Saturday, November 8, 2014

"You can go off your nut about this act!" (1927)


     So, just what was our girl up to in 1927? (She would have been 22 years old.)

Strand Theatre, opening, 1914
Variety, Cabaret Bills (NY), Feb 2, 1927
     FEBRUARY. No doubt the Richman Club was run by night-club (and vaudeville) performer, Harry Richman. Evidently, he rented the space seasonally; the club was taken over by others the rest of the year. They say he had an overpowering personality, which might explain his failure to make it as a movie actor. (See Puttin' On the Ritz.)


Variety, Feb 2, 1927

     FEBRUARY. I'll see what I can find out about this ballet, "Campusanna." I don't recall seeing anything about  Nattova in such a production. (See composer Charles Previn.)
     She continued to perform at Richman's during this period.

New Yorker, Feb 19 1927

Variety, Vaudeville Reviews, March 16, 1927

     MARCH. The "terpsichorean smash" of the production—i.e., "Pompadour Days" (complete with powdered wigs)—was none other than Nattova and Rodion. They offered "the last word in adagio specialities." "Nattova clicked heavily." 
     Meanwhile, our girl's still at the Club Richman.

Variety, Vaudeville, March 30, 1927
     MARCH. "It is the seventh similar accident in the past 14 months she has been on this side."
     —Side? Perhaps the writer is referring to this side of the Atlantic. Nattova arrived by ship some time in 1925, gig in hand (Village Follies,  I think).
     She tore her ligament (again) at the Club Richman. Is Rodion with her at that club? Seems so.
     Is our girl injury prone?

Variety, April 20, 1927

Variety, May 11, 1927

Variety, Jun 2, 1927
Variety, June 8, 1927

     JUNE. Richman's Club closes (as per usual in the season), and it is moved to the Madrid. Nattova switches to the "prologues," I guess (that's the name for the shows provided along with, typically before, film screenings; this sort of thing was pioneered by Franchon and Marcos). It is a kind of marginal vaudeville, I suppose. Meanwhile, Nate Leipsig, her Club Richman colleague, moves on to vaudeville proper.

Variety, June 8, 1927

     JUNE. OK, so now Nattova is at the Roxy, and it remains to be seen if she'll make the cut. Is this the "ballet" called "Campusanna" referred to in February? Perhaps so.

Variety, Aug 24, 1927
     AUGUST. OK, so it appears that Nattova followed Richman after all—to the Madrid. Is Rodion still her partner?

Variety, Sept 21, 1927

     SEPTEMBER. So, our girl made the cut? Seems so. I'll look up this "Stanley Co."
     Is this regular vaudeville or prologues? I think it's the former. I'll do some looking.

Variety, Sept 28, 1927

     SEPTEMBER. Nattova, a ballet dancer offering cutting-edge adagio, appears to be a big hit in vaudeville! Her act is "dangerous." 
     She and partner Rodion offer "a Cat and Dog Dance" and "a Moth and Flame." A "clean-cut wow."
     Another writer (on the same page; see at right) declares that Nattova is "the ne plus ulstra of everything sensational." "You can go off your nut about this act." I think he did.

Variety, Nov 2, 1927

     NOVEMBER. Something incidental: Nattova's old partner, Jean Myrio, is now dancing with his wife, Desha, and another man. They're doing well, too. (You'll recall that Desha was a well-known artist's model. Nudes, etc.) ("Benny" is, of course, Jack Benny.)

Variety, Dec 21, 1927
Snoozer & friend
     DECEMBER. Here's an odd group. I'll see what I can find out about them.

     Here's what I dug up on "Meredith and Snoozer":

New York Clipper, July 3, 1918

Pacific Coast Review, 1919

New York Clipper, 1919
Billboard, July 14, 1945
Deborah Jowitt, "Time the Dancing Image"
Ruth St. Denis, 1910

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