Evening star., 1935-04-07

men, MS eIIlclency as QrdmaCl
In such an entertainment he might
| picture tearfully forlorn and aged
hero and heroine, bewildered in a
garret because, in their innocent de-
sire to insure themselves against life's
Winter, they had bought the stocks
and bonds of heinous national bank
or public utility corporation. The vii
lains in the play should be vicious
statesmen of the Senate, the House
Of Representatives and the Amer
ican Federation of Labor, bent upon
depriving their victims of an honestly
earned income. With handsome in
| genue forced by circumstance to seek
livelihood upon the streets, and
pennies Astor, Woolworth or Van
derbile seeking her hand in weolock
and divorce, Mr. OdetS could easily
make another revolutionary show of
them.
Last week Mr.. Odets and the up
coming Theater Group, Inc, pre-
sented two of his interesting objec-
tions to things as they are. One of
them, Till the Day I Die" exposes,
with brutal sentimentality, the Nazi
oligarchy, with tortures, suicides and
murders galore. The other, Waiting,
for Lefty" was about the prosecuted
taxi drivers who take you patiently
| from place to place for less than
living wage. Into their union of
hysterical revolt comes young sur
geon (Mr. Odets himself, an actor
out of employment and others who
! have been abused by the system"
The characters who have money are
all evil; those who have not are fine.
Mr.. OdetS and his actors contrive to
make the contrasts not too black and
| white; and his sense of vivid men and
women and their picturesque lingo
bring Waiting for Lefty" to melo-
dramatic life. The play so impressed
me as good show that I have asked
the taxi men who transport me to
and fro if their situation is as deSper-
ate as Mr.. Odets pretends it is. With
out exception these gallant chario-
teers have told me that when Wait
ing for Lefty" describes them as
desperately down-and-out, it is, in
their happy language, the bunk.
Bishop Misbehaves," is famed in
the drama business for an untroubled
disposition that permits no care to
cark him. AnMeties that gnaw the
bodies and souls of other Broadway
impresarios starve when they try to
feed upon him, because his cupboard
Is always bare of woes. Mr.. Lardner
once nicknamed him "Sunshine'S Pal.
He is the sire of all of George Jean
Nathan'S rosy days (Mr. Nathan goes
to the theater only at night; and he
is in general a lighthouse, silver
lining and rainbow shedding cheer
fulneSs upon the stages clouded world.
In my own long acquaintance with
Mr. Golden have known him but
once to be blue. 1t was when, some
years ago, told him that my best
friend was sick unto death and
asked him what to do. His advice
was good, and there were understand
ing tears in his eyes as he gave it
to me.
1t is Mr. Golden's practice shrewdly
to buy drama, to cast its characters
keenly and then to run away to
Florida, there to forget about its first
night fate. When THE Bishop Mis-
behaves" was presented in New York
I hinted that it might have been
more esthetic frolic had its owner
been on the stern Broadway job in
stead of tapping himelf in the soft.
Lydian airs of dog track. chuck-luck,
roulette, fowery. nudist and anti
capitalist province. Mr.. Golden, said
Clarence Budington Kelland, presi-
dent of the Dutch Treat Club, blames
his failures on his absence in the semi
tropics and boasts of his successes for
the same reason-thus catching the
unwary drama-lover both coming and
going.
Mr.. Golden now arises from sand /
trap on the Miami Beach golf course
to telegraph me a protest against my |
suggestion that THE Bishop Misbe-
haves" might be more cunning en-
tertainment if he himself had been |
more active in its presentation. He /