Variety (Feb 1906)

VARIETY = - By Sime - IMPERIAL. Wm. T. (Jrovcr's Imperial Theatre in it* third week of straight vaudeville has thrown off its swaddling clothes, and is giving a bill that will compare favorably with any shown on the other side of the East River for a long time. The Dancing Mitchells, "The Human Tops," start the bill off with a whirl, both figuratively and literally. These youngsters show their dances and acrobatic work with the rapidity of lightning, and con- dense all the familiar dancing tricks to- gether with some new ones into a few minutes. For real "whirlwind dancing" the several foreign dancing acts now working in this country ought to look this boy and girl over. Anna J^iughlin received some applause through her final effort, consisting of a song and two or three dance steps which she acquired in the "Wizard of Oz." Miss Ijaughlin has no voice to boast of, and it is unnecessary for her to sing a "kid" song, when the audience afterwards find out that that is her natural singing voice. She could better her effort with more dancing and better songs. Kmniett (Wrigan and Company in "The Card Party" pleased through the melo- dramatic material in the sketch, but Mr. Corrigan does not improve in his lighter moments. Charles Burke and Grace La- rue in a new skit are reviewed under New Acts, and Hermany's Dogs and Cats surprised with their strict training, espe- cially the statue dog posing on a pedestal during the entire time, moving his tail Trovollo gave his new ventriloquial set- ting, and it was immensely liked. It runs off easily, and Mr. Trovollo gets his effects without anv noisy blare. The On- law Trio on the wire, on which only one performs, the other two holding the ends with their teeth, was the sensational act on the program, and left the audience in amazed wonderment. The two men and a woman dress the turn prettily, and have so many changes of costumes that they always present a fresh and clean appearance. The Herald Square Quartette tilled in on the bill, without previous billing, but that made no difference in their hit. They are alsuit the best singing four in vaudeville, the voices blending well, and the boys have gotten away from that rock-ribbed system of songs through a new idea which takes well. The comedy, however, could be much improved upon. There are too nuinv comedians. It must Im' a very bad singing turn that needs three comedians, which only makes it worse, and this quartette is much too strong in the vocal department to damp- er the enthusiasm with an overabundance of foolishness. More solo and concert work will solve the problem. "The Poster Girls," the new "girl act" of James Forbes, which opened at the New York Theatre on a Sunday night, is here for the first weekly engagement. No change for the better is noticeable. The stage is not so dimly lighted at the opening, but that detracts from the illu- sion. Had the promoter of this act given more thought to the details and less to the advertising ends of the billboard, it would Ik 1 in much l>etter shape. GOTHAM. Although disappointed in two of the numbers billed for the week they were promptly replaced and Manager Girard is giving a show which is the best that has been seen at this house so far. The changes resulted in four new acts being shown, all being reviewed in that de- partment. Sydney Grant had his string of stories, an imitation of George Cohan, an- other of Bert Williams, one new "auto" and one "Archie" story, besides some of his routine. One of the other stories has been heard twice this week, having been told by another artist, but who "saw it first" isn't known. It is the "fighting Irishman." Mr. Grant is changing his monologue around to do less of the impersonations, which should be corrected. Some of those he had were much better than some of his present stories are. The Misses Carew and Hayes are giving "The Lady and the Slavey" and "The Derby Race." Whether the first part of the offering is new is not known, but the Race has been done by the young, women since they were with a burlesque troupe. They decided at that time to look for an opening in vaudeville, which they secured through a week's trial at Tony Pastor's, after having become wearied of the futile effort to have managers or agents drop down to Miner's Bowery to "look them over." If others were to follow the ex- ample set by these girls at that time, less bewailing of the indifference shown to new or strange acts would be heard. "The Lady and the Slavey" is an English jingle, and Miss Carew as the hired girl Is much better in the part than as the jockey in the descriptive horse race which fol- lows. While the audience likes her effort in telling how she refused to "throw" her employer, she lacks conviction, and a few lessons in elocution would be beneficial. The melodramatic finale could be dropped. It is entirely out of place, and adds nothing to the whole. It would be as well to drop the "Race" altogether, unless a moving picture reproduction of a horse race could be shown during the recitation. If the first part could be continued, it will allow of sufficient humor. Miss Carew having considerable merit as a character comedienne, and Miss Hayes is a first rate "feeder." Greene and Werner with "The Babes in the Jungle" finale, gave the house plenty cf action, and Mr. Greene helped the action along with the uncouth noise he seems to think is necessary at. short intervals. It is not any more so than the "mugging" he does upon the opening announcement. The act is well known, but it is never too late for betterment, which could be secured it! this case by having something original, lot adopting that which has been tried out ly someone else on this side successfully, the "someone else" having also taken it from a previous user, and so on ad litum. Cavana, the wire walker, created nn ex- cellent impression on his showing, and the "Train Wreckers" on the biograph closed the bill. The pictures were hel|>ed along by realistic effects in the orchestra. The two Kremkas, harlequins, formerly of the Schaeffer family, have been booked by Marinelli to appear at Haminerstein's on January 28, 1907. They will arrive here direct from Germany. KEITH'S. The Union Square Theatre is offering very good vaudeville this week, with Harry Houdini, "the jail breaker" as the headliner. Mr. Houdini has found it rather difficult to. work up a sensation while at the Keith Theatre in town, al- though it has been reported (not by Hou- dini) that over in Philadelphia last week the audience grew so enthusiastic that he was lifted off the stage, and jwissed over the heads of those in the orchestra. Hou- dini's hardest task in New York is to convince the house he is not "faking." If he can solve that riddle, he may play New York as frequently as he likes. Taylor Holmes, who immediately pre- ceded Houdini on the program, and Kittte Stevens will be found under New Acts, while the Orpheus Comedy Four and Rose Wentworth were on rather too late in the long bill to be seen. Mme. SlapofTski, the soprano, has other handicaps besides the name, and her selec- tion of numbers is distinctly a poor one. The singer undoubtedly in her day at- tracted wide attention, but her day in vaudeville has not arrived, nor is it likely to even with more suitable numbers. Emil Hoch, Jane Elton and company in "Mile. Ricci," pleased, although black is not suitable or becoming to Miss Elton, and W. J. MeDermott in songs and stories, sang a parody on "Lady Love" which he can afford to drop. It is too gruesome, and he should not be compelled to at last go so far as to kill the i>oor old mother- in-law to get a laugh. The Pelots, a couple of young comedy jugglers, do very well indeed, with the comedy especially, both playing "kid" parts in an acceptable manner. The girl much resembles a large French doll, and the boy knows the value of comedy, han- dling it to the best advantage. His jug- gling of a cannon ball is well done also. Rosaire and Doreto, '"the Captain and the Tar," have stolen their act so boldly from Rice and Prevostthat the applause they receive is given under a false mis- apprehension. The makeup as a sailor does not hide the source of their acrobat- ics, and the comedy and falls of the Rice copy end of the act are very poorly done. Pat Rooney and Marion Rent call their singing and dancing "Make Yourself at Home," which Miss Rent does by playing the piano. Whether she can sing or not is not known as she makes no attempt, and as Mr. Rooney sings one song only, they have an offering that there is no objection to. Very few dancers go through their steps with the ease of Rooney, and you seldom see the son of the only Pat that- one or more new twists have not been put in. Allen and Dalton, black face musicians of the old school, will be in demand if they can run the music out a little longer, and Davey and Phillips in a comedy sketch showed a good dancer with a |>oor make- up. The full beard hurts the act some- how. Having grown accustomed to l>eardless men dancing, it Appears highly improbable that any but that kind can dance well, but Mr. Davey can and does, which ought to lead him to think up a new sketch. He can carry a properly built one easily. THE OFFICE BOY ON CONTRACTS. "Hey, come over here," called the Office Boy as I started to walk in the Agent's private office. "I want to show you some- thing. See here. Contracts. Nice and new. Just from the printer. Don't they look good? Want to read one over? They read fine." Asked why a few blank contracts should cause so much excitement, the Office Boy looked* me over carefuly and said: "Well, I'm disappointed in you. And you don't know anything about contracts. Skiddoo for yours. We have an old cat around the office that has heard so much about the contract end of vaudeville that she comes up and rubs against my legs every time she sees a signature go down. "I'm really sorry you don't know more about this contract business. I'll tell you how it is. The agent says 'Here's a sheet of paper. I hold it in my hand so. See. You will notice, ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing written on it now, it's only printed. Well, I'll put it on my desk. So. Now I'll take pen and ink and fill it out. All that is left for you to do, Mr. Artist, is to write your name there. So. Now, you're booked,' and the agent Blaps the artist on the back, gently pushing him out of the office at the same time. "And the artist believes the agent. Why shouldn't he? Didn't he sign the contract in good faith, and wasn't it signed by the agent for the management or the management itself? The artist goes home and says to his wife, if he's married, 'Mary, dear, we're booked for twenty weeks, with only one open/ and his wife replies, 'Well, the open one must be the first,' handing him a telegram reading 'Have shifted blank date. Will fill in later.' "'Why, I just left his office,' hays the artist scratching his head: 'he must have canceled that date before I signed.' "The artist looks at the contract again under a glasi, and there's the signature for the management all right. He's to play a certain time at a certain figure, but he's not at all certain about it. "Now do vou see the point about con- tracts? They are a joke. The artist has no chance. If he sued a manager for breaking his contract, all the rest of the managers in the same clique would say 'unreliable' and he couldn't get any more time. Get the. point! They have the artist with the heel of the boot resting on his neck. What had ihey ought to do? Well, you know what they have got to do if they want to force insistence on all written agreements. They have got to organize. "Get all the artists together and say to the manager, 'I>id you sign that paper?' and the manager says 'I did.' 'Well, then,' says the spokesman, 'you keep your agree- ment,' and you can whisjier softly that the manager will do it, and do it in a hurry. And also you can hand out to your people that he won't make or break contracts so easy after that either. There's a whole lot of contract scandal going around. It would fill your paper three times over, but it's useless to say anything about it before the artists com uience to Ihink of organizing."