Variety (March 1909)

10 VARIETY LONDON NOTES VARIETY'S LONDON OFFICE. 411 HftAVD, W. C. (Mall for Amarlcant and Baroptana In Europe if addrtaaed car« VARIETY, aa abora, will ba promptly forwardad.) London, March 8. The Water Rats held their annual ball last night. Paul Barnea comes into London next week, at the Coliseum. Mannie Warner, of Somen & Warner, is the father of a baby girl. Newell and Niblo are offering a new act these days, with much comedy, and doing welL Elmer Spyglass, a colored singer who has worked the halls, will visit the States shortly. Seymour Hicks opens next week at the Coliseum. He will have Sena Dare for support. The De Onzo Brothers, at the Hippo- drome the last two weeks, are showing very welL "The Moto-Girr and Fred Melville go on tour next week, playing Manchester for a start. The Hippodrome under its new music hall policy will probably open August Bank Holiday. Bellman and Moore are playing the Ox- ford this week, engaged through the Wil- liam Morris London office. James J. Morton and Mrs. Morton (Josephine Ainsley) will soon depart for a tour in Italy and southern Europe. Lily Flexmore will hold over at the Coliseum next week. Miss Flexmore is playing in Marie Dressler's piece this week also. Alexander and Comedians are playing the Coliseum. This place could be their home for quite a while without tiring the folk who attend the shows. La Gontldlna, an Italian female violin- ist of the heavyweight class, is playing the Palace this week. Conti is rather heavy, but she's there. In its vaudeville department one of the London daily newspapers makes the an- nouncement that Grace Hazard will be in London within a month. B. A. Rolfe has opened his London of- fice at 38 Oanbourne Street, and is going to do some tall hustling in the way of sending out big productions. Madame Madeleine De Noce, a French opera singer, is playing the Coliseum this week, warbling to beat the band. But the audience liked Madame's voice. It was either that or they are growing to stand anything in the halls. Shoreditch, this week, where the two acta are going tremendously. The boys are right at home here aa though playing K.-P.'s 126th Street. Miss Victoria is cheered nightly. Marie Dressier opened at the Aldwych Theatre last Saturday, and ia said to have been a winner in the show, but the company surrounding her, also the book and music, will never make a hit of the production. Lily Flexmore, the little dancer, was given special mention in the reviews. «i Mr. and Mrs. Leonard in a sketch called True Blue" are playing the Empire, Shoreditch, this week, and they live up to the name of the skit. If there is any- thing quite as "bine" in the halls now it hasn't struck London as yet. The man is the real comedian, but the material spoils all that. To the American mind there is some- thing odd in a recent occurrence here. 'The Follies," a company of players, who make a specialty of travesty, applied to the authorities for permission to produce a burlesque version of the patriotic play, "An Englishman's Home." The request was summarily refused. Ted Marks is in London cussing the weather and everything in general. To- day (March 3) a lot of fog and snow struck here, and it did have Teddy sore. When Ted wss told the last time he was here he had a "boost" on hand for every- thing, Mr. Marks walked away whistling "It's All Right in the Summertime." The Drury Lane pantomime is slated to close March 13. George Ali, who was the conspicuous hit of the piece, has not en- tered into any plana for the future, al- though others of the Drury Lane cast have completed arrangements for vaude- ville. Wilkie Bard opens in Liverpool March 15, playing the Empire. Marie George also plays about in the provinces. Friend and Downing and Vesta Victoria bottom and top the bill at the Empire, Melville Ellis, who opened and closed himself at the Palace this week, will go to Paris and sail for home from France in a few weeks. Mr. Ellis realized that he was up against a hard proposition here, as he demanded close attention, and he could not get it, while people were' coming into the theatre (they do come in late at the Palace), so he resigned. The first night the piano man was put on too late; the second, too early. Draughty dressingrooms and stages have had a lot to do with swelling the sick list of American artists over here this winter. Radie Furman is the latest victim. She was forced to cancel several weeks recently. The English blame the epidemic of throat trouble among Yankees on the climate, but if the halls had better back-stage arrangements there would be a good deal less of it. The natives seem to be hardened by training and the North Pole atmosphere has no effect upon them. COLISEUM. London, March 6. The Coliseum show was almost dis- organized last week by the substitution of four turns, not in the original frame- up, for a like number which did not ap- pear. It was perhaps due to this cir- cumstance that there were evidences of poor arrangement in the bill. Belle Davis and her "Picks" deputized for Surrie Din- son's 'Co., a moving picture accompanied by a patriotic recitation for D*Arc'a Mar- ionettes and Lydia Yeamans for Cun- ningham's Opera Co. Arthur Kenney opened the show. He is a trick bicycle rider. He works in smooth, certain atyle. One fall from the wheel on a high platform drew large ap- plause and the turn started the proceed- ings splendidly. "No. -2" waa far too early a spot for the Miles Stavordale Quintet. As it was their music on the stringed instruments won them a con- siderable volume of applause, but in a later position they would have drawn down a substantial hit. "Rousby's Greater London" showed here last summer. On its return it is a great- ly improved number. There is less com- edy and the pictorial effects have been elaborated, both of which changes work to the enhancement of interest. At that it fared rather badly. It is a slow-moving affair at best, and the audience ia al- ways inclined to become sluggish at any encouragement. La Tamara is one of the few Spanish dancers that arouse no interest. Almost anything that comes from sunny Spain is a go here. La Tamara, however, is a sure enough chill. She dances with a male partner called Ojeda. It remained for the following turn, Heely and Meely, to bring down the second best response of the evening. And they offered a dancing turn, too. The tumbling of the young- sters started a riot, the dancing went quite as well and the comedy tramps were genuinely funny. Winifred Ward insists upon "doing" Vesta Tilley. Anything else would be an improvement. The Gaudschmidts' tumb- ling and dogs got them past with flying colors. Thora? has that interrogation habit badly. He is a female imperson- ator, doing a ventriloquial specialty. Having "begged the question" in his bill- ing, he makes a mistake by answering it. If he had been content to get away with- out disclosing his disguise he would have done much better. The audience was never wise and was at a loss to under- stand the ventriloquist's deep, masculine tones. The makeup is perfect and Thora? could have gone through as a woman, question marks and all. Little Elise Craven drew down the un- doubted hit of the show. Her vehicle is "The Queen of the Fairies," which is neither here nor there. The whole act is Miss Craven, a real "kid" wonder. She is said to be only eleven years old. If she were five years older her cleverness would be a credit to her teachers. The audience made a big fuss about Elise and she deserved it, and then some. The Marinelli office is suing Lala Sel- bini for commissions, claiming they se- cured Miss Selbini dates. She thinks differently about It. The last Empire en- gagement of Miss Selbini's figures in the suit. ALHAMBRA. London, March 1. They had a new ballet dosing the show at the Alhambra last week. It ia called "On the Square" and the scene is laid in Herald Square, New York. It ia a pretty setting, except that the location of the Herald Square Theatre on the Thirty-fourth Street corner is apt to worry Americans a little and make them homesick a whole lot. Likewise it didn't seem just right to have the Broadway street cars marked "To Goose Town, Bay Ridge and Coney Island." There are other points of inaccuracy, but altogether the ballet is a good show. The girls look be- witching in their American clothes. There is no story to the affair. The time is just occupied with a series of dances, well staged and novel in arrangement. "Topsy," a slip of a colored girl, car- ried off principal honors with a wild bit of dance. For the finish Elsie Clero made up for an impersonation of Carrie Nation and Frank Lawton did a screaming bur- lesque "Apache" dance. For the rest the show is somewhat bet- ter than the average, although two long acts and the main ballet hold it up some- what. "Paquita," which waa the main ballet before, has been cut in half and is now placed at the opening of the show. As it stands in its mangled form it is not a very interesting performance. Selbo, juggler, has adapted the boom- erang hat trick for use with three plates. In straight work he ia a wonder. Victor Ferreroa does a fair turn with his musical dog. A woman violinist contributes a good deal of musical value to the arrange- ment. Bobker's Royal Moorish Arabs stand pretty close to the top in this class of work. Three of the troupe make a gen- erous hit with an Arab song and native whirlwind dance. They afterward go into the pyramid building and acrobatic work. I/Incognita is back again at the house where she made her first appearance, go- ing extremely well. The applause was so insistent that the singer departed from the usual routine and gave them "Annie Laurie." The lack of a name and conse- quent mystery do not figure in her suc- cess, which is built upon her splendid voice entirely. Leonora, assisted by M. Volbert, offers "La Petite Bohemienne," a dramatic sketch. The two are finished pantomim- ists and Leonora does several catchy little dances. There is an unusual degree of novelty in Schnitl's Marionets. The figures walk on and off the stage and are transformed into all kinds of characters and shapes. One bit in which a doll scatters arms, legs and head and sud- denly re-assembles them waa a good laughing incident. u «, HEADLINERS NEXT WEEK. At the Waldorf," Fifth Avenue. Circumstantial Evidence," 126th Street. Saharet, American. Neil Burgess, Colonial. Fiske CHara, Alhambra. May Irwin, Orpheum. Annette Kellerman, Greenpoint. Barry and Fay, Hammerstein's. Nance O'Neill, 125th Street.