Variety (September 1918)

\ . LEGITIMATE, 13 FOUR NEW YORK HOUSES DARK DESPITE RUSH OF NEW PLAYS ■ -,» . New Season Starts with Deluge of New Pieces, But the . "Unexpected Happens" and Quartette of Playhouses Are Closed—"Cut Rate" Booths Have Long List of Shows. A quartet of Broadway houses are due for darkness although they were tenanted with shows at the start of the new season. The Plymouth is dark, "A Very Good Young Man" having suddenly with- drawn last Saturday. The Longacre is also without an attraction, awaiting a decision regarding "Nothing But Lies." "Crops and Croppers" will stop at the Belmont Saturday due to the ill- ness of B. Iden Payne, who was oper- ated on at the Flushing Hospital the night of the premiere and who was resting badly Wednesday. There were a number of alterations to be made by Mr. Payne and while the show was considered a good comedy, it is "cold" through the director's illness. His season will go on at the Belmont how- ever, upon recovery. "Jonathan Makes A Wish" will bow out of the Princess, the stopping time being Saturday. The house will re- main dark until the Santley show- ar- rives ("Oh, Yes"). There are a num- ber of attractions tottering and will be replaced as quickly as successors are ready. "Mr. Barnum" is due to stop at the Criterion, its short season drawing surprise because of Tom Wise's appearance in it. Eighteen attractions are listed in the cut rates, four, however, only sending balcony seats there. After 7.30 nightly seats for some of the bigger attrac- tions are obtainable in quantity, most of that class of tickets being dumped in by ticket brokers w"ho are left with an unsold "buy." "Three Faces East" has jumped up as one of the season's big things and is now beating "Lightnin'" and run- ning second only to "Friendly t Ene- mies." The list of attractions in cut rates is: "She Walked in Her Sleep," "For- ever After," "The Woman on the In- dex," "Sinbad." "Penrod," "Where Pop- pies Bloom," "Over There," "Maytime," "One of Us," "Someone in the House," "Mr. Barnum," "Jonathan Makes a Wish," "Watch Your Neighbor," "Crops and Croppers," and "Some Night." Balcony seats are available for "The Walk-Offs-," "Under Orders" and "An- other Man's Shoes." BOTH RUSSELLS RECRUITING. Col. Lillian Russell, U.S. M. C, and her daughter, Dorothy, are expected in New York this week to continue their recruiting work, Miss Russell working for the Marines, and Dorothy for the Sailors. Col. Russell starts her vaudeville tour Oct. 14 at Keith's, Washington. "SOMETIME" CHANGES. Ed. Wynn is replacing Herbert Cor- thell in Arthur- Hammerstein's "Some- time." Wynn is under contract with the Shuberts, but the play planned for was considered undesirable and as the cemedian was under a play or pay con- tract the arrangement was readily made. Other changes in the.cast of'"Some- time" have been made, including the entry of Dorothy Bigelow, a society girl, who takes the place of Audrey Maple, while Harrison Brockbank has replaced George Rosener. "Sometime" is aimed to go into the Astor Sept. 30, but the date is not set as the piece may play another,, short out-of-town engagement. If the Hammerstein show goes into the Astor, "Keep Her Smiling 5 ' will be moved to another Shubert house, the Drew comedy continuing to play to good^business. SHOWS IN CHICAGO. Chicago, Sept. 18. Show business look an abrupt and decided tumble this week. Wit'i a number of New York's sure-fire hits of last season in town, the theatre- going public did not flock boxoffice- ward. The reason for this was the United States War Exposition, the premier attraction for all ■ classes of theatre fans. Over a million people attended the war show in the two weeks it played Chicago, and there was * a corresponding laxity of attendance elsewhere. Fred Stone in "Jack o'Lantern" tops. all the shows in town. The receipts at the Colonial for the first ten per- formances exceeded $33,000. While there was a drop from this figure dur- ing the past week, business was re- ported good. There were probably only four shows during the past week which made any money. These are the Stone piece, the Grant Mitchell "Tailor Made Man" play at Cohan's Grand, "Oh, Look" with Harry Fox and the Dollys at the'La Salle and Ina, Claire in "Polly with a Past" at the Powers. Alexandra Carlisle in "The Country Cousin," quit Saturday night. Miss Carlisle was given most flattering no- tices, and the play appeared to receive unanimous approbation, but neither star nor play could withstand the clam- my hoodoo attached to the house. The Blackstone will be dark until the ar- rival in the near fututre of "Tilly, the Mennonte Maid," in which Patricia Collinge will be featured. "Twin Beds" will succeed "Turn to the Right" at the Olympic next week, it will stay for a while, and will be succeeded in two or three weeks by the No. 2 "Three Faces East." Chicago will have to come through with $250,000,000 on the Fourth Liberty Loan, and the drive is shaping up al- ready. Managers are inclined to be pessimistic, therefore, concerning the business outlook for the immediate future. The night stand people are also growling about business, not only from the box office point of view, but from the ever increasing cost of help, talent, paper and transportation. The new draft will undoubtedly cut deeply into the ranks of all folks en- gaged in show business. This has a further tendency to encourage a slump. SHOWS IN FRISCO. - San Francisco, Sept. 18. "Twin Beds" (Columbia) opened to good business. "Why Marry". (Cort) holding up nicely. y "Hearts of the World" (Alcazar) pic- ture, drawing fair. The Hippodrome is playing to ca- pacity. COLLIER QUITTING SHOW. It seems settled that Wijliam Collier will leave the- new Weber & Anderson production,"" "Nothing But Lies," at the end of this week. The comedy is play- ing one-gight stands, closing at Stam- ford, Conn., tomorrow (Saturday). To- day (Friday) it is in Plain field, N. J. The show opened at Washington a couple of weeks ago and.played Atlan- tic City last week, securing very favor- able mention. While at the seashore, according to the managerial side, Mr. Collier commenced to tinker with the manu- script, especially his own role. The author, .Aaron Hoffman, notified Web- er & Anderson he would not permit any change in the play, Mr. Hoffman charged that Mr. Collier was "rewrit- ing the show" to promote himself at the expense of the remainder of the play. L Lawrence Weber, George M. An- derson and Mr. Hoffman went to At- lantic City toward the. end of last week. They remonstrated with Collier (> who refused to play his role, as written,- claiming he could improve it for his style. This resulted in a tilt between the four men with the understanding following that Collier is to leave the piece this week. . The show was billed to open at the Longacre Monday. Another attrac- tion was being sought this week, with the possibility that H. H. Frazee's new Norah Bayes show, booked for Atlantic City next week, might be switched to the Longacre to open Monday. Meanwhile "Nothing But Lies" will be brought in and Collier replaced," that company going out again after neces- sary rehearsals. Weber & Anderson claim to have Collier under contract to reappear in his former success, "Nothing But -the Truth" for this season. They say they may decide to enforce the agreement and order Collier to take his former role in the "Truth" show on the road. "FORCING" "UNDER ORDERS." A new eight weeks' "buy" for "Friendly Enemies" was taken by the brokers, beginning Monday. This takes in the entire lower floor and several balcony rows, the total number of seats handled nightly being over 700. There has.been a new AA row added at the Hudson, but is complained of as being too close to the footlights. Coupled with' the "Enemies" buy is a further handling by the "specs" of "Under Orders" at the Eltinge, also a Woods show, tickets from the Hudson being provisional to a purchase of tickets for the two-people play. The latter is not the large success hoped for, but'hclped by the agencies is turn- ing a good profit. There was do pre- mium asked for "Enemies," because of the deal including "Und*r Orders." FRANK BACON'S "FIVE O'CLOCK." Frank Bacon, co-author and star of "Lightnin"' at the Gaiety, has com- pleted a new play in collaboratiorfwith Freeman Tilden. The play is called "Five O'Clock," and is founded on a story written by Mr. Tilden four years ago, which appeared in the "Smart Set" under the title of "The Detective." Smith & Golden contemplate produc- ing the piece early in November, SHOWS IN LOS ANGELES. Los Angeles, Sept. 18. Conditions here theatrically almost hopeless, with none of the show shops making any boasts of what monies were being taken in at the local box offices. The Mason and Majestic are dark as far as legits arc concerned, pictures doing only expense business when booked. "Up in the Air" (Mason) after drop- ping a couple of thousand on its week here has gone into the one-night stands, where advance reports indi- cate it will fare better. "YIP, YIP" SPECULATING. Camp Upton, Sept. 18. While the successful soldier show, "Yip, Yip, Yaphank," by Sergeant Irv- ing Berlin, has ended its amazingly successful engagement in New York, it is understood the Federal auth- orities took a close-up inspection of the manner in which blocks of tickets fell into the hands of specu- lators and that the men who profit- eered in the soldier show pasteboards have not heard the last of their much censured action. Officials of Camp Upton aver that even when Major-General Bell criti- cised the speculative aspect of the out- side ticket sales the specs went right ahead and on the switch of the show to the Lexington where it remained for two weeks, after opening at the Century, the profiteering in the seats was continued without any regard of the good will of the camp, the services the boys were volunteering or the purpose to which the funds of the show were to be used. District Attorney Swann also gath- ered evidence last week, when numer- ous complaints reached his office as to the specs' activities. Swann called sev- eral of the speculators before him. Some confessed they had charged and secured as high as $4 and $5 a ticket for the "Yip" show. W. J. Fallon, in a signed statement from the Tyson Company, printed in the "Globe," denied his concern had anything to do with "Yip Yip" specu- lating. He advocated a thorough in- vestigation of the theatre ticket busi- ness and recommends a law against exorbitant prices, and ag-ees with the idea of limiting brokers to a strict SO-cent advance over the box office prices. 1 31 "FREEDOM," BIG PRODUCTION. E. Lyall Sweete, the English stage director, who put on "Chu Chin Chow" for Elliott, Comstock & Gest, has written a propaganda play, said to be along heroic lines and calling for the appearance of 200 persons. Mr. Sweete has been acting in Adolph Klauber's "Helen With a High Hand," but recently withdrew to stage the propaganda piece which is to be done in conjunction with the Shuberts. The play called "Freedom" is rehears- ing at the Century and may succeed "Sinbad" there. JUDGMENTS. COLORED STOCK A WINNER. „ , Chicago, Sept. 18. Much success has attended the re- gime of colored stock at Louis Wein- berg's Avenue Theatre, formerly vau- deville. The shows have been put on by the Lafayette Players. They have offered dozens of standard attractions, includ- ing "Madame X," "The Eternal Mag- dalene," and "The Third Degree." The house has played capacity every week of the half year the new policy has been in effect. So successful has the policy been that Weinberg has announced that in all probability there will be no vaude- ville at the Avenue this season. 4 m m M, : ■■ ■■ ■ ;j< m ■ : n ■ . ■.*. '. • v - '-; ■•.; . $. ■. .t ' n : . '.M ;3 1 ■ I Judgments Mod In the County Clerk's office. The first mime is tbut of tue Judgment debtor, the second the judgment creditor, and the amount of Judgment. Sterling Pictures Corp.— K. Roscnbaum, Jr., $1KI.W>. Mirror Films, Inc.—Nat. Dlst. Tel. Co., (mm. (i.-orgo V. Jtobart—R. W. White, ?r>-'W.(W. SATISFIED JUDGMENTS. Illodor Pictures Corn.—A. Strong, Agent, «ic, Sl.US.LM (.Inn. 25/18). George V. Ilobiirt— Joseph Stewart, Inc., S:«i7.a- (April 1/18). ni:< ioivfiis. _ Motion Picture News, Inc. VS. George W. Smith. i * !