THE SUMMER MICHIGAN DAILY MONDAY, JUN!
1
it
4 au
tti
'ublished every morning except Monday
ng the University Summer Session by the
rd in Control of Student Publications.
he Associated Press is exclusively entitled
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atches herein are also reserved.
ntered at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, post-
e as second class matter.
ubscription by carrier, $1.50; by mail,
00.
ces: Press Building, Maynard Street,
. Arbor, Michigan.
elephones: Editorial, 4925; Business
214.
EDITORIAL STAFF
MANAGING EDITOR
HAROLD 0. WARREN, JR.
torial Director ...........Gurney Williams
yEditor ............... Powers Moulton
vs Editor..............Denton Kunze
ic, Drama, Books. William J. N orman
men's Editor ... ...Eleanor Rairdon
rts Editor .............C. H. Beukema
egraph Editor... . . .....L. R. Chubb
Night.Edtors
ton Kunze Powers Moulton
Gurney Williams
Assistants
n Bunting Susan Manchester
,en R. Carrm Alfred Newman
W. Carpenter Jack Pickering
ar Eckert Sher M. -Quraishi
,ara Hall Edgar Racine
dar Hornik Theodore Rose
yard Kuhn Brackley Shaw
P. Cutler Showers
BUSINESS STAFF
BUSINESS MANAGER
WILLIAM R. WORBOYS
istant Business Manager .. Vernon Bishop
culation & Accounts Manager .. Ann Verner
tracts Manager ....... ...Carl Marty
ertising Manager........Earl Kightlinger
istant............ ... . Don Lyons
ight Editor-DENTON KUNZE
MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1931
0ASTD RO-
AVE
ATQUE
VALE
While the department just west
of this is coming out with little bits
of advice about entering the world,
probably under the title AVE AT-.
QUE VALE, we take the opportun-
ity to present a ROLLS EDITOR-
IAL. For lack of a worse name,
we'll call it something impressive
such as AVE ATQUE VALE. It
goes about like this:
AVE ATQUE VALE
Today is a day of parting.
Today is a day of gladness
and a day of sorrow.
It is a day when strong men
weep and beat their breasts
into plowshares.
Those of us who are leaving
are severing a great many hap-
py associations. Those of us
who are staying are severing
a great many happy associa-
tions. Those of us who are
leaving are severing a great
many happy associations.
Today is a day of this and a
day of that. The dawn of a
new day is upon us. The ma-
chine age, the industrial era is
upon us. It is very heavy. My
sister has a cat. Its name is
Muff.
But the college graduate has
more than that to consider.
There is a great element of per-
sonality. For instance-the
other day, I attended a meet-
ing of the directors of an im-
p o r t a n t company. "What
about Jim Watkins?" Harry
Ferguson asked the meeting,
with that old beard that he
was so noted for. "Well, what
aboutrJim Watkins?" was the
answer.
The college graduate of to-
day is the business leader of
tomorrow. The business leader
of tomorrow is the college grad-
uate of today. Three times two
is six and six times three is
eighteen and eighteen times
two is thirty-six,put down the
five and carry the two.
When we awoke from our faint
it was broad daylight. But we've
had our say, and the editorial
writer can go ahead and do what
he wants. However, that reminds
us, for a reason we'll think up later,
that we wanted to tell you about
the Dramatic Season.
ROLLS PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT
We saw Ernest Cossart eat-
ing a hamburger at the Barbe-
cue Inn. .He took relish, pickle,
and plenty of ketchup, please.
THE WHOOFLIS
ARE COMING!
The Doctors Whoofie are the real'
owners of this column during the;
summer; we've only borrowed it.
They'xe on the way down fromi
Grand Rapids on their tandem,1
having been sighted last passing
through Brighton. They'll be here
any day now.
FREDDIE BOBBSEY.
i
Music and Drama
I.
41
NOTE: A Review of
Lives" will be found on
"Private
page six.
AN EVALUATION
Commencement is usually a time
r felicitations. In former days,
raduates have entered a world of
rosperity, a world that was ready,
r expansion. Today, perhaps
ore than in any previous year,
any of the outgoing students who
oped for great material returns
'om their university educations
ce a disappointment.
The country is in a period of re-
enchment. Industries that were
the height of their prosperity
ro years ago are now rebuilding,
ducing personnel, fitting them-
ives for business as it is, not as
ur pseudo-economists describe it.
As Newton D. Baker, former sec-
tary of war, 'told graduates at
adcliffe college last week, "The
irrent universal depression is not
erely a money panic, nor a Wall
reet scare. It is a world-wide de-
'ession which has turned thous-
ids of people, physically, able and
illing to work, into charity cases
id has thrown their families out
their homes into the streets."
Business experts who have no
:es to grind are now particularly
peful. Some say that industrial
nditions have not reached the
ttom. Obviously, those outgoing
aiors who will seek work. of a
mmercial type will not find their
Dacities in unusual demand.
ARMS AND THE MAN
A Review
The old dispute "Is Shaw a dra-
matist?" which used to be carried
on in the magazines was not quib-
bling. Even the early and very fa-
miliar "Arms and the Man," so de-
lightfully produced last week by the
Dramatic Season company, makes
the question plausible. These peo-
ple are really quite incredible. They
don't speak a normal, verifiable so-
cial speech; nor do they speak what
they are thinking; they speak ra-
ther like Shaw would like to have
them speak. Consider, for example,
Raina. One moment she is a typi-
cal adolescent talking in herthrill-
ing voice about thrilling war and
thrilling heroes; and then, in a
flash, she is a very sophisticated
girl admitting to the Swiss that
she has just been attitudinising,
that she always exploits her "thrill-
ing" voice and makes everyone be-
lieve in it. She really can't be both
girls. But all Shaw's people have
this neat little habit of starting to
be somebody and then suddenly be-
coming somebody else, talking with
exquisite precision about the way
they have just been.
Similarly, Captain Bluntschli, if
you take him as a character, stands
around and does an extraordinry
lot of talking about himself. Then
there is Louka, chanting in supple
Shavian prose some nonsense about
equality and the soul of a servant
etc.; and Sergius, being very de-
termined to make himself ridicu-
lous by indulging in a lot of intro-
spection of which he is incapable.
The pleasant little comedy is a
mess really. No actor in the world
could make anyone of them clear,
precise, sharply cut comic figures:
in the way Congreve's figures are.
But there is a way of making
these figures very charming. Both
Tom Powers and Violet Heming
played this way very perfectly. They
give a minimum of verisimilitude to
Blunstchli and Raina; just enough
to make us willing to more or less
accept them as people. The rest of
their energy is devoted to bringing
a rich intelligent style into delight-
ed play and interplay. It is some-
thing almost as simple as "having a
lot of fun." But that activity "hav-
ing a lot of fun" is fundamental
"theatre." One has an excellent
time watching them. One enjoys
Miss Heming's brimming, lively ex-
citable manner; and one enjoys Mr.
Power's slow humour, his ease and
certainty of movement and gesture.
The contrast of "manners" (just
as manners) was excellently exe-
cuted by them. It is mostly their
own contribution. Shaw has very
little to do with it. They just hap-
pen to speak his words.
Actually, for example, Miss HIem-
ing on the stage is at all times a
more sophisticated, more intelligent
figure than the person she is sup-
posed to be playing. Miss Heming
is more interesting, more "fun"
than Raina. At no time is she
merely a silly girl. At all times
(even when she is going through
the motions of a silly girl) there is
a certain richness to the manner of
her going through these motions of
a silly girl which makes her a so-
phisticated woman, delightful to
watch. This richness is quite Miss
Heming's contribution. (Hence the
relevance of that old question "Is
Shaw a dramatist")
Among the other performances
which made "Arms and the Man"1
one of the most enjoyable evenings1
in the Festival, there was, of course,'
Ernest Cossart with his comic eyes
and splendid voice. His Petkoff isE
probably perfect. Ainsworth Ar-
nold was also priceless as Nicola.
His sly glances at the audience as
he uttered a bit of subtle subservi-
ence were amazingly good. Robert
Henderson and Doris Dalton were
both very adequate; though (very
understandably) they seemed quiteI
at a loss as to what all the pither-
bother was about which they spoke 1
to each other. Doris Rich has theE
intelligence to be a good comedian;]
but she doesn't seem to have the I
voice. Her voice has a constant,
unvaried Clytamnaestrian accent, i
which spoils her appeal in comedy. c
THE WAY OF THE WORLD
In Retrospect
The clues to this very famous
play as it appeared in production
seems to me best indicated by two
quotations.
One from Herbert Read's essay on
"Comedy": "Congreve's quality at
its best, in The Way of the World
is of a texture, undeniably intel-
lectual, that baffles the would-be
analyst. To begin with, it is im-
possible to trace it down to a pas-
sage or a phrase. It lives in the
characters, who are created by sug-
gestion rather than by description.
It becomes more a matter of local-
ized fact in the extremely efficient
and finely rhythmed style."
That remark, I think, indicates
the nature of Congreve's ,perfec-
tion. His speeches are so perfect.
They include so much. Pretty gen-
erally, (at least in the case of Mira-
bel and Millamant) they contain
the character's reaction to the im-
mediate moment, the relation both
ways of that immediate reaction to
the character's general, permanent
attitudes; and finally, a witty re-
flection or judgment on that rela-
tion. Any speech, I think, could
be cited as illustration of this proc-
ess. And no conversational prose
style in the history of English lit-
erature includes such a full proc-
ess so lucidly, so gracefully. Con-
greve's language pleases the ear
with its rhythm and excites the in-
telligence with its rich substance.
It was the principal excellence of
Blanche Yurka and Reynolds Evans
(though more particularly Miss
Yurka) to have done justice to this
language. They both spoke beau-
tifully.
In addition, Miss Yurka vivified
the language by looking like Milla-
mant. She was at all times the
grand coquette, "majestic and awe-
inspiring." Reynolds Evans was not
quite brilliant and glamorous
enough as Mirabel.
The other remark I was thinking
of is one of A. B. Walkley's about
the much-discussed sloppiness of
plot. He says: "One need not ex-
amine the reasons why this play is
so weak in plot. It is customary
to say that Congreve could not in-
vent a plot; it would be much more
accurate to say that, given the ex-
isting conditions of the "platform"
stage at the time, there was no par-
ticular need for him to try. The
Congrevean stage was not a stage
of plots but a stage of 'turns.' This
is the very feature which sends
Londoners of today flocking to
'musical comedy'; why, then, com-
plain of it in Congreve?"
Our experience, I think, was sim-
ilar. This reviewer, at least, was
never bothered by Congreve's in-
tricate, ill-controlled intrigue. It
was an adequate framework, not
interesting or needing to be very
interesting in itself. It displayed
Mirabel, Millamant, Lady Wishfort,
and Sir Wilful Witwood to good ad-
vantage. That was enough. One
never demanded symmetry of it.
The performances were somewhat
variable. Robert Henderson was an
excellent Witwood; John Collins a
rotten Petulant. Amy Loomis was
excellent in the very peculiar, some-
what ugly role of Marwood; Doro-
thy Scott was dull in and some-
what bewildered by the part of Mrs.
Fainall. Doris Dalton was charm-
ingly vivacious as Foible and Ains-
worth Arnold very clever as Wait-
well.
Ernest Cossart and Doris Rich
gave fine flesh and blood to those
two extraordinary creations, Sir
Wishful Witwood and Lady Wish-
fort. Cossart's part was somewhat
easier. He was completely success-
ful and extraordinarily funny. Doris
Rich, I think, made the dowager
almost too appallingly real. It was
in danger of being not comic. It
probably lacked the comic relief
(or comic certainty) that such a
flexible style as Mrs. Fiske's could
give the role.
This production (like the produc-
tion of "Electra") made, I think,
everyone deeply grateful, to Mr.
Henderson. It was a rare oppor-
tunity. It is to be hoped that a
Restoration comedy can be included
n each Festival for some time to
come.
haps some, in moments of
iragement, will doubt the ef-
of their university educa-
Undoubtedly, the value of
agree has been pictured in too
ig terms to most of us.
iever, these graduates should
ciate something more than
factual data that they must
gained during their educa-
Facts, the tools of the ec-
.c world, are not the only pos-
ns of the cultured man. The
ate should have learned an
im, a cosmopolitanism, pos-
a clearness of seeing through
he may help this country to
d the provincial spirit that
long dominated political be-
nd has enforced upon the na-
policy of commercial and po-
isolation which contributes
r to disorders not only in for-{
ountries but here also.
Screen Reflections
AT THE MICHIGAN
Visiting alumni, overwhelmed
parents, and pompous graduates
are greeted by "Seed" with John
Boles and Lois Wilson. It's a story
of the champagne sort, with some
pretensions toward depicting LIFE
and pointing out things. It tends
to be pleasant, and there is excel-
lent work by Frances Dade and
Genevieve Tobin. And "Whoopie"
with Eddie Cantor graces the Owl
show.
* *.*~
AT THE MAJESTIC
"Donovan's Kid" had whiskers a
long time ago. Father and Son
stories lost their appeal to every-
one who knows much about fath-
ers or sons a long time ago. But
the thing is capably done. Richard
Dix is pleasing and Leon Janney
remains one of the, less virulent
juveniles.
We are fully equipped for any sort of photo-
graphy work anywhere. We will take special interest
this week-end in taking your class reunion picture.
To some of the alumni this service which we are offer-
ing may be an entirely new feature. We suggest that
you ask those better acquainted with Ann Arbor if
Calkins-Fletcher photography is not of the highest
quality.
shness is to be condemned
ecause it is unintelligent. It
the educated man to teach
.ntry that an intelligent de-
>r real benefits contributes
ly to the good of the indi-
but to the good of society.
greedy have yet to learn that
e in which several millions
needlessly unemployed even
s of comparative prosperity,
.ch millions of dollars are
ly thrown away, is not even
one for the individual.
for the graduate to prove
he university is something
han a trade school, that it
knowledge as well as the
of knowledge. It is for the
te to carry with him an
n that may eventually over-
bigotry, greed, superstition,
the numerous ills that have
t the downfall of every greatl
of the past.4
If you have been used to using cine kodaks you will
be glad to know that our three stores have a com-
plete line of these kodaks and films.
AT THE WUERTH
There is something called "The
Painted Desert" with Bill "Screen"
Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees (who is
an awful simp), and William Far-
num (who is a very nice actor).
LOOK FOR THESE
WHEN THEY COME TO TOWN
Svengali-John Barrymore's pow-
erful version of "Trilby," which is
part ghastly tragedy and part iron-
ical comedy. It's very tasty.
The Good Bad Girl-A pretty
weak picture, but worth seeing be-l
cause Mae Clarke gets her first
chance in it. She's the one who
played Molly so outstandingly in
"Front Page".
DRAMA THIS WEEK London and New York. And the
The most charmingly organized two parts which make the show are
and most illuminating season of being taken by Tom Powers and Vi-
drama Ann Arbor has probably ever olet Heming.
had at one stretch closes this.week. These two will repeat their per-
Three of the seven plays that have formances in Bernard Shaw's Arms
been offered will be available. Noel and the Man in a special perform-
Coward's Private Lives will be the ance of this play Friday evening.
principal offering. It will be of- The seventh play of the season,
fered tonight, Tuesday, Wednesday, Ibsen's Ghosts, will be given just
and Saturday nights. This is Cow- one performance Thursday night of
ard's latest comedy and Ann Ar- this week. Doris Rich will play
bor is the first to see it outside ofMrs. Alving and Powers her son.
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