Show World (August 1909)

August 14, 1909. THE SHOW WORLD 9 THE CHICAGO THEATRICAL COLONY Dave Clayton, who holds out near the Board of Trade, is one of the best informed men on the theatrical history of Chicago in the- city. Dave Clayton For many years Mr. Is Clayton and his Wise. brother were in the heart of the old rialto, and were in touch with all the great players who came to Chicago They conducted a restaurant called Ihe Drum,” and it was there that such players as Charles Thorne, Charles Vivian, John McCullough, Thomas Keene, William Florence, Stuart Rob¬ son, W. H. Crane, Joseph Wheelock, W. H. Crompton, and many others. Mr. Clayton has framed photographs of many of the old favorites hanging on his wall, and many of them have been autographed by the famous origi¬ nals. Among the pictures with tragic history which hang on the wall is that of George Knight, who is said by Mr. Clayton to have been a great German comedian of the legitimate sort. It was he who attempted to star in “Baron Rudolph,” but the public would not have him in this piece, and the fact drove him insane, and he died a broken-hearted, broken-minded man. Little Items Concerning People or Attrac¬ tions Now in this City or Out of it. BY WILL REED DUNROY. Roger Imhof, who for the past five years has headed the Empire shows, has left the burlesque field for the time being and will en- Roger Imhof ter vaudeville this sea¬ ls to Leave son. Imhof, Conn and Burlesque. Corinne will be seen together in a revival of their character study, “The Doings of Doctor Louder.” During the mid¬ dle of the season they will offer a new act entitled “Surgeon Louder, U. S. A.” This will be a military spec¬ tacle. Alf T. Wilson is representing the act and doing the booking exclu¬ sively. The Marlow theater will open Aug. 23, and as an opening bill, the popular play, “The Cowboy and the Lady” will be the offering. Samuel Goland, is a lad fifteen years of age, and he has the footlight fever. He says that at one time he played in Mrs. Fiske’s com- Stage Struck pany, and that his as- Boy pirations reach as high Is Repentant, as Hamlet or Macbeth, but as yet, he is quite too young to essay any of those roles. His last appearance was with a trav¬ eling stock company that went on the rocks in Elgin. Tuesday he appeared as a star in Judge Mangan’s court where his mother was the accusing witness, and the boy, after saying that he had beaten his way home in a freight car, and that if he were al¬ lowed to go he would behave and for¬ get the stage, was paroled. The lad lives at 67 Fouler street. John Emerson, one of the general stage directors for the Shuberts, has been in the city making some changes in “The Blue John Emerson Mouse” and pre- Doctors paring that piece “The Blue Mouse.” for its tour of the country be¬ fore going into Boston. Hermann Lieb has retired from the cast, and Guy D’Ennery is taking his place. Joseph E. Howard is out, and Gordon Mendelssohn, who formerly played the role of Scarsdale, has been reinstated. Millicent Evans has assumed the role of the “mouse” in the place of Mabel Barrison, and Zelda Sears is to retire from the cast temporarily at the end of this week. Mr. Emerson has been in the east with the Shubert stock company in Washington, D. C., and Schenectady, N. Y., where he pro¬ duced several new plays. He is enthu¬ siastic over the results. “Out of the five plays we put on,” said Mr. Emer¬ son, “four were successes. One, which we tentatively called ‘The Awaken¬ ing,’ was a corker. It calls for one set and five people, with four very strong parts. It is a knockout, and we ex¬ pect to put it out this season under a new title.” “THE LADY BUCCANEERS” PRODUCED AT EMPIRE NEW SINGER OFFERING PLEASES AT PRINCESS Harry M. Strouse Offers His New Burlesque Which is But a Mildly Exciting Entertainment. “The Goddess of ^L iberty” Received With Much Applause and ^Success^Crowns Efforts ofjAllj Concerned."^ The Empire theater opened the season Saturday night, with “The Lady Buccaneers,” a new burlesque company which will tour this season under the management of Harry M. Strouse. The offering consists of two acts and an olio, the first act takes place aboard a pirate brig, where a number of piratical adventurers are planning to rob and plunder a cer¬ tain ship. As the meeting progresses they are suddenly interrupted by the i appearance of a diminutive Hebrew, who claims to be a stowaway, and for his intrusion he is placed in safe : keeping.!' Suddenly a storm comes up and the entire party is shipwrecked 1 and left at the mercy of the waves. The second act we find pirates, sail¬ ors, Oriental girls, and cannibals on Treasure Island. How they got there no one knows, but they are there and for people who have been tossed on the waves they appear to be a happy crowd, perhaps because they have been landed on such rich soil. One of the sailors while prowling around, discovers a hidden treasure and a mercenary individual by the name of Dare Devil Yonkey confiscates the same and appoints himself the Poo Bah of the island. The plot of the piece, like that of many other burlesque offerings was created perhaps to offer light enter¬ tainment and at that Joe Watson the only comedian with the company, has not been overburdened. The organ¬ ization consists of people who will probably do better work when they become more acquainted with each other. The chorus is made up of some pretty girls who appear to be somewhat timid. If the abundance of smut were eliminated and the piece could receive better stage direction it would help the performance a great The olio is pleasing. Joseph Wat- 3 n in his Hebrew songs and mono¬ logue was very good, Harvey and uaylies are the possessors of sweet voices and are easily the best singers > n the entire show. The Macks, Burt and May, in their songs and dances are featured on the bill. The Dance of the Absinthe Fiend, rather a lurid affair and is one that will please those who are looking for something suggestive and sensational. Alliance People On the Road. The members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em¬ ployes’ Chicago Local No. 2, who will leave the city soon with road at¬ tractions, are as follows: Wm. Try- on, Dockstader’s Minstrels; Chick Hennings, Al. Wood’s company; J. L. Falbert, “A Knight For A Day” com¬ pany; Sam. C. Hunsaker, “The Girl Question” company; John Vanden- burg, John Kramer, Wm. F. Nash, “Time, Place and The Girl” com¬ pany; H. E. Zipke, Pete Armstrong’s Dancing Girls; Leon Willard West, “Stubborn Cinderella” company; A. C. Gerrarde, “The Wolf” company; J. Wm. Millikin, Thos. E. Lee and Ralph Stewart, with “The Blue Mouse” company. End of Strike Opens Park. E » ^NSVILLE, Ind., Aug. 12—The street car strike was called off in this city on August 6, and Managers Sweeton and Raymond got busy at once to open Oak Summit park, which has been closed for the past ten weeks. Being so late in the week, it was impossible to secure a vaudeville bill, so they engaged the Majestic musical stock company, presenting “A Night in Paris.” After this week vaudeville will be seen at Oak Summit the same as always. — OBER- DORFER. Oscar Hammerstein is in town again. It is said that he is on a still hunt for an opera house. He is not doing much talking, but Hemmerstein appears to be think- Wants ing deeply. “An Opera House. oyster is a great speech-maker for noise compared with me,” said the great impressario when he was ap¬ proached. It appears that the Man¬ hattan company has been temporarily shut out of the Auditorium by a Chi¬ cago contract signed in Munich last week, giving the Metropolitan the right of way. The rumor is that Mr. Hammerstein will try to find a site, and rush a new house, so that it will be ready for his song birds early next spring. Several conferences with business men have been held, but as yet nothing has been made public as to the plans. “The Goddess of Liberty,” the new Adams-Hough-Howard musical come¬ dy offering was revealed for the first time to a Chicago audience, Tuesday night at the Princess theater, under auspicious circumstances. All of the Adams-Hough-Howard fans were present, and they applauded and ap¬ plauded, and the final curtain did not descend until about 11:30, but no one seemed to care as to that. The new show is elegantly caparisoned, as is usual with the offerings of Mort H. Singer. It is filled with melodies of the Joseph E. Howard brand, which means that it has a number of popular ditties which will soon be sung, hummed and whistled in all the con¬ fines of the city. There is a plot, but it is not one that will tax the mind or strain the brain to follow. It is a simple little, harmless plot, all about a match-making mamma, who wants her daughter to wed a title, and a title hunting young man, who wants to wed an heiress. But alas! for the plans of both. A pretty but penniless girl puts in her appearance just as the wedding is about to be rehearsed, and there, is much heart burning, and struggling to be free. A bogus telegram, stat¬ ing that the titled foreigner is not titled at all, rights matters, and when the curtain finally falls every one ap¬ pears to be happy, and even the pen¬ niless pretty one. is found to have come into a nice fortune. This story is told in three acts of songs, dances, ensembles and gorgeous costumes. The scenic background is elegant and tasteful and the show is quite menner- ly, as the phrase is now with dramatic reviewers, albeit, there are slight touches that border just a little on the tainted order, so much decried in musical comedy. The cast is a good one, and a popu¬ lar one. George Parsons, good look¬ ing, graceful and easy in carriage is Lord Jack Wayngate, the heiress seeking foreigner. Miss Alma Youlin, is the good looking heiress, who wants a title, and Miss Sallie Fisher is the sweet voiced and svelte, penni¬ less girl, who causes all the trouble. James C. Marlowe is the American father, with a physical culture fad that causes many a laugh and Johnny Fogarty is seen in a character role that affords him many good lines and brings him much flattering laughter and applause. There are three songs that now seem to be favorites. One is called “If all the Moons Were Honey¬ moons,” another “Here’s to the Last Girl,” and “The Haunted Pool,” sung by James Marlowe and a male chorus, is quite an ambitious musical effort. From all present indications, the piece is another success added to the long list of Singer productions, and the merry, if quite improbable attraction will doubtless have a long run in its present abiding place. Eddie Craven, of “The Blue Mouse,” is a humorist. He is having lots of fun during the last days of his stay in Chicago talking about Eddie Craven a new play, called Writes “The Revenge,” which New Play? he says he is writing. When I get my show together we are going to travel in our own car, called ‘Sweet Evening Breeze,’ says Craven. “I have engaged Hugh Brandon Swilter as my leading man, and Alonzo Irving Gagg as heavy man. Heliotrope Heatherbud is to be my ingenue, and Gladys Glen- denningburrough my leading woman. I take great pride in my working force, which consists of the following people: Lemuel Tweels is to be the electrician, Andy McGanky, the prop¬ erty man, and Emanuel Plit my stage carpenter. Tyler Hoot and Bim Goss will be ahead of the show, and Nathan B. Goodnow will be the manager. Vandyke Brown is to be the scenic artist, and I think I will have Mc- Connigle and McGurgle, and Hoop- sick and Haley do vaudeville turns be¬ tween acts, with Prof. Giovanni and his trained cockatoos as an added at¬ traction.” As may be seen from the above, Mr. Craven is great on finding peculiar Charles A. Kester, well known in Chicago is spending his vacation in and around Detroit, prior to going out with one of J. B. Warrington’s attractions as business manager.