Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 50

THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1926- 2 Glenn Hunter Again Playing At Parsons's Popular Matinee Wednesday I William Hodge To Present New Play At Parsons's Soon "The Judge's Husband" Provides Connecticut Legal and Social -j- sv stage has disclosed In a number of years. Cynics will perhaps observe that the reason for this Is the Yvonne Prin-temps, the star actress, plsys the role of a boy and bence leaves the road clear for other women In the company to pick out what actually best suits them, instead of picking out merely relatively what suits them best after the leading woman has picked out what they themselves, had they had the opportunity, would properly have picked out. But I doubt that, this Is the whole reason. "Mozart" Is that beautifully costumed comedy in the matter of tints and shades that it is because the costumes have been directed not by some modiste who knows nothing of the play that they are to, embellish as is the general custom but because they have i hv man vhn a'mtm v. V.

3reeenjfc af -B road Ku R.ST Th EATRf jn. 1-. 1 A mm I AS "VM A 3t I a WW s3 -'I One of the outstanding events of the early season is the coming of the popular star. William Hodge, to Par-eons' Theater for three days beginning Thursday. September 23, in "The Judge's Husband." a timely American comedy from the pen of this actor-playwright.

During last season the play was presented In Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia and, according to report. Is accounted to be the most humorous and entertaining vehicle in which Mr. Hodge has appeared in recent years. Following the local en-; gagement, the attraction goes to New ofliEWYOWS- ecu 1 and directed the play Itself. The costumes and colors are almost as much a part of the play as the manuscript.

They have the air of playing that manuscript along with the actors. This. In print, has a nonsensical ring, but when you see the exhibit you will observe what I mean. Color is essential to the effect of such a comedy as costumed as it might be by the average producer, a good half of that effect would vanish. More than one locally produced comedy has een made ridiculous In certain of Its scenes simply because a vain star actress has compelled the actress playing oppposlte her to get herself up like a dud when the manuscript call was for that actress to be ov, Inorat.lntlntr vision.

Will One SOOn NIGHT LIFE Popular actor heads fine cast in 'The Romance of a Million Dollars," on the double feature program which opens at the Majestic Theater tonight. r- -r 117 T) PHILIP v. Philip DUNNING ti ft GEORGE i ADQn-rT I I rrr i. vti 7rr with a -ti York, opening at the Maxine Elliott Theater September 27. The star's role Is that of a quaint, small-town, Connecticut lawyer who is the husband of an ambitious woman Judge.

His domestic trials and tribulations culminate in the divorce court the court where his wife sits as trial Judge In her own. action for divorce. The unique trial scene Is made legally possible as the proceedings are based upon an actual point of law existing in the General Statutes of Connecticut. Lovely Gladys Hanson, who plays the woman Judge, and a selected metropolitan company will be seen here in support of Mr. Hodge.

The forget a certain blonde leading woman who several seasons ago made another women players who might also look best tn the same shades, to make themselves hideous In what remains of the spectrum. We are thus entertained with the spectacle of one appropriately dressed actress and half dozen or more who are arbitrarily compelled to get themselves up as freaks simply because of the star's prerogatives. When the Gultrys show "Mozart" over here In December, you ere due to see, the best dressed comedy that any producers, generally an eye-sore. The leason isn't far to seek. The star actress, having the right to select her costume colors first, usually does well enough by herself but at the expense of all the other women players and of the pictorial ensemble.

If the star lady Imagines that her peculiar style of beauty demands pink, green, blue or what not, all the pinks, greens, blues or what nots are thereupon duly usurped to herself, leaving the other blonde actress in ner troupe oye ner hair black, although the role for which the latter was cast was specifically that rip? One wnndp.ru what "MO- 4 zart" would have looked like If that LEE TRACY SYLVIA. FIELD CLARE leading woman had had a say in its production. 1 management of Parsons's Theater an- nounce that mail orders will be filled In the order of their receipt beginning THEPLAYNEWY0MIS-WA1TJKGT0SEE! next Monday. Sylvia Field, who will have the leading feminine role in "Broadway," the new play which begins a three-day engagement at Parsons's Theater tomorrow. EVES.

MED. MAT. (FIX'S 5 AX) to what the local audience's reaction will be not to his play as a whole, but to the specific matter alluded to. Unless I miss my guess, whatthe average theatergoer will gee In the wife's character will merely a woman under the domination of another woman of stronger will. And I allow myself this guess for all the fact that an altogether different construction Is placed upon the situation and definitely announced by the dramatist In the early and pine for a bit of novelty.

T.at novelty they might find if Mr. Gabriel's plan were adopted by the producers. There are certain objections to the plan, I appreciate. In the first place, some theatergoers might object to paylns rows than the regular price to see Percy Hammond or even myself, without clothes on, and, besides, I catch cold very easily. In the second place, before Dr.

Gabriel's plan could be put Into execution, something would have to be done about those 3 NIGHTS BEGINNING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th Popular Matihee Saturday The Playshop, Inc. I isents Inder Direction of S. E. Stanton and D. A.

Chappell THE LOVABLE, LAUGHABLE CROOK George Jean Nathan Looks on the Drama (Continued from Page 1.) if one is to be satisfied only by meritorious playwriting, all is lost. This remission of Judgement as to dramatic manuscripts is clearly discernible on the part of the gentlmeu who do the reviews for our daily press. They appreciate, and properly, that if they went to the theater these days in a cooly appraising manner and saw a play exactly for what it was, and duly reported their findings, not only would thousands of theatergoers be driven to find amusement elsewhere and not only would the papers presently lose their handsome theatrical advertising revenue since there would be nothing left to adwrtlse, but more importantly that they themselves would go half crazy trying to stick at their Jobs. Bo, with good practical sense, they dismiss all standards for Judging dramatic merit and approach the theater In a sort of self hypnosis, which allows them to imagine for the time being offers Tonight and Daily All Week portion of his play. The American success of "The Captive to give it its new title, depends largely, I believe, upon whether the drama will interest and hold its audi uniiiest picture theaters that have prickly plush seats.

And in the third place, I don't know how things would be arranged in the case of the gentleman who covers the shows for the gtaats-Zeltung. But these are- trivial mtfters, after all, and they mlcht be settled without too much difficulty. Once they were rmonthed out, the Idea would, I believe, work out perfectly. The spectacle of al! the presently hideous nude revue girls again covered with beauti the the ence, aside from its underlying sex motif. That motif is as unfamiliar, even as unrecognizable, to the general run of native audiences as a brunette Little Eva.

The dressing of the average comedy as we get it In the American theater Is. for al! the money expended by the iest man unn screen ful costumes would bring back to the A Comic Melodrama by Howard Irving Young A Raffles Afraid of the Dark. 17 Sun. Eve. And All Week kS 'n 1 rly'f from the Stage-Play that Direct From One Season On Broadway.

Praised by Every Critic. Broadway Cast and Production. Eves. Sat. Mat.

(Plus tax) MAIL ORDERS NOW SEATS TOMORROW eye the gratification that we have missed these past four or five years. And the spectacle, in turn, flf first night audiences rid of their walk-up dinner Jackets and side-street haberdashery would augment doubly the beauty of the scene out fronfe The average first nlghter might not be a deviistatingly aesthetic sight without, any clothes on. but he would at least be more of one without any clothes on than with the kind on that he presently wears The virtue ot such musical affairs as "Castles in the Air." and "Queen High" Is that they St. least make an effort to substitute something else for the stale peep-show delights of the revues. Even if thev leave great deal to be desired, they nevertheless are to be commended for not trying to turn the music show stage a women's Turkish Bath and making anatomical lines take the place of dialogic and torsos the place of melodies.

True enough the absence of faults not argue 'The presence of qualities, hut. nrie should be grateful for small dispensations. Ill With the production of Bourdet's Prisonniere" or "The Captive." as II. is to be known locally at the Empire in a few weeks, it will be Interesting to learn Just what emphasis the American adaptor and producer will HUTU KKATUKES SUN. ksf xr evening i wMae Afew York ana London Roar eii V-'X JOSEPH M.

fM SCHENCK IPI 3 NIGHTS BEG. MONDAY, SEPT. 20TH POP. MAT. WEDNESDAY HORACE LIVERIGHT Presents that very bad plays aren't very bad plsys at all, but pretty good ones.

I do not wish to posture myself in this connection, as grandly standing apart from these gent, the sole impeccable professor atop the rock. It 1 too. didn't go to the theater these evenings with a complete remission ot Judgement, I'd long before this be running around the streets foaming at the mouth and biting mad dogs. One no longer goes to the Broadway show-shops in the hope of seeing first rale drama; one goes simply in the hope of getting a variable share of low and uncritical amusement a few minutes or so out of the two hours. A couple of amusing wise-cracks, a good performance in a certain role, a scene with an available idea in it even though the playwright has done little with it, a single fetching Jine something of the kind.

In this manner and to this degree may one find diversion in such a play as William Anthony I was Rich." As a play it is worse than negligible; but, if you first persuade yourself that you like bad plays, you will be able to extract some en-talnment from it. Two good performances and half a doaett bad ones save it from being tedious. Joe Laurie and Miss Mildred McLeod give the good performances and certain other plavers give such terrible ones-that one derives from them all the pleasure that one used to get at Miner's amateur nights. In addition to these pourboires, McGuire has manufactured a few genuinely funny lines. As a consequence I recommend the.

exhibit to all persons who can take a couple of drinks and infu-ence themselves to believe to the point where they are ready to defend that belief with their lives that Ros tand is a worse dramatist than Rida Johnson Young Rnd that "One Man's Woman" is a ten times better plav than "TlamU4 1 IN allow to remain In the text In the matter of the central woman charac- ter's sexual peculiarity. While it. would 11 ne Rtwura. as both the adaptor and i producer doubtless realize, either to deplete or modify mention of that peculiarity, since such depletion or modification would remove all sense from the manuscript; I have a that, if the play Is left exactly as it. was written, the" rank and file of II.

Joining in the general protest not i on mora! grounds, but on aesthetic wait SALLY O'NEIL A NEW COMEDY DRAMA IN 3 ACTS By "JAMES TULLY and FRANK DAZEY Cast Includes: MAJOR J. ANDREW WHITE, WORLD PREMIERE RADIO ANNOUNCER, FULLER MELLISH. CHARLES HENDERSON, HARRY SOUTHARD, EDWARD GAR-GAN, ANDREW MOLONEY AND OTHERS. WED. (Plus Tax) MAIL ORDERS NOW SEATS THURSDAY mr ssv wcRomfflce ofaMillion Dollars Tram ikt N'owf hr ELIZABETH DEJEANS Dirtard tn TOM TERR1SS with GLENN HUNTER ALYCE MILLS GASTON GLASS JANE JENNINGS a rVUj He thought he could win the girl of his heart by posing as a champion prize-fighter.

And, oh boy, he soon learned that Cupid swings a wicked right! You'll laugh as never before at this great comedy the best picture Kea-ton ever made! The funniest prizefight the most amusing love story on the screen! From the big New-York and London stage success! American audiences will nevertheless be puzzled a bit as to the exact nature of the characters moral dereliction The sophisticated element, among local theatergoers will know what all the shooting's for. but I permit myself strong doubts that the average man or woman the audience those eond Harlem, Bronx. Brooklyn and Flatbush souls who are the backbone of the nation's box-off ire will understand the reason for the racket. The abnormal sex theme is generallv confronted with a tough job in the case of the American audience, since such abnormality, aside from an extremely limited circle, is certainly not an American institution, and, where considered at. all, is considered chiefly in the light of obscene low comedy.

When Wedeklnd's "The loves of Lulu" touched upon it. seriously, all It got for Its serious pains was the laughter of the audience. When John Howard Lawson touched upon It. In the result was the same. And the result was again the same in a Cosmo Hamilton play of several years ago the name of which I forget.

Tothe American audience, the subject In question Is us stranee as a two-headed eirafTe There ain't no such animal, and. there were. It would Just be too funny. Bourdet, It is true, has handled the topic more adroitly than it is customarily handled in terms of drama, and what Is more, he has handled It intelligently, but I still speculate as Mayer PICTURE Sat-Sept. 23, 24, 25 sgsinst the nudity of the current revues, Mr.

Gilbert Gabriel, in the Mew York Sun. demands surcease from the omnipresent, stale, stripped shapes and proposes at least a measure of novelty by reversing thirfgs and having girl's on the stage come out. fully dressed and play to a stripped audience. Mr. Gabriel's intrinsically profound suggestion has of course, been denounced ss mere flippancy, a habit of certain commentators when confronted by anv Idea that didn't oriemate in the New York Tribune during William Winter's regency.

Yet studiously pondering the suggestion these last seven days. I come to the conclusion that It has more merit than would appear even at first glance. If Mr. White can get fifty dollars a seat and Mr. Carroll a hundred for a sight of some obscure hussy in the altogether, thi.ik what some enterprising producer could tret for a Bizht of such first-nisrht celebrities as Martin Beck.

Burns Mantle and Alexander Woolcott In the same state! There may be a few resular theatergoers who, year after year, get a kick from seeing stKh music show ladies as Dorothy Knapp, Katherlne Ray. et al. appear their birthday clothes, but It teems to me that after they have seen these undressed once, the majority of regulars tee! amply satisfied Keatons Knockout Komedy 1 Second Feature Is A Speed Romance William FAIRBANKS With VIVIAN BROWN FAIR in "Mile A Minute Man" A Split-Second Speed 1 THE LAUGHING SUCCESS OF CHICAGO. BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA! IT WILL BE PRESENTED HERE WITH THE SAME CAST AND PRODUCTION THAT OPENS AT THE MAXINE ELLIOTT THEATER, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 27. even funnier than his famous The Navigator" He won a bride by posing as the famous Rattling Butler.

AND THEN THE REAL BATTLER APPEARED OX THE SCENE! What sidesplitting complications, what whirlwind fun, with Buster Keaton winning the laugh championship, hands down, in (he funniest prize-fight 'ever fought! Will Be Shown Twice Tonight Also Lige Conley in "Kiss Screen Cartoons Strand Review Strand News "IL TROVATORE" Capitol Theater, 2 P. Sept. 19 Massimo Grand Opera Co. A BEAITIFIX PRESENTATION' OF VERDI'S fUFBRATED OPERA BY IUSTIXGUSHED METROPOLITAN S1NOEKS EMILIA VERGERI, Dramatic Soprano as 'LEONORA' COMM. NICOLA ZEROLA, Tenor as "MANR1CO" Benefit Italian Tuberculosis Relief 1 MAIL ORDERS NOW Addres ltter.

checks, money orders, to Parsons' Theater. Please enclose self-addressed stamped envelope to Insure -fe and prompt return of tickets. You are advised to make your reservations promptly. Orders will receive attention In the sequence In which the. are received.

CARTOON WEEKLY POPULAR PRICE MATINEE SATURDAY BEST SEATS $1.50 Seat Sale Opens Sept. 20 PRirES: (Including 13 state and federal tn) Evening. Orchestra: Balronv f.13, 2nd Balcony, 75c. Sat. Orchestra, fl.73; Balconv, 2nd Balcony, 00c.

I lilt lvkJ. McCoy's Music Store 87 Asylum St. Special Musical Program HENRI TUSSENRROEK. Director Morn, and Aft. 25c.

Eve. 40c..