The Billboard 1910-05-14: Vol 22 Iss 20 (1910-05-14)

12 The Billboard MAY 14, 1910. W. H. DONALDSON, Publisher. ISSUED WEEKLY, and entered as Second-class Mail Matter at Post Office, Cincinnati, O. Address all communications for the editorial or business department to THE BILLBOARD PUBLISHING CO., 416 Elm Street, Cincinnati, 0., U. S. A. Main 2769. ““Billyboy.’’ Long Distance Cable address Telephone, (registered) NEW YORK. Holland Building, 1440 Broadway. Telephone, 1630 Bryant. CHICAGO. 1203 Schiller Building, 193-109 Randolph St., Telephone, Central 5934. SAN FRANCISCO. Westbank Building, 830 Market St., junction Market, Ellis and Stockton Sts., Suite 621. PHILADELPHIA. 501 Keith Theatre Building. ST. LOUIS. Room 803 Missouri Trust Building. LONDON, ENGLAND. 179 Temple Chambers, E. C. PARIS, FRANCE. 121 Rue Montmartre. Telephone, 222—61. Suite D, Subscription, $4 a year; 6 months, $2; 3 months, $1. Payable in advance. No extra charge to Canadian or Foreign subscribers. ADVERTISING RATES.— Twenty cents per line, agate measurement. Whole page, $140; half page, $70; quarter page, $35. No advertisement measuring less than five lines accepted. Saturday, May 14, 1910. THE BILLBOARD is on sale on all trains and news-stands throughout the United States and Canada. which are supplied by the American News Co., and its branches. It is also on sale at Bretano’s, 37 Avenue de l’Opera, Paris, France. When not on sale, please notify this office. Remittances should be made by post-office or express money order. or registered letter addressed or made payable to The Billboard Publishing Company. e editor can not undertake to return unsolicited manuscript: correspondents should keep copy. WHY I WILL KEEP MY THEATRES OPEN THIS SUMMER. By MARCUS LOEW. Will I close my theatres this summer? My answer is ‘‘No.”’ Why? I am going to nse the women's favorite term, **Recause.”’ Because my particular business is, to keep all my business to myself: but since such a worthy and powerful paper as The Billboard has taken pains to inquire from me whether I will keep my theatres open or not. I have not hesitated in answering yon, and further more I will tell you ‘‘Whr.”’ In the first place. T believe Greater New York is “The Greatest Summer Resort Place in America.”” It is true that a great many of our New Yorkers go away for the summer. but it is also trne that there are as many. if not more. come here for the same reason that our people go away. Then again, the average theatregoers who patronize my houses may possibly get a week or two vacation, and their absence for that little time wonld hardly be missed. Take the temperature record all over the country during the summer, and yon will find New York (as far as the mercury indicator is con cerned) runs eqnal with places that are supposed to be cooler Tf it is warm in New York all day. it is cool In the evening. and as my theatres (the Maiestic. the Lincoln Sanare, the Grand and the Yorkville. in New York: the Roval. the Lyrie and the Columbia. in Brook Ivn) are heing supplied with cooling devices, my patrons will find (at any time of the day or night) my playhonses ten degrees cooler than outside. If the baseball grounds can draw thonsands and thousands of people who are willing to watch the game in the broiling sun for three hours, surely ft is possible to enjoy a three-hour performance {in a theatre well ventilated. spacious. comfortable, and away from the rars of the burning sun Take Luna Park and Dreamland, it is true they are by the ocean, but you will find the lit tle theatres !n these places packed to snffoca tion. Then again. why shonld 1 deprive the per former of his livelihood? Headliners earning from $500 to $1.500 a week can afford to take an rest, but the average artist cannot to be without work all summer. The performers on my circuit have been faith ful to me during the winter, and if I really felt they conld get along withont work, I wonld close down irrespective of the money I conld make, but. as IT have canvassed the situa afford | | ert Mantell CINCINNATI VAUDEVILLE NOTES AT THE COLUMBIA. Summed up as a whole, the Columbia Dill, last week, Was not up to the established merit of offerings to be seen at this house. At the Waldorf, a Lasky production, was billed as the headliner but the position was not deserved. First honors were pretty well evenly divided between Cross and Josephine, Linton and Lau rence and Jarrow. J. W. Clark, with his Simian fun-makers, opened the show, followed by Jock McKay, a very, very ordinary Scotch comedian. Harry Linton and Anita, in The Piano Store, did ex ceedingly well in third position. Jack Freeman and Billy Dunham, singing comedians, have an offering that lacks vim and dash. Cross and Josephine scored heavily in a com edy skit, called Dying to Act. At the Waldorf doesn’t deviate from the beaten path followed by Lasky productions, and its greatest asset lies in the pretentious costuming and the large number of people carried. The principals, whom Knute Erickson is most prominent, are capable but are handicapped on account of the material. Besides some very cleverly done sleight of hand work, Jarrow has a good line of talk, re sulting in a most entertaining act. Maxim's Models, giving living productions of famous paintings, held down last position. Pictures closed the show. CINCINNATI NOTES. Jack Stanley and Company, featuring Miss Lancaster, the Human Violin, in Kiss Me, Jack, the western comedy drama, has played thirty five consecutive weeks on Sun time. Next sea son Mr. Stanley will take out his own act of six numbers on three-night stands, through Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. They are booked solid. Robert Carter and Katheryn Waters, in The Wise Mr. Conn, at the Empress, contemplates enlarging their present sketch for next season, He will elaborate it in every respect, even the whirl-wind finish. He has played all the better time in the middle West for United Time and West Association, and will finish about the mid die of June. Sperry and Ray, now tn Cincinnat!, who will be remembered as having played Billy and the Girl, contemplate putting on a new sketch next season. They expect to go over Interstate Cir cult time. Marston, Luther and Emison, at the Amerlean, week of Apri] 25. in the comedy playlet, The Man Across the Way, have been playing Lee Allen and Lucia Arnold, In a comedy | Pennsylvania and West Virginia time for Gus singing and talking act, at the Empress, week | Sun. of April 25, have just completed their 22d week on om S. & C. Fae Ray Sher nia aaten to he Mabel Blondell, at the American this week, East, playing around Boston for a few weeks,| That Clever Little Comedienne in Vaudeville, after which they take out a summer show with | ®8nounces that her brother, Joe Kennedy, the Dan Coleman, a musical comedy called On the} Toller skater, Is to join her next week. Warpath. | | Edythe H. Stanley, the Piano Girl, has con Sherman, DeForest and Company, tn A Jay | cluded her elght weeks on ~ ee | Circus, was featured at the Empress last week. | passed the season on Pantages time. She will This marked the sketch’s last week of labor| Stay in vaudeville with a new act, for the present season, since Mr. Sherman re-| ‘The LaMoure Brothers. at Robinson's week of turns home to commence his vacation. He is | April 25, are playing ‘a ten-week stretch on now & — Meee man, in addition to being | Coney Holmes’ time, after which they start a vaudeville headliner. | fairs and parks. Irene D’Arville was at Robinson's week of | Harry McKee, at the American, is working — =. Sg gen ect Be ny and | single owing to the illness of his wife. He ts 1anges. She 1a partly complete her hew | booked to go out with Howard Hall in a new act, which comprises impersonations of Anna| musical comedy Held, Vesta Tilley and a pte colonial number, in| . » which she sings As in Days of Old. Also a Kiefer and Kline, in a straight singing and . dancing act, at the Auditorium last week. French impersonation of a music hall singer. . “ They start on Interstate time in a couple of ee er Aldrach, in A mgm og weeks. changes, is In town once more, olng very we > A second party is to be added to oo act. This| Joe Murphy and the Northlane Sisters, at is her first apearance in four years, when she| Robinson's week of April 25, will work over appeared at the Columbia in straight mon-| the Association time, ologue. The Gee Jays, at the American last week an Rand and Byron, at the Empress, week of | nounced that they will return to England, their April 25, are on their way Westward over s.| home, in October. & C. time. On June 27 they open at the Na-| Burt E. Melburn, billing as The Kingpin of tional, San Francisco. They are going to see| Minstrelsy, appeared at the Empress week of the Jeffries-Johnson combat. | April 10, tion, I find they must work, and my houses will remain open more for their benefit than for the profits I may accrue. I may say in closing, if my contractors stand by their contract, my two new theatres. the Harlem Casino, at 125th street and Tth avenue, and the one in the Bronx at 149th street and 83d avenue, will be finished and opened long before the bell rings, calling the children back to school. COLONEL AL. BOURLIER, OF THE GAYETY, LOUISVILLE. One of the most interesting of the real ‘‘old timers’’ in the show business, is the popular Colonel Al. Bourlier, general manager of the Louisville Amusement Co., and acting manager of the Gayety Theatre (Eastern Wheel) in Lou isville, Ky. Colonel Bourlier is a showman of the old school and has had a wide and varied experience in many branches of the amusement business, having been an active theatrical manager for over twenty-five years, and with his brother, the late Emile Bourlier. managed the old Masonic Temple in ‘*The Falls City’’ in its palmiest days. Col. Bourlier has been identified with numerous traveling companies, including such well-known road orzanizations as J. K Emmett, in Fritz: Billy Newcomb’s Minstrels Harry Sergeant, the magician; Prof. Goldberg magician; Flick and Flock Pantomime Company and several others The Celonel is now devoting his entire time to the Gayety, which has made a phenomenal success during its first season in burlesque. considering the size of the city and the fact of the existence of an old-established oppos! tion burlesque house. The Gayety is a theatre of the modern trpe and no smoking is allowed in the house. No drinks are sold and a large percentage § of the andiences consist of ladies and children SYDNEY WIRE MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. Summer Stock Season Opens. Personal Chatter Gathered Around Playhouses. The summer stock melodrama season has started in at the Bijou Opera House with flying colors The Klimt & Gazzolo Company in cludes Anna Bronongh, ingenue leads: } Montague, leading lady. and Hal Briggs, for merly of the Belasco Theatr, of Los Angeles stage manager. The balance of the company is well chosen. The Child of the Regiment is the opening offering. Mr. Chas. H. Miles, owner of the Miles Theatre. is having plans drawn for increasing the width of the playhouse, and is expected that work will be started this summer. The addition figured on will make the Miles the largest theatre as regards seating capacity in the city. or an anditorium of abont 109150 feet, and accommodating 2.100 people There will be but two posts in the honse, and it {« estimated that the six week's work will cost in the neighmorhood of $25,000. Many of our bors have already made ar rangements for the summer work unftil the re opening of the fall and winter season Jone Schaffer, of the Dewey Theatre, will be a time keeper with the City Water Works Depart ment. Harry F. Callan. also of the Dewey. {« gate-keeper at the Nicollet Ball Park, where Al. Kells. of the same theatre, Is dispensing the pasteboards Cc. J. Flint. treasurer of the Dewey, save that he Is still prospecting. So is W. J. Erickson, of the Gayety Theatre Two thieves received ninety days each in the workhouse for ransacking the dressing rooms of the Orphenm Theatre, Wednesday night. April 27. The warrant was eworn ont by Carl Gnassar, manager of a vandeviile troupe. Several valnable articles of jewelry were among the plunder. Althongh !t 1s nearing the end of the regular theatrical season, we have been secnring some exceptionally good attractions at the Metropol itan Theatre, notable among these being Rob in Shakeepearean repertoire, and Otis Skinner 1n Your Humble Servant. j Patrons of fthe bnrleaqne are now left with| ont a place of entertainment, the Dewey The atrte (Western Wheel) and the Gayety (Fast. | ern Wheel) being closed for the snmmer sea | son They will reopen about the middle of People’s Amusement Company, extended an invi August. tation to the ministers of the various churches Harry Abbot, the business manager of The here to witness a special matinee of the Bio Follies of New York and Paris, and The Ginger Girls, is in town using vermilion paint. Harry says that he is glad that the end of the season in is at hand, as he is due to return to his sumto bookings for their Northwest houses, has mer job as cashier at Dreamland, Coney Isalso turned his attention to hustling the steel land. and other material for the new seatre to be Manager L. FE. Lund, of the Isis, Novelty erected at Seventh and Taylor streets It is and Wonderland theatres, has made several reported that twenty carloads are on their way. changes in the house staff. Arthur C. Benack Angela May arrived in this city, having made is now doorkeeper of the Isis, with Mrs. Henry | the trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast graph Company's film, The Way of the World. Calvin Heilig, who, with John Cort, has been conference with Klaw & Erlanger, relative Erickson as cashier. Mrs. Bolkman has heen by automobile WM J. ENGLISH transferred to the Novelty Theatre, and Car! _— Swain, who has been seen in this city at the Bi jou and Dewey and Metropolitan theatres, is WINNIPEG, CANADA. also at the Novelty. Harry S. Meyer, business manager of the Star Show Girls, who was on the local rialto last week, is one of the few company managers to belong to the I. A. B. P. & B. of A. Harry is a member of Local 18, of Newark, N. J., and . 4 >anma.t? ow a ~ es . ; osey he coming attraction, The Round-Up, which 0 to greet all the boys through Old Billy hes been billed at the Winnipeg Theatre from Owing to the tremendous success which the May 3 to 7, is such a massive production that Lyric Stock Co, has achieved in the musical comManager C. P. Walker has decided to discontinue edy Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, and the Y#udeville at his other house for one week, so inability of hundreds of patrons to secure seats &8 to allow the show to be staged there As to witness the performance, Manager Chas. Emerthe Walker Theatre has a much larger stage son Cook has decided to give it another week's ‘than the Winnipeg, Manager Walker thought run and it is this week drawing as big and this was the best plan. Other attractions soon enthusiastic crowds as it did last. Special men'® 8ppear are Grace George, Robert Mantell, tion might be said of Corliss Giles’ clever porHenrietta Crosman and Henry Woodruff trayal of Kid Burns and also that of Miss Fran At the Dominion. Manager W. B. Lawrence ces Neilson as Mary. has an excellent bill of entertainment this week, Little Garnet Earl, for many years a prom including Arnold's Performing Leopards, Pan inent child actress, and who has been living thers and Jaguars, and others of note Stand peacefully in the Mill City for some time past, !ng Toom only should be the order of the week is about to return to the boards and thinks that. ®t this bright and cozy little playhouse. she will be seen on the Orpheum Circuit in Manager George Case, of the Bijou either a song and dance act or a sketch plied his patrons with a bill par Continue to do Capacity ; Business. Theatres has supexcellence. Among the acts this week are The Moneta Five, One of our old Ferris Stock Company members, Mande Gilbert, who played here with, Sharing the headline title, with Mr. and Mrs. James K. Hackett in Samson this season, is now Perkins Fisher. Others are Cabaret’s Dogs. Billy K. Wells and Ward and Weber leading lady with a stock company at the Al Stock Co., In hambra Theatre of Milwaukee. Another former At the Grand, Marks Brothers’ stock favorite, Wedgewood Nowell, who wae Melodrama. have been packing the house to ca with the Lyric Stock Company, {s now with pacity every performance, and it was through Blanche Bates, and is the proud composer of the untiring efforts of Managers Kelly and Rowe two musical numbers, which are said to posseag that this company was secured. The bill this great merit Mr. Nowell {s now writing the | Week ts For His Sister's Sake, and should draw score of a musical comedy which he intends to | “@pacity houses all week. have produced next season, The Orpheum people have commenced to exRODERIC STF. PLEURE. cavate on their new site, and intend to have their house opened by the Ist of September Manager Trebilcock, of the Arena Roller Rink, {a crowding the rink nightly by giving his pa trons different modes of entertainment. He also has a first-class band In attendance, which PORTLAND, ORE. Opera and Stock Company Productions adds greatly to the enjoyment of the skat ee ers. Principal Features. All the moving picture houses. such as the Elite, Lyric, Princess, Dreamland, Starland, Pastime and Unique, report business wery fav orable. The new moving picture house, The Colonial, is rapidly nearing completion, and {i« expected to be opened in about two weeks When fin ished, this house will be one of the finest pic ture houses In Canada. Quite a number of Winnipeg people have char tered a special car to carry them to St. Pan! to attend the opening of the grand opera sea The reopening of the Portland Theatre by son given there by the Metropolitan Opera Co the National Opera Company, In a two weeks’ SAM LECHTZIER engagement of light opera, is announced a eee . The Bungalow Theatre presents Henry Wood WASHINGTON D Cc ,» Uv. U. ruff in The Prince of To-Night for four nights, beginning May 1. Underlined at this theatre ts Tre : Change in N. Y. Producing Managers’ Office Affects Road Companies. David Higgins !n His Last Dollar, and Jennie On April 20, The Belasco theatre closed its Otis Skinner in Your Humble Servant, de serves the capacity audiences which greeted his engagement at the Bungalow Theatre The people of Portland are beginning to realize his sterling ability as an acter. for never before was he accorded such liberal patronage. Considerable local interest was aroused by the presence of Izetta Jewell as leading woman because of her populartivy for two seasons with the Baker Stock Company. Woman and tussell In Cousin Kate The Baker Theatre offered Wine Song for the week starting May 1 Rehearsals for the first bill of the new Paker Stock Company occurred Monday, May 2. regular season, with Is Marriage ai Fallure. The opener wil be Old Heldelberg. Mr. Wiliam From here the company goes to Pitteburg Dille will direct the stage and winds up Its engagements at Chicago This The Athon Stock Company are {n their fare. company ia under the management of Relasco well week at the Lyric Theatre For their and the Shuberts and since the copartnership closing bill taney give The Two Orphans The between these gentlemen has dissolved it will management will present vandeville and con never appear here again under their direction versing pictures during the summer monthe. The Shuberts have united with Wm. A. Brady The Orpheum. Grand and Pantages’ received | and will have a separate circult. Mr. Relasco their full share of deserving patronage. is part owner of the theatre here of that name. Rumor has ft that Otl« Skinner negotiated for, Under the circumstances that will obtain next the purchase of some of Oregon's famons fruit | season it ts not known which cirenit will have land. | control of this house, or whether the exigen May Yohe. formerly :ady Francia Hope. wae | cles may not require the erection of a new granted a decree of divorce at Oregon City, Or-| theatre of costly construction and imposing |egon. In an interview {!t was stated that she | it ebegge s The latter proposition has been will resume her former place on the stage. wrighter than at any previous time ano a LY. Melvin G. Winstock, general manager of pod | BR. 8.