The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-12-09
.Squaring
The Circle
With
McCREADY HUSTON

HAD Such a pleasant little chat
l. with Maud Lambert who plays
the evangelist in Tobacco Road II
has already been recorded that she
is playing her first dramatic part
after her retirement following the
death of Ernest Ball. She is very
refreshing starting a new career
after having had enc as member
Of a vaudeville team with her com
poser husband.
Come-backs fascinate me, as, !
believe, they do many people They
seldom are achieved in middle life,
for by that time ones thought pat
terms and habits are too strong to
be changed except by an extraor-
/ binary will.
My favorite song of Ernest Balls
has always been Mother Machree.'
This may be because I am mostly
Irish and can always get an
emotional thrill when an Irish tenor
sings it, especially if he knows now
to pronounce the word sure" in the
true Gaelic fashion. John McCor-
mack. for example.
'"Mother Machree" is probably
what most of his recital audience
pays to hear. Which is rather hard
on the artist. But as Kreisler always
has to play Caprice Viennoise" at
the end of his program, Mccormack
is compelled to sing Mother
Machree."
Miss Lambert says the song was
first sung % years ago by Chauncey
Olcott. She says the lyric was
written by Rida johnson Young, the
author of Brown of Harvard"
The favorite Ernest Ball song OF
his widow is one I never heard. 1t
is who Knows?" Paul Lawrence
Dunbar wrote the verse. Probably
the one most used by Darkroom
quartets is Love Me and the World
Is Mine"
A MOTHER person in Tobacco
4 n Road" is in a dramatic part
for the first time. It is Mr.. Tim
bin, who plays the leading part. He
was formerly a blackface comedian
in vaudeville. His success is GER
tainly comment on his versatility.
Not that it matters, but certain
plays stand out in ones mind as
the best over a period of years. The
one which mattered most to me re-
Gently was MARY of Scotland" The
theme, which showed how Queen
Elizabeth destroyed Mary by caus-
ing her marriage to a rake, was to
me tragedy of high order.
My daughter, then Is, begged to
be taken to New York to see it. eve
were living in the vicinity them
SO / took her in for matinee with
out making any reservation. The
seats were all gene. She pleaded to
be permitted to stand. And stand
she did, hardly moving the whole
time, I thought this was a pretty
fair test of a strictly adult PLAYS
power to hold the attention of
youngsters.
When the play was over and we
were pressing through the crowd
she was suddenly in great confusion.
She had taken her shoes off and
had begun to walk out in her stock
ing feet.
CECOND best in recent seasons
~ was "Ah, Wilderness" I think
that was due as much to the acting
of George M. Cohan as to the writ
ing. He is such lovable per-
son, on and off, and has done so
much good in the theatrical world
that his personality is likely to
make the manuscript secondary.
On the screen give me the dead
pan Hoosier comedian, Charlie But
terworth. Charlie started out as a
reporter in South Bend and got his
idea for his first successful stage
appearance by covering Rotary
Clubs. He wrote and enacted a Ro-
tary Club speech which so con-
vulsed j. P. McEvoy that he stuck
it into his revue, Americana.