The Washington herald., 1922-03-05

III
i destiny, tomorrow make George white a
beggar Let us imagine purely in theory.
- the newspaper critics Of half creation
eonspiring TO damn the producer Of the Scan
dals" a mountebank. upstart and a bore.
Conceive. II you can. of some cataclysmIc disaster
sending George back to the ranks Of the chorus.
Can you imagine. in the same moment, that George
would be greatly concerned?
Then you imagine vain thing, indeed
At least once In whites rnusIc-staEe career
an anonymous reviewer in the Cincinnati Post
name not even reouest-once publicly stated
that George Whites Scandals" govershadoweSE
the ziesfeld 'Follies" VITA thst sweet morssl
in his scrapbook George whIteN will always
know that creation and himself is TO blame
for anything that may happen later.
During the visit to Washington last week of
the third edition Of his Scandals" Mr.. White
carefully blasoned in all the public prints this
guerdon Of Cincinnati critical largesse. The date
of this critical Cincinnati outburst In a matter
Of the utmost inconseouence nor does qucs-
ton, for even q moment its authenticity as
Cincinnati opinion, but Il must be clear, after an
inspection of the Scandals" last week that
cincinnatfs idea Of Mr. Whites show is not quite
the idea in general acceptance along the Potomac
From Whites point of view. however, that
Cincinnati notice was q triumph. From the first
day of his producing career White has eourted
comparison with ziegfeld Almost invariably
these comparisons have worked 70 his great
disadvantage, but evidently knowing his Gin
cinnati well. he continued TO nurse the ziegfeId
complex until he got At least one comparison he
liked.
De0feh. Of course, hds departed Numerically
from he early stondord. Hts comedy tnere-
dients hocs been sadly ottentuatod Bis shoes
little moro tho1 underwear ezhibts. Bat
cAat remains. q mast be admitted, Is projected .
aoross as face paIHs 10 % not torTtdIy
spiced t0ith the ,tabosco Of soIocity a oaiH
erort TO conceal as fnhereat empttHess White,
apparently. hos yet to learn that ssaIogie Nast-
ress ond atnospherIo charm ontahotie eIs-
meats Of the modern music stage
n.,.n, fact S'I ...a
of this ZIegfeld obsesson. When White
began his producing career in 1917. he
began It under a high and thoroughly messianic
inspiration. Before ever the first scandals was
launched Mr. White let IL be known that his
paraphrase Of the Zegfeld music-show title
Scandals" for "Follies'-was a title calculated
travesty. buoyantly revived by ziegfeld in his
time and treacherOusly discarded by that
impresario when he discovSed that girls and
sets would bring in the mOnE
Having declared himself the apostle
extraordinary Of trayesty, Mr.. White let it be
known that his first scandals" would prove a
gladstone. glorious, incandescent redvivus Of the
ancient Ziegfeld regime, which, by common con-
sent. passed into oblivion along about 1910.
Nightly keartened by such tidings. full
quorum Of the journalistic reviewers flocked TO
MI. Wnites standard. dragged out ana over
hauled the private stock OF denunciatory adjec-
tves and prepared to nail F. Zegfed, jr-, 10 the
nearest crossroads sign post as producer who
deserved all that White was about TO do TO him
Then came the first 'Scandals'-the Scan
dals" Of 1919. And what a picture! Scenery
costing some fabulous sum in six figures! Half
a-hundred head Of chorus girls. grouped back
stage! An audience that taxed the standing
room-only capacity Of the chandelier! Every
critic in glued to his aisle seat awaiting
the pageant that would sound the knen OF
F. ziegfeld. jr, as q musc-staGe producer!
The curtain Itp but or chat a spectacle!
Urban Settings, minus Urban, copied closely
as possible: Zie0fsIds early comedy. promised =
90 glorious a rejVveEotiOn, petering oct IN the
rnacASne0Sn dialogue Of four buriesqEe come
dtons, Iabortno nightly tOitA Gn ~HiHspted
Ebretto and a score that lacked even pOP~IGr
S,stsnctsor. Whenever eoneedlnaent Of affairs be-
came difficult nastiaess took the place Of comedy
.sAue pootleo0ers rolled from taer seats in ""eTTE-
meHt.
- I'D Mr.. whites scandals" thus mate
rialized so shockngly. meet with the
failure their triviality instantly dt
- served? They did nothing Of the sort
They ran for one solid year before audiences
that packed whites theaters capacity. They
returned Mr.. White a profit that has been esu-
mated all the way from 100000 to s25O'Ooo'
They brought to MI whites not unreceptvs
name the monicker Of "the boy wonder" There
was some talk at the time. believe, of electing
him Congress
Mr. whites boyish imagination however.
had been tremendously inflamed by the success
of his performance. Admittedly Of humble pro-
fesslonal origin the taste Of success sweet
In his mouth and he promptly reinvested his
, winnings in another show that to Wash
ington gaudily burdened that the inaugural
delayed until Thursday OF opening week.
simply because Of the sheer volume OF his
tune and scenic impedimenta.
The second Scandals" however, made
such splash as did the 1919 edition In
and treatment & was almost indistingushablo
from the first, while the third, or 1891 edition,
was like unto the first and second in almost
every particular. In the meantime, furthermore,
the free-spending and thoroughly uncrftical
audiences of the war-years were dropping away
while the popular and highly uncriticaI reaction
OF the populace to Whites nrst performance was
lowered to q thoroughly un-zegfeldisn- degree.
However, the third ~Scandals"- have now