Show World (December 1908)

T 5, 19bi. THE SHOW WORLD kind of show which WINS IN ONE NIGHTS It Most Not Cost Over $500 a Week Unless Musical, Then the Cost May Run From $700 to $1,000. The theatrical manager with a s Vs. _ <t7nn tn $1 non a. week J conditions unless his attraction is on the musical order and one which will really prove “the event of the sea¬ son” in towns of from 2.000 up to 10,000 nonulation. A meodrama costing this amount of money each week is almost certain to prove a loser for it Is too ex¬ pensive to play towns where the manager can get eighty per cent of the gross and the receipts will not justify him in mak- in£ the more important one nights where he must share seventy-thirty or perhaps sixty-forty. A musical a hundred do...-.., - —- -- ■ impossibility to the producer who finds it hard to keep a musical show under five hundred a day, but there are numerous organizations which are by courtesy called “musical comedies” which keep within this figure and which give ex¬ cellent satisfaction when booked m the proper time. A company of this kind must not have more than six or eight principals and at the outside six or eight chorus girls, the jumps must be short and economy must be practiced m every Cost of Melodramas. To insure success for a melodrama in the smaller one night stands the cost should be around $500 per week. There are scores of companies traveling out of Chicago which do not exceed this sum in cost and it is common rumor that many of the managers can make money in the event of the gross running $500 a week and the sharing terms being equitable. New towns are springing up every sea¬ son and iprove virgin territory for the smaller shows. This explains why many of the less important attractions prove money getters for a score of years, for new towns are constantly being diseov- audL ence IS a sure winner. Such a show is framed up so that one or two big houses each week will insure a nice profit for business must be very bad when the gross for the other nights of that week will be less than $100. Stage Management Counts. The secret of making such a show please lies mainly in the stage manage¬ ment. A producer who can see at a glance what $25 a week people are capa¬ ble of and who has a good idea of what the small towns want can frame up at¬ tractions which will please from the very first performance and which will receive unstinted praise in the high grass. One Chicago manager who has half a dozen such attractions, frankly admits that his success is due to his stage man¬ ager, and it may surpise the uninitiated to know that that particular stage man¬ ager has been connected witli half a dozen of the best stock' companies in America, and is himself an actor of more than ordinary ability. Small Towns Easily Pleased. A reputation is easily gained in the smaller one-nights, and the theater-goers are not nearly so fickle as in the cities, ihere are hundreds of towns in the United States where W. B. Patton is held in as high esteem as Sol Smith Russell used to be in New York and Chicago, ihere are numerous places where the Twins are looked upon as the Harry Shannon’s, The Banker’s Child, has been popular over the smaller circuits for five years, and will probably travel the same territory until the children get too large to be featured in the leading roles. Charles Biggs’ It’s All On The Quiet, Olga Verne’s Faust, Oakes and Gilson’s A Bachelor’s Honeymoon, and McVenn and Vedder’s Two Merry Tramps are other attractions which stand well in the smaller towns, and whose managers are content with good profits arid small town glory. Little Enterprises Winners. A few years back showmen were not inclined to take the five and ten cent theater seriously, but it is now a great factor in the show business. It is the same with the traveling company which makes very small towns nowadays. . Two fellows named Imhoff and Fiske have a little vaudeville show which makes towns as small as 500, if hard-up for time, but reports come of a fine profit this season, in fact they are doing much better than if they were working for a fat salary. A show carrying fourteen persons played to $81.80 gross Nov. 9, $99.65 on Nov. 10, $103.55 Nov. 11, $53 Nov. 12, $90.15 Nov. 13, and $100.90 Nov. 14, making $403.00 on the week but the expenses were so small, the jumps being eight or nine miles each, that the mana¬ ger cleared $82.15 on the week. These receipts show that the show was in bad territory. A few days later the show got $287.25 on the day so it is readily seen that the manager will prosper if the show gets what is naturally consid¬ ered very bad business. Managers Getting Wise. The managers who have been sending companies costing $1,000 a week to the THANKSGIVING FAIR IN SMALLER CITIES Large Cities Were All Right, But Returns in Very Small Towns Were More or Less Disappointing. : Thanksgiving was ticipated in many _ through the middle west and worse was expected in many, many more. The reports from the big cities show that the- day was fine for the week stand attractions, but as a general rule the east was better than the west. The very small one night stands never are very good for holidays, as the people are nearly all well-to-do and the day is generally spent in family reunions. The cities of from twenty to fifty thousand should be good on Thanksgiving for there are many folks who look forward to seeing a show when they are not obliged to show up at factory or mill. The more important one night stand attractions are doing about the same as reported last week. The meritorious attractions are showing a nice profit. The average attractions are doing very bad and the general indication is that the smaller shows are suffering more as the season grows older. Times Getting Better. The newspapers insist that the country is in a fair way toward complete recov¬ ery from the depression of last year, but the receipts of traveling theatrical companies hardly bear out this conten¬ tion. Here are a few encouraging re¬ ports from Illinois: A Stubborn Cinderella did $2,300 at Peoria on Thanksgiving matinee and night, Paid in Full did $2,000 at Rock¬ ford, Henry W. Savage’s The Devil did $1,700 at Aurora, Chuck Conners in From Broadway to the Bowery did over $800 at Joliet which is particularly good for an attraction playing at popular prices, and False Friends did nearly $500 at Bast St. Louis at prices ranging from fifteen to fifty cents and incidentally re¬ house. The best business ever done at the Grand previous to this engagement was $1,068. Manager J. E. Powell bought out The Folies for $700 and as it will he seen cleared a nice sum for the house. He was more than pleased with the pro- REPERTOIRE NOTES Nina Wilber is with the Madison Square theater company. The Adam Good company includes Lena Rivers in its repertoire. The program of the Clara Turner com¬ pany does not state the given names of the players. The Cook stock company used Jim, the Westerner as its opening bill at' London, GAMES OF GRAFT. THE SHOW WORLD Invites All Members of the Profession of Entertainment to Contribute to This Column—An Accepted Article Entitles the Writer to a Six Months’ Subscription to THE SHOW WORLD and Permanent Membership In THE SOCIETY OF THE STUNG. GAME NUMBER ELEVEN. The Display Dodge is easily played by the house manager who has an arrangement with the Town Tattler or the Daily News Misser. The sheet gives him two advertising bills, one calling for seventy cents per agate line and the other for forty. The traveling company sometimes pays the latter when it wants to avoid membership in this distinguished society.—F. R. S. Miss Flora Dorset has the reputation of being one of the best gowned actresses in repertoire. The Morgan stock company has played thirty performances in Quincy, Ill., so far this season. Even the boxes were occupied at one performance of the Culhane stock com¬ pany at Defiance, Ohio. Robert Brister is playing the leads with the Manitou comedy company under the management of B. T. Blethen. Lottie Salisbury plays the title-role with Little Lord Fauntleroy as presented by the Burgess stock company. Edna Roland, of the Bonnie Maie stock company, resides in Neenah, Wis., and when the company visited that city re¬ cently, was entertained by many friends. The Van Dyke & Eaton company laid off last Sunday night for the first time in a long while. The management has been fortunate in securing Sunday night Longley Taylor, a member of the Bur¬ gess stock company now in Texas, dis¬ appeared mysteriously at Galveston and a letter found, addressed to Manager Glass would indicate that he contem¬ plated taking his own life. His place of residence is La Lande, N. M. William B. Morris, of the Morris- Thurston company, was in Chicago Nov. 23 and says business has been fine. They had an especially big Thanksgiving week at Racine, Wis., and are at Rockford, 111., this week. There are seven people with the Morris-Thurston company who have been there for three years, which is a record for infrequent changes in the Burt G. Gagnon, of the Gagnon-Pol- iock company, took a party of friends out for a search for persimmons while the company was playing at Shreveport, La., and left the auto at the roadside while the party went over a hill. A friend of the owner of the car happened along and laboring under the impression, that there had been a break-down hitched the car on behind his and took it to town. Gag- Eugene Moore is ..... would almost be equivalent to printing lus route, while Frank S. Davidson has as many .admirers in the small towns as Penman Thompson has in the cities. The annual visit of The Missouri Girl is anx- y i waited in hundreds of places, and o,-? . ■ Raymond appears as Zeke, wnrVin n ® SS ma v in town lays aside his work long enough to enjoy the antics of mat gawky country .lad. Plays Won’t Wear Out. ,A Breazy Tim e has been on the road so long that new jokes have been inserted notTee™ + meS ’ yet its Popularity does £*188? t0 - wane ’ and J °hn R- Andrew j? getting nice returns again this season ,- East Lynne has been played death half a dozen times, yet Joseph three companies not unusual for dniuiSoT*, *2"* LU two or three hundred the & hL and , even more - when th ey strike of the „ er clas ? o£ one-night stands; one al told fl ^ nl si S ™ th only seven people recently.' , d ?1 ’ 500 gross on a week monev'r Lewis ’ si Plunkard has made S y J°, r , s o Jmany years that he is sat- of his a'JP that show keep him the rest 20 timSP R has appeared more than OrtJSaK.* 1 Mt - Clemens, Mich., and at a do£Miv 1<1 p r °hably as many times many ° towns - No matter how John tv-v? co mes it gets business, in the ehelP’. who has a half interest receSfiv tw ^ iS . season - wrote a Mend business £ L tr0d P e . was getting big Pacific cokst Ca ada ' Sl 1S headed for the one night stands are gradually learning that that kind of a show has no chance. They see some fellow with a show which costs half as much as theirs playing towns they never heard of and yet mak¬ ing fine money on the season. They pick up the box office statements of some good melodrama, with twelve or fourteen peo¬ ple and a carload of scenery, and find it only does $60 or $70 in towns of 25,000. They find that some musical comedy with forty or fifty people appeared the night before to capacity and later learn that some fellow with a cheap show siTeaked in the same town the following Saturday and took away half of a four hundred dollar business. Don’t Know the Towns. The trouble is that a great many of . these managers do not know the small towns. They have never heard of Lodi, Ohio; Norfolk, Neb.; Union City, Tenn. or Elkins, W. Va., and naturally find it difficult to book the routes. There are, however, hundreds of agents who know the small towns like a hook and gradu¬ ally these men Are coming into demand. That many managers who have tried in the past to make melodramas go In the big one nights will devote their ef¬ forts to the smaller towns next season is Opening at Evansville. Evansville, Ind., Dec. T. The opening week of the new Orpheum (Charles Sweeton, Mgr.) was a success from every standpoint. Good business prevails at the Wells-Bijou which is also under his management. The house is getting very strong shows recently. Man¬ ager Edwin Raymond, of the Majestic, Pictures of Race. Savannah, Ga., Dec. 1. Motion pictures of the grand prize automobile race which took place here Nov. 25 and 26 were taken by Lubin of for the Philadelphia and the Vitagraph company of America.—ROBINSON. ports of the show are very favorable. The smaller towns of Illinois seem to have had only fair returns on the holiday. A Woman of the West only got $320 at Taylorville and this was such a disap¬ pointment to the manager that he de¬ cided to end the season. It is, however, a fair business for the town. Indiana All Right. Himmelein’s Imperials, a repertoire or¬ ganization, held forth at Hammond, Ind., on Thanksgiving and had nice returns. The Grace Hayward company did fine at Waukegan, Ill., and Rosar-Mason did well at Michigan City, Ind. Logansport gave Harry D. Carey’s Montana $700 on the day. The Flower of the Ranch did fine at both performances at Vincennes. The Morris-Thurston company broke a record at Racine, Wis. A Cowboy’s Girl did fair at Portage, and Sherbert & Rostell, who book 32 attractions in all, say that business was average in the towns they represent. George Peck Pleased. George Peck is pleased with the re¬ ports he received from the theaters he represented and says that Iowa gave the usual Thanksgiving business to attrac¬ tions in that state. Rowland and Clifford’s The Phantom Detective did $854 on the day at the Park in Erie, Pa., and Klimpt, Gazzolo and Cohen’s Montana Limited did well in Lewiston, Idaho, while The Rocky Mountain Express prospered in Rock Springs, Wyoming. That firm has five attractions. The Montana Limited, one company playing cities exclusively and the other playing cities and one nights, The Rocky Mountain Express, one ,com- pany playing cities exclusively and the other cities and one nights, and Four Corners of the Earth playing one nights and western cities. West Virginia Good. Reports indicate that West Virginia is good for the one night stand attractions. Fairmont, which is the seat of the coal interests of the northern part of the state, gave The Follies of 1907 $1,100 gross on Tuesday night of last week, which establishes a new record for the ONE NIGHT STAND NOTES Roy Dean and wife recently closed with Old Arkansaw and came to the Palace hotel in Chicago for a rest. Bonnie De Wert, of Auburn, Neb., has joined Murray and Mack in The Sunny Side of Broadway. Paid in Full had only seven rows filled in the parquet and the balcony was almost empty one night in Dos Angeles. A Houston, Texas, critic says that Tom Waters is “irresistibly funny,” which is “much better than being obstreperously acrobatic or violently vocal.” Charles B. Marvin will put out sev¬ eral companies. The. first one to go out will be A Wise Member which made him a lot of money several years ago. Lou Leslie, late of The Rajah of Bhong, contemplates the opening of a high class picture show in Louisville, Ky. He is now looking up a location. Jessamine Woods fell and broke her collar bone while appearing with The Clansman at Jennings, La. She was sent to a New Orleans hospital. J. W. Williams, who has two The Devil companies on tour this season, was formerly half owner of the Chicago stock company. Grace Hayes is making a big hit with a Swedish dialect song in The Girl and the Stampede under the management of by G'eorge B. Edwards, at Erie. Pa., r A. Q. Scammon, manager of The Real Widow Brown, was in Chicago Monday and Tuesday, consulting with George Peck in regard to time. A Cowboy Girl (Western) is now under the management of Edward J. Adler. He organized an entirely new company which includes E. Daniel Leighton, Margaret Warren, James F. Leland, Bessie Lee, Herbert Brittendall, Gertrude Faxon, John Graham, C. G. Weston, manager and C. Ward Brown, agent.