Evening star., 1933-05-07

drama, we playgoers feel an
urge to supplement the func-
i tions Of the official awarders
with further citations for con-
spicuous services performed. nomi-
nate, therefore, as candidate for the
seasons most disagreeable sight the
bare feet Of Alfred Lunt and Noel
Coward In Design for Living'-as hid
eous a set Of naked dogs as ever I laid
eye to should like also to get
recognition for Miss Constance Golfers
epithet in Dinner at Eight" i'm
polite dissonanceN made polite by Miss
Golfers musical If insalubrious ven
triloquism of her librettist's lines . .
Osgood Perkins wins a voucher from
me for his effective pajama-manners in
Good Bye Again." as freely he shows
himself en- dishabille to us and his
amenuensis, Miss Sallie Bates, in the
theatrical privacy Of a hotel bedroom
Miss Hope Williams would win a
vote from me for her more or less deli
cate mentioning Of things more or less
unmentionable in Strike Me Pink; "
but that show is a revue, not a drama,
and cannot, in the allotment of legiti-
mate testamurs, he considered. And II
this racket Of distributing posies was on
!
coin phrase by Mr.. Lardner, would
be the recipient of many floral offer
ings.
THE Hugheses and Brandeises Of the
Pulitzer Supreme Court paid no
attention to me when year or two
ago advised them seriously that the
cinema must be included in their de-
liberations. So do not hope that they
will listen to my plea that they should
think also of the musical comedy bal
lad as an instrument Of good or Ill in
the career of the human race. Perhaps
I am wrong, but believe that more
lives, this season, have been Influenced
by such words and tunes as "The Song
is YOU" from Music in the Air" or
Let's Call it Day." from Strike Me
Pink" than there have been by ALLEN
Corn" 1.-The Cherry Orchard" Both
Your Houses" Autumn Crocus" or
Mine. Pine Street" Many young per-
sons are Influenced by Mr.. Kern's mel
ody and Mr.. Hammerstein's rhyme, to
dance. to kiss and to get together,
having been warned of the perils of
the second, mid-channel act" I
heaven, entitled '"The Night Was Made
for Love-" is superior to Hamlet" to
Biography" 'Rosmerholm, ct h e
Comic Artist" Mourning Becomes
Electra" or Alice in Wonderland" as a
solution Of what may be regarded as
our problems
PEACE pipes its langourous notes
these days above Broadway's once
bloody cutters. The ertswhile arro-
CANT Shuberts f1utter the white flag of
insolvency, and Erlanger, once a mighty
and a frightful name, Is now but an
old mans whisper, meaning nothing.
Not 30 long ago they were emperors at
odds. each striving to choke the other
Times Square was then q battle-ground,
the blue In conflict with the gray.
Woollcott, q dramatic critic, was barred
from the Winter Garden, and Ham
mond, another, was prevented from at
tending a first performance by Miss
Elsie Ferguson, or it may have been
Miss Fay Banter. Not particularly
that 1t mattered, all was hatred, but
there was no especial violence.
That condition Is as nothing COM
pared to what was happening eighty
four years ago this very night at the
Astor Place Opera House, In New
York, which was situated then upon the
site now occupied by John Wanna
maker. Macready was England's most
stentorious Shakespearean, and he was
enemy to Edwin Forrest, Americas pet
tragedian, as Forrest was to him. They
loathed one another, as players some
times do, and their feud was fomented
by the drama critic Of the New York
Herald.
Seventeen lives were lost in the riots
that followed Macready's performance
of Macbeth" in New York City "a
years ago. am now going to reprint
q report Of the occasion written by an
ancient friend of mine, who was there
with Washington Irving, Richard
Grant White, Herman Melville and
other frst-nighters of their day. His
account, as written for newspaper
Of his date, Is as follows:
The Ast0r Place Opera House tpds
the scene last night of one of the most
dis0racetul riots that ever happened In
this city-the result of Edicin Forests
coarse and pirulent attacks on Mr.
Nacready, the English tragedian. On
Mr.. Macreodys entrance as Macbeth
last epentn0 he tDds received aDtth 20
cdterous grodntn0, hisses and cries OF
"O9! OH" "Do,nr NTH the English
Bulldogi" "Burn the theateri" "Huxzas
for natiue talentt" "To hell with the
codfsh aristoc5acyi" and Cheers for
EdUin Forrest" These horrid and
xMeoGtk l9jaea eonttrNed dGaila -