The Billboard 1913-10-11: Vol 25 Iss 41 (1913-10-11)

70 The Billboard OCTOBER 11, 1913. LONDON NEWS LETTER London, Sept. 24 (Exclusiv correspondence to The Biliboard).—The spectacular side of aviation has been neglected in this country so far. There are, it is true, two fiying grounds or ascension parks on the outskirts of London, one at Hendon and the other at Brooklands. The latter was originally a motor racing track and is still that to a large extent. The Hendon ground is controlled by a Grahame White Co., and is getting exceedingly popular altho very little of a show is offered there. The most attractiv item yet offered there ‘was the Aerial Derby, a %&-mile circuit of London, the competitors leaving the Hendon Aerodrome between 4 p. om. and 4:15 p. m. and getting back between 5:30 p. m. and 5:45 p. m. Otherwise the business given is mainly composed of short passenger fights with very little of the exhibition or sensational element. Still the fact that over 50,000 people paid for admission there on the Aerial Derby Day (not to mention the 200,000 odd who were scattered about the rising ground outside the aerodrome and the unnumbered thousands who saw the face at the various turning points on the outskirts of London) shows that aviation is an immense draw. As things stand now, however, it wants someone to take hold of the business and work it up. There is money in it. After an interval of some months Willie Solar fe-appeared with great success at the Hippoe@ on September 22. 1 hear that Viola Tree, the young actress Gaughter of Sir Herbert B. Tree, will shortly @meke ber first appearance on the vaudevil stage. Mazuz and Mazette, a very original American double turn, effectivly joined the program at the Hippodrome on September 22. Mary Elizabeth, who has been doing go very well during the few weeks she played here, had to cut her visit short and return to America the day after my last letter went. Butier Haviland and Alice Thornton have been @o successful at the Tiyoli, London, that their engagement has been éxtended. They present an act which found immediate favor here. Other American turns this week at the Tivoli are Sam Stern, the Two Bobs and Bert Coote’s eketch, A Lamb On Wall Street, Sixty Miles and Hour, an automobile and train sensation, commenced tour here on September 22 at a London hall. Thig is the act which the London Opera House management endeavored to injunct because it was alleged that the mechanical effects were a “‘lift’’ from the famous motor and train scene in Come Over Here, as pointed owt in this journal. How@ver, at the time it was proved that there were Bot patent rights in the mechanical arrangemets. News comes that Hedges Brothers and Jacobevn made a big Lit at their South African opening at the Cape Town Tivoli. They presented their full ordinary act. Four additional num 8 in front of the curtain were demanded. Wilkie Bard sails for America on October 6, end, as before mentioned here, will be accom nied by George Arthurs, the song writer, who as done most of his lyrical work for him since the Frank Leo connection was severed. Another spare-time occupation of Harry Lauder is to distribute prizes at donkey shows. At Blackpool, one of the most famous English beach resorts, he not only distributed the prizes and himself gave a gold medal for the best-kept donkey, but also rode along the promenade in a four-in-band donkey coach with postillions atgg by Highland pipers and Highland chil n. W. C. Kelly ts getting splendid receptions @uring his tour here. He is now a familiar Word among English music hall audiences. Mooney and Holbein are once more back in this country after a South African tour. They have nothing but good to say of the sub-Contiment, its music halls and its people. They etarted their Enblish provincial tour at the Hippodrome, Belfast, Ireland. Joe Brandt hag come to London some fresh ideas in film publicity. Hugh D. Mclatosh, after a busy will leave for Australia about the end of the G@rst week in October, but will go by way of Egypt and India. By an arrangement with fe Naylor he has fixt up a scheme which will Save fares for both the representativ managements. Incidentally the new plan meang a double turn of 20 weeks but all gelected acts and the lost time for the double tour will be the same as playing the Australian halls only. Marie Lloyd leaves England for America by the boat carrying this letter. Adele Levy will tell stories at the London to give us time here, Music Hall, Ladies’ Guil ‘ptember 30. > Se eet Ella Shields ts reported to be having fresh contracts arranged for her in America. Miss Shields changed her act a couple of years or so ago and adopted mate impersonations of the kind made popular here by Vesta Tilley and Others. Miss Shields’ interpretations of the Marts, nowever, are all her own and she has achieved markt success in her new venture. H. B. Marinelli jooks very well after his transatlantie trip and is more strenuous than ever. Belle Mora has been deputizing for Mary EliSabeth and making a hit at Sueffield and Dun jee. Another new American sketch over here Is Dope, which was produced at the Chelsea Palace on September 22 and secured a most favorable reception. It was presented by Herman Lieb and half a dozen other good players. One of the best sketches ever sent us by America is Won By A Leg, which, played by Gordon Eldrid & Co., had its first London show ing at the Palladium on September 22. It is @ werry production thrueut. Mr. Eldrid opened on this side the Atlantic last July, and has played several provincial dates, including Birmingham. Liverpool, Edinburg, Glasgow. Newport, Birkenhead and Nottingham. He has toured Austraiia and South Africa. Won By A _ looks like establishing itself equally firmly ere. Anna Hana is distinctly a comedienne counts on this side. r who When I saw her one after noon last week, she highly delighted a crowded audience with her three contributions. First appearing in an alluring cloak, and carrying a huge muff, she made an instant appeal with You Made Me Love You, which she rendered with a wealth of gesture and a play of the eyes that won her warm applause, and then reappearing in a stylish evening gown, she sang hose Ragtime Melodies, with a delightful abandon As a final number, she gave When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam, ? thie ttron tiv form of American singing, being recalled again and again st the fall of the curtain . Two popular members of the company now appearing in Come Over Here at the London Opera House were married on September 15 at the Bloomsbury Registry Office. bride was Alice May, who plays the part of the Biueboitie in the spider's web scene, and the bridegroom, Clayton Robbins, who plays the waiter in the first act and a part in the sextet in the Sumurun scene in the second act. Mr. Robbins is an American, a graduate of Princeton University. He has sung at many concerts in America, but the present is his first theatrical engagement. Alice May is a young Bnglisb dancer. The parties first met during the rehearsals of Come Over Here, at the London Opera House. Two extremes of the ‘‘show’’ world filled two matinee performances on September 20—and the evening as well—Joseph and His Brethren at His Majesty’s and Gaby Deslys at the Palace. Every seat was filled and 80 was every corner of ‘“‘standing room only.’’ ‘‘Religion and riskiness always draw the biggest,”’ was C. B. Cochran’s comment at the Palace Theater. He Was among the crowd, five deep, standing at the back of the stalls watching for opportunities for a glimpse of Gaby thru the many rows of shifting heads, and he ought to know. He filled the biggest hall in London with The Miracle, and he hopes to do it again this winter with a ‘“‘break-neck’’ circus. Those towering headdresses of Gaby Deslys attract the merry maids and matrons in the Palace audience as much as the revel of frills and laces. ‘‘How could one manage to wear it in a closed carriage or taxi-cab? Of course, one could not wear it in an open one,”’ is heard among the whispers; and Gaby tells how, ‘‘You take it off in your cab and carry it in your lap, just as I have seen your officers of guards take off their tall bearskins and carry them op their knees when they ride home from changing guard at the other Palace. I have seen them— moi—sometimes I get up early."’ But she said all this in French. Miss Shirley Kellogg, as already reported in The Billboard, is going to ‘‘star’’ in the musical comedy which her husband, Mr. De Courville, has arranged for the Prince of Wales’ Theater in mid-October. ‘‘It should be great shakes,” she remarkt on September 20 as she sat watching Ned Wayburn, the imported producer from New York, sorting out the chorus girls accord ing to his own particular ideas. ‘‘You see,’ she continued, “‘there is Leoncavallo, who writes every bit of the music, including a special number in ‘ragtime,’ and Mr. Wayburn, who is considered in America to be the first of all producers in musical comedy. ‘English chorus girls, I think, are distinctly different in their manner from American girls— but girls from over there know a heap better how to do things; they are not so stiff and wooden. English girls have so much more politeness; they say ‘Good morning, Miss Kellogg,’ when they see me, and not ‘Hullo, Shirley, old girl, got over your beano?’ or something like that. Did Mr. De Courveille tell you of his new stunt at the Hippodrome? It’s going to be great, I tell you. It’s coming on the week after next, I believe; nobody has mentioned it yet, and it’s called The Escalade. Ned Wayburn fixes it; you must come and watch him one day. The whole stage will be a series of steps extending from one side to vhe other and rising from the footlights to the files at the exreme back—staircase fashion. On these steps will be 60 girls, all those pretty ones you saw in ‘Hullo’ at the Hippodrome. They will dance and pose and group and sing, and do all manner of pretty and enticing acts on those steps, and the effect will be as novel as charming.’’ For his big circus at Olympia Charlies B. Cochran hag just secured May Wirth, a lady reputed to possess quite a unique aptitude for turning of somersaults forward and backward. Lee and Perry, already popular over here, will join the new Alhambra revue. The beautiful Leicester Square house will close for some days for the rehearsal of a new revue after September 27, which will sec the last performance of Eightpence A Mile. Whether people are really growing tired of revues or not seems to be answered in the negativ by the famous Leicester Square variety theater. At any rate Monty Leveaux ought to know. Exactly what the new Aihambra show is going to be like is not yet divulged, but lots of the clever people of Eightpence A Mile remain, including Robert Hale, Charlotta Mosetti and Phyllis Monkman. Irene Olsen and Margaret Haney, from America, will also be among the newcomers. Anna Pavlova is going to wish us really truly farewell in a couple of matine performances at the London Opera House on October 6 and 7. On tirese occasions she will appear in Valse Caprice, Papillons, La Cygne, and some other of the most popular dances of her repertoire. In addition she will present four new ballets, entitled The Magic Fiue, Halte di Cavalerie, Ballet Oriental, and Suite de Chopin, for which new scenery and costumes are being prepared. Sid Cotterell, the well known music hall sketch actor, here, bas bad to postpone his trip to America till the end of the year owing to the iliness of Mrs. Cotterell (Trixy Holland). Will Lacey is touring strongly here in a firstclass position on all the bills. Frederick Day, of Francig Day and Hunter, in contributing to the discussion of ‘‘free and ‘“‘reserved-for-music-ball”’ songs, points out that English song writers in confining themselves too much to writing sole-right matter and only allowing the free use of stuff that would not suit their customers and which was generaliy inferior, themselves paved the way for the great asendency of American free songs over here The coming of these songs to England began with numbers like Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, the Rogey Man, and After the Ball. At that time all English-made music hall songs were pro Mr. Day continues: “Are not the revues, which use free songs, evidently the most suc cessful affairs of today? Are they not actually cutting into the business of musica) comedy? Are single turns to be debarred from sharing this success? Must the rank and file of artistes be condemned to eternal obscurity by being obliged to sing fourth rate ‘reserved’ songs all their lives, unless they just use strong and popular numbers in order to gain the confidence of ‘reserved’ song writers? Then, those of them whose style it suits will be able to acquire a good reserved song.’’ The days when ‘‘comedian’’ or ‘‘vocalist” sufAraAa ee . tourn’s Aeseecrintion long bave air passed away. Nowadays on this side we have a great struggle to find something distinctiv in be way of descriptiv nomenclature. The last case that has come onder my eye was that of Daisy Wood, a very popular English turn who describes herself as ‘‘the-day-after-to-morrow”’ comedienne. Discussing the question of foreign competition Managing Director Leveaux, of the Albambra, says that while most of his artists are Pnglish, in comedy turns he regards Americans as being far abead of the home-grown production. Probably Mr. Leveaux while being able to justify himself pretty fully does not mean to be quite so sweeping as this. His star male comedy turn is Rebert Hale, a very English performer. There is little doing in the circus world at present, but an interesting item of news is to the effect that little Sheila Connor, daughter of Fred Connor, of the Grand Circus, Douglas, Isle of Man, a baby of three years, not only stands on the bareback of a borse in the ride round the ring, but does kneeling and other tricks. Two others of Connor's children also ride bareback in this cireus. There are other children also appearing very successfully in this show, the eldest, ten years of age, being Berry Kelley, the son of Charlotta Levey, a well-known chorus comedienne here. Johnnie Watson, a famous rider in his day, and the grandfather of some of the children, is the trainer. The death of Ada Mackell recalls some of the great days of the circus in thig country. Fifty years ago Mrs. Maskell was playing female in George COhrist-ff’s tight rope act. Later she toured with her husband in another famous old circus organized by Pablo Fanque. Mrs. Maskell also did the Mazeppa act. The British film-making business is looking up. England was right bebind in the industry until quite recently and it was not clear as to how many alleged English firms were really independent of American capital. Lately things have improved in this connection and Britishproduced picture plays by British companies are coming along in what threatens to be a crowd. The Countess of Warwick has lent her help in thig connection both in writing and plays and in lending her beautiful old castle and grounds for production. Among the well-known English actors and actresses In some of these English productions are Seymour Hicks, James Welch, Charles Maude, Ben Webster, Cyril Maude, Ellaline Terriss, Gladys Cooper, Claire Pouncefort and Lillan gan. The arrangement that Lady Warwick has made with Barker and A. H. Kirsch to put Warwick Castle at their disposal for the taking of kinema films, Lady Warwick providing historical plots, is itself history. That one of the very stateliest homes of England and a great lady of the “‘lofty line of high St. Clair’ should be at the service of a modern commercial industry that but the other day was of the status a peep-show at a fair is indeed an event that deserves a date in Mr. Gretton’s concisest Summary of the social transformation of England. It seems, indeed, like an invention from that great friendly nation which is expected to talfe a heavy interest in the esterprise. I am told by Mr. Barker that the agreement gives him and his partner powers to put their actors, appurtenances, and live stock in the grounds of the castle and access to the walls and battlements, but not to the interior which indeed (as he pointed out) would not be of much value, as films taken in rooms are never satisfactory. They will be able, with proper precautions, to show the castle on fire, with smoke coming out, and all that sort of thing— knights in armour mounting the walle with sealing ladders and deseending with captured maidens. and the like. Lady Warwick is strongly in favor of having the local people playing natural parte—a milkmaid playing a milkmaid, a farmer a farmer — rather than actors impersonating these parts. Her idea is the real people, and the real castle. The plays that are to be filmed at the castle are to be founded on incidents in its history, the result of her ladyship’s researches in the Warwick papers. The kinema, however, will not be iftroduced to the castle till after Christmas. The syndicate will begin by filming some modern plays by Lady Warwick. H. G. Wells, who lives near and is a friend of Lady Warwick, is understood to be interested in the enterprise. Sir J. Forbes Robertson, from mid-ocean on the Mauretania, sailing to America to fulfill hig farewell engagement on your side, sent a wireless mesage to the New Gallery Kinema, London, on the evening of September 22, expressing his regret at being unable to be present at the first moving picture representation of Hamlet in which the famous actor and his company appear. ee PLAYHOUSE NOTES. R. J. Madry, Neck (N. C.) proprietor of the Scotland ra House, will start the erection, about January 1, of a new opera house, with a larger seating capacity. Madry, who was born in Scotland Neck, has for the past fifteen years been connected with the wholesale grocery business, and for the past five years with the local opera house. He re ports business very good in that city. The American Theater, Keytesville, undergoing extensiv improvements. The stage is belng enlarged, stage entrance and dressing rooms added. The management of the house is making arrangements to book attractions. Pearce & Scheck have had plans prepared for the erection cf a theater on Broadway, Balti Mo., Is mere, Md. The unique feature of the new house ie that the first floor of the building will be used as the theater, and the upper floors for house-keeping apartments Six lots were pur chast for the building and the enterprise is estimated to cost about 80.000 Pearce & Scheck are also forwarding plans for the erection of the new Hippodrome in thet city Messrs. Youngs and Green have leased the Auditorium Theater, Lakeland, Fla. R. S. Hopper, managed of the Lyric Theater, Freeport, Iil., has purchased the Lyric at Fond Du Lac. William McNamara will erect an opera house on the Charlies Meyers aite in Virden, Il. R. F. Moehlanpah has awarded the contract for the erection of his $14,000 opera house, to be bullt In Beloit, Wis. The Auditorium Theater, Wash., was damaged by fire, le est!mated to be $40,000. The Old Unitarian Church, Quincy, Ill, 1s bein’ razed to make way for a modern theater and business bullding. Henn and Henn, proprietors of the Orphenm Theater, Cleveland, Ohlo, have purchased the Spokane, recently. Loss “ Maurice Mankinson, of Hammond, Ind., has been appointed manager of the New Orpheum, Racine, Wis. John J. Galvin. manager of the Theater, Ft, Plain, N. Y., bas resigned that position to take op the management of the Bijou Theater, New Haven, Conn, The Diepenbrock Theater, Sacramento, Cal, was destroyed by fre, recently. Orpheum The German Theater Co. will erect a play house in St. Louls, Mo, George H. Webster will erect a theater in Fargo, N. D. Fleckles and Lesman will engage in the theater business in Madison, Wis. Edw. T. Connelly has purchased the Lyrle Theater, Jamestown, N. Y., and will make improvements. John W. Boehne will have plane prepared 3 Se —oaties of a $30,000 theater in Evansville, Ind. The ic Theater Co., Butler, Pa., will erect a $30,000 theater building in that city. Myer Jeffe, of Manning, has purchased Grand Opera House in Kenyon, Minn. BE. E. Marsh has leased the Opera House, Montevideo, Minn., from the city. . Dipson and Wm, Carros, of Jeannette, have leased the Majestic Theater, burg, Pa. The Majestic Company is building a theater in San Antonio, Texas, which is expected to be completed some time next month. The New Majestic Theater, Pueblo, Colo.. is under the management of Mr. Hagan. The heuse will have a high-class vaudevil policy. Louls M. Czar bas leased some property in Chicago, for the term of 11 years, for amusement purposes. Bighty-elght thousand dollars will change hands thru the deal, The Citizens of Heyworth, Ill., met recently with the purpose of launching an opera house project for that city. The conclusion of the movement has not been reported. Col. Rolofsop is chairman of the affair. Penn Amusement Co. have awarded the contract for the erection of the Penn Theater, Uniontown, Pa. Charles Newton, former manager of the Saxe Theater, Milwaukee, Wis., has a threeyear lease on the Shubert Theater, from E. R. stock. The finishing touches are being put on the Star Theater, the new vaudevil and motion plehouse, that will be opened in Hartford, Conn., in the near future. The Alhambra Theater, Milwaukee, Wis., installed a 14-piece orchestra for the winter. Glen Krum is the director. Charles A. Newton, formerly manager of the Saxe Theater, Milwaukee, has sub-leased the Shubert Theater In that city, for three years, from Ray Comstock, to present stock. The Olympic Theater, St, Louis, again with Walter Sanford as manager, has much new ip the way of its decorations this season, chiefly in the handsome new curtain. Mr. Deubach is the new treasurer of the Olympic and eucceeds Walter Manz. H. P. Fenimore, of Dover, Dela.. has taken over the management of the Smyrna Opera House, at Smyrna, Dela., and will conduct it ip the future as well as the opera house at Dover. He will bave ag bis assistant in the conducting ot the houses Mark McManus of Wilmington. The Unique Theater, Mayfield, Ky., ope its season September 16, with Fred Reynold'’s Missouri Girl. The house is under the management of T. L. McNutt, who looks forward te a very favorable season, owing to the good crop conditions of his territory. William Hazzard has tought the Cotton Theater property in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for $60,000. Interior improvements have been made on the Avenue Theater, Wilmington, Dela., which opened on September 22. Mr. OConness, lessee of the house will follow the same policy as last year and is looking forward to a good season. The. Orpheum. Theater, Muscatine, lowa, opened September 14, with the Harvey Players offering The Country Boy. Jas. G. Doak and Company have secured 2 permit to erect a $150,000 theater in Philadelphia. The building will be 56x150 feet, and will have a seating capacity of about 1,700. Lane and Davis have sold their Cozy Theater, Rosenberg, Texas, to the 8. C. Light & Power Company. The Ope Waller and Hollingsworth, was fire recently. E. J. Leuven, former manager of the Mt. Pleasant Opera House, Mt. Pleasant, Mich., will again take over the management on October 4 house will be remodeled and will open with first-class attractions after November 1. J. ©. Wilson, Clinton, Ill, wi that city. Mr. and Mrs. J. L. MeLinton have disposed of their interests in the Grand Theater, Cedar Falls, Iowa, and will move to Waterloo. Doyle & Danuroy will erect a $15,000 opera house is Huntsville, Mo. Fred E. Johnson, who was in charge of the Auditorium at Newark, Ohio, for the past year, is now manager of Keith's New Metropolltan Theater, Cleveland. Ohio. The new house opened September 8, with Vanghan Glaser, for a 20 weeks’ engagement of stock. Alex McGavock 1g contemplating the erection of a vaudev!] house In Beloit, Wis. The plans will be drawn by F. H. Kemp, architect. Aaron David and L. RB. Oweng have acquired the Pastime Theater Columbus, 8S. C., and surrounding property. The transaction willl pot interfere with the operation of the theater. The City of De Leon, Texas, has erected a new City Hall, the second floor of which has been transformed into an opera honse, witb a seating capacity of 586. The opening of the new house has not been announct. Fred J. Durkes will spend $8,000 remodeling his theater, located in New York City. A theater, to be known as the Empress, will be erected in Manayunk, Pa. The Anditorium Opera Flouse, Lake Geneva, Wis., will under go extensiv improvements. Idlehour Theater, Grand Rapids, Mich., will be Improved to the extent of $10,000, Francis &. Key will open an opera house Ip St. Peter Minn, Plans for the Fawin Rooth Memorial Theater, New York City, are being prepared, The directora of the enterprise are: George W. Lederer. J. J. lachem. Cc. W. Parks has secured a lease on the Gadsden Theater, Gadsden. Ala., and opened the henee October 1. John Piegger of Soo Falls, owner of the Colonial Theater, will erect a three-story, fireproof playhouse in Sloux City, Iowa, costing ra House in Elliston, Iowa, owned by destroyed by roprietor of the Star Theater, 1 erect another playhouse ip