The New York herald., 1922-09-04
New Show Easily Overtops Predecessors Ballet
Circus and Musical Comedy Combined in
Notable Entertainment

chorus and reaching to the high top
of the stage.
Vasco was a musician but he was
most agile with his feet which might have
led the audience to believe him a dan
GER But when he lay on his back and
played the sleighbells with his toes
his hearers seemed to enjoy him most.
Before that he had played on every
wind instrument from the bassoon to the
cornet a piston, interjecting in the In
tervals some very English music hall
humor.
Quite as remarkable as his virtuosity
was the music he selected. He played
the waltz from THE Pirates of PEN
zance" and then La File de Nine.
Angot" and "Voici lie Sabre" from La
Grande Duchesse" as we'll as an air from
THE Gondoliers." This collection was
varied by occasional operate music.
Highly original was the shadowgraphing
of a solemn old gentleman who called
himself Torbay. With his fngers he
threw amusing and quite unusual
shadows on the screen.
"The Hand of Mystery"
Nothing in the first part was. how
ever. so original and amusing as The
Land of Mystery" IL was not enough
that George Herman suddenly appeared
out of the black wall and so frightened
Marcelline that he converted his bed
into an automobile and rode rapidly
away. Mr. Herman went through all
sorts of bewildering steps. wriggles and
poses.
That was not enough. however. for
more and more skeletons, for all the
world like the first one appeared and
then when they had descended from the
heights OF the black background, there
were gigantic comic figures as tall as
the stage and others black and white
but smaller and equally comic This
proved a wonderful illusion In sill
houette.
Ciaudius and Scarlet. twanging their
banjos. again involved a New York
audience in community singing, for the
spectators Joined heartily In Long, Long
Ago" 'Clementine" and "Old Brown
jug" They returned to find their pop
ularity undiminished
At the Grand Opera Ball." with
Happy Lambert singing II Dreamt That
/ Went to the Grand Opera Ball." while
the members of the company issued
from a gigantic victrola dressed as the
various characters in opera from Balfe
to Puccini, from Rossini to Wagner.
Verdi and Mozart, were not forgotten,
and It ought to please Victor Herbert to
find himself in this company represented
by "Natoma."
1.-THE Story of a Fan" perhaps repre-
sented the high mark of merely spec
tacular beauty Miss Nanette Flacl.
Miss Virginia Futrelke and Frank John
son were the singers and myriads OF
fans Of every kind danced about in the
person Of the ballet corps. Finally the
stage was hidden by the mammoth fans
that rose from nowhere. while huge
fan Of living figures hung from the
ceiling glowing in electric lights.
But this was not all. THE Fat Mans
Fair" showed all kinds of fat men and
women falling into the water, and then
came the beautiful diving into the tank.
'-rhe Harbor of Prosperity" was the
last view. The gold clad Amazons
marched fearlessly into the waves to
disappear as Of old and then come back
on the ship OF dreams, about which Miss
Flacn and the chorus sang. This was
the closing sight of Better Times"
which the SPECTATOR declared made a
new record In fun and beauty for the
Hippodrome.