The Washington herald., 1922-05-02
M12'ntGH
.0uv By Day
impressions:
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adolescents. They are mere boys.
Irving Berlin, at "a, is veteran.
1t has become a youthful profess
sion in which striplings who in
many cases cannot read a note
amass fabulous wealth.
Sartorially they express the spirit
of jazz-belted coats, baggy caps,
flaming scarves and riotous hos
iery, Their art consists chiefly in
slipping a jazz gland into some
long-forgotten opus. And with
Broadway orchestration the effect
is like a bolt of lightning hitting
a hardware store
Three of the most popular melo-
dies of tho current reason have
been traced to the refrains in the
musty covers of an old Scotch
hymn book. But all syncopated up
they would not be recognized by
the canniest Of Scots. The old
masters indeed have furnished the
themes for most OF our nanny,
moon and goosey love songs.
The melody lads do not deny 1t.
A new song-and they josh the
composer with where did you
swipe it?" These youngsters trek
to New York from the cabarets and
moving picture houses where they
pounded pianos for celluloid cliff
jumping heroines and custard-pie
hurlers. Most of the popular re-
frains are born here.
To have a song put over" by
reigning musical comedy show or
by a vaudeville songster means
sure-fire financial rewards. Al Jol-
son or Eddie Cantor, for instance.
can make a song by one rendition.
Incidentally, Jolson may be a pop
! ular song king but his free after
moons find him up front at the Met
ropolitan getting an ear-full of
grand opera.
Now and then an uplifter among
them shouts Fewer and better
songs" and next week the jazz
! bands are crashing out some syn
copsted gems the uplifter filched
from Beethoven or LiZt. And they
steal from one another. Three
suits based on this kind of plagiar-
ism now clutter up the New York
courts.
A merry band Of pirates! Bright
takers. Prodigious spenders. wal
Broadway glare.
Touching upon things musical.
the other night George Buchanon
Fife. James Montgomery Flagg and
Joe Drum, we'll known to Broad
way and environs. were at the
same table at a banquet. A wag
passed by, waved at them and re-
|
itation OF the spirit of '76."
In Park Row there is a clothing
store that has been going out of
business for the, last five years be-
cause of bankruptcy, fire. dispos-
session or kindred reasons. Next
door is a chop suey restaurant
that for the same time has written
out its daily luncheon menus with
40 cents quoted as the. price of the
meal, and a line drawn through
the figures accompanied by a
downward revision of the tariff to
35 cents. TT goes we'll for we
never have the same. customers
back again." they explain.
A New York motion picture ac-
tress is writing memoirs entitled,
MY Life and Some Letters" And
a paragrapher suggests she change
the title to Some Letters and My
Letters"
Every evening about S o'clock
one may see Will H. Hays walk
ing up the avenue from his offices
in the thirties. He has not forgot
ten his small-town bringing up
| for every half block or so he stops
to chat with some friend or ac-
| Quaintance. And the other even
ing I saw him stop and buy a bag
/, of peanuts with which he re-
| freshed himself as he continued his
stroll. No born New Yorker would
| do that. Dear, no, When the New
Yorker displays his eating prowess
he wants to pay SO convert
charSe' and wear open-face
| clothes.
One Of the largest of a chain of
drug stores is giving a miniature
moving picture show IN Its show
window. The screen is four feet
wide and four feet high and thrill
ers. dramas and comedies are dis
played constantly. The sidewalk
is blocked in front of 1t with
| spectators and some ingenious
youngsters have solved the prob
lem of seeing the performances
They stand at the curb on high
| stills.
The Winter Garden. after a fling
at vaudeville, has been restored to
fQ irrt,
girl and music show. The run
ways for scantily-cIad girls to
| dash down and make eyes at the
audience are back again. 1t is the
nearest thing to old NIblo's that
New York has. 1t shares with the
Hippodrome the honor OF being the
visiting fremen's idea of the city's
most important theatrical show
place. All it needs now is the
name of Charles Darnton, the
critic, in electric lights indorsing
the play 1t houses. Darnton's name
has been there since. the house
| opened, due, 1t is said, 30 a super
stition that to take it down wouiu
result in a flop" The Winter
Garden, as AL Jolson once re-
marked. is the place to see legs
and ladies'"
A new method of crashing the
tramc Gordon at Fifth avenue and
Forty-second street is for pedestrians
to hold their watches nervously and
shout to the official pedestrian de-
sisters that they have only two min
utes TO catch a train at Grand Cen
tral. 1t was well for some time un-
I'll plain clothes man began follow