The Billboard 1901-12-28: Vol 13 Iss 52 (1901-12-28)

THE BILLBOARD Fay Templeton admits that she is to leave the employ of Weber and Fields at the end of the present season. She has no plans for the future. VAUDEVILLE. Performers are cordially invited to contribute items of n -ws concerning t ives and friends to this column, which ts always oven lo friends of the Billboard, Peter F. Dailey is booked at the Colum bia Theater, Cincinnati, in a one-act farce, entitled “A. Rehearsal."’ ete Baker is to leave vaudeville and renew his old play, “Chris and Lena,” on a grand seale next season, Al Grant, with the “Hunting for Hawkins” Company, is the subject of much favorable newspaper talk in Utah cities where he ts showing. “Appreciation,” a real ragged coon song, is te be published. It was sung last summer by its composer, George Mann, a Cin cinnati vaudevillian. Mrs. De Wolf Hopper (Nella Bergen) has signed for a season of seven weeks in vaudeville on the Proctor Cireuit, She may extend ber engagement. The White Rats have under discussion a motion presented by Ezra Kendall prohibiting the rendition of any professional service to any person known to be indebted to the order. The motion will carry. Miss Reeder, of Werner and Reeder, tyrolean singers, who were billed at the Columbia Theater, Cincinnati, last week, did not open on time, owing to Miss Reeder's illness, She recovered later in the week. All business communications to the White Kats of America should be addressed to lowers and Fuller. All fraternal communications to George Fuller Golden. Mr. A. Sennett is no longer secretary of the order. Fred Hewitt, of the Two Hewitts, sustained a painful cut under the eye at the Union Square Theater, New York, last week, caused by his ladder suddenly falling on him. Master Hugh Byrnes, of the Choir Celestial, at the Columbia last week, who made such a decided impression with his soprano singing, was compelled, on account of a cold, to retire for two days. He is in good voice again. George Ober is said to be at the head of a syndicate with $200,000 capital to form a combination of vaudeville performers to play drama and comedies in the vaudeville houses in the big cities in this country. !f the scheme works it will be tried in London. “The HKillboard” is in receipt of a program of the Stockholm, Kalispell, ontuna. The bill includes a sketch, “Two of the Bravest,”’ and Annie De Koven, sou brette: Marie Lessing, character comedienne: Beatrice Carlyle, Bernice Bernard, Joe MeDonald and Don Jarrett. Madge Fox got mixed in her dates last week and reported at the Columbia Theater, Cincinnati, on Sunday, instead of at the Grand Opera House, Indianapolis, where she was booked. However, as she did not open until Monday in Indianapolis, she arrived on time. Montgomery and Stone have sailed for Europe, as have also the Bixford Brothers. A large crowd of professional folks were on hand to wish them “‘bon voyage.’ Montgomery and Stone open in Liverpool for three months, and the Rixford Brothers will make an extended tour of the British Isles. On their last European tour the Rixfords scored a decided hit. It is not generally known that Josephine Sabel, showing this week at the Columbia Theater, Cincinnati, was the discoverer of Herbert and Willing, the now well-known black face comedians. Herbert and Willing were Louisville boys, yearning for footlight fame, and not finding it obtainable in the old barn in which they had practiced many, many days, journeyed to Cincinnati in 1899, and received a trial engagement from Manager Keefer, of the Lagoon. Sabel opened the same afternoon, saw the act, and the result was, after another week at the Lagoon, the boys, thanks to Mrs. Sabel's good offices, went to New York for a six weeks’ run at Keith's, and they haven't been hungry since. Miss Bernice Bernard writes “The Bill board” from the wilds of Montana as fol lows: Kalispell, Mont., Dee. 14. Dear “Billboard: Not dear in price, but dear to my heart lhecause it is the only friend I have met from the East since I have been out here. This is my sixth week out here in Mon tana. I spent two weeks in Great Falls, Mont., and have been four weeks here in Kalispell. The news dealer here got five or six copies of the Xmas number, and I nearly fell dead for joy when I saw a copy hanging In the window. “The Billboard” seemed to be quite a stranger out here. ut it has made its acquaintance now, and also has made lots of friends among the performers In Montana. The news dealer lIntends getting a few coples every week now, as he is sure of selling them. Mon day, Dee. 16, I am going to take a trip over the mountains, about a bundred miles dy stage, to a new town just —s built up, called Gateway. The town of Kalispell is in a valley. All that I can see around me is mountains. We had a snow storm last night, and gvenzeees is beautiful to-day. The air is fine out here, and I must say that my health is improved wonderfully since I have been out here. Every town of any size at all has one or two theaters, and there are five or six performers at every one of them. Now, wishing “The isillboard’’ a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, I remain your friend from the ACROSS THE WATER. Performers are cordially invited to contribut items of news concerning themesives and friend: to this column, which ts always open to friends of the Billboard. Henry Ek. Dixey will open an engagement at the Empire, Leicester Square, London, this month. Harry Houdini is mystifying and grattfying Parisian playgoers with his wonderfu! handeuff and trunk tricks. J. T. Green, the well-known English eritic, in a London lecture took a severe fall out of the American Theatrical Trust. Madge Lessing is finding favor in the various London music halls. “‘Mah Moonlight Lou,’ as sung by this popular American, is a hit. DeWitt and Burns are an American team waking good in “dear old London.”” They are doing their clever acrobatic work at the Alhambra. London friends of the late Mr. J. Hardy, who was a member of the Olympia Quintette. are raising funds to pay the passage of his widow back to America. Anna Mari, an American girl, made her initial appearance in London on Nov. 24, and made a big hit. Critics are unanimous ‘n xoting her a successful raconteuse. wy lish White Waters are prospering. They are ‘going to bid adieu to their present haunts at the White Horse, Brixton, and take wp quarters at the palatial Vaudeville Club. The Robert Baker Trio have returned from America, after a tour of the Western States. On aceount of the indisposition of Mr. Robinson, their New York engagement was canceled. The annual entertainment for the benefit of the Music Hall Benevolent Fund was held in London at the Oxford, Nov. 25, before the largest crowd ever assembled on a similar occasion. “Kid” MeCoy is appearing nightly in the London Wonderland in boxing and bagpunching exhibitions. He is billed as the toptiner of a bill containing some wellknown performers. Norman J. Norman, for a long time Mr. Lederer’s confidential representative at London, has embarked in a general steamship and tourist business, with headquarters at 33 Haymarket. tert Howard and Leona Bland, in their vardeville sketch, “‘A Strange Boy,”’ have been especially engaged for the great Lafayette show. Howards’ clever comedy piano work is a winner. William Clarkson carried off the prizes for costume in “Goosey Goosey Gander,” and for his representation of Li Hung Chang. The contest, held at Covent Garden, was witnessed by many. The ninth anniversary of the Palace Theiter was celebrated in an elegant manner by Manager Charles Morton on Dec. 10. Among the artists who appeared were Miss aga Crolley, Miss Marguerite Cornille, Miss Hime Beringer, La Belle Dazie and others. The House of Lords has unanimously decided the case for the possession of Daly's Léndon Theater, in favor of the Daly heirs. In addition they will receive about $100,000 as their share of the earnings of “San Toy,” to say nothing of damages they have sustained. La Belle Dazie, a St. Louis girl, is making inroads on the hearts of Londoners at the Palace Theater. She is building 7 a reputation as a dancer, and already her pretty features have become familiar to —" of the British press. La Belle Jazie traveled in America for two years with ‘“‘The Belle of New York.” Dan Leno is the envy of every comedian in Britain just now. Leno, by special command, appeared before King Edward, who spoke In glowing terms of his performance, and presented him with a token in the shape of a pin. The next night Dan resumed his place at the London Pavilion, and was the recipient of one of the most remarkable demonstrations of favor in the history of the stage. ODDS AND ENDS. Managers, press agents, stage managers, treasurers, met formers, ete., ave tavteed te contribute items of news concerning themacives friends or houses to this column, which is always open to friends of the Biliboard. The Brunes Company, in “Theodora,” closed at Danville, IIL, Dec. 16. The Brunes left the show in Nebraska. Mrs. Elizabeth oe a Boston beanty, and wife of a millionaire society man of the Hub, is to go on the stage. Darling and Woodferd’s Vaudeville Circus was tied up at Hamilton, O., on a suit filed by Hennegan & Co., printers, Cincinnati.. Laurant Howard, a well-known performer and recently stage manager of the Orpheum Theater, Brooklyn, died in New York Dee. 4 Everett King, a well-known newspaper man and actor, founder and secretary of Shakespeare's Birthday Club of New York died in that city Dec. 15 from diphtheria. Lillian Verena is suing John Kill, a New York druggist. for $2,000 damages She bought from him what she supposed were henna leaves, to dye her hair red—instead it turned green. Maud Adams has inherited some valuable Colorado mining property from Capt. John F. Evans, who died recently in Denver, and who Knew and admired Miss Adams when she was a child. Thieves broke into the dressing rooms of the Bijou Theater, New York, last week. and took everything of value they could find, including the wardrobes belonging to Dave Warfield and Marie Bates. John Philip Sousa opened his New York season at the Herald Beuare Theater Dec. 22. Among the numbers on the program West, BERNICE BERNARD. Richard Mansfield, which has never before been heard in public. Vau) Shine, a Brooklyn insurance broker, was given an indeterminate sentence of from one to five years in the penitentiary by Judge Aspinwall, of Brooklyn, for bigamy. His second wife is Elsie Wolfe, an actress, 19 years old. Samuel Schnier, a performer in the cast of “A Russian Slave,"’ was accidentally shot and seriously wounded by Joseph Hahn, a fellow performer, at Glickman’s Theater, Chicago. The wad froin the car tridge struck Schnier above the temple. Manager J. C. Packer, of the Chestnat Street Theater, Sunbury, Pa., entertained the "Middleman" Company after yo ml formance Dec. 14. These banquets of Manager Packer are an enjoyable innovation in the theatrical business and many professionals will willingly vouch for the statement that he is the ‘‘best fellow’’ along the ine. Ellis Glenn, the man-woman, whose trial at Parkersburg, W. Va., was a shock to the decent community, threatens to go to Cincinnati to study for the stage. Overtures were made by his, or her, manager to Col. Fennessy, of the People’s Theater, Cincinnati, but the Colonel replied that he is not running either a sideshow or a museum of anatomy. Messrs. S. P. Bender, of ‘““‘The Katzen Jammer Kids” Company; Joe Devlin, of the Reilly and Woods Big Show, and Fred Raymond, of the *‘Missouri Girl’? Company, were ‘Billboard’ cailers Dec. 19. All united in congratulating the management of “The Billboard’’ on its Christmas edition, and each pronounced it the handsomest piece of printers’ art he ever saw. Jim Considine, the well-known theatrica! manager and sporting man who was convicted of participating in a postoffice robbery at Granville, O., in 1896, and who has been out on bond pending an appeal of his case, has surrendered to the United States Marshall at Cincinnati, the appeal having been decided against him. He must serve five yeers in the Ohio Penitentiary. Ir. Abner L. Jones, owner of Daly's Theater, New York, has sued Joseph, Mary and Peter Daly, heirs of the late Augustin Daly, for SiQD00O damages for breach of contract, alléging that they failed to erect a four-story budlding adjoining the theater property, as a@reed to by Augustin Daly. The defense is that the property was let to Klaw and Erlanger with Dr. Jones’ consent, and that the Daly heirs are no longer responsible. The sale of boxes for the benefit per formance for the Actors’ Home was a very cold affair at Chicago. Aside from Lineoln J. Carter and Henry Irving, who bid boxes little interest was shown. Adams Glidden, who is a member of the Frohman forces, is engaged in the Salt Lake (Utah) courts in an ugly divorce suit from her husband, Harvey K. Glidden. She charges drunkenness and failure to provide, while he charges extravagance and desertion. FREAKS TO ORDER. Bones of Huge Beast Found. William Sites, of Mansfield, O., is the owner of a Jersey cow which has borne four calves in one year, two sets of twins, and all healthy. Enid, Ok!a., came to the fore last week with a remarkable story of the finding of benes of an animal that had a throat six feet in diameter, eyes four feet across, and when alive was 300 feet long. William Fulton told of the discoery when he applied at, Enid for insurance on the bones. He claims that while digging in Black Creek, near Enid, he came across the bones. One rib weighed 285 pounds. The length of this creature has been estimated from the size of some of the vertibrae. Mr. Fulton proposes to go East with the bones for exhibition, hence the desire to insure them. A setter dog, 28 months old, belonging to Dr. Clifford Hayford, of Toledo, Ohio, became lost while Dr. Hayford was hunting in Michigan. All efforts to recover the dog proved unavailing. That was a month ago. Dee. 12 a sadly bedraggled canine, mud covered and weary limbed, limped into the Hayford domicile. The dog had traveled hundreds of miles, and at last reached his home. For years Thomas Morvin, an engineer at the Mills Building, San Francisco, has been in wretched health, nothing in the way of food agreeing with him. For forty dass and nights he has lived on water and half a pint of sauterne, having, during that period, abstained from ali solids. His fast came to an end last week, and he now claims to be thoroughly well and eats three square meals a day. Dr. John Duncan Quackenbos, emeritus professor of physiology it. Columbia, lectured Dec. 18 before the Medico-Legal Society at the Plaveno Hotel, New York. In the course of his rearks Dr. Quackenbos recited his hypnotic experiment on a young actress, who, when about to assume a prominent part, was attacked with stage fright. Iler manager tried to reassure her, but without avail, and Dr. Quackenbos was appealed to to lead them out of the dilemma. The doctor did it, too. He put the young woman under hypnotic influence. While in this condition she was so worked upon that all sense of timidity left her. Upon awak ening the inspiration remained with her. Her sub-conscions self appeared in her work and she scored a complete success, winning laurels that, without the aid of the Sir Robert Ball, the astronomer, avers that 6,000,000 years hence day will be about twice as long as it Is now. Ball's claim is based upon the theory that 6,000,000 years ago day was only half as long as it now is. doctor's power, would never have been was “Hall to the Filag,"’ a composition by The unqualified success of this treatment for stage fright has created interest in medical circles. A NEW. STRANGE THEORY. Dr. A. D. Houghton, of Chicago, claims that he was expelled from the Hahnemann Medical College Faculty because of his advanced ideas, one of which is that at some future date he will be able to make animals from chemicals. ‘I found,” said the Doctor, “that by retarding the crystalization of a solution I could , A... almost anything. I thus succeeded in forming a shell ef microscopic size. Then I thought I might be able to place life in this celi. I assumed that if the essential components of protoplasm were worked upon by some ferce they would form a cell containing life. In this I have proved to be correct. But I have not been able to make these cells reproductive. When I do that, and I will, I will have solved the problem of creation. To make my methods simple, suppose I took a portion of protoplasm from the human body and allowed it to rot so that none of the protoplasmic form remained, but still all the disintegrated chemical compounds were present. have then simply the chemical components of protoplasm as though I had poured so ane chemicals from so many bottles. By placing them in this solution of disintegrated protoplasm a motive agent such as an enzyme, which is not a living agent like yeast, but of the nature of pepsin, I cause the chemicals which formerly made up the protoplasm to again seek the proto plasmic form, and thus create a living cel of protoplasm. I have done this repeat edly." At Selina, Kan., Dec. 18, the hypnotist Athoi buried in the streets in the business section of the town, a man named Harry Kennebrew, under hypnotic influence. IN THE CLOUD S On Dec. 10, M. Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph, succeeded in floating a balloon 200 feet above the summit of Signal Hill, at St. Johns, N. F. This hill is 600 feet in height. The balloon is fastened by a series of stays, rendering it almost motionless. It holds up the vertical steel wire which is used in the system of wireless telegraphy in communicating with distant 8 Prof. Frank LeRoy, the noted aeronaut, who is now living at Paris, Texas, after having been, on account of sickness, compoise for two years to abandon the baloons, will next May enter upon a season which now promises to be a successful one, much time having already been booked In Texas, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. Professor LeRoy writes that he is feeling fine and doing nicely, and wishes all of his friends a merry bristmas and a Happy New Year. Aeronaut M. Capazzo is about to undertake the hazardous task of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. M. Capazzo will be remembered as the first aeronaut to cross the Mediterranean from Marseilles to Corsica, and there is no doubt that he will perform this second feat and bring it to a successful termination. “The project I desire to ca out, and which I have studied with M. Elissee Reclus and Baron Berger, lecturer on physical geography,’ said M. Capazzo, “is to starf from the Canaries and land at the southeast of Panama. I expect to have my steerable balloon constructed next year.” When it is borne in mind that the distance from the Canaries to Colon on the Isthmus of Panama is about 4,225 miles,and that the present balloon long-distance record is only 1,304 miles, it will be seen that M. Capazzi is undertaking a mastodonic venture. Comte de la Vauex is the holder of the record of 1,304 miles. THE LAGOON’S FUTURE. As has been uSual at this season for several years past, speculation is rife as to the future of the Lagoon. Perhaps there has never been an amusement resort in the history of the country that has had such a varied career as the beautiful Kentucky park. It has heen involved in litigation for a number of years, and, as a result, has been of little financial benefit to any —. of the various claimants of proprietorship. In 1899, after a bitter legal struggle in which there were half a dozen different interests involved. Mr. George M. Keefer, of Covington, was appointed receiver for the park, and took charge of it. It proved a financial success. At the close of that season the receivership was lifted, and Messrs. Anderson and Ziegler operated the Lagoon in 1900, coming out a little to the geod. The past summer Mr. Keefer rented the place from C. H. Brooks, the Cleveland capitalist, who had bought in the property at a sale in the United States Court. Keefer lost considerable money, not because of poor management, but as the result of litigation, miserable street ear service and lack of advertising. Keefer has announced that he does not want the Lagoon again, and Messrs. Anderson and "eed declare they wouldn't have it as a t. Yet there are many who would be glad to assume the task of rescuing the Lagoon from the sink-hole. The C., N. & C. Street Railway Company, it is said, are making overtures to Brooks. If this company gets it. big improvements will be made, strong attractions booked and, of course, the best street car service will be had. The fact that the Lagoon has survived is evidence that it will be a money-maker when properly improved and advertised. There are few parks possessing the natural scenic beauty of the Lagoon, and it is to be hoped that some one with money and enterprise will secure it for the season of 1902 and bring it up to the plane of popularity It enjoyed gained. under the Noonan regime. sa fntullics iat \