The Billboard 1913-03-22: Vol 25 Iss 12 (1913-03-22)

= a4 > 29 i's ee . 7” ~ ~ Pei ee a er BAO hart OE eee. Se CAP a el Re ote, TR Os OF ap Lee ee SPs w var ts MARCH 22, 1913. AN SOY *SLLEEELY “t leses \ poee! aay A Chicago as an Amusement Mecca By A. K. Greenland The current season affords Chicago with true justification for trumpeting “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,’’ for never before has there been, is there, or can there be a congress of men more perfectly representativ of outdoor amusement activity within the limits of this Middlewest metropolis. The park men, the fair men, the circus men, the Wild West men, the carnival men, in short—the show men, have all paid their homage to the “Windy City.” The park dignitary located between the Appalachians and the Pacific, found it necessary to come to Chicago for ideas for his 1913 season. Chicago, to him, is the big park metropolis. The circus promoter has made his headquarters in Chicago for reasons multifold. It is here he meets his fellow traveler, his friend and his competitor, during the long, cold season of the year. Likewise, the carnival promoters have gathered around the genial hearthfire of the Wellington Hotel—from C. W. Parker. the commonly appelled Carnival King, to proverbial John Dokes, the ness brothers. They now are brothers, but brothers of the same fraternity; not hypothetical, but real—not intangible, but concrete; not mercenary, but social. Thus my readers will be able to see what Chicago has represented to outdoor enterprise during the latent period of hibernation. It has accomplisht more than any other city on the American continent. It has brought the figures responsible for its rise and healthful evolution, into the intimate touch of shoulder to shoulder; it has introduced such exponents and champions as the following—one to the other: John Ringling, Col. Cody, Major Gordon Lillie, George and Edward Arlington, Vernon C. Seaver, The Gollmars, George and Peter Sun, H. H. Tammen, Chas. W. Parker, Herbert A. Kline, James Patterson, Tom Allen, Con. T. Kennedy, Edw. C. Talbott, Clarence A. Wortham, S. W. Brundage, Charles and Frank Irwin, H. B. Gentry, Al. Campbell, smallest mite in the progress and evolution of outdoor show history. In the kindly light of Father Ed Cummins’ hospitality, they have all recounted their woes, related their fondest hopes, reviewe* their plans for the ensuing seaso. 4 and painted the hoodoo year of the twentieth century with florescent, tho tabloid detail. Carnivals have been promoted from the hugest dimensions to the smallest “aqua pura” and purely visionary variety. Happily to state, they have all been successful—and have, in their mythical, intangible substance, fulfilled every detail of the Herbert A. Kline toast during the recent Showmen’s League Banquet—‘May you all experience a long season, free from cloud and rain.” How golden, how full of roseate promise, how free from fault and untainted by eddying worry have been the “fanning bees’ held at “Ye Old Wellington” during this wintry season. Let us, therefore, join in with our toast—by embodying Herbert A. Kline’s verbal offering. with a wish for futurity; ““May the coming season prove a long one—free from cloud and rain, and may the coming season prove a strong one, free from loss and drain.” The fair men have seen fit to travel to Chicago because of their selection of this city as convenient gathering headquarters. First in the fore part of December, when the American Association of Fairs and Expositions delegated their secretaries and representativs to the Sherman Hotel for council, and latterly when the Mid-western circuit of state fairs and interstate fairs convened around the massiv board at the Auditorium to program their plans and to announce their decisions in regard to the amusement features which will distinguish their history or 1913 from that of former years. The showmen have further found incentiv to pay their respects to the modern site of Fort Dearborn by gathering on the evening of Weinesday, February 19, at the Saratoga Hotel, to form the most magnificent endeavor of their career— The Showmen's League of America, whereat. they selected such grand figures of amusement enterprise as Wm. F. Cody, Chas. W. Parker, and the many other representativ men who constitute their first board of officers. This league, altho very little more than in its embryonic state, has already succeeded in cementing friendships, in promoting mutual relations and developing fraternal associations more integral'v than has anv other step on the part of showmen at any other era of outdoor history. They always have been brothers, but merely busi A PARK PRESERVING NATURE’S GIFTS—TREES AND Maj. C. F. Rhodes, Frank L. Flack, Charles Sparks, not to mention a myriad of other open-air show proprietors and their host of representativs. Truly then, it must be admitted that Chicago is the showmen’s headquarters, for, could any other city in the country register a greater number of showmen visitors than those which we could authentically mention as guests at some time or other within the last four months, were :pace to allow. Truly, then, this haven of breeze has been honored beyond precedent by showmen. Let us see how the indoor amusement man has fared, Theatrical production after theatrical production has been housed within its limits. The Klaw and Erlanger syndicate has given us shows that we shall long remember, and which have enjoyed, and are still enjoying tenures at their respectiv houses. This season has been more favorable than even anticipation allowed, both prior to and during Lent. Likewise, the Shuberts in the three houses which the Jake and Lee firm now operate in this city, under the able guidance of Samuel Gerson, have offered three enduring successes— Pought and Paid For at The Princess, The Passing Show of 1912 at The Garrick, and The Sun Dodgers, until recently the tenant of the American Music Hall. The outlying stock houses have also contributed past successes with unfagging frequency. Likewise, the other theatrical syndicates. The vaudevil theaters have been dauntless in giving us their best. We have witnest such unexcelled values for our money as Sarah Bernhardt—thanks FOLIAG= to Martin Beck, and tabloid versions of past success, such as The Flirting Princess, for which Chas. E. Kohl deserves our praise, and The Waltz Dream, for which we must congratulate Mort. H. Singer; not to mention a deluge of other contributions that brains and genius combined have made possible for us. Motion pictures have fondled this city with more than accustomed tenderness, and we, therefore, have been enabled to see plural reel features of the most valuable and permanent variety. Th« artist, Sarah Bernhardt, has been fotografical!y presented to us. Nat Goodwin has been served: so have James K. Hackett, Blanche Walsh, Lina Abarbanell, William and Dustin Farnum, George Arliss, Lillian Russell, Alla Nazimova, and innumerable quantities of the same legitimate fraternity. Thomas Edison has also contributed materially to the edification of the Northern Illinois citizens by offering his latest invention— the Kinetofone—destined to become the consummate motion picture of the future. So much for what has been done in Chicago. Now let us turn to what will be the coming season. The legitimate drama _ will, of course, abate during the torridity of the summer. Vaudevil wil! also experience a diminution. The motion picture will not rave in its present popularity, when the indices of the thermometer register high, yet it will prosper to a large extent with the assistance of the airdome and the cooling plant The Ringling Circus will come in April, and with it, its inseparable popeorn, peanuts and pink lemonade, but the all-prevailing, permanent form of amusement must naturally be the park. Just as the multitude of residents and visitors crowd the many parks of New York City during the summer months, so do those of Chicago. We have no Coney Island, accessible by boat or elevated; we have no Palisades to cast its effulgent glare from its towering bluff across the Hudson into Harlem. We have no Luna Park to sing the song of the summer siren, and we have no Steeplechase to invite the interest of Manhettan’s sweltering inhabitants. We have no Prighton Peach to lure 4 heated host to the cool splash of the ocean rollers, nor have we a Far Rockaway. nor a Clason Point as has New York. but we do have a Riverview Park, and we can boast of a real White City—and we claim a Forest Park the lack of which, even New York must feel. What the Eastern parks hold in advantage over ours, we can not hope to have—the ocean: but what the Western parks hold in advantage over theirs, is what the Eastern parks can not hope to have—spaciousness and conventlence of accessibility. ‘Tis true that Chicago will not this season have its Luna Park—its San Souci, but what it lacks in number, it will undoubtedly make up In quality. While the snow birds have been flitting about and the damp chill of winter holds the air the thump of thousands of hammers and the hoarse ery of lusty foremen have been heralding the approach of spring prepsrations for Chicago's three amusement parks. While our theaters are still catering to their winter patronage, the ®Ttisans at the summer resorts are busily engaged preparatory to their opening. Soon the wail of barkers, the crash of the brass, the sound of the mechanical instrument, the tinkle of bells, the rush of pedestrians and the dull rattle of the turnstile will be in full glory. Riverview Is ® veritable beehive of laborers, and Brother A. R (Continned on page 150)