Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-12

save the cost Of the elaborate sets
in Two and Three which Claver.
ling and Dome used for their class
act.
The agent needn't have been &c
careful of Loraine's feelings. She
really wasn't a trouper at heart
She was just a girl who hap.
pened to be gifted with a strong
tuneful, pleasing voice and q
superabundance Of this and that
about her person.
OLD-FASHIONED GIRL
Privately, she considered her
lifework done when she married
Joe.
She followed the old-fashioned
belief that a woman's job Is to get
herself a. husband, and she an6
Joe were married two weeks after
they met backstage in Empire
burlesque house in Newark.
Besides, even then, she was be-
ginning to see that she would be
much happier il she could get
away from Joe and his burning
ambition once in a while. She was
getting a little too much of 1t.
Joe's ambition would surprise
any one who didn't know co.
|medians.
ANYTHING ELSE
He was suffering from the
comedians complex.
He wanted, as they say in show
business, ito play Hamlet" that
is. he wanted to do tragedy or
straight roles or character, Any
thing but comedy.
He was always e Dds agent to
book him in Straight" and let
him shed his comedy costume and
makeup.
81 tell you, Jake. he'd say
earnestly, IL can play Shake
speare or Ibsen or even Ber-
nard Shaw. I don't belong I'm
these rags. I don't have to 20
round seeking people In the
kisser and doing trick falls. /
can do Hamlet. Listen" He'd
strike a pose and start to de-
claim, ITO be or not be. That
II the question. Whether--'"
And Jake would laugh heartily.
BOY, are You goodw he'd
chortle. you'll lay i'em I'm the
aisIes with that one. Get it into
your act. Build up some bust
ness about . ham being broke.
and panhandling. He offers to
do Hamlet for q lady who'll give
him q sandwich. Then do Il.
Boyw
But I'm seriousw Joe would
yell. 81 want to play Hamlet. 1
cap do II better than barrymore
or this Maurice Evans. Just
give me one shot at IL. You'll
seew
He never got his shot at It. The
agent and Lorraine saw to that.
HAPPY AS WIFE
Lorraine had set up business as a
housewife and she liked Ii.
She got up at z in the morning
and cooked her own breakfast and
occupied her time with this and
that until IL, when she called Joe.
She was happy. She wasn't
going to let Joe spoil 1t. She
talked him out of II for a while.
But finally he had his way.
He was working in One now as
a monologist with material for
which he paid writer's top prices.
The money he paid them burned
him up because he couldn't tell a
joke or gag when he heard one.
He thought the writers were
robbing him, and he decided, all
by himself, to do Hamlet before a
vaudeville audience, as a sort of
surprise.
If 1t went over, he could cut the
writers off his pay roll.
He didn't even let Lorraine in on
the secret because he knew she
would inform his agent and crab
the act.
He hired a room in a hotel and
spent three hours a day there
working on Hamlet's soliloquy
with gestures.
He opened with II In Chicago,
and, as Jake, his agent had fore
told, IL laid them in the aisles.
The audience nearly died laugh
ing.
When reporter for Variety
came backstage to get the story
behind the soliloquy. he found Joe
in tears.
why, the damn fools thought
! II was funny!v he moaned. sthe