Evening star., 1938-05-23

TO washington.
The problem exists, to be sure, In
New York and Philadelphia and st.
Louis and Chicago and Washington
and probably in Keokuk and Kalama-
ZOO and Xenia for all we know. but
". one third of nation :" still
is not the story Of one third OF nation
ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished.
It is the story Of New York's tene-
ments, how they came to be, the life
that is lived in them, the difficulty OF
doing away with them, and it is a
dramatic story, told well by the living
newspapers editors and by the Civic
Theater's cast. But 1t is story par
ticularly indigenous to New York; it
was written to drive the meI,age Of
the unfortunate one third Of nation
home to New Workers. Even the In
clusion of a scene recounting sad con-
ditions in Washington's alley dwellings
and the slum areas scattered through
out the city does not keep g. one
third Of q nation :" from being
remote.
A documentary motion picture like
1.-THE Plough That Broke the Plains" or
1.-THE River" has the power to move
you considerably because 1t tells. its
story of its dust bowl or Of its erosion
in terms Of their effect upon the Nation
as whole, whereas ". one third Of
q nation :" seems not so dramatic
as it probably was on Broadway be-
cause it tells its story of the effect Of
its problem on the Nation as whole
in terms of New York.
This Is, you may be sure, the only
complaint we have against the Civic
Theater's living newspaper. 1t has
been an ambitious undertaking for any
non- professional acting group and the
result is something of which Director
F.. Cowles Strickland and his players
may we'll feel proud. Staging the thing
could have been no easy task, but Mr..
Strickland has managed to keep what
seems like a cast Of thousands from
falling over one another. has CO.
ordinated his brief scenes so they tick
of like a well-tuned engine and he
has endowed the whole with brisk
pace.
The acting of a. one third of a
nation -" is beyond reproach almost
without exception. In such a large
cast going very thoroughly into the
manner Of the playing is an impossi-
bility, but some mention should be
made of Ed Stevlingsons chore as
Loudspeaker, wherein he shows him.
self the equal of any number of our
newsreel commentators; Murray Shee-
hans Little Man, the fellow who asks
the questions that keep things moving.
and Of Harry Wescott, Paul Walter,
John Rappolt, Hugh Smythe, Bob Mil
Ter, Elinor Cox Karsten. Frank Engle,
Nancy Hutchinson. Betty Rice, Selma
Klein and probably many more.
It's rousing show, this g. one
third of a nation :. :" and 1t has a
lot OF excitement some comedy and
much drama, but we still think dog
biting a man at Fourteenth and F
is of more interest in this town than
a man biting a dog at Broadway and
Forty-seventh street.
K 4
CAMUEL GOODWIN is going right
ahead with his production OF
THE Exiles," and In so doing has
broken down the prejudices of one
more writer who had vowed never to
have anything to do with the screen.
/. A. r. Wylie is the short story
writer and novelist whose claim that
motion pictures seldom made any
effort to deal with vital problems could
not keep her out of Hollywood when
Mr.. Goldwyn offered her the chance
to do the script for his film story
of an artist exiled from Nazi Germany
Miss Wylie (maybe you thought it
was Mr.. on account Of the initials
but 1t isn't jumped at the chance
to help the movies deal with history
in the making and she should be
working away on the adaptation this
very minute.
Another note Of considerable in
terest anent the script doings of the
movie town Is that Allen Boretz and
John Murray are collaborating on the
screen version Of their play, Room
Service" which will star the Marx
brothers. With the mad freres in
dulging in their Marxisms and the
authors attempting to keep some
semblsnce Of their play intact, well,
anything may happen.
X
IRON Bess Davis Schreiner comes
the announcement that sale Of
seats for the American Theater So
ciety and Theater Guild subscription
season is dipping along so merrily
that it is expected the just-closed
seasons total of 5,519 subscribers will
be doubled by August. The A. T. S.
Guild program next year includes
"Of Mice and Men," "Our Town." the
Lunt-Fontanne "Sea Gull" and, in
conjunction with the Mercury Theater,
the Shakespeare cycle, THE Five
Kings" which may take two evenings
to present, dealing as it does with