The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 30

TREND: A SECTION OF THE BROOKLYN EAGLE SUNDAY, JULY 23, 1939 Summer Theaters Hold Forth and Eddie Dowling Holds Down Mt. Kisco Playthings Candid Close-Ups No. 48 Snapshots Along the Midway Morris Guest and His Midgets, and Chico Acosta's Life Class By ROBERT FRANCIS We paid our first visit to Little Miracle Town one afternoon last week, and Maestro Morris Guest took us on a personally conducted tour of his miniature, city on the shores of Flushing Creek. When the Maestro does something it's pretty likely to be complete. This time it's midgets or "little people," as he prefers to call them and he's done It on the a place in tne original cnauve Souris.

Vv Up in Mt. Kisco's Summer Theater Eddie Dowling Plays 'Our Town' And Students Grow Up With Veterans By ARTHUR POLLOCK Eddie Dowling, though occup.eti In getting William Saroyan's new play ready for Fall production, took the evening and the matinee hours off last week to go up to Mt. Kisco and play the Interlocutor in Thornton Wilder' plain play, "Our Town," in a pleasant barn that has for a number of years now served as a Summer Theater. It is not a red barn. And there was not, last Wednesday afternoon, a ttraw hat in sight, though there should have been, since these Summer playhouses are described as red and reputed to be the habitat humans sheltered by straw.

There are too many funny things said about Summer theaters anyhow. Just the other day a story in a paper had it that this, theater at Mt. Kisco has a dramatic school attached to it two miles away, the fellow said, though in reality it's Just up the lane and that the young people who pay to go to the school and learn to act never even see an actor all Summer. They live in a mansion of so-and-so many rooms with so-and-so many bathrooms, all fitted with gold doorknobs, he said, the implication being, I suppose, that nobody can learn to act in that many rooms with gold doorknobs. The fellow must have been having an off day.

With my own eyes I saw a station wagon full of bright young actors come down the lane and draw up under a tree near the stage door, there to wait for their cue to go on and act with Mr. Dowling, who has been in the theater these many years; Boyd Davis, who knew Richard Harding Davis, and the rest of the professionals. Who's the Lucky One? And as I looked at the boys and girls I said to myself, there are kids here, who are going to be "discovered" some day, make sudden hits in the theater and eventually be embalmed in the celluloid heaven known as the movies, and maybe if I were smart I could tell which are to be the lucky ones just by looking at them. On that day of discovery and as long as he lives one producer or another will tell himself with pride that it was he who saw that that kid had a special gift, and he will feel good about it. And the good Russians who teach these youngsters and know how to teach because they know that the best actors are not actors by accident, will leel good, too, and have sounder reasons for feeling so.

"Our Town" in a Summer theater gets to be funnier than it was in New York and moves one a little less. It has different audiences and the audiences make of it what they want It to be. They want to laugh, to feel that in going to the theater they are going to some-. thing lively. In Mt.

Kisco the fact that "Our Town" is done without scenery makes it look less like the novelty it was taken for in New York, since in Summer theaters scenery for any play is not too precise. Mr. Dowling has not been in the theater as long as he has without being able to tell one audience from another, and he plays Prank Craven's old role for what the audience can get out of it. That audience on Wednesday afternoon was an audience almost entirely of women ready to laugh, full of chuckles, moved by the homeliness of the old-fashioned folk in the play, pleased in recognizing, as Thornton Wilder wanted them to, themselves or what they used to be. Mr.

Dowling knows, as Frank Craven did, how to be of his audience. Doing Each Other Good It was nice to see "Our Town" and him again in a place a little more like Our Town than New York is today. It was nice to go to the theater in the country, where there are hills to look about at, green hills far away and near, where thoroughfares are not streets but roads bordered by grassy fields, where birds sing once in a while and you feel sure that there is a cow somewhere in the vicinity, where there is a smell of something or other than gasoline. The country should have theaters. It has people.

And theaters are for people. It was nice to see professional actors playing together with youngsters and looking pleased about it, youngsters and actors doing each other good. That is pretty nearly an ideal state, the seasoned actor and the sapling growing up together, the veteran ready to lead the beginner amiably by the hand, the two of them loving the same thing as only the actor can love the theater. And there is no one like an actor for wanting to see a youngster get along. Parents live on in their children and actors set up monuments for themselves with the youths they help to success.

There is something pretty sound in this Summer theater business after all. Something just a little tender, too. Upper, left to right Richard Gaines, who has replaced Raymond Massey in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" at the Plymouth Theater. Al Levy doing the Sir Walter Raleigh for Ruth Elbaum in I ve the Nerve to Fall in Love in Pins and Needles, 1939, Lederer, now playing the lead opposite Katharine Cornell in "No Time Matteson, who returns to "What Long Beach, Theater in "It Pawling, N. tomorrow a Life" at the Brighton Theater, Brighton Beech, next Tuesday night.

Ethel Colby, playing this week at the Shouldn't Happen to a Dog." Derrick Johns, appearing in "Pursuit of Happiness" at the Starlight Theater, night. Ethel Britton in "The Women" at the Alden Theater, Jamaica, beginning tomorrow evening. Summer Theaters the startling play written from the heart of a bookkeeper who had never before written a line. R. C.

Sherriff, who had always loved the theater, wrote in his spare time for use by his West End amateur acting society, a scathing indictment of the war-makers in terms that make it especially applicable to these times. One of the few actors in America worthy of the great role so beautifully played by the late Colin Clive is Charles Atkin. Mr. Atkin is by birth an Englishman and brings long experience to the part of Stanhope. John Merivale, son of Philip Merivale, who is currently appearing in the Summer theater circuit, will play an important role in "Journeys End." Mr.

Merivale is well known on Broadway for his fine acting and grand scale. 4 After stooping at the city hall Just inside the main gate to pay our respects to three-foot Mayor Glauer we inspected the various housing projects, the stables with the pint-Biied ponies, and the restaurant and kitchen where tiny cooks were preparing the favorite dishes of seven different nations. It was explained that this is necessary as the town's 76 inhabitants hail from all over the world and have pronounced preferences for their native cooking. Everything is spotless and efficient. We intercepted several reproachful looks from small citizens sunning themselves in their front yards, when some one inadvertently dropped an empty Dixie cup in the street instead of the trash container.

It's a model, doll's house city. The center of interest is the big, open air theater in the middle of the square, where a vaudeville show seems to be going on continuously. There we were introduced to the star, a diminutive Russian gentleman with a nice smile, named Andre Ratoucheff. He comes of a long line of artists in the Russian theater, all normal in size. His father, we are advised, was the foremost Shakespearean actor of his day in St.

Petersburg. In any event, the cur rent M. Ratoucheff is as long of talent as he is short of stature. He gives a delightfully impish imitation of Maurice Chevalier, and with nie neip oi uiree or tour ants a parade of wooden soldiers worthy of At Surry, Me. The Surry Theater opens Its third season at Surry, Aug.

1, with Benn W. Levy's bright comedy, "Art and Mrs. Bottle." Anne Revere (of "The Children's will star in the role created on Broadway by Jane Cowl, with Jabez Gray, Katherine Emery, Shepperd Strud-wick, Dorothy Mathews, Tom Spel-del, Joseph Wiseman and Katherine Wlman in support. Samuel Rosen directs, and settings are by Jo hannes Larsen, with costumes by Lydia Furbush. From Aug.

8 to 12 the Surrey Theater will offer Shaw's "Arms and the Man." STAGE PLAYS BRIGHTON BEACH BRIGHTON EA Oct an P'koiy BRIGHTON BEACH ESalanada 2-7100 TSR'fKI THE WOMEN Be(. TlJES. NIGHT (No Perf. Moll.) Direct from two years on Broadway Ni(hls (Inol. SUNDAY) 60c, 15c, XI Mali.

Wed No Hither Week Aul. I Chariot Farrell la "7th Heaven" STAGE PLAYS JAMAICA ALDEN ZEZ IHSih St. Ilylin tEn. (1-81178 V.n nl Rrnnritntttl Stna Hits WEEK BEGINNING TOMORROW EVE. Original Produciion 3 Seatom on B'wav 40c-5Sc STADIUM CONCERTS MANHATTAN STADIUM CONCERTSn Amsterdam Ave.

and 138th St. PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY TONIGHT AT CONDUCTOR CHARLES O'CONNELL BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY No. 1 Paiaiello, McDonald, Debuaaj, Slbellua (FRENCH NIGHT TOMORROW) Popular Priceat 2Sc, SOc and SI Stadium Box Ollice Oveni 10:00 A.M. UDatlv and Sun. AVdubon THREE-OI00J AMUSEMENTS CONEY ISLAND EEPLECUASE fOMEY MODERN VENUS CONTEST.

AUGUST I i LaA3aU laCaajll RIDGEFIELD, CONN. NEW ENGLAND PLAYHOUSE, RldajeMeld, presents "JOURNEY'S END," by R. C. Sheriff. One week bealnnlnj JULY :4.

Every evening at 8:40. 83c, 81.10, $1.65 Thursday matlnt- at 2:40, SSc and B3c July ill Charlu Atkin la "GOODBYE AGAIN" GUILFORD, CONN. CHAPEL PLAYHOUSE, GUILFORD. CONN. TOM'W Nlrht iMon.l at and All Week "NIGHT MUST FALL" with Eduard Frana.

Jean Piatt, Eda Halncmann Eva. 8:45, 11.30, 80c, Mat. UUc, 5.1c LONG BEACH, L. I. LONG REACH THEATRE, Park and Natl.

Blvd. Week Btartlna Tnm'w Prior Breedway Premiere EDWARD P. DIMOND presents "IT SHOULDN' HAPPEN TO A DOG" A Nrm Comedv hv SIDNEY LIKBEKMAN tit. elultax. Til.

Long Beach 124 Cf elRH STOrfJ The Maestro has developed a great affection for his little town. When business is bad at the Fair, he broods on a bench Just inside the gate. When it's good, he bubbles with enthusiasm. We caught some of the latter, and are going back soon and do it all over again. We wandered into the Artists Village the other night.

This Is the Midway's gift to Fair visitors who want to get their features down on paper for posterity or just the folks back home. It consists of a square of a dozen open booths about a central studio. You may have a profile sketch done for a dollar and something more elaborate up to ten. If you're shy, you can just watch the artists work on somebody else. We got into conversation with one of them, an amiable young man named Chico Acosta.

He invited us to his "life class" in the studio. They charge a small admission lor this, and we had an idea that it was Just another "girl show." However, it is rather a surprise. The model is there all right, as advertised. But Mr. Acosta is something more than clever with a bit of charcoal, and oddly enough we found ourselves, along with practically all the rest of the customers, watching and listening to him.

The lady, while very pretty, is just so much scenery. Senor Acosta comes originally from the-Argentine, but as he is now a United States citizen with an American wife and youngster, asks that he be referred to as Latin-American. Studied in Madrid, Chicago and New York, and his work has been exhibited in 89 galleries. His metier (we hope we have that right), is painting nudes, although he does considerable portrait work and illustrating. We are not an art critic, but we thought the samples in his booth were elegant.

If we had the time and the price, we'd like him to do us, although we'd probably feel very silly. STAGE PLAYS MANHATTAN 1S39 PULITZER PRIZE Pl.AV ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS PLYMOUTH.W.4.1. CIr.6-B15A. Air-Cooled Eva. 8:35.

13.30-11.10. Mill. WED. and 2:30 OLSEN JOHNSON JHujIcal Revue ELLZ a POPPIN WINTER GARDEN, B'wiyt 50 SI. I Air Eva.

l. i. Sat.lConiiitionClf Mati. Wed, and Bat, at 8:30, No Saturday performances durlnr Julr MATS. WEDNESDAYS and THURSDAYS, 2:30 KATHARINE CORNELL The Fliy Wrights' Company rresenl TIME FOR COMEDY FRANCIS LEDERER MAR0AL0 0ILLM0RE ETHEL BARRYMORE Clr.6 0390 Air-conditioned.

Eva. at 9, ll.IO to S3.30 HIT MUSICAL REVUE AT MOVIE PRICES PINS AND NEEDLES, 1939 Matl. Wd.i Evenings at 1:411 40c, 75c, $100 55c, $M0, WINDSOR 4 E. af B'way. BR.

All Seats Reserved. AIR-CONDITIONED AS SPECTACULAR AS ANYTHING TO BE SEEN AT THE WORLDS FAIR rr.non JHE AMERICAN WAY Florence Eldrldae McKay Morrlt Ruth Waiten CENTER THEATRE, Rockefeller Center 49th St. and filh Ave. COlumhu S-S474 Eva. 8:40.

Orch. Seal, 20, 13.30 .110 Seati at Xl.fl.V 313 Seata at 11.111; 53X Seats at 3Sc Mali. Wed. and 2:40, SSc. SI.

10. SI. 4.1. S2.20 PERFECTLY AIR-CONDITIONED COMPLETELY AIR-CONDITIONED TALLULAH BANKHEAD Tl.l itti rnvrp Lillian Haltman'a 1 niLUILCrUAU Oramalll Trlumoh NATIONAL W. 41 St.

PEnn. -tVtn Evi. 8 ta $3.30. Mill. WED.

and SCIENTIFICALLY THE THEATRE CHILD PRESENTS PHILIP BARRY'S COMEDY THE PHILADELPHIA STORY KATHARINE HEPBURN VAN HEFLIN JOSEPH COTTEN NICHOLAS JOY SHIRLEY BOOTH SHUBERT Tlnalra, Wait 44 St. Circle .590 Evil. 1:40. Matlneea THUR8. and 2 0 Mall ordera until Oct.

1. 361 seats SI. 10 BOBBY CLARK ABBOTT and Carmon Lnella GEAR COSTELLO MIRANDA In THE STREETS OF PARIS BR0ADHUR8T, W. 44 St. Mata.

Wad. and Sat Mil M0 I II 111 ROANOKE ISLAND, N. C. 'Third Summer Season" PAUL GREEN'S "THE LOST COLONY Directed bv Samuel Seidell Great Outdaor Drama and Hlilarlcal laeetaila Wedneaday, Thuraday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday Evenlnja July 1 thru Sept. 4 WATERSIDE THEATRE Manteo, Roanoke Island.

North Carolina Complete Bus Service from Norlolk. Va. Hotel Accommodation! for Several Thomandi BOOTHBAY, MAINE JULY 20. 21, 28, at the IIOO Till. PLAYHOUSE Sherwood Keith.

In collaboration with J. J. Cell, presents ci oiigi: ami MAnr.ni:r by Onrald Savory. Directed bv P. Cowles Strickland.

WED. THROUGH SAT. EVES. AT 8:30 Price i 50r, 75c, (plus lax) Telephone Boothbay 445 Rout ST for Bob Rose Sets Record for Juvenile Lead Won Berth With His Real Southern Accent Was Just Out of Drama School When theater historians set down the tale of contemporary stage for the archives of the theater, they would do no wrong to include the name of Robert Rose. Young Mr.

Rose, better known to the play-going public as Dude Lester in "Tobacco Road," has recently established a record of some sort. Next Wednesday night he will have played his performance as a scion of the Geor- Meet the Perfect Brat Ezra Stone, Bee-Hive of Industry, Studied Himself and George M. Cohan To Make Stage's Best Bad Boy If you can imagine a young man of 20 who not only stars in a long-run comedy hit, but also supervises the affairs of the company and teaches and acts on his own radio program as well, then you have a pretty accurate mental picture of Ezra Stone, the principal player in Clifford Goldsmith's comedy, "What a Life," which comes to the Brighton Theater, Brighton Beach, on Tuesday. at the Windsor Theater, Francis Theater, Lower, left to right Ruth Louise Kirtland and others. Production will be staged by Frank Lyon.

At Stockbridge, Mass. Florence Reed in "The Circle," by Somerset Maugham, will be the attraction at the Berkshire Playhouse at Stockbridge, this week. Supporting Miss Reed will be Helen Brooks, Ethel Wilson, Emmett Rogers, John D. Seymour and King Calder of the resident company, and two guest players, J. B.

Austin and Oswald Marshall. At White Plains, N. June Walker will appear in "The Late Christopher Bean," a comedy by Sidney Howard, beginning tomorrow, for the sixth week of the Summer season, at Dorothy and Sydney Olney's Ridgeway Theater in White Plains. Members of the supporting cast will be Parker Fen-nelly, Hiram Sherman, Helen Carew, Helen Shields and Frances Harison. Production is by Felix Jacoves, stage director at the Ridgeway, and sets are by L.

I. Goldwasser, Ridgeway scenic designer. At Abingdon, Va. A new play is to be tried out at the Barter Theater in Abingdon this week, opening next Thursday, called "We'll Take the Highroad," written and directed by Leslie MacLeod, In the cast are Jamie Heron, Bedelia Falls, Betty Stewart, Erik Walz, Paul Genge, William Hollenbeck and Larry Gates. 'the Women' Opens Jamaica's Alden 'The Women," Clare Boothe's popular comedy, will provide the season's Inaugural stage production at the Alden Theater, Jamaica, be ginning tomorrow night.

Last season's policy of popular prices will prevail Miss Boothe's play has been the source of much amusement and animated discussion for theatergoers all over the country and boasts of a record of three seasons on Broadway and repeated extensive tours on the road. In the all-feminine cast of 40 will be seen Augusta French, Ethel Britton, June Webster, Ethel Jackson, Laura Pierpont, Helen Car-rington, Arlien Marshal, Jean Cobb, Marianne Rlsdon, Mary Loane, Margaret Osmond and others. The story of "The Women" has to do with a group of Park Ave ladles with plenty of time and money to spend on themselves. They see all evil, speak all evil and hear all evil. The gossip results in drlv ing Mrs.

Stephen Haines domestic ship ashore on the rugged rocks of Reno, from which it is rescued by a woman's wit and wisdom. for Comedy" at the Ethel Borrymore has already made a name for himself in the Summer playhouses. After a recent tour of Germany the young actor returns to America full of deep appreciation of the benefits of the democratic ideal. Oscar Stirling, who was a member of the original London Company, will have a part at New England Playhouse, too. At Fitchburg, Mass.

Guy Palmerton will present the comedy, "Three Men on a Horse," by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm, at the Lake Whalom Theater, Fitchburg, for one week starting tomorrow evening. In leading roles will be Edgar Edward, Frank Lyon, Robert Perry, Martha Skeen, try. Nevertheless, Ezra was determined to be either an actor or a brat. Didn't he buy a pocket adding machine for his arithmetic classes? Didn't he become a bootlegger and sell "ponies" to fellow members of his Latin classes? Wasn't he always in Summer school, making up flunked classes? "And then there was the business of running away from home. The last time was when I got my report card showing I had flunked chem istry.

The card revealed, also, that I had stayed away from classes a few weeks. I hated everything in school, especially chemistry, but my father had taught it at Syracuse once, and was insistent. This acting idea was foolish! Well, I decided to run away to New York where nobody would try to stop me from acting." Ezra's father caught his brat Just as he was trying to get out of Phil adelphia. "He came up with a couple of policemen and nabbed me just as I was trying to thumb a ride to New York." "I thought I'd be punished, but my dad was swell. He handed me a bankbook with 200 deposited in my name.

He made me promise that the next time I ran away I'd ride the train or bus and would write to my mother frequently." Ezra's parents had surrendered, almost unconditionally. And that is why they moved to Brooklyn. replied, "Son, are you putting that on?" Rose shook his head. No, suh! He really was Southern. Grisman patted him on the shoulder, smiled, At Boothboy, Me.

Cast for the forthcoming Booth-bay Playhouse Production "George and "Gladys," Edith Adams; "Malcolm Garth-Bander," F. Cowles Strickland; "Alice Garth-Bander," Evelyn Grey; "Dudley," Jack Allyn; "Frankie," Dorothy Rich; "Claude," Quentin Gulliver; "Roger," Vaughn Taylor, and "Beer," Michael May-hew. The Playhouse takes great pleasure in presenting Mr. Strickland, director and an actor of note, In the leading role in "George and Margaret." Mr. Strickland's directing ability has won him much acclaim.

At Weston, Vt. The Weston Playhouse presents "The Late Christopher Bean, by Sidney Howard, next Friday. Harlan Forrest Grant is the director. At Pawling, N. Y.

The Starlight Theater at Pawling, N. will do Lawrence and Armina Marshall Langner's "Pursuit of Happiness" next week, featuring Nell Converse, Starr West and John Barclay, At Ridgefield, Conn. The New England Playhouse will present for the fourth play of its season "Journeys End," by R. C. Sherriff, for one week beginning tomorrow night.

"Journeys End" is At 16 he entered Texas Christian University and gravitated to its drama department. Some work in Little Theaters in Dallis and Fort Worth preceded a period of wandering about the world, working before the mast at sea and at all manner of odd Jobs ashore, including an engagement with an English-speaking company of actors in Paris, A for eigner, he guided French children around their native land. He tutored an Egyptian who robbed him of all he possessed. Back in America he worked on an auto assembly line. Then, to his own amazement, he won a scholar ship over 60 rivals at the American Laboratory Theater and in the theater he has remained with but one interlude, a second voyage be- fore the mast during the darkest days of depression.

and roared the magic words, "Young man you're the new Dude Lester New 'Abe' Has Traveled gian Lesters. It's tops for a juve Sile lead. Skeptics might wag their heads and mutter something about "Abie's Irish Rose." After all, that play did do 2.532 performances, compared to the mere 2,397 (as of today) of "Tobacco Road." And there was a1 Tan1 in V. nln.i inn T3 the actors who played Abie did not remain for the run of the play. He.

fell out of Dramatic School with a diploma in his hands, and before he could say Jceter Lester, found himself attached to a road company of the Jack Kirkland play. In the Winter of 1933, Bob came to New York from his home in An-niston, with $75 in his pocket and a scholarship from the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts. Came the following March and graduation from Feagin. The next Richard Gaines, Succeeding Raymond Massey, Brings Wide Experience Among Men to Current Pulitzer Prize Hit Role Ten years ago a young schoolmaster of Dodd City, Texas, was forced to resign his position because he scandalized the trustees by proposing to place the portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the wall of his school beside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee.

Today, however, at the Plymouth Theater, where "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" daily proves its right to Many are the actors, reared in Brooklyn, who moved on to other communities when they achieved success. But young Stone is different. He hails from Philadelphia, but moved to this borough when he convinced his parents that it was impossible to communicate daily to Broadway. Now he can reach Times Square from his Columbia Heights home in exactly 2o minutes by subway. Although Ezra has been living here for quite a while, the coming engagement at Brighton will be his first booking in Brooklyn, and he is more than a little excited over the prospect.

"Hometown stuff," he calls it. The young comedian has succeeded in building up his stage role into something of an industry, for, besides acting the impish high school lad in the play, he also portrays Henry Aldrich in a radio series filling the Jack Benny niche on the air lanes. Actually, when little Ezra is engaging in assorted pranks in "What a Life," he is simply reliving the hell-ralsing he did back in Oak Lane School in Philadelphia only a few years ago. "As a real-life brat," the curly-haired youngster admits, "I was super-colossal. And I became a brat because my parents wanted me to forget acting and become a chemist." And, right here, let it be known that his sister, Miriam, who attends Packer, gets A' in chemis trick was to land a Job.

He sought won his point. He has successfully out Sam Grisman, original producer 1 added a living portrait 0f Abe Lin-of "Tobacco Road." Mr. Grisman (hose prcvlousIv crealed by was producing a new play with his "Tobacco Road" profits, or so they Frank McGlynn and Raymond said. Massey. The receptionist told him off' Gaines would seem to have been though.

The rumor was false. The! prepared specially to impersonate 1939's Pulitzer Prize. This still young man, Richard Gaines, has the rail-splitter. Born in Indian Territory and nursed by a Cherokee, he grew up on a farm that in many ways remained at the pioneer level of development. Much of his boyhood was spent with the ax, the plow and the hoe, clearing new land for planting, and in caring for cattle nnd horses.

If he split no rails, it' wn.i because the region was Just, a barhrdwire's breadth ahead of Sangamon County in Lincoln's day. I receptionist also told him that hej might be the type for Dude Lester and why didn't he ask Mr. Grisman about it? When the busy Mr. Grisman emerged from his inner sanctum Rose stepped up before him and in best. Southern accent said: "Mr.

Grisman, nh heard you all are casting a new 'Tobacco Road' company nci and like to get a Job." Grisman looked at the lad and,.