The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 44

I 1 6 TREND SICTION I OF THl IROOKLVN IA6LI SUNDAY. JUNE 16, 1940 Tins and Needles' People Go to Work Though the Show Lays Off for the Summer, Most of Them Plan to Act PLAYTHINGS agency, Is Interested In him. If he goes over, he'll be heard from June 33 to Aug. 11 In one of those family serial. That' hi objective, Three of the members of "New Pin and Needle" Don Meyer, Wally Oastellano and Allen Saxe are going to make a trip.

To Los Angeles, no less. What their reason is no one knows, because the mu Although you would think Uht the "New Pin and Needles" cast have had their full of acting after more than two and a half yean of the I. L. O. W.

V. musical, what do you think most of them will do in the layoff they will experience between the closing of "New Pins and Needles" on June 23 and Its beginning1 of a 40-week road tour on Aug. 11? That's right! They're going to act. A few of them already have Jobs In Summer stock. A few others are looking for places.

And still a few others have their weather eye trained on possible radio openings. They're not leaving a stone unturned In their effort to do some acting In the first "at liberty" period of their unique careers. Only for a few does the closing of "New Pins and Needles" ilgnallw sical will head out that way when an Interval of rest. The mass are making a busman's holiday out of it. Take Jean Nlclta, for Instance.

Now Jean is a hard-working girl. All during the last year of "New Pins and Needles" she took classes: classes In acting, classes In voice production, classes In body movement. Even a class in playwrltlng at the New School of Social Research, where she had a scholarship. Do you think she's giving up her studies Just because "New Pins and Needles" is finally closing? Not on your tfhtype! She ha gotten herself a Job In Summer stock, when the Guilford, company, She'll stay with them for five or six weeks of the "New Pins and it leaves town. Maybe they want to track down the good night stops en rout.

Almost th only people In the company who plan to make a vacation out of the layoff are Harry Clark and Millie WeltTi, twn of th leads in "New Pin and Needles." But even they might have don otherwise had condition been different. The one Is suffering from laryngitis, the other from a bad knee. They'll both spend their time trying to get straightened out phy-slcally for the long tour. When "Pins and Needles" gora out on Aug. 11, It will go out with a bigger cast than now appears in It.

The reason? A number of the actors want their wives along, and the management hasn't the heart to say no. Especially when the wives happen to be member of the I. L. Q. W.

U. and former members of the "Pin and Needles" cast. Touring will be no novelty to the present members of the "New Pins and Needles," as most of them made at least a few of the Jumps the I. L. Q.

W. U. musical marie back In 1938. Harry Clark, for Instance, while stationed In New York for the greater part of the first road tour, played in Kansas City, Montre, Hartford and New Haven. He'll know how many shirt he'll need on the coming trip.

There Isn't much excitement at the Windsor these evenings. The cast Is getting ready for their "at liberty" period with a minimum of fuss. Most of them are looking beyond that time; they can't wait until they get out on the open road. Maybe It's because they're so young, maybe It's because they have been playing "Pin and Needles" In New York so long. Who can tell? The trip "New Pin and Needles" will make will differ from the one It made in 1938 In one respect: It, envisages short stops in most of the cities it will play.

Last time stays of four weeks in a given town were not unusual; now the maximum will be two weeks. The tour as a whole will last 40 weeks and will cover about every important city in the United States and Canada. "Pin and Needles" will have played 1,105 performances in New York by June 22. The Summer Theater Are Drawing the Acton Into New Fields and Proving That the Stage Does Not Lose Its Grip ARTHVR POLLOCK It, curious fart that while the impression prevails generally that the thrater Is losin it popularity, the Summer theater grow In number and in ambition. There must be a reason for this.

com money tn run a theater In the towns and small cities outsirie of New Yorlc. cosu money even when the Summer theater has a school in connection with it and charges youngMers $300 (or the Summer to Mirk around and learn by instruction and by watc hing the. professionals and cost money, and it money were being lost at all these barn playhouses they would disappear verv quickly. They are not run Just for art sake. So It must be a fact that people still love the theater.

In the villages the actors find audience. So there Is an audience still, and where it. is least to be expected, for plays in which actors are present do their wot right on the premises before the naked ey. That Is a nice thing to know. And though very few new plava are discovered during the Summer time, the theater of the country being thereby little enrichrd, a great many young actors get to learn their business.

The fart that so many Summer theaters have schools attached makes It look very much as if the stage retained lts'old lure. It is not, perhaps, quite to say that it is the stage alone that lures. Probably most of those students and inexperienced actors are dreaming right past the stage to the movies, hoping that a Summer's work will lead to their being discovered by a Hollywood scout and rirAgged blushing out to the Coast to act for one thousand golden dollars per week. Or If does not come after one Summer's work, that Summer wort may lead to a small part in a play on Broadway, sudden success and glory thereafter forevermore. Good for the Stars More and more each year, too, the Summer companies attract the stars.

It med to be that only the played-out notables of the siage took to the Summer circuit when the hot. weather came around. That ts no longer. Tallulah Bankhead, for instance, has got It Into her head to rin Plnero's "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" all over the rural places between now and Autumn.

She has been playing "The Little Foxes'" for two seasons straight and you would expect her to look upon a vacation as a pleasant prospect, but no, she's a working girl this Summer. Do her good, too. After two seasons in one role she may very well have grown muscle-bound and need a little limbering up. That sort of thing the Summer stages does for the best of actors, gives them opportunity to spread themselves, head up new roads, try themselves out In fresh fields. And so while the July-and-August theaters give the kids a chance, they also provide the established players with opportunities for growth.

There must be hundreds of muscles in a good actor's body (and mind) that have never been uj-ed In any way. In the Summer they can be put to use, the owner thereby discovering, possibly, new powers, new talents he never knew he possessed. I have always believed that Frank Morgan discovered right here at Teller's Shubert Theater in Brooklyn that he was a romedian, and by accident, too, in "The Firebrand." He had always hem a bad romantic actor up to that time. Many an actor might make the same kind of discovery among the orchard playhouses. In fact the idea of the Summer theater to begin with was that II should be a place where people discovered themselves playwrights, actors, designers of scenery, directors.

And I guess a good many have. Somebody Gets Something Maybe now Summer theaters are not run exclusively for the purpose of unrovering and developing talents. A good many of them, surely, are run merely because those who run them like to play around with the theater. They may not have any marked talent for is, but it attracts them and they long to have a finger in the pie even if It is only the little finger or a large and clumsy thumb. And undoubtedly they, too, live in the hope that they will discover themselves.

Some of them have been at it for a long time now without having anything gratifying happen to them. And of the theaters are run purely for the reason that they can bring In a little small change. And they do no harm, at their worst. If they encourage more youngsters than Is absolutely to go in for acting when they have no gift for It at all. leading thereby to the eventual disappointment of those boys and girls, that, it is likely, is no tragedy.

Certainly the ant-like activity in the Summer theaters can be Interpreted as a sign of health. It makes good actors better, makes young (triors good. And it cannot help but keep alive an interest in the theater among those in the outlying districts who would otherwise know the siage only by hearsay. It makes them richer, too. Needles" layoff, then come back to New York, where the I.

G. W. musical will do Its last-minute i primping, and then hit the road with the others in the company. No rest for her; no, sir I Her friend, Ella Gerber, the heroine of "Bertha, the Sewing Ma chine Girl; Or, It Better With a Union Man," will go up to Guilford with her, but will do no acting there, somehow. All she'll do Is sculpture.

She had been wanting to do that for a long time, having learnt how to play around with NUGENT, as the puzzled professor, and Julie Stevens in "The Male Animal," comedy by Mr. Nugent and James Thurber, at the Cort Theater. Miss Stevens has taken the place of young Gene Tierney, who went to Hollywood. clay, in particular. Here, finally, 1 her great opportunity.

She expects to come back to New York for final rehearsals with a whole gallery of "New Pins and Needles" characters. Her first head will be that of All Three Come From Oklahoma Bern! Gould, who plays opposite her in "Bertha," Poor Lady Dropped Into a Boot Shop And She Had Lost Her Dog Wherefore We Now Have 'Ladies in Retirement' Alma Charmat, Elise Bregman and Ida Mandel, the three little D. A. of "The Red Mikado," are practicing their harmonizing. They want a Job at one of the borscht circuit places.

They don't want a rest. Bernl Gould Is getting ready for radio auditions. Airways, a leading veying her all of her property. Miraculously, the Chief of Police was satisfied with it he saw no need for further investigation, and Euphrasie was released. Then things suddenly began to happen very rapidly.

Down to the hou.se at Viilemomble came Eu-phrasie's demented clan. Euphrasie went off to a notary after having found two people, a musician and a hairdresser, who, for a few francs apiece, were quite willing to swear that she was Elodie Menetret and made out a power of attorney in favor of her great and gsod friend, Euphrasie Merclerl And then she did something that would have done credit to Machiavali she wrote a sharp note to one of Elodie's ex-lovers, signing it with A Broadway show Is generally a fair cross-section of Americana Its assorted characters before and behind the footlights are usually representative of all parts of the land. All the more odd, then, to find that the only three feminine characters in "Separate Rooms," the farce at the Mansfield Theater, hail from Oklahoma. They are Glenda Far-rell. who co-stars with Alan Dine-hart and Lyle Talbot; Mozelle Brit-ton, in private life Mrs.

Dinehart, and Madora Keene. Glenda Farrell, who has deserted LEGITIMATE THEATERS WORLD'S FAIR i.t ri wm mm vwa iMiU inn Melodramas have long been sinking their roots into actual crimes. Borden's celebrated dexterity with the hatchet, lor instance, formed the basis of tvo plays, "Nine Pine Street" and "Suspect," and the same MLs Borden, thinly disguised, also appears for a few fleeting moments in "The Man Who Came to Dinner." And Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, coauthors of "Ladies In Retirement," which has lifted countless scalps since its opening at Henry Miller's Theater in March, also went to a real-life murder for the plot of their thriller. Tht Ntw Yott WarU't fall el 1040 prnf ALBERT JOHNSON'S Production el Elodie's name, and reminding him the films to return to the Broadway that, his quarterly payment was stage, hails from Enid, Okla. 8he mim overdue! was educated at Mount Carmel During all of this, Euphrasie was Academy, in Wichita, and adamant about one llung-a cer- "iade 811 earlv lUck on tn sURe i a Little Eva in "Uncle Tom's, It seems that one day in the early 80's (this according to H.

B. Irving, i son of Sir Henry Irving, In one of the tales In "Studies of French Criminals," in Paris, a lndy named Elodie Menetret happened to wan- der into a booUthop in the Bouie- vard Haussman undoubtedly the worst bit of wandering she ever did in her life. For the owner of the boot-shop was Euphrasie Mercier who eventually was going to murder Mademoiselle Menetret. That Menetret lady had had quite a life. Beginning life as a music nilMress, she had presently, to turn euphemistic, drifted into dalliance, and at the age of 42 when she entered that fatal shop had piled up a bank balance of some $17,000, and was also receiving small allowances from a few of her ex-lovers.

As for Euphra.iie Mer-cier: or the past 30 years she hud been wandering ail over Europe with her two brothers and two sis- I AT TMf PAIR im lain uu vi uaiiuaa vsiv gniuvsi was not to be disturbed. That in- Cabin" Ml 7' Irbh-OennMi sistence-coupled with the fact that Pontage, Glenda counts on her she was given to lighting candles distaff side verBl tlon. of in the drawing room, then crawling tlieatrical and musical ancestors, back to the window on her hands J' who Lrrtea amf Avtft? fev OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II ARTHUR SCHWARTZ is a nonywooa oywoiu lur mp, and knees, crying. 'Back, phantoms I 7i hard-boiled gold-digger character stag. brlZON LEON1DOFF of my garden! Family of Menetret, KA V.

xnlnna In films hat mm, IUCT MONROE RAT MIOOLfTM MUt NUKN mm HURRAY JOE JACKSON IMETRM 8ME MARVET Produced DtMlgfd br ALBCST rOHNSOW 4 8HOWS TODAY: 3 30. 030. 8.30 A 10 48 P.M. ImnHlidlHU MM, Art (. ttm rest in peace! "-proved to be her been on Broadway in such varying undoing.

For the 11 legitimate son of -Divided Hononne, one of her daft sisters Honor jnd Belray came he house for a visit-flnd 0a Uw Begau began askmg a lew embarrassing wM her role te of UlMe questions. Uml broujht her t0 llie cap. After a good deal of prjlng, and i her OIiiai ters. One member of her family, a brother, wiu iea.sonably sane the other three uller fioin pro A WHALI OF A -UifM wsliif. a good deal of silling of the bab- nd sUrled ller nolabie 40' nounced religious mania, thought 'x I nothing of dashing off lung, vio mm blings of Euphrasie mad brood, serle8 of comedlcs Ulat iiave Honoruies son, a dubious gentle- llu.iude1 tn Torchy Blane char-man named began to ctera and lne Diggers." feel that some dark crime had been MoMile Brltlon Is a daughter of committed, then hidden.

He went Mr and MrSi A v. Britton of Okla-to his aunt, threatened to call the homa Citv. The comelv auburn- Legitimate Theater Manhattan urn. pmrrs MO TAX I BOX OFFICI 0PIN fr.m I P.M. fit SUM llaf Fm4 TONIGHT at 8:40 "Tb best murder-in haired actress studied music at Oklahoma University and made her first dramatic appearance in a farce called "The Patsy," by Alan Dinehart.

She played opposite a rirtng Titrry melodrant la WALTEB HtNCHEM, Titrr lent letters to the Pope, tinally, Euphrasie had settied In Paris and had opened her boolshop. Incidentally, she herself was on the borderline of mania, but had not quite reached the letter-writing stage. Well, Mademoiselle Menetret went Into the shop, fingered a few boots, then happened to glance out of the door and thought that. she saw her pet dog, which she had lost a. few days before, passing by.

She rushed outside, but the dog was nowhere in sight. Thinking he might pass that way again, she FLORA ROBSON Retirement" i young actor named Lyle Talbot, Atr-Condtiioned HENRY MIII.KR'fl THEATRE, 14 Want 43d St. BR v. B-SPTft LAST WEEK IN N. Y.

New pins and needles Htt.Wid.aSit.t2:4o Imi. it 1:40 40 7S 1M5S lM 1 WINDSOR 41 St. t. I. t-SI4 police if she did not supply him with money.

Euphrasie refused indignantly, and, surprisingly true to his word, the young man turned the constabulary loose on the house. What did they find? They uprooted that closely guarded bed of dahlias and underneath It they found a neat little pile of bones, slightly charred, and a few teeth, one of them filled with gold. A dentist was found who had once filled one of Klodie's teeth that way, and an exiiert, examining the uprooted dahlias, found that they must have been planted Just about the lime of Elodie's disappearance. The evidence against Euphrasie was circumstantial, but damning enough and her sisters, before thev were taken off to an insane "Best musical ef the teanon." Time Mag, B. SVLVA urnenfJ BERT LAHR MERMAN DU BARRY WAS A LADY COI.E PORTER SONGS 4C St.

TH EA W.flf I'y. vgt.l :30.Air-ctndttlfld Matlnetn Wrd. tt Sat. SI. IV M.1S JOHNSON'S Hellz a poppin y- WINTES GARDEN, S'wiy a 10th St.

Alr-Cmd. Mt. St. July 4. II 10-110 then leading man for the Southwest Stock Players.

Now Miss Britton is married to Alan Dinehart and playing with her husband and Lyle Tal- bot in her first Broadway play. In 1929 she went to Los Angeles, danced in some early talking mu- sical films, then became secretary to a casting director. She herself was cast In "The Devil Commands," as Alan Dinehart secretary, a role she soon took over In private life and the part she plays In "Separate Rooms." Third "Okie" member of the "Tko fiaalMt dhow Broadway." VanderbWt Jr. SEPARATE ROOMS AlaB4 raprall I Ytlht ri.TMOOTH W. 4S St.

Alr-Ctndltlinid lift. 1:40. Mali. WED. SAT.

56. to IJ.tO Jlmmr ntlRAH'K RT BOI.OE Air Cndltltaod Mantlt. Vewi Ilka CHARS la THE MALE ANIMAL Ml EIXIOTT NOOENT CORT IKS West 4 at. BR. D-004R Ems.

8:40. Mali. WED. an RAT. Mansfield's troupe is Madora Keene 1 II Keep off the grass Br.idhunl W.44.

Cn. 1:33. Alr-OndltlHd At Julr "Best murder-mvstery In yeart." WlnelMH FLORA ROBSON Ladies in retirement ,7. "THE FUNNIEST COMEDY or THI SEASON." aront Aliliwon, rimfl THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER with MONTY WOOI.LEY asvluin, let drop enough addled ul 1 wno ouisianoing hints about her conduct to hang comedy hit of her sequence as an a dozen people. She was tried and lnteryle a fashion maga- found guilty of Elodie's murder, although she insisted upon her in- nocence to the end, and was sen- Long-Stemmed American tented to 20 years' imprisonment Beauties With Glamour HENRY MILLER'S 124 W.4I.

iSr Mlt.lhurl.tSl.I:40Scien(licollAlr-Con4t. OSCAR SSRLIN V'fntu clareaea Day'i MUSIC BOX. AS It. W. ol B' way.

CI. 8-416 ya. 1:40. Mali. TBUHS.

an 1:40 SCISNTIPICALLY AIR-CON DITIONKD asked It she might keep watch in the shop for him for a few days. The proprietor agreed and the ink began to dry on Elodie's death arrant. Th two women became very friendly during tho.se days when Elodie was watching (or her dog so friendly that Elodie asked Euphrasia to become her companion. They went to live in a house at Vlllemomble, and Immediately Euphrasie began to frighten the wits out of her employer by telling her lurid tales of ghosts, of women strangled in their beds. Poor Elodie, terrified, tried to get rid of her strange servant, but Euphrasie refused to be discharged, saying stubbornly that she only wanted "food and lodging." A week later Elodie disappeared for good.

A visitor called at the liou.se in April, 1883. and was told by Euphrasia that Elodie had entered a convent, and that she, Euphrasie. had sworn not to divulge the place of her retreat. That sounded a little suspicious consequently, one of Elodie's sisters drummed up the police at. Montreuil, and Euphrasie was to appear there.

But had a battered ace up her sleeve, letter from Klodie. vaguely dated "Wednesday avenlng," con a me sentence, as siie was weu ine uiamour uiris, me six snow i over 60 at the time. Moral: Never lose your pet dog. And if you do, never, never sit in I. I 1.

"4 STARS" Mantle. "4 ORCHIDS" WlntMl LUNT F0NTANNE ROBERT E. RFTERWOOD New-Plar THERE SHALL BE NO NIGH1 ALVIN THEATRE. W. 62 St.

AIR-COOLKO Ell. 4:30. Matt. Him. Sat.

1:30. COI.I-4H4 LIFE WITH FATHER MaAt into a ptry bs HOWARD LINDSAY and RU8SEL CROUlf KHPIKK 1 war A 40 St. PE. -M( (vt.l:4gMiM.Wid.4Sit.:4a Air-Couditioned "TOPS THE OTHERS." Mantt, Hews B. a.

Do 8YLVA vretentt William Vera Victor GAXTOV TORINA MOORE LOUISIANA PURCHASE with IRENE BORDONI Moste I rrirs IRVING BKRI.W Book be MORRIK RYSKINI) IMPERIAL. 43 St. W. ft 0'y. AIR.

CONDITIONED Evil. 1:30. Mill. Oil.tlll. 2:3011.10 12.73 I a uuuwuu)j aim wau.ii mi il pass the door.

girls In "Walk With Music," the new musical comedy at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, were selected by Peter Arno as being the most stunning line of girts on the current Broadway stage. They represent the American girl the Jong-stemmed American beauty, according to Mr. Arno. The girls are Connie Constant, Althea Pardee, Linda Lee Griffith, BALCONY a.11 a VUW MATS.T Ik 1 IK I.T1 sne a 134 7 YEAR TOBACCO ROAD with Will, C.EER 'Gorilla' at Skowhegan Grant Mills and Percy Kilbride will play Mr. Mulligan and Mr.

Garrity. the detectives In the Lake-wood Players' revival of Ralph FORREST, 41. W.eta'oiy.Mti.Wid.ASit.2:43 AMUSEMENTS CONET ISLAND Martin and Spence's mystery farce "The Gor- Betty Lynn, Maxine SUMMER THEATRES MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY MAPLEWOOD Renee Russell. Miss Ruth flelwyn, ilia." starting tomorrow night. This will he the Mnth production of the Lnkrwnod company, now in its 40th seaon, STEEPLECHASE POOL AND ISLAND SURF BATHING THE LIGHT-FOOTED Vera Zorina, now vivW, along vufh VirW MnnrP, Willmm Goxton find lrnf Rordoni, in the new musical comedy success, "Louisiana Purchosr," nt the Imperial Jhiatsr, producer of the musical, selected i them after interviewing more than 400 girl.

Mats. Wed nod tSr-KHr. Ft. FLORENCE REED CRIMINAI, AT LARiE I.