The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 56

TiircATWTCAL, AND PHOTOPLAY SECTION' TTAVT AP JTTATQrAKTFR. COTOT 4 WW) THE PITTSBURGH PRESS- OTHER XiEPARTrST. COHtT 54RO JANUARY 19, 1930! i A XM.AU 1 XX ItljOO FUTURE EVENTS ON PITTSBURGH'S STAGE AND SCREEN Broadway And Side Streets Sbeaki ing Shad ows Al Jolson Revives Minstrel Days I "Mammy" i xX 1 vomeay stage instead of in the synagogue of his fathers as thftSSt SV1SfeB oi Jolson's biography Mammy," the star's next production lor 1 i is 1 Li i II GlXASON PARADE' ALDINE Old-Time Stars Gather For M-G-M Revue of 1 930 By G. B. WTNSTEAD, United Press Staff Writer.

EW YORK I killed a couple of hours the other night just nosing around to see how some people make their living in New York. I found three good examples of little work and big money. Outside the World Bldg on Park Row, just across the street from City Hall and near the Wool-worth Bldg. and Postofflce stands a well-dressed, rather stout man about 35 years of age. He was holding in his hand styptic pencils which stop the flow of blood when a man cuts his chin in shaving.

He sells the pencils three for a ntckle. One will last a lifetime, but this salesman gives you your money's worth. I purchased three of he pencils and asked him if business was good. "M5 -7 BUSINESS is just as good one dtfcr as it is another, feller" he re plied. "I sell enough of these things to net me a profit of $10 a day and then I quit work.

Some days I work longer to make the $10 than others, but some days I make as much as $50 before I get the least bit tired of standing here. You'd be surprised at the number of people who pass this corner every day." r-P" HE NEXT observation was I on a subway train. I no-A ticed two blind men, led into the car by women. Both men were around 40 years of age and one of the women was without a doubt the mother of her charge. The other woman was young, well-dressed and pretty.

Both men were dressed neatly. AH four got off the train at the same station in Greenwich Village. The women placed their charges on either side of a popular movie house in the Village and left them after producing an am Blind" sign and a cup. In two hours one of the women returned and I heard the conversation. "How was it?" the mother asked her son.

"A1 BOUT six dollars here, that makes $25 today. Now lets go up to the theat rical district." The other blind man's escort came a little later and I followed them into the subway. They got off at Times Square and began "making" the theatrical district. I saw at least 50 persons drop coins into the outstretched cup. There was just time to ''catch" the Automobile show in Grand Central Palace.

A THE doorway I heard? "All right, whos next? Two dollar wrist watches for 25 cents. Here you are, bankrupt It was a street-hawker selling his ware from a leather satchel directly in front of the show entrance. A wrist watch for 25 cents! Cheap no matter what, makel Bankrupt sale! Bargain! That fellow was selling a circle of tin with numerals to resemble a watch dial stamped upon It, with a band of compressed paper. The kind you buy for Junior at any little novelty counter at noma for a dime. Quarters rolled into the man's pockets and each time he reached into his bag for more "$2 watches Those who purchased either went into the show immediately or turned and went down the street.

That fellow was getting rich quick, and it was totally a fraud. How do I know? I bought one of the watches I Chorus Types Changing. The genus chorister is changing" with the celerity of fashions designed for the embellishment of femininity and the bankruptcy of the erstwhile solvent sex. No longer does the hard-boiled young woman of prepossessing appearance and gold-digging propensities, and who can do a little of everything, dominate the girl and -music show, subject only to the haughty condes cension of the Florence Powell, show girL Both have undergone revolutionary changes and the ensemble now is made up of a new and definitely different breed. No better evidence of the changing times can be produced than a slant at the feminine contingent of -A Night in Venice," at the Alvin, this week.

Clara Still Popular. Clara Bow continues to be the most popular feminine player on the screen, according to a nationwide poll of exhibitors for 1929 just completed by the Exhibitor's Herald-World. Nancy Carroll, another Paramount star, is third on the list of women players. Charles "Buddy" Rogers was second in the list of men. ARTISTS PICTWftl ROLAND olotfuUUntuualt Matter of Cremoni I Of I -i tf.

tXUZ CWNiEUS vLLOVD HUGHES rf "WHEN UOVC COMES ALONG' SHERIDAN Sq, Coming to the Theaters "Blossom Time," that hardy perennial operetta of Franz Shubert's life and music, will come to the Alvin next week, and announcement is made in conjunction with the engagement that this positively will be its farewell appearance here. Knight MacGregor, popularly regarded as the best of all baritones who have sung the Franz Shubert role and last seen and heard In the part fours years ago, has been recalled for this year's special company. Genevieve Naegele, considered the best of all the Mitzis, Is leading woman. Bert Lytell, star of screen and stage, comes to the Nixon next week in "Brothers," romantic melodrama, in which he completed a year's run at the Forty-eighth Street Theater, New York, and four months at the Erlanger Theater, Chicago. Mr.

Lytell's return to the spoken drama after 10 years in the movies proved a sensational success, for he chose as his medium the dual role of twin brothers. Mr. Lytell comes here with the same supporting company that helped so much the success of the Broadway production and includes Grace Menken, Clara Palmer, Ben MacQuarrie, William Ingersoll and Frank Sylvester. The production is in a prologue and three acts. "Smilin Through," beautiful romance in which Jane Cowl appeared for many seasons, will be the offering of the George Sharp Players next week.

It is written in a prologue and three acts and has a spiritual quality seldom seen on the stage. "Smilin' Through" had its first presentation on the stage of the Pitt Theater about a decade ago. Edith King will appear in the Jane Cowl role. "Girls from Happyland" is sched uled as the attraction at the Academy next week. Charles Marshall and Violet Buckley head a cast of such burlesque favorites as Ben Ler-ner, Henri Kellar, Tim Benson, Tenny Hilson, Millie Kennedy and Rae Le Anse.

Friends Helped Dix. Audiences at the Sheridan Square are seeing and hearing Richard Dix in his first Radio starring produc tion, e.n Keys to Bald-pate," one of the most famous 1 dramatic farces ever produced on the stage. Dix made his a trical debut when a lad in St. Paul, Minn. He had been working in a bank in Minneapolis during the day and going to dramatic school at night when E.

H. Sothern gave Richard Dix. him a reading. Sothern Inspired him to quit and return to St. Paul, where he joined the local stock company.

"The manager thought I was a pretty fine actor because every night I received a big hand," Dix recalls. "He didn't know that my OF BFOM5VAV HARRIS Even the director, Charles "Chuck Risner, was an old-timer. For years before he even considered the film racket, Chuck used to do his two, three or four shows a day on the vaudeville stage. LONG as digging up the scripts for old silent pictures and remaking them as talkies seems to be the thing to do, we might suggest that Dorothy Mackaill be permitted to make "The Crystal Cup" over again with dia-logue. Miss Mackaill made this film several years ago for First National and it was one of her biggest sue cesses.

In ciden tally, Dorothy would like nothing better than to do just that. Dorothy Mackaill PERHAPS short skirts haven't entirely passed out in favor of long ones, but they have to the extent that a display of knees cost 25 girls $7.50 the other day. The girls, all extras, had been told to report at the RKO studio garbed in the latest wearing apparel. But when the director saw the length of their skirts, he sent them all home and told them to report the following day wearing long skirts. Consequently each of them lost a day's pay.

THERE are a hundred and one different ways of making money arcund the celluloid village. Of them all one of the most unique is the line followed by Juro Hirai, a Japanese gardener. Hirai, known around Hollywood as "Jimmy Evergreen," specializes in furnishing all form of plant life to the various studios. Sudden requisitions for a tropical jungle, cotton field or a Florida swamp don't stump him. He always delivers.

WINTER GARDEN ROOF Mayfair Night Clnb Has Tropical Atmosphere. In the Winter Garden Roof, atop the Hotel Mayfair, Penn the Mercur Bros, and Joe Rubin have given Pittsburgh a night club that atmospherically transplants you at times to the most famous ones in New York, at other times to the balmy clime of Southern California and Florida. These three impresarios, all native Pittsburghers, in opening the Winter Garden, determined to give their city something ultra-distinctive. When you enter the Winter Garden Roof you are struck with its beautiful appointments. Everything seems to be in harmony.

The starry blue of the roof suggests a tropic or semi-tropical locale. Dewey Bergman's Recording Orchestra was selected to furnish music and the management is using the unit system in its entertainment. O. -5S VOliT BUCKLEY H. ACAOtMY Coming Film Attractions Maurice Chevalier, who has become the greatest European actor to achieve success in American films since Emil Jannings, will be seen and heard in "The Love Parade," at the Aldine soon.

Ernst Lubitsch directed it. The supporting cast includes Jeannette McDonald, Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth and Eugene Pallette. Following "The Lost Zeppelin," Tiffany will present at the Olympic, "Journey's End," talking screen version of the play, "Party Girl" with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. "Resurrection," adapted to the screen from Tolstoi's masterpiece with William Collier, "Mamba," story of the African jungle with Jean Hersholt. All pictures will be released in the Olympic, coincident with their premiere on Broadway.

Winnie Lightner, tomboy of "The Gold Diggers of Broadway," comes to the Stanley next Friday in her first starring production, "She Couldn't Say No." She is supported by Chester Morris, Johnny Arthur, Lee Moran and Tully Marshall. On the stage, Dick Powell's presentation will be "White Caps." "The Shannons of Broadway," James Gleason's comedy, from the stage production, opens next Saturday at the Harris as a Universal all-talking and music picture. Gleason and Lucile Webster Glea-son, rated as one of the greatest comedy teams In history, have the title roles. Evelyn Brent will be at the En-right Friday, supported by Neil Hamilton, in her first starring production, "Darkened Rooms," talking dramatic romance. Jay Mills' "Melody Makers" will be the stage revue.

Tearle Now a Star. Conway Tearle star! Although for many years Conway Tearle has been recognized as one of the most adept actors in Hollywood as well as one of the most popular, it remained for Tiffany Productions, the new film company which took over the Olympic Theater last week, to elevate him to the highest pinnacle among motion Conway Tearle. picture people. Conway recently made his talking picture debut in "The Gold Diggers of Broadway," and Tiffany immediately signed him for the male lead in "The Lost Zeppelin," their first 'picture at the Olympic. Alice White Resting.

Alice White is enjoying a two weeks' vacation before returning to the First National studio to begin her next starring picture, "Sweet Mamma." She recently finished "Show Girl in Hollywood," based on the story by J. P. McEvoy. SiTTQACTlON "EVELYN BRENT By DAN THOMAS, NEA Service Writer. HOLLYWOOD It was just as though the clock had been turned back a decade or so the other day when we strolled on to one of the huge stages at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio.

There at a long a et table 1 a ded down with food-were a number of 1 d-t 1 stage favorites, some of whom a 1 a dy have faded from the public eye. The only thing that spoiled the Illusion of Rip Van Winkle just awakening from Marie Dressier. a long sleep was the modern equipment being used in shooting these folk. Gigantic incandescent lights, microphones, sound-proof cameras and innumerable electrical experts, all recent innovations, were in evidence everywhere. As we walked on the set Willie Collier, former matinee idol, was preparing to address the microphone for the fifth retake.

And he was nervous, far more so-than many of our movie youngsters who romp up to the microphone just as if it were nothing at all. THAT SORT of floored us for a while. Willie Collier of all persons, he who had spoken to thousands with the ease of an Englishman taking his afternoon tea! But Willie was used to an audience, not that little black "mike." On either side of him were seated Marie Dressier, Fay Templeton, Lou Fields and Joe Weber of that famous team of Weber and Fields, De Wolf Hopper, Josephine Sabel, Louis Mann and Barney Fagen all of them waiting to take his or her turn at furnishing some bit of entertainment for that particular sequense of the "M-G-M Revue of 1930." school chums attended every performance and felt it a personal duty to give me more applause than the star." The Style Pendulum. Bebe Daniels has swung the dress pendulum back from modernity to the opposite extreme. While two ounces of silk or chiffon may be sufficient for the costume of Miss 1929, Miss Daniels has outfitted herself in one gown weighing within a few ounces of 100 pounds.

The costume was designed especially for Miss Daniels to wear in the name role of "Rio Rita," at the Harris. De- Bebe Daniels, signed and made by Walter Plunk-ett, head of the RKO wardrobe department, this extravagant costume consists largely of gold lace and rhlnestones. R-K-O JANUARY GOOD TIMES JUBILEE MONTH 71 Memoirs of the Great and Near Great (From the archives of th Alvin Theater, furnished by John B. Reynolds. Shubert manager in Pittsburgh.) MAUD (KISKADDEN) ADAMS.

Born in Salt Lake City Nov. 11, 1872. Her father was James Kls-kadden, a business man. Her mother, a well-known actress, Mrs. Annie Adams, the daughter of a Utah pioneer who claimed to come from John Quincy Adams stock, is still playing.

When Maude was born, Annie Adams was leading woman at the Salt Lake Theater, which enjoyed the special patronage of Brig-ham Young. Phil Margetts, an Englishman, now the proprietor of a store In Salt Lake City, but formerly a popular comedian, claims the distinction of first putting Maude Adams on the stage, or, rather of carrying her there. The future star was Just nine months old when a play called "The Lost Child" was being produced at the Salt Lake Theater. She had been taken to the theater by a nurse. Margetts was cast for the father of the lost child.

At the last moment he found he was expected to fondle a rag doll. While he was lamenting this, Mrs. Kiskadden went to the wings with Maude in her arms. Margetts snatched the baby from her and dashed on to the stage. When she was 5 years old, in 1877, Miss Maude Adams played her first speaking part.

Little Schneider, at the old Bush Theater, San Francisco, with J. K. Emmet in one of his "Fritz" plays. She also played Chrystal in "Chums," by David Be-lasco, who had just risen from call boy to stage manager at the Baldwin Theater. In the cast were James O'Neill, Lewis Morrison and the late James A.

Heme. When she was 6 years old she was sent to school, where she remained until she was 16. Immediately on leaving school, Miss Adams played the part of a schoolmistress in Hoyt's "A Midnight Bell," produced at the Madison Square Thea ter, New York, 1888. She after- ward played in "Men and Women and created the part of the crippled girl in "The Lost Paradise," which first attracted attention to her. In the autumn of 1890, Miss Adams made her first appearance under the Frohman management as Evangeline Bender in William Gil-lett's comedy, "All the Comforts of Home," as a member of Charles Frohraan's first stock company at what is now Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater, New York.

Henry Miller headed the cast. When John Drew left the Augus-; tin Daly Co. to become a star, un-i der Charles Frohman's manage-I ment, Miss Adams was selected as his leading woman, and in Septem-j ber, 1892, she appeared with him at Palmer's Theater, now known as Wallack's, In Clyde Fitch's comedy, "The Masked Ball," and made a marked success in the part of the wife who assumes intoxication. For five years Miss Adams was leading woman with John Drew. She made her first appearance as Lady Babble, in J.

M. Barrie's "The Little Minister," in Washington, D. Sept. 13, 1898. Her first stellar appearance in New York was in the same play at the Empire Theater, Sept.

27, of the same year. Robert Edeson played the title part. In 1900 Charles Frohman made a special production of "Romeo and Juliet," in which Miss Adams starred as Juliet in a successful run in New York City and a tour of the principal Eastern cities. In 1901 she starred in "L'Aiglon," acting the role originated by Sarah Bernhardt. In 1902 she starred in "Quality Street," and 1903 in "The Pretty Sister of Jose." After a season's rest she reappeared in 1905 in a revival of "The Little Minister," and also 'Op o' My Thumb.

Nov. 6, 1903, she opened at the Empire Theater, New York City, in M. Barrie's "Peter Pan," which she played throughout two seasons. Early in 1908 Miss Adams appeared in "The Jesters." Miss Adam's New York home is 23 E. Forty-first St.

Playwrighting Actress. Alice Anne Baker, who will appear as the wealthy American widow in love with the king, in "Her Friend the King." at the Pitt this 1 week, spenas ner spare time writing. Every summer Miss Baker goes to Woodstock, an art colony in upper New York state, where she writes and directs plays for dramatic students. Some of the most prom- Alice Anne Baker inent artists painters, writers, directors and musicians congregate in this colony. Miss Baker has written and produced several stage and radio sketches.

'D0VP AS TALKIE Belasco Play to be Filmed With Dialogue. Another stage success that was transferred to the motion picture screen in the days of the silent films is going to be done again as an all dialogue feature. It Is "The Dove," which served as a silent umiea Artists starring vehicle for Norma Talmadge under the direction of Roland West. Feature Productions, largest of the United Artists producing groups, has purchased the dialogue rights to "The Dove" from David Belasco, and the romantic modern drama looms as one of the big talking-singing pictures of 1930. No decision tias yet been made as to who will Stat in ids sown ver "It I Warner Bros.

In "Mammy," which Is now before the cameras, Jolson will revive that interlude of his career during which he traveled with a minstrel troupe. It was 18 years ago in the summer of 1911 that 'Jolson, having scored his first minor success with a blackface vaudeville act, decided to strike out into new fields. A renewal of his three-a-day contract was waived and he Joined Lew DockstaderAs Minstrels. The street parades, the stage shows, the verbal sparring between end-men and interlocutor, all these and more that is pictured in "Mammy," are details of the minstrel's life which are already familiar to him. With Dockstader he toured every principal city in the country and with Dockstader he experienced the "discovery that eventually landed him on Broadway with his name in electric lights.

WHILE THE show was on view in a Middle Western city, J. J. Shubert dropped in one night to see it. He listened to Jolson sing a solo number. He was interested.

He heard another and became eager, sure that he had found a comedy genius. The coincidence was an unusually happy one because the Shuberts were that year preparing to gpen their great Winter Garden and real talent was scarce. The hour of opportunity for the minstrelman had struck. His first Winter Garden productions were "Bow Sing" and "La Belle Paree." In Jolson's case, real life has contained dramatic material far more fantastic than the playwright's invention. Within five years he was Broadway's outstanding star and eventually became not only on the stage, but on the screen, the greatest box office draw in the world.

AND SO THE little East Side boy who rose from Orchard to Broadway was no fabrication in "The Jazz Singer." Nor is the small-time minstrel who becomes the hit of the show in "Mammy" simply the product of Irving Berlin's imagination. He is actually the young man for whom Berlin himself was some day to write song hits. He is actually the young man whose popularity has stretched from Broadway to Main Street and now around the globe. Jolson remembers his minstrel days as some of the happiest he ever knew. It is because of their cheerful association that "Mammy" will be comedy throughout and will nowhere touch the borders of heavy drama as "The Jazz Singer." "The Singing Fool" and "Say It With Songs" did at several points in their stories.

Jolson as the light-hearted minstrel should be the most popular character he has yet created for Vitaphone. Proposals by Cooper. During his four-year career in moving pictures, Gary Cooper has made proposals to innumerable women on the the screen, of course. They have been beautiful, young, fascinating; with blond, brunet and red hair; some sophistic ated, some coy, sleek and dimpled Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Nancy Carroll. Mary Brian, Florence Gary Cooper.

Vidor, Esther Ralston, Colleen Moore and Lupe Velez. But the woman he proposes to in "Seven Days Leave," now at the Stanley, falls in none of these classifications. She's truly different. Grit Helped Actress. Determination plus ability spelled success for Sharon Lynn, who has a featured role in "Sunny Side the Janet Gay- nor-Charlie Far-rell musical comedy, which begins the second week of its run at the Al-dine tomorrow.

Miss Lynn was born at Weather-ford- but moved to Fuller-ton, Cal. before she had finished a course in I ft i'A Sharon Lynn klndergarden instruction. She finished her education in the public schools of Fullerton and, after moving to Hollywood, pursued a course in voice culture and dancing at various schools. Finally she attended the Paramount Motion Picture School. Here she was discovered by a representative of Charles Dillingham, the New York producer, who gave her a part in a musical comedy.

Dressing to Type. If you are tall don't try to conceal the fact by wearing flapper clothes, and if you're short, don't try to look like a vamp! That is the advice oi pretty Ruth Bradley, featured feminine player with "Dimpled Darlings," Mutual burlesque opening the Academy tonight. Miss Bradley, herself, is five feet, three inches tall, yet she does nothing to make her self look taller. Rnth Bradley. "When a woman dors not dress her type, she loses all incividiiPlity." Miss Bradley asserts "I invariably choose frocks that do not make me appear too tall." Miss Bradley's pleated irts and Miitjn are of the "Ultra- in 'talking motion pictures V1 'ft; I in I II iry" 1 SI I IOOTALKINO ft a li 111 Capping! Fint CaK EVANS rs 80RD0N ft KIM THREE DERMIS SISTERS COLE ft SNYDER Broadway Cast Iadadlnf Another New Grava af CHESTER HUE 6IRLS OZ nO -ANNltZflQV MONTH-BEGINNING SATURDAY AND ENTIRE WEEK 1st nun DOivriTown HELD OVER BY POPULAR DEMAND Thousands Have Enjoyed 8 WITH Bert Wheeler Robert Woolsley ZIEGFELD'S GREATEST Eight Big Days TO RICHARD DIX IN Geo.

Af. Cohan's Comedy, Mystery Melodrama STEAMING TOWARDS PITTSBURGH The S. S. Follow its ebw'4e Stags wnmrrrnrD "1 John Boles Bebe Daniels I Ml 111 iScTuZ VODVIL COCiPG CHAtJf :0 DAILY 'Js given us mucu tziL72 to 7 Baklpate villi III II III I WITH R. K.

O. 3 IPANCCNG 11 of all Talkiet, "HIT THE DECK." trip bcre in the daily Newspapers. AND HARRIS TROUBADORS 'IF ITS A HAftRISTHEATR6ITTOETAJJCOFTKTOtWI' I Uy CHARLES I HEAR. THE SONG HITS: CwIElll II -IT I Hod, Taurine Pictvrm a Tou." UT 7 111 III "Turn On tft Beat" In 111 1 I "I'm Dreamer, Aren't AUf" III II I "Simy Bid Up I VI I ill 11 i la trier to AtawUvaatT Craves 1 If 11 II a 9-J. taw, sac ad.

ItM. I VII PICK OF THE PICTURES WON. Startlirr. firipphif, JaHfne Mtladrana! Sic Evelyn Brent in "WOMAH TRAP" ALU TALKING NEWS OE ELS THUR.i' rtie Return ol fri. I Sherloclr Holmo-? COMEDIES AND CAHTOO! 'SBSbciuuia nnn-rtftrtattoiv- of i near stuctgaix.

jrum. w. wj oy ington over a aetweric cf vlumbia ttaTrg' -lgjg rry Sa XW- lttowatte of power, i.