ent000813-044

Lovely Martha Errolle played the part of sweet, demure young thing (inset, left) until someone discovered she had legs and everything. Producers Blinked, Audiences Winked and Glasses Clinked When Diva Martha Errolle Showed Her Other Talents TJm ClippingFrom NEW YORK, MY. SUNDAY MIRROR Moulin Rouge, BPwood Hollywood, Aug. 26. * .! Marilyn Maxwell, Dave Barry, ?·ponn Arden Revue, Dick Stabile %Orch mm $5-5$ package* | There?╟╓s little thafs down to S^earth about Marilyn "Maxwell ex-ppept her obvious charm, all else Bbeing i on van exciting plane that Ipcarries through her current Moulin ^ jRouge act. The vigor that she projects is fine for the ahimated gjtunes and routines, but on opening ||night it was compounded by a f ull-gpolumed p.a. system that was Irather hard on the change-of-pace Sand subtleties the vocalist needs to ground out her stint. In sequined white, Miss Maxwell I does well with ?╟úI Like Everybody,?╟ÑJ A; ?╟úThe Lady Is a Tramp?╟Ñ and a I highly humorous ?╟úIt-Girl?╟Ñ version ] I of ?╟úDancing at the Moving Picture | Ball.?╟Ñ She has a good feeling for I humor and likely would please just las much with the blues and the I lilting ?╟úDormi, Dormi, Dormi?╟Ñ if I there Were less forte and more I pianissimo in the big hall. 1 Sharing the bill: is comedian I Dave Barry whose standup delivery I is the best and most polished of ! the current laughmaker crop. Some 5 of the lines are old, but it really |doesn?╟╓t seem to matter because he I does them so well. As for the orig-I inal material?╟÷and there?╟╓s plenty I of it?╟÷its funny and well-timed. ! Barry makes good use of his voice both in sound effects and impersonations, with his Arthur Godfrey mimicking a show-stopper. His discussion of the Wiles of the womenfolk, though it?╟╓s most certainly not for first-graders, is, by all standards, first class. Hounding out the show for Frank Sennes is Donn Arden?╟╓s ?╟úPariscope?╟Ñ revue, a colorful fast-moving expensive ribbon f or wrapping the star package. Dick Stabile and his orch back soundly, and Harry Froman is proficient in 88ing for Miss Maxwell. The 90-minute shows continue at I least through Sept. 7. Ron, Desert lim, Las Vegas Las Vegas, Aug. 26. | Jimmy Durante, Eddie Jackson, I Sonny King, Jack Roth, Jules Buf-! fano, Sally Davis, Ben Wrigley, ! Stan Kramer & Co., Donn Arden Dancers (12), Carlton Hayes Orch i (14); production numbers by Donn mArden, arrangements by Phil I Moody, lyrics by Pony Sherrell; $3 t minimum. I Jimmy Durante,* always a block-1 buster attraction here?╟÷and good! for the casino because he pulls ini the players-r-again unleashes his I stock company to dandy effect, f Turn is embellished with some f topical bits which register for big yocks, and include references to Van Cliburn and Las Vegas nudity; Sonny King gives a strong assist to the goings-on, Durante being generous in sharing the spotlight With him and vet partner Eddie Jackson. Trio scores with the w.k. zoot-suit skit, King?╟╓s high-pitched sniging voice serving as an interesting balance to the distinctive styling of Jackson and Durante. Rotund Sally Davis, and rubber-necked Ben Wrigley add laughs to the festivities, as do drummer Jack Roth and 88?╟╓er Jules Buffano. ^ Stan Kramer & Co., with its first-class puppetry, is a solid act which serves as the show?╟╓s warmup. A lavish holdover production number featuring the Donn Arden; Dancers and the voice of Art Johnson complete the four-week skedded . bill, competently backed by the Carlton Hayes Orch. H Duke, By HYMAN GOLDBERG FROM the time she made her debut in ?╟úMartha,?╟Ñ from which she got her name because her father, a star of the Metropolitan and Chicago Civic Opera companies, had made his own first appearance in that opera, Martha Errolle, a tall, auburn-haired beauty, was fated to play the role of every sweetly demure young heroine of every opera and operetta on the books. But not long ago, someone accidentally discovered that underneath all the crinolines and hoop skirts she had been forced., to wear in her work, there was an exceptionally endowed girl, and her career took a new turn. /For years,?╟Ñ she said, ?╟úI pleaded with my agents, and with producers and directors to let me go into the popular field, where the big money is. I wanted to do musical comedies, and nightclub work, and not go on singing ?╟ Sweetheart,?╟╓ and ?╟ Springtime* all my life. ?╟úBut they would just shake their heads, and say, ?╟ Now, now, Martha, you?╟╓re an operatic soprano, and you can?╟╓t belt a song, and anyway* you?╟╓re not that type of girl.?╟Ñ?╟╓ Martha was singing with the Los Angeles Civic Opera Company early this year, and one day she went swimming at Malibu Beach with her agents and their wives. ?╟úI wore,?╟Ñ she said dreamily, a faraway look in her large brown eyes, ?╟úa very small, very tight one-piece green wool bathing suit. My agents stared at me. ?╟ Why/ said one of them, ?╟ she?╟╓s got legs! Look at those legs!?╟╓ ?╟úAnd the other agent said, ?╟ My goodness, and she?╟╓s also got?╟÷my goodness.?╟Ñ So they sent Martha* to a voice coach who taught her how to bring her voice down and make it sound mean and low, and then they got her a job in a West Coast production of the musical, ?╟úCan-Can,?╟Ñ which has a lot of mean and low down songs. When she proved to be wildly sucess-ful, Martha went to see Donn Arden, who stages the shows for the Latin Quarter in Ne^v York, and who was on the West Coast holding auditions for a new show. ?╟úI?╟╓ve known Donn a Jong time,?╟Ñ said Martha, ?╟úand he said he was sorry, but they didn?╟╓t want an operatic voice. So I sang for him and showed him I could sing low down. And then he said, Well, that?╟╓s fine, but how about your figure.* You see he?╟╓d only seen me in crinolines and hoop skirts before. So the next day I put on a leotard for him, and immediately he called New York and I was hired.?╟Ñ The first time she came on stage wearing a costume which showed off her very long legs and her magnificent superstructure, Martha was embarrassed. ?╟úBut then I looked around,?╟Ñ she said, ?╟úand I saw all the other girls wearing a lot less. So for my next costume I made them cut it lower on the top and higher on the bottom.?╟Ñ You should wear it in good health. Wednesday, September 3, 1958X