Show World (May 1909)

May 81 1 *®®' TELE SHOW WORLD 9 ■SYNDICATE” EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH TO ^'^^K-langer, able general that he has'strengthened his position in -coming theatrical war (if there is be one) by. extending the olive anch to David Belasco and Harri- 'n Grey Fiske. tlarmedfat the grovving strength of e Shuberts, overtures were made to 1 1S<!0 and Fiske, who have been in¬ dent for several years, and while h a thing as an agreement was not jested, the doors of the Syndicate iies^K* vere thrown open to these Inagers and they availed themselves : theopportnnities of playing Syndi¬ cate houses when they cared to. The new agreement is apt to lead othjST managers securing the "open (doodBpngement with the Syndi¬ cate. George C. Tyler, representing no firm known as Liebler & Co., is ' aid to possess this right at the pres- Lj time, and with the throwing down |d the bars every indication points to a condition in the show business Click many have dreamed of but few | ;l red to hope would come to pass. Heretofore Belasco and Fiske could ant secure time in the houses booked iv Klaw & Erlanger. When the Shu- icrt company arranged a working agreement with the Syndicate, about no years ago, Klaw & Erlanger nere most unwilling to book Mr. Re- asco’s attractions, and Mr. Belasco efused to play in any houses owned at controlled in any degree by Klaw t Erlanger. What This Means. This latest move means that if Be- isco or Fiske desire a date in a the- ter booked by Klaw & Erlanger they nay secure it in the event of the at- raction being welcome, and a com¬ pany managed by either of these pro- ' tcers is’nearly always welcome. A contract will be made out by Da- (1 Belasco, for instance, and will be awarded to Klaw & Erlanger. If he date sought is available, tile con¬ tact will be forwarded to the house lanager for signature, and if the arms are satisfactory to him he will ip and return the document to Klaw & Erlanger, who will place it in an tnd send it to the office of S'-' THE “INDEPENDENTS” Makes Important Concessions to David Belasco and Harrison Grey Fiske. By WALLACE PEPPER. IfflH® and Fiske must be anxious play some of the Syndicate thea- s. David Warfield in The Music Belasco attraction, is con¬ ned the greatest theatrical offer- I ever produced, and there are cit- in which the production has not Other attractions con- _Belasco and Fiske are de- Ftheater managers and the 11 be welcomed by the pro- lianagers. Where It “Hurts.” one point which must have Erlanger if he was hon- mins announcement that salacious .tows would be barred from theaters traer his control. Under this ar- P 1 Belasco should decide oplay The Easiest Way in Syndicate meaters Mr. Erlanger has little to m the matter. He will be forced l() forward the contracts to the local fianager and if that individual hap- Ws to beta man who thinks more of TOiey than morality the show will be pn in cities where the Syndicate povides the bookings, if the local au- L°, n . tle t# not arise in their might ".'. ‘Orb'd, such an offering. » h t 1 Erlanger stood willing to t ■ .? n ^' s an nounced determina- ' " ■n this matter shows his able gen- i .'yP- P e was unwilling to Ft bis 1 sinon-as a moralist stand in the way ls **® s P cr ity as a showman. What Lee Shubert Says. S myself and my asso- mcerned,” says Lee Shu- linot, disprove of a devel- ich shows advancement of t ’ le ‘open door’ for which ,. 'we -fought. I ' t l , s rea ».vgratifying to us. to note j Pudency toward a general “ lng down of the bars, which were up so long and so unjustly against in¬ dependent producers, is so emphati¬ cally in evidence in the change of at¬ titude both on the part of Erlanger and Belasco and Fiske. It is true that Mr. Belasco and Mr. Fiske have been able to exist and to carry on their en¬ terprises only through the activity of the Shubert company in providing them a field of operation. But their contributions to the number of plays which we have had for our houses have — especially in the last two sum¬ mers—been comparatively small. The truth of the matter is that both the syndicate and ourselves always feel the need of good attractions. “We have produced and procured our own attractions, and will continue to do so with such measure of suc- “I have contended always that the time would come when the bars must be let down and successful producers welcomed wherever they were willing to play their attractions. “Even if at the end of our booking contract with Mr. Belasco (a year hence) his attractions are no longer played in our houses it will make little difference to us. “Conditions change rapidly in the theatrical world, and all of the re¬ cent changes have; I am glad to say, been due to our efforts to establish real independence among producers and managers. What the Shuberts Have Done. “As I said in the beginning,” Mr. Shubert goes on, “I have fought for the ‘open door’ and it cannot be too wide to suit us. The fact that Klaw & Erlanger are now willing to play Belasco’s attractions in their houses and that Belasco is willing to clasp the hand of the octopus which he has so long and so valiantly assailed is simply an indication of the trend of theatrical events. Art is one thing and business existence another. “Belasco owes his scope and his past and present opportunities to the efforts of our company. So does Mr. Fiske. We are independents and they are independents. Whatever steps they may take in an independ¬ ent way, we cannot, with consistency, disapprove. It is really of little mo¬ ment to the public, which cares little about whose attractions it may pay to see and in what theaters it may see them, so long as the attractions are worth the money. “I am entirely satisfied that we are able to fill our own theaters with first class attractions, and to supply an ex¬ cellent season’s backing to all of the numerous one-night-stand houses with which we are to book in the coming season. We have over forty attrac¬ tions now and more are to be pro- How It Happened. From the “official statement” issued it would appear that this “understand¬ ing” was due to the action of one of the syndicate’s legal advisers, who acted “upon his own initiative.” There is no law which compels the readers of this paper to believe that state¬ ment, and if any one chooses to con¬ clude that Mr. Erlanger was unwill¬ ing to make these concessions unless it was agreed that he was to be “humbled” as little as possible they have a perfect right to such an in- It will be noticed in the “official statement” which follows, that no formal agreement was entered into, nor none demanded. It will also be noticed that NO WRITING OF ANY KIND WAS PREPARED, ex¬ cept the statement from which a quotation is being made. “THE ■ OFFICIAL STATEMENT.” The contribution to stage literature referred to above is printed here: “After several meetings of Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger, Mr. David Belasco and Mr. Harrison Grey Fiske, and as a direct result of these meetings, Messrs Klaw & Erlanger and Messrs. Fiske and Belasco will hereafter, whenever mutually agreeable, play at¬ tractions in each other’s theaters. “Acting upon his own initiative, Mr. David Gerber, who is one. of the legal advisers of Messrs. Klaw & Er¬ langer, and also of Mr. David Belasco, recently wrote letters to Messrs. Klaw and Erlanger and to Mr. Belasco asking them if they did not think it would be possible to reach some common ground of business re¬ lationship which would be compatible with their established principles and business policy, and remove unfortu¬ nate differences and misunderstand¬ ings that hitherto have existed fin the theatrical field. Mr. Harrison Grey Fiske was notified of this correspond¬ ence, and he was invited to join the others in a conference upon the mat¬ ter. Mr. Gerber promptly received replies from all the parties stating their willingness to discuss the sub¬ ject. “Several meetings ensued. As a result of a free and frank discussion, and a mutual interchange of opinions, the several parties found that they could enter upon business relations for the betterment of the American stage without any sacrifice of prin¬ ciple, dignity or integrity. An under¬ standing was accordingly reached. “No formal agreement was entered into, and none was demanded by any of those taking part in the confer- “At these conferences nothing was discussed that would or could inter¬ fere with the fulfillment of any exist¬ ing arrangements or contracts by any of the parties concerned. No writing of any kind was prepared, except the foregoing statement, which fully sets forth the origin, nature and results of these deliberations, and which bears the joint approval of all the parties concerned.” George Tyler’s Position. George Tyler, representing Liebler & Co., will book with both the Syn¬ dicate and The Shuberts next season. An announcement to the effect that the Liebler attractions will play the Shubert circuit comes from the Shu¬ bert office, and at least one route has already been laid out with Klaw & Erlanger. The Liebler attractions next sea¬ son will include: “Eleanor Robson in The Dawn of a Tomorrow, Viola Al¬ len in The White Sister, William Hodge in The Man from Home, Wil¬ ton Lackeye in The Battle, Dustin Farnum in Cameo Kirby, Walker Whiteside in The Melting Pot, Will¬ iam Farnum in a new play. Ezra Kendall in The Vinegar. Buyer, Madge Carr Cook in a new play by Booth Tarkington and H. L. Wil¬ son, In the Blood, with H. B. War¬ ner; Miss Philura, with Chrystal Herne; The Lady of Dreams, by Ed¬ mund Rostand; Foreign Exchange, by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson; The Deliverer, by Louis N. Parker; For Better, for Worse, by Cleveland Moffett; A Lit¬ tle Brother to the Rich, bv Joseph M. Patterson; Esther Frear, by Cleveland Moffett; Vera, the Me¬ dium, by Richard Harding Davis; The Ordeal, a new play by John Loughran; The Renegade, by Paul Armstrong; a new play by O. Henry; The Squaw Man, company A; The Squaw Man, company B; The Head of the House, by Edward W. Town¬ send and Frank O’Malley; Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, com¬ pany A; Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, company B; The Man from Home, special company.” FAIR NOTES. The Eastern Maine state fair will be held at Bangor, Aug. 24-27. Al¬ bert S. Field, of Bangor, Me., is man¬ ager. The date of the Scott c >unly fair at Scottsburg, Ky., has been fixed for Sept. 13-17. The big street fair and carnival to be given by the Woodmen of the World in Dubuque, Iowa, has been postponed one week. The new dates are July 12 to 19, inclusive. The Minnesota state fair manage¬ ment will erect a grand stand which will cost $200,000. Fire at Wee’s Opera House. Orfordville, Wis., April 29. Fire, which originated in the la¬ dies’ dressing room of Wee’s opera house, threatened for a time to de¬ stroy that structure yesterday. The blaze was not discovered until 5:30 in the morning, although it is be¬ lieved to have been smouldering for some hours before that. P. F. Nolty saw it and turned in an alarm. After a half hour’s hard work the flames were subdued by the fire department. The damage is not sufficiently great to interfere with attractions.— SMITH. Actor Sues on Color Line. Minneapolis, May 1. W. S. Ellis, manager and member of • the Hawaiian quintet playing at the Princess theater last week, has brought suit for $25,000 damages against the Crombie Cafe Co. and Max Stearns, proprietor. _ Ellis, who claims to be an- American citizen and native of Hawaii, alleges that the color line was drawn against him and another member of his company at the cafe and that the man¬ agement refused to serve them. Ellis and his company are playing at the Ma¬ jestic, St. Paul, this week.—BARNES. New House for Superior. St. Paul, May 1. Superior, Wis., is without a large playhouse since the burning of the Grand in that city recently. J. E. O. Pridmore, the Chicago theater archi¬ tect, has been commissioned to draw plans for a new house. It is possible that the Elks, the Commercial Club and the Trades and Labor Assembly, all of which have been considering building for themselves, will join with the theater men and put up a large building for the use of all.—BARNES. THE GREAT NICHOLI, Appearing to success on the Morris Circuit