New York Clipper (Feb 1923)

Fcibruary 21. 1923 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER NEW KHTH SUPER-CIRCUIT OF THEATR ES NOW BEI NG FORMED Keith Vaudeville Exchange Gets 'Moore-Wisgins 'Houses in Rochester, Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal—^Five Super Theatres to Be Built, One for Broadway Plans for the formation of a Keith Super-Circuit of theatres were started last week, when the Keith Vaudeville Ex- change secured control of the theatres formerly owned by Moore-Wiggins Com- pany, Ltd., of which Mr. Moore has been the general manager and controlling fac- tor since the retirement of the late £. W. Wiggins. The deal will bring the Temple Theatre, Rochester, the Temple Theatre, Detroit, and the Moore-Wiggins houses in Buffalo, Toronto, and Montreal under direct Keith supervision and will be op- erated with the Keith name over them. Rochester and Detroit are the most im- portant of these additions, and in Detroit, a new super-theatre on the style of the Keith's Palace, in Qeveland, to cost $5,- 000,000 will be erected. Replicas of the Keith "Perfect Playhouse' are also to be constructed in Boston, Brooklyn, and New York, making five houses of this type which will be used for the start of a "Keith Super-Circuit," to be the finest tj-pes of theatres in the world, and play only the highest type of vaudeville entertainment. The house in Brooklyn has already beeu started and will be known as the £. F. Albee. Work on the Boston, Detroit and New York houses is to be started very shortly. The New York house, it is said, will be erected on a Broadway site, and when completed, will succeed the Palace, at Broadway and Forty-Seventh street as tlie featured house of the circuit The average seating capacities in these houses will be from 3,500 to 4,000 and all will be operated on big time policies. With these four houses to be erected, and the announcement of a new house to be built by the newly-formed Greater Phila- delphia Amusement Corporation, consisting of the Keith and Stanley amalgamated in- terests, in Philadelphia, the new house in Flushing, L. I., which is now under con- struction, and the five houses secured by taking over the Moore-Wiggins theatres, and the acquisition of a house in Fall River, Mass., the Keith circuit of theatres will have been increased by twelve new theatres before the year of 1924 has passed and more the next year. NEW COHAN SHOW OPENS MARCH 8 RE-WRITINC FANNY BRICE SHOW "Private Property," a three.act comedy by Vincent Lawrence, with a cast of five people, will be the next production by George M. Cohan and will open on March 8, at the Lyceum Theatre, Rochester. Re- hearsals for the play, under the personal direction of Cohan began Tuesday with Allan Dinehart, John Holliday and Ruth Shipley cast for the principal roles. After the premiere of "Private Prop- erty" Cohan will commence work for the staging of his new musical comedy, "The Rise of Rosie O'Reilley," which will go into the Tremont Theatre, Boston, for a summer engagement. "PETER WESTON" STARTS Toledo, Ohio, Feb. _ 19.—Frank Keenan returned to the speaking stage tonight at the Auditorium, where he opened in the title role in "Peter Weston," presented by Sam H. Harris, and written by Frank Dazey and Leighton Osmun. Following the present engagement of three days in Dayton, the play will open at the Sam H. Harris Theatre, Chicago. Others in the cast with Keenan include Marie Nordstrom, Judith Anderson, Jan Hanna, Oydc North, Thomas Irwin, Rob- ert Kenyon, Paul Everton, George W. Bamum, A. O. Huhn and Bemice Vert. Fannie Brice will probably have a lengthy wait until she can make her debut in "Laughing Lena," her first starring vehicle under the management of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. It seems that Ziegfeld, who is now in Palm Beach, is not satisfied with the original book that was written by Ring Lardncr and Gene Buck. He took this script to Frederic and Fanny Hatton and had them work on it and do some rewrit- ing. They returned it recently to the pto- ducer, and after he looked it over informed them that only one of the three acts met with his approval. They are at present working on the other two acts and expect to have them ready for the producer when he returns from Palm Beach the middle of March. CORTELYOU PLAYERS OPENING The Will J. Hicks Cortelyou Players, a new organization, will open at the Cortel- you, Brooklyn, early in March, presenting Broadway successes. The company will include: J. V. Mar- tingale, leading man; Lillian de Vinnc, leading woman; Roger R. Kahn, second business; Bertrand Folkart, juvenile; May Brown, ingenue; Dolores Creighton, char- acters, and Lincoln Jones, general business. Arthur T. Bond will direct all of the plays and the opening bill will be "Noth- ing But the Truth" and "Kick In" next on the schedule. "BARNUM" LOOKS GOOD Syracuse. N. Y., Feb. 19.—"Barnum Was Right" re-written and partly re-cast since it took to the road originally a short time ago, was presented last week at the Wieting Theatre, where a mere handful of people turned out to receive it, probably due to the misleading title. The comedy, in three acts, had an amusing and original plot and concerns a money mad chase, founded on air castles. The cast was un- usually good and included Donald Brian and Marion Coakley, playing opposite each other; Miss Susanne Willa, £nid Markey, feminine members of- the cast that scored, and Edwood F. Bostwick and Denman Maley, who posed as the lunatic, although in reality a detective, also did great work. WYNN SHOW TO RUN Ed Wynn in "The Perfect Fool." will continue his run in the show until June 16. when the show will close in .Atlantic City, until August 27, when it will re- open at the NixOn Theatre, Pittsburgh. A new vehicle is in preparation, for Wynn and he expects to open in this some time early next vear, prohablv the middle of March, 1924. "MIKE ANGELO" ON THE SHELF "Mike Angelo," the comedy in which Leo Carrillo had been starring, closed at the Morosco Theatre last Saturday night and has been relegated to the shelf. There is a possibility that Carrillo may take over the production from the Morosco Holding Company and take it on the road. Negoti- ations to this end were talked of last week, but an amicable settlement had not been made early this week. It is said that Car- rillo, who still has faith in the play, would take it out Easter week if he could in- fluence the Morosco company to accept his terms. "BIRD OF PARADISE" IN STOCK "The Bird of Paradise" attracted won- derful ibusiness in both the Shubert The- atre in Minneapolis and Milwaukee last week! This play seems to never lose its drawing power. KALIZ PUT IN LUDLOW ST. JAIL Arman Kaliz, vaudeville actor, author and one of the pi^iicers of "Spice of 1922," a big revue, >rhich had a summer run at the Winter Garden and stranded in Chicago several weeks ago, was arrested ■ on Friday of last-weck-and-lodged -in-Lud- low Sutet Jail bnian orderof commitment signed by Supreme Court Justice Wasser- vogeL The basis of the order is a default in payment' of $1,970 alimony due his wife, Amelia Stone Kaliz, vaudeville performer, who for years worked with Kaliz under the vaudeville act name of Stone and Kaliz^ The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court two . years ago. The commitment order was signed November 9 last, but Kaliz, a member of the cast of "Spice of 1922," was on the road at the time. Late in the day Kaliz was able to leave Ludlow. Kaliz's show. "Spice of 1922," has dur- ing the past week been reorganized for the Shubert vaudeville houses and is now a unit show opening at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Philadelphia on Monday night of this week. The production is very similar to the musical show production, with the excep- tion of being cut down in scenic and run- ning time departments. The cast, with the exception of Valeska Surr^t is much the same as in the original show, the principals being Sam Heam, Brendel and Bert James Cody, Florence Brown, Dolores Suarez and others. SUNDAY SHOWS UNDISTURBED New Jersey local authorities did not in- terfere with two performances given last Sunday of the Passion Play, presented twice in the parochial school of the Holy Family Church, Union Hill, N. under the direction of Father Joseph Grieff, who was last week found guilty of violating the vice and immorality act in staging the play on the Sabbath. Two performances were also given of "Veronica's Veil," in St Joseph's auditorium. West Hoboken. which were not interfered with on Sunday. Recorder Louis £. Hauenstein lined Father Grieff a dollar, but later remitted the fine. When the police failed to inter- fere with Sunday's performances the priest said that he would seek redress from the recorder. MRS. HARRIS TO JOIN P. ,M. A. Mrs. Henry B. Harris, who is produc- ing Samuel Shipman's new play, "The Crooked Square," hiis applied for member- ship in the Producing Managers' Associa- tion. When elected Mrs. Harris will bear the unique distinction of being the only female member of the organization. ABUPHION. JHKATOE-SOLD ---^ The Aniphion Theatre. ^Bedford arcnne, and South' Ninth atSrecCVBrooklni,' has beeo sold to a:syndicate irhich will nte h for Jewish performances. ' ^Xhe bqyinc syndicate is known' as the Earie 'Amuae- ' meot-Gorporatioa and-has for its-tliriKtan G. Schacht €. J. and E. Adler. A. Levitt, attorney, recently incorporated the new company.' The - Amjdiion Theatre .baa been a Brooklyn landmark for yeairs. It is lo- cated in the lower WilliamsbaiBh sectioa and for many years derived its reventK from the lorwer East Side of Kfa»i»i»tt».i as well as frcnH those in the immediate vicinity. In the days before the Willianu- burgh Bridge was erected, the Manliattaa clientele utilized the Broadway Feny, which was but a few blocks sooth of the theatre. In its halcyon days the stage, oi the Amphion was trod by the'.' beat known actors of the musical comefly .'aAid'legiti- mate field. It was the Ealsteni'Sismct stand for first class shows. The develop- ment of the borough and the snbaeqtRnt erection of other theatres, coapled with the degeneration o{ the neighborhood aet in, and in the early '9ffs it comprised a link in the chain of popular priced amuse- ment houses of the Stair & Havlin Cir- cuit Under this policy it prospered imtil Corse Payton established the Lee Avenue Theatre but a few blocks away, which under a stock policy at reducM prices, cut deep into the patronage of the Am- phion. Since that time it has operated under practically every known policy, in- cluding straight -vaudeville bills, pictures and vaudeville and touring shows. Sev- eral years ago when Payton was forced out of the Lee Avenne, he attempted a stock iK>licy there but threw up the sponge after a few weeks. Lately it has been devoted to straight pictures. The erection of the Republic and Com- modore theatres in the immediate vicinity also cut deeply into the Amphion's pat- ronage as a picture house. During the last decade the neighborhood has become practically a Hebrew settle- ment, which augurs well for the new policy to be adopted by this famous old theatre, that of offering Jewish productions after the fashion of Kessler's Second Avenne Theatre and The People's Theatre. DRAMAS GEr PHILA. MONEY Philadelphia, Feb. 19.—Musical shows, which have been .having things their own way for several months, took a drop here last week, with the straight legit shows coming in for the lion's share of the tak- ings. George Arliss in "The Green God- dess" and "The Cat and the Canary" ran a close race for money getting honors, while "Six Cylinder Love" also came'un- der the wire at a good price. Business through the week has been good. Only two changes are scheduled for the week. Both have been seen here before, liut are calculated to possess a sufficient degree of magnetism, to say nothing of en- tertainment qualities, to warrant their re- turn for brief ensagements. Mclntyre and. Heath have come into the Shubert for a week's nm in their musical comedy, "The Red Pepper," which Otis Skinner is reviving Booth Tarkington's "Mister Antonio" at the Broad. The Mc- lntyre and Heath melange -will give way next Monday to another musical play. "Glory," which will be brought over from New 'York for a run. "Blossom Time" has entered upon its eighteenth week at the Lyric and is stiU going strong. "Molly Darling" wM re- main for two more weeks at the Forrest George Arliss in "The Green Goddess" will vacate the Walnut at the end of the week to make way for "Passions for Men." "Six Cylinder Love" continues to draw them in at the Garrick, while "The Cat and the Canary"' has seemed to have sounded a deep popular note at the Adelphi. BEN BLUMENTHAL Pioneer importer of foreign motion pictures, who has faroasht over the German pictntv, "OTHELLO" to be shown at the Criteiion .Theatre next Sunday afternoon. BILLIE BURKE LOSES ROBE .A. mink lap robe, -valued at $1,000, was stolen bst Friday night from an automo- bile owned by Billie Burke, at the stage door of the Empire Theatre, while the car was waiting for her to finish her perform- ance.