New York Clipper (Feb 1923)

Copyright, 1923, »nd published weekly by the Clipper Corporalicn, 16S8 Uroadwajr, New York. Enlernl al the rest Office at New York, June 2», 1879,. » second cbss mail matter t oder act of March 3, 1879 Founded by FRANK QUEEN, 18S3 NEW YORK. FEBRUARY 7. 1923 VOLUME LXXI—No. 1 Price Fifteen I enta. tJ-00 m Year CUT RATE OFFICES KEEP SHOWS RUNNI NG IN Sm Y THEATRES Twetity Shows Saved from Going Below the Stop Umit Last Week by Le Blang's Office Which Did Ito Biggest Business of the Season . Joe Lc Ulans was the star of the theatre Tast week. His cut-rate theatre ticket office kept at least twenty Broadway attracticint from going below their stop limit and at the same tiinc it did the biggest week's business it has done this season. From indi- cations it is quite apparent that his estab- lishment will, again this week, save shows ftom coming to the stopping point whidi would mean their vacating the houses they are occupying within two weeks. On Mon- day night business seemed to be going a bit below the preceding Monday and seats were obtainable in the ' Emporium for twenty-six attractions, among them being two that had their premiere that evening. There vns not one of the hit attractions which sold out solid every performance last week. Weather conditions on several days were against their doing so, but the ma- jority of them held up well enough to al- most equal the total which they had grossed the preceding week. "Ziegfeld's Follies" at the New Amster- dam again led the ihusical contingent, com- ing within a thousand dollars of its prev- ious week's flToss. 'Tittle Nellie Kelly" at the Liberty more than held its own. with "The Oinging Vine" at the Knickerbocker. standing up well and doing a most protable business on the week. "Lady Butterfly", at the Globe seemed to have caught on to the extent of surpassing its gross of the first week, on the second week. This was probably accomplished through a fair buy made by the ticket brokers. "The Gingham Girl" at the Earl Carroll is holding its own for . the first half of the week and got about the same amount as usually chalked up for that period. "Glory" at the Vanderbilt got off to a rather bad start on the week but toward the middle of the week began to pick up and kept its "head above water." "Up She Goes" receded a bit at the Play- house. The lower floor not showing up as it had on preceding weeks. "The Green- .wich Village Follies" at the Shubert though doing well on the lower floor seems to have diflficulty in filling the upper part of the house. Le Blang was resorted to to help out "The Music Box Revue/' though protected by a brokerage buy for its lower floor, did not reach capacity at any performance but the Saturday night show. "Sally, Irene and Mary" in its last week at the Casino hit the skids a bit and seats for the attraction were fairly plentiful at the cut-rate shop. However, when the show moved Monday night to the 44th Street theatre, there were none on sale at Le Blang's. That was pr<^bly due to the fact that the scale had been reduced to a $2.50 maximum. "The Lady in Ermine" -which moved from the Ambassador to the Century fotmd the going very good at the latter house, which Sirough the aid of the cut-rate business gets a good portion of its clientele. The leader on the week of the Ic^timate attractions was "Rain" at the Maxine El- liott theatre. This show did a business within a few dollars of capacity all week long. "Secrets" and "Mcrton of the Movies" also did a remarkable business. "So This Is London" at the Hudson, though it did not clean out at all perfor- mances, almost eqtialled the gross of the preceding week. "Kiki" at the Belasco, "The Fool" at the Times Square. "Ham- let" at the Sam H. Harris theatre, "The Last Warning" at the Klaw theatre, and "The Seventh Heaven" at the- Booth, all did a healthy business, but none of them approached the business of the previous week. Jane^ Cowl's busiiiess in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Henry' Miller theatre came nowhere near the expectations of the Selwyns. "The Humming Bird" with Maud Ful- ton at the Ritz theatre started off the week to a gross of around $200 on Monday night and played to a gross which caused Frank Egan, its producer, to stand a loss of around $5,000 on the week, but the latter seems to be undaunted by this as he seems to have faith in his venture and will have the play complete a nm of ten weeks at this house, regardless what the business may be. Egan has the house at a rental of $4,000 a week. Some of the legitimate attractions which were strongly aided during the week by the cut-rate ticket office were: Mme. Nazi- .mova in "Dagmar" at the Selwyn, "Extra" at the Longacre, 'It Is the Law" at the Nora Bayes, Bertha Kalish in "Jitta's Atonement" at the Comedy; Ben-Ami in "Johannes Kreisler" at the Apollo, "Listen- ing In" at the Bijou, "The Love Child" at the George M. Cohan, "Mike Angelo" at the Morosco, "Passions for Men" at the Belmont, "R. U. R." at the Frazee, "Whispering Wires" at the Broadhurst, "Why Not" at the Equity Forty-Eighth Street theatre, and "Will Shakespeare" at the National. "Caroline," which opened on Wednes- day night at the Ambassador, got off to wonderful notices from the daily press but on Monday of this week seats for this at- traction were obtainable at the cut-rate counters. "The Dancing Girl" did the regular initial business of a Winter Garden attraction. With the opening of three attractions Monday night, seats for two of them reached the cut-rate counters. "Mary the Third" at the 39th Street had a plentiful supply on hand with "Sun Showers," the new Cantor-Del f show, sending its second balcony seats to be disposed of there "Peer Gynt," which was produced that evening by the Theatre Guild at the Garrick, did not tmload any of its wares, howerer. It seems as though the agencies were {Continued on page 6) NO SUNDAY nLMS—NO CHURCH Rebelling against the announced intention of the Chief of Police, Oharles Hangley, to close all moving picture theatres on Sim- ' day, in West New York, N. J., 200 women, most of them mothers, called on the .Chid last. Saturday in a body jtnd'delivered,.this ultimatum, "No Sunday movies, no. Sun- day church, services." The picture houses were open Simda^. Hangle:^. had issued his closing orders after receiving a letter from ti»e Rev. S.' P. Bracckman, acting for the'. 'ininisters,' in which the police' official was urged to en- force the Sunday ckjsjng law. This was on Friday. On Saturday three different dele- gations of women called on the chief, many of them prominent members in churches whose ministers had been the strongest movers in the Sunday closing order. They informed him that they would work against any Sunday closing order. A hurried meet- ing of the Mayor, Police Chief and town Cotmcil was held and the closing order rescinded. ACTRESS GETS ESTATE SHARE Edith Stockton Rexes, a motion' picture actress, who contested the will of Cor- nelius Pinkney, a lawyer who died Jan- uary 19, 1921, claiming that $15(^000 was due her from the estate, received in'lieu of her claim a piece of property at 2283 Eighth Avenue, $10,000 in cash and an automobile and certain household goods that belonged to the deceased. When Pinkney died he left four wills. In three of them he left the greater part of his estate to Miss Rexes. In his last will he left his law partner, Harr^- J. Robinson, $10,000, and the rest of the estate to his brother. When the last will was filed Miss Rexes began the contest and Townsend Pickney, his brother, who was the administrator, made the settlement with Miss Rexes. COSTELLO RETURNING TO SCREEN Maurice Costelto, first of the recognized film stars and idols, is returning to the screen in a new picture entitled "The Glimpses of the Moon." ' Costello began playing for the movies in 1907, when two subjects were put on one real. Many actresses who later be- came well-known stars supported him in the early days, incuding Norma Talmadge, Gara Kimball Young, Virginia Pearson, Constance Talmadge, Florence Turner and Edith Storey. Diu'ing his absence from the screen Cos- tello was seen in vaudeville, and a short time ago began to work small parts for various film, makers, and his forthcoming picture will show him in a leading role. GERMAN OPERA' CO. TROUBLES ■ • Baltimore, F^b! S.T-^The promoters of thi- G(.TTna.:i".\V<ignct1. Grand Opera Com- pany have had: a.turoulcnt time in manipu- lating the- linjuipng q(-the troup^ . whi(h p.aycd hcTQ.ta'a.grpss,business of $38,000 last week. h.was-onUr through the'offer- ill,'; of ai4 >by..J[ohn..'rjarks, a local, hotel owner,-that llx^'oompany was able to de- part.from hcrc-.tiaipegui a week engage- mtnit III'Phibdelphia. tonight. On Saturday night, after Tjark. had cumc to the-aid..of'.thc company, and ad- vanced $8.200,to rtfliase the scenery 'from atlachracnt. 4" New York, the musiciai\s traveling with tl\c show.that were recruited in this country, .made demands on the inan- agcmcnt for $10,260 due them. If the amount was not forthcoming they said there would not bC;any performance that night. Tjark was again called on and Itiially^ paid up the indebtedness to the musicians. The company it appears has had trouble since it arrivbd 'iit America. The steam- ship fares for-the'round trip amounting to $31,000 were not paid. So before the sing- ers were -allowed to leave the dock the shipping board required a lien on the re- ceipts of the performances, in the different cities where the company was to appear. Baltimore's share was . $8,000. In addition a bond for the scenery and wardrobe amounting to $57,000 for six months was given. This bond was given by the Balti- more manager, whb to protect his interests demanded it be lifted by Tjarks before he would let the company, depart for' Phila- delphia.. , Thc^ some of the American singers who had been. engaged to fill out the- choms nptificd the German union that $56 a wedc was the amount of salary th^ wanted and this was promised them. The jjrindpals with this company are being paid $60 a week salary, until the company can be placed on a sound financial basis. After playing iii Philadelphia this week the company will go to New 'York for a one month's engagement DOC. COOK IN DAILIES AGAIN Fort Worth, Texas, Feb! S.—Doctor Cook, of North Pole fame, who made a vaudeville tour telling of his alleged dis- covery of the Pole a number of years ago, is again being- featured' in the dailies. Cook is now in the oil producing busi- ness and the other day was arrested on the charge of having in his possession three pints of gin in hotel room. His arrest closely followed the filing of a divorce suit by his wife here last week. NO CHANGE IN P. M. A. CONTRACT Harms Inc.y is publishiag the score of the new Shuben musical play "Carolme" whicli opened last week- at the Ambassador Theatre. The book and lyrics are by Wil- liam Delancy Dunn, and Harry B. Smith. Music by E. Kunneke and Edward Ride- amus, German oonqwscrs. Since the recent-agitatkio regarding new contracts to-be issued by the Producing Managers' Association, in which the man- agers 'were to share in additional profits of the music this is the third musical show to op^ with contracts practically the same as in the past . - . "THANK YOO" TOURING' "Thank You,"-the John Golden cmnedy which has just closed a twenty-three -wedcs' engagement at the Cort Theatre^ Chicago, is playing on the Middle West week-stands and will go into Philaddphb late in March. DUNCAN ON EQUITY COUNCIL 'Malcolm Dtucan has been appointed to the Council of the Actors' ESqninr Associa- tion to fill the imexpired term oi Marjoiie Rambeau, who resigned. COSTUMES romomomt mmMmim o1 atmoa MtUfB tof Man mmd Womom DDflfllfO lllllimi <^ II V 1^ WolinM»Oonvai'lmoaofOmml0m,PflomamdWoflanmmmhlit DIIUURw"nlfUIICU B'WAV. H, fa U>