The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-09-08
SECOND SOUND
MOVIE AT PALACE

LOWE FdldCS presents 1US second
sound picture in William Haines'
latest vehicle, Excess Baggage"
Sound effects usually heard in
back stage of a vaudeville house,
musical accompaniment by the Cap
itol Theater Orchestra in New York,
are two of the features which dis
tinguish this picture from others.
Tinsel and glitter under the foot
lights, that hides drab exiStences,
heartbreaking work, bitter diSap-
pointment and the one great ideal
to which every member of the
strange profession looks as the
Mohammedan looks toward Mecca
this is the life of the smalltime
vaudeville performer, who, in a
world apart, so far as the I'M
knowing public is concerned, works
out his strange destiny or fails in
the attempt.
A graphic picture of the life every
minor vaudeville player knows so
we'll is contained in EXCESS Bag
gage" John McGowan's famous play
of vaudeville life, in which William
Haines is playing at the Palace The
alter this week, directed by James
Cruze, director of "The Covered
Wagon" 1t is story of a small
time vaudeville with it's brief joys,
its bitter diSappointments, and its
odd customs its comedy is tempered
with heart throbs in an intensely
human document.
HaineS plays vaudeville per-
former. a tight-rope walker, in the
new Metro Goodwin Mayer picture,
and his love, his marriage, divergent
paths that lead the couple apart
when success gives her rewards to
one or the other, are the central
motives.
Travelling from town to town, on
"pne night stands" generally. the
vaudeville people form a world of
their own, as they know no out
sidefs. Their lives are hidden
within their own close circle.
Each has in him the story of the
Pagliacci-the clown who smiles
With breaking heart. Sometimes the
details seem humorous, but when
one considers the genuineneSS of 10
all to these people, the hunor often
becomes grim tragedy instead.
In New York, the mecca of the
vaudeyillains, they live between sea-
sons, fl brown stone-fronted &C
tors boarding houses on side streets.
About Broadway and Forty-Seventh
ST. one may see them-Smiling
though they may be broke, shoes
sfined and clothes pressed though
their linen may be frayed and the
soles worn through their shoes. For
vaudevillians must "put up front"
and always appear prosperous, no
matter what happens. One may see
them looking longingly at the win
dows of the Palace Theater Offices
for that is the goal of every
vaudevilliar-tol leave the small
time" and play the Palace, ultima
thule of the actor in the varieties.
Such is the person HaineS plays
"a tight-rope performer, years on
the small time" who finally evolves
a Slide for life' that wins him an
engagement at the Palace. His wife
has in the meantime won fame in
moving pictures, and has left him.
Bitter. disappointed, he resolves to
do his slide, fall and die--for he
never could do the slide unless she
was on the stage, waiting.
But the wife loves hin-and un-
derstands. When he looks down
from his perilouS perch she is watt
ing-waiting to carry on" with him
again. Josephine Dunn plays the
wife, a dancer, and Ricardo Cortez,
kathleen Clifford, Greta Granstedt,
Nicely Edwards and Tom Dugan,
both veteran vaudevilliails, are
among the cast.
A new Charley Chase comedy, SIS
Everybody Happy?" made for laugh
ing purposes only, Fox Movietone
News. the latest edition; Lester
Huff at the organ in new solo,
complete the program.