Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-27


u hardly satisfying as drama
1t takes up the subject of moonshne
in its original form and assumes thai
the secret still continues to be To-
Gated in the misty mountain fastness
instead of up an alley, around the
pfarest corner.
III the numerous complaints about
the shortcomings of the theater ref
erence has been omitted to a very
serious spirit of antagonism to Vol
stead ideals of civic and ethical de-
pertinent. Scarcely play comes to
town in which the seductions Of al
cohol are not portrayed with as
much vividness as if the fluid had not
been written completely out OF re-
. spectacle association with the laws
of the land Sometimes it is dis
played by the barrel, as in Heaven
Tappers"; sometimes more daintily
in society plays, by the decarter
Even Pickwick set the imagination
roaming to archaic convivialities by
his affectionate reference to the
negus that awaits the party.
The Greenwich Village Follies
show has gotten a long way from
the "Folies Bergercs,' from which
the tAlc "Follies" was originally
! translated for use on the American
stage. 1t was probably Anna Held
who knew her Partisan theater as
well as any one could know it, that
first suggested the title for this kind
nf entertainment
In some of the discussions of a
censorship for the theater it has been
naively suggested that the authors
are responsible for the unsavory
plays, since If authors did not write
them, managers could not produce
them.
The grave diggers in Hamlet
could not have evolved a more
startling bit of logic.
Fancy pictures an author often
with high cheekbones, his face hang
ing close to his typewriter, despising
poverty, disdainful of royalties to be
drawn from plays like Ladies OF
the Evening" or 1.-THE Harem," and
seeking with impish mischief to lure
some ingenious producer into still
greater degradations.
Wicked authorl
He remains since the days OF
Bacchus and the Dithyramb devoted
to wine, to women, and, as in the
case of the Greenwich Villages, he
ventures occasional attempts at song.
The attention of producers should
be called to one thing, the author
who wrote" the costumes for the
Villagers and for a number of
other spectacular shows should be
held to account with especial Sc
verify.
There has never been a more MINI
BILE display of the game known in
the vocabulary of Broadway as
passing the buck" than the effort
to meet genuinely serious and au-
thoritative endeavor to compel de-
cency on the stage. A puzzled po-
liceman has frequently scratched his
head and tried to correct matters by
the elimination of single scene or
a small sentence or two. 1t makes
little difference. Such things are re-
stored with such ease that a per-
petuai vigilance would be required
to prevent relapse into the first
form, even during the stay in New
York City, to say nothing of the
freedom resumed while fitting from
Town to town through the provinces.
In days when burlesque was sup
posed to represent the rougher ele-
1nent of the theater towns were in
Dictated as the show was being routed
with reference to good behavior or
q chance for cutting loose"
s. X n
Arresting the actors was pitiful
and futile makeshift to cause an i'm
preston that something was being
done. 1t seems to rest On the idea
cherished by many unsophisticated
people that the players simply walk
on and off and utter their thoughts
drawn from a store of bubbling bril-
liancy with the extemporaneous
case Of superhuman genius.
The suggestion that audiences them
selves ought to be arrested for seeing
reprehensible shows comes nearer a
vital point. The people must have
theater and have been accepting ma
terial such as arises throughout ma
ture in conditions of stagnation just
as thirsty travellers will drink in des-
peration from sluggish and un-
wholesome pool. The audience, how
ever, has one loophoie. 1t can al
ways profess inability to foresee a
tainted performance. It's members
may profess a myopia, leaving them
unable to see the pictures on the bill
board, and an ingenious attitude due
to the fact that they do not believe
what they read in the papers.
* " y n
So far have some of the musical
shows gone, overwhelming artistic
beauty with fat appeal to the low
est type of intelligence, that only ar
audience composed in some measure
of specimens representing a special
type of mentality could encourage
and enjoy the performances.
X 4
II looks like a case of moron ir
front of the house and more-off or
the stage.
n \ X
1t has been possible in the past te
organize public opinion in a manner