Exhibitors Herald (1927)

34 EXHIBITORS HERALD September 17, 1927 PRESENMON ACTS Avalon Swells Bandshow Roster Austin Mack Band Leader at Diversey Johnny Perkins Is Permanent M. C. at Orpheum House in Chicago According to a previous announcement made in this section several issues ago, the Diversey theatre, an Orpheum house located on Clark near Diversey, Chicago, inaugurated its new policy of stage bandshows on September 4. This house, which was built some two years ago, was always a split week vaudeville theatre that presented to the North Side several of the featured acts that appeared in the two-a-day Orpheum houses. However, the house up to the time of its stagehand policy never proved much success financially and it is expected that this new policy will change its statis considerably if not entirely. Mack Is Leader Austin Mack, for years a featured band leader in vaudeville and recently stationed in another local house in the same capacity, has been selected as the .permanent band leader at this theatre with his Century Serenaders. The new policy sponsored will offer huge stageshows with the regular Orpheum vaudeville acts doing their routines in front of the band with Johnny Perkins as the permanent master of ceremonies. The program will be changed twice weekly on Sundays and Thursday with an entire change of films and specialty acts. Although it is not definitely known yet, it is somewhat of a constant rumor that if this policy proves successful in the Diversey, several of the three-a-day houses on the Orpheum circuit will switch from their present policy of vaudeville to presentation. Another Chicago theatre that might go into this policy will be the Tower on 63rd and Harper avenue, also an Orpheum house. Roster Is Growing With the opening of the new Avalon, the total number of deluxe picture houses in Chicago now running the stage bandshow form of entertainment amounts to 15 full week theatres with approximately that many more smaller houses offering the policy on a smaller basis, either split week or Saturdays and Sundays. Some of the small theatres in Chicago that have recently adopted the stage bandshow, which is better known as the Paul Ash policy, are the Crystal, Terminal, Windsor, Belpark and Ambassador, all neighborhood theatres. This gives presentation artists approxi Buddy Fisher Austin Mack Francis Kromar Leonard Smith mately 30 weeks work in Chicago with probably enough on the outskirts to fill in a whole year without making many long jumps. This situation did not exist a year ago and it seems that the policy is going over bigger and better every week wherever it is installed and in some cases it has even been remarked that this new policy was the life saver of the deluxe picture house as well as many of the neighborhood theatres. Sid Berman to Write for “Herald” It is with great pleasure to announce that we have been able to secure the valuable writings of Sidney Berman, buyer of sheet music for Lyon and Healy of Chicago. Mr. Berman will contribute to the Presentation Department each week a column devoted to new songs and their musical values to organists and band leaders. Many know that Mr. Berman is a man of high standing in the music trade as well as outside of the publishing business, and we know that he is quite adept for this sort of work. We are very sure that our readers as well as all music publishers shall enjoy reading Mr. Berman’s advice on songs each week. The first installment will appear in our next issue. Buddy Fisher Directing at Cooney House Special Permit Lets Theatre Remain Open for Its Premiere By A. RAYMOND GALLO After several months of planning and construction the Avalon theatre has opened in Chicago. This house, whose policy is to present stage bandshows and feature films, was conceived by John Eberson, prominent theatre architect, who has many other deluxe theatres to his credit. The house, which is located on 79th street and Stony Island avenue, Chicago’s far South Side, is of Persian construction and is probably the last word in beauty and art as a cinema palace. Buddy Fisher is the youthful band leader selected to present stageshows here. This theatre opened on August 29, the evening of the recent Chicago strike which compelled over 370 Chicago theatres to close. Given Special Permit In spite of the prevailing strike, which later closed all the theatres, the Cooney Brothers, who are the owners of the Avalon and the operators of 10 Chicago theatres, were granted a special permit to remain open due to the fact that they had sent out hundreds of invitations for the premiere opening of their new theatre. On the scheduled evening at 5:30 p. m. 79th street and part of Stony Island at that corner were blocked for hours by the crowd of amusement seekers who were attending the opening of their new community amusement house. It seems that the opening of this theatre meant something different to the public of this district. Many Financially Interested All openings more or less create an unusual amount of interest, either from the standpoint of. curiosity or because such affairs should be considered an event. However, this occasion was different. The Avalon had been in construction for nearly a year or more and hundreds of people in its vicinity are financially interested in the enterprise ( Continued on page 35)