The Billboard 1906-11-10: Vol 18 Iss 45 (1906-11-10)

wg 44 The Billboard NOVEMBER 10, 1906. BROADWAY TOPICS. (Continued from page 8.) ing quite a worshipper at the ‘‘Lady Babbie’’ ne, After witnessing a recent performance of his mother, in her new sketch, The Friend of the Family, be declared himveelf without warning, im the Niblo-Cohan dressing room, as follows: “Mother, I’ve just discovered that you are ‘the Maude Adams of vaudeville.’ ’’ . POETICAL PUBLICITY. “When Broadway's lights begin to pall, Then comes the distant Gypsy call, That leads the gay throng, one and all, To the Casino’s spacious hall. In Harlem, where the cool highball Will cause the rise but ne’er the fall Of Spirits gay, while Rigo’s play Responds to cheers from wall to wall.’’ At least so sayeth Mindil. WHEN DE VRIES RETURNS. Henri de Vries, the noted Dutch actor who created a sensation in New York last season by his portrayal of seven different characters in one play, has chosen a new piece for his reappearance in this city. It is a new American play. The Double Life, by an Amerfean author, and is said to afford scope for Mr. de Vries’ extraordinary talent for character delineation. ; MIXING ART AND SOCIALISM. The Socialist Stage Society, which is what the Progressing Stage Society has become, is going to give soon at the Berkeley Lyceum The Strike at Arlingford, by George Moore. This is the first American performance of this play by the author of Esther Waters. The society closes its petition for at tendance with the words, ‘‘Yours for art and socialism.’’ RESERVED SEATS IN CONTINUOUS. For the first time in the history of entinnous vaudeville, seats may be reserved, at Keith & Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre. It has been the custom in continuous vaudeville, during all its years of popularity, to bave no numbered seats, but to permit the patrons of the theatre to take any vacant seat and remain it it as long as they desired. This was tried at the Fifth Avenue, when continued vandeville was installed from those of the other houses, situated as it is in the very center of the hotel and newer shopping district, demanded different accommodations. Broadway playgoers want to know where they are going to sit, and many of them desired to run in for half an hour when Mrs. Langtry or Arnold Daly or some other big star was “‘on.’" The result was that thousands of dollare were turned away because no reservations couki be made, and naturally the managers desired to meet the demand. Now seats may be reserved two weeks in advance at the Fifth Avenue. NOVEL THEATRE ADVERTISING. An original idea in theatrical advertising bas been pnt on the street to advertise The Three of Us at the Madison Square. Three men are seen carrying lampposts, brilliantly lighted. They march in single file a few feet apart. When they reach a street corner they stop and each leans against his lamppost. After collecting a crowd they shoulder their lampposts and start fer arother corner. where the operation of attracting a crowd is Tepeated. On the glass on -the four sides of each lamppost is painted, The Three of Us, tat there is no reference to the theatre where that attraction is playing. ONLY CONTRACTS NEEDED. Edwin Stevens has partly solved the problem of continuous booking in vaudeville. He has acquired a number of sketches and oneact plays and is prepared to make a change of bill every week for a period of fifteen weeks, by which time he will have found other sketches. In this way he will be able to play several weeks’ engagement at each theatre he is booked, and he is just now considering propositions for both Keith and Proctor and the opposition booking agency, which will cover a period of fiftytwo weeks in the three cities of New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Stevens has agreed to give trial performances of each play, so that they will he satisfactory to whichever combination he allies himself with. WHEN THE DUMB SPEAKS. Marceline, the clown at the Hippodrome, will open his mouth in speech to the public for the first time at the next meeting of the American Playgoers, when he will address that organization upon the subject of ‘*Pantomime as an Aid to the Drama.” Marceline has been elected a member of the Playgoers, and Amelia Bingham has invited him to make an address. Marceline has promised to do so, provided he does not get stage fright. It is an extraordinary thing for him to fear the sound of his own voice, but it is said that, in all his years of experience on the stage, he has made people — ste eee once speaking a word. great many people visiting th drome think Marceline is dumb, but. a contrary, he is a fiuent conversationalist in Spanish, although he speaks English with some difficulty. He is now preparing his speech for the Playgoers, and will read it from manuecript when they next meet. GLEANED HERE AND THERE. Louis Allen Collier, who recently recently retired from the Lew Fields Stock Co., will go into vaudeville to act three widely different characters in the sketch, Not Far From Broadway. John Terriss and Charles FE. Conway will comprise her ‘‘company.”’ Born, on Oct. 29, to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin T, a son. The general manager of David Belasco’s attractions is, accordingly, receiving congratulations. David Belasco Roeder will undoubtedly be a name well known in theatrieals after some of the present generation is forgotten. ‘Manny’ Bernard, a vaudeville actor, a nephew of Sam Bernard, was among the victims of the Atlentic City horror on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 28. He was engaged to appear last week at Young’s Pier and was to Atlantie City to fulfill his contract when the train of electric cars upon which he was a pas senger jumped the draw-bridge and he was drowned. Henry T. Coote, late of The Prince of Pilsen, has replaced William C. Weedon with The Student King, Mr. Weedon in turn replacing Mr. Coote with The Prince of Pilsen. Fred G. Berger has been engaged as manager for Raymond Hitchcock, replacing Eugene Shults who joins The Man From Now as manager for Col. Savage, Bertha Kalich has gone to Atlantic City where she will remain while recuperating from her recent illness. Her interrupted season in The Kreutzer Sonata will be resumed in December. Fred Miller has purchased Louis E. Shipman’s production of On Parole, and will star Charlotte Walker in the piece, starting at Buffalo upon a three years’ contract for Miss Walker's exclusive services. The Weber Theatre Co. was incorporated at Albany on Oct. 26 with a capital of $10,000. The directors are Joseph Weber, Lillian Weber and Philip Friedman, of New ‘York. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, at the Empire Theatre, on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 1, presented The Congressman, a play. in three acts by John D. Barry. The piece deals with a New York politician married to a high minded woman who discovers she has been living in luxury on money he has acquired by selling his influence to a railroad. William T. Carleton thas replaced George O'Donnell in the Messrs. Shubert’s production of The Tourists at the Majestic, opening Nov. 5. Arnold Daly, actor and manager, who was active in the production of Bernard Shaw’s plays, has filed a petition in bankruptcy. He says his known liabilities are $10,471, with no available assets. The Messrs. Shubert have completed the cast for Mrs. Evelyn Greenleaf, which will have its premiere in Boston very soon. The Minnie Dupree, Helen Ware, Alice Gale and Messrs. White Whittlesley, Fred Courtnay and F. Owen Baxter will play the important roles. NEWS NOTES OF INTEREST. Manager William A. Brady’s proposed daily matinees and perhaps Sunday performances of The Man of the Hour at the Manhattan Theatre have been called off and the play goes to Philadelphia to fill out the time of The Clansman at the Walnut Street Theatre, made dark by the official ban against the Dixon play. Matinees at the Lew Fields Herald Square Theatre will be given hereafter Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays. Rose Stahl will give a professional matinee of The Chorus Lady at the Hackett Theatre on Nov. 13 for the exclusive benefit of the chorus people employed at that time in current productions in New York and vicinity. At Corse Payton’s Lee Avenue Theatre in Brooklyn on Sunday, Nov. 18, the White Rats will give a concert, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the clubhouse fund. Mr. Payton has offered the theatre free of charge. Olive North, who has been a member of the east in all of the Hippodrome productions, will not appear in the forthcoming spectacle on the grounds that “she is not a tank actress.’’ Her role in the new piece would necessitate her diving into a tank of water twice a day and to this she objected and resigned. Kate Condon has been engaged by the Messrs. Shubert for Lew Fields’ company and will have an important role in the burlesque on e Great Divide. Blanche Ring and Peter F. Dailey have been added to the company for the new skit. At the Lyric Theatre afternoon of Dec 6, the ladies in the andience will wear no birds or feathers in their hats, for on that occasion Mrs. Fiske will give a special matinee for the benefit of the Bird Protection Fund of the League of American Sportsmen. She will present The Eyes of the Heart, Dolce and A Light from St. Agnes, three one-act plays. Clay Clement gave a professional matinee of Sam Houston at the Garden Theatre Nov. 2 and at the regular matinee Nov. 3, presented The New Dominion. Sam Houston will continne as Mr. Clement’s main offering until his engagement ends, Nov, 10. A Society Circus, now at the Hippodrome. will be seen for the first time there Nov. 24, and on Nov. 28 the new spectacle now in preparation will have its premiere. The new production has been arranged hy Edward P. Temple, stage director of the Hippodrome, and Mannel Klein, the musical director. To prepare for the engagement of Madame Butterfly at the Garden Theatre, a new orchestra pit is to be constructed which will be ten feet below the parquet floor and in which the musicians will be hidden from the andience. Allegorical curtains and Japanese decorations will also be prepared. TONY PASTOR’S ANNIVERSARY. For twenty-five years, and more, Tony Pastor has heen an ocenpant of his present cosy little theatre, tucked away in the northwest corner of historic Tammang Hall. ‘The anniversary passed withont ostentatious celebration on Oct. 24, the chief mark being a placard outside the door of the theatre announeing the fact that “‘The Nestor of Vaudeville’ had been in possession of his present quarters for a quarter of a century. After several years as a variety performer and touring company manager, Mr. Pastor opened his first New York Theatre at 201 Bowery in the autumn of 1865. Ten years later he took possession of 585 Broadway and opened Tony Pastor’s New Theatre. There he remained until he made his lest meve to his present quarters on Oct. 24, 1881. What was known in the olden days as ‘‘variety’’ is now styled vandeville, and through all the changes pertinent to the transition Manager Pastor has kept step with the times. Now as in those days the name of Tony Pastor stands alone tn its class, respected, honored and heralded far and wide as the name of a man most honored of all his confreres: a name which represents the epitome of all that is best in his own particular calling. THE SHUBERTS TO HAVE DALY'S. When the Lease now held by Frank McKee shall expire next May, Daly’s Theatre will pass under control of the Messrs. Shubert. The deal was consummated after several weeks of negotiation and it is said that the independents will come into possession of practically only the four walls, as the furnishings belong to the Daly estate and the present lessees. It will require considerable money to refit the playhouse. The Shubert lease, it {s wunderstood, will extend only from year to year. FILMS FOR RENT —CHI Ren UNITED STATES FILM EXCHANGE, Dearborn and Randolph Sts., Real Estate Board Bldg., CAG O— a .... THE LONDON.... MUSIC HALL of Vaudeville t iad « friendly welcome at 401 Strand. New York representative. I, MM. Verk City Telephone—%922 Madison throughout the world. Americans Re ARLE, 1148 ay. tiew For some time it has been known that Klaw \ aramatic climax in the latter part of the play. & Erlanger were not to be identified with the house any longer. but it was thought Mr. MeKee might retain the management of the theatre. The Messrs. Shubert, however, stepped in and made the owner a flattering offer, which was accepted. HEARD BY CHANCE. The Messrs. Shubert have added Charles Cartwright to their list of foreign stars, which now embraces Lena Ashweli, Mrs. Patrick Cambpell and Mme. Nazimova, the Russian actress. Charles Frohman has arranged that the season of Hattie Williams in The Little Cherub at the Criterion Theatre will be extended until the middle of December. L. MacFarlane, who cleverly handled the press work for the Madison Square Roof Garden last summer, is promoting publicity for the new Berkeley Theatre and Mlle. Champagne, its present attraction. On Oct. 29, withont regaining consciousness, Hazel Cooper, who last appeared upon the stage as a member of The Earl and the Girl chorus, at the Casino. died in Roosevelt. Hospital from the effects of carbolic acid. which she took on the Sunday night previons in a fit of despondency. The Day Before, staged as a suggestion of the Thaw-White tragedy, was withdrawn from the Berkeley Theatre last week at the command of the Distriet Attorney. Fictitious names were used for the characters when the sketch was first presented but later in the advertisements the players were cast as Evelyn NesbitThaw, Harry Kendal Thaw and Sanford White. At this Jerome dropped his cigarette, and turned in a stop order. New York theatre press representatives re organized for the season last week. Charles E. Cook, of Belasco’s Theatre. was chosen president; Wells Hawks. of Charles Frohman’s forees, was elected secretary and treasurer, and J. W. Rumsey, of the Lyceum Theatre, was made burser—‘‘whatever fhat is.’’ Theatre managers of New York are planning a benefit for the Rev. Father Ducey, pastor of St. Leo’s Roman Catholic Church. Father IDucey has always been interested in the stage and its people, and now that financial troubles are about to overwhelm his church and parish, a benefit has been snggested. Manager Gilmore has placed the Academy of Music at the disposal of the managers and a performance will be given there on Dec. 3. lasting from eleven o’clock until midnight. and in which numerons stars fn all branches of the profession will take PAT CHATS. (Continued from page 13.) weekly bill at the Majestic costs more than any other attraction running in the city. ‘We spare no expense to get the finest acts and are constantly importing acts from Purope at a heavy expense, in addition to placing before our patrons the finest musical and dramatic stars of America. The old variety acts are almost entirely eliminated from ovr hills and the old-style ‘supper act’ or ‘chaser’ as it is better known, has disappeared entirely from our bills. Onur acts must be purged of every suggestive line before playing our houses, and there is less chance of an improner remark on the stage in our theatres than in any of the dramatic houses, “We have very little of the old-style of comedy used in the variety houses. Dramatic sketches are in great vogne at present. And In this connection I want to tell you something. Tt takes a better actor or actress to score a hit In a fifteen minute skit than {ft does for a three hour play. Many stars who have been apparently huge successes in dramatic attractions have fafled diemally in vandeville, for the reason that they were nnable to arouse their anditers sufficiently to seore in fifteen minutes on the stage. When you stop to think of it, there fs a vast difference hetween escorting in a play where every thing !s built up to a where a dozen actors are ‘feeding’ the ster continually, and where he or she has three hours in which to capture the audience, and achieving an equal success in fifteen minutes, without the aid of a company. ‘In the vaudeville skit, the actor must get down to the heart of things at once. He must strike his dramatic climax in the first few moments and keep it up till his act is ended. The padding and feeding of the long play must be eliminated and the player must demonstrate his or her art at once, speaking roughly. the nail must be hit on the head the first whack and must continue to receive resounding blows for the full time of the sketch. Smal! wonder then is it, that well-known dramatic stars fail in vaudeville? The player who scores in a dramatic sketch must be a true artist and hence you can see how the vaudeville devotee gets the better of the bargain with his brother playgoer who attends the longer play. The former is securing in a quarter of an hour. what his brother secures only by sitting through a three-hour play structure. The former avoids superfluities of time-killing business and of unnecessary parts and gets at the heart of things at once. “This is one of the great reasons of she success of vaudeville and it {ts partially che cause of the steady attendance at our houses. We have something for every taste. If one act does not attract the attention of our patron the next one will. The price is low and if be only dreps in to see one act, he is getting bi-+ money's worth We have put on many acts here which are worth a great deal more than the price of admission to an entire show of from ten to fifteen acts. “And here is another point which is tre, net only of vaudeville, but of every other form of stage offering. The play's primary pur pose is to amuse, not to educate. However much managers may attempt to create the im pression that their offerings are an education, and whatever dramatic writers may say, this is not true. The stage is a means of recresation, the theatre a place where the cares of life can be discarded for a few hours, and solace found in bright and witty actions and sayings. We aim to amuse the people in vaudeville and we make no pretence that we educate them. We do not run colleges, but playhouses. The people attend ovr theatres for amusement alone and we endeaver to give them the best of that. “Vaudeville henses have become educated up to a state where they demand the best, hence it is impossible te give them anything else. The vaudeville habitue will not stand for a poor act and the old policy of filling fp the interims between the headliners with mediocre acts bas been abandoned entirely. Every act that is put on in a first-class house [+ a good act and Is paid for as a good act. Nat urally enough we are fooled on acts but [f 4 skit proves unsatisfactory we remove [{t at once and substitute another. By thus bend ing every effort to give our patrons the Dest we believe that we have been responsible to 2 great degree in making vaudeville as pennlar as it is today In Chieago, “Our houses are operated on the same scale as the legitimate houses, and they are places where ladies and children ean go unattended and suffer less chance of any impropriety than they would at any of the other theatres. While the Majestic of course receives the very best acts we can secure, they nearly all go to the other houses. The bills are changed so that the same entertainment is not presented at the Olympic or Haymarket next week as we hare at the Majestic this week. The attendance is remarkably large at all of the houses. Dor ing the first of the week our houses at ‘he Majestic are uwenally topheavy so that any one looking in on the first floor wonld tmagine that the house was light. But we haye three up per floors, the mezzanine balcony, matin ba! cony and gallery, and our theatre is so larce that when we have these floors sold out we have as many people as any of the other playhouses in Chicago. Towards the middle and latter part of the week we usually se!’ ont at all performances, while at the Olympic and Haymarket «ld-ont honses are the rule