IS V A R I E T Y

NEW ACTS NEXT WEEK Initial Presentation, First Appearance

or Reappearance In or Around New York

"Jasper," Fifth Ave. Max Laube, Fifth Ave. Two Tom Boys, Fifth Ave. May Wirth, Palace. Marie Lo, Bronx. Holden and Dockrell, Bronx. Miller, Moore and Peters, Bronx. Rose Dolly and Fred Leslie, 44th St.

M. H. "Fancy Free," 44th St. M. H. "Sergeant Bagby," Union Sq.

Bert Errol. Female Impersonator. 11 Mins.; Two (Interior). Alhambra.

Bert Errol is a foreign female im­personator who has just landed on our shores. Despite the pace set by Julian Eltinge and others on our stages and the fact that they have about bagged everything in the female impersonating line Errol is worth watching. At the Alhambra he didn't seem able to get started but once under way he pulled up solidly. Errol wears but one outfit but it's a modern affair which cannot be denied by our very best women dressers. Errol has no doubt given the female walk, arm movements and cer­tain feminine poses careful attention as he adheres very closely to them all the way. Occasionally he drops the dis­guise to reveal that there's the man be­neath and displays a hickish inclination to shatter the class conveyed at the start. Errol has a voice of unusually high range, a cross between falsetto and mezzo soprano which he uses to splen­did advantage. His trump card is the 'My Hero" number at the close which put over nicely. Errol sings better than any of the female impersonators yet seen in New York and depends much on his voice to carry him along. He could h&ve helped out with his deception by using a different stage monicker. Reply­ing to an encore he doffed his wig and made a speech that brought forth a boo and bah and he should guard certain words hereafter if he makes any more remarks. Female impersonators as a rule have the audience against them and certain mannerisms or speeches can do a lot of harm. Errol may not have the class or showmanship of El-t?nge but he works along a different line and you have to give him credit He arrives late with the glory about worn threadbare, but he will get his share. Mark.

"Ward 22." Comedy Skit. 14 Mins,; Full Stage (Special Set). Union Square.

Scene in a hospital ward. Four male patients in bed—Hebrew, Tad, German, Englishman. Female nurse and house physician. "Comedy" is created by applying electric battery to the patients, injecting dope, doctor carrying saw across stage, etc. For finish nurse sings and all join in, with "business." If the skit didn't come from burlesque it would make a capital idea for a burlesque second part. As played at the Square it's a crude small time offering. Jolo.

Walter C. Kelly. Stories. 18 Mins.; One. 44th Street Music Hall.

Walter C. Kelly, "The Virginia Judge," appears in New York all too seldom. This week he is at the 44th Street Music Hall, after a long absence from America. It is two years since Mr. Kelly started a trip around the world. His humor is the brand that anyone who understands English must laugh at. It's wit, and the telling, whether the dialect is of the Irish, English or colored race, never has a flaw. Tuesday evening Mr. Kelly's stories were all new, with two excep­tions. One is the "Corned B e e f tale which Mr. Kelly could not have known without information was related here before he arrived in town. The other was good enough to be revived. The Virginia Judge tales are more laughable than ever. One is when a colored man, pleading against a charge of stealing chickens, says, "Judge the Lord may strike me dead if I stole them." "Stand over there for five minutes," replies the Judge, "and if you are still living I'll give you 90 days." Walter Kelly is the kind of an entertainer who should be held in one theatre for a run. You never tire of Kelly. As a single-handed character story teller he is without a peer. Sitne.

Walter Lawrence and Frances Cam­eron.

"A Bit of Broadway" (Songs and Talk).

24 Mins.; One (Special Drop). Fifth Avenue.

It looks like one of those "Hello, Frances," and "Howdy, Walter!" acts made up on the street when each learns that the other is "at liberty" for the present but anticipating. And while the anticipating is good, a round of the music publishers is made and with several songs tacked on to a few used by each in former productions the variety debut is gotten under way. They have the talent but it's lost during the greater part of their present tu*-n. Mark.

Lawrence Seamon. Cartoonist 12 Mins.; One. Fifth Avenue.

With all due respect to Lawrence Seamon's ability and cleverness to en­tertain with the chalk and crayon and incidentally make the gift of drawing pay, a sigh of relief will go up when att of the New York newspaper aitists have made their debut on the loral vaudeville stage. A likable chap, with a pleasing voice, Seamon is able to make himself heard without tripp­ing up any of the footlights. He's regularly employed on the Evening Sun and daily contributes base ball players* beads to its sporting sheet. In this "act" he makes only heads of diamond heroes best known to New York fans. Seamon will receive attention where-e\cr they know baseball. He has a late start but should be able to get scrne consecutive time without inter­fering with the grandoldope of the V; inter League. Mark.

If you don't advertise In VARIETY, don't •dvortiM »t aU.

Ross and Fenton and Co. (4). "Cleopatra" (Travesty).

19 Mins.'; Full Stage (Special Set). Falace.

After all is said and done, it still is the old-time variety performer who "makes good" in vaudeville, whether it t e "pop," "advanced," "supreme" or of any other calibre. It is once more ex­emplified this week at the Palace, where Charles J. Ross and Mabel Fenton have revived their former success, the "An­tony and Cleopatra" travesty. In addi­tion to the inimitable reading of Ross in the apparently serious Shakespear­ean lines, the work has been brought down to date through the interpolation of quips of contemporaneous vintage. Miss Fenton was accorded an ovation on her first entrance. This was quite ail right, coming from the old-timers, but to the younger generation it meant "show me." , And she did with her first speech. Effective lighting gave the cftect of the break of dawn (hastened of course for vaudeville speed). Stand­ing at the top of the short flight of steps, she exclaimed: "What a lovely November eve this September morn!" Later on, when passing Octavius to partake of refreshment, she says: "Have no fear to drink, 'tis not yet one o'clock." Ross's dying speech was filled with such lines as "Farewell Churchill's," and so on. Three girls and a man (who doubles) made up the 'company." Ross and Fenton are still the peerr of travesty. Jolo.

Burton, Hand and CantwelL Songs. IS Mins.; One. Columbia (Nov. 9).

A singing trio from the west, with­out a piano, and depending consider­ably upon volume, Burton, Hand and Cantwell did very well at the Columbia Sunday afternoon. It is singing only, with too many solos and one or two numbers not fitted to their special style, which is low harmonizing on ballads or straight singing of rags. The tallest young man did the "Patrick J. O'Hare" song to a good conclusion, but a bass solo following seemed to drag. The tenor did nicely, and the three boys, who wear evening clothes without hats, have taken their songs from any pub­lisher. The "Fall River Line" number hurt the class of the turn. It's a good three-act for the small time now. With a program newly arranged for them, to run not over 12 minutes, this trio might make the big time, which has few singing trios or quartets now there that depend upon voices alone.

Slime.

Ruth Roye. Songs. 9 Mins.; One. Union Square.

Usual costume-changing soubret, singing four published numbers, all in the same fashion, with "coon," "rube," "nut" and "mugging," without regard for consistent characterizing. Her big­gest asset is a semblance of vigorous rhapsodizing which "got" the audience, unless the applause was the work of "boosters." If the "hit" was the work of "pluggers," it was well done.

Jolo.

NEW SHOWS NEXT WEEK Initial Presentation of Legitimate

At traction* in Now York

"The Strange Woman" (Elsie Fergu­son)— Lyceum Nov. 17).

• - i- - - — = •

Jesse L. Lasky Co. (14). "The Red Heads" (Musical Comedy). 43 Mins.; Full Stage (Special Set). Colonial.

If "The Red Heads" were only red heads, and the cast held performers among the principals besides James B. Carson and Helen Du Bois, Jesse L. Lasky would have something of a good act in his latest production, which sug­gests "Potash & Perlmutter" and "AH For the Ladies" as its source. The idea of the main office of the cloak and suit establishment, with Mr. Carson as Jo cob Kaufman, the proprietor who ad­vertises for red headed models to aid business, and the plan of showing models in fashionable clothes, must have been derived from the two pieces mentioned. Eight show girls as a back ground make a thin line nowadays for a big condensed musical comedy pro­duction. Two roles that need strength­ening are Ted Morgan, the buyer, as played by Stewart Jackson, who seems more of a dancer than an actor, and Ruth Crane, by Eleanor Sutter, a girl who finally fits in as the ninth of the show ladies. Dorothea Sadlier so bad­ly overplayed the female detective she is not entitled to consideration. At the opening, as the red heads apply for the advertised position, they come in singly, as "types," the lisper, suffra­gette, sad girl, flirt, and so on. The sad girl should have been last as an epitome of them all. The overture led by a red headed girl in the orches­tra pit played Franklin and Green's "Red Head." This and perhaps two of the girls on the stage were the real red heads in the performance. The program told where the scenery came from, the gowns and the flower baskets, but never uttered a word about the wigs. And there are some wigs in this act, almost as shoddy as the scen­ery, which looks as though it had been in use for years, instead of presumably having been freshly made for a new production. If the setting was soiled and spoiled in the "try out" places this turn may have played, Mr. Lasky should bring a damage suit against the theatres which did it. The music is fair, much better than the story, of a runaway from San Francisco, for whom there is reward offered of $5,-000. She's a red head and applies for a position. Mr. Carson did very well, in fact he carried the turn, as the He-biew cloak and suit manufacturer. Between "P. & P." at the Cohan, "The Pleasure Seekers" at the Winter Gar­den and "The Red Heads" in vaude­ville, New York has almost a thorough exposition of the Hebrew trade. Vau­deville's big time will accept the Lasky turn, because there is not sufficient competition among producers to allow them to refuse it, but the act could have been much better built. Doubt­lessly though Jesse Lasky knows his business and the managers he must deal with. He will give them what they will pay him for. If he did any better he would not have gotten any more money. 8imi