Bagels and Yox

Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times noted that Bagels and Yox had been playing in night clubs in such cities as Miami and Atlantic City, but even though it was now on Broadway it was not “theatre.” It was still a nightclub show. The evening offered a master of ceremonies and comic (Lou Saxon), a ventriloquist and his dummy (Rickie Layne and Velvel), a singer who gave impersonations (Mary Forrest), serious dancers (Johnny Conrad and his troupe), comic dancers (Patrice Helene and Jan Howard), a trio of dancers and singers (The Barton Brothers), a semi-operatic singer who sang Jewish religious and folk songs (Marty Drake), another comic (Larry Alpert), and a ten-piece orchestra conducted by Irv Carroll. The revue lacked focus as well as a director, and so perhaps as contrition the cast handed out free bagels and cream cheese to the audience (the program noted the complementary snack was “courtesy of the Borden Company”), but Robert Garland in the New York Journal-American complained he didn’t get any of the cream cheese. Atkinson felt compelled to explain what bagel and lox were, and further felt the need to clarify for his readers that “yox” was a pun that meant belly-laughs (or “yocks” or “yaks”). Richard Watts in the New York Post suggested the revue should have provided less bagels and “more yox.” Atkinson reported that while most of the revue was in English, the jokes and punch lines always seemed to be in Yiddish. He noted the evening maintained “an even level of noisy mediocrity” with its “commonplace” and “tasteless” material. Garland said the revue was “too loud, too long, too trite” and not “very bright.” He couldn’t recall much about Rickie Layne and Velvel’s appearance (except that it was “about long enough”) and felt the Johnny Conrad dancers were “morose” and “awful, awful earnest.” He also mentioned that many in the audience didn’t return after intermission. Watts noted the evening was “every act for itself,” and was less a revue than a vaudeville bill. Bert McCord in the New York Herald Tribune also mentioned that most of the punch lines were in Yiddish, and noted there was a “raucous” segment of the audience that automatically “screamed” each time a Yiddish phrase was uttered. John Chapman in the Daily News said the revue wasn’t “big enough or good enough” for Broadway, and the “modest” songs, dances, and jokes were strictly “semi-pro.” He noted that Mary Forrest impersonated such singers as Ethel Merman, Sophie Tucker, and Hildegarde; the first two were “pretty good,” but not having seen Hildegarde he couldn’t say. He just knew he was “fed up” with Hildegarde impersonators. But Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror said the performers were talented and friendly, and the evening was fast-paced and “breezy and brash,” and William Hawkins in the New York World-Telegram and Sun praised the “ingratiating, heart-warming evening” which offered an atmosphere “as relaxed as it is in a steam room bath.” The critics filed many complaints about the use of microphones during the performance (if only they had known what the future held). Atkinson remarked that the performers were “desperately coagulated” around a microphone; Garland too mentioned the microphone, and Watts suggested the performers must have lacked confidence because of their need for “mechanical assistance.” Coleman felt the “potent” microphone was unnecessary, and Hawkins complained about the “overpowering volume of sound.” During the run, Johnny Conrad and his dancers were replaced by Kurt Jons and his dancers; the new dance group performed “East Indian Mambo” and “Ritual” in the first act (the sequences were danced by Kurt Jons, Roxanne Reed, Barbara Sobell, and Rosemary Fuhrman, and the conga drummer was Dean Sheldon). In the second act, the team performed “Mountain High, Valley Low” (which may have been an interpolation from the 1946 musical Lute Song). During the run, Patrice Helene and Jan Howard also left the production. The collection Broadway Musicals of 1951 (Bayview CD # RNBW-021) included one number from the revue, “Chi-Ri-Bim” (aka “Chi-Ri-Bin, Chi-Ri-Bom”). Bagels and Yox was the first show to play at the refurbished Holiday Theatre, which originally opened in 1918 as the Central Theatre. Two years into its life the theatre made Broadway history: in January 1920, the musical Always You marked the Broadway debut of Oscar Hammerstein II as a lyricist and book writer, and the following July the Broadway debuts of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers with their musical Poor Little Ritz Girl. Over the years the theatre showed films and burlesque shows (including Minsky’s offerings), and for a while was known as the Columbia. In 1944, it reverted to movies and changed its name to the Gotham. After its reopening as the Holiday with Bagels and Yox, a dreary procession of flops followed, and finally in 1956 the theatre closed its doors with its final showing, the ironically titled Debut. The theatre then underwent a series of name c

Music

Sholom Secunda and Hy Jacobson (additional