The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-12-26
Doomed Fade From Sight, The Storm Coming
Ernest Truck, in "Pitter Pat
ter" and "Love Birds"
Come to Belasco and Polls
Respectively Next Week.
"Hitchy-Koo, 1920" En-
tertains at National
This Week.
By LOUIS ASHLEY.

musical director failed TO report Tor
duty? We have. We concluded
that the orchestra would simply go
on and play, that's all. Particular
ly have we marveled at the athletic
musical directors coming TO Wash
ington now and then. We have
watched their gyrations with no lit
tie interest. Sometimes 1t seemed
as though they thought the audience
had come TO see them perform. At
one local house recently the orches-
ira leader spent half his time watch
ing the audience, as though to catch
their eyes and, probably, bring sp-
plause.
Some directors are tall and thin.
Some are short and fat. Some are
apoplectic, some dyspeptic. Almost
all are nuisance. The wonder is
not that we have suffered them SO
long as that we have suffered them at
all.
The director, wildly waving his
baton. bobbing his head, rising and
falling on his heels, lifting his
shoulders, now one and now the
other making stabs here and there
into the ether. may be necessary for
perfect performa nee by the fddlers
ways have grave doubts. Indeed. we
have always thought that, II the d.
, rector fell down a coal shute on his
way to the theater, or got into
cophouse or happened to have taken
W. II. and Il. car, the show would
go on just the same, and with quite
as much success.
A BIAS LIE DIRECTOIRE.
Thinking, as we have for many
years, that much Of the illusion neces-
sary to the proper presentation Of
many plays Is lost because of that
, wild figure standing before the foot
lights, it is with holiday delight that
! we greet the announcement from New
York that the director is doomed.
This is most welcome Christina
gift.
With the premiere of The Passing
Show of 1921" At the Winter Garden.
New York, this week, the new syste n
is to be Installed. Not only will the
musical director be out of sight of
the audience, but the orchestra itself
will be rearranged. No longer will
tho orches ra be spread tn. full
width of the stage. They will be
grouped in the center.
"The innovation is one have long
had in mind" says J. c. Huffman.
manager of the Winter Garden. ut
has always seemed to me that 1t was
the poorest sort Of stage art to have
a man in evening dress the central
figure in, say, scene in ancient
Egypt which had been designed by
famous artist and which was filled
with gorgeous costumes worn by the
best players obtainable. Yet that
was the practical result.
THE theater is the home OF illu-
sion. 1t aims to present an illusion
of life as it Is lived somewhere on
the globe. 1t has every possible aid.
when 1t is directed in a sincere spirit,
for the creation of illusion. But with
conductor standing on soap-box
to make himself more conspicuous
than the play. illusion flies out of the
doors. The audience can feel the
spell of the theater only by forget
ting the conductor and refusing to
read printed tales Of the number OF
dress shirts such and such con-
ductor uses during the course OF an
evening"
Mr.. Huffman is a man after our
own heart.
~THE STORM COMING.
THE Storm is headed for the Ma
tional, thus giving Washington a
glimpse of what New York critics de-
istic effect ever attempted on the
stage. 1t Is a forest fire, the like of
which has never been equaled except
by the real thing itself.
Two sixty-foot baggage cars trans
port the scenery for this effect. and
merely to arrange it for transporta-
ton requires the labor OF twenty-five
men for six hours. They are also
needed to put 1t on at the end Of the
third act.
Langdon Mccormick was caught in
n forest fire In the Canadian woods
a few years ago. He narrowly es-
capped with his life. Therefore, when
he conceived this great scene, he
made 1t just as realistic as that fire
from which he fled. Naturally he was
an expert on forest fires just then
and the result was close to pcrfec-
tion.
Pat Rooney and Marion Bent as
sisted by Elizabeth Murray, Eva
Davenport, Elizabeth Hines, Emilio
Lea, Evelyn Cavanaush. Garrett
Greenwood, Tom DinEls, Josephine
Harmon. Harry Mayo, and a host OF
others, will appear At Polls next Sum
day night in . new musical comedy
extravaganza, Love Birds"
Edgar Allan Woolf wrote the book,
Ballard Macdonald the lyrics, and Sig
mund Romburg the music. Tho last
named composed the music for
.'Maytime" and 1.-THE Magic Melody"
which would argue for some pretty
music in Love Birds"
TRUCK IN "PITTER PATTBR.-
Ernest Truck will open q weeks
engagement a the Shubert-Belasco
on January 3. a musical comedy sue
cess. He will be remembered from
his good work in VERY Good, Eddie"
four years ago. Eve Lynn. last here
with Lew Fields in "a Lonely
Romeo" liz supporting Mr.. Truck. She
has just returned from a long tour
OF Australia.
Tonight Raymond Hitchcock ap-
pears at the National in the fourth
edition of his revue, known as
"IIitchy-Koo, 1920" 1t IL a five-star
edition, too as Julia Sanderson, q. p.
Huntley, and Doyle and Dixon are
prominent in the fun making.
"Pagans." coming direct from a
successful stay in Boston, openes at