Show World (June 1909)

24 THE SHOW WORLD KATIE BARRY’S HIT. Cleveland, Ohio, June 16. In the appearance of Miss Katie Barry as Fi-Fi in “A Chinese Honey¬ moon” at the New Coliseum, Cleve¬ landers have an opportunity of seeing the eccentric mite of an actress in the amusing part which brought all London to pay tribute to her clever¬ ness. In this week’s revival of the musical comedy, Miss Barry wears the costume in which she appeared in London when she sprung from ob¬ scurity to fame. The funny odd trunk with which she has wrestled on stages marking the breadth of three continents, is still in use, although it is considerably battered and bruised. This is the last time that Miss Barry will appear in Cleveland for three or four years, and it is also one of the last few she will play in America for a like period of time. Within a fort¬ night she expects to sail for England to take up her vaudeville work. — YOUNG. American. The printed program was not car¬ ried out at the American Music Hall this week, but the change in the ar¬ rangement of the numbers undoubt¬ edly rebounded to the benefit of the entertainment. Charles and Nellie King held the opening position with their singing and dancing act. Charles introduced imitations of Eddie Leon¬ ard and others which were true to life and the act on a whole made de¬ cidedly good.—May Ward’s Eight Dresden Dolls, made a fairly favor¬ able impression on the crowd. Foster and Foster held third position and had no difficulty in making good.— J. H. Gilmour and a supporting com¬ pany of three people had been switched to fourth place. Mr. Gil¬ mour offered a philosophical sketch which belongs between covers rather than between the apron and back wall. No one could find fault with Gilmour’s interpretation of the part he had chosen, nor the work of his leading man, but otherwise the sketch proved a weak apology for a vaude¬ ville playlet. According to the pro¬ gram it required two men to write it. Perhaps it was a case of “too many cooks.”—McWaters and Tyson fol¬ lowed with a hodge-podge. Both are clever in almost anything they under¬ take and in this instance they under¬ took a burlesque on the “Thief” which was particularly well done, as well as their usual line of clever imi¬ tations of native celebrities.—After the intermission Caesar Rivoli, a name which is probably intended as a modernized version of Fregoli, since the work done by Revoli is of much the same character as that offered by his justly famed predeces¬ sor is very similar, appeared with a protean skit mainly interesting for the rapidity of his character changes. His imitations of renowned musicians with the baton were received with great applause.—Al. Fields and Dave Lewis proved to be one of the big laughing hits of the bill. They were recalled many times and although some of their “patter” was built upon old foundations it affected a solidity which is likely to stand many seasons of hard usage.—Delmore and Lee were held over from last week and made their usual strong impression.— Nicholson and Norton who were billed for second position and who filled the seventh made a hit with a new skit entitled “From Soup to Nuts.” No one could quite under¬ stand the excuse for the title but the skit itself offered an excuse for a comedy dialogue for which these two vaudevillians have become popular. There is no doubt that the beginning of the playlet was but an opportunity for a full act of which these two players failed to take advantage. The scene in the dress making parlors was excruciatingly funny, so funny indeed, that it was a pity that it was so short lived. Nicholson offered a clever imitation of Corbett in his monologue, which would stand alone. Altogether the bill was highly pleas¬ ing and deserved a much larger crowd than that which went Monday.—W. M. KLAW AND ERLANGER “KID” DENVERITES From Letter Given to the Press, It Appears That New York Firm Does Not Take Pelton and Smutzer Seriously. Klaw & Erlanger have given out a copy of a letter said to have been ad¬ dressed to Pelton & Smutzer, of Den¬ ver. It reads as follows: “New York City, June 13, 1909. “Messrs. Pelton & Smutzer, 1746 Cur¬ tis street, Denver, Colorado: “Gentlemen—Replying to your tele¬ gram of June 10, inquiring whether we could guarantee full season’s book¬ ings for Denver and Salt Lake, we could make that guarantee, but would not consider doing anything detri¬ mental to Peter McCourt, whose in¬ terests we have represented for twen¬ ty years in Denver, and we intend to be as loyal to him as he has been “Regarding Salt Lake, the same conditions apply. We would not do anything to injure Mr. Pyper’s inter¬ ests. “As we have arranged with Mr. John Cort to book Provo, Reno, Phoe¬ nix, Bisbee, Prescott and Douglas, the only important points in your cir¬ cuit where our attractions could play, there is no reason for us to continue doing any further business with you. Therefore, by all means keep the door wide open in Mesa, Morenci, Malad, Elko and Pioche, and do not forget Encampment and Nephi. By all means get double doors for Pay- son and keep them open wide all the time, because the attractions that we represent are too important and too expensive to visit these points. “You need not bother to send this letter to vour eastern representatives for publication, as we have saved you that trouble. Very truly yours, “KLAW & ERLANGER.” The Smutzer Letter. An earlier letter from Pelton & Smutzer to Klaw & Erlanger, also given to the press, read: “Gentlemen: Referring to your sev¬ eral telegrams which have been sent to this office relative to our booking any Shubert shows next season, with the information that if we did you would terminate your contract with us and cancel all shows booked so far, we think we made our position clear to you some time .ago when we wrote and asked you. for . protection which was due us and which you de dined to give us. “You are certainly laboring under a mistaken idea when you say that most of our houses were secured be¬ cause we were affiliated with you. We . had all of them but sixi It is true with these six we used your name in assisting us to get them, but we could have got them just the same, by rea¬ son of the fact that they were not on any circuit and that your attractions would have been playing these houses, in fact, would be compelled to do so, as each town only had one theater, and companies could not jump 1,000 miles without filling in their time in these houses. Last season you gave us in the Arizona country, according to our records, about eight attractions. The managers of these houses booked direct anything and everything that came along, as they could not afford to keep their houses dark and suf¬ fer losses when you could not give them any goods to sell. “This is the situation in a nutshell with the one-night stands, in which heretofore we have booked your at¬ tractions, as per an agreement made with you some two years ago. Now, you cannot consistently expect a situ ation like this to continue and attempt to force these managers to refrain from playing anything else than the attractions that emanate from your of¬ fice. They would not do it to oblige us, and we know they would not do it to oblige you. They have got to have shows, they have got to pay their expenses, and what we cannot give them they will take from else¬ where. Irrespective of this office, they have voiced their sentiment to play any and all of the Shubert shows they can get, and even if we tried to pre¬ vent it we could not do so. But, on the contrary, we are going to do all we can to help those boys fill their houses with whatever they can get, and shall be pleased to continue to put any and all attractions of yours if you have any going through our section, in these houses. Needed No Assistance. “If you remember, on several occa¬ sions, when Mr. Smutzer asked you' to book our Denver and Salt Lake houses, you replied you could not. As we had no other alliance that- was giving us any services we, of course, had to rely upon our own resources to keep these houses going, and we are happy to say that we accomplished this without assistance, so far as we know, from your office or anybody else. When we made an agreement with you two years ago to book a few houses in conjunction with you, small as the interest was, we felt that we would have the proper protection from you, and let us ask you plainly. ‘Did we get it?’ We reply, ‘We did “The position you take is an arbi¬ trary one, and not in the least worthy of Justice, and, to say the least, poor business policy, and we sincerely hope vou will reconsider the messages you have sent, not that, it will benefit us to any great extent, but because we think you do not want to be unjust, especially in view of the fact that you are not in a position, and have not been, to render satisfactory service, at least so far as we are concerned. “The future policy of the Denver Theater Company will be the same as it has been in the ~ast, to book every¬ thing of a meritorious nature that it can secure, irrespective of where it comes from or who produces it. Our agreement with you did not provide that we should not book any attrac¬ tions except those that came through your office, and when you say that we are attempting to demoralize the the¬ atrical business we certainly take ex¬ ception to this statement, and ask you to prove it. Object to Syndicate Stand. “On the contrary, you are taking a stand which is bound to demoralize the theatrical business when you ar¬ bitrarily, emphatically, and czarically attempt to coerce as small an institu¬ tion as ours in trying to prevent us from making an honest living. We realize that the firm of Klaw & Er¬ langer is large and powerful, and we realized this some years ago, when we started in the theatrical business. We were compelled then to resort to extreme measures to make a living, but somehow we succeeded, and we have no fear of the future, for if we cannot make a living in the theatrical business without being coerced there are other lines we can enter into and do so. “We should like to have you ex¬ plain to us iust why, if you book such attractions as Mrs. Fiske, ‘The Blue Mouse,’ Mary Mannering, or other of this class of shows, such action would tend to demoralize the show business. In our opinion, the demoralization of any legitimate business can be effec¬ tually consummated by the action you “We do not want your 9 that of any other person or L tion: we have tried to be fair" vou in the nast and have pi J complaints before you in a ’ ' and honest way. They did .. the legitimate or protective they should have received, and, tore we are going to protect to the best of our ability. But wi sume that bv doing so you are to carry out your threat to shows you have booked with next season. If so, all we ask is you notify us at our expense dL will immediately cancel them and tify the managers just why iMT canceled and also what we edU do for them in the future. we do know that you cannot I these managers to play nothing but shows you book, as they ca afford to keep their houses dark suffer losses, and we do you want them to do so. “With this plain statement of as to our position and the *9 statement the we are going to anv and all of the Shubert shfl we can get, as well as those of producers or booking agerij hope to have the pleasure} handling some of yours, for si you that if we do we will accord the same treatment that we do evervone else and try in future handle the business as we have in past. Yours truly, “THE DENVER THEATER (Signed.) “Smutzei CARSON PICTURE CO. _ SELLS TO PH0EN] New York, June It is rumored here that the Cai Company, manufacturers of gjS pictures, with offices in the Knit, bocker theater building, has sold entire plant to the Phoenix Comp of Chicago. The Carson Company has t made but one film, entitled Grant.” This has not as yet been leased.—REVELL. NOVELTY ACTS NOTICE Do You Want The Kinematogr Export Trade? - We reach the Buyers Weekly Low Bates, Quick Returns. The Premier M Magazine, published in London, England. $2.00 a year. Sample copy by mat J. F. FAIRMAN, Ameri Moving Picture Advertising & S Jll Chauncey Street, FILM RENEWING Our Process the Only One That Renews Films as well as Cleans them. We not only put your old films in the Money Making Class but give you a Good Variety of Tints. Write today for Rates American Film Renewing Cl. FIRMENICH BLDG.