The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-20
Man bout

Bv GEORGE tucker

I NEW YORK, April 19.-George
Balanchine is a thin, slight Russian
with enough hair on his head to
cover half the badness of Moscow.
Were he to comb the hair on the
right side of his head straight back
and bring it around behind his head
it would drape over his left ear.
When he leaps onto a stage to in.
struct his underlings in the finesse
of tap and ballet routines, it bangles
beneath his chin. One of his man.
nerisms is a sort of w roach.
ing of this hair with his long, thin
dancers hands.
Balanchine is not an easy mar
to talk to. Perhaps it is because
he speaks English, but badly. His
accent is difficult to follow. And at
r~ehearsals, which are the only
times 1 have encountered him, his
mind is too suffused with visions OF
the dance to permit him to indulge
in very much small talk.
y 4
It may be that you remember a
show in New York a couple of years
ago called IT Married An Angel"
Balanchine directed it. He now is
directing the dancing for Lee Shu-
bert and Harry Kaufman in Keep
Off the Grass" In II Married An
Angel was a girl who became more
nearly a toast of New York than
has any girl in recent years, with
the possible exception of Mary Mar
tin, the Texas Daddy" girl. Her
name was Zorina. Balanchine met
her and married her.
How is he?" 1 asked Kaufman
at the Broadhurst theater during
the early morning ~rehearsals.
Kaufman grunted and said, After
four years on Broadway a lot of that
artistic fluff has been knocked off
him, and he is down to earth. Watch
him work.
Balanchine was on the stage, Civ
ing each member of the chorus per
sonal instruction. He was dancing
with each individual and all but
marking the places on the stage
where they We're to step. They were
apt pupils. They caught on fast.
But it is Balanchine's reputation
that any dancer under his instruc'
ton catches on fast.
While this nervous. intense Rus
sian was bringing some order out
of chaos, another director, a carrot
topped Irishman with a cleft chin,
was similarly engaged in another
theater a few blocks away. This was
Edward Duryea Bowling, not to be
confused with Eddie Bowling, the
star of The Time of Your Life"
Director Bowling had in tow
Jimmy Durante, who arrived with a
black shirt and a t~urned-up brown
felt, plus a cigar between his teeth,
and the droll, long-necked Ray Boil.
ger, whose collars seem to be at
least four inches high. 1 imagine
Bolger is the highest priced man in
the show $4,000 weekly, although
this is not verified.
When Bowling takes an actor
through a scene he stands up with
him like a best man at a wedding.
Some directors like to bawl their in
structions from the orchestra pit.
Others float into and out Of scenes,
insinuating their suggestions. Dow
ling takes it step for step, line for
line. One scene, in which Bolger
plays the part of a timid census
taker, he got perfectly or the first
reading. None of the others was so
fortunate. I commented on this and
some unidentified observer inter
polated, Sure, he's an artist; it is
only after this that he's an actor
and a dancer"
Broadway shows come together
much in the n of many-joint-
ed snakes that have been hacked in
to a thousand pieces and then re.
united. Keep Off the Grass is
backed by energy, money, and tai
ent. But money in the theater was
never a certificate of success. The
answer won't be known until the
first audience files out and the
oriticC urito THAR opipiopS