Evening star., 1934-06-19

thOdlcally smashing nQdleS over
Whichever sound drifts out to your
pink and shell-like ears, rest assured
the Brittons and their stooges have
something to do with it. Their fran
tic. siphon- squirting gang of musi-
clans romps, flddles and toots around
on the stage in the maddeSt act ever
devised by the brain of man, and the
funniest seen by these dimming eyes
since Jimmie Savo shooed the river
away from his door last Winter.
BY some mysterious means, the
Brittons manage to sprinkle some top
hole music here and there among the
clowning They might do well to
deal out more of the tunes straight
and clear as they seem able, for there
talents in the group.
All the credit for the success of the
Fox stage show this week cannot
justly be dished out to the Brittons
They are billed as the headliners. and
so they are, but Sheila Barrett's i'm
presentations, Davy Jones and his
dance revue and the swift antics of
June Carr and Harry Martin con-
tribute generously to the entertain
ment.
GTEVE COCHRAN is keeping his
giddy troupe of sailors and their
casual inamorata at the National
Theater for a third week, there to
unfold the hilarious indelicacies of
Sailor, Beware!" One of the rough
est and funniest farces of many years.
the play has found wide favor with
Washington audiences and even con-
vinced the local censors that its say
ings are more nautical than naughty
Based on the Olympian struggles
of two young heathens-one the lead
ing Lothario of a battleship, the other
an icy maid known to all-the tale
provides rare situations for wit. wise
cracks and the exploration of the
blue jacket soul
HOLLYWOOD probably will become
the Pompeii of America after all
for the purposes of historians con-
cerned a thousand years hence with
discovering relics of the twentieth
century scene. That rather aimless
notion was inspired by glimpse of
THE Life of Vergie Winters" the
film opening at R-K-O Keith's to-
morrow Laid in a small town in the
turn-of-the-c century. pre-war and war
time eras, it contains many a rare
specimen of antediluvian automobiles
fine old, high. stiff collars and bowler
hats fitted over the bushes of a foam
catcher muStache. The collection OF
pre-War cars alone must have re-
quired years to accumulate. unless
they are all papiermache limitations
which really would make very little
difference to the eXcavators of 2134
A. D. After all no one would expect
the most brass-bound and genuine of
1912 flivvers to run after all the mar
BILE baths and publicity built reputa
tionS of filmdom had come crashing
down upon it.
WHEN Hal Skelly was a youngster
he ran away with the circus so
regularly his father could always solve
any disappearance merely by wiring
ahead to the next own after a road
show left Halls home village of Daven-
port. Iowa.
Hal hung around the show until
finally he inveigled a circus manager
into giving him job in an act called
the -Four Flying Christies." He was
delighted because the Christies all
wore spangled tights in the perform
ance, and the fact the rest of it con-
sisted of running down an inclined
plane and diving over the backs of
four elephants. He was getting along
well enough in the act until an ele-
phant threw up his trunk and slapped
him one day as he made the leap.
Hal spent a month in the hospital.
After that his career followed very
much the same pattern. He would,
flguratively, get into the trouper's )
spangles he had worshiped since child
hood, and then luck would slap him
down. The most noted successes he
achieved, in the role of Skid in
the stage play and the movie Bur
lesque," were followed by a brace
of Broadway f1ops in recent years.
The final blow befell him Saturday
when he was battered to death in
a freak automobile accident. 1t was
tragic and sensational ending to a
startling life.
Because an actor is a trouper, orig
inally rodrider on the success train
before reaching the drawing room
stage, it does not follow that he will
invariably be superman when he
does reach the top. Some Of the
best in history have been Graded in
the plush from the beginning, and
trained scientifically rather than ac-
cording to the hand-to-mouth system
of the average thespian.
The reason the troupers get more
news space is, they have romantic if
rough lives.
Skelly's career, for example. in
cluded: The role of altar boy in
childhood. When the services were
over, he collected the candle stubs,
took them to the family barn, stuck
them around the top of an enormous
table and arranged them to resemble
the gas flickers which constituted
footlights in those days. Then he
climbed on the table and stamped
and declaimed as he had seen the
villains and heroes do in dramas.
The role in the Four Flying Chris
ties act.
A part in DR. Fuckers medicine
show. He toured for six months,
DVTIc AnAMc Ma. 1901