San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

Till. SAX FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW January 9, 1909 The Usefulness of Actors' Society of America Ever Growing "A happy New Year to you.*" said George Seybolt, secretary of the Actors' Society of America, as he greeted Tin: Dramatic Review New York correspondent Our representative asked if the society since its establishment had been a paying proposition. Mr. Seybpit replied. "Not a moneymaking proposition in a business sense, but it has proved of invaluable aid to the profession. In addition. to supplying players with a permanent address, the society's agency has been a wonderful success in bringing together ca]iable actors and actresses and managers representing the most reputable in the business. The profession is abje to make the society its permanent address and is always sure of a warm welcome. We now number about 1. 000 members, with the prospect of the inducements we offer of having many more as the profession becomes familiar with the aid the society offers them. Here Mr. Seybolt recalled the first object of the society. "The object of the society shall be to promote and improve the actors' calling and its conditions by mutual benefit, dramatic, artistic, economic and social means. The motto of the society shall be "Equity," meaning fairness in all business transactions." The society averages over 6o engagements a month. an:l this number "could be greatly increased if the entire profession would make a point of keeping the society posted when they are available for engagements. This requires so little effort — merely sending a postal card — and is often the means of getting players important engagement-. It the profession as a whole had one place in New York where their addresses were kept, and the managers would recognize this as an authoritative source, how much better it would be. We have also been the means of collecting $6,000 for salaries earned and unpaid from delinquent managers, and so have saved the actor many thousands in lawsuits. We have improved the sanitary conditions of theatres all over the country. We own the building we now occupy, valued at $50,000, and have a library of over 3,000 volumes. At t3ie present time we are compelled to ask commissions on engagements procured in order that we may pay our office expenses. We hope before long to do this without COS to the actor. With the dues coming in from an enlarged membership, together with rent from tenants who now -.hare our building, we should be able to cover our running expenses. We have now two tenants, with room for more. The space we have to offer can be used by three distinctive department-, which I hope to have before another" year has passed. We would consider, in fact, we are solociting propositions for the installation of a play bureau, a vaudeville booking office and a musical branch of the enga£< ment department. In fact, to anyone interested in the inauguration of a play bureau in the society we would be willing to offer inducements to anyone practically starting in business with his talent as his only capital and the society's facilities at his disposal. This includes desk room, light, heat and the telephone. On the above we would be willing to entertain proposals from reputable sources. This invitation applies to the vaudeville agency and musical department propositions as well. During the past year so iet\ has profited by two benefits— the Kgnlar benefit in April and President V\ ise's benefit in November. Another scheme, in which we hope to interest the members of the society is that with members of the society donating their services we could fill holiday engagements in the small outlying towns and turn over the profits to the society. Actors Interested in Real Estate It is only in recent years that the theatrical profession has taken an active interest in the purchase of real estate. During the recent development of property in the suburban districts in New York, huge blocks of land were disposed of to actors and actresses, and in the rapid rise of values many of them sold at a great advantage. Oliver Doud Byron, who is appearing as John Hurkett Ryder in The Lion and the Mouse, owns twelve cottages at Long Branch, N. J., which bring him at least $10,000 a year from New Yorkers who desire to make their summer homes at the seashore. Edmund lireese, of The Third Degree company, is actively interested in the development of Bay Side. L. I. Helen Ware, another member of The Third Degree company, commands a number of lots at Roslyn. L. I. (iertrude Coghlan, of The Traveling Salesman company, possesses a beautiful villa at I'.ensonhurst, while Sarah McVicker of the same company, holds title to considerable property at Bayonne, N. J. Rose Stahl of Chorus Lady fame, finds Laurelton. Long Island, the means for a large investment in vacant lots. Robert Edeson, who is appearing in The Call of the North, next to Mrs. Russell Sage, is the largest taxpayer at Sag Harbor. These are but a few of many actors who have found real estate a profitable investment, induced, no doubt, to enter into this field by reason of his activities in the real estate market. It has been estimated that the actor colony of New York have invested $5,000,000 in real estate, all of which disabuses the old and accepted idea that theatrical people live from day to day; in fact, the theatrical profession is becoming exceedingly frugal and are very earnest in their desire to lay by something for the inevitable rainy day. Making Acrobats of Children It -is nothing unusual for the larger circuses to carry thirty or forty children, ranging all the way from mere babies to boys and girls of 15 and 16 years of age. The majority are traveling with their parents, both the father and mother doing daily duty h] the ring, and while often they are trained to follow in the steps of their elders, they are seldom allowed to perform in public. -It is a common belief among circus men that the performer whose training is not started until after the age of 6 will seldom make a distinctive record, following the afternoon show I often saw groups of boys, some of whom could not have been over 4 OT 5 years old, practicing rudimentary somersaults and handsprings, while their parents looked on with a gratified smile. These were the faini January 2, 1909 January 2, 1909 ROSENER'S Annual Sale of SUITS AND OVERCOATS ?-'vOO Values at $30.00 and $35.00 Values at $15.00 $20.00 Out of Town Orders Pilled VAX NESS AVE. AT EDDY ST., SAN FRANCISCO lies of the circus aristocracy, who treasure the records of their ancestors with the pride of a son in bis father's sword, and who see no more inspiring calling for their own children than that of the great white canvas. Not that their education is neglected in Other respects. Several of the families often hire an instructor — perhaps one of the performers who has the time and ability for such work — to coach their children in the standard studies. One circus, indeed, has now established a traveling school for the y< lungsters. 1 f they are to be acrobats, they are to be educated acrobats. — Hugh H eir, in The Bohemian. Lillian Russell Sells Residence for $60,000 Lillian Russell has sold her brownstone home at 161 West Fifty-seventh Street. New York, for $60,000. She told her reasons for disposing of the property, and laughingly added: "And deny for me the silly story that this sale means I am going to get married again. No more matrimony for mine. I haven't the time. My home has been on tlfe market for more than a year. It wasn't sold before, they tell me. because of the financial depression and the tightness of the money market. I'm so glad that money is loosening Up. Ybu see. I don't need that house. Last year I only had the use of it for eight weeks. I'm so busy." Witching Hour Now a Book Augustus Thomas has transformed his successful play of The W itching Hour into a novel, which promises to appeal to many readers. It is issued by Harper & Brothers, with illustrations from photographs of scenes in the play. The story is unusual, as it includes hypnotism, telepathy and mental suggestion, and introduces these fads in such a way as to make them take a strong hold on the reader. There is no attempt at sensationalism, and the plot, full as it is of interest, does no violence to the probabilities. The hero of the story is Jack Brookfield, of one of the oldest families of Louisville. Ky.. who. for years, ha* carried on the principal gambling establishment in that sport-loving city. When the woman he loved married another man. Jack changed from an amateur to a professional gambler, but his worst enemies did him the justice to say he always played a square game, despite the fact that most of his patrons were heavy losers. The fact that he kept a gambling house had forced his widowed sister to leave his house. and it was a thorn in the flesh to all his relatives. When the story opens, his niece, Helen, has just become engaged to Clay Whipple, the son of the woman whom Brookfield had loved. 'ITiis engagement is a bitter disappointment to Frank llanlmuth. assistant district attorney, who hoped to win the girl. On the return of a theatre party from the opera. Hardmuth complains to Brodkfield that he has not been fairly treated, and Brookfield then declares flatly that he would never consent to the marriage of his niece to Hardmuth, because of his certainty that Hardmuth was mainly instrumental in securing the assassination of a former Governor of Kentucky. Hardmuth vows revenge, and he secures it speedily, for he is a witness in a few minutes to an encounter between Clay Whipple and the dissolute young son of a millionaire, which ends in Clay killing the young debauchee with a heavy paper-cutter. Clay was driven to this violence by his opponent's drunken efforts to tantalize him with a catseye, to which Clay had a hereditary aversion amounting to uncontrollable terror. Hardmuth heads the prosecution of Clay, and the story of the trial and the use which Jack Brookfield makes of his newly discovered powers of mental suggestion and telepathy is very well told. Old Justice I'rentice. who warns Brookfield of his uncanny mental powers, is an excellent character. Perhaps the finest thing in the book is the effort of Brookfield to live down his old character and to make his life worthy of the unusual powers granted to him. The story of BVookfield's love for the woman who discarded him is something new in fiction, but it is entirely plausible. The happiness that comes to him after he has reformed is seen to be dfisefived by his self-sacrifice and his genuine efforts to live a better life. The book is full of humor, and the dialogue is particular! v good. The members of the Valencia stock company and the mechanical and scenic staff of the theatre are hard at work 011 the forthcoming production of tjptpn Sinclair's Prince Hagen. a dramatic fantasy in four acts, which will receive its first production on any stage Monday evening, January 1 Ith, at the conclusion of the run of The College Widow. The brilliant young author of The Jungle is co-operating with Sedley Brown, the Valencia's stage director, in the work of producing the play, and nothing will be left undone to make the inaugural performance an event in the history of the stage in San Francisco.