Critical Moments

Yesterday afternoon I traded in my pass which was extracted from the press department of Ringling Bros., and Barnum and Bailey for a ticket that permitted me to enter the sawdust covered expanse of Madison Square Garden and see the Circus. I entered at two and left at 5 p. m. and I am very, very angry. I didn’t see Dexter Fellows.

Now, I am the kind of a man who believes what he hears and sees. Long before the snow had gone from our city pavements I heard, and saw in the daily papers, lengthy stories about Dexter Fellows. By dint of careful reading I discovered that this fellow Fellows was connected with the circus. In fact, I thought he was The Circus. Few of his movements, from the time he reached town, were left unchronicled. His appearance was discussed in detail, his manner of speech, his very air of existence were all minutely told. Yarns whimsical and otherwise concerning his exploits in waste-paper baskets, hotel rooms, city rooms, etc., were an integral part of the day’s news. To me he was more fascinating than the two men shot with a maximum of noise out of the cannon, the closing event of the show. And I saw everything, the trapeze artists, acrobats, wire dancers, cowboys and Indians, living statues, wild animals, clowns, freaks, seals that play bad music badly, everything that delights a child’s heart and not a few adult ones; but still I didn’t see Dexter Fellows. Perhaps he was ill? Anyway next year when the circus comes to town I’ll try again.

AS COLORFUL AS EVER

I don’t suppose I really have any complaint. Even without Fellows the Circus is still the peer of entertainment for those who enjoy being astounded at the antics of human beings and animals. It is, to put it mildly, a colorful spectacle, thoroughly enjoyable and pleasant.

VIVA VILLA

“Viva Villa,” starring Wallace Beery, opened at the Criterion Theatre last evening and Metro Goldwyn Mayer brought the late bandit’s daughter Celia on from Mexico for the occasion. I will write more about the picture later in the week but I must warn you that it is an unusual film. It is an adaptation of the book of the same title by Edgecomb Pinchon and was in production ten months. At one time five camera units operated in Mexico simultaneously. A great deal of money was spent to make the picture. Ben Hecht, as we told you yesterday, prepared the screen continuity and Jack Conway was the director under the supervision of David O. Selznick. The cast includes Stuart Erwin, Fay Wray, Katherine De Mille, Leo Carrillo, Joseph Schildkraut, Henry B. Walthall, Donald Cook and George E. Stone.

MOSES TO GO IN FOR OPERA

Harry Moses, whose “Four Saints in Three Acts” continues at the Empire, is preparing to turn opera impresario. His negro cast in the present production earned such outright and unanimous praise that Moses is planning to keep the cast intact and give in English a series of standard operas, such as Carmen and Pagliacci.

“Four Saints,” however, will go on an extended tour, before Moses goes in for opera. It is planned to have the company visit the more important cities in America.