The Washington times., 1928-12-01
GLEAN ANINGS.
SCREENINGS
AND
By ANDREW r. KELLEY

Laurence Stallings, now one
Of Broadway's most prosperous
playwrights and also some pump
kins in the roster of Holly
wood authors, seems to have
been caught right IN the mid
die of 4 knock-em down row
with his new musical comedy
Rainbow"
The show got terrible roast
from st. John Ervine, the i'm
ported English critic of the
New York World. Phillip Good
man, its producer, doesn't like
the Ervine writings and when
the Pulitzer journal decided TO
reach over to the Thames for
! first hight commentator the
Goodman opinion Of the choice
was thus expressed:
Il have followed st. John
Eryine for a long time and
know his writing well. He will
T make j show of himself as q
dramatic critic here. Not only
will he disgrace himself but ne
will disgrace the World. He is
incurably old fashioned and his
succeeding Alexander WoollcOtt
will be q joke. He is, at times,
rather amiable when writing
about musical shows, but on
the whole he is q jackass, Civ
Ing imbecilic reviews OF most
Of the plays he attends. He
will give the World dramatic
page the distinction the Tribune
had in 1902.
TO all OF this Mr.. Ervine made
no immediate reply. Evidently
he was not in one of his rather
amiabIen moods when he took
the orchestra reservation to
look over his first Goodman
show. Al few paragraphs from
the Ervine review suffice to tell
the story. Said Mr.. Ervine:
81 suspect that Phillip Good
man. 4 person, who, judging
from accounts Of him that have
appeared in the public prints,
is more expert at the consump-
ton of food than in the produc-
tion Of plays, must have inter-
fered with the direction of
ssRainbow,n and I shall not be
astonished if / learn that the
long wait after the second scene
was due to his efforts to be
helpful"
Il suggest that Mr.. Stallings
and Mr.. Hammerstein persuade
Mr.. Goodman to 90 to Italy for
! month and fill himself with
food so that he may fall into
a torpor from which he may
not easily be revived. In that
time they can revise and recast
their play, quickening its pace
and adding to it at least one
lady who can act and who pos
sesses personality.....But they
must get Mr.. Goodman eating
or their play will collapse" !"
After reading this critical ap-
praisal Producer Goodman is
reported to have phoned the
powers that be in Park Row,
suggesting that Mr.. Ervine evi-
IDENTIFY was reviewing him in
stead of what went on back of
the footligh+s. The. World pulled
the review, or at least its often
sive portions, out of the later
editions.
All of which can hardly be
called ballyho for the Stallings
musical. The other reviewers
were almost unanimous that
Rainbow" given the customary
polishing had the makings of
great entertainment. It is play
ing at the Gallo Theater.
This was really an unkind
knock from an unexpected source.
Playwright Stallings was a few
years back one of the scintillat-
ing stars of the Washington
Times editorial force. Then he
went to the World as assistant
to Haywood Broun, to eventually
become literary editor and critic.
It was irony that his most pre-
tentious stage effort should have
received its hardest blow from
the paper where he is yet more
or less of an idol. But when
folks get fighting it is often
the innocent bystander who gets
caught in the melee.
When the chastened Earl
Carroll returned to Broadway
after paying a heavy toll for a
moment of folly, he announced
that soon he would produce the
greatest musical in the history
of the American stage. This
would be the Carroll notice to
the world the producer was
capable of the biggest and finest
things in the theater.
Since then he has given the
stage a new "Vanities," Very
good, according to all first-hand
accounts, but not exactly full
filling the promise.
I am wondering whether the
new musical which Mr.. Carroll
will open i'm Washington, the
first week of 1929, is the pro-
duction which will send the pro-
ducer's name down to undying
theatrical glory. 1t has the
early earmarks of distinction.
From Charlie Bochert's type
writer (which refuses to type
anything but the truth, Mr..
Rnchert RECENTLY informed mel