The billboard (Sept 1911)

SEPTEMBER 16, 1911. Xtte eilil>oar<l 21 THE FUTURE OF VAUDEVILLE F. R PROCTOR In speaking about TaudeTlIle now. a ae^d«I Jlstinctlon must be noteil and kept to mtoa. S"re two kinds of vaudcvUlc and they are wmmonlv termed the big and tUe small time. ?"wl°tnent about one might appear rldlcnlona if applied to the other, for while In esaentlala iiiev are the same and may both be properly ctaied under the t™ ^51' tlralars they «re very different and their oe- tclopment and fnfuro Ue along enUrely different "Generally speaking. yaudevUle has as_ much derelODment before It as It has behind It. If It Is the newest form of theatrical amusement. It has been also the most prolific of change «nd development, and the most spectacular and Interesting part of lU development Is still to come There can be no doubt as to the arm (oondatlon of vaudeville In the popular estl- siatliHi. The taste for vaudeville does not chanee—It l« staple: but vaudeville lends Itself <» iSmlrably to adaptation and reflection of fiilicmeral taste and the latest sensation of the day, that It baa an advantage over all other Hoes of amusement endeavor. When Shakes- neare Is popular only In the one night stands ind musical comedy has .merged itself Into musical variety, we will still have vaudeville with OS. Its future is assured. The high-class, or big time Tanflerllle. allows «rteral tendencies which are Interesting but which are not entirely new or untried *n this countrv. The csuses operating agmlnit their iirerions success I will eodeaTor to explaui later. This season has shown more conclusively Uian pwr that we are tending toward the English Uiislc Hall Idea In vmadeville and for higher prices snd higher salaries. No London music ball audience would sit patiently In its seat tbtoagh a whole performance; It walks around. <mokes. visits, shows off the elegant fit of Us clothes and makes Itself generally comfortable without disturbing Its neighbors or bothering to listen to that part of the program which taila to hold out a special attraction for It. This is a new country, but for all that; It U eooservatire; it does not adopt Ideas quickly, inil It may be five years before iiuch a scene will be usual in our own vaudeville theatres. But m my opinion it Is bound to come. 'But vaudeville theatres which are boin^r bnilt for Uch-clau vaudeville wUl have big foyers far pmmenades. many boxes. large aisles, seats easy to get In and out of. dinlns: table seats •ad other continental convcnleneea. In the new bouse I am planning In Newark. Ill these idlnactB will be foand. I intend to to make It the Snrst and: most up-to-date vande- Tllle theatre In tbe world. It will have a roof irarden which has never been . oora.ie'n'J In Xpw York or in .\merica. with an elevator ser- vice to the roef garden and the three balconies. It win have an clevatorbsck stage by which 1 whole production can be taken up on the root lu fifteen minutes. Many of the new Wi-stern houses have features along lines which •ro not to be seen In any vaudevlUe house In the iHetropIls. Within the last year or two, Sew York has bwome famlllnr with several continental lileas In rauderille entertsinment which have at last l)eeii absorbed and which have. I think, come to stay, tbouKh perhaps In modified form. Rut though the younger generation of theatre-goers takes It for granted that they are new. there Is not one of them which la not at leaat ten rears old. A manager's success depends upon his fore- sight and the man who mei jnst a bit Iie.vond thf vision of amnsemrnt aeekers. who anticip- ates the trend of theatrical taste and has the murage or his convictions Is the successful man- »»er. even though he has to wait for time to Jnitlfy hia Judgment and bis investmi-nt. I hare had to wait a decade for justification of inp faith which built Proctor's Pleasure Palace, now the Ptfty-Elghth St. Theatre. There is not a feature of the Folies Bergere. the Jardin de Parlj «r an.v other New York. London or Parts oinslc hall which was not incorporated in that 'fnture. There was a palm garden from which a pa- tron could see the stage and all-other parts »f the house as well. There was the dining icature and. In conjunction, tbe cabaret show. ) "'i tank In which could be shown the spec- Jjniiar aquatic scenes current In the T,ondon nipiworome, and a stage upon which live eep- "rnii? and distinct acts were run at once. SiHvtacleB. Mich as the Battle of San Juan, won. stnced there, which were sights not ex- W'lwl hr an.v of those at the Hippodrome or by Kiriilfy In his most pretentions efforts. Lock- hart ^ Rl<,p|),nts. and Samlow and such features "IT.. Imported especially for it, and its auceew was for a time phenomenal. . The reason It m.i not last was because I was ten years ahesd Of the times., Bammerstein reaped tbe benefit "Perlence. but .New, York, was not rcad.v .?L then, and l ,w«» on the wrong "are b^fU* town and he .waa ^whete I should Another development which 1 see eoming l«. ll'r,'" "Kl longer acts In the higb-prlced vsude- rnio hn>,B».. The time will come when we will ihL «'»rtU'd St a production extending mure ihan II ti hour In time. I remember vividly the "ttended David Belasco's first "sudevllle. Madame Butterfiy, at my ni-,? ■*^™'"<' Theatre, and how on the opening will t audience profoundly moved, a well-known critic, with tean In his eyes, went 1171? '"T* "Wa who had the audacity to giggle •n s ,x>k them. That production ran an hour n^ ,,i, " iK'""**" and had .a run of three Th ''•b productions of Jesse Lasky. ro, „ II "T,"" Romeo, and the big shows aur- 5?n i"; Lsnder. Julian Eltlnge and »iai l.i,,,.,, hnve pointed the way. and when the pm.ricnu public has had time tu get uwd tn win see more ot fbem. Ot counse It will have tbe effect of increas- ing the cost of the shows and it will mean ad- vancing the admission . price—probably to two dollars. The experiment was tried In vaudeville this year, and sucressfnlly. So much for high-priced vaudeville. Small- time vaudeville is on a different plane. Its development has been rapid and bonnd up with the moving picture vogne In a peculiar way. At present It exists, the result of mnch experiment, as a Judlclons comhlnatlon of both, like a per- fect blend of tobacco. In New York the small-time theatres caine as the result of a condition which could exist no longer. There were too many first-class housea playing to a high-priced clientele and not enough' headllners to go around. The moving picture gave them the first chance, and the combination which has been evolved haa siren dramatlcg an entirely new and diatlnctlve the admission price must be put up to meet the Increased cost and the additional valtie.. But local managers have found and the pub- lic Is coming to realise that there ia as mneh .amusement to be derived from these theatres for the class of people who attend two-dollar performances as for the class for which the c^mall-time theatre was designed. -And once you show this class that they can get as much real amusement there as tliey would pay the higher price to see In a Broadwa; prodnetlon, and once they are convinced that the ahowB are clean and consistently good, yon begin to build up a subscription patronage which the manager can rely upon twice a week. " . A friend of mine, a broker, met me on the street and told me he had become a conSimed patron of my Twenty-Third Street house and .volunteered the explanation. "I was In that neighborhood one dajv?' he said, "and had a few minntes to iratt bcCoie form ot expression. 1 do not wish to take undue credit for the success of their develop- ment, but the responsibility of the introiloctlon ot tbe films was put absolutely up to me after I had suggceted and advocated the move for nearly a vear. The .vaudeville situation was languishing, with too many tionses and too little talent and , it Vas the pictures which pulled us out. The whole plaii, and appeal of tbe small-tluie house Is different from that of high-priced vau- deville. It is a case of the show being the thing and not the name or reputation of a llngle performer. The plan which I have adop- leS Is to fiirnish a splendid theatre, keep It as weU as any tvro-dollar house, give a show UiBt will satisfy people and which will make them want to come back, not because they saw auch and such «(■ star, hut becnnac the 8h<.w Itself pleases them; In that way Is built up a steady oatronage. The small-time house originally; drew, the patronage of the Italian woman. wlHi ber baby In her arma: the worklngman and the children. The moving picture craie for a time threat- ened to usurp the field of vaudeville, but gradu- ally, by experiment, a satisfactory combination waV reached, which in form represents what small-time performances wlil be. no matter how Improved or advanced In cost. The ten- dencv ot all these honaes Is to Increase the arauiint paid fur the show and. lu consequence. I could make a business call. I was tired and I went Into tbe theatre for a place to alt down to rest. The seat was comfortable, the lights were down, and I tried to go to sleep. Vnt yonr confounded drummer made so much noise.while, the film was being run through^ that 1 had to look at the picture. Sow I go rignlarly twice a week hnS feel very well ac- quainted with the coffee and tea Industry, the manufacture of sugar tram the cane, the aalmon Industry, from the time the fish are drawn out of the water, aow they . are deaned.' eooked. packed, how the - tins are made, how the proiluct Is shipped, and sold over - the coimter one tin at a time. I know how wooden-aabots are made, how glue Is obtained, and'I feel that I have a. working rknowledee of the rubber Industry.- ^''^^ii^^'y'.i -- ' ; "Thincc, yonjknnw,' .that T would never't«k» ^the trouble to^ad about.and which would not Impress me anyway- like the pictorial presen- tation of them does;. "! gcf. regularly twice a- week and take m.v boy." One night I jsta standing Ini front of 'my ISSth.street honfe aa the show imn coming'ont and I saw a man,'evidently.; Iqfeomfortable clr- cumatancea with a boy anS girl aboat eight and ten yeara old. reapectlvely. I aaked my manager If be had many children ol that age at the late show. Be said: "No, but I want you to meet this gentleman." I was Introduced and, ot course, made aome comment oa the children. Then he told me he waa a widower and that both children were in school and }aat beginning to take the study ot geography. And that he brought them there to see the llUa: of tbe Uarttttiqne disaster. (It was just at the time when there was so much excitement over the eruption of Mt. Pelee.) He was Intereatad in it himself and the children simply would Bot be left at home, because they had faeaid wo mnefc about It at aebool. Now these are merely examples of tli«~ cilBaa- of people who are going to the small-time thea- tres and It also a^ows what an educational force the moving picture iii the theatre baa come to be. It la owing to the growing pat- ronage of this class that the performancea uve been Improved and prices advanced. Thia la susceptible of stm further development and It wlil come. There la one phase of small-tlme vaudeville : in. the vicinity of New York, which is passing and has further necessitated advanced porleea. Not so very long ago it was possible to get a try-out act to play In a small theatre for little mote than the expense of getting it there. Big acta were anxlons to have a nearby theatre in which to get Into shape, round off the zsngb comers, find out where the langha were and Bccnstom their players to their parti. It ma a bonanza for tbe houses to Mount Vernon* Yonk- ers, Perth Amboy and many metropolitan houses where patrons could see for ten and twepty- five cents tbe same acta and performers that they would have to pay a dollar to see a week later at the .Fifth Avenue. But the scarcity of new feature acts .has militated against this condition and now the manager moat pay well for these try-outs If he wants them, and he must get bis return somehow. It is a case of the tax being handed on the ultimate con- sumer. The small-time theatres came Into existence through thla scarcity of headline features and moving plctniea made them poaslble by tomlah- ing a cheap form ot amuement. At fliat they took the t^rm of atere ahows. bnt when I Itaally prevailed npon my associates to pat In moving pictures as an adjunct to vandeville and take advantage of a made-to-order asset, the stoce shows were doomed. That claas came Into ear galleries then. - , ; After a time pictures and vaudeville adjnated themselves Into the satisfactory arrangemeU now to vogue. The usual scheme is to give three shows a day. But my theatres give four, starting at eleven and ending at eleven, the approximate length of the show being two honra and three quarters. The proposition is this. Here are performers who seed the work and have no reasonsble expectancy of getting the big time, and here are people who must be amused and who can not pay big-tlme prlcea. ant: we get them together as advantateonaly as possible. It may be thgt some people think that It is for economical reason that fllma are given aa mndt promlnenoe in the Proctor amall-tlma houses as TandeTllle acts are. That la a very mistaken Idea. In the first place, nothing bat "first-nm** fllnu axe used to my bouses and they often cost ns aa mnch as the TandeviUe part of the abow. And then after catefni in- quiry and Investigation extending over nHmtha and conducted to ail my houses, 1 find that fully fifty tier cent of the people come for the pic- tures. I'll admit that whUe I believed that such was tbe case to many Instancea, I had >a idea that tbe analysis would abow anch a large part of the audiences who came for tbe sake of the pictures. I attribute It to the edacattoaal benefits which the Ingenious modern film man- nfactnrer has been clever enough to T lan al las to a public willing enongh to alisorb knowledge through Ita eyes. I have played this edneatloaaS value up to all my theatres and I am cenviDead of Its practical and pecuniary value. So mnch for the small time. Then are aev-- eral profalema of vaudeville which are Intereat- ing, however, and whl^ apply as well to l>ot& big and small time. It has often been Inaiimated that vandeville and the big salaries paid are draining tbe legitimate of Its best actors. Aa a matter of fact the-contrary Is tbe case. Vaa- devllle la tbe great feeder for the legltlmata. Uuslcal comedy la full of vaudeville perfon- era, ao mnch so that seversl shows tbla^n- son seems to be made op entirely of vandevIUs teams and single performera. Many of the best dramatic players come from the ranks ot vao- devUIe and many also have gone Into grand, opera. Two recent examplea are OrvIUe Bar* rold and Estelle Wentwortb. Vaudeville also feeds the dramatic showa wttk material. There Is a clever aonx aong by Irene Frank lyn which shows to a humimiu bat Bone the less true way, how a vandevUle performer feela when he goes to a show and llnda It tnll ot his'own gaga and Itoes and altnations. As tor the differences between pertocaaeis and managers which yon nee'ooeaslonallr aind In Uie ^press, they do not tneani-anything atait- ling. Personally, I am al-waya aUe to set aa with the pe<vle who play tor me and f h*n never had a aerloua disagreement with aar' one of them.' I do not think' the actor -win-t«I» anything by combinations, except the napIeaaKBt experience of finding blm~!f •«>!"«i«*"»<>r; ••t of -work. Their atrength Ilea In their aMUty to amuse and not to' their ability to i inanagera to a eertato Une ot action bf ' iiatKma. • , - i'. i - The business of the F. F. Proctor tha*naa and theatrical enterprises -was nevei In bettar shape than It la oo tte eve ot the theatrical season It 1811-12. Before the year Is over'iwe expect to have the finest vaudeville bona* ta the 'World at Newark, a boose whidi will eea- blne a number of n&w featurea both boat aad (Continued on page OS.)