Variety (August 1925)

, VARIETY EDITORIAL: niETY IN W«rt ««tli StrMi W«w T«rli Clt^ SO^SCRIPTION: Aaawtl ;.^1 • #*•!«•. ■iaci* 0*p>M. • VoL LXXIX Vo.lS IS YEARS AGO ■'■'' It wa« aanouhced that Mrs. Gen^ iluerhes, act^*es8 and ihen wife of the ag«nt (who waa acting with lier at the time), would retire from tta«° sta^e. lCr». Hn|^««. IwweTer, > atni ptayin*. ' .; \ , ;.x . Annie. Oakler> whose accurate rifle 8hot« made holes Just like those punched in free tldiets, and from whose'wurlc the term "Annie Oakleys" was fflven to p a s ses, was 'returninir to vaodeville after four seasons wfth th««BuffaIo Bill show. Atf Wiiton waa hooking her return^ 'About 1TB vandeTtlle actors met t& Boston and acr^«d not to dor business with the National The- atrical Booklnsr Association, char^- int: that the booking office had been "unfair and unbusinesslike." C, WlBsler if^raAer, ^w manager of the Kehh ' BostdB office, waJs general ihanager of ' the National Booking ApiBoclation, and at the time of the tMiubis with the a<Jtors his oflice had Just become affiliated with the family time department of the Ifaitad Booldns Office. If; • I,.;'; ■ INSIDE STUFF • OH VAVDEVmJt .1 \ T A vaudeYllle actor in Chicago tra^itMMiaUy on the rerge ei a^arva^ tiAn, owes: his. vaudeville agent ^veral' hundred dollars. The agent has, a/0 hope of collecting the commission, but is Interested in a ()roJect to .take oat 4M> insurance policy o* the actor's life.' A, Cbloago vaudeville agent: who has displayisd a keen interest foi| "Charleston" was missing from^'his office every day for about two hour*' One of the bookers, walking in accidentally into a vacant office, discov- ered the agent In company of a colored tutor demonstrating the "Charleston," with the proc«s8ive agent trying to follow his instructor ia the execution of the danoei One day this "Ottie, guesR George McKay with his family lives at Freeport, "L. I summer Mr. McKay said to his wife (Ottie Ardine): ni get myself a shave in tlie village." After tMtng shaved Oeorge remembered he had an appointment with his brother in Philadelphia and oyer he went, without phoning .hMDel remaining awHy for a weeit. Upon returning, all tliat Ottie faid was: "How Mng will 70U stajr away, Oeorge. if you ever go out t^t a haircutT" Jack Under, independent vaude booker, has two autos on his hands through the recovery of a car stolei^ from him over a month ago. Llnd.er had purchased a new machine after the other had been Stolen. The stolen car was located in a garage within three blocks of Linder's home, Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, N. T.^ in a garage whose owner Utformed the police that ft had been left there in storage two we«ks ago. The oar waa covered by insurance, which had boen paid over to Under and with which he purchased the. new 'car. Under will now hay^ to refund to the insurance company. . The Clark and McCollough Aiotion picture project Is off for. the pres- ent. The two comedians were to have appeared in a (production spon,- sored by W- O. Hurst, who had an Original screen vehicle especially written for them. Metro-Ool^wyn wiinted the production, and wanted: H made )p their studios on the «oaat, but the time between the ending of their Taqdeville tour and their starting rehearsals waa ao short tiMjt It would n^t permit of tl^e trtp to thejcdast, rW® A new tbeatrlcal weekly called. fTtte Bntertaiher^ mado its |ii>pear- ^nce oa,proa4^^ last week. Thf publication looks like a hou^oprgt^n for t)i« Pua'.Sjun Circuit, although Carries a selling price oif flve.ipenta. The papsv is puMiAhed In Bprtogfleld, Ohio, with t|M publishers named asi the Sprlngfleld Publishing Company. The printed matter for the most part contained a plug for the Bun Circuit and also carried a few adver- tisements. WeAietday, AugUBt IS, 1925 ^^ -IM-|. -Tm : RIGHT OFF HIE DESK 1^ NELLIE REVELL a T Wasn't X 'the bid grouch last week? Ohvbbing about the noise';«§! the state road, the railroad trains, the house across the street, thT tourists and everi the cackling of the poor, harmless chickens on Raw^ son and June's farm across the way? Ail of Which proves what fatigu4 and loss of sleep Will do. . Una Cavalieria, operatic diva, had iust been operated on In Paris for •ppendlAitls... .The Bamvm show, •after threatened opposition from, the theatrical houses in San Fran- cisco, received a permit to play ^«r donating $500 to the Panama- Padflo ^poaition Committee.... Valeska Snrratt and BiUy Ooidd were doing an act together at the time, with Miss Surratt handftng songs. Since then site has been doing dramatic sketches... .Miliar and Mack were a "new act" of the day and their JMidng brought the prophecy tliat they eouM go Into any house and do welL They're stni playing together on the big ttme....Al Herman was also break- ing In a new act on the snaall time] and landed a hit. Specialty performers, such as dancing and sister teams, who practically set with flashes for autumn but await a ront^ to be set for: their acts, are utilising the waitingj period 1>y hiring oat to indei>^ndent: small time bookers until their vehicles have been definitely set. Although salaries are nothing to brag about, these performers figure that even enough to cover expei^MS is better than hanging around awaiting recovery ef the proverbial, ghost from temporary paralysis. A complaint has been entered at the V. tt. P. A. against a Brooklyn, N.' T., vandeville theatre Involviag a matter of |86 and the definitioii of a "net salary.'*' An act playing under a net contract tor thtee days found |M deducted apon payday through a stagehand having been engaged by the theatre as required for the turn. The act carried no stage band. When hooking net it supposed anything needed would be fu^ished by the bouse. "Doc" Steiner represented the turn, a foreign one. He placed before the managers' assodlall^ the following definition of "net," as found by him in an old Judlclial opinion In the Jif%f Tork PabUc UlJary; "Net—Clear of or free from all charges, dedUeilons, etc Amount remaining after the deduction of all' charges, outlays, etc." ' In* Claire waa working with Bichard Carle in "Jumping Jupiter" at the Cort, Chicago, and, although She had previously worked vaude- ville, she was rated by Ashton 8te- vene then as the "find of the sea- son." Miss Claire is now rated as one of the leading comediennes of the legit ahd is currently under the C B. Dillingham management. ■.■«► 50 YEARS AQO {from "OHpper") « Hans Christian Anderson, fa mous Danish writer of fairy tales, had Just died. Being a Dane, he was one of the few writers whose works did not bear the preliifilnary inscrip- tion, "Copyright reserved for all languages, including the Scandlna' vlan." IMareaa Loew has had a coanty assessment of |SSO,00p placed against his U>ng Island estate, but Mr. lipew will have the opportunity of prote^^ing later this month at Olei Cove. The Loew property was reported to have been purchased' by the head of the Loew Circuit at a bargain. Although its cost appraised at oYer ohe million, LK>ew is said to have paid less than the assessment, which he might not have copt^mplated or to such an amount. It is rumored there Is dailjruiAeep cost of $1,000 attached to the Loew imanor. It is not the costlieat of the section. One estate has been assessed at |4S0,009, with' four otb^ mX amounts higher than Loew's. ,. The Rockaways and their reidty boom have caused different worries aaaong some of the show people. . A few purchased property down there some time ago and are still holding It, worrying over whether the inflated price set will be reached. Among that crowd is Andy Rice, the author. Be has been offered $10,000 for a plot he paid $25,000 for a few years ago. but Andy wants $100,000. On the other side of the dejected tehee are Bam Howe tburlesqne) and Julian Rose. They held Rotikaway property to some extent, but some itim^ ago became disgusted wltl\ the lack of income from it. selling the prbperty aind advlalng othefv to seU with them. Newarji. N. J., had a pophlation of 125,000 and the owner of Its opera house was advertising for traveling shows, saying that the eity waa "show crasy." f' A 19-inUe walking match, one of ^ the longest ever held in Bngiand, ' 'waa put on^as one of the bfg sport- ing svents of the year and with 50 pounds' aa tiier prise. WUHam Shrubaoie, 29 years old, won in i hour, 67 minutes. 42 2-6 seconds. This did not break the record, held bjr a Dane, for the distance, ••MT.—T.■••»»'■ '<-Wii«i o"^*- '••■..■»'•; . •Vttpp4t^ edltdr wasted in- #li»aat beoansa a ahow oalled "Til- ton and Brecher" was to be revived a New Torfc, where it bad been a hire the aeoaon bMore) The. ahaw, allghtly aftered, waat ortr tb Brooklyn and therej I waa prodigiously surceMful. Thf •di tor's plaint was that U its maif- Wasn't I ashamed of that story after I mailed It. Here I was kicktn* my head off about the very things that only a few months agto I ha<| been praying for. But in my saner and rested moments I am grateful for a chance to watch traffic go past my window, I recalled the foon years In which I hadn't seen a street, and how lonesome I had been foA trees, grass, birds and mountalna How I used to wonder if I wouNI ever again be able to take a rajlroad trip. I recalled that at this verx time my daughter Is motoring to her home In Florida after a visit yritH me in New York and that she, too, is a tourist and perhaps stopping alongside of the road at some little Inn whoae sign reads "Tourists Ate commodated." ■ —, But I'm cured and here and now promise never to let myself get i^ tired that I cannot see the beai|ty ia the very things I've always lo^^ The traffic doei/ta't "bother me (much), neither does the railroad '(mueh')!«.. the noise of the house across the street doesn't seem so iQud. .Thai tourists are friends and neighbors. I ahi able to take nice, long m6\a^ trips over tree-^IIned mountain roads, to points of historical iitis geographical interest and then back to sjplendid home cooked meals <d produce which !■ saw* ptoked from the i^urden. The chickens al)out whopMl noise I had complained make flne eating. I can gather all the eggi^ X want and drink milk I saw Rawson coax ftrom the cow. I can retire ti^ a cool room and be lulled to sleep by the ripple ot the E^opus Creel^ which flows under my window. ^ "Tv>o jtritonert Mtood lookinff through the hOTB Oiie »at6 the mud, the other taw ff^e $tar$" — Anon. My trouble last week was that I was not lookin|r at the stars. X haSl t>een looking at the mud. Thank Qod, this week I am looking at tb0i stars. ' ' QaUi-Curcrs home near here is built on the. top of a mountain. TJijf, there she can hit her high A and recite her do-^e-mi-fai9 all sl)e pleas<^ without havlri^ the people in the apartment a'opVe yell down the dumb* waiter shaft to ask why ahe didn't take up booKkeeplng instead of slngt» Ing. — .,. ' ' Yesterday I went tip the .same trail I^p, Vai) W^le Is supposed U^ have takep, l^i|t I didi^'t stay quite as long as he did. If you tried t«l!i park on the trail as l.ong aa he did they would arrest you these days ifo^' obatrocting traffic. ..-<.., He set out for Ills Ostamoorie vacation, the story says, to dodge hiii nagging w),fe, but Fm beginning to susi>ect It was to get away from th4 noise on the state road and the "Tourists Accommodated" hotels. H* Is reputed to have slept for 20 years, but he couldn't get away wittt that sow. SomA Pfirty fit hikers wouM come along with ukuleles an4. be would wake ap to the strains of the latest "St^am Heated Mammtf* song. • r '■■'''.. After a couple of drinks of Wine, according to Washington Irving, Rifi stayed asleep for two decades and that was IwO years B. V. D. (Befor# Volstead Days). That's nothing. After a couple of drinks at some of. the bootlegger wine flowing nowadays a lot ef people have gone to sleei)^ and slept forever. Ttvay made a hero out of Rh> because he slept Mp years. But you. notice they didn't write novels, plays or songs abou^ him until after he woke up. AIL of which contains an argument against prohibition. If he hM not indulged in the wine he would not hav4- slept so long. If be had not slept so long he would not have becom4 famous. Neither ^ouM James Burke, who dramatised, or Joe Jeffer<* son, who portrayed him, become famous. Or Sophie Tucker, who iiseJ to sing "Who Paid, the Rent for Mrs. Rip Van Winkle While Rip Vaift Winkle Was Away?" and if she didn't sing it. she's sorry. ' There is a little bunch down at LOhg Beach that can stand a little advice^ The advice is to watch themselves and their company or else the aensational dailies will g^t them. What they are doing and how they are doing it is already comnton talk around Times Square. All are not of the show busings, but there Is enough in the group tg place the omua upon it should this scandal 1t>ecbme public, which is quite likely unless the show people employ th^lr common-sense, if they have any Itft or ever had any. Russell Scott, convicted Chicago murderer who escaped the noose by a small margin and has been declared insane by a Jury, was formerly in vaudeville several seasons ago. Be played a role which practically parallels that which he has been enacting In real life. Under the stage name of Robert Russell, Scott appeared in support of J. Marcus Key«M in a dramatic playlet, "Clemency." In it he appeared as a supposedly innocent man condemned for murder who breaks Jail lo appe%I personally to the Oovernor for a respite. The latter role ^as played by Keyes. Last season Scott also played a minor role In support of Olga Petrova in "The Hurricane," and toured for several weeks throughout the Mid- dle West, having gotten the Job through a Chicago casting agency. Upon the finding of the Jury that Scott w*a at present 0/unsound mind he was committed to the Rllnois State Insane Asylum with the death sentence hanging oter him should he ever be adjudged sane. A premiere in the mountains acted by a Broadway cast is an inducer ment that even the most extravagantly phrased siimmer hotel folded would not dare to promise. But that delightful experience fell to the< lot of those of us BufCiciently interested In things' theatrical to JoumeU' to Woodstock last Monday night. The Phoenix Players is a stock com« pany oomposed of professionals suibmering ia Woodstock. They hav# thcKr own little theatre,- seating 160. It is a Converied dance hall. It I* artistic yet retaining Its rustic mountain atmosphere. They played "The Mistress of the Inn," by Ooldlne. It was the first time-the play has ever been produced In Bnglish, although Duse played It in Italian. The countryside turned out to lend moral and flnanciat support to the players. Theee players have worked together under the agreement that all <^ to have equal artistic rank and that each ^ot their members shall p\A^ one Important role during a season. In "The Mistress of the Inn" ^^*^ oldlne Humrphreys and Rose Hobart alternated the title roles, and Harblif Moulton and KUstace Wyatt also had Important parts. Others In th* company were Ethel Oriffes, Bdward Cooper,. William Miles, Robert Donaldson, Marldnne Walter and Edward )Cyerett Hale, 3rd. Ben Web^^ ster was the director. Woodstock la about 20 miles from here,. neatling high in the moup^ tains. In the outskirts of that picturesque,Village is* what is known a^ an artists' colony, where the natives are supposed to be a little groui^' of serious thinkers ahd "Art for Art's sake" is the only law they reoqg-f niae. A sort of dreertwich Village of the Qatskllls. Qrotesqucor indlf-t ferent costumes, flat-heeled shoes, sweaters and bore heads predoipi* nate. Oh, yes, and bai'e knees. Sitting across from me on the porci^ of the Phoenix Playe^d* thealtre was a woman of uncertain age. H*(: hair was g*ay, she was smoking. Her, dross was short, her knees wer# crossed. They were bare, she rollf her own and rolls them low, theyt were not pretty, pink, dimpled Ann Penningtons. They were scratcbe* and tanned and resembled the barit of a tree. But she seemed hapVlT In the knowledge that sh ewas living her own life. I may be gray sovn^ day. According to the calendar, I should have been gray long ago* I may even some day smoke in public. I am pretty sure I'll cross myT knees in front of company, but If ever I had any desire to roll my so* and cross my knees, I'm cured! agement wanted to humiliate New York by making it look at a Brook- lyn success, well and good. a *Tlie iBpy" at Woods* was the nrting hit of the day, but the Kiral- fy Brothers still had "Arotind the World" In prep«uatlon and It was being hailed ms about the greatest thing ever produced In the West- em hemisphere, with about the same amount of Interest attached as Morris Gest aroused before "The Miracle" waa put on lost year. James Fenimore Cooper, Inddea' tally, wrote "TPhe Spy," Sitting on the porch watching automobiles sizs past ifaeolnates ms^ The different makes of cars, the various license tags from all over th* world. Yesterday two cars passed bearing signs that sprinkled laughsi along the road. One was an old broken down Ford, about 1913 vintage.- It bore a card reading, "two .snore payments and the darn thing 1* ours." On the back of the other, "If you can read this sign yoo:«re» too damn close." The Catidails ar« supposed to be a very healthy climate: The natlrstf all live to a ripe old age, yet little churchyards dot the hills and the* number of cemeteries along the route aroused my curiosity. But aftetT watching the speed maniacs on that state road It's all very clear t<y''me* They requlpe a lot of ^meteries to keep up their reputation for hos<» pitality and "Tourists Acconraiodated." Harry Yost, the ageilt, h^ a 5t-acre farm and k^le orchard In th««« mountains. ^Is dear little $0-ye«lt-young mother keeps house for hint^ Lou RamsdAll, frtanager of the "nAUlirtore Etipp6drOifle, ahd wife, ar4 spending their honeymoon at Harry's camp.