Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-09

brief posthumous Juror, have appa-
rently faded from the screen. A sim
liar instance was that OF Caruso
whose singing as reproduced on the
monographs was expected to be I'M
mortal i'll popular favor. However
beautiful the song. however graceful
! and complete the picture, there is a
background Of sadness, memory OF
bereavement which checks the i'm
pulse OF the pleasure-seeking mo-
ment and turns the thought little
too seriously into the past.
The query was Immediately launch
ed, Who has taken Valentino
place. Nobody has taken his place,
nobody will take it. A player is as
distinctly personality as poet Oh
a novelist. Nobody will take the
place of Charles Dickens or Henry
W. Longfellow. A position of SINH
lar significance or greater eminence
is sure to be attained by processes
of labor and adjustment to the tastes
and requirement OF the world as it
moves on TO new ideals. new customs,
new restrictions and new tolerations.
Eminence in art mist be contended
| for sQuarelv before the tribunal of
the world and cannot be awarded by
any system OF arbitrary promotion,
however large the billboard and i'm
mense the type.
A long program of play reading
and play selection was announced
while ago by that eminent pro-
Queer, John Golden, who brings to
the road Pigs" after long success
in New York. If Pigs is the best
of the siftings of the contest, the out
look of theater literature is not buoy
antly inspiring 1t has little more
plot restraint than The Nightmare"
| but again places its chief reliance
upon laugh and an attractive femi-
nine personality. Just why it should
have had long run in New York is
one of the mysteries of the great
metropolis.
In big city there are all kinds of
| people for all kinds of plays, and
satisfactory enterprise depends even
more on .enlisting congenial interest
by intelligent publicity than on the
creation of extraordinary merit
Pigs" is strictly rural comedy, ex-
plotting the average personality with
apparent confidence in the assump
ton that there are so many people
not of average personality that speci
mems will be interesting.
| l. r. A. (
these ultra suburban incidents and
people is due TO the outstanding in
escapable style of vocalization, such
as was introduced in the Show Off"
by the actor made up and apparently
rehearsed TO appear as nearly as pos
sible like an automaton. In the case
of Pigs" it is the naive heroine who
projects the strident tones that would
| drive an Evolutionary expert to dis
traction. The ear, having been sub
| dued TO the acceptance of harsh
words, is being also trained to an ap-
| probation of harsh sounds 1t is the
| loud speaker that proves most effec-
tive in satisfying attention, partly
| perhaps it rises in command over all
other articulate or inarticulate noises.
| To account for this sudden vogue for
art cacophony, it is needless to go
| further than the automobile horn,
whose megaphonic blasts are contin-
ually within earshot of every New
| York rehearsal.
1t was an atmosphere of money
that flashed with Borealis brightness
| through theater Hobbies, in advertis-
ing what it represented as the most
expensive revue ever projected. One
of the most famous OF New York's
press agents, with the reduplicative
name, Caldwell Caldwell, paused in
transit from Chicago to New York
and distributed the half-dozen imi-
tation 20-dollar gold pieces remain
ing from his campaign in behalf of
LeMaire'sf Affairs" confidently an
nounced as the costliest production
imitation, and if rendered in some
sections of the backwoods would no
doubt be accepted in exchange for an
unlimited quantity of plug tobacco
or sorghum molasses. However, it
will not be of the slightest use at the
box Office. How the coin, so beau
| teously embellished with the figure
| of chorus Amazon, escaped the
jealous vigilance of the authorities
who protect our currency is a mys-
terry. 1t is said that the lack of
milled edges decided its innocence.
Evidently all the imitation gold pieces
fell into honorable hands. There is
nothing related regarding any one
| patient or wicked enough to make
notches on the outer circumference
with file. The threat of censorship,
which constantly hovers over the
theater, but never really lights, has
induced spirit of general bravado
which tempts many a producer to
sail as closely into the teeth of au-
thority as possible.
And, as money floats through the
air, the sum of $1,000 per week was
mentioned offhard as the salary paid
that favorite singer, graduate of the
vaudevilles and revues, Nora Bayes.
No less than the comedian does the
con; edienne yearn for legitimate dig
nifty, and Miss Bayes has developed
airs OF responsibility since the DAYS
when she lightly warbled Shine on
Silver Moon, Away Up in the Sky"
with Jack Norworth rhythmically
trudging across the stage with her,
and, like perfect gentleman actor,
giving her the line next the footlights
at every turn. In proportions, Nora
Bayes has become trife Wagnerian,
and she sings with an air of confident
, domination as BELTS one whose SAL
airy is $4,000.
P. T. Barnum was one of the early