The Billboard 1911-09-16: Vol 23 Iss 37 (1911-09-16)

72 The Billboard SEPTEMBER 16, 191). BOTHWELL BROWNE, The Wonderful Female Impersonator, as he his sumptuous Egyptian number in Miss at the Herald Square Theatre CRONER’S SPARKLE EMBROIDERY USED AND ENDORSED BY The Metropolitan Opera Co., The New York Hippodrome, The Biue Bird, Hans the Fiute Player, Julian Eltinge, Bothwell Browne, Carter DeHaven, Valeska Suratt, Ethel Levey and Mabel Hite. ALBERT B. CRONER, appears in Mr. Albert Croner, 206 W. 42nd St., New York City. Dear Sir: Not by any means the smallest part of my success is due to the wonderful effects of Sparkle Embroidery used in my production. (Signed) BOTHWELL BROWNE Jack, 206 West 42nd Street, NEW YORK CITY. FORECAST OF THE SEASON BERLIN. ‘Continued from page 20.) The cabarets are in Berlin what the roof gardens are in New York, with the exception that the roof here is on even ground. They are the houses of vaudeville and are continuously open. The best of them is the Wintergarten, which has a weekly new program and is in direct connection with the Amcrican vaudeville trust, from which it gets must of its performers. in the Brothers Herrnfeld, Berlin has its Weber and Fields. For twenty years the have kept Berlin laughing with their jargon (JewishGerman), and the celebration of their twentieth | anniversary in their own theatre on the Com| mandanten Strasse (very much like an Amer| lean house, owing to its comfort), has shown | how popular they are. Their new play, written by themselves, Das Kind der Firma and | Schmerzlose Behandiung (Painless Treatment), | will likely keep the boards for the next year. The Metropol Theatre will only at the end of October give up Hoheit Amusiert Sich (His Highness Amuses Himself). What their new revue shall be has not as yet been announced; the managers have only stated that they oare | engaged for this revue the six best German soubrettes. As a contrast to the French operettas, the Berliner Theatre keeps on giving Bummelstadenten (Good Time Students), which shows the gay side of the German students’ life and what a beer revelry can lead to. It is no paradox to say that Goethe and Schiller constitute in Germany the drama trust. Indeed more than two-thirds of the plays given at the national theatres (the Deutsche and Schiller Theatres), are year in and year out the masterpieces of the two German geniuses. Since last year, the national repertoire has enriched itself of the second part of Faust’s tragedy by Goethe, which requires at least a bundred performers having each a role. The German Sarah Bernhardt, Tilly Durieux, bas withdrawn from the Deutsche Theatre, and there is talk that she is, imitating the divine Sarah, going to build her own theatre. Thie fall there will be a reprise at the Lessing Theatre of a play which, by far, has surpassed the success of any of Gerhardt Hauptmann’s later plays, namely, Glaube und Heimat (Faith and Fatherland), by Karl Schonherr. It is the struggle, In the Reformation times, of a brave Protestant family living in Salzburg. which, on account of its faith, is either forced to leave the country or to change its religion. The struggle. which is ended by a catastrophe, is a pathetic one. The plot is interesting and well followed. The language is one of the urest ever beard on a German stage. Schon err, by the way. is no German, but an Austrian country doctor, who has been called by the German Emperor, Goethe’s successor. This, of course, has added to the popularity of the play. For the young playwrights who aspire to become famous, the Berliner Freie Buhne (the Berlin Free Theatre) gives them a chance to | produce their plays withoxt any expense. But the real earnest effort for the advancement of the German drama is due to the wonderful organization called the Frei Volks Bubne. Its members are intelligent workers and lovers of literature, who are not satisfied with the present poverty of the German stage. Their membership of several thousand permits them to have their own theatre, in which all progressive plays which are refused by the theatre managers and which, in their opinion, are worth a hearing. are performed. It is thus that Ibsen, Gorky, Bjornson, Mirbeau, could be produced in Germany. For these playwrights are officially ostracised, and the Frei Volks Buhne has more than once been refused the permission to play a work which did not meet with the censor’s approval. As, however, this membership is limited. and owing to the pros perous con¢ition of the German stage, ft Is likely that the prevalent mediocrity will go on for some time. With all this, the Kintopps (cinematograph theatres) and cheap varietes flourish in Ber lin, for they are cheap and appeal to the pub lic. In a business way, the season announces Itself as a splendid one, and for theatre mianagers that’s the malin thing. FORECAST OF THE SEASON LONDON. (Continued from page 18.) ville combines in this country, the old haphazard system of booking is fast giving way to the American system of chain booking. Nowadays, a vaudeville artist, if he has the luck to get in with one of the big syndicates, can make a contract for anything up to five years end henceforward he ia booked automatically. No longer is there any need for him to worry about filling in odd weeks here and there; there is no necessity for him to hang around the offices of the agents, hoping to see the great man and fead with him for an engagement. Once he taken on by the combine all this is at an IN end. Before long England will be divided up| {nto three circuits—the Stoll & Gibbons. the Moses, and the Barrasford, de Freece & Butt. And, in all probability, the latter wil be short| ly absorbed by one of the other two. type of independent music hall, standing by !teelf type of independent music hall, stading by itself and booking as it likes, totally disappearing in the near future. One by one they are drop Present | ping out and reappearing as the latest addition to one of the circuits. tion. Whether this will be for the benefit of the | ‘The Comedie-Francalse wil! revive during the artists in the long run is doubtful. Of course, course of the winter season, L’'Alkestis, by it gives him the opportunity of steady em| Georges Rivollet. The last time this play was ployment and relieves him of many of the minor | put on was at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt worries. But, in the long run, with the ex| when that theatre was being used by the ception of the half-dozen great outstanding | Comedie-Francaise players on account of a artists who can always command their Own | fire which destroyed part of their home. This prices, it la pretty sure to send salaries down— was in 1900. and heaven knows they aren't anything to boast The Varietes will open its season somewhere disjointed system of booking still prevails, OW| Angust 22. brated French fencer, bas made the adapta. | of now. Not only that; by depriving a man of | about the last of September with a revival! his independence, it will tend to hamper the of La Vie Parisienne, which proved to be individual in getting to the top and making 8 | (as a revival) one of the big hits of last real name. Henceforth the artist will be at | season. his house was playing the piece, the mercy of the syndicate and they can make | when the sweltering weather gave it and all him or break him at will. | Paris theatres a solar plexus. | Of course, on the theatrical side, the old | ‘The Palais-Royal opened with a revival on | ing to the fact that no person or company La Veuve Joyeuse (The Merry Widow) is the possesses at the most more than about a half| pil) at the Apollo now, and wil! serve there dozen theatres. The only method is still that | until the winter season commences in earnest of scanning the vacant list of theatre dates | ghout October 1. Then the Transatlantiques in the advertisement columns of the theatrical | wij] pe revived for a long run papers and, if the resident managers are ready Pierrot. Jardinier, is the title of a panto to come to terms, filiing in the weeks with best | mime the work of Willette a poet-painter | possible convenience of all concerned. But the | here" It will be produced this winter in a system has many grave drawbacks. It gener | houievard theatre. The story is simply de| ally means fitting in a week in the south of | jiejoug: England and, perhaps, the next in Scotland. | |r is in the days of Louls XIII, when cos Except in the case of a big actor-manager £0 | tumes were pretty. Pierrot and Pierrette live ing out with a popular piece. it is next door | together in a fairy bower of flowers and to impossible to arrange a tour on reasonable | fruits, the care of ‘which is the one passion lines of locality and progression. Of course, | of picrrot’s life. Pierrette is a tender, adoring when George Edwardes sends out The Merry | dotl-wite and worships her Pierrot. He gives Widow, ae can take the No. 1 towns—the prin | aj) his attention to his roses. Plerrette one cipal cities—and play in any order he pleases . | day cuts a rose—after all, are they not for her, But for the poor touring manager who has to all of them?—and Pierrot, who sees her, be fit in his dates from week to week—often at comes fariens. Ele tells her pever to 40 such | the very last moment— there is nothing of this. " : ; | 3 a thing again. Pierrette pouts and cries Another development of the chain booking Leaving his pretty wife alone while be system here has been the difference made to the | 4.06 ~ey Sho toca k . arcane ordinary theatrical agent. So far as the vaudetorr ™ Poli “ a e-ma ing : artous ns, ville side is concerned, his business has diminS. Folcinelies, etc. (bis friends), & ished in many cases by as much as fifty per military march is heard in the streets and with _ | the music, the tramp of measured feet. Prescent, and the tendency is for it to go on dimin ently an officer, a handsome young fellow, ap ishing. The big syndicates do all thelr own are With @ leteter ticke He | t booking and so the agent finds all this part of Pe ets sicset. Ee is te pat up : : » at the home of Pierrot. Seeing the dainty his business taken away from him. Still, as hb to ~ : Be ; littie creature, Pierrette, in tears, he plucks has generally contrived to take more than h‘s I und of flesh in the past, no one will regret | ®, Tose and offers it to her. Pierrot returns con muocb if he disappears altogether in years at this juncture and is doubly furious. He i. -s storms frightfully, but the officer shows his come. a —s so Pierrot subsides. Night alls. e soldiers are prowling and try to FORECAST OF THE SEASON IN steal Pierrot’s fruit. He chases after them, PARIS |} mad with rage. Presently he returns, to see J = officer, draped in a cloak that drags on (Continued from page 19). A gp “Fre, too, «thief? e 7 Lavedan). He will take the role of Tartufe, aa in ae mtd —_ Paacoet’ellowes it with Jean Coquelin as Orgon. Mme. Simon a*| to be a melon, so he stabs it with a knife Dorine and Mme. Dux as Elmire. Pierrette falls’ dead at his feet. She was Since September 1, Armand Bour has been | piging under the cloak and was going away stage director. with the officer. Ful! of remorse and realizing, MRS. LANGTRY IN PARIS. now that it was too late, that his love for her One of the things we all are looking for| Plerrette was the biggest thing in his life, ward to is the promised visit to Paris this | be cuts all the flowers and drons them over her season of Lily Langtry. The famous Drury body. Then, seizing the officer's sword, he Lane melodrama, The Whip, has been trans| Kills himself. lated into French by that master melodrama For © moment the officer rests motionless builder, Pierre Berton (author of Zaza), and|#"d silent. Then he comes to himself, as if it is in this play that Paris will see Eng-| from a dream, salutes the two dead bodies, land’s beautiful star. She will appear as | 224 marches away to the faint call of bugles. the adventuress. Just what theatre gets this Curtain. = attraction I can not positively say, but prob The Athenee will produce in September, Imably it will be the Vaudeville. areas My tg > season, Lee, Aven ~ aie es de ; ° . PICK, course, & piay STEINHEIL AFFAIR. is gn adaptation of the old favorite In English, Everrbody recalls the Steinheil tragedy and | Mr. Pickwick. Robert Charvay is responsible the subsequent trial of ‘‘the red widow’ in| fer introducing Mr. Pickwick to Parteiana, he the Paris criminal courts. charged with the | and his collaborator, -Georges Duval, who, by murder of her artist husband and her own | he way, is one of the foremost Shakespearean mother. This affair is to have its echo at | scholars In France. Mr. Tupman, Mr. Winkle. the Comedie-Francaise, the first theatre of | Mr. Snodgrass. Mr. Wardle. Sam Weller and France, during the coming winter. all the true Pickwickian characters have been Captive is the title of the play in which | faithfully preserved. the affair will be gone over again—idealized,| Lucian Gultry, who created Chantecier, and f course. Gabriel Trarienx 1s the anthor of | who Is one of the best of the French actors the plece, It is said that he got the idea | is now in South America, playing He will from a Balzac romance, Un Cure de Campagne, | return to the Vaudeville about the middle but he admite that the play is almost exactly | of October, where he will be seen In a new a reconstruction of the famous Steinheil af-| plece by a well-known author following a fair, and that in writing it he borrowed as | revival. however, of his last season's suc freely from the real case as from Palzac. cess, Le Tribun. Anyhow, it seems strange that the Comedie. | Mme. Rejane, who «uffered a breakdown Francaise shonld be eeen producing a play of | while playing at the Porte Salnt-Martin last this sort. We are used to “popular crimes’ | #pring In L’'Enfant de l'Amour. {s now re being staged in melodrama houses, but scarce gaining her health at Rovat She ts sald to ly at the New Theatre. be practically as well as ever, needing only a NEWSLETTES. ay woes more to recuperate completely. The Chatelet Theatre has opened its re. ge Be Ay: liminary season with a revival of Le Four due back in Parte however onan ae th * ane du Monde en 80 Jours (Around the World In| wit be seen In the revival of H a eo § 4 Elghty Days); the piece being taken from | after a short revival of La Fer a x iM. 1 —Jules Verne’s celebrated story. A coincidence | xX), ghe will create the a. rol io was the arrival baek in Paris of Jacger-| Crise. the new play of Paul Re ig A 5° . Schmit, a correspondent for Excelslor, a mor-| Peaynier. _ rourget and Anére ning paper here, who toured the world itn The } . . thirty-nine days. less than half what Verne’s aa ae eee r hyd — hero required for the journey. He arrived ’ — t s0ate 700 be people and will be managed by «a woman, met = = day of the reopening of the | \me. Almee Fanre iatelet plece, 4 ; The Vaudeville ae Started ita ante-winter season with a revival of Mile. Josette, My Femme, a comedy. CHICAGO FORECA we Mme. Pernbardt has accepted a new play, s In verse. by Miguel Zamacois, entitled Seig (Continued from page 17.) a egy | are four acts, and | the actress herse ® quoted as saying that | belilon. Later, Pomander Walk and rden +4 will appear in the principal role this an ~ywill come to the Grand. asta winter. e¢ recent appointment of A. Tox Le Coquelicot ig the tithe of a drama to be | to the post of Saeed Western eB | j seen at the Ambigu during the coming season. | the Shubert interests, with headquarters at the | It is an adaptation of the English book and | Garrick Theatre, Chicago, ts a recognition of the play, entitled The Scarlet Pimpernelle, by the | ingly) to admit that the Chicago flat ‘‘cuts Baroness Orczy, J. Joseph Renuad, the cele| some ice.” LONDON LETTER. (Continued from page 382.) of every situation. Altogether he Is the iw spiration and organizer of a play. More and more every year every one concerned realizes their dependence on him Many a good play bas been ruined by the inefficiency of the stage Management; many a mediocre play has beep turned into a howling success by a stage map ager who knew his business and was deter mined to make every ounce out of his oppor tunities, KATE WALTER Copeland & Pierce Presenting The Maid and the New Butler. Working, ‘‘thank you,"’ on the Sun Time. DORA ROBENI A little girl with the voice in a character change act, introducing some new and humorous songs. AGENTS WANTED —To handle The Roadman't Guide and The Big Value Premium Budget Valuable book of information for show, privilege a concession people. Send 2he for complete outfit. Address J. C. KLOOTWYK, 46 Canal Street, Grand Rapids, Mich. If you see it in The Billboard, tell them eo. tl om oe wewaoertWenwg “aeoe*e 7 = «44a