The Washington times., 1929-08-10

Interesting. in connection with
the seasons partial list of book.
ings, is announcement that A. T..
ErIanger. owner OF his own ma
tionai chain Of theaters and CO.
owner with w. Fl. RapIey of the
Natione1 Theater, has re-entered
the producing field after five
years layoff and viii associate
himself with George G. Tyler in
q number OF ventures. The first
OF these, a new play, Sweet
Land OF Liberty" will probably
be the first booking locally Of the
season. The play Is by Philip
Dunning, author of broadway. !"
Further prospects from the Erlan-
ger-Tyler combination promise 10
productions and they have, among
others, Mrs, Fiske and III. B.
Warner under contract.
Lew Leslie's "Blackbirds," aris-
tocfat OF coIored revues, which
ran q year and half in New
York and which is now abroad,
will be an early booking. Paris
and London sees this revue before
autumn calls it back to the States
and Washington.
A return engagement of Lyle
Andrews musical hit, "A Con.
necticutt Yankee"
Subscriptions for the New York
Theater Guild series are now being
taken and this is a series that
promises q full fruition for Wash
irgton of the Guilds outstanding
activities. Both in type of play
and personnel of actor, the
Capital will see the best gesture
the guild has ever made outside
Of New York. Among the plays
are Caprice" comedy of Wen
nese life by Sil-Vara; Marco
Millions" a satire by Eugene
O'Neill; Wings Over Europe" a
play OF ideas by Maurice Browne
and Robert Nichols; Karel capek's
fantastic "R. u. r.; "Yolpone, !"
Stefan Zweig's version of Ben
Jonson's farce.
Also Strange Interlude" and
"Porgy" are sure return engage
ments, with the possibility that
Shaw's "Pygmalion" and Major
Barbara" may also be included.
This is al generous fare and the
Guild Is making 1t experimental
in half dozen large cities to
determine whether annual book.
ings will be fixed.
Jed Harris noted story of news.
paper life, "The Front Page" will
see its first Washington appear.
ance at the National. Ziegfeld's 3
Show Boat" will play a return
engagement. This, of course, is
the brilliant musical romance
which premiered at the National;
not the talking picture.
Eddie Cantor's current New
York hit, "Whoopee," also returns
and 1t is likely that one or two
new Ziegfeld premieres win dot
the amusement landscape before
the season reaches midway. It
IS no news to be told that Ziegfeld
has a warm spot in his heart for
washington as a premiere city,
as shown by the magnitude Of
such productions first seen here
as "Show Boat" "Whoopee. {"
The Three Musketeers," Betsy. !"
Kid Boots" THE Comic Supple.
ment" and others.
Other listings already checked
on the calendar are:
William Gillette in q farewell
tour of his greatest success, "Sher.
lock Holmes; return booking of
the nlystery-thriller, "Dracula":
Lew Fields in Hello Daddy" I"
New Yofk's Cohan Theater hit;
Bert Lytell. the stage and picture
star, in his new stage play,
Brothers" which has had q solid
year at the Forty.eighth Street
Theater; the Stratford-Ayon Play.
ers in Shakespearean repertoire.
These 1t is well to remember,
comprise only a part OF the full
seasons calendar. BY the time
this information appears from
one to a half dozen more book.
ings- may be added.
Also the Thursday and Sunday
engagements of e. M. Newman
and Burton Holmes. with new
travelogue discoveries made this
summer, will continue q feature
Of the regular season.
For the new season the Ma.
tional has been completely wired
for all-talking pictures, using
equipment of the Electrical Re.
search Products Company. The
test performance of this appa-
ratus was pronounced perfect
by engineers, who called attention
to the fact that a speaking the
ater, built with first consideration
for acoustics, is the ideal setting
for the new sound equipment.
The Nationals interior, obviously,
had to be originally built to muf.
fIe reverherations. This was
achieved by covering the walls
with acoustic felt and adding an
overlayer OF tapestry. Thus for
the several outstanding talking
features that will vary the new
season, patrons can expect and
realize a new flavor in this form
of entertainment.
Though this be a season when
peoples minds are supposed to be
occupied with far.away seashores
and mountains, scores already
have regarded as duty their
welfare for the winter season by
renewing their season subscrip-
tions. Further several hundred
new names have been received
from people who seemed not aware
that regular weekly reservations
for the same seats can be made
for the winter season as well as
for the summer stock season,