Books › Musical Courier 1928-04-12: Vol 96 Iss 15, 1928 › scan 49
Scan 49
Musical Courier 1928-04-12: Vol 96 Iss 15, 1928
33 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 50. See the scan on archive.org.
1Music and the Movies
3High Lights of the Week
4Rudolph Ganz played the Liszt concerto No. 1 in E flat minor with the Roxy Orchestra, under Erno Rapee, at the symphonic concert on the morning of April 8.
5Fanny Brice has joined the ranks of Vitaphone.
6Thirty foreign students, sent to America to learn motion picture photography, viewed The Trail of '98 recently at the Astor Theater.
7Street Angel, a William Fox production, opened last Monday at the Globe. It features Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor.
8Following the engagement of The Legion of the Condemned at the Rialto, Drums of Love will come there on April 14.
10The Thrill of Tenderloin
11Tenderloin, the new talking picture which features Dolores Costello, is drawing large audiences to the Warner Theater, where it is likely to remain for some time. The dialogue awakens much applause while the picture itself even pleases lovers of melodrama.
13Martine
14In listening to the Laboratory Theater performance of Martine, we judged that the idea of Jean Jacques Bernard in writing Martine was evidently to emulate the traditions of his father, who had a reputation for writing excellent farces. What he really wanted to do was to tell a tale of that rare thing, French sophistication, in rural surroundings. But Monsieur Jean Jacques should have stuck to his real ability, which lies in a field that is the complete antithesis of the parental talent.
15The plot of the tale is rather unsubstantial: one finds Martine, the village maiden, flirting with a Parisian newspaperman, Julien, who has come to visit his grandmother. The author then sees fit to introduce Jeanne Chailland, a more knowing and understanding person, who in the end wins Julien's love. Martine must perforce be satisfied with her farmer sweetheart. The last act is the best, which shows the return of Julien and his wife after the span of a year, in contrast to Martine who has had to sacrifice herself to her uninteresting husband. It is here that the players have the best opportunity to display their talents. It would be unjust to judge them on the material outside of this act and here the humor they indulge in seems quite natural. Ruth Nelson as Martine, George Macready as Julien, Mary Steichen Martin as Jeanne, Herbert Gellendre as Alfred Murielux and Frances William are the participants. Helen Grayson made the translation from the French.
17Speedy
18Paramount has presented many pictures this year—good, bad and indifferent in quality; but one of the best is Harold Lloyd's latest, Speedy. If one wants an evening of hilarious fun, a visit to the Rivoli is well worth while. The film is packed full of amusing incidents, many of them strikingly original. With comedies these days, one tires of the old stuff, redressed. Speedy offers new ideas which keep the audience in a gale of laughter all the time. At the premiere on Friday night, April 6, which was a benefit for the Theatrical Press Representatives of America, Inc., a capacity audience was on hand. When a film can provoke mirth among the blase people of the press, it must be pretty good. That's what Speedy is! Harold Lloyd is his usual funny self—only funnier! There's a slim love story, but it isn't needed. Comedy is king!
19The first part of the bill is composed of bits of music and song. Walter C. Kelly (The Virginia Judge) is master of ceremonies and with his funny between-act jokes peeps the program considerably. Edwin Franko Goldman leads the orchestra in a selection, winning warm applause. So does John Philip Sousa, the March King, in his own Stars and Stripes Forever, and the house breaking into enthusiastic cheers. Allen McQuhae, popular radio and concert tenor, delights in several songs, among them A Brown Bird Singing. In good voice, the tenor won his share of honors on the opening night. Edna Thomas, The Lady from Louisiana, in graceful crinolin, sings two Negro Spirituals: Run, Mary, Run and I'm Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven. She responded to several curtain calls on this occasion. Duci de Karekjarjo, Hungarian violinist, with Willard Sektberg at the piano, makes a good impression in two pieces, but when, at this time, he added another, the performance dragged.
21Roxy's
22Roxy exercised a lot of skill when he chose this week's stage program, which so out-shines William Fox's feature picture, Why Sailors Go Wrong, as to be amusing. The less said about the film the better, even with that amusing team, Sammy Cohen and the late Ted McNamara.
23Dancing seems to be the main theme of the bill, for the Roxyettes, trained by Russell E. Markert, has been increased to thirty-two and they do some extremely fine work, heightened by the solos of Joyce Coles and Nicholas Daks, late of the Mark Strand. This artistic couple are an addition to any program, and their participation in the Easter Ballett won a large share of the applause at the opening show on Saturday. By way of further entertainment, there is also that lovely dancer, Virginie Mauret, who has been seen here many times, including appearances with the New York Symphony and other orchestras. Her Phoenix Dance, done to the Magic Fire Music from Wagner's Die Walkuere, is exquisitely executed, and a sheer artistic treat.
24The program opens with a processional and tableau called Easter Morning, in which the orchestra, organs, chorus, ballet and Dorothea Edwards, contralto, take part. Miss Edwards gives a beautiful rendition of Rubinstein's Kammenot Ostrow, and the chorus adds a further touch of Easter spirit with La Grande Paque Russe by Rimsky-Korsakoff and Handel's Hallelujah. Another high light on the excellent program is Beatrice Belkin's singing of the ever delightful Voices of Spring, by Strauss. Thank goodness for the artistic end of the bill this week, as the picture is just "also ran" this time.
26Paramount
27For us, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, now in their second week of this present engagement at the Paramount Theater, took first honors at the opening show on Saturday, April 7, and with little trouble. Whiteman is an institution! There's never a dull moment in his show and if there are any Blues—they are the kind that send you away with a good feeling! This week the tunes are of the best, but the assisting artists vary in calibre. Jesse Crawford also returned and he got his usual warm welcome. Sky-scrapers, featuring William Boyd, with Sue Carol, treats of a riveter's romance. It's only fair!
29Mark Strand
30If it is true that too much laughing produces excess weight, those who are interested in reducing shouldn't see Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath, featuring Jack Mulhall and Dorothy Mackail, at the Mark Strand this week. Certainly there are enough hearty giggles in this picture to put weight on the thinnest human.
31The picture is another of the never ending Mulhall-Mackail series, and with James Finlayson, who looks a great deal like Chester Conklin, as "Pa Slocum," and Sylvia Ashton as his "eager to be skinny" wife, it offers humor galore. The efforts of a modern female built along battleship lines, to gain a chorus girl figure, are always amusing. And Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath makes the most of the opportunity for hilarious humor. When Pa Slocum and Speed Dawson slip into the turkish bath where Ma Slocum is undergoing a fat killing treatment, their efforts to escape detection are side-splitting.
32Alois Reiser conducts the Mark Strand Symphony Orchestra in a lovely overture, Phedre, by Massenet. There is an interesting novelty entitled Bits o' Kreisler, featuring
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