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Show nflj . - PERCY HAMMOND'S N. Y. LETTER COMMENT ON GOTHAM STAGE DOINGS Hilt Copyright. 1921, Now York Tribune Inc. Mr. Zicgfeld's brash, experiment In H luring a humorist to write comedy for 1 lie Follies seems to have been a wit-i wit-i ifactorj bit of pioneering. Although 1 roduccru frequently have been hbI inown to engage musicians to do thi I music for their operatic shows, few Hffl i f them, since the far-off days of Geprge Ade. have been sufficiently un-ImB un-ImB onvcnt lonnl to think of enlisting In Mil 'he service of their librettos any of our more notable perslflcurs, Now that Mr. Lardner's tomfoolery in the Follies Fol-lies has Droved enehuntlng to both tlu public and Mr. Zelgfeld. It may bo that HH other famous madcaps will have op-iflSV op-iflSV portunlty to exercise- their nimble gifts W' ' faceUouooeaa In the literature of J ntlc ente-talnment. r" Think, for instance, of tunes and dancing flavored with the Juniper Jokes 1 if Stophn Leacoek, or a Winter Garden Gar-den revue replete with the recreative HHtl jocosities of Dugs Baer or Claim jlJ; I'.rlggs! What a romp would ensue fom an espousal of the fecund mUMH of Irvln Cobb of high-clans snicker by Harry Leon Wilson, and a Jubilant IH score by George Qaahwln or Victor Herbert: With what Inspiration could the composers, Louis A. Hirsch and Jerome Kern, Invoke th- straying harmonies har-monies to get together If they were BJ eouraged by the Invigorating huzzas of o whiplash a wit as George E. Chap-pell, Chap-pell, author of "The Cruise of th" iRm Kawa," or of Robert K. Sherwood, the moving picture editor of "'Life.' Until Mr. Lardner's engagement to the Follies the librettos of recent mu-lOw mu-lOw elcnJ comedy have been as waifs upon HH the doorstep of Art, as something, BjlP to say, brought In by the cat, disheveled dis-heveled and Indistinguishable. The minor merry Andrews have been the motely engines of our dubious risibilities, risibil-ities, experts In routine shcnanifcar., but predisposed to the shallow, rather rath-er than the profound guffaw. Mr. Channlng Pollock one of all Lartioer'f most ample predecessors, put little oi l-.ls great heart Into lna work for the Iconics, for, though a brilliant, mm.:, man, he Is of tho acrostic type, pro-fi pro-fi rrlng the grave ehai.i.J.- ol 1 drama to the rlbeld gohanss anil tn. penny-antes of revue and musical com-1 com-1 dy. Referred to, as Mr. I'ulloek vva.- Man :'n aB ne tinou'd have peon, by The HH Jxmdon Time? as the 'American Sai-dou." Sai-dou." he found comb- postures uncomfortable uncom-fortable and he relinquished them (of Ml'ii the more dignified attitudes and heavier heav-ier emolunienls of the solemn drama. Bra J do not recall the namo of any m.. r Follies librettist (though you will 6t course) save that of th sagaelfiu? Hennold Wolf, whoso ability was that of a shrewd, observant and skillful showman rather than that of a humorist. humor-ist. None of the Smith Kindred, Ha. -JllKl llwcrl B., or Edgur, were so fflnH much humorists 11s they were "lyrl-oieta" "lyrl-oieta" and manipulators of easy "sit-ljJjIi.! "sit-ljJjIi.! nations." If they will forgl", e me the le-ihal le-ihal post term. The mont eminent ol tlio present-day librettists, if not thi most comic, the Ucnjamln Gay of hlf period, la Harold Atterldge, the established estab-lished bel esprit of (he Winter Garden Gar-den and -inillar hippodromes, tossing &' "ff "Bomboes" with one hand ami Passing Shows." "Whirls of th' World" and Gaycties of 1921" with thi other Yet Mr. Atterldge It not i. ii'.h famed or noteworthy for the d tea be lias cracked aa he is for hi' i.-.ttorlty in providing hospitable spac -. f'.r vokpIcb "Kirl:. at song'' and op-portunltlee op-portunltlee for the general scrutiny r I of the convexities and concavities of the most meritorious of the public hips I and dimples of his lime. I Mr. Lardner thus is practically alone a humorist Isolated In the bleak eol-lltudes eol-lltudes of musical couiody. It was eaid above that he had p leased Mr. Zcls-feld Zcls-feld by h:s . jntrlbutlons to the F'ollles IhecaueC Mr Z igfeld. after lookluv I them over at the first perforrnam Isei sail for foreign parts, carefree and full of the exhuberanoo of a sure prosperity. pros-perity. Like most showmen, however. I Mr. Zelgfeld is fond of melancholy, an appetite which at preen ? assuages 'in ,hi' absenee of other sorrows, with 'discomfort! over tho fragrant amours : of Miss Marllynn and Mr. Plckford her king. t One Of Mr. Lardner x 1 -says for th Collies perplexes tho students of laugh-jtex laugh-jtex in the theatre. Th'.s Is twenty mln-.utes mln-.utes behind tiio scenes of baBeoatl. A I region discussed by few otner hlstor-jlana hlstor-jlana of the national diversion. Mr. l-ardner was first, perhaps, among th-jHport th-jHport chronicles to recognize the mul-titodo'a mul-titodo'a jrenrnlng curiosity about the happenings on the edge of the game the gos3ip and comment on the field, on the players' bench, in the shower I baths and dressing rooms. Being a hu- morlst. he was not so much Interested 1 In the fact that an error was com- mltted as he was In wnac was suld .between the Innings to him was eiron-j ous. He uricovered In his fiction thel 1 baseball player as a human boing rather ra-ther than as a silent automaton which performed base hits and feats of fielding field-ing mechanically and with little gusto The Anatole France of the diamond ga he has nicknamed It, Mr Lardner took 11 apart and grinned at It, and by Imparting his studios to tho world, h" became, Ilka baseball and the Follies. t ,a national institution But, as 1 started to .-ay. his baseball skit ta the Follies, compounds the ex-ijpert ex-ijpert tradesmen ot the show business Tb s.-L- is that remote section of a "ball park" tcrherepn odd pitchers en-deavdr en-deavdr to become hot by the process of "warming up." Andrew Tombes. rcp-reeentlng rcp-reeentlng a vain and neglected recruit from the bush league?' is tossing a ball to a catcher, with all tho sneering eonttmptunusiif'M of a self-satlsfh d 'Understudy, uhlb Will Rogers, counterfeiting coun-terfeiting a grim veteran of the game. kid!"" Itlm ulth a cruelty most amusing. amus-ing. Tho conversation between tho two contains aii the aavory elements that have andean .1 Mr Lardner 'a printed baseball characterlaatlona to the pub-he pub-he 't audiences, which lau.h, as Hastlo of Thebes used to put It, Immoderately Im-moderately at Mists Gllda Gray's gym-n-j.-.fjfjh) ,'nd at the cadaverous capers cap-ers of Gallagher and Sheean, observe recces from their applause and are silent. .Members of Mr. Ziegfeld's outer entourage, en-tourage, detecting this silence, deemed ll an evidence of inefficiency, and ad-tcd ad-tcd th. omission of the sketch from the program of the Follies. "It 1 proves." I heard one of them sa. that baseball Is a superstltlcui " At best, he said, Chore are only 40,000 who ! go to the games, and even they don t I care for anything but the final scores. 1 This advisor contended to Mr. Zlegfcld that applause Is an Infallible Indication of enjoyment in the theatre and that ,the absence of it Is equally a testl-, 1 mon of languors and ennui ' ' ' 1'be peculiar thing about Mr Lardner Lard-ner b cartoon, aaids from Its delight- ing humor, is that many persons are able to enjoy It noiselessly. One of the most sinister traditions of the theatre the-atre Is that which persuades tho impresarios im-presarios that the happlneea of their customers is always Illustrated by primitive outerles and th- bkrbatic Impact Im-pact of one hand upon the Other The quiet smile, however, rippling, persistent persist-ent and eloquent of comfort) is ns nothing no-thing oomparad to loud and dlanonan aounds a h proof of popularity Bui Mr Zlegfeld, ijelng the nilnif.tt' aa well as une or the most knowing shownv-n. realiseg that th- batter and the finer things, as thej sav in Hollywood, are not always those which enke from au-I'l. au-I'l. nces an eccentric babbling, so Mr. Lardner's thoughtful amusement persists per-sists In the Follies, shining. If one may be permltti d again to fay bo, like a good deed in a naughty, naughty world In anothor part of tho Follies Mr Lardner Is pleasantly extravagant upon the topic of supremac) of the Jews. Although one may bo prejudiced, onv thlnks that Mr Lardner'3 turpllnade Is much funnier than Mr. Hlllane Belloc's aoienin extravaganza upon the same .-.ubjt-ot, entitlod portentously. "Tho Jew' Mr. Lardner's succes haUng been so odd, no silent, so artistic and so money-making one may hope that In future revues. the important thoughtful serio-comic chaps ma; have a chance to express themselves. How wonderful It would ho If we could have a libretto by the well known humorist hu-morist and a score by Jerome Kern or any other plangellst, in caso Victor Herbert is too tired to write the expected ex-pected obligatoe:' |