Variety (February 1909)

10 VAREBTY LONDON NOTES VARIETY'S LONDON OFFICE. 411 IT1AID, W. 0. (Mall for American! and Europeans la Europe If addressed rare VARIETY, as abort, will t* proiaptlj forward**.) little chance of the Hebrew comedian making a change for a long while yet. London, Feb. 2. Spissell Bros, and Mack will split up in July according to the reports. The Coliseum Company has declared a semi-annual dividend of 20 per cent. Apollo, the strong man, opened at the Canterbury this week with a brand new act. Victoria Monks is back again at the Ox- ford, having finished a short tour of the Provinces. Word has reached here from South Africa saying thai R. A. Roberts is very successful there. May Audrey, a young girl, who had been working a few weeks in halls about Lon- don, died Jan. 20. The "San Remo Girls" is a "girl act" of three that brings the same old question: Where do they dig 'em? Alfred Butt, of the Palace, is away on sick leave. He is cruising in the Mediter- ranean Sea somewhere along the Italian coast. Marguerite Arnoldi, the French prima donna, will arrive in London in a few weeks after an engagement in South Africa, Nelson Jackson, "the man at the piano," who has been at the Palace for quite a long time terminated his engagement there last week. Eddie Clark arrived here from South Africa Jan. 28, and will probably sail for America after playing a few weeks in the Provinces. Marie George is reported to have ac- cepted vaudeville engagements around London, which she will play in a few weeks' time. Joe Hart is preparing a sketch for Jimmie Britt which he will play immedi- ately after his fight with Johnnie Sum- mers, Feb. 22. Van Biene, the actor-musician, has been signed to play the Percy G. Williams circuit in New York, beginning the second week in September. Clementina, the female sharp-shooter who shot her assistant a few months back, is working the halls again, this week at the Grand, Walham Green. McMahon and Ghappelle are prolonged two more weeks at the Palace, this mak- ing six weeks in all. The team originally Went in for a trial week. Lillian Hoerlin is playing an engage- ment at the Palace, her first in London. Miss Hoerlin's fine voice and appearance are bound to make the engagement a suc- cessful one. Jules Jordan and Jim Morton had a go as to who could remember back the long- er. Morton had a little the better of it, when he had a chance to say anything. Archie Royer appeared at the Paragon last week and caused nearly a riot with his front somersaults off the knees, but Archie has an awfully bad monolog that he will insist on handing out. George Scott, who, up to about three months ago, was manager of the Alham- bra, killed himself at his hotel Jan. 29. It is stated that he committed sui- cide through financial difficulties. Violet Charlesworth, who has had much notoriety through jollying a oouple of stock brokers for a small fortune, will shortly appear at some of the Syndicate Halls, the act going through Busy Bill Collins. The "bar** on the houses that accepted turns through the Water Rat agency dur- ing the artist-agent dispute remains as yet. The Agents' Association has decided to wait until the arbitration is settled before it raises the barrier. There's a London manager to whom Robert Hilliard sent a wire, saying, "If you can play me in May, cable collect." The manager cabled to Mr. Hilliard at the Lambs' Gub, New York, as follows: "Hilliard Lambs' Club, New York: Col- lect" A number of the theatrical papers over here have taken to "panning" certain managers for booking sensational turns, such as boyers and the like. $t is under- stood that the Water Rats are going to take action against Miss Charlesworth appearing. The report is that Muller, Chum and Muller, who played at the Olympic, Paris, last month (Jan.), have agreed to separate (Cherchez la fetnme). The com- edy end of the trio will strike out with a new partner, 'tis said, while the other two will return to the States. La Milo, "the lady of classical art studies," returned to London this week at the Hackney Empire. This is her first visit to London since Maud Odell's suc- cess in America, and there ought to be a wager on whether she finds herself booked for America before the week is over. The Stoll-DeFrece combine is now in ef- fect, and the working force of the De Frece Circuit will soon be ensconced in the headquarters of the Moss-Stoll Tour at Cranford Mansions. Jack De Frece, a brother of Walter, will, according to re- port, become an agent on the outside. Julian Rose is deluged with offers for productions, pantomimes and the halls. One offer for a pantomime in Glasgow guaranteed Rose $1,000 weekly for fifteen weeks. The business at the Lyceum con- tinues so enormous, however, there is A story comes from the Continent saying a certain manager over there who had an argument with Minerva, "The Handcuff Queen," wanted her ejected from his office and called two of his assistants to do the job. Tis said Minerva swung her right on one of the assistants and dislocated a couple of teeth. She remained. The fog of the last few nights put an awful crimp in the turn halls, to which the talent is almost all sent from the West End halls. Artists didnt appear at the outside halls, and in many cases the musicians were absent. Carl Hertz started to make his turn last night en a train at 6:30, and was on the same train until 2:30 in the morning. Blizzards 1 They haven't a chance against these fog things as a disturber. The recent big bill at the Coliseum fig- ured up about $6,700 on the price list ac- cording to the salaries, which ran as fol- lows, excepting that of Carrie De Mar's, not stated: Marie Dressier $1,600 Cissy Loftus 1,260 Evie Green 860 Lawrence Irving 1,000 Dorothy Grimston 200 The other acts made up the difference. Harry Kent, at the Canterbury last week, put a song over that is probably entitled "What Are We Going to Do?" In order to "square" himself, he sings about the unemployed at the start, asking why they don't stop foreigners coming into the country. Kent doesn't state that if the native wanted to race the out- sider for work he would have a few hun- dred yards on the alien. The song was popular, as the English like to "kid" themselves. Arthur Roberts is offering a new sketch at the Pavilion under the title "The Girl Who Took the Wrong (Towing) Path." Its bid for popularity is founded on its daring "blueness." From start to finish the dialog is extremely "raw," but the curse is taken off by the capital acting of the comedian and the clever humor of the situations. Two men are in Mr. Rob- erts' support, and help the proceedings. A woman is the fourth member of the cast. Shells far from being a capable actress and at times seriously injures the en- semble. When Carrie Nation arrived at St. Pan- creas station she was met by a bunch of press men, among them Billie Bennett, who acted as Paul Murray's representa- tive. The first thing Carrie wanted to do was to wreck the Alhambra for a good night's sport. She was steered from this idea by "Always on the job Billie," and immediately turned on him because she said she thought he flirted with the booze once in a while himself. Carrie was taken over to the Oxford and kicked up such a row she was led to the gates. Paul Mur- ray describes Mrs. Nation as a congenial little lady, but Carrie has taken a fancy to Paul, he being the only known tee- totaler in London. 24. It's a new way of indicating popu- larity to have banks named after stage celebrities} "A new toy money-box has been invented by an ingenious American. It is called the Harry Lauder Sav- ings Bank. It is described at a little ironwork man dressed in kilt and Tarn o* Shanter. The money is placed in the hand of the manikin, and is immediately projected into a pocket. In order to get the money out it is necessary to knock the head off the little iron man," LONDON COLISEUM. London, Feb. t. On Thursday evening of last week the fog from the outside sneaked into the Coliseum, and it was pretty hard to see the show. The first act to really break through the fog so as it could be noticed was the Howard Brothers with their fly- ing banjos. The boys were on seventh, and had things all their own way, as the first part of the show just passed. Alf Ripon is a Scotch ventriloquist who, while clever enough in his line, is using some very old material. Miss Sydney Fairbrother is in a sketch which has a female dramatic critic. An actress who lives over the critic, and is "roasted" by her. The actress makes up as a burglar just to show the critic she is an actress. The "showing" arrives in the last minute. The first part is hardly worth while. "Mile. Mercedes Blasco" looks well on the program as a name and she looks very fair on the stage, but as they are only allowing her one song, she is not setting them wild here. Miss Blasco is strictly continental and one expects to see her break into a "cooch" dance any minute. It ended with "Oou Yoi," and part of the house seemed satisfied then. "The Dainty Dutch" is another of John Tiller's girl acts. In this act, as well as a lot of others, the girls spoil the act by not being interested in what they are doing. Just machines, with no ginger, and they all have that far-away expres- sion. The Lyons Trio opened the second part with a "rough house" number. Everything that was ever done in the old days the Lyons Trio do. The Rawsons are "kid" entertainero, bound to do well. The Coli- seum always did like "kid wonder" acts. Campbell and Barber were easily the laughing hit of the bill. There is no com- edy bicycle rider in England now that could go and get the laughs the comedian does. For a finish he is doing a bit on the revolving stage that is a scream. Often the audience has seen this stage revolve after an act, but this team seems to be the only one ever taking advantage of it for comedy purposes. Madame Alice Esty had to sing about six songs on Thursday evening. Some singer. Chevalier and his company in "Behind the Scenes" were a big hit, as usual. The "10 Mystic Hussars" were the same sixteen that played the Dutch act on this bill. They caused no excitement, and closed the show. "Bayard," in the Manchester Sunday Chronicle, had the following item on Jan. 0 HANA SAN DOES FAIRLY. (Special Cable to Variety). London, Feb. 10. O liana San in her picturesque "Geisha's Dream" opened at the Coliseum Feb. 8, and did quite fairly.