The New York herald., 1920-12-30
HOWard Brothers
Highly A musing in
Nen Passing Show'
Winter Garden Revue Has a
Laughable Skit on VolStead
Laws Enforcement

When the Howard brothers made
their first appearance as stars at the
Winter Garden last night, Eugene lead
ing camel and Willie astride the beast,
guiding 1t through the traffic of the
Sahara desert with a klaxon horn, it
was question whether the spectators
watching the opening of THE Passing
Show of 1921" were laughing more at
these comedians or at their two dogs
masquerading as diminutive elephant
and camel and almost getting away
with it.
The audience chortled continually
while the pups. who looked as If they
had their winter ones on, ambled about
and were almost sat upon by the How
ards two-man power dromedary. Then
Willie removed the canine imitators
forcibly. and 1t was evident the spec
tators could spare some laughs for the
Howards, even though the desert repre-
sented New York and Bryan's head was
on the Sphinx. which has always hither-
to had reputation for silence.
Willie especially was amusing when
he opened the side of the camel and re-
vealed that the animal carried more
than hump on it's hip. Travellers We're
bitten on the arm by snake specially
by the application TO their throat of
some more beneficial snake bite, the
whole idea being to circumvent the Vol
stead law as painlessly as possible. After
that Willie was very busy young man,
diving into a bewildering multitude of
costumes and proving that he was, as he
said to his wife in the opium den scene.
very clevah"-as clevah as two men,
In fact. He gave a highly diverting
imitation Of a Yiddish Harry Lauder.
and Joined those scores of impersonators
Of Al Jolson who are making that Shu-
bert star equally famous with Ethel
Barrymore-as model for limitations.
Just to show he could be serious, he
mimicked Frank Bacon in a free adver-
tisement which will probably help
"Lightnin' to struggle along for a cou-
pie of years more.
Brothers Prove Loud.
Eugene. of course. always was on hand
feeding the patter and lending some high
notes to agreeable songs. The Howard
brothers proved loud, but so was the
laughter. Miss Marie Dressler and
Harry Watson helped the evening and
the show to pass. Miss Dressler, be-
sides good burlesque of Miss Frances
Starr in ''The Charm School episode,
was at her best in THE Bat travesty,
insisting on numbering the detective
done with rough good humor by Wat
son-because no one had been killed in
her house that day and the crime wave
must be maintained. Among other skits
on current successes was the Spanish
Love" scene. with the actors trailing
down through the audience and Watson
hunting for his brown derby, closely
pursued by Miss Janet Adair as an
usher who wished those ham actors
would stay on the stage"
Attractive Dream BaIIets.
One OF the plenteously beautiful now
elites was new series of dream ballets
by Cleveland Bronner. assisted by Ingrid
Solfeng, with moths and dream plic St
esses and winking fireflies radiantly ar
rayed and moving with an unconven-
tional. rhythmic grace amid a typical
Broadway setting--a cave of muslin lin
gerie. This Bronner contribution abound
ed in striking imagination and it was
small wonder even the blase audience
murmured, THAT guys all right %
For the rest O'Hanlon and Zam-
bounis danced energetically; the lithely
handsome Tot Qualters sang and wrig-
gled expertly, j. Harold Murray warbled
without dislocating a note and Sammy
White danced feverishly into favor.
while Jean Schwartz's music trickled
along as though nothing could stop it.
Harold Atteridges book filled the gaps
between the imposing settings. and J. c.
Huffman has put such life and fast pace
into the bevies OF pretty girls in this
Passing Show" that it's the best of
the series-a statement Lee and J. ].
Shubert aren't likely to contradict.