Show World (October 1908)

4 THE SHOW WORLD October t?i tg®, COHAN AND HARRIS CLAIM WALTER’S PLAYS Assert That Playwright Gave Them Sixty Day Option—“No Persecution Intended”—Contract Terms Are Ex¬ plicit. (The following letter from Messrs. Cohan and Harris anent their legal proceedings against Eugene Walter, playwright, is self-explanatory. It is printed verbatim.) New York, October 8, 1908. “Dramatic Editor, Show World. “Dear Sir: In the matter of our legal proceedings against Mr. Eugene Walter, dramatist, to secure the ful¬ fillment of his contract giving us a sixty-day option upon each of his new plays, we wish to disavow any idea of ‘persecutions,’ to use the word credit¬ ed to the defendant. We take pride in the fact that we discovered Mr. Walter and were the first to believe that he was a playwright. In the face of a then general disbelief in Mr. Walter’s dramatic ability we advanced him money and secured him lucrative employment, giving him ample leisure for creative work. “1906, Mr. Walter being presumably rational and of sound mind, signed a carefully drawn contract which stipu¬ lated: “First, the author gives to the man¬ agers herein named an option on all plays which he may originate and write during the next five years be¬ ginning on May 1st, 1906. “Second, the author also agrees with said managers to submit to them the manuscripts of all his plays from time to time as they are completed for their examination. “We are to have the first reading of all Mr. Walter’s plays and a sixty- day option for consideration. “Paid in Full” was not submitted to us. We did not persist in our legal action to recover that property at the time of its production by another firm for the reason that the author pleaded des¬ perate poverty and the necessity of sleeping upon park benches. We felt that it would be ungenerous to enforce even our plain legal rights at a time when the defendant announced that he was a pauper. We did not choose to make him a ‘martyr’ although in view of the liberal advances made him we could not understand his woeful condition. So highly do we prize Mr. Walter’s talent that if he will indicate the particular bench in Bryant Park upon which he slept, we will make it a literary landmark with a brass plate suitably inscribed. Be it understood that neither threats of mayhem or manslaughter deterred us at that time. “Now, Mr. Walter is a plutocrat of the drama. He has much money and can conduct a legal battle on equal terms. We have a contract with him by which he is bound to turn over to us all his plays for our examination. We simply purpose seeing if contracts are still binding in this country. The courts are established to adjudicate these matters and without any feeling whatever toward the brilliant young playwright but with a very importu¬ nate sense of justice we are proceed¬ ing to secure our rights. We are not trying this issue in drinking places nor theater lobbies but in the courts. If Mr. Walter is above the law we wish to ascertain that fact. We have many exhibits to make in our case and on our day in court we hope to add some¬ thing of interest to dramatic history. It is not “The Easiest Way” but Mr. Walter has made it the only way. “Sincerely, "Cohan & Harris.” Van Duzee Denies Story. Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 5. C. E. Van Duzee, manager of the Twin City Calcium and Stereopticon Company of this city, denies the story printed in the issue of October 3d, regarding a fire panic being averted in a local theaterioum through the cool¬ ness of its manager. (Ed. Note.—THE SHOW WORLD is forced to admit the occasional falli¬ bility of its correspondents and has started a thorough investigation of the news story to which Mr. Van Duzee Utter no evil, not even of the dumb beasts! If thy horse offend thee, put him away from thee, and when thou sellest him, speak only of his good parts.—James Jeffries Roche. .You deny a woman one of the great¬ est pleasures of life when you refuse to argue with her. BRAZILIAN EXPOSITION PROVES A FAILURE Much Money Expended in Honor of Late King of Portugal, But Re¬ fusal of Present King to Attend Creates Uncon¬ querable Slump. At last I’ve visited the much touted National Exposition of Brazil and must say that in every way it is a disap¬ pointment. Lovely buildings, veritable master¬ pieces of architecture, grace the sev¬ eral dozen acres of ground that lie between Sugar Loaf and Azule moun¬ tains, marvelously carved stone struc¬ tures, but that’s all, nothing in the way of attraction is held out to induce the public to brave the sun and wind, nothing out of the ordnary, except perhaps the illumination at night, that is when the buildings are illuminated, which occurs about twice a week. The exposition lies at the terminus of the beautiful Botofoga driveway, or extension of Avenida Central, at the foot of the two above named mountains, along the shores of Rio Bay, a most wonderful location, sur¬ passing in natural beauty anything of its kind ever before known, yet it’s very rarely that the cost of policing the grounds is taken in at the gate. The larger states of Brazil, includ¬ ing Bahia, Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina, Mineas Geras, Parahyba do Norte and the federal district of Rio, are repre¬ sented by beautiful buildings supposed to contain for exhibit the products of each state in their domestic and fin¬ ished state, but aside from the cotton, sugar, coffee and tobacco displays, one sees little that he could really locate in any of the states were he to travel to the very limits of each. The Bahia Exhibit. The state of Bahia seems to have the largest exhibit, including about everything seen in the state from Charutos Danneman, the famous Ba¬ hian cigars, to a dozen of different kinds of hardwood, twenty-nine kinds of grapes, sugar cane eleven inches in diameter and precious stones and ores too numerous to mention, but once take a trip through the state of Bahia and aside from the cigars and some of the fruit, one would be led to believe that the natives are hiding their products, that is all except their “Meninos” (babies), of which there are a superfluity in every grass roofed The amusements at the exposition consist of several extremely antiquat¬ ed riding devices, one in which I was deeply interested; an affair on which the rider hangs by two straps and rides down a rope, something akin to Mile. Russell’s daring slide for life, the rider does all the work, pays 3-10 of a cent for his pleasure and goes away as well satisfied as if he had just taken a ride in the new “Tickle Tubs” at Coney Island. The theater at the exposition grounds, a frame structure seating about 600 persons, is occupied now by a Portuguese variety company, under contract with the exposition directors to remain until November, but very willing to sell their contract, in fact from the appearance of their aud¬ ience the few nights I was there, they would make it worth while to someone to take their contract. The exposition here was built pri¬ marily in honor of the recently as¬ sassinated King of Portugal and when he met so untimely a death and his youthful successor sent his regrets to Brazil, saying in part that he could not participate, it simply took the life out of the little fellows and they con¬ tinued with the construction of the affair only out of fear of criticism. Small Pox Prevalent. On top of the above mentioned ac¬ cident came small pox. It broke out in Rio with a wild fury. Everything within reason was done to stop it but without success and today the city, or that part of it occupied by the lower class, is fairly over run with the pest and each week sees a 50 per cent in¬ crease, and from reports made by Senor Vianna, superintendent of the local hospital, 50 per cent of the diseased die. People are afraid to mingle with one another, that is where it is pos¬ sible for the lower class natives to mix in, as is the case at the exposi¬ tion where one mil-reis is charged for admission and as this is almost the smallest piece of money made here (equal to about 31-100th of a cent), each big day, as was last Mon¬ day, Independence Day, sees a large quota of the pock marked element scattered about. Frank Brown, the Barnum of South America, is giving one performance a day at the San Pedro theater to ex¬ tremely poor crowds, all of which he attributes to the amount of small pox in the city. Mr. Brown has an elegant show composed as follows: Saltos Mortaes, an equestrian act; Mile. Nadir, con¬ tortionist (Spanish); The Wasnells, acrobats (German); Comic Entrance by Cashmore and Chico (French clowns); Clarke Bros., juggling on horseback (English); The Dorans, horizontal bars (English); Chandon Trio, Risley act (English); Three Abriels, flying trapeze (Spanish); Eight Empire Girls, dancing and singing (English); more clowns; Capt. Webb’s sea lions (American); Four Clarkes, equestrian act (English); more clowns; exposition of the game of Diabolo by the Dorans closes the Actors Exceed Audience. Frank Brown in former years played to nothing but packed houses in this country and is at a loss to account for the bad business, forty or fifty spectators is the average and last Thursday when he put on the “Water Pantomime,” which kept the show running until near 1 o’clock in the morning, there were three more peo¬ ple in the ring than in the audience. During the horse play of the clowns, who are termed “Tonys,” the people in the audience, if they like the com¬ edy, throw coins to them and it is needless to say that they generally have several plants in the audience who start the pecuniary manifesta¬ tions, with occasional beneficial results to the clowns. Mr. Brown sends his regards to the Friars and asked to be remembered to THE SHOW WORLD and said that he was strongly in favor of some of the London clubs making an exchange with the Friars, after which remark I gave him several Epistles to read. The Journal do Commercio, the leading paper here, extends a hearty invitation to all Friars visiting Rio, invites them to have their mail ad¬ dressed to their office and proffers the use of a desk and typewriter, for which I thanked Mr. Campos, the edi¬ tor, in the name of the Friars and reciprocated the invitation in case he visits New York. I was compelled to postpone Mr. Raymond’s opening here from Sep¬ tember 15th to October 1st on account of his remaining at Bahia for a much longer period than he expected. Mr. Raymond followed the Bollore Lyric company, with its 72 artists in to Bahia, everybody from the Amer¬ ican consul down advised him against playing there, saying that the people were “show sick,” having had the opera company for thirty perform¬ ances, but Raymond gave it a try and instead of giving five performances, as originally intended, has already given fifteen and does not leave there for a week yet. During my stay at Bahia I wit¬ nessed the wrecking of the great Ger¬ man liner, Cap Frio, a monster steam¬ er which was washed upon the rocks near the city and which was totally lost, including 90,000 sacks of coffee, over $2,000,000 value in all—HARRY L. REICHENBACH. We have all more or less to do with commerce. We buy goods and some¬ times pay for them. We sell the pre¬ cious products of our hands and brains for the best price we can get for them. If the buyer pays up, we are sorry we did not charge him more for them. If he falls we are glad that he did not de¬ cide to pay less on the shekel. When we have grown very rich we speculate and that keeps us from being purse- proud and haughty.—James Jeffries Have a place for everything and every¬ thing in its place, then hunt for the place. .,!!![ THE TRAITOR DAMNED BY SOUTHERN CRITICS The New Dixon-Pollock Play a Lurid Melodrama According to Richmond Reviewers. Richmond, Va., Oct. 12. With the opening of State Pair I week business at all the theaters •< which had been exceptionally gooj ' from the beginning of the new sea¬ son, suffered a slump that enveloped the managerial offices in a dense wad of gloom. The trouble began the first day of the week of Oct. 5. The Traitor, the play dramatized from Thomas Dixon’s historical ro¬ mance dealing with the Ku Klux Klan by Mr. Dixon and Channing Pollock, attracted a top-heavy house at the Academy of Music Monday night, al¬ though the production had been ex¬ tensively exploited. The Traitor re¬ ceived its premiere just a week before its arrival here in Norfolk. Pollock and Dixon ran down from New York to see the performances here. The ex-preacher and his clever associate playwright worked the local press ex¬ tensively in advance and the engage¬ ment opened under auspices that ar¬ gued for big business. And the same did not materialize. The critics from the local press damned the production with faint praise or decried the play as a lurid melodramatic ebulition, unworthy of consideration either as a drama hav¬ ing historical worth or sociological significance. Playwright Dixon made a curtain speech at the opening performance in which he roasted the New England managers for refusing to book his plays. The Clansman and The Traitor, It seems, from his viewpoint, that the plays are offensive to the aforesaid managers because the New England¬ ers have got it into their heads (without reason, says Dixon) that the Dixon drama and the Pollock-Dixon drama are unpatriotic in their tone and tend to incite sectional strife. Mr. Dixon handed Boston, in par¬ ticular, a few ugly jolts. He said that a managerial conspiracy had closed that city to his productions, and he 1 declared his intention to force Boston to give the two plays a hearing if he 1 has to buy a site and build a theater in the Hub to do it. One of the local critics led off his review of the new play with these jingling lines: “Let Kremer sling his crimson ink on melodrama’s page. And Owen Davis put his plot on every scarlet stage; Let Blaney do his blaneyest; let Lin¬ coln Carter strive To be the mellowest dramatist that walks around alive. ' Hal Reid? What is he but a name? And who is A. H. Woods? A paper storm, a thundersheet—-Tom Dixon is the goods.” t| And while the ascetic critic was writing that stuff Channing Pollock was sitting at the very critic’s desk, inviting him out to lnucheon—BOB- ERT GOLDEN. CURZONS A HIT IN BERLIN. Were Sued by German Manager for Alleged Breaking of Contract- Act Is Billed Big. Berlin, Sept. 27. The first performance by the Curzon sisters since their accident at the Man¬ chester (England) Hippodrome on the night of July 21, was given last mgm at the Circus Schumann here, and the act scored the biggest hit of its ca¬ reer. The ladies were received with great enthusiasm and were recalls time and again. It is evident that toe managers here appreciate this aerial novelty for they have billed it big an it has proved to be a powerful drawing card. „ Since sailing for England on 12 the Curzons have bumped tat 0 .®", of trouble. Aside from the accid«" In Manchester they had two suits 1 defend in America which necessitat one of the girls returning to the State In Berlin they were sued by a man ager for $2,000 for the alleged wes* ing of a contract which they C I® they never signed. “Thanks to m White Rats,” says J. W. Curzon, “ Variety Artists’ Federation of and the International Artists Germany, looked after our ’eg® 1 fairs in grand shape. Otherwise 1 would have been Impossible for continue with the act."