Word: hobos
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Silver Whistle (by Robert McEnroe; produced by the Theatre Guild) tells how a spacious liar and accomplished charlatan rejuvenates an old folks' home. A 47-year-old hobo, Oliver Erwenter (José Ferrer) poses as a superbly virile codger of 77 and passes out to the men folk a magical aphrodisiac (actually, small bread pellets). He tells lordly yarns of foreign travel and female conquest; makes flamboyant love to a young lady employed at the home; and with a bit of help, swipes the equipment and supplies for a rousing charity bazaar. Though the truth about him gradually leaks...
...theme (which is simply that people crave illusions, that while there's hope there's life), but the particulars are often fresh and lively. Mildly Saroyanesque throughout and a trifle Pollyannaish at the end, in its best scenes The Silver Whistle is genuinely funny, whether from the hobo's taradiddles or from dodderers who, with one foot in the grave, suddenly kick up commotion with the other...
Unhappily the hobo's gift of the gab makes him tedious as well as fascinating; and the elderly capers, if picturesque at times, at other times turn rancid. Obviously pleased with his own joke, Playwright McEnroe sometimes lets it run on too long, sometimes lets it go too far. What tremendously braces The Silver Whistle's very shaky charm is José Ferrer's very assured performance. A master of florid roles, a born Cyrano de Bergeractor, Ferrer spouts and yarnspins with an air, never trades tinseled make-believe for drab reality...
Proceeds from the Radcliffe News sponsored Hobo Party will put the Annex 70th Anniversary Fund $425 further toward its goal. June Schecter '49, editor-in-chief, will present the total profits of the affair, which 300-odd students attended, to drive chairmen next week...
...Hobo took Tossy to the washhouse of No.1B mine. Changed into pit clothes, he walked across to the shafthead, only 55 ft. from the Atlantic shore, and rode 670 ft. down in a coal cage in less than a minute. Because the seams run far under Glace Bay, Tossy's Orphean journey was just beginning. Next came a long ride in a motor rake (a train of coal cars pulled by an electric locomotive) to a point 1,800 ft. below the sea bed. Then, on the No. 6 incline rake (a cable car), Tossy rode...