Donna Darling Collection – Part 71

Stratton Theatre – 14 April 1922.

Treasure Chest Thursday
Vaudeville
Donna Darling
As You Like It

By Don Taylor

For this week’s Treasure Chest Tuesday, I’m looking at two clippings from the Donna Darling Collection relating to the Stratton Theatre.

THEATRES

| WN DAILY TIMES-PRESS, FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 19 |

Stratton Offers Big Program

The acts at the Stratton are all wonderful. To pick the headline act would be quite a task but after one looks at beautiful Donna Darling and her dancing boys he will begin to sit up and take real notice. Her presentation is a miniature musical comedy which might be styled “An Act a Minute.” Murray Walker in his imitation of Pat Rooney was very good. Jack Finney the other boy with Miss Darling proved himself a dancing demon. The Rising Generation might be classed as one of the best child acts on the American stage today. Credit for this splendid offering goes to Miss Maude Daniels who has arranged this very pretty offering and the training of the children. James (Fat) Thompson and Al Petrie appear in a comedy barrage entitled “The Comoufleures.” James Valdare comes along with something new in the line of comedy cycling. Piasno and Bingham in “At the Barber Pole” have a very novelty skit which proves to be a choice bit of amusement. A big time act, “Yachting,” presented by Tom Brown, with Harry Voltaire and Arline Lloyd. This act might be styled as a musical cruise with oceans of melody. Sheehan and Richards present a |

Very bright offering of chatter and song that pleases all.

The big feature photoplay is Pola Negri in “The Last Payment.” The scenes are thrilling and the production as a whole, is massive and superb. Tomorrow’s big feature will be Bebe Daniels in “One Wild Week.”

The second clipping is a reminder to me to double-check and triple-check scans before I return material to its source. In this case the very left edge of the scan was cut off which resulted in losing the first letter (or two) of each line. It is one of the items I wish I could get back and rescan.

Seven New Acts at the Stratton

Opening today with an all new Keith Program of seven sterling vaudeville acts the Stratton Theatre will present for the last half of the week and attraction for the local theatergoers that will outdo anything ever before attempted. James Valdare in a comedy cycling novelty, who has just toured Europe with Harry Lander’s famous troupe, opens the program with a whirl of daring deeds on a bicycle. Sheehan and Richards then follow in a bright and snappy offering of chatter and song. The Rising Generation, a sensational juvenile attraction which presents nine of the most talented children on the American Stage. Pisano and Bingham in a choice bit of amusement entitled “At the Barber Pole” Mr. Pisano as an Italian, and Mr. Bingham as an Irishman, and the dialogue of the two is productive of much fun. Miss Donna Darling, musical comedy favorite, and winner of the Madison Square Garden beauty contest assisted by Murray Walker and Jack Finney, her dancing boys, presents an unusually interesting  revue entitles “As You Like It.” James Thompson and Company in a screamingly funny ??ckface comedy brimming over with >>n, will add to your amusement. Tom Brown, of the famous Brown Brown Brothers, send the feature act to close the ???. It is Harry Voltaire and company in “Yachting,” described as a musical cruise with oceans of melody. The act embraces five saxophones a….

Key features:

• The venue is the Stratton Theatre.
• The date is the 2^nd half of the week that includes April 14^th (Apr 13-15)
• The show is “As You Like It” staring Donna Darling and Murray Walker and Jack Finney.
• Also on bill
  • James (Fat) Thompson & Al Petrie in “The Comoufleures”
  • James Valdare in a bicycle show
  • Piasno & Bingham in “At the Barber Pole”
  • Rising Generation. (A children’s act)
  • Sheehan & Richards
  • Tom Brown, with Harry Voltaire & Arline Lloyd in “Yachting”
  • Photoplay: Poli Negri in “The Last Payment”
• Coming attractions include:
  • Bebe Daniels in “One Wild Week.”

Analysis

This first article has a banner that has a paper name and date of “wn Daily Times-Press dated Friday, April 14, 19.”  No year and no city. The good news is that Cinema Treasures indicates there were only two theaters with the name “Stratton” and one of them was in Middletown, New York.[i] Next, the clipping mentions that the photoplay showing was Pola Negri in “The Last Payment.” That movie was released in Germany in 1919.[ii] However, a review of newspaper mentions of the movie indicated that it didn’t come to the United States until the fall of 1921 and was playing through the Spring of 1922.  Additionally, in 1922, April 14^th was a Friday, proving the show was in 1922.  The second half of the week would have been April 13, 14, & 15.

Conclusion

I added the following:

April 13-15, 1922 – Middletown, New York – Stratton Theatre – Donna Darling “As You Like It,” with Murray Walker and Jack Finney. – DDC-71.

Sources

[i] Internet: Cinema Treasures – Search for theaters named Stratton in the United States. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/united-states?q=Stratton&status=all accessed 25 July 2020.

[ii] Internet: IMDB – The Last Payment (1919) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342674/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 – Accessed 25 July 2020.