National vaudeville artists fund (1924)

The Eighth Annual Benefit • HE unanimity with which the American public now esteems vaudeville, its artists, its methods and T-f— its managers, is the finest and most lasting tribute to this branch of the theatrical profession. I Nearly thirty years of the history of vaudeville elapsed before the people of the United States, and of the world at large, fully realized the boundless scope, the power for good, the infinite diversity, the general appeal and the ever-widening possibilities of this form of amusement. From year to year the number of artists identified with this form of entertainment became greater; the foremost protagonists of grand opera, the drama, dancing and the concert stage gladly enlisted with us for the always widening opportunities of American vaudeville, until now the National Vaudeville Artists, Inc., including more than 20,000 members, is the largest, the most representative, the most effective and harmonious organization that the world of the theatre has ever known. It has come to pass, too, that almost every field of stage endeavor continues to draw upon vaudeville for its most advanced and striking features, and, in like manner, the vaudeville stage has come to be a lodestone of attraction for all eminent men and women of the theatre. During the eight years since the establishment of this organization and the simultaneous launching of the Vaudeville Managers’ Protective Association, the peace and prosperity, the widening popularity and growing distinction of our profession, collectively and individually, have been the admiration of the American public, the press, the church, the schools and the best exponents of the fine arts. The fraternal and equitable agreements entered into, and unswervingly maintained in the combined spirit of good fellowship and common sense, have created a new and glorious era in our profession — an era that is vitalized with the spirit of progress, of co-operation, of justice and of mutual respect between the artist, the manager and the patron of vaudeville. The broad and always growing appeal of vaudeville to the people of the United States has, without question, been quickened and intensified by the never-failing eagerness with which every member of our profession devotes and dedicates himself to the service of patriotism, to the cause of charity, to the constructive enterprises of religion, education and art. For two years past N. V’. A. Week has assumed the extent and significance of a national celebration, and the zeal and generosity of the public at large in every city and town, from coast to coast and from the Rio Grande to the Canadian border, have given ample proof of the estimate in which we artists of vaudeville are held by our managers, our contemporary artists in other fields and our public. This year the nation-wide celebration of N. V. A. Week following Easter Sunday was more enthusiastic, more spontaneous and more distinguished than ever. Over fourteen hundred theatres, a list which includes all vaudeville houses, many dramatic theatres, motionpicture houses and concert halls, were this year given over to the celebration of N. V. A. Week and the assemblage of funds for the Sick and Benefit Fund of our organization. To-night is the culmination and metropolitan combination of this annual celebration, and your presence here denotes your own intelligent appraisement of what vaudeville as an institution and the National Vaudeville Artists, Inc., mean to you, whether you are of the profession or a devotee of it. At this moment four of the largest theatres in the world are packed with happy and sympathetic audiences witnessing simultaneous performances in which the most illustrious artists of every department of the theatre are appearing in our behalf. B. F. Keith’s New York Hippodrome, the Metropolitan Opera House, the New Amsterdam Theatre, and the Manhattan Opera House are to-night the scenes of four of the most remarkable simultaneous benefit performances the world has known. N. V. A. Week of 1924 was phenomenal in its universal observance. To-night New York caps the climax with this quadruple carnival in behalf of our Sick and Benefit Fund, and, in both the artistic sense and in the matter of established popularity, fixes the status of the National Vaudeville Artists. The de luxe souvenir programme now in your hands, another historic and precious example of the “printer’s art preservative,” is final evidence of the sustained and pragmatic loyalty not only of our own profession, but of leading factors in finance, in manufacture and in every progressive field of American endeavor, to the National Vaudeville Artists and to the unselfish humanitarian work done with always increasing efficiency by our Sick and Benefit Fund. The six hundred and forty-four thousand one hundred and seventy-four dollars and twentyone cents disbursed by this Fund since 1917 in aid of unfortunate and ailing members of the N. V. A.; the one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars paid out in life insurance to the families of our deceased artists; the sums distributed for helping members stranded abroad, for funerals, for the care of consumptives, for the succor of many hapless artists overtaken by old age and sometimes not even members of the N. V. A., are among the causes and purposes to which N. V. A. Week and this “Night of Nights” in the Vaudeville world are devoted. Your presence here proves that you understand and approve, and this volume is a token and a guerdon of the loving and fraternal regard in which the National V’audeville Artists hold everybody who is here and everyone who is represented in this volume.