The Billboard 1916-06-03: Vol 28 Iss 23 (1916-06-03)

JUNE 3, 1916. The Billboard New Metropolitan Season Will Present Four Operatic Novelties and Five New Artists New York, May 29.—Before sailing for Europe on the Lafayette Saturday Guilio Gatti-Casazzl, manager of the Metroplitan Opera Company, took occasion to officially announce plans for the coming season of opera. He promises four novelties in the way of operatic productions and five singers who are new to the Metropolitan fold. New operas will be Canterbury Pilgrims, by Richard DeKoven and Percy Mackaye; Francesca, to be sung in Italian; Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris, in German, and Bizet’s Les de Percheurs, French. .Among the revivals will be Thais, with Geraldine Farrar; Delibes’ Lakme, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Donizetti's L’Elisir ad’ Amore. : Among the new artists named are Mme. Marie Sundelius, Miss Alice Eversman, Miss Odette de Fontenay and Miss Kathleen Howard. Among the new men will be Paul Bender, a German bass-barytone, and a new assistant conductor, Paul Eisler. With the exception of the following the old principals have been retained: Mme. Duchene, Giacomo and Gaetano Bavagnoli. The season opens November 13 and continues twenty-three weeks. American Drama Year Will Encourage Spirit of 1916 New York, May 29.—In order to take up the spirit of enthusiasm created by the Shakespeare tercentennial year, which is drawing to a close, and convert it into evidences of dramatic advancement, the New York branch of the Drama League of America has begun a movement to make 1917 American Drama Year, as 1916 was Shakespeare year. Winthrop Ames is honorary chairman of the committee promoting the movement and he will work with representatives of a number of New York theatrical organizations. George Blumenthal Made Manager of New Eta Producing Company New York, May 27.—George Blumenthal, the one-time business manager of Emma Trentini and Arthur Hammerstein, will act in the capacity of manager of the Bta Producing Company, which is to produce the Japanese comic opera, The Romance of the Eta, by Mary Lee Wertheimer, some time the latter part of August. Yra Jeane To Have Lead Engaged by Girard for Yankee Prince New York, May 29.—The attraction for the opening of the Brighton Beach Music Hall, adjoining the Brighton Beach Hetel, will be George M. Cohan's The Yankee Prince, on the evening of June 10. Frank Girard, who is manager of B. F. Keith's Orpheum Theater, Brooklyn, and Lawrence D. Kinsports have taken over the house for the summer season, and will put on musical comedies, Miss Yra Jeane has been selected by Girard for the leaging role in The Yankee Prince, and ts to be supported by Dorothy Wright and Dave Mallen. There will ee a chorus of thirty. ROBERT GRAU Intimate and Important Revelations Appertaining to the Larger and Finer Phases of the Business (The Billboard does not object to reprint from this column, provided proper credit is given.) THEATRICAL WRITERS STILL AGAINST THE FILMS In the face of an almost malicious prejudice on the part of the high-brow critics of the speaking stage, of whom not a few are looking jealously at the astounding money appropriations now being spent for advertising feature films at high admission prices, the next two months will witness what may well be called the zenith period of motion picture development, when as many as six productions for the screen will be presented in New York practically simultaneously, each entailing about a year’s incessant preparatory effort and all the final result and achievement of young producers and directors, not one of whom ever made as much as a reputation on the stage. Here is the roll of honor: D. W. Griffith, the man who came to the screen at a laborer’s wage, ridiculed by all except an expert camera man, Bitzer by name, who has already made millions for himself, and one loyal associate, Harry T. Aitken, and who comes hither now to add two his laurels with The Mother and the Law, which, it is predicted, will eclipse everything to date and who will follow this production with The Holy Grail. Thomas H. Ince, the wizard of Inceville and Culver City, who but five years ago found shelter in a primitive film studio at five dollars a day, who two years later was being paid $100,000 a year as a salary and who is now in New York awaiting the Metropolitan verdict on his colossal film spectacle, Civilization, which is in its third month at a Los Angeles playhouse. The third of the group is Herbert Brenon, who the writer recalls as Joseph F. Vion’s “typewriter,” who, like Ince, sought fame and fortune in vaudeville in vain, the genius who created Neptune’s Daughter, and who is now watching Griffith and Ince, ready to spring at a day’s notice into the field with the Fox-Kellermann film with the provisionary title of A Daughter of the Gods. Fourth in the group is J. Stuart Blackton, the first to present a “preparedness” film, who is about to enter the field with a sequel to The Battle Cry of Peace, the man of destiny, the very first to do big things in filmdom, but whose career is about to assume the vital stage and who, like Griffith, Ince and Brenon, was unknown to fame on the stage, though he was a performer of marked ability. The fifth is Donald Crisp, to whom the world owes the truly artistic Ramona. A disciple of Griffith. Sixth, and last of the list, is Lois Weber, “the wonder girl,” who, on the stage, passed through a precarious career, which may explain why the productions she has created deal with the vital problems of our national life, with vital truths rather than with stage fiction. The name of Lois Weber is, however, recorded here not for what she has already achieved so much as for what is yet to come from her brain. A year hence will witness the advent of Lois Weber into the realm of the milliondollar film spectacle which deals with the life we live and as we live it in modern times. These are the film figures who now occupy the center of the stage in the world of picturedom, and it is almost a travesty to gaze upon the spectacle of our present-day critics either waxing enthusiastic or else deerying their influence in the field of public entertaining. Four years ago there was not one New York critic who accepted motion pictures seriously. The awakening did not come until that golden hour (it may yet be a fatal one), when the producers of picture plays decided to reveal the identities of the screen. Then came the real evolution followed by the phenomenal salaries to the talent. Naturally with the inauguration of this era of publicity the majority of the critics began to consider the screen seriously, but there remains a stubborn minority which delights at every turn in belittling the productivity of the cameras while keeping tab on the maze of full-page advertisements which signalized the most prosperous year the amusement world has ever known. The critics of two leading morning dalies and two evening issues are right now writing destructively about motion picture productions of the highest wrade with one hand while with the other with hat in hand they are crying for their share of the “spoils."". What is the use of mincing matters? Commercialism is now running rampant in connection with criticism, yet this is probably as it should be, but why the hypocrisy? Here we are in the period of the dog days with theaters as a whole more prosperous than in the regular season. vet there is not one daily paper in New York today, except The New York Herald. which will print one line about motion pictures that is not influenced by its advertising columns. This is probably perfectly proper, owing to the financial problems now confronting the newspapers, but if conditions demand that editorial space be controlled in the counting room why pretend that criticism is unbiased? WHY NOT THE HIPPODROME? When will theatrical managers begin to gain their knowledge from actual experience? Just about this time of the year the theater manager gets a spell of pessimism coincidentally with the advent of the first days of balmy spring, when perhaps for three or four days box-office receipts assume a dropping tendency. Immediately playhouses are closed at the first sign of loss, only to cause the deepest regret when in the same week “Overcoat Weather” and sold-out houses is the reward of those who keep open house. This mistaken idea of a summer of any length of time before the first of July has caused more than one manager to vrefit through operating from (Continued on page 15) Rose Returns to Chicago Brings Manuscript of New Play, Little Girl That God Forgot, With Him Chicago, May ?7.—Edward E. Rose, author of many successful American plays, has just returned to Chicago from his estate in Florida. He brought with him the manuscript of a new play bearing the title, The Little Girl That God Forgot. The piece will be produced in the autumn by John J. Bernero, who managed the tour of Thomas Ross in An Everyday Man and Little Lost Sister during its three successful seasons. The heroine of the play is said to be the most appealing figure that Mr. Rose has ever placed on the stage. To Dramatize Riley’s Verses New York, May 27.—The dramatic rights to James Whitcomb — Riley’s best-known poem, An Old Sweetheart of Mine, have been purchased by Robert McLaughlin, author of The Eternal Magdalene. McLaughlin is now preparing a play which will include a number of Riley’s characters. The scenes will be laid near Greenfield, Ind., Mr. Riley’s birthplace. The premiere of the play is announced for English’s Opera House, Indianapolis, on October 2, after which An Old Sweetheart ot Mine will fill a few engagements in Indiana before going to Chicago and New York. DRAMATIC NOTES The Committee on Grand Opera, University of Pennsylvania, is advertising an open-air performance of Aida for June % George B. Nitzsche, manager, announces that the cast will include Marie Rappold, Margarete Matzenauer, Leone Zinovieff, Giuseppe Campanari, Leon Rothier, Jose Mardones, and Giorgio Polacco, conductor. The chorus will number 509 voices, and the orchestra 165 musicians. Mr. Lazarus, the new comedy by Harvey O'Higgins and Harriet Ford, authors of The Dummy and Polygamy, is now in rehearsal and will be tried out early in June. The title role will be assumed by Henry E. Dixey. Selwyn & Co. have just acquired an entire floor of the Commercial Trust Building for new offices. The Blue Paradise, which has been playing at the Casino Theater, New York, continued its summer run at the Forty-fourth Street Theater on Monday, May 29. On that night it celebrated its 346th performance. Florence Moore has been engaged for one of the important roles in The Passing Show of 1916, which opens at the Winter Garden the middle of June. After a month's cruise about the Florida coast in his yacht Henry W. Savage has returned to New York to his new offices in the Candler Theater Building. r A new musical “number was introduce? last week into the Fifth avenue number ef Hip. Hip, Hooray, at the Hippodrome, for the purpose of introducing a new tenor, Harry Ellis, who was with Watch Your Step earlier in the season. Sousa’s new composition, The Monastery March, was played by the band and dedicated to the Friars the same day. Sybil Carlisle, who has just finished her second season in A Pair of Silk Stockings, will sail for England June 3. She is to return early in the fall. The Cinderella Man will continue its engagement at the Hudson Theater, New York, owing to the fact that tickets are sold for weeks ahead. A Woman cf No Importance will continue showing at the Fulton, New York, in spite of the fact that Miss Margaret Anglin, who has been starring in it with Holbrook Blinn, will be forced to go to St. Louls to prepare for her Shakespearean engagement. Representatives of (Continued on page 15) * aR a a pip et etapa ped" asetne ae, ere <>. a in ey et be tong H