New Plays in Manhattan

George White's Scandals. Producer White has often been regarded as a reckless exponent of exposure, his entertainments as lowly though attractive limboes. As he grows older, Producer White grows cautious. The thigh is his limit now and the Scandals,* though not wholly civilized, are this year less natural and rugged in their charms, more universal in appeal. What is tuneful is combined with what is funny, what is stimulating is added to what is ennobling, though it must be remarked, in Producer White's favor, that he tried hard to control his appetite for the esthetic and only in one tedious scene did it master him completely. This was when a group of nuns were used as the background for a rendering of Ave Maria.

The other courses of the revue were uniformly delectable and served in dishes that were not too conspicuously dirty.

Ann Pennington, a little older* than she was at first, flung herself here and there in the motions of a new dance called Pickin' Cotton. Frances Williams shuffled also while she sang a song of which the words were "What d'ya Say?" Creeping forth from his cool cabaret with enhanced joie de vivre, Harry Richman shouted "I'm on the crest of a wave. . . ." As in all of Producer White's assemblies, the footwork in the Scandals was swift and spry, attended to by Tom Patricola, a pair of coordinated sisters, a well-coached chorus, and Producer White in person. Willie and Eugene Howard were part of what was funny; the rest was Arthur Page who gave tongue to this pretty berceuse: "Buy low, sell high, buy low, sell high. That's your father's lullaby."

More even than heretofore, Producer White has chosen veteran troops to carry his glad flags; they serve him well. There is a dull stretch in the middle but at both ends his Scandals burn.

Wanted. A virgin from Louisiana comes to Manhattan to see about her inheritance. People want to help her, but they also want to help her in a manner ill befitting a virgin from Louisiana. Repulsing them, she finds temporary shelter in a vacant Park Avenue apartment, at the suggestion of a Negro maid who knows her own Negro maid. Jewels are stolen from the apartment. The owners unexpectedly return from Europe. The virgin is taken to jail. Things look bad, but they are set to rights and the virgin gets a husband in the scion of the Park Avenue owners. Said Carl Helm, critic of the New York Sun: "Of course, we may expect things like this during the hot spell, along with the hives and sunburn, the difference being that you can do something about hives and sunburn." Be that as it may, Miss Alney Alba who plays the virgin is a pleasant happening among the flea-circuses on 42nd Street.

Give a man one million dollars and 15 years to live--and what will he do? He will probably spend large chunks of it in doing things that are pleasing to his senses. But if he is shrewd he will use part of his fortune--say $200,000--in speculative enterprises. Being a backer of plays along Broadway would be a smart enterprise for him. Suppose he puts $50,000 apiece into four comedies. If they all turn out to be flops, he will instantly become famed, will receive "at least a million dollars' worth of free publicity," will be swamped with new friends who enjoy being associated with an angel. If one of his comedies is a success he will be able to have more and bigger flings before Death arrives.

Last week, Emory Titman, 38, died. He had inherited one million dollars from his father 15 years ago; physicians told him that he would not live long because he weighed 350 pounds. He set out for a big time in Manhattan and found it while he became so big that he weighed 700 pounds. He backed several Broadway shows; true enough, they were flops; but the resulting publicity followed him to his grave, giving him glowing obituaries in nearly every New York and Philadelphia newspaper. At death his weight had shrunk to 587 pounds.

*This is the 9th edition of George White's Scandals. Other perennial revues are: The Follies (Ziegfeld) which began in 1907; The Greenwich Village Follies (Jones & Green, Shuberts) which began in 1919; The Grind Street Follies which began in 1922; Earl Carroll's Vanities which began in 1923.

*Thirty-three years She was born in Philadelphia and appeared on the stage for the first time at 14 in a small-time home-town production. In 1911 she appeared in The Follies as a featured dancer and has since become renowned fot flexibility and the dimples in her knees.