Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-29
Billie Burke Goes
After Philadelphia

Mile, Billie Burke begs TO announce
that she will be at the Broad Street
Theatre showrooms this week and next
exhibiting an extensive line of new crea-
tions and familiar ways, all cute:
WHITE TWo-DECRER FRoCK with
black pumps. Suitable for automobile
ride at 90 miles an hour with aunt's
fiance of 20 years standing without
hitching).
oLp-FAsHToNED EMPIRE GOWN,
worn by aunt 20 years ago when fiance
was smitten. Guaranteed to have same
effect today.
LACE FROCK WITH PANTALBTTES.
Excellent contrast to such tomboy be-
havior as announcing the end of the
aunt's engagement.
NIGHTIE. For early morning searches
after the paper with the society column
BLACK RIDING BREECHES. Clinch
the "cut-up" effect, while the family has
a horrible time over the announcement.
PINK PAJAMAS. cut to fit. Prison garb
for apprehended perpetrator OF the an
nouncement. and fitting costume for a
fake suicide to win the angry man.
BRILLIANT AFTERNOON GOWN. For
going away"-even as far as Arizona.
HOUSE WRAP. Matronly, to match the
That is fair outline of the plot of
Jerry" But 1t fails to record the ex-
tensive conversations necessary to length
en- out the third act and to make the fourth
at all possible And it fails just as much
to give all the amusing little deviltries
of language with which Catherine CHS
holm Cushing has larded her farce
What does 1t really convey. for in
stance, of the mature wisdom of q young
Chicago girl who says: II had to take
pot luck In the parent deal, but I'm going
into the hubby game with my eyes wide
open" and i've found my soulmate,
and I'll get him IL I have to hold him
up with a gun?" Even eight different
sets of clothes to a four-act play are not
an index of the speed OF the human
dynamo that goes by the name OF Jerry.
Rut the list does give pretty good
idea of what to expect In the way Of act
ing. And that Is Miss Burke at her live
liest. She Cooes and she pouts. She gig
giles and she RACES. She fiirts with a Chi
caBo accent and then turns on the Billie
Burke gurgle. She dances. she races, she
hops. She filings herself about. She wrig-
giles her hands and her toes. She even
has little moments of common or Mary
Garden acting when she is very intense,
indeed. AS the cognoscenti would put IT.
Billie Burke "has everything"
The cast is almost as variegated, There
is Selene Johnson. very. very dramatic in
some Take back your ring stuff; in
fact a good deal more dramatic than
the farce warrants. There is Alice John
delightfully."- mature Alice John, wearing
the handsomest dress In the play-and
several other plays-and putting up with
Jerry quite nobly There is II. Lawrence
Leyton. just as English as his name and
Just as amusing. And there is Shelley
Hull trying hard-as the semidetachable
fiRnce-to take the whole thing seriously
AS for the play-there We step into
deep and dubious waters. II must not be
considered as mere entertainment. like
Miss Burke and her clothes. For 1t has
taken upon itself the task OF exposing
something very dear TO us all--social life
In Philadelphia, As contrast TO Chicago
Philadelphia. AS a place where able
bodied men and women make engage
ments a habit of 20 years standing
Philadelphia. AS a spot TO be shaken to
its roots by the tumultuous Miss Burke
Philadelphia Such bitter realism-which
goes to the length OF utilizing the
LEDdER's society columns-must be judged
very harshly when II picks out the wrong
telephone number for this paper.