The Billboard 1910-05-21: Vol 22 Iss 21 (1910-05-21)

MAY 21, 1910. The Billboard 15 LONDON LETTER A Great Outdoor Amusement Season in Front of London—The Mis fortunes and Opportunity of the Crystal Palace. Pavlova Takes London by Storm. VPRY one who has either visited or | comedy was represented by the screen scene heard of the Crystal Palace at Sy-| from The School for Seandal and the dressing denbam will be sorry to read the ac| room scene from The Clandestine Marriage and count of the recent meeting held In| 4 recitation by Mrs. Kendall closed the program. connection with the liquidation of the| Curiosity, naturally, bung mostly around the company, although, at the same | performence of Henry Ainley and Constance Col time, it is good news to find that | ler, in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. official receiver did hold out some small | Ainley’s wonderful achievements in a dozen hows for a better time coming. varied parts during the past five weeks were Few concerns have ever had a more unfortu| #ppropriately crowned yesterday by his first « bis ory than this great enterprise, which | @ppearence as Romeo, the character for which a poor ihe pride of Great Britain. Misfor he seems to have been destined since he first tunes dogged it from the start, According to | took London by storm as Paolo. And he came the account given the other day, trouble com right up to expectations. His delivery of the t from the very first. The original esti| immortal lines was the perfection of musical enbam and re-erecting it was £150,000, | UnStrainetd. Both he and Miss Collier met ‘t ct t cost just ten times this amount. with a great reception. Cyril Maude and Mai 1 _ te Pas years afterward, in 1866, a great die Hope also scored in The Clandestine Mar ac ‘aestrosed. all the northern part of the | Tiage, and there seemed no end to calls that -this was followed by three land-slides followed the screen scene from The School for n 8 cess n Then, prolonged litigation with Scandal, in which Tree appeared as Sir Peter, refreshment contractors cost another £45,000. Marie Lohr as Lady Teazle, Basil Gill as Joseph | might mention bere that a good many years | Surface, Robert Loraine as Charles, and Henry 2. “whe 1 | was first taken to the Palace, we Neville as old Uncle Oliver. ‘hought it safer to take food with us, owing to Altogether, the festival wound up in a blaze the unsatisfactory nature of that supplied by | Of glory. It has been an enormous success, then contractors, and although this state of both artistically and financially, and the com affeirs has passed away, it must have done mittee of leading actors and actresses who pam harm to the cone ern at that time. But, | @franged it, and Sir Herbert Tree, who loaned a on of these law expenses came a fraud on his theatre and also gave his great skill in prothe company which cost another £28,000. And ducing the plays, deserve all the credit they t ) all, the annual repairs to the building. | bave been given on all sides, estimated at a maximum of £5,000 “The most delightful dancing ever seen in pee num. have never cost less than £10,000 ngland , The receat position of the company can be This is the universal comment on the _periged from the fact that in 1907 the earnings | formance of Mile. Pavlova, now performing at were £9,530, and the payments for interest | t v moving the building from Hyde Park | yet natural and virile speech—deep, clear and} d SYDNEY TO WINNIPEG A Far Cry Justified by Circumstances of Review and Comment Regarding Theatricals and Amusements in John Bull’s Long Removed Domains A LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA. and Bentelle, Harry and Kate Mitchell, J. onan Francis O'Reilly and Harry Tsuda. Sydney, N. S. W., April 12. _The Elite, Lyric, Dreamland, Starland, ty the steamer that takes this letter. Mr.| Unique, Princess and Pastime report business T. J. West, the head and founder of West’s| Very good. Pictures, the largest picture proprietary in the The Colonial, the new mov'ng picture house, world, goes to the United States, and will call} pened its doors to the public on May 7. at the Billboard Office in New York, for all Arrangements are being made for a grand letters that may be sent there. Mr. West is|/ Carnival to be held here on May 24. _ anxious to meet any or all of the Film manufac-| Julius Brothers’ Cafe is contemplating follow turers as well as any other branches of the| ing the example of the Portola Cafe, San Fran business that have anything to submit for his| cisco. This cafe is the headquarters of tieat / inspection. Mr. C. Spencer is also in the| tical folks while in the ciy. ‘The Billboard s United States, accompanied by his wife, and| 4lWays kept on file. : ‘ also on the lookout for all kind of. novelties Manager Cuse, of the Bijou, is going o1 a in the trade. Under separate cover I send| ®shing and hunting expedition with a_ few you a paper, showing Spencer’s New Lyric | friends, and hopes to bag a lot of game. Theatre that is to be completed before NovemMr. Seymour, of the team of Seymour and Du ber Ist, and there are three other theatres that | prez, is on a visit here for the summer. F all have to be ready for opening by the first SAM LECHTZIPR fo of November, next. Mr. J. D. Williams has wile . ; completely remodeled the Oxford Theatre, and renamed it the Colonial. He has expended about TORONTO, ONT. $8,000 on the same, in alterations, and has one of the latest and most up-to-date theatres in this city. Theatre Closes on Account of the I understand that he has secured the conces . sions on the agricultural show grounds for sme Death of King Edward. years to come, paying a very handsome figure — for the concessions. He cleaned up for the Forbes Robertson, who has been drawing big week about $25.000 and looks happy and conaudiences to the Royal Ali xandra, where Le pre tented all the time. All the theatres did reesented The Passing of the Third Floor Back. ord business. and all now are playing to capac-| aioced his engagement, last Friday, owing to ity. This is suplimental to my letter posted the death of King Edward. The house was this date and hope that you will give this pubdark for one day. At the close of his tour, licity. I have not as yet learned what the new before leaving for England, Mr. Robertson will theatres are to be named, but contracts are let store his scenery, ete., here, and will again open alone £ 1S 000 | Aod yet, any one seeing the place for the _ his season in this city next fall in the same | first time would naturally think that it ought to be a gold mine and, at any rate, the natural playground for London. The edifice is Just as wonderful as ever from the point of view of construction and size It is 1,008 feet long, 390 feet across the transcept and 175 feet high, the helght of the two water towers being 283 feet. Great collections within the Palace and grounds | nelu all the arts and sciences There are two hug sacert rooms, one of which can ac late 4,000 vocalists and instrumentalists The grounds occupy 200 acres and contain some f the finest seulptures and fountains in the w | The finest football ground in England is situated there—160,000 spectators watched t reatest matches of the year there st w there is also a fine sports ground, | tr ating rink Surely, this place, | from the center of Lendon, | ought » to pay. j This Palace will get what is its last har : show, called the Festival of | Em pire t greatest pageant ever yet known s to be he there In fact, it is going to b twent pageants rolled in'o one and strating tl great episodes connected with story of Great Britain The performers. selves, will constitute an army and it s boped to attract millions of people to the * case one of two things must happen. f * any one big enough and courageous weh to buy the thing right out ‘ im] then, unhampered by which has weighed down | for fifty years, start out to make the place 7 CRYSTAL PALACE, LONDON. yay. The Royal Alexandra will have a summer season with a stock company headed by Georg: Fawceett and Miss Percy Haswell. The season will begin June 6. 7 The Majestic Music Hall is doing good busi ness with summer vaudeville at popular prices. Mrs. Leslie, the wife of the resident man ager of the Majestic, recently underwent an operation which proved successful. Her hus7 band, Mr. Walt Leslie, has made a host of 7 friends in Toronto. Wm. Morris, the vaudeville magnate, is ex pected to arrive here soon to arrange for the erection of a new house. The new*theatre will be called the Canadian Music Hall. Besides their new house in Stratford, whieh has been a success from the start, the Griffin Amusement Company have opened two new theatres, the Griffin Opera House in Selleville, Ont., and the Griffin Orpheum at Kingston, Ont. Mr. Peter Griffin, the manager of this vaude ville circuit, wili take a trip across the conti nent for his health, reaching ‘Frisco in time for the big fight. Later on he intends going to Europe. JOSEPH GIMSON, CINCINNATI, O. 7 an : , Chester Park Opens—Hippodrome Sea——_ | son at Ball Park Assured. Just now we are occupying that period cov ssity to Londoners, then I think he would | the railway station. This must make Melbourne! while the strik i gold mine Otherwise the place and | the Palace ‘Theatre. Another comment is that grounds will fall into the hands of the bullder—| every seat in the house is booked for the next | far better result, from the point of view of nine weeks. Maud Allan came, and took London shareholders, but a distinct loss to the| by storm. Lady Constance Stewart Richardson, natio f hot to the world | with her coronet and her beautiful figure, did the same. Genee has for years been regarded as Speaking of the Festival of Empire reminds I wonderful. But all of them are as nothing in “odoen is in for the biggest outdoor | comparison with Pavleva. Hers is real art. She has ever known he Anglo Japa es’ | depends on no adventitious help. She is the Exhibit on, which opens on May 12, will attract | dancer par excellence The critics have used hore people than anything of the kind previously | 4) 41) their superlatives, but still they have held Never before bas se much work and | not managed to describe her. She is poetry t : been put into an exhibition and all the incarnate—every movement full of grace and vurces of the two governments will be called | charm and infused by a fairy-like airiness that 'o ensure its success. Apart from the exhibl-| pojas all spellbound.» : tion itself, the outdoor amusements will be on a : a bigger seale than ever before The old at Twenty years of hard work have gone to ctions, in the shape of the flip-fap, scenic | Make her what she is. For all that time she railroad, gravity spiral railway, witching waves, | ¥45 working hard in the Ballet Institute at and the spider's web will be in full swing, | St. Petersburg, making herself perfect. Now, while, in addition, there will be a motor race | kings have showered presents upon her and the track, a real submarine, Scotch village, Japanese | ¢utire continent of Europe has paid her homage. fairs, tea houses, temples and, to crown all in| After seeing her one can well understand why this respect, a representation of a real For| the a prefers this form of entertainment to mosar llage < age e Ainos | ny other, : were a poe = =the &, eg i © 7 Ae Her partner, M. Mordkine,. who dances with quered by the present inhabitants. Altogether | ber in the famous Bacchanalia dance, is also Q the outdoor shows should easily surpass any ey Saeene aan ty ye ag — —— re . e tres trits man, o boot. e als 8s 3 e ead « thing ever yet seen or heard of in Great Britain profession in Russia and has won fame all over Then, again, I suppose we shall have Earl's : | Europe. The pair are irresistible. When they Court once more opening its gates and pro-| come over to you in the autumn I think you will viding its pleasant little show There are to agree with me. be army aut navy pageants, a great interna-| “ane Erlanger, of Klaw and Erlanger, arrived tional horse show, and, altogether, London can | in London last week, accompanied by two other managers, Joseph Brooks and William Harris, of New York The object of their visit was a This is going to affect everybody Uatil aj conference between them and Charles Frohman couple of years ago the people in this country | and Henry W. Savage, which was held at the had no ideas of amusement apart from the old | Savoy Hotel on the day of their arrival The country fair and the music ball and theatre. | project before this meeting was Erlanger’s idea Then came the White City, at Manchester, run!|of deveting four theatres—one each in New magnificently by Mr. Calvin Brown, and the | York, toston, Philadelphia and Chicago—to live out of doors in the greatest whirl of | amusements it has ever yet known. | White City, Lendon. Since then the roller!) European plays only The scheme was adopted skating rinks and the picture theatres have | and by next autumn will be in operation. Eng come and conquered Refore very long we) lish stars and English companies will be at shall have the American fun elity in general] tracted to these four theatres and it is hoped existence In England I advise everybody con-/ that they will appeal to America’s sense of cerned in this business to keep their eyes novelty skinned George Tyler, who is in London arranging for This has been an interesting week from al] the production of The Dawn of a To-morrow, theatrical point of view, We have had a great| has met with many difficulties In the first celebration on account of the anniversary of| place, there was great trouble in securing a the first performance of The Arcadians and the| theatre, but this has been overcome at last by pretty musical comedy seemed to go better than | getting the Garrick. Then Mr, Tyler cabled for ever, ‘Then we had H. B. Irving shutting down/ the scenery to be sent over. This was dis Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, after a splendid run patched on the Minnehaha, which promptly got in which he himself has acquired a reputation | wrecked on the Scilly Isles, and, as the scenery for realistic acting second only to his father, | was placed in the forehold, there is very little As a final flourish to London's glorious Shake| hope of saving any of it. This means that new Speare festival, we yesterday had a monster! scenery, properties, ete., will have to be made lassie matinee at His Majesty’s Theatre. By | in ten days, for the piece is to be given a trial way of Shakespearean drama [t Included scenes | ran at Liverpool on May 2, and will then be from Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Costume | brought directly to London. }of electrical effects, a cool'ng and air — ering tle interim between the close of the win ter theatrical season and the opening of tne for the four, and I am just informed that there summet amusement term. The last gasp of the is to be a fifth one. Purely for vaudeville, at) succumbing dramatic period is distinetly audible. parks and other similar resorts are think something is doing in Sydney. More showing signs of animation. But two regular by the ‘Frisco mail on the 21st inst. theatres now remain open—the Columbia and DR. W. H. H. LANE. ) the Empress. Ringling Brothers’ Circus exhibited here May 16-17. WINNIPEG, CANADA. } On May 14, Chester Park was _ formally opened. Of course, a number of improvements —_——have been made since the close of last season. 2 ' Free vaudeville, booked through Morris, is again Theatre to Reopen with Robert Manone of the big attractious. Tue opening bill . included Davey and Poney Moore, dancers; Nel tell. Theatre News in General. son’s Comiques, sketch; Buckl+y’s Dog Circus. -_ | and Musical Garland. Lamb’s Manikins, in their own theatre, form another attraction. In The Winnipeg Theatre, which has been dark | the Chester Annex, the Ben Holmes Wild West for awhile, will open in a week or two, with | Show is giving exhibitions. Robert Mantel™as the attraction. This Louse John Weber's Prize Band opens the concert has not been running smoothly this season, but | season at the Zoo, May 15. it is to be hoped that next season will be Manager Walter Draper has closed contracts more successful than the previous one. for the appearance of Ben Greet and his playSeveral of the houses here will shortly close ers at the Zoo. The engagement will be for for the summer months, but some of them may | two weeks. The exact dates have not yet been run summer stock, which has been very popular | announced. of late. Chester Park will have comic opera and muThe Musicians’ Club. which is always open to | Sical comedy at its theatre. The season opens the visiting theatrical fraternity, has one of | June 10. William Rogers will do the produc the finest little club rooms in the city. ‘This | ing. “ club was formed by the musicians, members of in the Lagoon Park Theatre a stock company the various theatres. There are cozy sitting | Will be seen. Manager J. J. Weaver has en rooms, billiard rooms and reading rooms, and | gaged Herschel Mayall and his wife, Edna when visiting theatrical folk are here, they ore | Elsmere, to play leads. cordially invited to call. Sam Rose, formerly stage director of H. H. The summer season is close to hand here, and | Frazee’s attractions, has assumed the manage -verything around the parks is hustle and bustle, | ment of Robinson's Theatre, and will also open ‘tting in preparations for their openings, which | the Grand Opera House, here, May 21, with will take place on May 24th. popular-priced vaudeville and pictures. Most of the theatres will close for the sum Wilson Hummel, formerly a member of the mer in about two or three weeks. The Grand, | Forepaugh Stock Company, here, is now with the which has been closed lately, has been leased to | Albee Stock Company, playing at Keith’s The Manager Klein, of the Elite Theatre, for a| atre, Providence, R. I. period of five years. It is the inten‘ion of the The annua! convention of the Poster Printers’ management to run this house with moving/ Association will be held here May 23-24. Head pictures and vaudeville. The house is being | quarters will be established at the Hotel Hav refitted and decorated for the opening on June} lin. Most of the del: gates will arrive in Cin ist, at a big expense. The estimated cost will | cinnati on Sunday morning, May 22, and will exceed $15,000, which includes the installation | be the guests of the Cincinnati show printers purifying | during the day. Officers of the Association are plant. When finished, this house will be one|] Chas. W. Jordan, Chicago, president: Clarence of the largest and prettiest moving picture | EB. Runey, Cincinnati, secretary; E. H. Macoy houses on the continent. Manager Klein will | Chicago, chairman board of directors. leave shortly for Chicago and New York to ar The hippodrome season at the Cincinnati ball range for attractions for his houses and expects park opens Decoration Day, May 36. The prices to have a good line of them for the com'ng sea-| of admission will range from ten to fifty cents. son. Here's hoping success attends him. The Cincinnati hippodrome will be managed by At the Dominion, Manager W. B. Lawrence] the firm of Anderson and Ziegler. Harry K has an excellent bill, headed by Felix Haney, of | Shockley, manager of the Walnut Street Thea The Man of the Hour fame. tre here, will be treasurer of the hippodrome. At the Bijou, Manager Case has one of the | Chas. Doran, of the Columbia Theatre, will be best bills ever seen here this week. The bill] press agent. and Jas. Day, of the Lyric, will be consists of Mme. Anita Diaz’s Monkeys, Zinell | advertising agent.