The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-10-30
REGIONAL CONFERENCE AT CROSBY HIGHT
MINSTREL SHOW
 WELL RECEIVED
l,zOO Attend Brass City Program Held at Buck
 ingham Hall
END MEN PROVIDE FUN

The lid was pried off the min strel season in Waterbury last night when the ninth edition of the Brass City Minstrels was presented before an audience of about 1,20O people in Buckingham hall. Under the capable direction of James L. Cunningham c the well known group showed a well trained chorus, ex- ceiling in harmony, exceptional soloists, funny end men and a clever interlocutor in Al German. A near tragedy was narrowly |averted through the quick minded ness of Bill Clasby and Al Berman during Eddie Keenan's rendition cf Bend Down Sister," Had Eddie pended no one knows what the re- suit would have been for the shorts in which he appeared became 1oos- ened and started to drop. Al and Bill jumped to the rescue and avoided what might have been the feature of the show. Eddie was capabiy supported in supplying the comedy of the Sam Apiaian mak- ing his first appearance as an end man. -@s The minstrel group received a big hand when the curtain was raised showing them in red and green costumes seated against 2 cleverly constructed back stage scene representing Waterbury as | a City of Brass. Done in modern istic painting by Georges de Verry, art director of Hadley's, the setting had written upon 1t, Brass City Minstrels."
 l The Brass City Four consisting of Billy Summa, Joe Young. Frans Femino and George Young, scored the best hit of the. show and were called back for several encores. Bill Clasby's rendition of '"The Kiss That You've Forgotten" gave an in- dication of the fine singing that was contained in the cast. Joe Young followed with June
 Brought the Roses'' and put over
 his number with boise found only among professional ranks.
 l Frank Carty reached way down
 to his shoe strings in singing that tpopular Cuban number, When i Tuba Plays the Tuba" A soft
 singing trio composed of Billy
 Summa, Bill Clasby and Frank
 Gemino was one of the novelties of the production and was we'll re- | CelteQ. JtIn od4Ol O4 Groves orchestra accompanied the
 singers on the steel guitar. Sam
 Apirian asked the chorus to get crazy and join in singing Foolish
 Facts" The chorus did.
 | Al Berman introduced himself
 at this point and brought out many
 a laugh by reading press reports.
 Kate Smiths salutatory radio num- Der, When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" was ably presented by Billy Summa. The chorus work
 on this n umber was exceptionally
 pleasing. Billy yodeled the chorus while the cast sang the words soft ly.
 Snap and ginger were injected into the show with the introduction
 of Billy Young who presented "Rol On Mississippi" Billy had tht
 right pep and had everyone in tht
 audience swaying with him as ht rolled out the harmony accom- panied by several members of thu
 chorus. This numher also required
 several encores. The entire chorus
 joined in singing "The Rosary" al
 ways a favorite chorus piece.
 Previous to the show, Timmit
 Crowe's orchestra entertained tht
 audience with selections played b,
 four banjoists, six violinists and two pianists. The orchestra also fur. nished the music for dancing after
 the show. The following member: comprise the minstrel troupe:
 James L. Cunningham. George Nc. Grath, George Gardner. George
 Young. Joe Young, Bill Young
 Fred Young. Bill Summa. Joe Sum. ma, Attorney Frank Summa. Bill l Clasby. Sam Apirian, Harvey Stout
 Walter Ahearn, Nate F'idler, Jack Il Gordon, Eddie Keenan and Al Der. | man.