Evening star., 1937-03-25

and universally satisfying.
For four years it has played now
With the usual Summer recess. Next
Fall again its 100 company members
will pack their several hundred bags,
the scenery will be loaded into enough
freight cars to assure the railroads an
operating profit on the year and once
more 1t will take to the road
There still are persons in the coun-
try who, Max Gordon figures, have
not seen the gigantic musical which
deals with the life of the Strausses,
pere ct fills. They are going to get
their chance if the show has to be set
up in the smallest Elks' hall in the
country. 1t has played just about
every other type of building, including
e-night stands in high school audi
toriums sportatoriums and similar
spots hardly designed for the accom-
mediation Of such things as The
Great Waltz"
THE road has been kind to the most
monumental show that ever
Travelled it. 1t is only just that it
should have been, of course, for it
took a great deal of courage to send
anything SO big and costly on tour.
More spectacular, however, than the
courage of Gordon has been the in
genuity of the stage crews who have
set the thing on some stages ranging
so small the cast dared not take
deep breath lest the member next in
line be toppled into the orchestra pit.
Movie houses have sheltered The
Great Waltz on many of its over
night stops during the last eight
months. Their stage facilities on
most occasions were enough to con-
vince the company manager the show
would have to be cut in half (aS to
breadth, not length. But some one
always thought of some way to avoid
that catastrophe no matter what
miracles of congestion confronted the
audience when it looked at the stage.
THE Great Waltz" turned out to be
quite revelation to some of the pic
ture house managers who grudgingly
gave it hospice for the night, There
was one, for instance. who insisted that
he would have to have s45 guarantee
before he would consider supplanting
his picture with anything so strange
and alien to his community. That was
all right with The Great Waltz"
people. They knew their product.
They gave the guarantee and played
to somewhere close to 100 times that
amount-to the complete astonish-
ment of the house proprietor
THERE was another picture house
owner who took in the company
and the production for a night with
the expressed hope that it would be
failure.
"Why?" he was asked.
Because if 1t is success, We'll
have to take others, and don't want
to be bothered" was the reply
In the main, however, the produc-
ton was treated handsomely by every
one, not just audiences, but those who
were most intimately connected with
Its presentation.
There was talk recently of reviving
1t in New York next Fall. 1t ran
there for two years. 1t is not definitely
settled that it will not 60 bAck again,
but it will not do so until it has had
another year on the road.
X x X
THE EARLE is going to be pretty
satisfyingly musical during the
next couple of weeks. Jan CARRIER and
his band initiate the cycle with a
weeks engagement starting tomorrow.
Next week, pleasant surprise, it will
be Bert Granoff.
Bert, the local boy who made good
everywhere, has just signed with
Warner Bros zone manager. John j.
Payette, to headline the Earle program
sta arfinO Anri1 He will he helnod in