Evening star., 1949-01-27
After Dark
It's Not the Quality of Mercy But of
Overheard Wit That Is Strained

NV
The quality of the humor in ex-
cuses made to night club camera
Igirls has not improved one whit
with new Congress in session.
This bit of dialogue drifted across
from an adjacent table the other
might at the Sazerac Room of the
Old New Orleans:
Camera Girl: You'd you like a
nice picture, huh?
Man at Table: Oh, you should
have been around earlier. The Sena-
tor here can't have his picture made
in night club after o'clock. The
constituents out West wouldn't un-
derstand.
The food still seems to be superior
to the overheard wit at the Old New
Orleans.
One of the things that was bound
to happen sooner or later has hap
pened This was the inevitable
meeting of Hildegarde, the Partisan
from Milwaukee, the darling of the
ultrasophisticated admirers of ultra
sophisticated corn, with the rugged
old West. This took place recently
.at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las
Vegas, New.
For a description of the moment
Gus event we are indebted to Hide
garde, herself, who laid out the cash
to buy the back page of Variety and
reprint a pair of contemporary re-
ports on her own winning of the
West. Randolph Scott, with Wild
Sill Elliott and Rod Cameron as
deputies, couldn't have done a more
thorough job of subduing the bad
lands. ;Hildy could have turned. that
historic massacre into Sitting Bulls
Last Seat.
1t perhaps is a man named Jack
Cortez, writing in the Boulder City
News, who best captures the flavor
of Hildegarde's storming of the Las
Vegas battlements.
"Hildegarde, Hildegarde, Hide
garde, that's all kept hearing after
the first and second show at the
Thunderbird Hotel" he wrote. Il
never saw such crowd = '".
She kids the audience, is very.
very good comedienne, and the most
effervescent entertainer in the coun-
try today!
She melted the entire audience,
and that's for sure! The dining
room was done over for this great
performer or to phrase that correct
ly artist!
She is the one who has now made
that room! The Thunderbird Hotel
can be mighty proud of her and to
The man who booked her, Jake Koz-
loft Jake saw and knew her posi-
bilities'in Las Vegas, signed her and
anything that happens to the place
and I'm absolutely sure it will be
great 5000 all the praise should
be given to Jake for his great fore /
sight! The new lighting that is in
the place is the finest that could be
seen anywhere at all. To describe
the effects of those lights that fade,
from all different angles and all
centered about Hildegarde is breath
taking! I could 60 on but it would
be useless ="
The old incompatible hasn't lost
that Incompatible effect ON man
cceing her act for the first time and
that's for sure. Anyhow, all hail
the man who foresaW her rosSibili-
ties in Las Vegas. And all hail any
columnist who, when writing about
Hildegarde, knows he could 60 on
and on, but it certainly would be
useless.
Having been shaken by the phe- |
nomenon of Hildegarde, the Thun-
derbird Hotel now is ripe for a piece
Of advice. That is: Change those
breath-taking lights before you try
to follow her with a comedian. A
man we know assures us that Hide
garde causes more comics to scream
vitriolic epithets than anyone in
show business.
This is not, let us hasten to assure
you, because of any personal animus,
nor is it, Heaven and everyone else
knows, because the boys can't find
gags to top Hi1degardes The feel
ing of comics who follow Hildegarde
is conitioned simply and solely by
the effects of those lights that fade
from all different angles and all
centered about Hildegarde
Rooms such as the Statler's En-
bassy Room, where Hildegarde per-
forms, must be fitted with very spe-
cial lighting equipment before she
can be coaxed into coming out and
being coy with the ringsiders. Spot
lights must play upon her dramat-
icaliy, from above. Dramatically
and fiatteringly. On the Milwaukee
nightingale this may be breath
taking, but 1t brings only anguish
to the soul of the comedian who
finds himself in q supper room
equipped with Hildegarde type
lighting. Comics do not want to be
breathtaking. They just want to be
funny, but comics can't be funny
with the lower half of the face
hidden in darkness.
X X Il u
Rudy Vallee, who recently came
east to make comeback" which he
hotly denied was q comeback be-