Variety (Feb 1906)

VARIETY 5 HURTIG AND SEAMON WAKING UP. On Mondays, in the afternoon generally, up at the Harlem Music Hall of Hurtig & Seainon, Hen Hurtig may be observed intently watching the bill and taking the effect it has on the audience. This innovation on the part of Mr. Hur- tig has been of only recent date, the book- ings and the practical management here- tofore having been left to Harry Seamon, the junior partner in the firm. The shows given at the Music Hall have not created a sensation in Harlem, nor have they forced the "S. R. O." sign to be displayed. Ben Hurtig determined to discover what the matter might be. Perhaps if he would investigate the downtown office of the thin the cause would be more easily ascer- tained, it having been stated that, pro- vided the guardian angel of the "outer of- fice" on Forty-second street did not like the looks of an aspirant for a date, he or she never got any farther, and while the artist lost an engagement Hurtig & Sea inon have missed many a good act for this reason. BOOKING MADE EASY. The Misses Ckrew and Hayes, of "The Derby Race," have been fortunate in se- curing time easily through the assistance of Charles Lovenberg, the "janitor" of the Keith theatre in Providence, owned by E. F. Albee, through a fluke. When the girls have any open time Mr. Lovenberg writes on the Keith letter- head, and the manager thinks if the act is good enough for Keith it ought to be good enough for them. It's ijuite "soft" for the young women. Lovenberg is supposed to be a relative of one of them. He has grown quite impor- tant since the time he was the orchestra leader at the Providence house, and Mr. Albee. to spite a retiring house manager, gave his musical director (Lovenberg) the position. William Reilly, who has been connected in one way or another with the show busi- ness in its vaudeville branch for some time, has been put in charge of the club department of Al. Mayer's agency. "BREAK IN THE DOOR," SAYS KEITH. An act was recently booked for Port- land, Me., through the Keith Booking Agency. Upon arriving there, no billing has been forwarded, and lames E. Moore, the manager, informed the act that they could not play. After an argument, in which the man- ager prevailed, the head of the team re- turned to Boston to interview A. Paul Keith, the son of the manager. Repeated attempts to see the youthful heir were in vain iititi 1 a threat to batter in the door of his private ollice induced Paul to open the lame. The conversation following did not appease the artist, who was infnrnte,! by Paul to <;o to New York and present his version to Mr. Albee. "Bui Mr. Albee won't see me." said the artist. "'Yes. he will." answe :ed young Keith. "0o the same as yon did to me; threaten to break in the door. That'll <"itcli him." THE HERZOGS. Manuel and Josephine Herzog will here- after have the act known as Hercofr*! Horses. For next season a new produc- tion will be given, introducing the same six black stallions, and the opening will be a big display of high school training. MORE CONSIDERATION, MR. LUES- CHER. Mark Luescher is at present occupying some sort of a managerial position under F. F. Proctor. Wood, of Wood and Will- iamson, who recently arrived here from Australia, desired a date for a Sunday night at one of the Proctor houses to have a hearing for a sketch, which has not yet been presented in public here. He saw Mr. Luescher, and Luescher made an appointment for Mr. Woods to call. He did so, and after waiting out- side the general offices at the Fifth Ave- nue Theatre for three hours, decided that inasmuch as his card would not be even accepted, he was not particularly wanted on that day. Another appointment with the absent- minded man for last Wednesday resulted the same way. The engagement called for eleven in the morning. At two o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Woods gave it up in disgust. Mr. Luescher may be a very busy per- son, whether in or out of his office, but artists have a right to expect considera- tion at the hands of the F. F. Proctor management. They have no time to waste either, especially when looking for a date. Luescher ought to get back to earth again. WHICH IS WHICH? The latest report is that through Al Sutherland Sabel Johnson has been booked at the Wintergarten at Berlin by Alexander Steiner. The former report was that Sabel and her sister, Catherine Hayes, were to give a new act over here. It's so very hard to keep track of every- thing. ELTINGE FOR BROADWAY. Julian Kltinge will probably leave the vaudeville field at the close of the present season, or early next season, to become one of the principals in a Broadway produc- tion. The deal has not been closed yet, and Kltinge does not say the name of the manager out real loud yet. There seems to be no doubt, however, that he has been asked to take a juvenile role with a well known organization, and is very much-dis- posed to accept the position, which rep- resents a comparative permanence in New York. Kltinge has been booked well along into the summer. He closes the 6eason at Hurtig & Seamon's Harlem house. After that he will, it is expected, fill in with roof garden dates, and begin next season with the first week at the same house early in September. TIM McMAHON'S OFFER. Tim McMahon fell the other dav and almost fractured himself. In consequence the only Tim was feeling somewhat face- tious. Standing just outside the Twen- ty-third street ferry on the Jersey side Tim noticed a voun<* man with a blonde "that was some" as McMahon describes her, approaching. While waiting for the boat to make the slip the young man said "Will this ferry take me to New York?" "Will she?" replied McMahon looking the girl over carefully. "Why, if I had the money that fairy could take me to Frisco." HUSTLING JACK LEVY. To book fourteen weeks "off the reel" without preliminary bombardments or other devices deserves mention, and that is what was done by Jack Levy, the agent, with Gardner and Stoddard after their first appearance last Sunday night at Proctor's Fifth Avenue. The team came from the West, unknown and un- heralded. Mr. Levy placed the act, which is a diversified sketch, on the bill, and it was immediately booked after the per- formance over the Proctor circuit, unso- licited, the remainder of the time duly arriving in like manner. Levy is achieving prominence among the agents. His feat of booking Fred Walton for $1,250 weekly has caused con- siderable talk about town. Walton is not sufficiently famed over here to be termed a "name" act, and for that weekly salary to be given up otherwise for a newcomer is something heretofore unheard of in vaudeville. Another act Mr. Levy has on hand is a foreign one called The Renzette Sisters, a group of seven girls who arrived from Fngland during the week, without any time having been secured. They are club swingers, and expect to be placed at a large figure. < > AGENTS AS A QUARTETTE. B. A. Myers, E. S. Keller and a couple of other vaudeville agents had occasion ne dav this week to call at the office of Francis, Day & Hunter, the music pub- lishers. ••Smoke," the elevator boy, lifted them to the proper floor, and "sized" them for a quartette. The colored youth waited patiently out- side the door for the rehearsal, and the bejl rang time and again before he de- cided that there were pointers to be ob- tained from the four for the edification of the quartette of which "Smoke" is a popular member through his connection with a publishing house via the elevator shaft. FRANK LYNNE COMING. Frank Lynne, an English comedian, >ailed from Liverpool on Wednesday to open on the Proctor circuit for an eight weeks engagement, after which he will return to England for dates at the Palace, London, in May. Mr. Lynne has written much mono- logue and pantomime material for others than himself, and is" said to be different from the regulation type of comedian in the halls. One monologiat to give different "talks" at each house he plays in one week. Guess who? Only one guess. MAY BOLEY BOOKED. The Pollv C.irls from the "Maid and S the Mummy" will appear at Proctor's Trov Theatre on March 5, led bv Mav Holey, who resigned from the company be cause she did not want to play one-night stands. Had she remained, New Orleans would have been favored instead of vaude- ville, the musical show now playing in the South. PAUL DURAND, "AGENT." Since H. H. Feiber left for Europe the, Keith Booking Agency has enrolled Paul Durand, formerly of the Marinelli office, as its chief emissary to "kidnap" the for cijfll acts of other agent". Mr. Durand writes a very polite letter on the Keith letterhead, but so far it has been generally without avail. CORKS A WINNER. Corks was wearing a new suit when he came into the restaurant the other after- noon, and before the usual order could be given he surprised the party by telling the waiter to ask the gentlemen what they would have. "At New Orleans," explained the Human Corkscrew in answer to an inquiry, "I win the scads in lots, but the system's only good when it rains. You pike out a fayor- ite with a long price and bet if the boy is a little fellow. If it rains and the leath- ers get slippery, the boy can't pull the horse and you win. I got four that way. Now they are going to use waterproofed reins. "Anyhow I make a pile and I'm going to buy a musical act. I know you knoek- ers'll say that I cant play. I ain't say- ing that I can, but you don't have to play to be a vaudeville musical act. You just get a tramp make-up and some tin cans that some mechanic has tuned for you, then yon get some of these automobile horn things and some sleigh bells and a bamboo chimes and you go out and every one in the house but the orchestra says you're the real thing. "Bill Slafer over to Hyde and Behman's has got a cornet player that'd knock spots out of any act In vaudeville and he wears a 6% hat at that. These vaudeville fel- lows couldn't make good In a band If they tried, but they can come along and toot through the right end of a cornet and the audience thinks they must be great be- cause they are on the stage instead of in the orchestra. "If I can make money easy like that what's the use of doing the old contortion act and spoiling my backbone with the corkscrew? I'd just as soon be a faker as a cripple, and it's one or the other for me. I'll get by with it all right. The audience will take anything. "Audiences is funny things anyhow. You take a crack acrobat and he does what he thinks are little tricks and the audience says to itself 'Do something good.* Then some pike act comes along and does the same thing and makes a fuss over it and it's a great stunt. It's the same way with music. If I go out and look important and roast the audience when I don't get the kind hand, inside of a month I'll be the real it and getting a good salary just for cheating. "I used to blow a horn when I was a kid working for a peddler, I used to play it every Friday and I bet that's more train- ing than some of the yaps have had. All you have to do Is to stand up there and make a bluff and the boys In the orchestra will make good for you. Then yon kick to the stage manager about the orchestra to establish an alibi and you're fixed for life." E. W. 8. NICK LONG WEARY. "Nothing endures," aeeordinjr to Nick Long's way of thinking, and he has de- cided to retire from vaudeville, the re- wards not being ample enough to warrant the thought and expenditures in his be- lief. HAYMAN AND FRANKLIN BASHFUL. fTayman and Franklin, who scored in tlicir latest sketch, have been booked for the other xide. sailing on the Oceanic Vpril Mr. TTavman savs he cant tell how lonir they have been booked for over there Tf he did. no one would believe him.