The Billboard 1910-03-19: Vol 22 Iss 12 (1910-03-19)

40 The Billboard MARCH 19, 1910. Summer Season In France Two and Perhaps;Three Summer Parks Will Be Bidding for the Hot Weather Amusement Business This Season at Paris-—Contrary to America, Most Circuses Close Up—Frank C. Bostock Will Have an Animal Show Here—Bois de Boulogne Scene of a New Park OORAY! Spring and summer are on the way, and the spirit of the sum mer park, street fairs, circuses, carnivals, and what not, is in the air. Seon the rain will cease falling in France, and people will begin to stick their noses out of doors once more. All fall and winter the entire country has been deluged, and for months scarcely an bour's sunshine registered itself. All the world hereabouts is owidy, and a prominent summer-park man over bere—J. Calvin Brown, to be more precise—told me that, for this reason, he expects the comlug months to be the biggest mInoney-maker in the history of the business. People bave simply been kept prisovers indoors for about eight months pow, and they are ach ing to get out in the open once again, What, with her floods and other disasters, Paris, at least, is ready for a little fun, and, according to the dope, it is being prepared for them. THREE PARKS PROBABLE. At the present writing at least three summer parks are a probability for l’aris. Two are already absolutely assured, and work on the second has already begun. Paris’ first amusement resort in the open air is, of course, completed, and has one corking big, successful season back of it. I mean Luna lark, at the Port Maillot entrance to the fortifications. This park is now undergoing a complete transformation. It will be almost entirely new when the doors open in April, ami, had Gaston Akoun, the managing director, had his way about it, it would have been absolutely different from what it was last summer. The park is not big enough to suit bim—it is really a bit too small for comfort—and he made some very strenuous efforts to corner a batch of space adjoiuing the place. But no use! The owners wouldn't turn loose their deeds ofr leases to it unless Akoun came across with a wad of boodle big enough to make a ship careen to starboard. These folks, of course, believe money grows on every kind of vegetation in America, from huckleberry bushes to the lowly goober vine. And showmen are especially good ple. So, if you wanted to buy Standing-room pear a resort to sell rubber balloons, and your accent was American, the rice would be in figures big enough to choke Pierp. Morgan or John D. So Akoun didn’t get his ground. In spite of drawbacks in this direction things are buzzing out yonder at Luna. The big features of last summer are to be retained in principle only. That is, they are being entirely remodeled. For instance, the Scenic Railway, one of the last season’s biggest cards, is in the hands of the Thompson Company, undergoing remodeling. The joy-rider will careen through every variety of scenery, from the frozen North to the frigid South, the route being sufficiently variegated to give a man a glimpse even of the center of the earth. Electricilan Conner is putting some of his foxiest touches to the light effects. The water-chutes will change. This feature permits of but variation at best. However, the lake into which the boats drop is being spanned by a “crazy bridge,’’ and the staircases leading to it will be genuine novelties in this part of the globe, they being of the gyrating kind, and sufficiently so to cause seasickness from laugh undergo but little slight ter. The Witching Waves—a series of platforms arranged to go up and down, to and fro ceaselessly, while people try to walk on them—will be one of the minor features of the resort. An entirely new stunt for this section of the country will be the ‘“‘Human Roulette,”’ known already to most American parks on the me | Oo j side of the water under various names. course, this is the revolving surface, which those who attempt thrown off by centrifugal of March the rvoller-skating season at Luna will close, and the building housing the rink transformed ‘into what Akoun will call A Palace of Follies. Here will be .found all sorts of fon devices and smal! novelties to entertain _-% bunch on rainy days—and other days as well. A Mirror Maze is to be built on a bigger scale than is usually seen and a Topsy Turvy Chamber—one of those attractions where one bas the Illusion of seelng room, contents and all. revolve completely over—is expected to be a winner. There is also to be an Optical Illusion Theatre, based on the old idea of Pepper's Ghost. Here a comedy will be performed, and the actors and actresses will appear to be the veriest midgets. The thing is worked by a clever series of mirrors, invisible to the audience. Frank C. Bostock, I am told, is arranging to from to stay on it are force. At the end install a mysterious novelty of some sort or other, the nature of which I can’t now make public. Bostock is pot in Paris at the present writing, and, while the act will be called the Taquineur, no one now at Luna can tell what | it's to be abont. There is a French word, however, ‘‘Taquiner,”’ a verb, meaning ‘‘to tease.’’ And, therefore. a be ‘“‘a teaser.”’ park “Taquineur’’ would certainly Sounds like a good name for attraction, whether this Is what the show will be or not. It may be on the order of the American ‘‘Tickler,’’ but within a few days I can tell all about it. So we'll quit guessing. The Luna Dark Company, encouraged by last season's big suecess, is going to invade several new cities. Brussels is to have a Lona Park. Joseph Menchen, well known in America, Is building there a new Johnstown Flood. This, however. he is also doing at Vienna and Budapest, where summer parks are coming very much into vogue according to report. The Joseph Menchen Electrical Co. was to have Installed The War in the Air at the Iaris Lona Park, but for some reason this will not be dovne—probably becanse of the fallure to secnre the additional space he was The device will be built, though, at the Perk, while the same company’s Daughter, and a very elaborate electrical tain, are now being built at the Luna going up in Cairo, Egypt. The Paris Luna Park is back of the last mentioned place, as well as those at Brussels and elsewhere. a sumMiper after. Berlin foun of Akoun | Pharaoh's | Park | | Menchen recently showed me a model of his fountain. He says it is bis masterpiece. It looks like a sure go, combining as it does limelights, electrical and fireworks effects in the most startling fashion. A NEW RESORT. The Jardin d’Acclimatation, where there hare been for many years a sort of menagerie, a little theatre, etc., and where the Midget City was for so long a big attraction, is to be converted Into a regulation amusement park. The prime movers in this deal are Henry Files, an Englishman, and Fernand Akoun, the younger brother of Gaston Akoun, the Luna l’ark map. As a matter of fact, the two places are not far apart—not more than a half mile, say— but there will not be any clashing, I'm sure— and so are they, for that matter, the one serv ing as a second stop, or an overflow place for the other. Perhaps the biggest show holding a conces sion at this new park will be the Frank C. Bostock Animal Show. He says he will give the best animal exhibition Paris ever saw, and Paris has seen a number, including the Bostock beasts, which for two seasuns held forth at the Hippodrome (now the successful skating rink). Bostock, as is seen, is not a newcomer to the Paris public, he having already won his Spurs. His name will mean quite a little prestige at the new place. Another big feature bas had to be abandoned for two or three reasons. It was proposed to have a huge Japanese village occupying several acres of ground, and Akoun the younger was actually en route to Japan to make up the troupe when the troubles began. The first was that the French government was adverse to letting the Japanese showfolks in (so I am told), and the second was the big show already arranged for on the same plans, at Shepherd’s Bush, in London. The former obstacle could probably be overcome comparatively eas ily, but it was deemed wiser not to clash with the big exhibition across the channel. Next year will be time enough. In place of the Japanese Village the Jardin d’Acclimatation will have an African village instead. It is the idea to have a genuine lot of Central-Africa negroes, the wildest and most picturesque species to be found. It is thought that, in view of the great interest Roosevelt’s African trip has excited all over the civilized world, a still greater interest will be manifested in such a village than would ordinarily be the case. In other words, Roosevelt has ‘‘press agented’’ Africa to beat the band. THE THIRD PARK. One of the biggest park men in the country, whose name I have promised to keep secret, tells me that he is going to have for Paris one day soon the biggest thing in the way of openair amusement any city on this side of the Atlantic can boast of. The nature and geographical location of this resort he keeps a secret to himself, inasmuch as it is not entirely certain that the project will be realized this summer or the next. It is proposed for the coming season, but certain other ventures may make it impossible to get things going in time. BARCELONA. , I am told that the summer park which J. Calvin Brown is building for a French and Spanish company of promoters, at Barcelona, Spain, is going to be one of the best bets of the summer. Whether or not there are any concessions still open there I do not know as yet, but will soon. The city is ideally located on the Mediterranean Sea, is always delightfully cool, and the people there are among the most progressive in all the Peninsula. They are very amusement-loving, and are more ike Awericans in their tastes in this respect than can be found almost anywhere on the Cont}!nent. F. A. Small, one of the best known showmen in America, is on the spot for Brown. ROLLER SKATING. It now appears that two or three rollerskating rinks will remain in the business through the summer months. Though this sport is not generally regarded as fitted for hot-weather indulgence, the rinks mentioned will add some feature or other to what they already have further to induce people inside. For instance, Crawford & Wilkin’s Hippodrome Roller Rink, in Montmartre, is undergoing a transformation for the warm months. The huge stage is being made into a Grotto Merveilleuse, the roof of which will glitter with stalactites, and all about the place American Bars and cozy-corners, banked with palms and flowers, will give the touch of coolness necessary. Electric fans will be a feature. Americans will smile at this, but it must be remembered that, in France, electric fans for cooling purposes are almost unknown. Lounges, where iced drinks may be had, will be always hasdy, and dancers will perform on carpeted floors. In the center of all this is the rinking floor, and from any point, of course, a good view of the skaters may be had. The rink in Place Victor Hugo will elly close. This floor is in the wealthier residence district, and family palce. Therefore, during arrangements have been made fairs and so on. In the Rue d’Amsterdam is the Skating Pal ace, a house just opened up a few weeks ago by the English Barrasford vaudeville people and the lD’arkinson Brothers. This house will remain open throughout the summer. Here the roof is of special design, and can, by a slid ing arrangement, be left entirely open It rains but seldom during the hot weeks here, and usually the sky is of the deepest blue and studded with the most brilliant stars. Star light and moonlight solrees are being arranged, with Japanese fetes, when costumes of thin j} oriental silks will be worn, making things quite comfortable, The floor is one of the best, and, with all the little things necessary for the comfort of the skaters at hand, the rink Is one of the most popular in Daria. A series of special imported American and English acta have been arranged for, and the management undoubtheart of the is more of a the summer, for exhibitions, ie still busy booking up good attractions suitable ‘Tbe Casino will Iikewlse skating way be tndulged Other attractions there ter of fact, vaudeville, very wuch in evidence come more and more conspicuous a8 the bot days come on. ‘The Casino is a combination rinking and vaudeville house, and about the ouly change to be made during the spring aud summer will be to add to the vaudeville bill aul drop from three to one or two skating ses sions dally. Copfettl battles will be quite the rage dur ing the spring season at the rinks. This is an outgrowth of the Mardi Gras, M!-Careme aml lost-Lenten festivities, general all over France. STREET FAIRS With the spring the street an for entire season riuking furs. remalio Open, and in. ‘There will be as well, aud, as a matwhich at all times is at this place, will be of fair comes into its own. It is a great Institution In Paris, and, in fact, all over France, at all seasons, but the ‘‘spring feeling,’’ of course, adds to its popularity, and the balmy weather is a_ bit mere couducive to the creature comforts of the revelers. Toe Fete Foraine is the climax of the street fair season bere. It is called the Foreign Fete, because it is given in the Avenue de Neuilly, in Neuilly, and thongh just as much a part of Paris as Central lark, is a part of New York, it happens to be outside the fortifications mark ing the boundary of Paris proper. So, not being inside the actual confines of the city, and being the only big street fair of the year outside, it is designated by the name Fete Foraine. 1 bave seen few street fairs in American towns to compare with this paticular one. In the summer fairs are all over France; in the fall the Fete de Montmartre is on; later a elmflar street fair is at the Place de la Repub lique; again it is seen in the Latin Quarter, from Boulevard St. Michel to Dlace Maubert: still later the Boulevard Batignolle Is invaded at the south of Varis. But in the spring all these big shows combine for the Fete Foraline in the Avenue de Neuilly, and make a show two hundred feet wide and two miles long, one attraction elbowing another. The Avenue de Neuilly starts at the fortifi cations near Porte Maillot, north of the Boils de Boulogne, and runs to the Seine in the west. It is one of the best suited streets imaginable for street fair purposes—wide, with many trees and a central parkway. Whirling swings, roller-coasters, slide-the-slides, Whirling-the Whirls, animal circuses, cinematograph shows, theatres of all varieties, open-air free attractions, and merry-go-rounds of all sorts, sizes, shapes and descriptions line the street. All manner of fakirs are busy with all kinds of tricks; cane racks, knife racks, gaming devices of a thousand kinds, shooting galleries and drink stands are on all sides. The fair always does a huge business, for nowhere on earth does a crowd love the fete spirit more than in France, and at Paris it reaches its boiling point. Americans are by no means strangers these fairs—showmen, I mean. They been quick to see the advantages of business like ingenuity and the bubbling, fete-loving French folk as takers. But this does not mean that the natives themselves are not up in all the fine points of the business. Don't think it for a minute. Some of them have got any Yankee I ever saw tied to the post and beaten four ways from Sunday. For example, there is always a_ veritable swarm of girls about each merry-go-round, selling confetti and serpentine. The serpentine is arranged in rolls bound up in the filmsiest sort of paper. When the rider of one of the galloping hogs, steers, at may be, mounts his steed for the next whirl, as the thing starts, a pretty girl will shove a roll of serpentine into his bands. He has to grab it or let It fall on the ground, and I have never seen this latter happen. Instead, he grasps the serpentine firmly, securely, and swings on to his beast to keep from falling. At the end of the ride the serpentine roll is invariably broken, and the pretty girl is there to tell him that, ‘“‘But, Monsieur, the wrapping is broken, and I'll have to pay for it myself if Monsieur doesn’t!"’ And she looks s0 crestfallen and demure that the chap always coughs up. This is just one instance. There are hun dreds of other little tricks the Frenchmen and French women or girls have of selling their wares. CIRCUSES. Cireuses don’t flourish much in France during the summer. There is a good reason, of course. Here circuses are generally housed in permanent buildings, and it is just as uncom fortable watching a circus in summer as it to sit through a performance in any ordinary theatre. Therefore, with precious few excep tions, the circuses in Paris and the other larger cities of France shut up shop about the time as the playhouses begin closing The circuses under canvas in France would not be called circuses in America. They travel about in ram-shackley wagons, and have few animals, or none at all, in the wild beast Hine The performing horses pull the wagons from place to place, and the tent—for there is only one—seats only two or three hundred people. EIFFEL TOWER. The theatre, which is in the and which closes in the winter, opens in the spring. Here vaudeville and other music-hall features are to be seen. Comparatively few engagements may be had there. CHAMPS.-ELYSEES. de Paris, the Ambassadeurs, other Champs-Elysees summer theatres, are dusting up and preparing for a big season. They are hoping for the best, but they are a bit up in the air lest the great in flux of visitors—mostly Americans and English —will be scared away from I’aris by the flood, and the fear of the allments which may follow Personally I don't believe there will be danger, and the usual of tourists drop their dollars and Into these offices. Vaudeville and are the here. is same Eiffel Tower, The Jardin the Marigny, and any will box bills crowd pounds revues JAMES LAID TO REST. Kansas City, Mo., March 8 actor, who died March 5 in Helena, Montana. was brought to Kansas City for burial. Lonts James’ wife, Mrs. Apble James, is a Kansas City girl, living here with mother and brother They were married In this city eighteen years ago They were favorites with Kansas City andiences Mrs. James will continue to live In this city. The company disbanded following Mr. James’ death. Touls James the have | or whatever the animal | London Letter Charles Frohman Said to Have a Comer on English Actors and Play wrights—New Repertory Theatre Is Opened T has just struck me—I don't k whether you bave yet realizes — that Charles Frobman is well on the way of setting up something uncom ‘ monly like a corner, both in English actors and actresses and also play wrights. This is apropos of the openitug of the Repertory Theatre in London. Until it actually came into belng, we hadn't recoguived the fact very clearly. Now we do One only bas to look down the programme of the opening performances and the casts to see what your countryman has accomplished over here. Dramatists like Shaw, Barker, Galsworthy, Maugham—the hopes of the British stage—are all bound up with him, while praetically every other playwright of distinction is under some form of contract or other; ae to actors and actresses, one notices at frst glance such names as Sydney Valentine, Edmund Gwenn Dennis Eadie, Dion Boucicault. Oscar Adye, Edith Olive and Lena Ashwell, just the ones that would be chosen at frst sight as the true representatives of capacity and intelligence from the members of the profession in England. In fact both dramatists and actors stand for the progress of the British Stage. To bave roped them all in is a greet achievement. And 1 think that most members of the pro fession will agree that what Frohman has done is the best thing imaginable for those who earn their living elther by writing for the theatre or acting ip it. There is no doubt that Frohman sets out to get the best and he gets it, whatever price has to be pald. Those who work with him do so amid the hap plest surroundings and they know that under | bis management they are safe. For those who | Want good engagements and high salaries and | are worthy of them, no other management offers | so good a prospect as that of the little quiet | American i Taken as a whole, actors and actresses here are the first to admit that the extension of Frohman's influence is all for the good, both of the stage and the profession. Naturally the enterprise opened with a flourish of trumpets. Long before the night all the seats in the house were booked up for some time to come and the Duke of York's Theatre was scarcely big enough to held all the dramatic, artistic and seciety celebrities who had assembled. The opening piece was | Justice, produced by Granville Barker. Many of us here regard the author's Strife, pro| duced last year as the finest contribution English drama has received for some time and the expectations with regard to this new play were therefore exceptionally high. It can be sald at once that Justice is a play John Galsworthy's of earnest aim and literary. distinction; it a play of reality, and, still a play whicb possesses a vein of intense pity. Galsworthy's attitude to life is neither cynical or superior; be feels things and he understands them. But at the same time Justice is not another Strife. Between the two there Is a great gulf fixed. The story of the play is this: William Falder, a young lawyer's clerk, becomes entangled with a married woman who has & brute of a husband. He arranges to elope to South America with her and in order to pro vide the required funds, he forges a check handed him by the junior partner, Walter. How, a kindly person who corresponds, in relatlon to a stern and unbending father to the younger Anthony in Strife. The fraud ts detected and in spite of the representations of Walter and of a kindly and lovable old managing clerk. Cokeson, the elder How prosecuted Falder. Herein comes a very fine trial scene in which Charles Bryant, as defendant's counsel, makes a speech almost as impassioned as that delivered in Madam X. He urges that the crime should be treated as an instance of mental aberration and that the prisoner ought to be treated rather as a mental case rather than a genuine offender. To ald his case he brings In the box both Cokeson and the woman, Ruth Honeywill played by Edyth Olive But all his efforts are in vain. The cold trony of counsel for the prosecution—Oscar Adye—and an impressive and icy summing-up by the jud (Dion Boucicault) bring the case back to t unemotional plains of criminal law and Falder is sent to penal servitude for three years. The imprisonment serves as the moral of the play. In somewhat the same fashion as Charles Reade dealt with prison life in ‘lt is never too late to mend,"’ the author shows how prison acts in po sense as a deterrent from, bat rather as the beginning of mental moral and physical downfall. We are shown a kindly disposed, but red-tape hardened Governor; a typleally narrow chaplain; a wooden-beaded prison doctor who has never heard of any connection between mind and body—all three exceptionally clever character studies Several convicts who are introduced also give rise to clever pleces of characterization. Falder himself like a wild the depths the corridor beating at until the sound gets such an extent that is shown animal pading of pervous comes the their doors in his cell, caged up and down ta tension Farther down sound of other convicts out of sheer despair on Falder's nerves to he also starts trying to kick bis door down. The man is shown gotng gradually more and more down unt!! at last he approaches something very near to the wild beast. The fourth act is almost terrible. One sees Falder released on a ticket of leave. NerveShattered, be at last obtains employment, only to be again hounded down by detectives for falling to report himself and on their etate ments, being kicked out of the place. By forged references he obtains another situation, only to be once more exposed by detectives at the very moment that the Hows, on Cokeson's suggestion are about to take him back and give him another chance. Cokeson had made the = stipulation should give up Ruth entirely, and just very moment comes the news that she has been unfaithful to him. This and the coming re-arrest drive him to madness, With a wild shriek he leaps a balustrade and is picked up dead The play ends with a gentl. epitap to Cokeson. that he at this (Continued on page 78.)