The New York Clipper (April 1919)

Copyrighted, 1919, and published weekly by the Clipper Corporatiom, 1604 Broadway, New York. Entered at the Post-office at New York, June 34,1879, aa tecond-daaa mail matter under Act of March 3. 117* Founded by FRANK QUEEN. 1853* NEW YORK, APRIL 2, 1919 VOLUME LXVtt-No. * Price. Tea Cents. $4.00 a Year BOOST RENTS ON THEATRICAL OFFICES PUTNAM BLDG. HARD HIT • Theatrical people having offices in build- ings throughout the Rialto Bection, will suffer an Increase in their already targe office expenses, by reason of a rental raise which goes into effect the first of next month. For, with one exception, the land- lords . of the Broadway buildings occupied for the moat part by theatrical people, .hare notified their tenants that their rents will be raised, beginning May 1, from ten to fifty per cent more than they are now paying. ' The tenants in the Putnam building, owned by Vincent Astor, who also owns a'large number of the sites in the neigh- borhood upon which theatres now stand, were notified early, in January that their rent would be ■ raised, beginning in May. from 7 Va to 15 per cent This building houses ' more vaudeville booking agents than any other building in New York and this la the first rental increase for' this building in three years. The Mitchell Mark Realty Company, of which Max Spiegal . is a director, and which owns the Strand Theatre building, at Broadway and Forty-seventh street, has notified its tenants of a rental increase amounting to from 15 to 25 per cent, ef- fective May 1. Other buildings where rental increases will go into effect next month, but whose tenantry consists of others than theatrical people, are the Longacre building, at Broadway and Forty-second street, owned by die Longacre Land Company, and the Fitzgerald building, directly next door,' to the north, which houses the George M. Cohan Theatre. ' The former building is owned by the Longacre Land Company, which has. in- creased the rents of its tenants from 10 to 60 per cent. The latter building is owned by the 1482 Broadway Corporation, E. K. Stallo, president, which has also raised the rent from-10 to- 80 per.cent more for each tenant. None of the theatrical people whose rent has been raised will move on that account, chiefly for .the reason that they would be. up against the same state of affairs in any building they chose to move into. Besides, the scarcity of office space in any of the buildings at this time al- most makes removal, impossible. And the- atrical people who have recently acquired space in buildings for the conduct of their business, hare in almost every- case been taken Into an office .already occupied and which they share, with other occupants. The one exception to the rental raise" in buildings where theatrical men' have their offices is the Palace Theatre building,, at Broadway near Forty-seventh street The management has not raised the rent of tenants, in. the building since, it was. first opened * for occupancy several years ago. The buBding has fifty-five tenants, each of whom, almost without exception, is in the theatrical business. It is also interesting to note that there are no vacancies in'the building. ' RAISE FUSS OVER HOYT SHOW Euoba, N. Y., March 29.—Quite a fuss was stirred up here this week over Hoyt's Revue when Mrs. Harry M. Beardsley, president of the Wednesday Morning Club, protested against the appearance of the show at Rorick'a Glen, this Summer. Mrs. Beardsley stated that the Revue would be disastrous to the welfare of the young . people Of the city as well as to the popu- larity of Rorick'a Glen. . General Manager F. H. Hill, of the El- mira Water, Light and Railroad.Company, replied to the letter, stating that Mrs. Beardsley V letter was the first intima- tion he had' received that the Revue would present any attraction which in any way might be detrimental to' anyone. Previous to the engagement of the Hoyt Company a poll of Reticle's patrons was taken through the newspapers to ascertain what sort of amusement was most desired' and of. the replies received, the majority voted musi- cal comedy, he said. The company is now playing in New England and Mr. Hill has refused to cancel the engagement, eaying he had heard nothing but good re- ports about it. DEMPSEY SHOW OPENS . Ohbsteb, Pa., March 31.—The Jack Dempsey Athletic Carnival opened here to-night at the Armory under the direction of Barney Gerard and will continue for twenty- five days playing the largest eities for one night. Dempsey is to receive $2,000 per day or $50,000 for the tour. A large number of athletes will accompany Dempsey. Many fighters who have toured under Gerard's banner have won a champion- ship, including Joe Gans, Jack Johnson, Battling Nehion and Freddy Welsh. Ger- ard's staff includes Eddie Shafer, man- ager; Fred Follett, treasurer; Billy Mc- Camey, press representative; James Pow- ers and Julius Bookbinder in advance. OBJECTS TO POSTERS "Suggestive, indecent; immoral, impure," were- the adjectives used by the Rev. Thomas B. Larkin, of St. Bridget's R. C. Church, Jersey City, in referring to posters on the billboards throughout that city in a letter to Mayor Hague last week. When called on the phone, Rev. Larkin said he could not state the names of the shows to which the,posters referred. The mayor had the matter taken up with Mr; O'Mealia, acting head of the Jersey City Poster Advertising Company. It is said that an objection was made to the adver- tising of "The Modern Magdalen," which was put on a few weeks ago at the Hudson Theatre, Union Bill, by the stock company there. WILL BUILD BALCONY The Little Theatre, on West Forty- fourth Street, will have a balcony contain- ing 250 additional seats next season, if Wmthrop Ames, the owner of the 300-seat house; can obtain a suitable bid from a builder, it was learned last week. The balcony would give the theatre a seating capacity" of 650, and would make the house a desirable one in which to pre-; sent intimate ' musical •• comedies of the Princess variety, as well as farces, come- dies and dramas, of the average type. The stage of the Little Theatre is not only larger than the one at the Princess, but it is also two feet deeper than the stage at the Booth Theatre, the latter house being also owned by Wintbrop Ames.' QUERY 10 MORE WITNESSES IN VA UDE. IN VESTIGATION Frank Fogarly, Dan Hennessy, Harry Weber, Eddie Clark, Jack Curtis and Others Questioned Before Sessions Are Again Indefinitely Adjourned witness's previous testimony with refer- ence to the subject be stricken out. The motion was over-ruled. Fay was then asked whether he eould remember the names of any other acts besides the McNally Sisters, who can- celled their bookings at Providence,, or any other of his theatres. He stated that he had not made any attempt to re- member the names of such acts, because his houses had often played acta under what appeared to be assumed names. He did remember Boyle and Brazil, however, as one act that had cancelled. There were hundreds, he added, but ho could not remember their names. In answer to a request by Goodman to furnish the names of any well known acts that had played his Providence theatre. Fay mentioned Harry Bulger, Marco Twins, Keough and Nelson, and Lee Beggs, as acts that would fit that descrip- tion. On being aaked to name any act that might be called a box office attrac- tion which had played Providence under an assumed name, Fay replied that he thought that "Bob Tenney" was an act that could be placed in this category, but he waa not.sure whether Tenney was the real or an assumed name of the act in question. Fay's description of the "Bob Tenney" specialty, incidentally, caused a general laugh throughout the court room whe- he said that there was one piece of busi- ness in the turn which stood out particu- larly, in which the artist did a trick with* a trombone and made his trousers shot up in the air. Mr. Goodman then went into the sub- ject of the $250 weekly guarantee that Sheedy was alleged to have told Fay he would have to have, If Gordon people, of Boston, should pull their theatres out of the Sheedy agency, as a result of Fay's theatre receiving bills from the latter. " Fay, in giving his testimony, mentioned the word blacklist" which met with an immediate objection from the V. M. P. A. attorney. The objection was over-ruled, however, by Examiner Moore. It devel- oped that Fay never had to pay the $250 weekly, hut he did have to pay Sheedy an extra $25, in addition to the regular $25 booking fee, for booking Fay's Provi- dence. Sheedy received the extra feo because he had experienced great trouble in get- ting acts to go to Providence, according to Fay. Sheedy*s acquirement of a 20 per cent interest in Fay's Providence house next was gone into by Goodman, who inquired aa to the data and other details, relative to the buying-In pro final Fay waa aaked whether ha had made a success of Us three theatrical ventures and he replied that he had, as far aa Providence and Ro che s t er were co n c ern ed. Philadelphia could not be termed a suc- cess, however, Fay stated, ' Mr. Goodman then aaked Fay iinramer- abla questions with respect to th e buying of scenery, routing of acts, and other mat- ( Continued on t*ge» 80, 81 swd 88.) Harry Weber, Frank Fogarty, Eddie Clark, Dan Hennessy, Harry D. Wallen, Jack Curtis, Harry Bulger, Edward M. Fay, Tom. Quigley and Edward Keough, were c-iiled last week and examined when hearings of the Federal Trade, Commis- sion into the vaudeville situation were resumed.last Wednesday. All were ques- tioned by Chief Councel John Walsh and cross examined by Maurice Goodman and John- M. Kelly, attorneys for the re- spondents. On Saturday, after four days' work, further hearings were adjourned subject to the call of the Commission. Each of the "witnesses waa queried re- garding matters with which' he was be- lieved to "be specially familiar. It la pos- sible that, when'the hearings are resumed, Gaylord Hawkins, assistant to Mr. Walsh, will take up the'thread of the investiga- tion for the Government. Wednesday Wednesday's session started with Ed- ward M. Fay, who has vaudeville the- atres in Providence, Rochester and Phila- delphia, on the witness stand, and Mr. Goodman, continued the cross-examination in which he was interrupted at the time of the adjournment, Feb. 7th. His initial move was an effort to establish the fact that numerous acts which played for Fay in-.Providence and- Philadelphia, subse- quently appeared at houses booked by Keith and Marcus Loew, both concerns, a.i the respondent's counsel pointed out, being members of the Vaudeville Mana- gers' ' Protective Association. A list offered in evidence by Goodman and containing the names of many acts that J. J. Fitzgerald, Fay's attorney, said were checked off by M. F. Sheedy, as hav-. ing appeared at Fay's Providence and Philadelphia houses, occasioned consider- able discussion before it was finally ad- mitted, owing to the fact that several were duplicated. Fay was uncertain about the list and Goodman experienced great difficulty in ascertaining anything definite about it from him. Fitzgerald's explana- tion, however, cleared the matter up sat- isfactorily. . Mr. Goodman then took up the matter of a list of acta prepared by the Sheedy office, which were said to Lave been acts to which Sheedy had to pay more money to play Fay's Theatre than they le- ceived in other theatres booked by the Sheedy agency. Shepheard and Ott was specifically cited aa having .received $135.00 from Fay, in- stead of $126.0C ne weekly salary sup- posed to have bees paid by another man- ager. Goodman waa very anxious to find out the name of the manager who paid the act $125.00, the city ft appeared in, and other •■""tails connected with the transaction. Fay stated that be could not give 'he information desired. Pressed, later, by Goodman, to give the name of any act that he had paid more money to than another manager, the witness finally admitted that ha eould not do so. Good- man, th e re up on, moved that all of the