New York Clipper (Feb 1923)

Februaiy 21, 1923 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER 23 eAlVi^DI/^INJ - yVlVlERICyVN - GREi^XER - SHOWS JULTUA)—SOTiCiS-^OTlOli—VOTZQE—VOTICE—HOTZOE—XZTRAI Z taAT« 80 VMkS beo fc tJi BMt auploa. Opeu April 16. Wut Shorn. Haw&U&n. Fmk ■how. BMet. Manr Oe-notid. Fenrli Wheel twoked. Wint SMpUne. Whip Conceuiou. FtlnUittr or uj othar np-to-dmU oesetMlou open. Toa wUl m«k*mon ■1^ So. 1 8bow la a)l booked. Thli ed. le for mj Vo, S Bbov, ICr oentrmot veto too Into O e n B d e, 1 liATe lb* moner epote. Contemflt At onoo^ Wilt* YXOXOft X. 56, Teniise Btnet Aieade Bids., lonnta, "*-"'- I hiTe the nuneT epate. beeked with 17 Teen' experUaai. FUtfoni, If e gTi e nlfml , with LENT HITS BROADWAY SHOWS ' The first half of the first week of Lent tore well into the coffers of the Broadway- producers and managers, with the result that business with most attractions was considerably less than it had been the pre- vious week. The shows got off to a rather bad start on Lincoln's Birthday night,.as business was off all around town that eve- ning, with only about a dozen attractions registering a solid sell-out Tuesday night business was below that of Monday with none of the shows registering a solid sell- out Wednesday was Ash Wednesday with the consequence being that business was again affected. Many attractions which gave special holiday matinees on Monday called them off, with the other'at- tractions that gave a performance on the first afternoon of Lent finding the going hard. There was, however, one notable surprise that afternoon when "The Laugh- ing Lady," Ethel Barrymore's new play at the Longacre, managed to almost clear its box-of!ice racks and garnered $1,200. This was the biggest non-musical intake that afternoon. Business that evening was again way off, with only a few of the hit attractions approaching the "S. R. O." mark. Thursday business began to pidc up a bit, with the matinee attendance being fair and the ni^ht attendance surpassing that of the previous evening. . Friday edged a bit above Thursday, with the Saturday matinee and night business proving a salvation to all concerned, even though the cut-rate office dispensed of a good, portion of the wares of twenty-five theatres.. Six attractions which had been limping along at a ragged pace for the past few weeks found that the beginning of Loit was not a too healthy period for them, with the result that on Saturday night, after all of them had experienced a drastic week, "Johannas Krcisler," which stood the Sel- wyn's more than $150,000, wended its way out of the Apollo; "The Humming Bird," with Maud Fulton in the stellar role, after a loss of $75,000 to its backer, Frank Eagan, left the Ritz; Bertha Kalish in "Jitta's Atonement" vacated the Cpmedy; Leo Carrillo, after a tempestuous engage- ment at the 'Morosco in "Mike Angelo," concluded his season and "Listening In," a mysterjr play at the Bijou, stole out in the dark nimt and migrated to the Wilbur theatre, Boston. These were not the only attractions, how- ever, which felt the begmning of the pre- Easter holidays, as many other musical and non-musical hovered and fell below their guaranty and stop limits on the week, while some of them posted the "S. O. S." by announcing their final week of engage- ment for this week. Those which will take to the tall timbers or the storehous. on Saturday .night are: Winthrop Ames' costly production of "Will Shakespeare," which quits the National; "Six Characters in Search of An Author," which vacal^ the Princess, and "Glory" which did not prove a big sister to "Irene" which vacates the Vanderbilt and goes on tour. The vacancies of theatres last Monday brought five new plays to Broadway, with four opening Monday and one opening Tuesday. As usual the "Ziegfeld Follies" at the New Amsterdam led the musical comedy field in intake with "The Music Box Re- vue," "Little Nellie Kelly," at the Liberty; "The Qinging Vine" at the Knickerbocker; "The 'Dancing Girl" at the Wintergarden; "The Gingham Girl" at the Earl Carroll and "The Greenwich Village Follies" at the Shubert holding their own. All of these shows played to practical capacity on the lower tfoor the entire week, but at times the balconies showed a few very evi- dent bald spots. "Sun Showers" at the Astor, which was in line to close this week, took a bit of a spurt toward the end of the week and with the aid of the cut-rates for the upper portion of the house managed-to make a creditable showing, evoi though it fell below the breaking even pomt Lew Contor, its produdcr, is making numerous changes in the show and the indications arc that it will hover for a considerable ?eriod at the Astor. "Up She "Goes" at the 'layhousc, though it did not play to capacity, did sufficient on the week to show its producer a fair margin of profit. Of the non-musical, "Rain" and "Merton of the Movies" led the field. Ethel Barry- more, who opened at the Longacre in "The Laughing Lady," the third play of this sea- son for the Hopkins star, had a deluge of advance pidilicity and exploitation with the result that the opening performance was close to capacity and the subsequent per- formances in the week were profitable. "Secrets," "Polly Preferred," "Loyal- ties," "The Fool," "The Seventh Heaven," and "Abie's Irish Rose" stood up well with the leaders in business on the week. The other attractions listed did not fare so well with most of them sending a good portion of their tickets to be handled through the cut-rate outlet Business Monday night this week was on a par with the average .Monday nights of the season, with the four attractions that opened that evening getting almost capacity audiences. Two new attractions found their way into the cut-rate shop on Monday. They were "Wildflower" at the Casino and "The God of Vengeance" which moved into the Apollo that evening. "PEACHES" CLOSES (Continued from page 3) get in touch with Podell. The latter was hard to locate'at his offices and when he was reached gave the Equity man no en- couragement Then Pearlman was called, and at his office the Equity men were in- formed to get in touch with the attorney who was handling the matter. In the meantime the show played to a gross of'$5,000 on the week in Baltimore, had to meet previous obligations that were contracted, with the result that Qarence Willett, the company manager, did not have sufficient funds on hand, from his share of the gross, to pay the transportation of the entire company to New York. He had enough, however, according to Equity, to pay the fares of the chorus back, with the principals providing their own transpor- tation. It -was also stated at Equity that some of the chorus girls were allowed to leave their hotels in Baltimore owing $40 to $50 each for their living expenses. Lederer announced that after the back- ers had met their obligation that he woukl< reorganize the company, with the aid of several showmen, and prepare it to open in New York in two weeks under the title of "I'm a Good Girl." "LADY BILLV CLOSING Mitzi will wind up her road tour in "Lady Billy" in Allentown, Pa., next Sat- urday night. She will come direct to New York and after a brief holiday will begin rehearsals for the new Zelda Sears-Harold Levey musical piece, which is to be her next starring vehicle under the Henry W. Savage banner. Although a company and chbrus have al- ready been tentatively engaged for the new play none of the names would be made public by the Savage office until Mitzi had given them her final O. K. "Lady Billy,". which is considered to be the best money getter Savage has had since the original "Merry Widow" show, has been doing phenotnenal business all along the line. Despite the length of its road' tour it had not thoroughly covered all available territory. Mitzi, however, in- sisted upon a new vehicle and this is said to have closed the show sooner than had been anticipated. 'OH HAROLD' NEW MUSICAL SHOW "Oh, Harold," a new musical comedy by Bernard Grossman, has been accepted for production by Sanger and Jordan. Ac- cording to present plays it will arrive at a Broadway playhouse the latter part' of April. IN APRIL THE CUPPffi will be Seventy years old and is going to celebrate its Seventieth Anniversary. One of the events in connection with the celebration will be the publishing of an Anniversary Number filled with interesting facts and stories of its long career in the show business. Advertising space in that issue will be particularly valuable, but the rates will be the same. Send in your copy now. Everybody in the world of theatri- cals will read it.