The Gold Rush 1923 1924 1925 next previous
The Gold Rush Clippings 345/363
Hannen Swaffer, Variety, New York, January 27, 1926.
Joseph Simpson (creator), Hannen Swaffer, undated,
Spartacus Educational
& Tivoli Theatre, auditorium with stage viewed from balcony,
London, undated, yooniqimages.com
„The Gold Rush and holding hands in the dark“
Editorial content. „What London Looks Like
By Hannen Swaffer
London, Jan. 18.
The death of George H. Mair removes from this troubled
sphere a dramatic critic who had a large sense of humor. So, like
me, he was often in trouble.“ (...)
–
„Missing Sophie
Charlot‘s Revue, which, failing at the Prince of Wales, has
gone on tour, stopped for a month at Golder‘s Green,
famed for its crematorium, and then did badly. So Sophie Tucker,
not only joining the other lions in the Coliseum, dashed up
to Golder‘s Green between the shows, avoided the crematorium
carefully in her automobile, and nearly woke the dead.
We shall miss Sophie, now that her mother is ill. She sent
me a gold cigar lighter (without the cigars) for Christmas;
but I don‘t use lighters. She has been giving away at least half
her salary. In fact, she is the sort of dole e like to live on.
You have no idea to what lengths what you call ,Radicalism‘
is, in England, an ordinary thing. ,The Sunday Worker,‘
which I should call a Bolshevik paper, claims this week that,
working on the Left side, are Arthur Bourchier, Sybil
Thorndike, Miles Malleson, Sean O‘Casey and Basil Dean.
Sybil Thorndike supported Bertrand Russell‘s
Socialist candidature in Chelsea. Arthur Bourchier, who is standing
for Labor in Bristol, gives the Strand theatre free every
Sunday night for Socialist plays and speeches. Malleson and
O‘Casey have written plays which you might call
revolutionary. Basil Dean is now going to Russia, to examine
the Bolshevik drama.
With Malleson assisting, there are springing up, all over
the country. Socialist dramatic societies, some of them
so rough that they produce only plays containing working men
characters, because the members do not speak
cultured English.
Largely, the ,play of ideas‘ in Europe is what you would
call Radicalism.
–
What Constance Collier Said
Although I saw the letters that Charlie Chaplin, Douglas
Fairbanks, Cecil de Mille and others wrote about Stella Dallas,
after they had cried their eyes out, I was not prepared
for the rainpour of tear-drops which made the stalls wet at midnight,
leading actors and actresses saw a private view at the Tivoli.
Constance Collier told me that in her long experience – and she
started when, at the age of three weeks, she was laid on her
mother‘s dressing table while her parent went on the stage to act
– she had never seen such a performance as Belle
Bennett‘s.
Usually our theatre people in London despise the films.
Only Chaplin and one or two others are thought worthy;
so you will welcome, I am sure, this tribute from people who
usually look down and mock.
–
That attitude towards the films is characteristic of London.
I see no hope for the big picture theatre Marcus Loew
plans to cover the Empire site. The Capitol started by losing a lot
of money. The Plaza, now nearly finished, will make
a good theatre one day. As for the Empire, Sybil Thornlike took
$19,500 there last week with Shakespeare. But the truth
is that even a house like the Tivoli finds it hard to get pictures that
can fill it every night, and that is in the center of the Strand.
We value the price of pictures in London at half a dollar, when
it‘s raining. The Gold Rush and holding hands in the dark
is our idea of film art. ,Sixpennortn of dark‘ the urchins call it; and
they are right.“ (...)
The Gold Rush opens Sept. 14, 1925
at Tivoli, 65-70½ Strand (at John Adams Street), London.
Redaktioneller Inhalt
The Gold Rush 1923 1924 1925 next previous
