The Billboard 1905-06-03: Vol 17 Iss 22 (1905-06-03)

4 : Hy t a ga Personal News, Views and Items of Genera! Interest Gleaned In the Great Metropolis New YorkK Orrice or THE BILLBOARD, Suite 8, Holland Bldg., 1440 Broadway, The waning season is producing little of vital interest to the theatrical world. The chief activities are along summer stock lines for the dramatic people and the scramble for summer park bookings among the vaudeville fraternity. Decoration Day will, of course, mark the beginning of the real activities in summer amusements and then things are apt to happen fast and furiously. Just at this writing, however, matters are in the doldrums. -e Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Holcombs, of Holcomb, Curtis & Webb, gave a delightful musicale and supper to a number of friends at their home in Elmhurst, last week, in honor of the Three Dumonds, who sailed for Europe last Wednesday. There was an abundance to eat, everything imaginable to drink, and an entertainment better than any theatre ever gave. Daylight was just being turned on when the guests bethought themselves of home. They included Mr. and Mrs. John T. Kelly, Mrs. Joe Miron, Major Johnson and wife, John Russell and wife, and Nate Leipsig. eo Chas. Merrit and beautiful May Rozella left town Saturday night to go to Gloversville where they begin several weeks of summer park bookings. They are working upon a new sketch in which they will appear at the beginning of the next vaudeville season. e+ Jolly Zeb has just ended a successful season as the feature of the Irwin Show, an organization which holds a creditable record for business on the burlesque wheel this season. Next season he will again be featured with the same show, presenting a singing and talking act without the aid of a bicycle. eer Evelyn Fonner and Grace Mantell have become associated in a singing act which promises to be one of the most attractive specialties in vaudeville. They played their first date together last week at Fort George Trocadero. They were originally booked there for Sunday only. but their success was so pronounced that they were retained for the ensuing week. This speaks well for a new act. +o Gaston Ball has succeeded William Courtenay as Little Billie in the revival of Trilby at the Amsterdam Theatre. Courtenay left the company to take up his customary summer occupation at the head of his own stock company in Albany. ee The great success attained by The County Fair and the hundreds of thousands of dollars which it earned during its many years before the public, resulted in its author and star, Neil Burgess, becoming , hopelessly involved in debt, and he was discharged in bankruptcy in Trenton, May 22. Like scores of others who have earned enough money in stage life to be millionaires, Mr. Burgess is now in line for a testimonial benefit. oo Robert J. Mercer, Frank M. Call, Chas. Munnell and Jack Manser, formerly of the Boer War’s advance brigade, are summering in New York and making The Billboard office their headquarters, 7 The professional Women’s League held its annual reception and installation of Officers at the League House in West Fortyfifth street, May 22. The officers of the League for the ensuing year will be Mrs. Edwin Arden, president; Rosa Rand, vice-president; Minnie W. Delbridge, treasurer; Ida. Wells, secretary; Inez Crabtree, chairman of music committee; Aimee Abbott, chairman of the reception committee, and Mrs. Louis Stern, chairman of the refreshment committee. During the festivities “Aunt Louisa’’ Eldridge was presented with a gold lorgnette by the League as an evidence of their affectionate regard for their first vicepresident, ‘‘Aunt Louisa’ having just completed a twelve years’ term of office. a oe Paul McAllister has been engaged as leading man of a summer stock company which is to hold forth at Springfield, Mass., starting in a fortnight. 2ee Anna Blancke closed her season with A Little Outeast Co. at the Star Theatre last week. Miss Blancke has played the part of Bob for the past three years, each season consisting of not less than forty-five weeks, and during that time has never missed a performance. A Little Outcast has had a very successful career. Miss Blancke will be starred next year by George E. Gill & Co., in a new melodrama, entitled Fighting Fate, by Edward Locke. There will be nine big scenes by Physioc, of New York; twenty-three people in the cast, and the production is booked solid on the Stair & Havlin Circuit. see The motion picture industry has become so vast that it is keeping the best brain matter of Europe and America in a state of strenuous activity to supply the demand for new subjects. These film manufacturers must lay awake nights to think up some of the subjects and I am sure that others are reproducductions of their nightmares, once they do sink to sleep. Motion, and lively motion, seems to be in demand, and the ‘‘chase’’ film is now having its best day. One of the newest ideas in “‘chase’’ films has been brought out by Paley & Siiner, the well-known originators of motion picture ideas. It is called The Bigamist, and it is one of the best films I ever saw. There is a domestic tragedy in every yard of the film and a laugh in every foot thereof. The Travels of a Trunk is another recent development of the Paley & Stiner idea in motion pictures and it is giving that firm a lively chase to keep the demand supplied. -o* William Morris, who is fast becoming a vaudeville booking trust on his own account, is arranging a mighty good program of novelties for the Winnipeg Fair and Exposition to be held this summer in the Manitoba capital. Just where Morris finds time to book summer parks is more than I know, but I have it on the best authority that he is a leader in that branch of vaudeville bookings. oe Atop the building wherein is situated Keith’s Union Square Theatre there is displayed a monster painted sign, reading, ‘‘Proctor’s.’’ When the contract was made for Proctor’s $100,000 painted sign appropriation, it is possible that J. Austin Fynes stipulated that one of these signs should be located over Keith’s Theatre. Whatever the cause may be, the sign and its location wins many a smile. +o The Bing Bing Club supervised a most successful benefit for Mike Bernard at the Hotel Vendome last Sunday night. There were several vaudeville numbers presented in addition to the extra attraction of Mike Bernard’s superior piano playing. The Bing Bing Club makes its headquarters at Martin’s Restaurant, just across from The Billboard office, and has been organized for the purpose of ‘‘boosting’’ the new songs which come out daily on music row. Jules Von Tilzer is the chief shooter; Phrozo, sharp shooter; Dick Con, bad shooter; Harry Cooper, principal shooter, and Mike Bernard, ragtime shooter. Nat Clifford, Joe Edmundson and Al. Fields are charter members and provide the percussion caps and other essentials of the order. ee By virtue of my association with the Chicago Press Club, I am in receipt of an invitation to attend the press night reception at White City, May 26. When this issue of The Billboard is off the press, White City will be in active operation and Chicagoans will have a real place for their out-of-door summer entertainment, Paul W. Howse, the general manager of that vast enterprise, is the right man in the right place, and if White City is not a thriving mint it will be because the weather man don’t take kindly to Chicago this summer. 7ee There was a fine bill at Proctor’s Twenty-third Street last week in which Jacob Adler was the headliner. He appeared as Shylock, with Alberta Gallatin as Portia, in the chief scene in The Merchant of Venice. There seems to be a great demand for Mr. Adler in New York just now, as he has contracts to appear at the Fifty-eighth Street Theatre and with Percy Williams in the next few weeks. The Twenty-third Street audiences were not much influenced by his presence in the bill, and his drawing powers were not noticably evident. ; ee W. H. Murphy, Blanche Nichols and company scored the laughing hit of the Twenty third Street bill with their ridiculous sketch, From Zaza to Uncle Tom. It is a screamingly funny conglomeration of mirth and broad burlesque, and the audience was kept in convulsions of laughter. Another especially meritorious offering was presented by Mary Norman, who has a new idea in monologue work, along the lines she originated some seasons ago. 2-ee Walter C. Kelley’s original monologues proved one of the rarest treats vaudeville has to offer. His wit is of a superior order and he presents a monologue of surprising excellence. Proctor’s audiences laughed every moment he was on the stage in appreciation of his cleverness. -ee Newell and Niblo, who open their summer season at Fontaine Ferry Park, Louisville, June 4, booked for twelve weeks, have just closed forty weeks of vaudeville dates in the leading houses. Their route extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again and their next vaudeville season is already booked almost solid. WALTER K. HILL. PARIS OPERA STAR DEAD. Mme. Caroline Rosati, a former star in the ballet of the Paris Opera, died May 18, in her villa on the gulf of San Juan, at the age of eighty-two years. Rosati was one of the most celebrated dancers of the nineteenth century. She was born in Bologna and made her first appearance in Florence at the age of ten. Her first great success was achieved in Venice, and at the age of fifteen, in London, she created the principal role in Coralie, a ballet specially written for her by Paul Taglioni. The appearances of Rosati at the Paris Opera were a series of triumphs. She created the principal parts in Jovita Sainte Claire in 1855, Corsaire in 1856, and Maria Spada in 1857. Her portrait in the Foyer de Danse at the Paris Opera is one of the finest works of Paul Baudry. Mme. Rosati retired forty years ago. LILLIAN’S SUMMER RETREAT Lillian Russell has rented the Thomas H. Thomas property on Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, N. Y., for the summer, taking possession June 1. The property is one of the largest private estates in Brooklyn and is valued at $200,000. The house is large and stands on the brow of a hill overlooking the bay. It is surrounded by a square of beautiful lawns, shaded by large trees. ‘ FRANC, R. E. WOODWARD. (See First Page.) White City is a great success. Of course the merits of this remarkable wonderland of amusements entitle it to first place, but there is a definite reason for the practically recognition by the people and for the practically spontaneous manner in which everybody in Chicago acknowledged that it is the correct thing to do, to go there. And this reason is the unprecedented publicity which White City received as the result of the unusual campaign carried out under the direction of Franc R. BD. Woodward, the manager of the Publicity Department. The unique spectacle of crowds standing in line on State street in busy Chicago, waiting their turn to secure some of the remarkably clever advartising matter prepared by Mr. Woodward, has been seen time and time again, and it would appear that the business men, voided one of their strickest rules in accepting and care fully perusing copies of the White City Maga. zine. This method of advertising White City is undoubtedly the most effective and comprehensive plan ever introduced. Mr. Woodward has published four issues and each number has been handsomely illustrated with half-tone pictures, showing the progress of the work at the new resort and aptly describing the features to be introduced. Before the date of the opening practically every man, woman and child in all Chicago and suburbs, knew all about the new enterprise. Groups of men on the board of trade and on the street corners discussed the new resort and were familiar with the policy of the management. That it would be a high-class place of amusement everybody conceded, and it was a generally accepted fact that it was just what Chicago had always needed. But the work of publiciting White City was not confined to this one method. The magazine was only one spoke in the well constructed wheel. Attractive hangers were printed and distributed in the hotels and offices where people congregated. Every barbershop in Chicago had one hanging on the wall, every restaurant, every saloon, every boarding house, etc. Press notices were mailed to every paper within a radius of two hundred miles of Chicago; small lithographed ecards were mailed out of Chicago by a number of the large business houses and one of these was placed in the mail box of every home in Chicago. Joe Howard wrote a chatchy song entitled Meet Me at White City, and thousands of copies were distributed until every miss with a so called ‘‘voice’’ was merrily chirping it. Orchestrations were prepared and presented to the orchestra leaders in the various theatres, In fact the song became so well known that the audience frequently applauded when they found it among the numbers played in some of the best theatres. EVELEEN DUNMORE She was a member of the original Chinese Honeymoon Co., which opened in New York City three years ago under the direction of the Messrs. Shubert, and she has been with that company ever since. Miss Dunmore is possessed of a remarkable singipg voice which she inherited from her mother, Madame Flanelle. Last summer she played in the Shubert Opera Co. at Manhattan Beach, taking the role of Helen Redmond in Winsome Winnie, Christie McDonald's part in the Toreador and Miss Stone's part in The Runaways. Miss Dunmore is possessed of rare beauty. She is regarded as one of the most charming and promising of the Shubert contingent. It would be futile to try and enumerate the various ways in which Mr. Woodward acquainted the people with the fact that White City was being prepared for their entertainment. Nobody but Mr. Woodward himself knows just how he did it. The Chicago dailies seemed to accept the stories which he turned in about the new enter prise with eagerness, and Mr. Woodward has the proud distinction of being able to say that he obtained more notices for White City than any other enterprise or show of any kind ever received. Before the date of the opening Mr. Woodward's scrap books made as good a showing as many of the big New York shows can make in an entire season. The newspapers which gave him notices and printed pictures of White City number into the thousands, and it is an actual fact that he obtained more publicity in some of the Missouri newspapers than the recent St. Louis Exposition obtained. In the Publicity Department of White City a perfect system is maintained. After glancing at a card in his convenient files Mr. Woodward ean cordially thank a visiting editor for the notices which he gave him on a certain date, and before he departs supply him with more ammunition in the way of write-ups or cuts. The industrious advertisers in Chicago, and they are not among the least, are wondering how he did it. No end of compliments are passed to and fro and wherever advertisers gather they discuss the remarkable campaign so successfully made by this new man in the field. Mr. Woodward is a young man well seasoned with experience. Of course White City is the biggest thing he ever handled because White City is the biggest thing in America today. General Manager Paul D. Howse rescued him from the grind of work incident to conducting the mail order department and catalogues for a Chicago wholesale house; knowing his capacity for good work from their former associations as fellow reporters. Before coming to Chicago Mr. Woodward was assistant advertising manager for the Siegel-Cooper Co. in New York, where he resigned in order to remove to Chicago because the future Mrs, Woodward lived there. In this campaign, as in others, he was successful and be now provides for two. As a boy he had his experience with a tent show, one of the peripatetic kind and found himself with a broken collar bone in a farm house among strangers; deserted. As a reporter he went to Cuba as special war correspondent for the New York World in the year 1905, when the Cubans were fighting the Spaniards. He carried secret dispatches to General Antonio Maceo, the principal Cuban leader at that time, joined his staff as lieutenant and was given two promotions so that he is entitled to call himself “El Capitan.’”’ He organized Maceo’s cavalry escort and fought through the campaign with him, receiving three wounds. As an advertiser he has demonstrated his versatality, being successful in every campaign which he has undertaken. As a worker his labors are incessant because he does not realize that there is a time for rest until his work is finished. Probably one of the most extraordinary tributes which can be paid him ts the statement that he handled the publicity department for White City In such a capable way that it was found unnecessary to use the entire appropriation set aside for the preliminary work, He saved a very large portion of it, and got the very best results; all that could be asked by critical business men. Of course a magnificent effair like White City could not fail to be a success. Yet, if the people of Chicago had ‘not been told all about it, if their impressions had not been carefully moulded by the clever wording of Mr. W ward's writings, if he had not developed plans which were wholly new and which were exactly what was needed to interest the people in White City, it would have taken weeks or perhaps months to get the enormous attendance which has been a constant feature since the very day of opening. } b 4 be I —_ ee on a oe