The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 31

7 There's a New Play Coming to Town Every Night This Week TREND: A SECTION OF THE BROOKLYN EAGLE, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1939 Playthings More 'Pins and Needles' Two-Year-Old Revue Goes Into Its Third Edition Next Saturday Night, Having Had Many Adventures On a cold rainy evening In late November, 1937, a little revue slipped into Labor Stage, until then known as the Princess Theater, intending to give a fe- weekend performances and then quit. The cast was iade up of garment workers, the authors were newcomers to Broadway. It is still with us, very much a part of the Broadway scene. Its third edition opens next Saturday eve-" nlng and it celebrates its second COuld and did. And so the show anniversary on the Monday follow-j announced a regular run.

ing. the only musical ever to run, The first thing the cast did was that long. t0 joln Equity. This made them The name? Why "Pins and trade union freaks, for the Inter-Needles" of course. national Ladies' Garment Workers Just to give one an idea of how Dnlon of which they were mem-long two years are in the theater.

I then affiliate of the C. I. O. and Equity was part of the F. of L.

The papers made a bit of a fuss about the anomaly of this double membership, but the cast took it all in stride. They had hardly acclimated here are a few of the play which were running at the time "Pins and Needles" opened: "Amphitryon '38," "Babes in Arms," "Brother Rat," "George and Margaret," "Star Wagon," "Many Mansions," "I'd i Rather Be Right," "Hooray forj themselves to their new life when What" and "Tobacco Road." we invited to give "Pins and Robert Ardrey-Writes Another Ploy, Thunder Rock at the Mansfield Theater, Which Isn't as Deep as a Well By ARTHUR POLLOCK Robert Ardrey Is a young dramatist with a welcome talent who can always be counted on to appear with a fresh Idea. He writes nicely, too. In lact he has only one defect. He cannot hold the Interest of his audience.

A dramatist could not have a worse one. Somehow or other he fails in feeding his listeners as he goes alonj. keepinj their interest lively. He cannot add one thing to another in a fashion that makes you more eager from one moment to the next. He gets involved with his own ideas as if he were not sure of the way through them, lets you wait while he ponders, talking continuously, of course, but less because he knows what to say than to prevent any one's suspecting that he is at a loss for words.

Almost always in the second act It gets dark and he whistles In It. He has second-act trouble. A couple of seasons ago two of his plays were produced, one after another, "How to Get Tough About It" and "Casey Jones." They wwre plays easy to be fond of. Each began like a sea breeze springing up on a hot day, refreshingly, gave the Impression that here was a new playwright with notions not hackneyed. And then as they progressed they lost their cogency, straggled, divided and dulled Interest.

Once they got away from him he was never able to gain control again. No Uie Refusing to Play His latest, "Thunder Rock," presented the other evening at the Mansfield by the aiert Group Theater, is like that. This time he tries to be simpler than before, sticks to one place and one point, wants to give his work unity, to close in on It so that It cannot elude him. He sets his scene In a lighthouse, holds It there and concentrates on it. He has nothing to do but develop his Idea.

And that he seems unable to do without repeating himself. If he does not actually repeat himself, he expresses himself so slowly and with such great. Inexact and uncertain detail, that the mind of the spectator is always a little ahead of him, impatient for him to catch up. Mr. Ardrey's idea In "Thunder Rock' is that there is no sense In getting mad at civilization and refusing to play, no intelligence In complaining that it doesn't move and never will if we feel ourselves superior to it and stand in a corner and sulk.

Or retire to an ivory tower. Or a lighthouse. Civilization may move a little and slip back a long way before it moves again. But we are all cogs in the machine by which it moves and if we don't do our part the machine goes just that much more slowly. He is telling jthe tired liberals that they are cowards, slackers and dopes.

The man whose life and character and self-confident discouragement provide the core of the play, wrote a bool: the title 01 which was something like "Inside the Inside of. Something" and, feeling sure that if he did not know the inside it was not knowablc, he let it be his last word. Mr. Ardrey convinces him that he came to his final conclusion too soon. Tired of It All! When the play begins we find that this seasoned, but still youthful, foreign correspondent has got himself a Job as a lighthouse keeper and shut himself off from all contact with the outside world.

He dc not want to know what Is going on because he is sure the world is going nowhere if not back. A friend of long standing, a flier, comes to say goodby. The friend is leaving for China to join the air force against Japan. The man ii the lighthouse argues that this is suicide, preferring evidently his own kind of suicide, which is to do nothing In complete solitude, to keep on living though divorced from life. They discuss their different points of view.

The discussion, because of the fact that when It starts we do not know why the newspaperman has put himself in prison here, because we learn why as the talk progresses, Is dramatic. The actors add to the effect, playing it with an edge and efficiency greater than the author himself has given. We feel sure that this act will lead to more disclosures and the play will get more vital as it goes on. But as a matter of fact it does not. Cuessing Too Easy We think we can guess what Is going to happen to this recluse, guess that he Is going to change his mind, and so he does, but we guess it will be more enlivening than it turns out to be.

The man knows of a shipload of men and women who met death on a reef nearby 90 years before and he amuses himself by imagining them alive again and talking to them. First he imagines them as shallow, superficial people, and that is dull. Then he imagines them more realistically and they are discovered to be harassed by Just about the same problems as are the people of today. One of them was stupid enough to run away from Vienna because his neighbors burned down his house, thinking him a dangerous man for the reason that he was trying to discover anesthesia. They had an idea he wanted to kill them when all he wanted was to save the world pain.

This man talks to the tired ex-newsman and convinces him that he should not run away now. 90 years later. It is as easy as that, almost, at any rate. Too easy, at least, for the author to take so long about maneuvering it. Mr.

Ardrey's second act stutters. And his third can only try to gather things together again, though the playwright has nothing more to say. Maybe he is too eager to be profound. Helen Claire Back North Having Lost Her Southern Accent and Taken It Back Again, She's New Yorker Now in 'I Know What I Like' Margo, who heads the ceit of Sidney Kinsley's play, Tha World Wt based on Hi Outward ploy opens tomorrow evening at the Guild Thiattr. Blanche Sweet and the Stars the last remains.

"Pins and Needies" has been almost alone in watching the new plays come and go. "Pins and Needles" set a new record for musicals In June of this year when It passed the mark of! 670 performances previously chalked up by "Irene," of 1919 memory. "Pins and Needles" will be 865 performances old on Its second anniversary. It Isn't generally known, but Phil Loeb had a lot to do with making all this possible. He directed the very firs, edition.

People don't know about this because Loeb's handiwork barely saw the light of day. "His" show received only two performances, and those semi-private ones. I Loeb's connection with the I. L. G.

W. U. revue derives from the little difficulty Schaffer, the Labor. Stage Impresario, had with his cast originally. They didn't want to do a musical.

"What," they demanded, "can a musical have in common with social significance?" They considered the two mortal enemies. So Schaffer, not knowing what else to do turned over the material to a group of young actors, mostly WPA'ers, who were then tenanting one of his studios at Labor Stage. They called themselves the Con temporary Players. "See what you can do with this stuff," he said. They assented and went to work immediately, using one of their Own people as director.

They called In Phil Loeb when the revue began to take shape. They wanted to give the script every value It had. They opened in June, 1930, a year and a half before "Pins and Needles" had Us formal opening at Labor Stage. Harold J. Rome and Earl Robinson were at the pianos.

The locale was one of the studios above Labor Stage The embryonic "Pins and Needles," for that's what it was, proved a tremendous success. Sam Schwartz, at that time the manager of the Belmont Theater, happened to be in the audience one of the two evenings the show was given and he offered then and there to put it on for a run in his house. But Schaffer had other ideas: His actors had seen the show and they were now anxious to do it. He had achieved his purpose. The garment workers, In their turn, went to work with a will, They reported at Labor Stage for rehearsals practically every evening in the week, their only recompense being whatever spiritual satisfaction the revue afforded.

But it was a full yeai and more before they werei ready. They had had no previous training to speak of, and that slowed up the process. Just a few appearances In maybe one or two one-acters that was the extent of the experience they could boast. The opening, such as it was, came and went. Nobody took to the housetops to shout the virtues of "Pins and Needles." Two three weeks later, though, a couple of late comers discovered the unpretentious little musical.

They lauded it to the skies, liking the freshness of the actors, their vitality i The New Plays Needles" In a "command performance" at the White House. The President wanted to see their revue I The cast still doesn't know how it managed to get by that evening. There was no scenery and no stage and the President sat a bare IS feet away from the scene of action. It was awful for the first ten minutes. Try acting without a barrier between you and the audience! Labor Stage tried something new when it came to sending out a road company.

It sent out the original one and Installed a No. 2 troupe at the home base. The trip was a success. It lasted ten months and took the erstwhile arment clear acr0M the LXmtry nd Canada- The cast had a grand time. It was the first time any of them had been further away from New York than the Catskills.

The trip was, in effect, a good will tour. Wherever the show went the cast was honored. In San Francisco by the Mayor, who awarded two of the actors keys to his city; In Los Angeles by Dorothy Parker and Gypsy Rose Lee, who threw parties for the cast; in Washington by all of officialdom; in Chicago by the Hull Settlement House, which made awards for social service. Everybody responded to "Pins and Needles" who turned out for the premiere. Nobody had seen anything quite like it.

When the traveling company returned to New York in January of this year, Schaffer set Robert H. Gordon, who had taken over the direction of the I. L. G. W.

U. musical some time before, to working on a new edition. It was ready April JQ noticM were even the origlnal oneSi mo," one of the MW numbers, the greater ex perience of the cast. "Pins and Needles 1939," for that was the new name of the I. L.

G. W. U. revue, seemed slated for a long, undisturbed run at Labor Stage. But on June 26 the revue moved to the larger Windsor Theater.

Reason: 'To be able to institute a new low. movie-price scale with an evening top of $1.65 and a matinee top of $1. "Pins and Needles" ran into un-pected difficulties immediately the Summer was over. Not financial ones; The threatened strike In the theatrical industry which delayed the production of new plays helped the I. L.

G. W. U. musical. But topical ones: Europe inconsiderately plunged into war, thus dating two of the revue's besi numbers "Britannia Waives the Rules" and "Four Little Angels of Peace." The good ship "Pins and Needles" might well have foundered at this point, but Navigator Schaffer and chief assistants Harold J.

Rome and Joseph Schrank came to its rescue. They produced "The Haimony Boys," a takeoff on Frit Kuhn, Senator Reynolds and Father Coughlin; "Mene, Mene, Tekel" and "Paradise Mislaid" in 1ulck order' and nobody notlce1 me loss or me oiner iwo numoers. Thus was born the idea of the new "Pins and Needles," third of the editions of the I. L. G.

W. U. most conscientious and hard-working 1 actors on Broadway. Monday "The World We Make," a play by Sidney Kingsley based on the novel, "The Outward Room," by Millen Brand. At the Guild Theater.

Margo Rudolph Forster, Herbert Rudley, Joseph Pevney, Thelma Schnee and Zolya Talma are In the cast. Tuesday "Aries Is Rising," comedy by Earl Blackwell and Caroline North. John Golden Theater. Constance Collier, Blanche Sweet, Mary Mason, John Craven, Bernadlne Hays, Ruth Holden and George Carleton In the cast. Wednesday "Ring Two," a comedy by Gladys Hurlbut, presented by George Abbott at Henry Miller's Theater.

The cast includes June Walker, Paul McGrath, Betty Field, Tom Powers, Edith Van Cleve, Gene Tlerney and Maxlne Stuart. Friday 'i Know What I Like," comedy by Justin Sturm. At the Hudson Theater. John Beal and Helen Claire head the cast, which includes Halla Stoddard, Edmund GoegTe, William Hansen, Reynolds Evans, in the company of such luminaries as Holbrook Blinn, Chauncey Olcott and Maurice Barrymore. This good fortune led to more.

She was 13, the novel by Millaa Brand. Tht pretty and talented at precisely the time early moving pictures wanted girls who were 13, pretty and talented. That pioneer of film production, D. W. Griffith of the Blograph Company, hoisted her to starring assignments along with such girls as Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian Glsh, and other of his discoveries.

When films finally put on their long pants and began smoking cigarettes, one of their most promising talents was that of Miss Sweet. When films really grew up and became a major department of the entertainment field, Miss Sweet was one of their brightest offerings. Cinemagoers will remember her charms in pictures like "Tess of the DTJrbervilles," 'The Unpardonable Sin," "The Sporting Venus," "The Woman In White," and the silent version of "Anna Christie." Secure among the stars, Blanche Sweet followed them from Hollywood to Broadway. She shone In "The Petrified Forest" and in last year's "There's Always a Breeze." Now, in "Aries Is Rising," she adds her sparkle to a distinguished cast and bids for another niche in the world of make-believe. for at tha Plymouth Theater There Is no reason to believe that Blanche Sweet plots her life according to the stars, but when she appears in the new comedy, "Aries Is Rising," opening Tuesday night at the John Golden Theater, she will be carrying on a stellar tradition which she began at the age of two.

Lest that seem a bit mysterious, it should be pointed out that this play, which also brings back Con stance Collier to Broadway, can be characterized as a merry excursion into the realm of celestial determinism, with Miss Sweet as one of the star-destined figures. The link between this and the past 1 that at the more than tender age above mentioned the same Miss Sweet hitched her go-cart to some of the most brilliant stars of the day. These were stars cf the theatrical variety, to be sure, but no less influential In the career of an earthly mortal than Aries, Scorpio, Sagittarius or Mars. "Blue Jeans," a play presented In Cincinnati, established Blanche Sweet's first contact with the stars. Little In her little performance was negotiated under her own power, for she was merely carried on and off Eltpeth Eric, Bert Lytell, Bromwcll which she acquired along with a Phi Beta Kappa key at Randolph- stage.

But her work must have been noteworthy, for almost as soon as i she could walk and make her voice! heard In the galleries she was acting Fletcher, Otto Priminger and Som Levcnt Helen Claire, the young actress from Union Springs, who played her first Southern role In "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" last season, will return North to the region of her adoption In the Justin Sturm play, "I Know What I Like," which opens at the Hudson Theater next Friday evening. In this new play, presented by Richard 8klnner and T. E. Hambleton, Miss Claire will impersonate a New York society girl and there won't be a trace of her native Dixie accent which she was compelled to lose before she made her stage debut. When Helen Claire arrived in New York eight years ago she was told to abandon any Idea she might have of becoming an actress.

The obstacle was her accent. She was informed that it took six years, on the average, for a Southerner to master the letter and to remember to put on the end of present participles. But this warning wasn't a real obstacle to Miss Claire. She determinedly set about the matter of diction and at the end of only one year had put her Southern Inflection to complete rout. Miss Claire came North on a scholarship to Columbia University, Macon College.

That same season, after Just a few months here, she competed for another scholarship, this time at the Feagin Dramatic School, and won, despite her accent In 1932 Miss Claire made her Broadway debut in "Girls In Uniform," an adaptation from the German, and as one of Manuela's faithful schoolgirl friends she won favorable criticism. The following season she appeared In "Nine Pine Street," which since it had to do with the Lizzie Borden case, carried a distinct New England flavor. For many seasons Miss Claire has been in demand for radio sketches, often working several times a day In various programs. For more than three years she was the star of the popular ether serial, "Roses and Drums," and at present she is to be heard in "The O'Neills" every day except Saturdays and Sundays. Twice a week she records fashion news for Fox Movietone, and her voice Is familiar to motion picture patrons throughout the country.

She likes doing this, she says, because it gives her constant practice In the kind of English she want to speak. and eagerness and the simplicity musical, which opens next Saturday, and the directness of the material, a few days more and "Pins and1 Anders Has Appeared Needles" was the toast of the town. I Di Everybody flocked to it. lhre Xe naV' ninth St. was in the news again.

I Glenn Anders, who in the person This unexpected popularity posed 0' B1U Blake ln "Sylark" is the certain problems. Should the castiamU5ln but nonetheless startling give up heir Jobs in the garment I "mfnace" of tn Piec' haa the dls shops and put "Pins and Needles" jtlnctlon 01 in onl actor wh0 on for a run or should they remain has aPPeared three itui part-time actors and keep their Jobs? Pj Jr "They Knew What They Wanted" It was quite a decision for all con- M(J toteriude." Eugene cerned. In the garment trade, as author of the lattw paM elsewhere, one doesn't give up a AndeT8 mvmul compltaent of paying position voluntarily. Espe-, calUng hlm the most effortless dally for something that might well Qn the Amrlcan atage. prove chimerical.

meaningi of comsti tnat he projects The cast pondered this problem! his Impersonations across the foot-carefuily. Finally they asked Louis, lights without apparent mental or Schaffer Labor Stage head, whether physical strain. The Interesting fact he could arrange to have their Jobs, is that Glenn Anders is one of the returned to them when "Pins and Needles" folded. He thought he in Clare Bootht's melodrama, 'Margin.