Books › Musical Courier 1928-03-01: Vol 96 Iss 9, 1928 › scan 33
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Musical Courier 1928-03-01: Vol 96 Iss 9, 1928
58 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 34. See the scan on archive.org.
1Music and the Movies
3High Lights of the Week
4The new Fox picture, Mother Machree, will open at the Globe Theater on March 5.
5Warner Brothers have moved to their new home, 321 West 44th St.
6Gloria Swanson is still going strong in Sadie Thompson at the Rivoli, and Jannings in The Last Command is a fixture at the Rialto.
7No less a luminary than Johanna Gadski was the soloist with the Roxy Symphony Orchestra last Sunday morning.
8The Crowd, a wonderful picture made by Metro-Goldwyn, which attracted much attention at the Capitol last week, is playing the two-a-day at the Astor Theater.
9The Trail of '98, Metro-Goldwyn's production, comes to the Astor on March 13.
10Beginning March 4, at the American Laboratory Theater, Captain John Noel will present The Story of Everest.
12Jolson in Jazz Singer Breaking Records
13The Al Jolson film, The Jazz Singer, has passed its 300th presentation at the Warner Theater, where it continues to enthrall capacity audiences. The remarkable thing about the run of the picture is the uniformity of its receipts, the total rarely if ever varying more than ten dollars at any of the presentations. The interest taken by exhibitors all over the country in the picture is shown by the fact that on visiting the city to make bookings the first thing they do is to see the Warner's picture. The success of The Jazz Singer in the big cities continues unabated. The picture, originally booked for a fortnight in Baltimore, is now in its ninth week there, with the end of the run not in sight. In Columbus, Ohio, a three day city, The Jazz Singer is having an experience similar to the one in Baltimore. In Philadelphia the picture is about to have simultaneous presentation in twelve theaters, and, despite the policy of these houses of making three changes of bill weekly, it is to remain in all of them for a fortnight. Al Jolson continues to fit around the country. He visited St. Louis last week to appear in an act in one house and make a personal appearance in the house showing The Jazz Singer. It is said that the comedian is to receive $20,000, and a share of the receipts for his week's work.
15Sadie Thompson
16The much talked about Sadie Thompson, the picture in which Gloria Swanson assumes the role made famous by Jeanne Eagles, continues to pack the Rivoli Theater. Miss Swanson is quite grand as the embattled "Sadie," and in spite of all the criticisms to the contrary, a source of which we suspect, is jealousy, she gives what is probably the finest portrayal of her screen career. Miss Swanson and Lionel Barrymore, who in spite of overdoing his role a bit at times, under the direction of Raoul Walsh, enable one to see the drama and the idea of the original to a gratifying extent. The older brother of the Barrymore family succeeds in putting over the idea of the sex starved savior of souls in an admirable manner.
17Sadie Thompson has not only been successful in conquering the censors, and those who operated against its production, but also the many thousands of admirers of Gloria Swanson who suspected that because of all the talk about the picture that her popularity was waning. She is still one of the world's greatest screen actresses, and in Sadie Thompson she takes a wonderful opportunity to prove it—and does.
19American Laboratory's Doctor Knock
20Doctor Knock, latest of the American Laboratory Theater's offerings, is virtually a "knock-out" for fun—and good clean fun at that. It is translated from the French story of Jules Romains by Granville-Barker, and the directing has been left to the capable hand of Richard Boleslavsky, while Clement Wilenchik merits credit for the exceedingly clever settings and costumes.
21The story deals with a "go-getter" sort of young doctor who moves to a dead town, as far as illness is concerned. He sells the inhabitants the idea of being sick, of thinking they are, and thereby builds up a nice little practice and fortune for himself. The situations are excruciatingly amusing—and the audience on the second night lost itself in gales of laughter more than once. The cast, a really fine one, is headed by Robert Gordon, as the doctor. In our opinion Doctor Knock is the best yet at the American Laboratory Theater. It's worth seeing!
23Mark Strand Theater
24A prologue by Joseph Plunkett, including Margaret Schilling, who sang Chicago, and Rose and Arthur Boylan, eccentric dancers, was a clever introduction to that superlative exhibition of his technical and musical gifts and proved a young artist of promising abilities in a program that included Handel's E minor suite, Bach's organ prelude in E minor; prelude and fugue of Mendelssohn; Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, and numbers from Chopin, Saint-Saens and Moszkowski.
26STUART MASON CONDUCTS PEOPLE'S SYMPHONY
27The thirteenth concert of the People's Symphony Orchestra re-introduced Stuart Mason, for two years its leader, as guest-conductor. Ever a staunch supporter of American art and artists, it was to be expected that Mr. Mason would make place on his program for musicians of native origin. Pauline Danforth, the rising pianist of this city, appeared as soloist; while, for American music, the conductor presented works by George Chadwick, of the New England Conservatory, and by Howard R. Thatcher, of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, at Baltimore.
28As a vehicle for the display of her admirable pianistic gifts Miss Danforth chose Liszt's well-worn concerto of the triangle solos, the first, in E flat major. The work calls for brilliance, and brilliantly she played it. Bravura measures were well-knit; passage work was handled with true virtuosity; songful episodes were played with notable beauty of tone and poetic spirit. That this concerto—so superficial in this day as to be utterly transparent—was worth the pains is another question. Suffice to say that, ably seconded and abetted by Mr. Mason and the orchestra, it came off very well indeed, and Miss Danforth was deservedly recalled by an enthusiastic audience.
29Chadwick's symphonic poem—imaginative, now and then very impressive, and always workmanlike—was a feature of the program, thanks to Mr. Mason's well-conceived interpretation. Thatcher's Legend for Orchestra did not prove a significant contribution to the library of symphonic music. The other purely orchestral numbers of the program included Enesco's melodious second Roumanian rhapsody; three charming ballet airs from Rameau's opera, Hippolyte and Aricie, and the stirring Roman Carnival of Berlioz.
30Those qualities of musicianship, taste and artistic feeling that have always been associated with Mr. Mason's conducting were again in evidence throughout the afternoon.
32production, Chicago, adapted from the play showing at the Mark Strand Theater this week. The excellent picture has been reviewed so many times that there is little left to say except that Phyllis Haver, as the heartless Roxie, and Victor Varconi, her sympathetic husband, will long be remembered for their outstanding performances. The Mark Strand Topical Review and an orchestral selection, under the skilled baton of Alois Reiser, complete the program.
3455th Street Playhouse
35As all the world knows, it is a decidedly difficult matter to make an interesting presentation of material of genuine scientific value. The 55th Street Playhouse, the little art theater immediately adjacent to Carnegie Hall and Mecca Auditorium, this week presents a film that proves the rule by providing the traditional exception. This photo-drama is called Adventures in Pygmy Land and is the authentic photographic record of Dr. Matthew W. Stirling's expedition into the heart of Dutch New Guinea.
36Knowledge of a race of pygmies in that territory has been current for some two hundred years, but little aside from the bare fact has ever reached civilization. Tremendous difficulties of travel involving considerable danger have prevented all save the occasional adventurous traveler from penetrating the jungles which this curious race inhabits. To enter that land armed with photographic paraphernalia, and to return with living records of their customs, homes, and environment represents an achievement almost without parallel.
37There are presented beautiful scenic effects of luxuriant tropic vegetation, turbulent rapids, placid lakes and stately mountains. The presentation of the pygmies themselves is fascinating. This queerly misshapen tribe lives in a state of civilization fully 50,000 years removed from our own, their implements and mode of living being those of the Stone Age. As simple as children, judged from some standards, they possess a high degree of intelligence and adaptation to their environment. It is one of the real achievements of the cinema.
38A Charlie Chaplin revival, The Adventurer, still funny in spite of the familiarity of the gags, and several other interesting features complete the program.
40Roxy's
41Every now and then the stage at Roxy's becomes a riot of color and alive with gay tunes which place even the most elaborate music spectacles in line for keen competition with the motion picture house. The Gay Musketeers are at Roxy's this week—Aramis, Athos and Porthos, and the debonair D'Artagnan. The tunes, it is true, are indirect descendants of Sullivan, Puccini, and a few others, but there is a carefree, jolly something in the miniature production which is good fun, and good entertainment. The settings are splendid and the costumes quite in keeping with the time, the place, and the dashing story.
42And they have, too, this week Frederick Fradkin, once concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, and now prominent on Broadway at one house or another. Gladys Rice sang well, as usual, and the Roxyettes, incomparable in their forte, were in their customary place on the program. The Kentucky Jubilee Choir, a group of Negro singers, were there, too.
43Soft Living was an unusually good program picture. They happen along occasionally, and because they are so infrequent, they may seem for the moment better than they really are. Madge Bellamy is in the cast. Henry Kolker is there, too, much thinner than usual and in an equally slim role, which might have been played to perfection by Clifton Webb. Olive Tell has her small part, and there is a new leading man, John Mack Brown.
45The Capitol
46The title of Norma Shearer's latest picture, showing this week at the Capitol, The Latest from Paris, sounds more attractive than the picture itself really is. There is nothing new about it—in fact the picture is a hodge-podge of old hookum. If it were not for the finale, where Abe Littauer and his silent partner (Tenen Holtz and George Sidney) decide to help the girl win her sweetheart back, there would be few spots of humor, although there are some very ridiculous ones that fall flat. Miss Shearer as Ann Dolan, the Jewish firm's bright Irish saleswoman, is pretty—and that's all.
47The overture this week is Von Suppe's Morning, Noon and Night, a bright spot in the program, played admirably by the orchestra, under Eugene Ormandy, associate conductor. The Capitol Magazine is another interesting feature and the Boris Petroff production, Tick Tock, featuring Walt Roesner and the Capitolians, along with a variety of specialists, is fair. The Albertina Rasch Girls step sprightly in attractive costumes; Al and Gussie Bloom throw each other around the stage in a boneless sort of way and there is also Helen Yorke, the coloratura soprano, who sings tastefully, but what has happened to her? In the back part of the theater she was hardly audible. Yet the quality of the voice is lovely and her coloratura excellent.
48JOSEPHINE VILA.
50He received a richly-merited welcome from the audience and was recalled many times.
52Reisman Gives Première of Loeffler's "Clowns"
53Leo Reisman, quite renowned beyond the limits of this city that has long enjoyed his dance orchestra at the Brunswick, gave a concert labelled Rhythms at Symphony Hall last Sunday evening. A noteworthy feature of the concert was the first performance of a new composition by Charles Martin Loeffler—his Intermezzo Clowns—written especially for this concert and dedicated to Mr. Reisman. The taste, refinement and workmanship of this distinguished composer have long been proverbial in the musical world, and any piece from his pen is bound to excite the admiration of fastidious concert-goers. But here was a capacity audience made up largely of night club patrons, and it is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Loeffler's new piece provoked spontaneous enthusiasm, sustained until he had returned to the platform again and again. It was a highly impressive tribute to the town's—perhaps the country's—greatest composer. Of the music itself, one cannot fairly say that it achieves the artfulness, the lack of hesitancy, the sense of pace that characterize, shall we say, Mr. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The idiom is native to the latter: it is studiously assimilated by Mr. Loeffler. But, unlike other erudite laborers in the jazz vineyard, Mr. Loeffler has not written this piece in patronizing fashion, as an act of condescension to depraved tastes. He has made a bold attempt to catch the jazz spirit and has actually succeeded in creating an interplay of subtle rhythms, sentimental melodies of negroid inspiration and a harmonic dress that contribute to make the piece uncommonly interesting in this genre. It was plain that Mr. Loeffler's music had been well rehearsed, for it received a performance superior in some respects to that vouchsafed other numbers on the program. These latter, incidentally, comprised pieces of more or less merit from the current jazz repertory, including the inevitable Rhapsody in Blue.
54J. C.
56Institute Alumni Series Concert
57The fourth recital in the alumni series at the Institute of Musical Art for this season was given on February 24 by Margaret Hamilton, pianist, a graduate and holder of artist diploma of the Institute. Miss Hamilton played a varied program, including music from the classic and modern schools.
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