The Billboard 1906-04-14: Vol 18 Iss 15 (1906-04-14)

APRIL 14, 1906. The Billboard 23 PAT CHATS. (Continued from page 19.) The company will shortly occupy the entire fifth and sixth floors of the Oneonta Building, 67 S. Clark street. Five agents are now regularly employed in the handling of the booking department, booking attractions for elghty-seven vaudeville theatres and twelve parks. George Stevenson, the affable and energetic editor and manager of the Chicago Weekly Amusement Guide, Is enjoying an outing in the Territories. Like Willard D. Coxey, of the Barnum Show, Mr. Stevenson is an ardeni student of Indian lore and has gathered together a superb collection of Aboriginal relics and volumes of data treating of the noble red man. L. F. Nicodemus, superintendent of the Pawnee Bill Show, left Chicago for the east last week, and is now in harness. He anticipates a big season for Major Lillie. Henry Gilbertson will leave Chicago to join the show within the next few days. General Agent W. E. Franklin has established himself im the Chicago offices of the Great Wallace Show, Tribune Building, and is putting umderway a campaign that will be in keeping with those of previous years. Harry Farl has completed a press sheet for the Wallace Shew that is a marvel of beauty and originality and should prove a strong factor in the advance publicity work. THE LIPTON CUP Threugh the courtesy of the Columbia Yacht Club the Sir Lipton Competitive Cup is now being exhibited in room of the Majestic The smoking room of the Majestic is a reproduction of the deck smoking cabin of an ocean limer. The unique decorative effects were designed by Mr. C. E. Kohl, and are a fac-simile of those in his smoking and lounging room ia his boat house at his summer howe at Oconomowoc, Wis. HISTORY OF THE LIPTON CUP The Sir Thomas Lipton Competitive Cup was presented te the Columbia Yacht Club of Chi cago, in October, 1001. The first races for it were held in July, 1902. The first series was won by LaRita. owned by nee R. Peare, of the Columbia Yacht ub. The second series was held in August, 1903, and was also won by LaRita, owned by George R. Peare, of the Columbia Yacht Club. The third and fourth series were held tn August, 1904 and 1905, and were both won by Ste. Claire, owned by Commodore Franklin H. Walker, ef the Country Club of Detroit. The Lipton Cup stands 29 inches in helght, and is valued at $4,000. Yachtsmen who saw all the Reyal and Emperors’s cups at Kiel state that the Lipton Cup is the most beautiful in existence on either hemisphere. The trophy is in the form of a vase, having for handles two finely moulded figures hold ing in ene hand a wreath of laurel and in the other a palm branch, representative of ‘‘Vietory’’ and “Good Will.”’ The lid ts surmounted by a trophy composed of four prows of Roman galleys supporting a globe with an American eagle above all. The front of the cup has a panel surrounded by a lanrel wreath, water Illes, ete, with a representation of two racing yachts in full sail, executed in bold relief The reverse has a similar panel containing the Shield of the United States, enameled in proper colors and surrounded by a wreath of laurel. The stem and foot are decorated with water plants and laurel, the lower band bearing the inscription, “Sir Thomas J. Lipton Competitive Cup, Instituted 1902.” PATTERSON-BRAINERD’ OPENING The Patterson-Brainerd Carnival Co. rejuvinated and enlarged, plays its opening date of the season fn Winfleld, Kan., May 7, under the auspices of the Winfield Commercial Club. The entire show has gone through a thorough overhauling, perfecting repairs and adding “new features. Closing at Winfield last October the storage rooms here have been a veritable work shop during the winter so that the company is in a far better shape than ever during the six years of catering to the public. R. H. Brainerd, who has been with the company since its organization, will not travel this season, being engaged at Fairmount Park, Kansas City, for the season. The personelle of the office force is as follows: James Patterson, manager; Mrs. James Patteson, secretary and treasurer; C. W. Nichols, and General Custer, advance agents, and Jim Ed. Fisher, publicity agent. The feature of the company will again be the great Roman Stadium, which is composed of sixteen all star people in the latest and most sensational feats of courage and daring, led by Harry Russel, the one-legged bicycle high diver, who makes a descent from an 80 foot tower, leaping into a tank of water; DeVelde and Zelda, artistic equilibrist (second season); Berre and Hicks, comedy acrobats; Unita and Paul, comedy European acrobats, and a dozen other well-selected features. The feature free attraction for the season is the Fearless Hank Mericle, in his daring leap across the chasm of flames on a bicycle. All the other shows, fifteen in number, are equally well equipped with the choice and spicy attractions, and are given by the very st people in the business. The great Steeple Chase will join here after a winter’s tour through the south, completely overhauled and augmented in beauty by the addition of 200 incandescent lights and a $5, orchestrion. The train known as the ‘‘Golden Rod Special.’’ will be composed of eighteen cars loaded to the hilt, carrying in all thirtyfive wagons and two hundred people. The band will be led by Prof. Spencer, 6f Lawrence, Kan., with a complete quota of circus musicians. There is a very flattering prospect for the season. STREET FAIRS AND CARNIVALS (Written for The Billboard.) The opening of another outdoor season is pressaged. The promise ofa new spring time is in the air. The sun sheds a more genial ray. There is'a hint of green in the nooks on the southern exposures and the heart of the showman beats a livelier measure as he realizes that the scent of wild flowers will soon be be wafted to his nostrils by the balmy spring breeze. that the blue birds will soon return, that the canvas will soon be flapping merrily in the sunshine and the persuasive voice of the spieler will be heard describing the ‘‘wonders on the inside.’’ With the near approach of the ontdoor amusement season, we are confronted with the inevitable question that will not down: ‘‘Are street fairs and carnivals dead?’’. Talking recently on this subject with a gentleman well known to members of the profession, who has kept his fingers on the public pulse, be remarked: “Tue street fair and carpival busi ness is not dead, but it is pretty sick."’ The writer agrees with him, but is inclined to take an optimistic view of the situation. There is a saying as old as the bills and as true as it is old ,“While there is life there is hope."" and while the business may be “pretty sick." we have only to look through the col umns of The Billboard and note the many announcements of coming street fairs, the advertisements, the “‘winter quarters’’ and the “routes’’ of the many carnival companies to realize that there is a great deal of life left in the business yet. When we look over the history of the etreet fair and carnival business during the past eight years, we are not surprised that our patient is indisposed; in fact. really downright “sick."" Such a retrospective view may cause us to wonder that the business is not trrevoc ably defunct, that it is not so absolutely dead as to fail to respond with the slightest indication of life to the application of the most powerful remedies known. All af us ‘emem ber what the business was in the years of "98, "99 and 1900, when great companies with mag nificent fronts and costly paraphernalia, rivaling the big circuses toured the country. Several of these companies are now but mem orles One of the pioneer carnival proprietors axl managers who was among these who created the street fair business has gone to his long account. Others have abandoned the field and are new devoting thelr attention to the new erder of parks or conducting exhfbitions in mammoth buildings, in this country as well as in foreign countries. For the past two or three seasons, with the exception of one or two of the old-time aggregations the street fair and carnival field has been dimmed by @ large number of alleged ‘‘carnival companies,"* which are in reality mere “rag si.cp outfits’’ immoral shows that smelled to heaven both physically and morally, and whose stench remains to this day in the localities in which tuey appeared. it being as hard to get rid of as the persistent perfume of the pertinacious pole-cat. It is indeed no wonder, under such circumstances, that the business has been brought into disrepute for the past several years. The street fair and carnival business as been really a dumping ground for the offscourings of the profession. Many carnival companies are camposed of people whe have been run out of other lines of show business. The performers of the va rious shows of many carnival companies are composed of egotistical amateurs. When as outfit whese personnel is made up of the above lands in a town, with its dirty. ragged canvas, its old, decrepit. broken-down fronts, its dirty greasy camp followers, its unwashed linen, its ragged and ridiculous costumes and its general appearance of “ragged edged" poverty, is it any wonder that the carnival business in that town receives a ““‘dDlack eye’’ over which it wlll have to wear a patch for years to come? While there are many reasons for the unpopularity of the street fair and carnival in many localities, we know of no reason greater than the facts as stated above, the business been made the dumping ground for the reception of the refuse from other branches of the amusement profession. If there were only some way of eliminating these “rag shop” outtits, if only they could be prohibited from touring the country. the recovery of the popularity of the business would be much more rapid There are many other reasons why business has become unpopular in some local ities, among which we will enumerate the follow ing: First, many carnival companies are conducted by incompetent, unscrunulons mereqers, and a good company can be ruined by a wanager who dpes not know how to run his business and who does not know how to deal with com mittees in an intelligent manner and who is unscrupulous enough to indulge in sharp practices in his dealings with cammittees—who makes a habit of taking advantage of technical points in framing his contract. Many carnival promoters when they contract to bring a company to a city take advantage of the fair committee in making the contract. They do this on the same principle that bills are introduced into the legislature. Large corpora tions frequently influence the introduction of bills In tue legislature which on the face of them appear to be very innocent and for the good of the public at large. It is only after they are passed that it is discovered that these bills contain two or three ‘‘sleepers,”’ or, in other words, clauses which contain provisions which are not only not for the good of the general public, but highly inimical to its interests. So the street fair or carnival contract may appear very harmless and innocent to the carnival committee; it may look as if they were getting the best of it; it may appear so liberal as to cause the carnival committees to be lost in admiration of the generous impulses of the promoter—but when the time comes for settling up, it is discovered there are a few ‘“‘sleepers’’ in the contract, yhich give the carnival promoter the best of it. When the committee realizes that they have bought a “gold brick.’’ that it has been handed to them right and left, they are ‘‘hopping mad,”’ but they are helplessly mad, for the only thing to do is to settle according to its provisions. Another thing which has brought the street fair and carnival business into disrepute in many places is what is termeg the ‘‘graft.’’ In a good many instances a carnival company is nothing but a combination of thieves and grafters who need not to put on a suit of “stripes’’ in order to demonstrate the fact that they have already ‘‘dene time’’ in durance vile, or who ought to be behind the bars of some state penitentiary. At this stage of the game, the carnival company that allows graft seals its own death warrant in advance. It is a rare thing to find a circus on the road nowadays that will stand for graft. None of the substantial, self-respecting circuses will and no carnival company should. Wherever a carnival company with a bunch of grafters traveling with it has appeared the carnival business in that town has received a blow from which it will not recover for many years. However, the decadence in popularity of the street fair and carnival is not all on account of inferior and immoral shows, incompetent and unscrupulous managers and the persence of grafters; there are other reasons. One of these other reasons fis unfortunate loca] auspices. Im many towns, the street fair and carnival business has been put out of commission fiom the start by reason of the fact that the first street fair was given under unfortunate local auspices. This has as much or more to do with the success of a fair or carnival than anything else. If the first street fair in a city is held under the auspices of an organization that does not stand well with the local public, that has not the confidence of the home people, or that is not financially responsible. it is certainly very unfortunate for the future of the carnival business in that town. No matter how good the shows are, the carnival is handicapped by this local incubus and it is a failure financially. There is no doubt but that if this first fair had been held under the recognized business club or commercial organization of the city. or under some reputable organization that stood well with the public. or for the benefit of some respectable or highly deserving charity, with which the entire populace was in sympathy, irrespective of politics or religion, it would have been a tremendous success and the street fair or carnival would have been a permanent fixture every year from that time on. It is a fact that a carnival or street fair should never be held except under the very best of local auspices. Another vital reason for the decadence of the street fair and carnival In many cities is the exactions of local committees. We will admit that when etreet fairs and carnivals were new, and cammittees were not as famillar with the show business as they are now, the carnival manager usually made a contract which was not fair to the committee. In these days very frequently contracts were made giving the carnival company a big bonus, giving the lecal committee a very small percentage of the receipts and requiring them to do a great deal of expensive construction work. As time went on, committees discovered this and when it came to making contracts, in following years, they secured more reasonable concessions, but as the years have gone by these local committees bave gotten too “‘wise.”’ so wise in fact. in their own estimation, that it is now impossible in many cities for the carnival manager to secure @ contract that will enable him to break even, let alone make a reasonable profit. This fact has compelled the carnival manager to cut down his expenses by eliminating high priced free attractions and putting on cheap acts, and it has also campeiled him to cut down the expenses of the various pay shows. Thus the exactions of the local committee are responsible In a great measure for the passing of the carnival aggregations which toured the country in former years and the bringing into existence of the many cheap. trashy carnival outfits now traveling through the country. While the preceding portion of this article may appear pessimistic, I do not wish by any means to be regarded as pessimistic: on the contrary, I am an optimist Im the street fair and carnival uwbsiness. I believe as firmly as ever that the street fair and carnival business has come to stay In those cities that have been visited by respectable and high class organizations from year to year, and in which the local auspices have been first class, these annual festival weeks are just as popular as ever. In fact, they are more popular than ever before, and there are scores of cities and towns throughout the United States where the people look forward with as much delight as ever to the annual festival week, and there is every reason why this feature of American amusements shall be permanent. It is a fact that street fairs and carnivals conducted properly, presenting high-class and moral attractions, and presented under the right sort of local auspices, are of great benefit to the cities in which they are held. The very fact that a city sets apart a week every year for annual festivities is am advertisement for that city. It shows that the business people of that city are wide awake and up-to-date, and there is no question that every business man is elther directly or indirectly benefitted by the annual festival week, net only because of tue advertising it brings his city. but because it increases his business during the progress of the carnival. The annual festival week keeps the people ah home, brings thousands of people into the city from the territory tributary te that city, gives pleasure to the people of the town and to their guests, as well as stimulates social intercourse between the people of the ‘ity and the people of the territory from which the city naturally draws its trade. ‘These rea sons for the value and permanency of the street fair have been printed in these columns time and time again, and I further believe that evem in the eities where the annual festival week into disrepute for any of the reasons given in this article, the time will come whe they will be revived and made popular by rigidly adhering to the prover method. It is important. in the first place, to secure a reputable company. By a reputable company I mean a company that carries novel free attractions, that presents high-class shows, devoid of immoral or cheap features, and that deals with committees by honorable and upright methods. The carnival manager whe wishes to keep his company before the public and who desires to make a successful tour every year will have to be on the alert for novelties. The great trouble with many companies is that they go out every year with the same old shows. This is an age when the publiie demands novelties in the way of amusementé. Very few shows will bear repitition, and as soon as the carnival season closes carnival managers vaght to go to work organizing their companies for the coming season. ‘They should put in their winter months planning new corncelts in fronts, new ideas in exhibitions. If the carnival manager is of an ingenious tura of mind and constantly on the lookout for novelties, he will have no trouble in coming out every spring with something entirely new. I sav above, to the carnival committee, that one of your first aims should be to secure & reputable company. If you can not get a good company, do not book a “rag shop’’ outfit. Rather than do that, hire an experienced amusement manager to come to your city about six weeks before your fair and then put the eotire management of it into his hands. Kt is of no use for you to do this if you tie bis hands or handicap him in any way. There are plenty of competent men who know exactly what to do and how to do it. It is up te you to find such a man and then to give him carte blanche to go ahead. He will organize your coming carnival on an up-to-date basis, he will select and secure the most novel and up-to-date free attractions, he will book a series of first-class independent shows and he will introduce many other novel and attractive features and will inaugurate an advertising campaign that will make every Man. womes and child of your city a booster and will make it known to all the inhabitants of the territery tributary to your city. In conclusion, I weuld say that all we want to do in the street fair and carnival bus: poth local committees and carnival managere— is to go back to first principles. If all committees will make up their minds to bo bust ness with reputable companies, and if they cam net get reputable companies. put om their fee tival week on the independent plan, ngaging a reputable man to handle it for them, thea th “rag shop’’ outfits now touring the country will soon have to go into other business. -They will disappear as if by magic, and their erstwhile managers will go back to their former occupation of selling “‘‘red hots,’’ running comcert dives or boosting for a grafting joint. , I want to enter a plea for the good carnival days, when a committee thought nothing of paying from one thousand to two thossand dollars for free attractions. Nowada a free street fair is not a free street fair. or two free acts are given and ail other attractions charge an admission of from to twenty-five cents. You must have the carnival shows but you must have plenty ef free acts, and if they are first-class you will have to pay for them. ‘The carnival or street fair should never be held in any city where the committee can not raise a substantial eubscription from the business men of the city. If you can get this subscription it, with the percentage you receive from the carnival ¢ompany, will not only pay the carnival expenses, but leave you a nice balance in the treasury. LETTER-BOX (Continue. from page 26.) UAS Cole Wankin, Esq.. Harlin Williams, Frask s. Williams, Martie Ward, C. B. Williams, Lou B. Ward, F. Williams, Harry Warenszor, Geo Willson, Chester 8. Warren, Fred Wilson, ira Washburn, Chas. a Wilson, E.Z. Washer Bros. Wine, Geo. W *Wayburn. Bdwas Winston, Oapt Ww : 4 Wilson, Fred Weik, C. H. Wirt, Mr Weilman, D. A Wise P. W Weinberg, Jos. Withfield, Fraak Welch, Mgr. Jes. i Witman, Manuel Welsh, Henry Wolf & Wilson @e Weltch,. Esse lc Wolf, Jno. E. *Woodford, T Weston, Fred Whalen & Martel Wheeler, Bert Woods & Thompess Wheelers, Juggling Woods & Woods Whirlwind, Kit Woods, Chas. Whitcombe, Hank and Wormald. Geo. e Lottie Wotipkya, John White City Am. Co. Wright. H. E. Whiterose, ¢ Wright. Elba E Whitney, A. P. Wickliff. J. D. Wiedemann. Tom Wilbur. H. C. le Wilcox, L. P. Willard, Esq., Henry Wyung, C. W. Ww « ma Oe Young, N. H Young, Chas. Young, Jos. Zaino, Joseph 4 Zelleno, Sellair le *Williams, Jno. } wihiga, Glovauu. Williams Alf. Zielle, Mart Williams, The Musica) Zingarlo Williams, F. G. 2e