and wonder where the men

have gone who wrote and staged thosegreat musical extravaganzas of othertimes. Have they stopped writingtheatrical productions?The revue, as you may or may not

know, is an ihiportation from France,originally, and was supposed to con-

sist of a succession of burlesquedproductions of parts of the season'ssuccesses. This is what the "Follies"'was in its tirst few seasons. At theWinter Garden, also, the original ideaof the "revues of 19 so and so" was

that actors should reproduce insatire and in burlesque the most sue-

cessful of the Broadway plays andmusical productions of the current

or past year. By many those WinterGarden performances were said to bethe best of anything ever staged there.But the path has been deserted. In

place of mock performances there isone long succession of vaudeville inmost of the theaters housing musicalcomedy to-day.No one would be so untruthful as

to say that the present vaudevilJizedproductions are without merit. Thefact is that in a great many instances'the variety stars have drawn thegreatest amount of praise in the re-

views and criticisms of the New Yorknewspapers. The question is whetherthere is going to be an end of it. or

whether the vaudeville circuits will beforced to resort to methods unknownheretofore to hold their performers.Finds 32 "Id«e«l Men" to WedThere are at least thirty-two men in

the United States who consider them¬selves "ideal men to marry."

Colleen Moore, a screen star, was

quoted recently by a news service on

the qualifications of the "¡deal man."Before she would consider marrying,she explained, every one of the speci¬fications would have to be fulfilled. Todate thirty-two men have written or

ttlegrsphed to her that they can qual¬ify. Long distance telephone callseven carried some of the assurances tothe young woman. She has not as yetdecided which of them shall be thelucky one.

Not Unduly Elated OverRecord Run; 'LightninVLeading Lady Tells Why

0 HAVE played the leading rôlein a Broadway play that has beenrunning for almost tyo years

ough't to delight any actress. BeatriceNichols, the leading woman in "Light-nin'," holds this enviable record, yetmakes the confession that she is notexcessively happy over it at all.A long season In New York is what

every player is always yearning for, andit might reasonably be assumed thatMiss Nichols was an exceptionally happyand contented actress, since the play hasbeen at the Gaiety since August 26, 1918,and seems destined to remain in NewYork indefinitely.

This charming and to every one butherself» more than fortunate youngwoman made some interesting revela¬tions on the occasion of the 800th per¬formance of "Lightnin'.""How does it feel," she was ques¬

tioned, "to be in a play that has brokenthe world's record for continuous per¬formances at one theater in one city?""Of course,-' said Miss Nichols, "I

have always wanted to be on Broadway,but to have played rilo re than eight hun¬dred times in a part I em not nappy inis a great disappointment, for the strug¬gle to reach Broadway has been a par¬ticularly roundabout journey for me."

Meeting a look of mingled surpriseand wonder, she hurried to explain:

"I have always played and always felthappily suited in ingenue roles of a

comedy character type, such as Teg o'My Heart,' and when I reached my goalmy reward was a 'straight' part. An¬other thing: I've always been cra::yabout clothes, a woman's privilege, youmust admit, and the only clothes 1 can

wear in 'Lightnin' 'are shirtwaists and

skirts. Please understand that I don'tput clothes above acting, but I do wanta part that gives me both the chance todo what I feel that I can do best andwear either the latest modes or rags,anything but shirtwaists and skirts, forI hate 'em."The remark that her Broadway début

was attained by a "particularly round¬about" journey piqued curiosity.

"I started as an amateur in Boston,my home town," she said, "and, wouldyou believe it, my very first appear¬ance was as the prima donna in a

musical comedy! I sometimes wonderat my childish courage, for I wouldn'tdare sing a note now. I had alwaysbeen crazy about the stage, so aftermy musical début I started out inearnest and succeeded in getting withthe Castle Square Stock Company whenit was under the direction of Win-throp Ames."From Boston I went to Los Angeles,

where I stayed for a long time with

%lUbafs OHM! in Slew Vork Cheaters

BOOTH."Not So Long Ago." Period comedy.BROADHURST."Come Seven." Blackface farce.CENTRAL.See new theatrical offerings.CENTURY -"Florodora," revived after twenty years.CENTURY PROMENADE."The Century Revue" at 9 and "The Midnight Round¬

ers" at 11:30.COHAN."Silks and Satins." More summer entertainment.COHAN & HARRIS."Honey Girl." "Checkers" put to music.CORT. "Abraham Lincoln," poetic, historical drama.CRITERION."Humoresque." A motion picture.DANSE DE FOLLIES.Art Hickman's band. Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic.GAIETY- -"Lightnin'," Frank Bacon ;n comedy of Reno's divorce industry.GLOBE.George White's "ScandaU of 1920." Summer entertainment.HENRY MILLER'S "The Famous Mrs. Fair," Henry Miller and "Blanche Bates.KNICKERBOCKER.-"The Girl in tiie Spotlight," Victor Herbert musical

comedy.LIBERTY.'"The Night Boat," musical, farcical comedy.LITTLE "Foot-Loose," story of an adventuress.LYCEUM."The Gold Diggers." Ina Claire in a comedy of chorus girl life.NEW AMSTERDAM."Ziegfeld Follies." Fourteenth of che series.

NORA BAYES*-"Lassie.'' Unique Scotch musical comedy.PLAYHOUSE "Seeing Thing:-." Farce by Margaret Mayo and Aubrey Kennedy.SELWY.N.Ed. Wynn Carnival. Girls, music and comedy.VANDERBILT."Irene," girl and music comedy.WINTER GARDEN "Cinderella on Broadway." Extravaganza.

Oliver Morosco's stock companies. Thenfollowed a long tour of Australia incurrent American successes in cne ofJ. (.'. Williamson's companies, headedby Hale Hamilton. From the An¬tipodes the route leads back to thePacific Coast, where I played in theKlaw &. Erlanger company, appearingin such plays as 'Here Comes theBride' and 'Under Pressure' i, later called'The Love Drive'), which were runningsimultaneously in New York."Then after having traveled from

Boston across the continent to LosAngeles, from there to Australia, backto California for a tour of the Coastcities between Los Angeles and SanFrancisco, 1 finally reached New York,and the Gaiety Theatre has been my'business address' ever since. I owe

nil my present success to WinchellSmith and John Golden, the producers.That certainly is a 'roundabout' wayto Broadway, don't you think? I dare¬say few other players have gone- so

far afield to reach the Mecca of Ameri¬can actors.",

Louise Huff in "Fine Feathers"Louise HuiT has been engaged by the

Metro Film Corporation to appear inthe all-star cast in the forthcomingpicturization of Eugene Walter's "FineFeathers." The picture is beingadapted by Caroline Rosenthal fromthe stage drama.

From Bowery Stage to

Broadway in a Day, IsThis Girl's Record

From the Bowery and Second Avenueto Broadway is the change that came

yesterday into the professional life ofa young eighteen-year-old singer of theEast Side, when Morris Gest, theatricalimpresario, placed her under contract toappear in "Mecca," which F. Ray Corn-stock and Morris Gest will present atthe Century Jheater in September.The young woman's name is Hannah

Toback; she is of Russian parentage, herfather being a musician from Vilna,Russia; she has been playing smallparts in the Jewish theaters of the EastSide since she was eight years old, andpossesses a voice of sweetness andpurity that attracted Mr. Gest.

Miss Toback came to Mr. Gest in hisoffice at the Manhattan Opera Houseyesterday to ask for an appointment.An accompanist was in the theater andMiss Toback sang for him immediately.She sang three songs and Mr. Gest hada contract for five years drawn up im¬mediately.

Miss Toback made her stage début as

a child actress in Thomashefsky's pro¬duction, "Blind Love." Since then shehas supported the best known Jewishactors of the East Side, notably Kess¬ler, Âdler and Benami.

Gail Kane Spends SpareTime Removing NegroTan of "Come Seven !"EFORE she "began playing therole of Vistar Coins, the leaderof the younger set of the negro

belies of the South in "Come Seven!"now at the Broadhurst Theater, GailKane says the most difficult featureshe found about acting on the legiti¬mate stage was how she_should spendher spare time.

. This knotty problem confronted herevery day, because she has just re-turned to the stage after several yearsin motion picture studios, where sheworked strenuously. Her impression,gathered while she was working forthe screen devotees, is that camerawork is mainly a matter of perspira¬tion, not inspiration. However, herexperience, though it did affect hereyes, failed to impair the liveliness ofher disposition.

In "Come Seven!" Miss Kane has no

difficulty in making use of her sparetime. Leisure moments she spends inremoving vestiges of the make-up, forthe brown coloring required by thecharacter Vistar Coins, in which shev.ears a décolleté gown, must not onlybe applied to the face, but to armsand back and chest as well. It is a

very light brown make-up, for she isa "high yaller girl." But wheneverany one looks at her for more than aflash glance she wonders what spot onher fatee she has missed in applying thedo!d cream to erase the dusky Vistar.

"Acting on the stage has a muchgreater stimulus," Miss Kane remarkedthe other day in her home. "In yourstudio you have nothing to spur you on

except, perhaps, some coldly criticalstagehands and maybe a few sightseerswho insist on saying: 'Oh, what are

they doing now?' or else, 'Oh, isn't itsilly!'"Of course it's silly if you don't know

the story. But it would be hopeless totake any curiosity seekers and try toshake the story into their heads. Iknow; I've tried with some of them. Idon't mind playing before people I know,but when strangers come along.well, Icould just choke them!

"That self-consciousness before on¬lookers was something I never quite gotover," she went on, "no inatter how-many times I've taken my position be¬fore the camera.though ordinarily I'mnot afraid of the public when I am on

the stage. They may have said I was

'upstage,' but, just the same, I couldn'tget used to having a lot of bystanders."

"I did many Interiors, which1 shel¬tered me a lot from running the gant¬let of the streets. I didn't do anythrillers. In fact, the most excitingthings I did in the movies were toride horseback and swim."

According to FairyMary Milburn, of "Girl in Spotlight,"Real Heroine of Her Plavyoob ONT take on 50 about the.JlUi girl next door who sings the|r¿¿2j scales morning, noon and

*^" night. Some day she may bethe girl in the spotlight. RememberM*iry Milburn.

Neighbors out in Flatbush used toagonize.or pretend to.while Marywas practicing heavy parts in French,Italian and German opera. Now theyflock to "The Girl in the Spotlight" atthe Knickerbocker Theater for the voicethey used to hear unwillingly. Theypay and they "love it," as P'annie Bricesays.And Mary isn't the only attraction

for the former neighbors--"former''because Mary doesn't live in Flatbushnow, but on Manhattan's upper WestSide within taxi distance of the thea¬ter belt. There's also Ann Milburn,her seventeen-year-old sister, who hasjust made her appearance an exceed¬ingly attractive one--in the chorus of"The Girl in the Spotlight." Ann usedto scout for the Italian with the handorgan who acted as orchestra whenMary would produce "Nick Carter" or"A Modern Cinderella" or "Romeo andiuliet" on the back yard stage. Thenshe would collect the potatoes fromthe public that passed the soap bosticket office into the show. And afteithe performance, with the box offic«feeding a bonfire, Ann would help roasthe potatoes. Yes, the neighbors admit now, as they join the line or

Broadway, that Ann, too,' is decided!;an attraction.

George W. Lederer. producer of "Th«Girl in the Spotlight," says that Mar;Milburn will be a star in anotheyear. And so just for the benerit 0

any girl who is a year or two remove«from the spotlight, let Mary tell ho\she got her first job. And incidental!the story of her career is very like thaof the part of the Greenwich Villaggirl that she plays in Mr. Lederer'production.Mary was born in the village in th

little house still numbered 7 Macdougal Alley. Her real name is M<Kirvey and h,er father is a retired cajtain of the metropolitan police fore.'and I wearied the arm of every hurd;gurdy man that came near Macdoug;¡Alley."The family moved to Flatbush. Mai

became the leading woman in the drmatic society ef Holy Innocents paru'and star of the back yard circuit. Wh<she was old enough to wear her haupon lier héVl she got a job as arapher at $15 a week and spent 1her salary on her voice and <

the piano and the languages of opera."I-worked on heavy parts in 'Sam¬

son and Dalila.' 'Trovatore,' 'Gioconda*and 'Aida,' and at last hit the trailfor the Shubert offices, the Frohmausand all the big producers. But some¬how I could never get past the officeboy. Then I tried the telephone. Igot Arthur Hammerstein's office on thewire and inquired whether he ever hadany public hearing?.

"'Yes. every Tuesday at the CasinoTheater.' I was told."At that time Mr. Hammerstein was

gathering his ensemble for 'Furs andFrills.' On the next Tuesday I wasat the Casino. So were a hundredother girls and more.all expecting toget a try-out. Every girl had a chape¬ron but me. 1 was alone. 1 had prac¬ticed a very difficult aria and was allprimed, though badly scared. Andwould you believe it every one of thefirst thirty-odd girls sang my aria!

" 'Come, come.' cried Mr. Hammer-¿tein. any one else going to sing?'

".'Nobody peeped. Finally I up andspoke. 'I'll sing, if no one else is go-in;: to.'"'What experience have you?'' the

¡mpres; ri ai-ked." 'Well,' Í said, feeling rather securo

in my po; ition. 'I have been leadinglady for the Holy Innocents DramaticSociety.'"He let out a whoop! 'Good Lord!

You don't expect us to star you on thestrength of that, do you? All right,go on. sin«

"1 lost my nerve. The sheet ofmusi I ¦.. red as I passed it to theacccmpai '.*.. It was not the aria, but'The Little Gray Hume in the West.'

"I sang the bist ! could, but to meit seemed poor enough. As I finishedMr. Hammerstein laughed. One lookat 1 is face and I ran out of the thea¬ter as fast ;. 1 <¦ iu d. At FortyS reel 1 was overtaken by a man."'Hey, there,' he called. 'Come back;

Mr. Hammerstein wants to see you!'"'The way you laughed I didn't think

you wanted me,' I explained to Mr.Hammerstein when 1 reached the stage."'"What did you come her«; for?' ho

asked." 'Anything yeu'il give mc,' I re¬

plied.**'A11 right, you're in the chorus!'"And that was my first job!"After the season of 'Furs and Frills'

1 went out in Mr Cort's second 'FloFio' company. Then I ;;ot a job inthe front row of 'Angel Face,' and latera »till better chance in 'Listen, Lester! ' '

And now »he's heroine *f "The Girlin the Spotlight"!

i Rw theatrical Offerings of m íüeek? TUESDAY.At the Central Theater, Forty-seventh Street and Broad- i!

way Lew Fields presents Charles Purcell in "Poor Little Ritz Girl," Xwith Andrew Tombes. The piece Í3 a musical comedy of two acts I

Öand four scenes; music by Richard C. Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz M. oHart, staged by Ned Wayburn. The cast includes Adele Cleave* f\5 Lulu McConnell, Florence Webber, Eleanor Griffith, Aileen Poe - UEugenie Blair and Elise ßonwit.