"Lindbergh" & "Massacre!"

Petulant and glum, last week, was the mood of famed Actor-Manager M. Sacha Guitry. Sacre bleu! Why were not more people clambering to see his Charles Lindbergh--his "heroic melodrama" in 30 scenes? What could be the matter? Had not finickiest critics praised the piece (TIME, Dec. 3.); and had not the first few audiences risen to shout "Vive Lindbergh! Vive La France!"

They had. But later audiences dwindled and dwindled, until last week it was announced that Le Theatre Chatelet, where Charles Lindbergh has been played, will next present:

LE SHOW BOAT

Grand Spectacle du Mississippi et Des Negres

Americains

Admirers of much-lionized Sacha Guitry merely shrugged their regret at the failure of Charles Lindbergh, remarking that, helas, the Parisian public has even ignored, this year, the "Lindbergh Dolls," of which tens of thousands were sold last Christmas.

The newest rage in made-in-France toys is Massacre! and Parisians have also been buying carload shipments of a made-in-Germany toy called Les Moineaux Avares or "The Greedy Sparrows."

When wound up, Les Moineaux Avares pick at pebbles with uncanny realism. Massacre! is a re-named old-fashioned toy--merely a cardboard shooting gallery in which figures of men and women may be laid low with a popgun. For some occult reason there seems to be selling magic in the new name:

MASSACRE!

Among the very nicest Christmas presents which cuddlesome Parisiennes received from virile Parisiens, last week, was a year's subscription to something new called Le Theatrophone.

Subscriptions cost 1,900 francs a year ($75). Electricians who come clumping in to install the device bring a loud speaker and two pairs of headphones. Thereafter the subscriber may listen, every night and two afternoons a week, to whatever may be sung at the Opera, or played in such famed theatres as the Odeon or Comedie Franc,aise. Already half a dozen hit-show theatres supplement this list; and Le Theatrophone seems to have definitely caught on. One typically French restriction is imposed. The subscriber may not switch from one performance to another while the first performance continues. Having chosen his play, he must listen to it or nothing. Operated as an attachment to the regular telephone system of Paris, Le Theatrophone is not to be confused with radio, also popular in France.