The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-01
NEW YORK LETTER
By JACK GAVER United Press Drama EditOr)

New York, (UP)-Your corre-
 spondent has been forced to the
 conclusion that he has discovered a trend, and, ready for any con-
 tingency, is prepared either to
 point with pride or view with
 alarm, depending upon which way
 the wind blows.
 The trend has to do with the
 alarming rate at which players previously identified with the friv- olities of musical comedy and re- vue are turning from their pasts to futures devoted to the serious drama. It's getting so you cant open a press agents communique any more without discovering that another zany is seeking the higher things.
 The decision of Fred Stone to forego music and his dancing shoes brings the matter to a head. Fred has been in show business for two score years-acrobat, black face trouper. vaudeville hoofer, star of dozen history-makiug musical shows. Now he has signed to play the leading role in Jay
 hawker." new play about Kan sas politician during the Civil war by Sinclair Lewis, the Nobel prize novelist, and Lloyd Lewis Ono re- lation), Chicago dramatic critic and author of biography of Gen. eral sherman which Is among the best American biographies.
 Fred's decision to essay the role of Ace Burdette followed the somewhat accidental discovery by Henry Hammond, the producer. that the dancer would be willing to attempt a straight role. As it
 happened, he was the type for the Burdette part, which had defied proper casting since last winter. Carol Stone, Fred's youngest daughter. will appear with her father for the first time. but 1t will not be her Broadway debut, since she made her first appearance last year. Her sisters, Dorothy and Paula, made their debuts in two of their fathers musical shows. It's pretty sure to be a big night along Broadway when Fred makes
 his entrance as Ace Burdette, pre- sumably walking on sedately in- stead of being fired. out of a can. non or dropping from an airplane for one of the sensational en-
 frances of his musical comedy
 days.
 Maybe Will Rogers is to blame
 for the dramatic activities of the song and dance men. Last spring, Will, who was a standby of the late Ziegfeld until he sold out to the movies, the newspapers and
 the radio, suddenly blossomed out
 on the west coast as Nat Miller
 in the Eugene O'Neill play, "Ah,
 Wilderness!"--a role which an-
 other elstwhile musical star,
 George M. Cohan, was making
 memorable in New York. They do say Will did an uncommoply fine
 job of 1t and the financial returns
 certainly were worthwhile.
 Last month you could have knocked most of the theatrical world over with program when
 1t was announced that Groucho Marx, high mogul of the Mad
 Marx brothers, would essay the
 leading role in the play, "Twenti-
 eth Century" in a summer the- ater at Skowhegan. Me. There are
 some die-hards who claim that it
 never happened, but other reli-
 able, sober witnesses affirm that Groucho carried on like younger
 Booth and did good job.
 Now we come to Eddie Cantor.
 His movie employers assert that the banjo-eyed comedian, ex. Ziegfeld star and blackface spe- cialist is being considered by Max Reinhardt, the continental impre. sario, fo rthe role of Puck in his forthcoming stupendous produce tion of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" in the Hollywood Bowl.
 The author of the play is will Shakespeare of England.
 Chic Sale, who has performed many high-jinks in Shubert mu. socal shows, has just arrived in town from Hollywood to gc straight" in new comedy known as "The Elephant Shepherd" And we shouldn't forget that James Barton, of yaudetilfe and revue. is going along smoothly as Jeeter Lester. the southern poor white in Tobacco Road" in his first shot at the Ssnn-vn"ss~ai S~ss.sa.