The Washington times., 1936-06-22
THE VOICE OF
Broadway
By LOUIS SoBoL
Short Takes

imagination and the emotions sc
bitingly as young Irwin Shaw:
BURY the Dead. Weeks have
passed since we sat in front oi
that trench-bordered stage an6
shuddered as one by one the dead
stood up and demanded the right
to live. Every grim, tragic line
every soaring situation remains
vivid in the memory. Powerful
weapon for peace, this play-it
will rank with the stage master
pieces. Yet there was another
play of this type back in 1921
which excited less attention at the
time because, undoubtedly, it was
presented in Chicago in Yiddish
THE Dead Man, written by
the famed Sholom ASche. And
of it and about it there was writ
ten a piece by a young columniSt
named Ben Hecht, which read, in
part: do you want to see the
dead warriors come back, the
fallen army come back, crawling
out of its million coffins and walk
ing back across the seas and the
prairies: refusing to stay buried;
the waXen face of youth come out
of its million graves and its uni
form hanging from it's limp form?
Do you want to see the war dead,
the young ones ripped to pieces in
trenches, standing like tired beg
garS at your back door, dead
hands and dead eyes and wailing
softly: I was so young. I died
too soon. All of us from all the
countries who died too soon, we
grew lonely on the other side. All,
my unlived days. My uneaten
bread! My uncounted years! They
lie in a little corner and nobody
comes to them!'" ,. Fifteen years
ago that was written about an
obscure little play 1t would
have served as the review of the
muCh-discuSsed play which opened
only a few months ago and stirred
present-day CritCis into their
frenzy of enthusiasm.
Wall Street dopesters and film
statisticians have estimated that
goth Century-Fox and the theaters
it controls will gross a minimum
Of so millions of dollars this year
Which will explain why cinema
chiefs shrug disdainful shoulders
when Broadway stage figures are
mentioned. ."Abie's Irish Rose"
for instance, which ran five years,
netted a little over a million dol
lars. "A handsome sum-but not
to be compared with the profit of
a movie super-Special. Idiot S
Delight" and Victoria Regina"
are today'S biggest legit hits {.
When they sell out to standing
room, they gross approximately
$4,000 a week each - handsome
figures for stage play But the
Capitol or Paramount Theaters or
Radio City Music Hall, playing
pictures, would sneer at such a
puny intake. One week-a spe-
cial week-the French Casino here
took in 100000 But across the
street, movie house, The Roxy,
crossed $4,000 with What Price
Glory"-and offered no blue plate
dinner. don't like figures any
more than you but Metros pay
roll is $250,000 (the writer's alone
collect $40,000).. One executive,
Irving Thalberg, is said to receive
an income of $5O0,000 annually
-. They don't think he's overpaid
because he produced a picture,
Caught Short" for Sic0,OOO which
brought in $3,0OO,OOO, a picture
big Parade" for $350,000 which
crossed six millions, etc.. The
answer is, of course, that the
movie audience of the world is
close to nine billion people. And
it is estimated that if every movie
house in the world played the
same picture the same night, at
least two billion people would be
able to see it at one time. It's
staggering statistics like these that
make some film producers SO ex-
cited they can scarcely speak
above an accent
Collector of Port Harry M.
Burning, on the occasion of the
Queen Mary'S arrival here, boarded
the boat with two children, goes
the story. The minute the kids got
on deck they were hungry. Durn-
ing asked passing attendant if
he could guide him to the place
where he might get some sand
wiches. mo sandwiches yet," said
the fellow, "only beer"
"My children don't drink beer"
said Burning.
"That's too bad-you ought to
teach them to-" sassed the stew
ard.
Five minutes later, he passed
again-this time with tray of
sandwiches. The Collector of Port
reached over and grabbed a few.
you're no gentleman" scowled
the underling.
I'm never a gentleman when
my children are hungry" snapped
Burning.
~ NAE MN