The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1929-10-10
|GLEANINGS
:AND i.
SCREENINGS
By ANDREW r. KELLEY

Brock Pemberton, who stopped
being a newspaper man to be-
come a successful Broadway
producer will open his second
play of the season in Washing
ton-specifically at the National
Theatre and on Sunday night,
October 81.
Mr.. Pemberton is right now
playing to turn away business at
the Avon Theater in New York,
with the biggest smash hit un-
covered in the 1929 crop of
dramas. The play is strictly
Dishonorable," likely to run a
full season. 1t is Mr.. Pember-
tons first winner since he had
Gilda Varesi in Enter Madame"
His second venture, which we
shall see in the D. c., is called
Episode" 1t is written by
young Bostonian John d. Hag-
CART and in the cast will be
found Carlotto Irwin, Guido
Nadzo, Frank Elliott and Wal
ter Petrie. If all goes we'll
Episode will go into New
York after the Washington
performance.
c. Frederick Clark in as
sembling the orchestra for the
Keith Theater pit has been in
structed to get musicians who
can solo and do trick stuff. In
other words, a band where the
flute player can arise if the oc-
casion demands and do a John
Mccormick, a drum and traps
artist, who is an embryo Eddie
: Cantor and brass tooters who
can shake hot feet. To sum up,
a band which can climb up on
the stage and give a real act
and take the spotlight without
being self-conscious.
Some of the E Street boys are
wagging their heads and saying
it can't be done. But Mr.. Clark
has orders to do it. And that's
that.
1t will be a sort Of Washing
ton re-union-or should it be
throat-cutting-on the Kings
Theater stage in Brooklyn, Sat-
urday, when two old Thirteenth
and E Street rivals play on the
same bill. Reference is, of
course, to Wesley Eddy, leading
the Kings Theater band and
Jack Pepper, the former M. c.
of our Earle Theater, who comes
along in his vaudeville speciality.
The Eddy band of % pieces has
fat Joe Bonbrest, once Jack
Peppers main comedy prop,
twanging a mean banjo. With
Jack in his speciality are Paul
Garner and Jack Wolf, two
Washington boys. Since Mr..
Pepper left the D. C. he has
married Ginger" Rogers, which
may mean nothing or much to
his flapper following.
All of this news conveyed by
the personal secretary of Wes-
ley Eddy, a Mr.. Herman
Becker, who tarried for few
hours in town yesterday and
phoned that Wesley would like
to send Columbus Day and Hal
loween greetings to his friends
through this column.
1t is not generally known why
there is so much sting in
Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Mil
lions" now gayly playing at
the National, probably because
the illuminating anecdote that
might explain the treatment
of Marco as a board of trade
booster is buried away in Bar
rett H. Clark's book on the dra-
matist. There, according to
George Jean Nathan, whom
Clark quotes, Mr.. Otto Kahn
of New York asked O'Neill why
he did not turn his hand to
something which he, Kahn,
might be proud to endorse. And
what was this something {?
O'Neill timidly wished to know.
A play apoptheosizing American
big business and the American.
O'Neill coughed and bowed him
self from the great presence.
His answer was to write "Mar-
co Millions the sourest and
most magnificent poke in the
jaw that American big business
and the American business man
have ever got"
O'Neill was even invited to
sit in at a "private directors
meeting in Wall Street. ga
lot I'd have learned there!" he
snorted.
But Mr.. Clark has reason
to believe that the great banker
merely had in mind that O'Neill
should write about Big Business
and perhaps satirize it. Well
O'Neill certainly did the job
thoroughly both ways.
"Gold Diggers of Broadway,
has been one of the sensational
surprises as a box-office draw
in Washington. Originally booked
to do two weeks at the Metro,
politan Theater, the crowds
have been such the third week
was ordered and since there was
still an overflow demand for the
picture, a fourth week was de
cided upon last night. 1t fan
surpassed AL Jolson's Say II
With SONGS" in popular appeal