Show World (July 1910)

18 THE SH OW WORLD July 16 , mo. raUMBmiMFif • WDtLtLD^fsQ • tF^BtSSDaAKl SUMMER PARKS MAKE HA Y IN SUNSHINE Creatore, at Sans Souci, One of Chicago’s Best Outdoor At¬ tractions at the Present Time—Gossip BY WILL REED DUNROY T HIS is the season of the summer park. The downtown theaters are either closed or are doing a slim business to sweltering crowds. But out in the open, the people are thronging in vast crowds, and are trying to keep cool as well as amuse themselves. Riverview is drawing like a great magnet; White City tempts and lures her crowds, and the smaller parks are also in the running. And, among the smaller parks of Chi¬ cago, there is one that stands out prominently. This is Sans Souci, the cool, shady, green park, which has been a haven of rest and coolness for many seasons. This year many im¬ provements have been made, and the park, while it still retains its many natural features, such as trees, green¬ sward. and flowers, has numerous other features that are more or less common to the common or garden variety of summer playgrounds. Quite naturally, if you were to ask what or who was the greatest mag¬ net in this pretty playground, the an¬ swer would be “Creatore.” Signor Creatore is one of the dynamic band¬ masters. He is of the pyrotechnic school, but he is not a charlatan. He is a good musician, as well as a gym¬ nast, and his spectacular method of conducting does not detract from the general effect. The programs offered are of the best; the music selected is of the better sort, interspersed with popular airs and selections, so that all classes and conditions of men may be entertained. The stickler for the clas¬ sics finds what he wants, and the per¬ son who thinks there is no music except in a melody, is also well pleased. Two concerts are given daily, and they are well patronized. The management makes its boast that the music offered at Sans Souci is about the best to be found in this neck of the woods and perhaps the boast is not out of place. One of the new and popular features of this park this season is the $50,000 Rathskeller. This is a place where your senses are pleased with all sorts of tempting features. There is music and there are refreshments. It is an ideal place in which to eat. and where the eating is done to the accompani¬ ment of merry tunes. The Crystal Casino and A1 Fresco restaurant is another place where the inner man is delighted amidst pleasant surround¬ ings. These hot nights, it is a real pleasure to eat in this park, where ev¬ erything is conducive to coolness and thorough enjoyment. For the chil¬ dren, a merry-go-round with real live ponies is offered, and this feature is mighty popular with the younger gen¬ eration, as a matter of course. Among the park amusements there is the Alps Rill where one may ride on the rushing water, and catch glimpses of artificial Alps. The dance hall is popular, and the fine dancing floor is almost always rythmic with the feet of happy dancers. The Aerial Sub¬ way and the Roller Coaster, as well as the Spiral Thriller, affords the thrills that are deemed so necessary to the seeker for summer recreation. Last, but not least, there is the Tick¬ ler, which is no end of fun, and there are vaudeville shows, moving picture performances and other interesting amusements. Taken all in all, the park is a clean, wholesome and in¬ teresting spot, and one in which the person who likes refined pleasures may find them at their best. Miles F. Fried is the general man¬ ager; M. G. Wolf, the assistant man¬ ager, and our old friend James Hut¬ ton, is just now doing the publicity work, which means that it will cer¬ tainly be put before the public in an intelligent manner. The sound of the hammer is heard in the land, and the steel drill is grat¬ ing merrily on, the ear. The Black- stone, which is promised will be one of the finest theaters in Chicago, is slowly looming up near Michigan ave¬ nue, and will probably throw open its doors about November 1. The new Gayety theater, which will be de¬ voted to burlesque, is beginning to show signs of growing in Clark street between Washington and Madison streets, and workmen are busily en¬ gaged in making a Class Five house out of Sid J. Euson’s theater over in North Clark street. A new stage is being put in; new floors are being laid, and the house will be neat and compact when , it is completed and ready for the opening of the season some time during the latter part of August. There are several other the¬ aters, on which hammers have not as yet been heard. They may ma¬ terialize some sweet day, but when, no one knows. Take the much talked of Shubert for example. It has been built on paper many times, but that is as far as it has got. George M. Cohan’s theater is also in the paper stage, as yet. Harold Ward, the ubiquitous press agent of the Garrick and the Lyric, has gone to Sterling, Ill., where he is telling the people of that vicinity what a great place Chicago is. Mr. Ward is a hum-dinger of a press scout and he has been doing some good work the past season in Chicago. There have been many inquiries along the local Rialto as to the whereabouts of one Henry A. Guthrie. Report has it that he has gone to Louisville, where he is busily engaged in putting away the mint crop. They do say as how Otto Henkle was one of the prime movers in the recent bloodless battle in which the Askin forces took over the La Salie theater. Henkle is some fighter as well as publicity promoter, and there is no doubt at. all but that he was in the vanguard of the encounter. Some vaudeville plagarist ought to write a sketch and call it “Steal.” And why not? There is a rumor current to the effect that “Meat” was too raw to be a success. It was on the boards so short a time that the critics didn’t even have a chance to roast it. By the way, the New York Review doesn’t seem to be cutting the wide swath it once did. Perhaps it is the heated season that has melted the ar¬ dor of the talented persons who write that publication. Some one should dramatize Little Jeff and Mutt and it’s dollars to doughnuts some one will before very long, too. It will be of interest to a vast number of theatrical people to know that the new Sherman House is fast assuming completed proportions. John Nicholson’s Sylvan Players, a sort of Ben Greet bunch is doing stunts out at Scammon Gardens^ near the University of Chicago. These players are offering high brow stuff, and the high brows are consequently very happy. And by the way. when the Hay- market, which has for'years been a vaudeville house, opens its doors to the more or less legitimate drama this fall, “The Red Mill” will be offered. “The Time, the Place and the Girl’4 ?i and “A Broken Idol” will be later offerings. These musical comedies ought to tickle the West Siders is mensely. Anne Bronaugh'and Guv oJl Ll have been doing the “Romeo WT Juliet” stunt at the Bijou theater gL. the West Side this week. This play! which was written, so it is averreil by one William Shakespeare. i$ a very I fine hot weather show, accordilig3to|f the reports from the Halsted stMetll clientele. — When it comes to writing hi-browj stuff, Sheppard Butler of t'r. Herald is a close second to James | O’Donnell Bennett. One would hard-? ly know that Mr. Bennet were out off town, except that his long name is not attached to the dramatic stuff in the! Record-Herald. George Kingsbury, who has been!- running the Majestic theater during! the absence of Lyman B. Glover, will 1 soon go over to the Olympic to write ! the passes while Sam Lederer is : abroad. When asked as to what would come to the Chicago Opera House this season Mr. Kingsbury an¬ swered : “I don’t know.” This is the season of the under¬ study. William Norris is out'of the,!] cast at the Whitney Opera House and’ some one else is playing his part. Elizabeth Murray is nursing a broken leg, and her role in “Madame Sherry" is being played by some other body., 1 Cliff Fox writes that “Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway” with Olive Vail and a special cast will be offered in the City of Suds, otherwise Mil- l waukee, some time in July for sum- Floyd Montgomery, who has been! ; playing the leading juvenile role in “The Wyoming Girl” which has been meeting with much success in Iowa, towns, has returned to the city on” account of failing health. Gerald Gil-, : martin, who was also with that com- 1 pany has returned to Chicago to take another position. Since the advent of the roasting weather, the company ( has been playing in a tent, and Iowans, seem to like the show and the tent, j for big crowds have been the fashion, p according to the two young players' who have returned. If There is some talk in the _heated atmosphere of a big indoor testimonials to Channing Ellery when his band j closes its engagement at Bismarck! Garden. Some prominent men are) behind the scheme and it may possi-1 ; blj; come to pass. Most of the members of the coo-' pany playing in “Madame Sherry bet that J effries would win in the late la¬ mented fisticuff encounter in Reno, The reason was that H. H Frazee, one of the proprietors of the shoff| was very much interested in the man who was wiped off the map by the big. smoke. And Johnson certainly did hang some cloud over the Colonial. Sam Lederer, the aggresSH^^^ ger of the Olympic theater, who m the short time that he has been in the theatrical game has made a name | for himself, will soon sail across t briny deep for foreign lands, He wan go to Prague. Bohemia, there to >ee his aged father. Lou Wall Moore, who is Chicago s Lady Constance Richardson, w>“ dance in her bare tootsies at ® Colonial next week, in Madam Sherry.” Miss Moore’s costume is together a hot weather creation, it consists of more than blue stocking and a smile—which is described as badge of the new Order of Blue Birds organized in New York. J