Show World (June 1909)

6 THE SHOW WORLD UNION PARK THEATER PLAYING VAUDEVILLE. Excellent Bills Being Offered at Du¬ buque, Iowa, Provided by West¬ ern Vaudeville Association. Dubuque, Iowa, June 17. The Union Park Theater opened Sun¬ day, June 6, with Western vaudeville acts under the direction of Jake Rosenthal. The immense theater is one of the largest in the West, equipped with one thousand beautiful green leather covered opera chairs in the orchestra, three thousand plain veneered opera chairs to the rear, with elevated seats for two thousand in the extreme west end. The stage is large, has an im¬ mense loft, scene rooms, property and music room, beautiful roomy dressing rooms tenable for sixty- performers, with hot and cold water and shower baths. As the theater is owned by the General Electric Company, thou¬ sands of lights decorate the stage and auditorium, with ten strong calciums in various parts of the theater.' A large orchestra is used, well drilled ushers, and all employes are in uni¬ form. The stage is in charge of Ed¬ ward Elliotte, formerly of the Elliotte’s cyclist troupe, who pur¬ chased all the properties and hangings for the theater. Scenery is from Sos- man & Landis, with one of Thomas Moses’ drop curtains on the Venetian order. William A. Haas is press and advertising agent for this theater. The Union Park Theater is one of the eight wonders of Dubuque and the citizens are proud of it. The opening week’s bill included Ethel Whitesides and pickaninnies, Ziska and Hamilton, the Delzarros, Goldsmith and Hoppe and Hamilton and Ronco, with mo¬ tion pictures at night. This week Sternad’s Shop Girls, with Joe H. Niemeyer and Barry Miller; the Sully Family of six people in “A Dress Suit Case”; Martin Van Bergen, the bari¬ tone vocalist; Bill Conklin, and Ruth Burnett and company make up the show. Both bills gave excellent satis¬ faction. A small admission fee is charged for the front and middle seats at the Park Theater, which gives Du¬ buque people a great big Orpheum show for little or nothing and will surely be greatly appreciated by the people here.—VERA. Wonderland Attractions. Minneapolis,* June 15. Business at the outdoor parks is picking up. Wonderland is running free coupons in the daily press and drawing good crowds through the week. The complete list of attrac¬ tions there this year include: air- dome with vaudeville furnished by William Morris’ Chicago office, tick¬ ler, scenic railwav, temptation, gig¬ gler, carousel, airships, chutes, affinity, baby incubators, house of nonsense, more nonsense, miniature railroad, old mill, free open air vaudeville, Minnesota state band, etc. TJie park company owns and operates all the shows themselves under the man¬ agement of F. H. Camp—BARNES. Englebreth’s Attractions. Cincinnati, O., June 16. G. W. Englebreth, manager of Coney Island, has booked Bert Mor¬ ph”-. the man who sings to beat the band, as a special feature at the famous Queen City Park for a long run. Dilger, the long endurance swimmer, comes for a week. The offerings in the new vaudeville theatre this week are Ariki Japs. Peter F. Baker, Prof. A. H. Knoll, Five Aerial Laports, Lad^re-Warner cycle trio, Albertus & Altus and Jimmy Wall. Ed. E. Daly in City. Ed. E. Daly left Chicago Sunday for a ten days’ stay in Wisconsin. He came to Chicago from Indianapo¬ lis, where he spent about two weeks at his home. In Vaudeville. Ogden White, late of the dramatic stock company at Sans Souci park, is in vaudeville. June 19,1 A TIMELY TALK ON UNITY By J. J. Murdock. MANAGERS TO BOOST ■ CIVIC CELEBRATION. “In union there is strength” is a platitude as old as the hills. It was early discovered to be a fraction of the whole truth. From it, such truisms stand; divided we fall” have been evolved in the course d e'nt 11 ” n'or chance can change a truth, and if business men would occa¬ sionally re¬ member this fact they might save themselves much discord of mind and body. Particularly does the force of the truth of unity apply to the moving picture business of today. Since my introduction to the motographic field I have found an utter lack of unity among its several parts. The man¬ ufacturers pull one way, the ex¬ changes pull another, and the exhib¬ itor, if he pulls at all, attempts to pull away from both sources of sup¬ ply. Indeed, if you will recall, I was tempted into this branch of amuse¬ ment endeavor by the very fact that I believed that if this state of affairs could be corrected there would be a splendid profit, not only for the man who found a means of correction, but to those who would listen to and act upon his suggestions tending toward unity. Proud of His Progress. My experience as an importer is still in its infancy, but I feel that I may be justifiably proud of the prog¬ ress which our company has made against odds which would have fright¬ ened off a less courageous enterprise, either before or immediately after its inception. Personally, I have had faith in the power of unity. I have felt confi¬ dent that when once the divergent parts of this giant machine of motog- raphy could be assembled into an in¬ telligent working f office, nothing could impede its advance in the world of amusements. Nor have I been far wrong in my general estimate of the situation. In a' marvelously short space of time the International com¬ pany has gathered beneath its ample banner a host of exchanges and ex¬ hibitors, not only willing to admit the advantages of unity, but willing to assist in bringing unison to their own dissembled ranks. I early found that there were some who would avail themselves of the prestige which the International name would afford them, but who were not willing to affiliate themselves with, the International movement, save as camp-followers, ready to pick the crumbs which might fall from the mess table, but never amenable to camp discipline. Some of these fol¬ lowers were later discovered to be of that brand of gentry which generally trails in the wake^ of a circus, and who, to obtain their precarious livelihood, stop at little short of actual throat¬ cutting. Treacherous Exchanges. Little by little, the International has eliminated these trailers. Those whose impositions were flagrant from the beginning were the first to go, while those who worked more subtly have been uncovered as time and ne¬ cessity permitted. The worst form of parasite which the International has thus far encoun¬ tered has been those exchanges who, pretending to desire affiliation with the International company, have, through unfilled promises and other forms of treachery, which would not be countenanced in any legitimate business on the face of the earth, played directly into the hands of the Trust. This is a kind of unity with the opposition which is as useless for the exchanges as for the Interna¬ tional. The profit that such an ex¬ change can make by such methods is problematical at the most. They may win the semblance of success for a time, but sooner or later, when it is discovered by their own clients that they are receiving cheap, shoddy, in¬ different service, such exchanges as these offer under the guise of Inter¬ national goods, it will not be our com¬ pany who will suffer. The exhibitor who has learned the lesson of unity,—who is working for the best interests of himself, as well as his exchange and our company, will be protected to the fullest extent, as will the exchange who has united with us in an endeavor to promulgate a straightforward business transac¬ tion. As to the faker, who calls him¬ self “independent,” thus believing that his clientele may confuse the word with “International,” and who insists upon offering shoddy goods, thus playing into the very hands of the Trust,—the time is at hand whence must look out for himself. He will not find that the International ban¬ ner is sufficiently ample to cover his sins and thus resolve itself into a sort of mantle of charity. Necessity of Unity. If it had not been for the cheats and leeches who are faking the ex¬ hibitors With old, shoddy or duped goods, we would have “busted” the Trust before this. I have found that fully 75 per cent of the so-called “independent” men are in reality employed by the Trust for the very purpose of harassing the International company, and that they are selling shoddy goods under the label of International products. I am determined, however, as I was in the beginning, to win this fight, no matter what the odds. The Interna¬ tional needs and demands unity of ac¬ tion.' T$ those who are honestly striving for this end, full protection will be afforded at all times ancf under all circumstances, for we are more decided now than ever to beat the Trust and its hirelings, even if we must establish our own exchanges to accomplish this purpose. We will stop at nothing within the limits of honorable business procedure to ac¬ complish this end. Unity we must Martin Sheeley’s National Opera Company will open at Riverside park at Saginaw, Mich., June 21. W. A. Rusco is the manager of that park. Sheeley will have about the same company he had during his recent Chicago engagement. Lease the Bijou. Kenosha, Wis., June 17. Arthur A. Frudenfeld, manager of the Barrison Theatre at Waukegan, and Roy C. Emery, former manager of the Schwartz Theatre in that city, have formed a combination and leased the Bijou Theatre here with the option that Mr. Frudenfeld may buy the theatre at the end of the season if he sees fit. The house was leased from Frank O’Brien, the owner of the theatre. * Kenosha will continue to exchange with Waukegan. Contract Let. Decatur, Ill., June 17. The contract for the new Bijou theatre was let to Wire & Bonsteel. The contract price is $23,000. The new theatre is to be finished so that the first show can be put on Oct. St. Louis Theatrical Men Are Asked to Contribute Five Thousand Dollars to Centennial Fund St.' Louis, Junei*| I A meeting was held yesterd»F at : the Olympic theater of the local] the¬ atrical managers to discuss a proposi¬ tion from the" St. Louis centennial : committee. The committee asked the theatrical managers to raise a sum of $5,000 to go toward the expenses of the centennial. " They believed! that the theaters would benefit so much by : the centennial celebration that it was only right that they should subscribe accordingly. The subject wasTdis¬ cussed, and it was decided to lay the matter over to another meeting, when Frank R. Tate could be present. There were present at the meeting the following managers: Pat Short of the Olympic theater, James J.jBut- ler of the Standard, Frank L. Talbot of the Gem and Lyceum, Oscar Dane I of the Gayety, and William Cave of ' the Century.—WEBB. “Jack” Ferris Dead. John H. Ferris, generally knowptto the rest of the profession as “Jack" Ferris, had the last curtain rung down on him yesterday. Ferris came to St. Louis two years ago to play with Ethel Fullers company at the Garrick theater in “The Fires of St. John” After a week at the Garrick the com¬ pany went on the road but after a few- weeks of ill luck Miss Fuller ! brought her company back to St. . Louis were it disbanded. Sincejthat time Ferris stayed at the Madison I Hotel. During the past two years he | has frequently been called on to fill in on the cast of different dramatic companies who have visited this, city with some member of the cast sick. His last performance was in Harry Jones’ production of “Tracy the Out¬ law.” Yesterday afternoon when a friend called at the Madison Hotel to see him, a bellboy, on visiting his room, found Ferris lying unconscious on the floor of his room. Dr. L. J Wolfort, of the Stratford Hotel, was called in and after attending htp in his room had him removed to the City Dispensary. He was placed iaj the ambulance but on the way to th^ dis¬ pensary he died. He was taken to the morgue. His death waslpro- nounced due to cerebral hemorrhage and partial paralysis. Ferris, during his prime, had played in the support of such stars as Booth, Barrett and Fanny Davenport! Of late years, while still a master of stage technique, his enunciation became im¬ paired and he found considerable dif¬ ficulty in securing engagements^^® Ferris was 56 years of age. He had been married, but was divorcedjHis | wife was an actress. His mother, JMrs, Mary Ferris, resides at 945 Clinton street, Cincinnati. — WEBB. j Mary Mannering in St. Louis. St. Louis, June IS. Mary Mannering arrived in St. Louis today and stopped off at the Southern Hotel. She was accom¬ panied by her child and its inurse. She is en route with her company from Jefferson City to Indianapolis. Leav¬ ing Indianapolis she will play a month of one night stands into Newf York. Miss Mannering's suit for divorce from James K. Hackett, which was set for hearing on May 12, has been post¬ poned on account of the actress’®- sence from New York. The case will come up shortly after her return to that city. She filed the suit in the New York courts after the Nevada courts had denied her petition on the grounds that she was a non-resident of the state. The hearing of Hacketts . petition in bankruptcy will be held ffl New York tomorrow and Miss; Man- nering stated that she would be rep' presented by her attorney.—WEBlL I