Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-30


l. short, wiry person, intent
on something, dashed into
Roxy'S New York cinema pavilion
and hurried TO seat along the
far reaches of the theater. Bowling
his head and then fiinging it back
as the screen gave signs of coming
to life, he sighed a deep and mean
ingful sigh and then sat back in
a state of comatoSe excitement,
breathing in and out short
Staccato breathS.
Behind him, unbeknownSt, as
they used to say, to him, sat a
young gentleman with eyes blaz-
ing behind a pair of tortoise
shells" who kept leaning forward
and then leaning back and then
scribbling furiouSly on a small
yellow pad.
Although the vast audience
around and about was unconscious
of all this, an event was tranSpir-
ing within its giant circumference
which is worthy perhaps of record.
The short, wiry man OF evident
ly many worries, who was signing
with such a purpose, was the city
editor of one of the metropolitan
dailieS attending his first talking
picture, and the tortoise shells"
behind him belonged to a reporter
who had been sent along in the
spirit of jest by the paper to find
out what the reactions of this
august gentleman at such an
interesting function might be.
THE results of all this have never
been published. The language
which transpired between the
gentleman of rank and the gentle
man of much lesser rank, when
the former discovered the latter,
has not been immortaliZed. 1t
probably never will be. Only in
hushed voices does the story come
out at all. The scratches on the
pad have been hurled into some
kind of an eternity. Only perhaps
the audience within striking dis
lance knows what actually
tranSpired.
However, what has come to light
is that this venerated gentleman
did not enjoy his first talkie.
Thereupon the great hurrah
boys of the stage who giggle and
squirm and say "Fie!" whenever
the poor cinema is mentioned
Immediately raised a flag. Said
they: what did we tell you?
Another man of brains joins our
ranksl" And inSinuated, Down
with the talkies. Long live the
Stage!"
Well, the stage has had long and
luStrouS life 1t has presented
Sarah Bernhardt in tights, males
as females, females as males, and
it has rolled up on it's handsome
record of the past such a blaze of
personal triumphS as has made
blush with envy many OF the
sister arts. But, alas, why, when
this young offshoot of its passions
threatens to rise and stand on it's
up until now insecure legs and
feet should it be knocked and
scolded and chilled into the mar
row by the very mother which
gave it birth?
MR.. So AND-SO, the city editor,
didn't like his first talkie. Yet
why the hue and cry? W9en the
automobile first ratified and
Suueaked over the ,cobblestones
did grandma give a whoop and
hurrah. and run and Jump into
it's middle? She did not; When
the first aeroplane scared over the
Channel. was it followed by a fleet
of similar aeroplaneS? When
electric light first flashed into the
living room didn't Mr.. and Mrs.
Housewife rub their eyes and say
indiScreet things under their
breathS and yearn for the good
old days of candlelight?
This worthy gentleman of the
press may not have enjoyed his
first talkie-but then did he en-
Joy his first silent? Back In
the days of the Eden MuSee, when
one had to walk through half a
mile of wax figures to get to the
auditorium and when there flashed
on the screen Part l." and then
such a series of SplutteringS and
genealogical dots and daShes as
made the eyes revolve backward
instead or forwards, didn't he at
that time perhaps raise a howl?
And didn't he get jolly well used
to the "SilentS"?
II
ONE gentleman of genial dignity
hearing of the city editors
venture, suggested that since
habit Is the most satisfying COM
modify of lifetime, perhaps Mr.
So-and-So missed some of the old
foibles and failingS of the "silentS,"
the goSSamer gi1gham gowns, the
high waists, the rafting" in the
headdreSS Of the stars. And so he,
or rather we, suggested that in