Evening star., 1932-09-11
Fred Stones New Show
Does Not Please Critics
Smiling Faces" Adheres to Old-Time Formula
for Musical Comedy-Who VIII Succeed
Ziegfeld as Producer of Extravaganza?
By Percy Hammond.

clean. pious, industrious and forbiddinl
aught in his shows that might incarna
dine the cheeks of the sophisticated
weanlings. He is an establishment IL
the American theater I am glad. anC
perhaps he is. too, that he did not hi
me that night in Chicago when. in
furiated by one of my jocular insults
he aimed lethal sock at my lower jaw
I and missed it by hairs breadth. .
Poor Johnny Slavin-John McGraw, ont
CT base balls most eminent Giants
srnote him one evening after party a.
the Lambs Club and put him out o.
show business forever.
X
/ MO drama lover will miss Mr. Ziegfelo
more than I, one of his most supint
and constructive critics. Throughout the
many years of his activity combined
mild eXpostulation with enthusiastic
| eulogy. softly deprecating his faults and
| loudly eXtolling his virtues. So far as
know, my counsel to him was as water
in sieve. I used to tell him in our oc-
casional conferences that he was an
artist in form and color, but boor In
wit and humor. He complained to me
one night in heart-to-heart confabula-
| ton that my outcries against what were
! then regarded as improprieties troubled
! his dignified and respectable parents in
| Chicago. We came to an agreement
whereby he promised never again to per-
nit naked joke in the "Follies" !
promised not to frown upon The naked
ladies of his ensemble-an easy con-
tract for a man of my sense of beauty.
But he weakened after short period of
prudence, and his last production, Hot
Cha" was as dirty frolic as ever soiled
an American stage. Mr.. Ziegfeld prob
ably was not conscious of "Hot-C1a 81
derelictions. so immersed was he in its
hues, fabrics, shapes and tableaus.
We shall not see his like again. Sole
and unparalleled in his knack for sheer
and lovely pictures he will have no
exact successor. Sam Harris. possessing
a modern sense of humor as well as an
ear for music and an eye for beauty, is
beyond Mr.. Ziegfeld's limited class. Max
Gordon. who also knows tunes when he
hears them. and romance when it is put
up to him in hyssop libretto, is also Of
type different from that of the magic
maestro. The operations Of Mr.. White
and Mr.. Carroll are lush and extrava-
CANT, but in them there is said to be
missing what is known as the touch" +"
ny own candidate for the Ziegfeld fam
beau is Miss Peggy Fears. the most
solvent and the most intrepid of the
newer impresarios. A glorified graduate
from Mr.. ziegfelds seminary, Miss Fears
is acquainted with the lures of extrava-
ganza and. being a woman. she is natu-
rally a person of taste and discrimina-
ton. Her husband, Mr. Blumenthal, is a
man of means and of interest in the
theater, as the executor of Mr.. Ziegfeld' S
Show Boat" and as holder of the stocks
and bonds of Paramount and other
amusing enterprises he is deeply con-
cerned with the problem of public rec
reation. 1t was Mr.. Blumenthal who
cheered Mayor Walkers recent Geth-
semane by offering him wage of $780,
600 per annum for acting as an assist
ant to any of his various undertakings.
Mr. walker has proved himself compe-
tent to write witty words and harmoni-
GUS music. and to be en- rapport with
the drama. I suggest Peggy Fears Fol-
lies-book and song. by James ]. Walker
and cast containing Ed Wynn. Will
Rogers, Joan Crawford. the three Barry
mores, M. Chevalier Wallace Beery and
the Chaplin children. I am sure of one
thing, having discovered it in frequent
observation of Mr.. Walker at the the
ater: If he writes the libretto of Fears
Follies it will be decent.