The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 33

BROOKLYN EAGLE, MAR. 14, 1948 33 OFF STAGE By George Currie On the Screen By Uw Shtaffer 't Jill Concerning 'Taste In the Theater If thU seems to be a column about J. B. Priestley, the erudite author ami playwright and phantasmagoria! philoso-pher who sired the pedestrian "The Linden Tree," now happily interred in Broadway' cemetery of flops, so be it. However, there is something worth investigating, in the decline and fall of this play.

lad New York, during the past ar. got itself roofless-nd winduwless skeletons of a blitz, the feasibility might well have been that Boris Karloff. as the sagacious pro-lessor, might have spoken words which would have played Upon our heart strings. To be sure. Mr.

Karloff was re-quired by the script to make a nasty crack at American Machine Age ways, the very while that the Rt. Hon. Clement Attlee, His Majesty's Prime Minister, was, in word to that efeel, bewaking the arrival of more American machinery. Granted that this means nothing to Mr. Priestley, who has frequently told us that American Women are "spoiled" and New York City has "too many jHHiple" and that the local drama critics know nothing from nothing.

The fact remains that the Priestley grubbing through the rubble lor the fine, well-organized society he used to know had an element of deeply moving human nostalgia and a touch of frustration, toward which we luckier ones should be compassionate. His trouble with "The Linden Tree" was that he threw the book at us, and It was a book full of many nd windy words. Some have said that the play Indicated a difference in the tastes of New York theatergoers and those who attend The DucUass, In London, here, at the moment, it has Just MEG MUNDY AND KARL WEBER in "The Respectful Prostitute," the New Stages, play which comes up from Bleecker Street to the Cort Theater next Tuesday night, with the new Thornton Wilder "The Happy Journey," hopefully to prove that experimental theaters are worthwhile. LEO G. CARROLL, Frieda Inescort, Tom Helmore ond Rolph Forbes, who come into the Martin Beck Theater next Tuesday, in "You Never Con Tell," another Bernard Shaw revival.

The play was written in 1896 ond produced ot London's Strand Theater in 1900. It is a Shavian force. ended its 30th week. With this I would respectfully file a A Small Object, Worth Some $100, Hat Hollywood Powers in a Dither He Is a little thing to stir up so much fuss and excitement, especially among people who only get excited about the super-colossal and super-terrific and who turn their noses up at the merely sensational. He Is ten inches tall, weighs seven pounds and is gold-plated after being cast In durable bronze.

At your nearest neighborhood pawnbroker's, a notoriously unsentimental chap so don't rush down there his Intrinsic worth is something like Or It was at the last reckoning several years ago. Today, In these times of rising grocery costs, he's worth maybe $10 more. Even so, $100 la still small, If not Infinitesimal, peanuts to the famous and high-salaried gentry who will win him, but their hands are Itching just the same. For he is "Oscar." His big night is next Saturday night. The 1917 movie awards will be made at that time.

And the covetous gentry are the players, producers, directors, scenarists, and so forth, who were recently nominated for the famous statuettes that represent the highest honors that Hollywood can shower on its own. It's an old story by now, but always amusing, of how "Oscar" came to be known as "Oscar." It was entirely spontaneous and accidental. For the first three years of its existence the statuette was a nameless but not homeless; everybody wanted to take him home waif. Then, one day, Mrs. Margaret Gledhlll, who later became executive secretary of the award organization, picked up one of the statuettes and gasped, "Why, he looks like Uncle Oscarl" That did It.

Others around the place picked up the name; columnists and press agents began using it; movie fan magazines referred to it by that name, and "Oscar" he was. It was years before Mrs. Gledhlll and Uncle Oscar got over their embarrassment. Until this unofficial christening, the statuettes were only referred to by the more colorless name of Academy Awards, and this should be as good a time as any to tell you something about the academy. To start off with.

Its full and mouth-filling name is the Academy of Motion Pic hire Arts and Sciences and It was founded by some 200-odd members of the picture industry In 1927. Its main purpo.se was to raise the cultural tone of the screen and to gain recognition of its cultural influence on all phases of American life. As the best way to call attention to the screen's artistic merits, they decided to give annual awards for the best achievements In various departments of film making. Now that "Oscar" time Is drawing close, hte general public is once more reminded of the existence of an academy that makes the awards, but it has only a nebulous conception of the organization. If It thinks about the setup at all.

It thinks about it in terms of the as If this were the sole reason for its being. And yet the academy Is no oiu a year affair. It functions throughout the vear and provides invaluable daily service to the entire movie industry, as well as to those members of the public who are iully aware of its facilities. The academy library on the cinema is one of the three best in the world on the subject. It has a research council that, for one thing, trained hundreds of combat photographers and technicians during the war In making training and indoctrination films for the armed forces.

It answers mail inquiries that range all the way from wanting to know Ingrld Bergman's age to the manner In which newsreels originated. It shows the best of foreign pictures to its members for the education and entertainment of Its members. And, of course, there's "Oscar." Getting back to the cash angle. "Oscar; really worth his weight In gold to the picture or star that wins him. It's lieen proven time and again.

Variety, the hard Iviiled diary of show business, estimates that is worth a cool extra million in grosses to the pic ture that snags him. And his value to a star? Claudctte Colbert was one example. Her saalry went from MVOOO to $150,000 a picture after "It Happened One Night." Maybe that pawnbroker doesn't know his business, after all. i A demurrer. The question of taste is always debatable.

Some persona even liked the Dublin Gate Theater's production of Bernard Shaw's moth-eaten "John Bull's Other Island." And others liked the tulercular "The Hallams." with its clinical searching into the effect on the snappish family of hte visitation iih nthe young son by the Ureal White Plague. As a matter of fact, this alibi of taste in the theater Is gHcn a rather sad and rude comoupieiHc In l-ondon's own play houses. I am Indebted to Variety for the information that "Anna Lucastu" has finished its pith week: that "Annie Uet Your Gun" has polished off its loth; that "Big-, lesque" is comfortably entering un its that "Diamond Lil." of all pieces, continues into its Mh; that "I Remember Mama" is off to a safe start: that "Life ith Father" is U-gtnning to wilt only alter its -10th: that "Oklahoma!" still packs them in at the Druary Ijne. after 45 weeks. And that "Family Portrait" will close next Saturday at the Strand, chiefly, one gathers, Utause it got into a row with the religionists, in re: Scriptural fidelity.

(This last Would le for a run of five weeks.) Mr. Priestley's precious Imdon theater seems to lie somewhat akin to my own Broadway. Plays are written for Various reasons. Some are put on for little long-haired groups, who like to watch the problems of the world di. solved by the fall of the last curtain.

Some bae message, row and then rejected by the audience, which, after all. is defended from Adam and Fie and is only ion well aware that Aristophanes and Kuripidcs. lei alone William Shake-iqiaeie and George Bernard Shaw, nm to mention .1 H. Priestley, have failed to t-mooth the fevered brow fo anxious mankind. Sorry, Indeed, would a world which fell obliged to go to its dramaturgy for ways and means to enetraie the Iron Curtain or to find out for whom to vote for President next November.

Mr. Priestley had only to drop iu upon "Mr. Roberts" or "A Streetcar Named Desire" to discover why New York turned the cold shoulder to his "The Linden Tree." We don't like to be lectured. We have enough of that, now. with singing commercials cut the radio and lipeeches by those who point with pride and view with alarm, as they harangue the voters through all media of public outlets for hot air.

This matter of "taste" works both wavs. Mr. Pnestlev's hapjioned to Ik? pretty had. Leo Carroll Goes On and On, And Grateful Are Box Offices The varied career of l.eo G. Carroll offers perhaps the most MARY WELCH, ALFRED DRAKE, MARSHA HUNT AND LOIS HALL, who bow into the Plymouth Theater with "Joy to the World" next Thursday.

This will be John Houseman's return to the theater from let it not be forgotten thot his co-producer, W.ll.am R. Kotzell, has been co-producer in Fm.on Roinbow. Musical Notes sy bh New Stages Tries Uptown Next Tuesday evening will mark an important milestone In the young career of New Stages, the newly-formed theatri New Plays ToMtnrr TKMPOUARY ISLAND, presented by ANTA as the Fx-)erimental Theaters now number at the Maxine Flliott Theater. Written and llal-tead Welles. Pro-din imI by Cheryl Crawford Mid T.

Kdwaid H.imblcton. and lighting by Lawrence (ioldwa-ser. Co- cal organization which has been up to some pretty exciting things In reclaimed movie house tucked away in Bleecker St. Manhattan. The playhouse, with a slender rapacity of scats, has proved to be far tool small for the playgoers, aiming: tunie-j by Stitlicr-j land.

Cast includes Vera Finest Truex, Philip; Bourncuf, Hoffman I'liilintia Bcvans and Leon to see the New Stages production of Paul Sartre's "The Respectful Prostitute." So on Tuesday M. Sartre's biting play will le shifted uptown to the Cort Theater, for a regular Broadway engagement. Thorn-ten WIMer's "The Happy Journey" will lie the curtain-raiser. The story behind New Stages is a pleasant and heartening A skin. TIKSOAV VOIT NKVF.lt CAN TFLL.

at Dassin Learned His Theater The Long and Arduous Way Jules Dassin, who is director of the Allan Scott play "Joy to the World." starring Alfred Drake and Marsha Hunt and oenlng at the Plymouth Theater next Thursday, has been the Martin Beck Theater. The persuasive argument against type-casting. An actor with the a-tonishing ability to adjust his stature, mien and disosition almost any role. Carroll will le seen next a thai tin-ii-rc-Tif all waiters. the rel one.

i lie organization was Tn imaoie imam or tieoree'. h.ii-iui..i- founded last Fall by Norman Rose ami David lleilweil. two stage struck as long as he can remember. -til I All hunch Dassln has been 1 iid tit i if 1 1 i iii lit- in tii i ii tii 1 1 with idealism. Me'srs.

an "all.V'pn.fw,.lon be wished follow; in i i i motion picture ra- it was alwav iho ihruioi- ur H-naniMiaws 'Vm Never Can Tell." tV Theater Guild will present stai-e venture was as r- the Martin Bec next Tues- a walk-on in "The Prisoner of evening. IXenda" back in PUl. The test The sMitless livery and gentle must have been successful, lie-. of William will offer sharpie ause be has never reallv I ll-l I l-ll fill Ml IMIIISII 'S. I a theater, rounded up more' as a li.ee toi he Is definitejiuaung from high sch.Hil in i K- i-eliirnmrr In fh fhnaf! i.

Theater tluild offers Leo in a cat which also includes Tom Ib'lnuire. Ralph Forbes. Frieda Inescort, Faith Brook. Patricia Kirk-land. Nigel Stock and Walter Build.

Settings by Stewart Chancy. Ashmore directed. TIIK RKSPF.CTFI.'L ITtOSTI-TCTK ami Thornton Wilder's TIIK HAPPY RNKY. at the Cort Theater. New Stages.

move up from Bleecker St. to the Big Tinie, with a strong and nioung play on the not so respectful side. than I tMi actors and technicians; 7 rrw 10 r.urope who doubled as investors, and AKn 111 to Mudy dramatic tech- to Mr. Carroll's most walked off since that date. From went to work with the avowed! .7, Kor two years he roamed 1 1 t.

ent Now Wk apiM-arance the time of his Imdon cltlnit putting on good playsiV purpose j. the inner professor in "The in VM2 in "The Blindness of through Italy. I-ranee. Spain, Germany. Riissl.i pin, 1- illlT which were presumably loo far Jiiuid Circle," which.

In turn. Virtue" up to his current as rt 111a 11 1111. a far cry indeed from thatlslgnmetit in "You Never Can off the beaten track to attract a commercial-minded Broadway How About an 'AidV Benefit For New Interracial Hospital? According to the Brooklyn Kagle earlier this week, a group of responsible Negro leaders of the borough are laying plans for the erection of a $..1000.000 hospital in the Bedford Stuyvesant area. Like Sydenham, this new iiistitu. tion will be inter racial, offering opportunity for study and practice to properly qualified individuals without raising the question of origins or beliefs-.

An elaborate fund-raising campaign has been planned in order to bring this thoroughly praiseworthy project to reality. This department Is impressed with the fact that music might well play its part in promoting the success of the campaign. The Idea of a benefit concert Is literally as old as the hills, but in this instance something of a special nature might be planned. The new hospital Is to be Inter racial, which is its mark of distinction. A musical event along these same lines might serve to dramatize this aspect of the new institution and supply much worthy publicity, as well as to provide a substantial sum In cash.

One of the best singers now being beard in America is Kllalielle Davis, the distinguished sopiano Brooklyn h-tellers will recall Miss Davis' appearance here with Dr. Kmis-pevltzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lukas Foss' "Song of Sours" which was written for her. Throtich-out Central and South America. Miss Davis is widely known for her interpretation of the title role in the opera "Aida." So far as we know, Miss Davis' "Aida" has never been heard in New York. Perhaps the committee sponsoring the new hospital might like to plan a benefit performance of "Aida" at the Academy of Music with Miss Davis In the title role.

The distinc tion of the singer should certainly insure a full house. In her support perhaps Kurt Baum of the Metropolitan Opera might lie persuaded to appear as Rhadames, or Sidney Rayner, who has the role with great success for many years. Miss Norma Howard is the best available Amneris that comes to mind. The role of Amanasro should be snug by a Negro baritone, as the story prescribes. This column's choice for the role would be Todd Duncan, although we believe that he Is now In Kurope.

With a cast like this, a good performance Is assured. As conductor we might propose Dean Dixon, whose concerts with the American Youth Orchestra are a popular attraction at the Academy of Music. Mr. Salmaggi might be persuaded to lend' his scenery for the occasion, and perhaps the costumes as well. Such a performance would be more than another benefit.

It would be an event. National Brotherhood Week is Just past. The daily headlines In the Kagle point up sharply the need for mutual understanding. A performance such as this would attract national attention, stimulate contributions, and reward the paying audience with an evening of fine music. According to the plot of the opera, Aida Is a princess of Kthiopla.

For countless years sopranos have donned dark makeup for the role, while talented Negro artists have not been invited to appear. This department makes it a distinct point to review all artists as artists without expounding on their family histories or backgrounds, In this instance we make an exception to point out that an "Aida" presented by talent such as we have suggested here, both Negto and white, could represent both an ai'U-tic success and a stop forward toward the goal which so many slnoeia people of good will are striving to achieve. pillar of aristoc ratic Back Bay II Carroll has been one scKlety, "The I-ctelof the busiest actors in the Apley." For that matter.jcountry. would have been a total! American audiences first saw mangiT to Sergeant Bough of, him as Dick Rutherford in producer. Months of elbow grease, with everyone pitching in, got the abandoned movie house Into shae, and In Decem Czechoslovakia, Portugal.

Switzerland and Greece. He haunted the theaters, worked when be could, and studied drama In all its forms. His travels abroad well equipped him to write an accompanying volume to Baedeker. When he returned to New City." he has forsaken the gilded life of the Baghdad on the Pacific for the more Individualistic medium of the stage. Jules Dassln's success has come to him at a tender age.

Still In his early thirties, he has about ten motion picture hits to his credit. A native of Connec tl- DANNY COKS TO HKLL. plav bv Howard Richanl-on ber New Stages offered its William Berney and Cherokee first production. Barrio Slavls' "Rutherford and Son." and renewed their acquaintance in 11)21 when he returned as Rod "AiiC'l Street. It would be a unique con-J'lture, in fact, to Imagine one rolling's reunion of all the Thornton, Lee will di "Lamp at Midnight," a play red the Incidental imt-ic and about Galileo.

York In lWfl. he decided to con- dy Danton In "Havoc." l. llL.ll the presentation will be at at Midnight." while in, iiKin eentrate on acting when he saw the Abbe Theater School well-received bv both critlcsiof day In Mlddletown. the son the work being done at the I Master's Institute). and audiences, had the rnlsfor- of Samuel and Bonha Dassin tune to open a few days before the heaviest snowstorm in New-York's history.

The Slavls play St. and Riverside Drive, Gloria Monty directed. Tilt ItSB.W Yiddish Theater. When he applied for a part with the company, he was asked. "Do yott understand Yiddish" Ills 'answer was something of a shock to the management when he replied, "No, but I ran learn." His father, a barber, moved the family of five boys and three girls to New York when Jules was three.

There wasn't any question In the young man's mind as to the losed after a six-week engage ment, and then New Stages JOY TO TIIK WORLD, at the Plvmouth Theater, starring came up with "The Respectful Alfred Drake and Marsha Prostitute." Sartre mordant i 't I V'V Hunt, Jules directed study of violence and hypocrisy in a Southern town sent critical Sets bv Harry Horner. The east features Myron MeCor Opera Returns to Center hats flying Into the air, and sol nilck, Morris Carnovsky, Clay dom had an actress been so The New York City OperaiHorne singing Alfredo for the Company, under the artistic andlfirst time and Norman Young aurcled as was Mog Mundy for Clement. Hugh Ronnie and Mary Welch. House her incisive performance as musical direction of Laszloias the elder Germnnt. Other man and William II.

Katzell Lizzie. McKaye, the hard bitten the presentation. It Is an llalasz, will open Its 1918 Spring season the ninth since Its In ladv of the play title. roles will be sung by I.enote Portnoy as Flora. Mary Kreste as Annina.

Norman Scott as The Doctor. Arthur Newman as The Allan Scott ploy, who has set It in a Hollywood movie The move to the ort does not ceptionnext Friday evening. mean that New Stages Is fnrsak at the New York City Center. The first night will offer the Ing Bleecker far from It. Baron and Fdwin Dunning as The organization will continue company popular success orThe Marquis, Morel will the Fall season, Mozart "Don conduc and the stage director to operate from Its original headquarters, and several new Giovanni." with virtually the will be Leopold Sache.

nroductlons are in the mill. studio. FRIDAY DON GIOVANNI, at N. Y. City Center, with Kllen Fanll.

Biencla Lewis, Virginia lias-kins, Pea-e, Joseph Laderotite. Norman Cordon, Norman Scott and Kdward Dunning. Lalo llalasz will conduct. 'I noodore directs. down there.

same cast that Introduced It to. The fitt matinee of the ra-City Center patrons last year son will be next Sunday after-Kllen Faull as Donna Anna, 'noon, when a performance of Hrenda Lewis as Donna Klvlra.iBlzet's "Cannon" will present Virginia Hasklns as Zerlina.j Winifred Heldt In the name Pease as Don Giovanni, role. Marie Jose Forgucs a Ml-Joseph lidcroute as Don Ot-caela. Lenore Portnoy as Fras-tavlo. Norman Cordon as Le-iqulta.

Carole Ollata, In her San Carlo Returns Fortune Gallo announces the repertoire for the San Carlo ences for consecutive weeks Opera Company's annual Now with his diabolical and sinister porcllo, Norman Scott as II He's Diabolical York Spring engagement, be humor, has arrived to make his Commendatore and Fdw in Dun If, on a dimly-lighted street, New York debut of his one-man ginning April H. at the Center Theater In Rockefeller Center. The company will come direct strange eyes should peer ning as Masetto. Mr. Halasz will conduct and Theodore Komlsaijcvsky will be the stage deinit witn tne company, as Mereede.

Irwin Dillon as Don Jose. Walter Cassell debuting as Kscamlllo. Gean Greenwell as Zuniga. Nathaniel Sprlnzena as Remendado. Edwin Dunning as Danealro and Arthur Newman as Morales.

Jean Morel will be nights. Theodore replies that only trying to locate an apartment does that. On occasion he has been asked by homesoekers whether he Is available to haunt a house and prompt the occupant to move. Theodore has been too busy preparing his New York debut of his Grand Gulgnol performances to accept the proposal. But the request, he admits, has given him some diabolical ideas.

through the darkness, don't director. from Son Francisco, where It call lha police. It may lx Theodore. The second performance, next show, "Blossoms of Kvil." at Carnegie Recital Hall March 22 for four successive evenings. He Is described as a composite of Boris Karloff, Salvadore Dali and Red Skelton.

Questioned whether his mara-bre stories keop him awake. Saturday, will be Verdi's "La k-" For Theodore, the continen doses its Pacific Coast tour with a fortnight's engagement at the, War Memorial Opera Traviata," with Frances Yeend the conductor and the stage tal racounteur, who has been making her dehut with the, direction will be done by Leo BRENDA LEWIS, who will sing in "Don Giovanni," ot the N. Y. City Center next Friday. 1 frightening Los Angeles audi-, House.

company as Vloletta, William, pold SachM..