Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-14
FRANCES
LEE
and DOUGLAS
MaeLEAN-
Palace
SALLHONElLL and
ARTHUR lAkE-MetropoIiton
ON THE BROADWAY STAGE
Review of Theatrical Affairs Along the White WAY
By Richard Watts, Jr.
THE era of good feeling has, it i,

TINE era of good feeling has, it is
crafty to learn, finally arrived
in the New York theater. The
Il spirit OF comradeship in the in
terest of art, which idealistS had
long been hoping for as substitute for
the old cut-throat competition. is with
us, and even If it Is the result of fear
Of the encroaching cinema, it is pretty
gratifying. OF course, Mr.. ziegfeld
still Is trif1e annoyed with Mr.. Car
roll, and Mr.. Carroll in his turn con-
tinues to be a bit disappointed with
Mr.. Ziegfeld: but the struggle doesn't
retain its old-time bite.
In the current musical shows you will
find pleasantly convincing demonstra-
ton of the new friendship. Eddie Can
tor, the Ziegfeld pride, graciously con-
Sented to write the libretto for the lat
est Carroll effort, and he can be en-
countered on the movietone each night
doing his best to brighten the prologue
of The Sketch Book" with his shadow.
even if his body is still in thrall to
ziegfeld. If, after witnessing this graft
tying sight, you had happened to drop
up to the premiere of the master Glori-
fier's Show Girl" you would have come
upon Al Jolson leaping from his aisle
seat to sing a song that expressed his
amicability toward the latest effort of
that rival producer, Mr.. ziegfeld.
Turning to the more serious drama,
you might lately have discerned the
robut Mr.. Woods lending his favorite
contract player, the daShing Miss
Claudette Colbert, to that alien organi-
cation, the Theater Guild, while a seri-
GUS contemplation Of the recent theater
programs would have revealed that each
printed cast named at least one player
who was appearing through the courtesy
OF another manager. Most of these
loans were. it must be confessed. accom-
panied by certain minor grumbling,
but none of them fooled any one into
the belief that the local entrepreneurS
were anything less than pals at heart.
This gratifying but somewhat puzzling
sight of natural-born foes suddenly
transformed into pals was most charm
ing. but it has made some of us skeptics
a trif1e suspicious. The alliances haven't
seemed exactly natural, and we have
felt that there must be some other
explanation besides the coming of the
millennium. Then, after much pro-
found cogitation, the most obvious but
apparently the most logical solution
burst in upon us. 1t is, of course, that
despite their protestations Of confidence
the theater magnates haven't quite got
over that possibly historical suspicion
OF the talking photoplav.
The finest example extant of that
good old custom of whiStling to keep
up ones courage is, you may have real
lied, the contention of the stage pro-
ducers that the new cinema is a COM
monplace medium of no particular i'm
portance. Possibly picture audibility
really isn't danger to our stage, but it
must be confessed that the two main
reasons advanced against its menace by
the advocates of the theater aren't
terribly impressive. The first is that all
the silent screens glamour and hero
worship will be destroyed by the creak-
ing menace Of speech, and the second
Is that the new medium is too lacking
in potentialities for the dramatization
of ideas to be important. Both charges
are pretty easy to controvert.
1t was In theory a rather plausible
contention of the old-sci1ool theater adj
diets that the popularity of the silent
cinema depended on the imaginative