Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 8, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 May 1928 — Page 11

MAY 21, 1928

!THE CROWD’ IS AN ALBUM OF REAL LIFE King Vidor, by Directing a Picture Filled With Every-Day People. Has Given the Screen One of the Most Human Movies Ever Made. BY WALTER D. HICKMAN The old-fashioned home always had the family album with the pictures of uncle, grandma, mother, dad and all the others. ■ And these pictures always mirrored life just as it is because the subjects were life. * Just as the old family album on the table in the parlor reflected life, just so does “The Crowd,” a movie directed by King Vidor, who turned out “The Big Parade.” The people in “The Crowd” are those that we all rub elbows with each day. You are in this picture and so am I. It seems to me that all the human traits of people of of various types have been captured by Vidor and placed in “The Crowd.” Here you meet Mary and Joe. Joe could be Dick, Harry. A1 or Harold. It makes no difference. He is just one of the crowd. Mary is a girl and a good girl. She loves Joe an(j she marries him because she loves him. He doesn’t make enough money in an insurance office to be a sheik.

Joe is just one of the many hundreds employed in the bookkeeping department of a great firm. But Joe has his dreams. He knows that his ship will come in some day. But there are millions in the crowd uniting for that same ship. And so Joe takes his bride on the honey-

moon tour of Niagara Falls and then goes back to New York to join the crowd. It is in the small apartment house scenes in the early married” days of Mary and Joe that we get some of the finest dir ec t ing touches that Vidor has given the screen. You see the months pass by. Import ant months, while Joe

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James Murray

dreams and works at his small job. As the months go on. Mary becomes a mother and Joe dreams more of his ship. Then more years and another child. Then the summer picnic with the two children and the wife on the beach. Here again Vidor photographs the human experiences of every man, woman and child who goes to the beach. Then more years—death enters the home of Mary and Joe. One of the children is fatally injured by a truck. Here is theater that Will get into your heart. It gets into Joe’s brain and in a wild moment Joe throws up his job. Oh, there be plenty of jobs—that was Joe’s idea, but Joe forgot that it is so easy to get out of step with the crowd. When one is even a member of the crowd he is marching on, slowly, yes, but he is marching. Joe got into such a condition that he couldn't march. Then his wife’s brothers come to her and make her see what a failure Joe is. Mary nearly gives up but . Os course the film should have stopped right here when Mary comes back to Joe in poverty but the box office guys who look at pictures shouted the “happy ending” and so we have one showing Joe and Mary with pots of money. Up to this silly Follyanna ending “The Crowd” is the most human story of every day life that has ever graced the screen and I make no exception to any picture that I have ever seen. Here is the most honest story of American life that has ever been photographed as far as I know. It is more than safe to say that “The Crowd” has made two young actors Eleanor Boardman and James Murray'. Murray will become famous by his human work in this picture. He has the real human stuff in him. He knows how to allow the years to register on his face, makeup, clothes, actions and the like. His man of the crowd is a growing individual. Here is some of the most simple human acting I have ever seen. Miss Boardman is wonderful in her little scenes of love and she shows what it means to a woman's heart to be a mother. She makes you understand that a woman always understands her man. These two will be in my list of the year of the ten best outstanding movie performances. “The Crowd” is one picture that will delight every member of every family. If you believe in my judgment, then see “The Crowd,” by all means. Baby Peggy, 8 years old now, is the star of the stage presentation at Loew’s Palace. Peggy has a lot to do. She acts in a little traffic cop scene with her father; she registers many moods and then comes out and sings “Ain’t She Sweet,” and tops it off with a dance. This little girl is not relying up">n the title of “baby” to put her over. She will not be a baby all the time and so she is learning her big lesson of the stage—be able to do many things well all the time. She is a great lesson to children who want to be a success la life. Her daddy says that Peggy is no super-child, she is just a little girl who is learning the lesson to do what she is told to do at the time. Horton Spur is an eccentric dancer who is a wonder. He has a lot of steps dressed up in anew way. He knows his mechanics of the dance. He is easily one of the best we have had here in weeks. Emil Seidel is in charge of the stage show and his orchestra. At Loew’s Palace. a a a RICHARD DIX WINS IN HIS ONE MOVIE Write this down in your little mental note book if you have been worried about Richard Dix not getting the right kind of vehicles. And this is the tip—in “Easy Come, Easy Go,” Dix has a corking good story in which he has a lot tc do. Richard is a lively lad. He loves to fight, he loves to love, he loves to have fun and he loves to act.

He has a chance to all of ’em in “Easy Come, Easy Go.” This farce comedy measured up as a fairly good sized hit on the stage, and with Dix in the cast, the movie version is mighty lively and good entertainment. Dix is cast as a laa Who has a rich pa. But rich papa k kicks Richard out * and Richard .arts

Richard HW

• doing the rtomeo act around New

York without money. He falls in love with a pretty face, owned by a girl called Barbara. Her dad is so very rich, so much so that papa goes to a rest £ure place to take mud baths and get away from the world. Just before papa goes to the rest place, he signs a big pay roll for his factory. Now Richard is standing in the street in front of the bank as a clever religious looking old gent plans to force the factory messenger to hand over the cash. So the good old man rescues Richard from being run down by an auto and to show his pleasure of being alive, Richard tells the old guy that he will do anything for him. So the old saintly looking guy. leads Richard to a big roadster and tells him to take the driver’s wheel and wait for him while he goes in the bank “to pick up a little change.” And the old guy picks up over ; $21,000 in a grip. Richard drives j him to a train and quite by accident Richard finds himself on the train. Os course, our hero did not know that the good looking gentleman was a crook, and a corking good one at that. Richard of course stumbles over Barbara on the train and it is easy for him to remain. Detectives get busy and then—. Well, it would be unfair to tell more of how Richard finally gets the money back to Barbara’s father. But Richard will hand you yards of laughs, stages a corking good fight and enters into the comedy situations with a fine understanding of what is needed to promote laughs. ( Solly Ward, a high powered dialect comedian, is doing on Vitaphone his standard vaudeville aci, “At the Party.” Ward registers only fairly well at times. He is best when talking. Golf fans will enjoy seeing and hearing Alex Morrison with the comedy help of Walter Weems’ stage “Lessons in Golf.” Here is a splendid feature. The musical part of the Vitaphor.e bill is furnished by Pat West and his Musical Middies, a pretty warm orchestra. Bill includes Movietone News and you will be interested :n hearing Henry Ford accept in % speech an old New York horse ca: for his museum. Now at the Apollo. a a a YES, SHE WAS A WORKING GIRL ONCE There is anew name for the gold digger and it is—“ The Play Girl.” This being in the eye of those who make movie titles a good enough one to be the name of the film, and so “The Play Girl” is a Fox movie. Hers is the lightest possible story

that attempts to wise - crack at dames who accept diamonds, dresses, cloaks and underwear, but who will “accept no offense” from the guy who loads her with such presents. In other words, our Neil of “The Play Girl" type is one of the good gals who nearly gets her virgin wings turned to black, but who emerges from the

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Madge Bellamy.

battle minus most all her clothes, but she still has her pure heart and her good name. And, of course, a nice boy from the Western plains is these to grab the gal in his arms. You know that our little heroine will not go hungry because her big strong man from the West has as much money in the bank as he ha? muscle. Madge Bellamy is the working girl,’ who when fired, starts to dig gold out of rich guys without paying the bill. As usual Miss Bellamy is guilty of the most extreme overacting, but she is that sort of a person who makes people love her—those in the audience, I mean. Os course, the basis of the stor;, of “The Play Girl” is just plain sap hokum, dressed up in the modern lingo of the wise-cracking artist. It is fair entertainment, light but smart at times. Ben Bloom has graduated from mannerisms that one generally associates with burlesque and now in the words of one guy that I believe, Charlie Davis, “Ben is the famous international comedian.” Ben is the chief star of the stage presentation at the Indiana. He does his famous ice skate dance and does a black bottom eccentric dance that is a wow. His stories are not altogether parlor, but they have audience appeal. There are six men in this stage presentation that have good voice. They appear as “The Singing Blacksmiths.” They are good. Davis and his band have a corking good way of putting over “Rain” with effects, and “Sunshine” as a chaser. These two numbers are real winners. Os course Alfred Latell, the do impersonator, is not new to this city. Here is the best do impersonator in the business. No doubt about it. He is an artist. He fits in mighty well in the stage presentation idea. There is some good singing this week on part of the chorus. Much better than usual. Stuart Barrie is now the new organ soloist. Now at the Indiana. a a a RADIO AGAIN WINS AT THE CIRCLE It is the little things that count 'in life. And the stage is a life. So

it is the little things there that make the good actors good. Things that do not seem to be in the routine make Eddie Pardo big. When I was at the theater, Eddie gave his baton to one of the smallest members of the Robbins P’amily and let him direct, even while he was supposed to be in the act. Edddie's “Yachting Party” is the name of the stage show this week,

and to liven things up a bit Eddie brings on Neil Nelson, who sings several songs, mostly to Eddie. Among others is an old song, “I ain't got no body.” She has a good blues voice. Stanley House is also a singer, but a different kind. He has several comedy songs and the actions to go with them. He is good. Rodney and Gould

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Mary Astor

are sailors, and dancers. They have several dances of the tap variety and then they do a burlesque on a classical dance that is mighty funny. The Robbins family is numerous, and they are all acrobats, from

Says Konjola Is First Remedy To Bring New Health Indianapolis Lady Says This Medicine Is Wonderful for Stomach Trouble. Such strong praise as the people of Indianapolis are giving Konjola proves conclusively that it has unusual merit It is a fact that unless a medicine does all that is claimed for it, reliable persons will not in-

Photo by Northland Studio. Indianapolis. MRS. LOUISE POWER

dorse it. Local newspapers are daily publishing signed reports of men and women in this city and surrounding communities, describing the relief they gained through the use of Konjola. It is a recognized fact that this advanced medicine restores normal and healthy action to the important functionary organs of the body, thereby producing new life, energy ana glorious health. Among the great list of local people who testify to the above facts is Mrs. Louise Power, living at 219 East Tenth street, Indianapolis, who made the following statement to the Konjola Man at Hook's drug store, Illinois and Washington streets, this city, where he is explaining the merits of Konjola to large crowds every day. “Before I knew there was a medicine like Konjola, I had to endure the miseries of stomach trouble and nervousness every day and I was beginning to think there would be no relief for me,” said Mrs. Power. “But now I am praising this medicine because it gave me new and glorious health. “I suffered mostly from a completely disordered stomach. In fact, my whole system was in a run-down condition because of that ailment. My health was made all the worse by constipation that allowed vast quantities of impurities to gather in my system and poison all the innerorgans Strong laxatives did not have much effect on me and the relief I did get would only be temporary I couldn’t eat a meal without suffering the misery of bloating and indigestion afterward. I wasn’t getting the proper nourishment from my food and was steadily losing in weight and strength. I was subject to attacks of nervousness and at these times my eyes \yould become affected. During the day I would get such headaches and dizzy spells that I had to stop whatever I was doing until they passed away. “This was my condition for so long that I actually thought my case was hopeless, but Konjola soon showed me that I was mistaken, because it began to restore my health soon after I started taking it. A new feeling of energy and vigor seemed to flow through my body after every dose and I wouldn't think of discontinuing this medicine. By the time I had taken two bttles I knew that I would soon be entirely well The miseries of stomach trouble began to disappear and my bowels were moving regularly. I can eat many things I formerly had to deny myself and my food is really doing me some good It is building up my weight and strength and my nerves are getting stronger every day. Now I have the utmost confidence in Konjola because it is the first remedy to give me such relief, and I feel that by the time I finish the full treatment all my suffering wall be ended and that I will once more enjoy the blessings of good health. “The two bottles of Konjola I have taken convince me that it is a wonderful medicine for the stomach and I strongly indorse it to others as such.” The Konjola Man Is at Hook’s drug store, Illinois and Washington streets, Indianapolis, where he is daily meting the public and introducing and'explaining the merits of this remedy. Kc.ijola is sold in every Hook store, in this city and by all the best druggists throughout this* section.—Advertisement.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Verdict of the Screen LOEW S PALACE—“The Crowd,” easily the most human movie that King Vidor has given the screen. One of the pictures that everyone should see. INDIANA—“The Play Girl” is just a light little sap-hokum story with Madge Bellamy in the cast. Davis and his band are the real stage hits along with Latell and Ben Bloom. APOLLO—Richard Dix is his own good old self again in “Easy Come, Easy Go.” A winning comedy. ClßCLE—“Dressed to Kill” is the feature picture. A crook melodrama that is entertainment. Some good things in Eddie’s “Yachting Party.” OHIO —George K. Arthur plays the part of a small town reporter in “Circus Rookies.” Good comedy. “The Little Snob” is the other feature picture.

the littlest to the biggest. One ' the girls and one of the boys and tap dance and another girl sings and the boys all kid their “pop.” A versatile acrobatic family. And Eddie sings “Hard Hearted Hannah” with a lot of embellishments and so forth. He really makes Hannah sem to have a heart of stone. Good Blues this. Ocie Higgins sings while the chorus comes on in a dance number. “Dressed to Kill” is another picture built around the theme of the crooks. The high-class crooks that are a clan unto themselves. pnH hnlp “stool nipon.” It seems

From Ocean to Ocean America Is Watching Indiana Organize To Honor Abraham Lincoln

The East Speaks The lovers of Lincoln throughout the nation should rejoice in the completion and the character of the plans of the Hoosicrs to properly mark the spot in Indiana where he passed the entire formative period of his existence. He was scarcely more than a baby when he reached his Indiana home in the wilderness; he was mature, and more than twenty, when he left. Every outstanding trait of the man had been developed and was marked in Indiana before he went to Illinois. Through a disgraceful neglect on the part of the Hoosicrs, the prominence of the part played by the Indiana en\ ironment in the moulding of the martyr is scarcely known. At length there has been an intelligent awakening. There is something of the originality of Lincoln himself in Architect Hibben's conception, with everything of Lincoln’s strength, his simplicity, his splendor of soul and beauty of character. It is a fine thing to have a Lincoln memorial that the plain people, whom Lincoln symbolized and loved, can feel and understand; an appropriate thing that it should be built on the site of his boyhood home; and a commendable thing that the Hoosiers have at length awakened to a realization of both their opportunity and their obligation. —Editorial in Sew York Evening World.

@To be erected, landscaped and equipped at ‘ a cost of $1,265,000 —all to he contributed by the public of Indiana. To be located on a 100-acre tract, including part of the original Thomas Lincoln farm, at Lincoln City, Indiana, where Lincoln lived tor fourteen years and where his mother, SupraE’ -ft j f * <u lpjjjjjjjl I 11' '

THIS MEMORIAL which will challenge comparison with the largest and finest in the world will become an object of interest to travelers from all over the United States and the rest of the world. Architect Hibben, a son of Indiana, has designed a memorial which is the joy and admiration of all who have seen the plans. A splendid setting has been devised for it by Frederick Law Olmstead, America's greatest landscape artist. Every historical aspect of Lincoln’s life in Indiana is preserved. Indiana’s tribute to Lincon compares with Arlington and Mt. Vernon. It takes its place with Grant’s Tomb, Westminster Abbey, and the historic tomb of Napoleon in Paris. It fixes forever in the minds of future generations the fact that Lincoln was a Hoosier. By it Indiana is freed from the stigma of neglect which has been a cloud on the fair name of the state for many years.

INDIANA LINCOLN UNION ILLINOIS BUILDING , INDIANAPOLIS, IND. - MRS ‘ ANNE STUDEBAKER CARLISLE, President FRANK C- BALL, State Chairman THOMAS TAGGART, Treasurer THIS ANNOUNCEMENT SPONSORED BY A GROUP OF THIRTY INDIANA CITIZENS

that the person who tells is the worst of the lot. Mr. Barry is the head of his gang and in the course of time meets a girl that interests him. He arranges that the girl is to act with the gang in robbing a fur store. Jean MacDonald is in the territory of the crooks, trying to clear a man she loves who has been accused of robbing tht bank he works for of bonds. Mr. Barry, to prove that he loves Jean, gets the bonds for her and sends her on her way, a winner. Barry is killed by his gang who think that he has been trying to

throw them over. As he staggers down the street, mortally wounded, he sees posters that inform the crooks that they “cant’ win.” Mary Astor has the part of Jean, the girl who is trying to clear her sweetheart. Some clever bits of acting are done by Miss Astor when she meets the suave crook in his apartment. Edmund Lowe is cast as Barry. This is a strong part and handled exceedingly well. Lowe makes his character a very polite and polished person, and he gives him moods and a temper and a sense of humor. The part of the villain, the man who incites the gang to get rid of their leader is “The Count.” This is played by Ben Bard. The cast is good, and although the picture is by no means a sensation, it is well done and is fair entertainment of the melodramatic kind. The overture, directed by Charles Reisner, is “The Vagabond King,” with the chorus singing the big scene from the musical comedy. The organ solo is made up of old-time and new songs. \ At the Circle.—(By the Observer.) ana HOW A MAN ACTS WHEN HE IS IN LOVE What won’t a man do when he is in love? Nearly everything in the case of

Our Neighbor Speaks The architectural idea envisioned in the monument which will represent Indiana's belated honor to Abraham Lincoln, presages something quite different from the other memorials to the Emancipator over the country. The simplicity of Lincoln's character has been a central thought in the scheme —"a symbol of that great power and gentleness that is Abraham Lincoln.” Above the four courts about the main structure rises the magnificent carillon tower, pierced with long, vertical openings, within which hang the chimes. Under the chimes is an organ for special occasions of celebrating in music the memory of Lincoln. The Lincoln memorials at Hodgenviilc, Ky., and Washington, D. C., respectively, are extremely impressive in their dignity. The Lincoln monument at Springfield, with its historic setting and associations, has a beauty and a significance all its own. But the Indiana memorial, by contrast, will be quite unique in its appeal to the sentiments of reverence and devotion. The Indiana monument will take rank among the most ndtable of memorials to the martyred President, a tribute w orthy of the great state w hich sheltered him in youth and of the nation which was honored so greatly by his life and deeds. •—Editorial in Springfield, 111. Register.

Francis Byrd, the reporter on the Cedarville Citizen. Francis joined a circus, to be near the girl he loved, a trapeze artist. But he ran up against some hard luck in the person of Oscar Thrush Oscar was the new trainer of the man-eating gorilla. Oscar didn't like Francis, either, because the reporter splashed mud all over him, not once but two times in succession. And Oscar had taken a fancy for the same girl, who went under the name of La Belle The plot of “Circus Rookies” is wound around the Magoo Brothers circus, of which Horace Magoo was the owner. In trying to prove that he really loved the girl Francis had to dance with the gorilla, and was nearly killed, but he was given a position with the circus, doing just that. George K. Arthur has the part of Francis. He is always getting into trouble and being frightened by Oscar, but at the end he shows that he isn’t afraid. This is a good comedy piece and Arthur makes a good deal of it. Oscar is played by Karl Dane. In this picture, as in others that the two have played in together, Dane is the man who makes life hot for Arthur. He does a mighty good bit df work as the swaggering gorilla trainer. Louise Lorraine is La Belle, the

Patriotic Hoosiers everywhere are lending their support. It must have gen. erous gifts from men and women of large means. It welcomes the smaller contributions of the worker and the shopman. It has need of the tiny offering of the school child. When this beautiful tribute of immortal stone is realized and the glory of the martyred Lincoln has its shrine in Southern Indiana, every man, woman and child will be proud to have had a part in it* The children of coming generations will be proud that their ancestors helped build it. Whatever your means, whatever your station in life, you can and should have a part in this patriotic project. Help Indiana claim its greatest son and enshrine his memory in such glorious fashion that all America will shout approval.

The West Speaks Indiana is building a memorial to Lincoln, thereby fulfilling a duty and privilege long neglected. Indiana has made less claim on the great Emancipator than the circumstances warrant. Abraham Lincoln in every essential was a Hoosier. He came to Indiana from Kentucky an infant, and left there for Illinois a grown man. His entire formative period was lived there; his outstanding traits were developed there, yet Kentucky and Illinois claim him and heretofore Indiana has tacitly acquiesced. But the Hoosiers finally have asserted their right, which is to be proclaimed with a memorial in which every American may feel a just pride. On the ground on which stood the humble house that was the home of Lincoln’s childhood apd youth, where nearby is the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, a memorial such as he would have liked, one that the plain people will understand, is to be erected, the work of Thomas Hibben, a Hoosier architect, whose fame reaches beyond the Hoosier state. It is described as one of the most artistic and interpretative monuments erected to the memory of Lincoln, expressing the simplicity, the democracy and the sounu Americanism of the man. Maybe it was for the best that the Hoosicrs took their time to prepare a memorial to Lincoln. It will be done so much better. —Editorial in Los Angeles Times.

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trapeze artist. She is mostly background around which Arthur and Dane work. However she has bits that arc well done. The other feature picture is “The Little Snob” with May McAvoy in the leading part. John Miljean is also in the cast. The picture has been handled by this department before. Newsreel and comedies complete the program. At the Ohio. (By the Observer.) Other theaters today offer: “Saturday’s Children” at Keith's; “A Prince There Was" at English's; The Watson Sisters at the Lyric; "Free to Love at the Colonial; "Old Irolnsides” at the Fountain Square; “The Heart of a Follies Girl” at the Uptown; “The Dove” at the Ritz; "The Big City” at the St. Clair and "The Circus” at the Oriental. Music Professor to Europe GREENCASTLE. Ind.. May 21. Orville J. Borchers, professor of voice and director of glee club and opera work, in the music school of De Pauw University, will leave in a few weeks for Europe with a group of instructors and students from Northwestern University, Evanston, 111., to visit in England, Scotland, Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and Italyi ,