New York Clipper (Dec 1915)

8 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER December 4 LONDON LETTER IBT OKOSOK mBBBKT, SFKOIAli COaBBBPOBDSITr. Clipper Borean, 5 Sootb Bqosre, ersjTs Inn. Not. 20. Mem of El. S. Wlllanre death las reached 700 b7 cable. It cmme to the EngUah people as a snr- prlae, tor Turfhlng was kuuwju of the actor's lil- ueas. I ma acquainted with the facts by a curious accident and comsumlcated them to Thb Cufpeb. A. Kew York manager wrote me. aafclng me to get in touch with the actor, and cnggcst an American toor this ValL Letter after letter remained nnan- ■w«red. Tltfn I leaned that the actor, havliig lor aome time IWed In a lonely way at a Brighton hotel, had had a terrible nervooR breakdown. His frlenoa were hastily commnnlcatedwltb. and he was removed—^to I!necr_a few wse^s, and die. WUlard " In " ■ "Sweethearts" and Mils. liad not acted In London for years, except when he emerged from his retirement to pl» his old part, that of the Spider, in "The Slh-er King." He oBcd to hate this character—for the reason It typliled the kind of vUlaln he pbiyed in Barrett's companies for years. lie, of course, wanted to break away, as eventnally he did. when he went Into managemoit In later life he did not seem ahle to acquire any play acceptable to l4>ndon avdlenees. "The Professor's Lore Story" was Hut ImMt piece bi which he icadc an? kind of a hlL here. It may interest you to know that Barrle wxota this orlglnaily for Henry Irvine who hand- ed it over to WUlard. Wiliard was fond of horse ndnx. and an earnest student of the form of honct. Whether or no be wagered heavily, I can- not say. But he was a booklsih man, too, and talked well about what he read. Likewise, he was a collector of famltnre and articles of virtu. It la strange that Barrett, the hero of "The Silver King:" Mary Eastlake, the heroine; George Bar- rett, the comedian; WUlard, the viUain. and Heniy Herman, the part author, should all have died. Omnia Stoll is buoy «n the prtvarauon of "Bnasla, 191S." In this tremendous spectacle, due "The Porp'^e Boad,' Morlostc." Genee has abandoned Dancer's Adventure," at tile London Collsenm, in favor of "A Dream of DuttertUes and Boses." A hondred and a t-rw odd performances ere to see the end of "The Big Drum," at the St James' Thratre. on Dec. 4. Tncm Matheson Lang comes Int} iMJSsesslon of the theatre for a short season— tUongli, when Lang presently becomes a real, per- mnncDt London manager. It will be at the Strand, of which Fred Terry Is tired, apparently. Barly in thi new year Alexander will return to the St. James*, and produce a play called "The Basker," hy Mrs, ClifTord Mills, who wrote "Where the Rain- bow Ends." Oeorge Mozart has retired from the cast of the Alaambra n-vne. in which he was never an over- whelming success. Ton Hoven, the eccentric Jug- gler. nas been effectively added to the cast. Although there Is nothing; to represent the Tl- voll bat a deep hole In the 'Strand, the London County Council has reneweJ the license all right. Tlie lawyer for the directors said they had "great hopes" of aelllng the property. Robert Hale's contract with Alfred Butt la ior three years with options for Its eztenolon to ten. Frank Whitman, the dancing violinist, I9 to b« featured in the next Hppodrome rcvne. Sam Sothem'B wife has secured a decree' nitl against him In the divorco court this week. A pair of riding breeches, sent to Mrs. Sothem, In mistake for the other lady, figured in the evidence. Joe Wilson, so long at the Tivoll, Is to manage the Playhouse for Curzon Se Chariot. Ivy Shilling, the Australian dancer, notw ap- pearing in "Betty," is likely to oime to the front. Two celebrities h&ve refnsed to permit her to hove comi>etlng material in productions In whldi she has been employed lately. ELKS. TAKE NOTICE s Baxter St. An apjnopriate gift, exact size as cat. solid cold, ex- qolsitt novelty Elk Bntton, sent registered to any pvt of U. S. X. on receipt of $1.50 la mo:e7or express order; no conency or checks received. M..ELLIOTT Providence, R. I. arranged by the firm and eventnally canceled, is, by order of the coorts, to be re-heard in respec: of about half the amount awarded to Miss Monks. Here Is the duty collectable on Cinema Alms from Sept. 29 to Oct. 23. In roand flgureo: Total, $162,900, made up as fallows: Black films, one cent her lineal foot. (1:21,000; positives, at two cents per lineal foot tSO.QOO: negative), at six- teen cents i>er lineal foot. 911,000. A dlstlngnlthed audience witnessed the trade show of Plcero's "Iris" on the film. Films dealing with 20,000 Genson prisoners of war have been procured by the Charles UrbflJi Trading Company, and the Gaumont Company, act- ing under the auspices of the French govercmeni. shortly due here are: Darrell and Conway, Bice, Bell and Baldwin, Paul Gordon, Williams and Segal, and Potter and Hartwell. riewr of the death of Ed. Leaany was received here with great regret. He was a well koown figure around Lelceste.* Square, and my friend for upwards of ihlrty years. Mortln Harvey has booked a tour of the English A FOaiTIT^A HIT—-WONDRflFOr. OPKRIRO OB. CI4O8IIRO HUMBBH. EVSBV PBBFOBI Get It Q,iilclc. Or«bestr»tlona Kead^. Quartette Arrangen N«w^ Voa-lc ei«y AT,. BKO-WS. F»nt«Kes Bldg., 8bb Francisco, CaL, JACK nENDEI. 3a BorliloB BoatoB, immediately at the London Coliseum, are five ecenes. It begins in a snowstorm and ends with the bamlng or a town. Inddentally, there is a big battle scene and a sadden Inroad of crowds of reingees to a church service. An immense number of mounted Cossacks wUl be employed. The idea Is to use relays of German soldiers, on leave from the fighting line. There is no dialogue, but much music, based on Tchalkowsky's 1812. The great Cossack tenor, Moltchinofl, will head a native choir. Albert de Conrvllle Is home. He says nothing of his personal troablea on your side, but declares that American actor:! and actresses are panic stricken, in respect of Qigland, believing that if they got across the Atlantic safely the Zeppelins would catrh them here. That Is nonsense, of coarse. He hiis broocht over "^le Show Shop," whldi he declares he can easily localize, and says he has an option on "Under Fire.". Ue will now get busy 00 a new Christmas bhow, for the London Hippo- drome. Andre (Aarlot says that he and Frank Curzon hope to be able to do their revue at the Playhonw in a few days from now, but there's a don'ot MeU Tllle Gideon will make his London debut as an actor In this piece. Bert Ooote Is also engagel. Hilda Trevelyan and Marie Blanche. Harry Qrat- tan Is the nntbor, bnt the mualc Is "selected." "Abe and Mawmss" will not reach town for Kome weeks—not till after Christmas. So. Yorke and Lennard have secured from Caryll Wilbur the English rights of James Horan's "Buyer from Pltwurgh,^' and have booked a fourteen weeks' tour in vaudeville. It has been decided to hold the World's Fair at the Agricultural Hell Just as usual this year, mak- ing the thirty-seventh consecotlve annnal fair. Licenses to picture shows for the ensuing year have been granted by the Middlesex County Conn- ell on the strict understanding that there are to be no Sonday shows. This body controls the Sonthem environs of London. Doris Kenne settled In to the Lyric Theatre with **Icomance" od Monday. When Owen Nares leaves Ulss Keane'a company he will go into variety. Wish Wynne sails for Soath Africa toward Christmas. Bobert Evett is safe home from the States, with "Kick In" U ploved at the Vaudeville Ttteatre for the one hnndredth time to-nlsht. "Shell Oat" registered Its one bonaredtb per- formance at the Condon Hippodrome on Saturday. Hayden Coflln has revived his famous song, "Tommy Atkins." In the musical playlet which precedes "Stop Thief at the New Theatre. Charles Hart, just back from the States, Is ap- pearing In the revue, "The Whirl of the Town," at the London Palladium. Marie Tempest's tribute to the late Harold Chapln has been extensively copied into the news- papers here, and read with much interest. Sir Herbert Tree allows It to be known that , some time next year he will produce at His Ma- jesty's I'heatre a play by Louis N. Parker, called "The Aristocrat." Meanwhile, apparently, yon will engross him in America. Captain Robert Lorraine, of the Flying Corpc, lookra In at the Green Boom Club the other day, I'lAvlng a few days' leave. He was in fine form and had a hearty welcome. H. B. Irving has b(-pn thinking over "Hamlet" again, and has arrived at a new conception of the cuaracter, which he will shortly submit—not in supersession of the caoe of "Lady Camber," which Is etlU abandantly popular. Waller's death Is not to prevent a company which he Iiad planned from vCsltlnic America with "Gamblers Al." Bnt It not yet certain that Madge Tltheradge will come over. George Bernard Shaw wrote a play called "O'Flaherty. V. C," which was to he played at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, thereafter at the Lon- don Coliseum. But the censor left so little of it that Shaw withdrew it altogether. The play con- slated mainly of a dialogue between a young Irish soldier who had won the Victoria Cross and hia antl-Engllsh mother. Some of the songs destined to be oopnlar in pantomime are: "Private Michael Cassidy. v. c.," "Somebody Knows: Somebody Cores," "What Ton Never Had Ton Never Miss." "Bcmemher Where Yon Come From." "Chinatown," "Show Me the Wav to Your Heart" "We Most AU Fall In" and "Ton Were the First One to Teach Me to Love." Vesta Victoria'e recently decided action asalnst Moss Bmplres, in which alio recovered nearly $16,000 In respect of engagements arbitrarily re- provinces is an alternative to his canceled Amer- ican Kigagement. OU^ nethersole has become a regular and effec- tive speaker at recrultlnc meetli^ga, H. M. Uayne, the well known oostnmer, left $85,000. He was a theatrical boot maker, but ex- panded his business. EILKAIVOR IPIBHSR, Special featnra with Max Sikl^el'a Touilatl.