The Billboard 1921-05-28: Vol 33 Iss 22 (1921-05-28)

MAY 28, 1921 The Billboard 115 o_o : of villain roles, while the Missus is also ron known on the screen, having appeared un der the name ef Gretchen Hartman. ro Mr. and Mrs. Jules Garrison, at Middiesbrough, England, recently, a daughter, whom they have named Faith. DIVORCES In the “Profession —_— — Edna May Spooner, well-known stock actress, has filed suit for separation in the Supreme Court, New York, alleging that her husband, known professionally as Arthur Behrens, has oserted her. yg aeons Court Justice Benedict, in Brooklyn, N. Y., last week, granted Mrs, Carolina Sodero a separation from her husband, Ceaser Sodero, musical director for the Fox theatrical enterprises. The court awarded her $100 a eek alimony. ire. Mary Jane Duncan has obtained a divorce from Daniel H. Duncan, of O'Brien's Minstrels, on gq charge of desertion, Duncan must pay $15 a week for the eupport of a daughter, Arietta, six years old. Mrs. Duncan is a member of the vaudeville team of Moody and Duncan. Mrs. Rosa Fischer, known on the stage as “Princess Radjah,’’ in the Supreme Court at New York City, on May 19, was granted a divorce from Clifford CG, Fischer. They were married in: London, Eng., May 28, 19153. After waiting for the return of her husband, Howard Delmont Chalmers, an actor, for thirty years, Mary Jane Chalmers, of Pittsburg, Pa., recently filed suit for divorce, charging that ber husband deserted her a few months after their marriage, August 1, 1890, A diyorce is recommended in the master’s report. SELLS-FLOTO DENIED LICENSE IN NEWARK, N. J. (Continued from page 7) previous, the city officials claimed lack of dve respect and failure on the part of the circus management to comply with the law in tuia matter, and that it was then too late to assemble the license committee and grant the Ttequest. These facts were made known to the show people only when the twenty-four-hour man arrived on the grounds the day before the circus was to exhibit, therefore they took a chance on unloading the show and hauling thru the streets to the show grounds, which were located in one of the county parks, within the city limits. On arrival of the regular license adjustgr on the morning of the show he immediately calleqg at the City Hall to take out the necessary permits for the parade and performances, but in the meantime Director Brennap had taken his departure from the city wita an admonition to the Chief of Police to prohibit the parade and circus performances at all hazard, as he would not, under any circumstances, reverse his decision. Driven to desperation, Zach Terrell and his Staff of assistants consulted a well-known law firm with a view of applying for a temporary injunction to prevent the city from interfering with their legitimate business, and tendering the amount of the license as evidence of good faith. But it was then found too late in the day to engage the services of a Judge m a evurt of Chancery, and the idea of giving a performance in Newark was abandoned and tents taken down. Director Brennan was said to be very Much peeved because of the lack of attention id to his official dignity, and made the claim at it was then too late to_arrange sufficient police protection, altho there appeared to be more officess on the streets and at the show grounds then ever before. The Ringling Bros.-Barnum & fafley Shows drove upon the same grounds this (Snnday) morning, where they are to exhibit on Mondsy and Tuesday, May 23 and 24, it being uncerStood that they have already obtained and pald for their permits. STREET CAR STRIKE CAUSES CANCELATION OF ALRANY Schenectady, New York, May 23.—The SellsFloto Circus will play this city today, filling in the Albany date canceled by the munic'pal authority because of serious disorders attending the street car strike there. Late Saturday Mayor George R. Lunn gave the advance agent permission for the attraction to show here at the Rusby Road Grounds. Large advertisements have been inserteq in the newspapers and other Means employed to inform the public of the change. There is no street car strike in Schenectady at present, but one is imminent. IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN CHICAGO THEATRICALS (Continued from page 7) 48 manager of the Apollo. He was for several years general treasurer of the Shubert houses in Chicago. The Shube?ts will provide attractions next season for seven Chicago playhouses, the Apollo, Studebaker, Princess, Playboure, Central, Garrick and Capitol—the new name of the Great Northern Hippodrome. It has also been decided that the Shuberts, in the big launching of yavdeville, wil! use both the Garrick, long a legitimate house, and the Capitol, for the new yandeville circuit. The old Garrick will require sweeping alterations and remodeiing to “make a house” out of it, but the location in Randolph street ig second to none. Likewise, the Shuberts will spend a fortune in making over the ola **Hip.”* In operating the Apollo Mr. Woods may uso it for bis own shows whenever he desires to do so. The Playhouse will remain under the Management of Lester Brvant and Mr. Woo.'s The latter, who has several times boldly proclaimed his preference for Chicago and its people. is said to still not be satisfied. Report nos t that Mr. Woods, hever known for timidity, Wwouldn’t be afraiq to build stilll another playhouse in Chicago, even finer than the other two, if he could get a certain coveted location. Rat the sort of ‘spots’? that Mr. Wools favors—he demands the choicest regardless of ‘ost—are getting to be like Kohinoors, and with ‘ron-clag@ leAses at ef theni, too. rhe Shuberts, it is believed, will build the next Chicago playhouse. It will probably be ®t Randolph and Wells street, on the north You can’t buy a better looking, more attractive doll anywhere at any price. “Vanitie Dolls” Endorsed by leading concessionaires, We guarantee Al beautiful assortment $ with silk costumes and e wigs. Packed with individual boxes In 6 and 12 doz. case lots. 25% depasit with order. with attractive silk costumes and wigs. Exceptional value, $12.00 per doz. Same terms as above. LIGHT IN WEIGHT. UNBREAKABLE Satisfaction. Ask for our 16-inch Novelty Dol} Send for $8.00 prepaid. % doz. sample assortment. Ask for Price List. Size, 14 Inches. Design Registered. METRO DOLL CO. 179 Eth Ave., . J. L. KALLUS, Prop. : NEW YORK CITY. ADILLAC ADILLAC DOLL MEN, ATTENTION! UPID DOLL and now under new management, offers a complete lineof PLASTER DOLLS at greatly reduced prices. When in Detroit look us up. UPID DOLL and 1362 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, Mich. Local and Long Distance Phone: Main 251. White for Price List. Terms: One-third cash, TATUARY WORKS TATUARY WORKS or fifty thousand dollars profit out of it in one season. Well, it can’t be done. If it could everybody would get in the business of producing shows instead of running grocery stores and other enterprises where a reasonable profit only is expected. We know these men. We have had a lot of dealings with them. They want their actors, chorus and other employees to work for starvation wages so they can make abnor..al profits. ‘ “For several years,’ continued Mr. Spencer, “these men have been able to put out medio re companies and reap huge profits. Now, wh 1 business has come back to normal and norma) profits can only be expected they want to make us take low wages in order that they may make abnormal profits. Well, it won’t do.’ President Weber was out of town attending the convention of the American Federation of Musicians when The Billboard reporter called at International Headquarters to get an .expression of opinion from him about the letter. In his absence, Harry Brennan, assistant to President Weber, spoke. Mr, Brennan said after reading the letter: “It looks as if they were looking for it and if they are we will go as far as they will. Both the Producing Managers and the Touring Managers have requested a conference with the stage hands and musicians to talk over the matter of wages and agreed that they would do nothing until that meeting was held. If they adopt these tactics, there won't be much chance of the meeting being held at all. It all looks to me like summer madness, After the long winter they alway® try to break loose in the summer with some wild-eyed proposition, and this looks like the annual event. “The road scale for musician is little enough nowadays when you consider that one has to pay from three to six dollars a day for a hotel. When one is playing one-night stands and lives like a human being there is little left from the pay envelope at the end of the week,” The Billboard endeavored to get in touch with Hugh Frayne, the representative in this city of the American Federation of Labor, to see what attitude that body would take in the event of an attack of the managers against the affiliated unions of the A. FP. of L. in the rim of the Loop. The company that owns the Randolph Hotel property has planned to build a combination hotel and theater there along the most modern lines, the Shuberts to control the playhouse. UNIONISM IS ADVOCATED BY AM. BURLESQUE ASSOCIATION (Continued from page 7) immediately wire. the manager of the bureau, who will refer to the index cards and select a girl who can wear the same costumes and sh-es worn by those girls exiting. The bureau will furnish the girls with transportation to their opening point in time to replace those who exit. Girls desiring to transfer from one cowpnay to another on the circuit must make applicaong to the en an endorsement from @ manager of the company she originally signed with. . Girls quitting the company against the protest of the manager or thru sickness or other causes will be given a hearing by the bureau. Girls who jump a show without a legitimate reason for doing so will be denied an_ engageMent by the bureau. Another innovation will require producing managerg to deposit prior to the opening of the season a cgpy of the “book” which they are to present en tour. The books will be sealed oe signed with the name of the owner and show. Complaints from company managers over a book or any parts of a book being used by another company will be suJdicient cause for tne manager of the bureau to compare the two books and if they are similar select the one that apPears better than the other abq order that one be retained and the other eliminated. In case of a complaint where it appears that @ manager has chanced his presentation arcee opening by using material taken from another show he will be ordered to eliminate the material immediately and substitute entirely new material or go back to the original book. Each and every producing manager on the A. B. A. Circuit will be taxed sufficiéntiy to maintain the bureau until the end of the season, when the surplis montys will be divided pro rata among the producing managers. The directing mahager of the bureau has not been apnointed as yet. The annual meeting of the American Burlesque Association will be held Friday, June 3. —_~ COLUMBIA BURLESQUE CIRCUIT New York, May 20.—There were all sorts of rumors, discussions and debates among the burlesquers on the Columbia Corner yesterday as to the outcome of the meeting of the Columbia Amusement Company. At noon yesterday Sam A. Scribner, general manager of the C. A. C., informed The Billboard that* there were several matters of importance that woulq be detided on-Monday and information relative to same given out in time for publication in the next issue. EXHIBITORS HOLD MEETING IN PITTSBURG (Continued frem page 7) of all State units in the United States, working toward the end of the five-cent film tax. Stull another is the opposition of the exhibitors as a body to the exploitation of all screen players with a crimjnal record and the refusal to display such pictures even if the producers turn them out. Another stroig point to be discussed is a combined effort on the part of exhizitors for the exploitation of clean, decent screen preductions and the abolishment of anything that tends, to lower the moral tone of picture theaters. Executive officers of the association are: D’resident, James A. Smith, Pittsbure; vice-president, Michael M. Rosenbloom, Charleroi; treasurer, Chris Volmer, Pittsburg; secretary, F. J. Herrington, Pittsburg. Members of many other industry associations that have been in convention in Harrisburg, Washington and New York City are in attend. ance at this convention also: Sydney Cohen, Stephen Bush and P. §S. Harrison, of New York City; John S. Evans, Philadelphia; Moe Glanz, Pittsburg, and several represenfitives of the largest producing companies, exchanges and exhibitors of the East. This morning, in open session, business and trade committees were appointed. In the afternoon, in executive session, the reports of the various committees attending the Harrisburg and Washington conventions were read. On Tuesday morning delegates to the national convention at Minneapolis will be elected, and in the afternoon officers will be elected for the coming year. Today the visiting members were guests of the local members at various theaters. Tomorrow the convention will wind up with a banquet at the Hotel Pitt. PRODUCERS AND UNIONS IN DEADLOCK (Continued from page 7) interfere to keep hands off and let you run your theater as you want to run it? Why be dictated to? Why should you have to hire more help than actually neceskary to run your shows, and why should you (as is the case in many towns) be forced to pay them two days’ wages for one day’s work—or, in other words, guarantee them a certain number of days each week when the number of attractions you book cannot be governed by you? “The Touring Manzagers’ Association is determined to give battle to both the Mucicians’ Union and the Stage Hands’ Union, and they are backed up by the Producing Managers’ and the United Managers’ associations. “Incidentally the concessions we are demanding will be 6f material benefit to the theater managers as well as to ourselves. “Don’t sit tight and ‘let George do it’— go after them. The Chamber of Commerce in your town will help you; they are doing it in many towns around the country—and what thegx are doing is not harmful to the labor unions, but a benefit—it will open ther eyes to right and wrong—something they ere dlind to today—they have only ears for the roaring agitator who is too lazy to work himself, but content to sit back and let Mr. Working Union Man pay for getting himself into trouble instead of letting him live in peace and harmony with his fellow man. “Organized labor is all right, but when it assumes a dictatorial attitede, which it has done, it is time to call a halt. “This Federation of Labor propaganda about an organized body of employers aiming to disrupt labor unions is all bunk—they have no such desire, they only want bring organized labor to its sepses and cause them to act with common sense and thot with bandit methods, “And while you are after the stage hands and musicians, don’t overlook the piratical baggage transfer men for the high-handed methods they have practiced. You complain that it is impossible to run your theater profitably with traveling attractions, due principally to the demands of the stage hands—well—think how burdensome is the position of the traveling manager, who gets it on all sides—actors— chorus — printers — musicians — stage hands— railroads—baggace hauling—hotels—restaurants, “It has reached a point where concessions must be made or there will be few if any companies on tour next season. “United action will win—so get after them jn earnest and do not dilly-dally, hoping and trusting that the other fellow will do the — “TOURING MANAGERS’ ASS’N.’* In the absence of President Lemke of the T. A. T. S. E., The Billboard reporter saw Harry L. Spencer, the assistant president of the organization, When shown the letter of the Touring Managers’ Association and asked what the attitude of the union would be towords it, Mr. Spencer said, ‘Oh, we'll just band together and let them do what they want with us. Yes, we will!’ “The Touring Managers are a lot of men, with few exceptions, who put five thousand dollars in a show and expect to get twenty-five amt t business. The linking up of the managers with the ‘‘open shop’? movement as indicated in the reference in the letter to letting the Chamber of Commerce in the different towas work with the local manager m he attempt to fight unionism in the theater might be calculated to make the A. F. of Ty take action, but Mr, ‘Frayne was out of town and The Billboard was unable to get any eXpression of opinion from him on this point. GREATER ALAMO SHOWS Chillicothe, Mo., May 18.—With the engagement of the Wortham-Waugh-Hofer Greater Alamo Shows, this week in Chillicothe, the American Legion, makes five out of six auspices played so far this season, the location here being around the county Court House. ‘Tis but half the week and from indications it will be a gvod one for the shows and rides, but they don’t seem to take to the concessions so well. j It seems that Frank Strouble’s Monkey Speedway is making a comeback record for a moneygetting attraction, but it’s due to the showmanship of this pioneer speedway manager, who knows how to frame this sort of a show. It proved itself last week in Pittsburg. Last week was ‘“‘picture week” with the show, as all the new fronts and rides were photographed for prints to send the fair secretaries and celebration managers, twelve in number, for which the Greater Alamo Shows furnish the attractions this season. Next week !t’s another American Legion celebration, fn Brookfield, Mo., and Harry Burton, the chairman of the committee, has the city and surrounding country within a fortymile radius billed like a circus. Then for a jump to Hannibal, Mo., under the Knights of Columbus, where an auto and popularity contest is in full sway, under the prv:motion of Harry F. Davis, a newcomer on the Greater Alamo staff. Another 60-foot steel flat and 64-foot baggage car were reacived this week am have already been repainted, The city of Chillicothe is indebted to the boys on the Greater Alamo Shows for the splendid work dore by them under the leadership and marshaling of Harry Johnson, the trainmaster, in fizhting a large fire that burned half a block of the produce row in this city —JOE S. SCHOLIBO (Show Representative). “JACK FROST” FREEZER — Chicago, May 21.—A toothsome, icy ribbon was winding gracefully out of a polished something about as large as a cash register. The ribbon automatically folded itself up in a cut glass dish and several persons meantime wiped their lips with the backs of their hands as they watched the process. It was a demonStration of the “Jack Frost’? Freezer, in the offices of the United States Tent & Awning Company, and everybody agreed that the demonstration was both successful and tantalizing. Previcnus mention has been made of this novel and interesting mechanism in these columns. Harry G. Melville is interested in the invention and invited a Billboar, representative to see how it works today. J. L. Edwards, the inventor, was present and explained its funetions. The freezer has long passed the experimental stage. A crude model teok in $107.40 on the Nat Reiss Shows, in Deadwood, S. D., the first afternoon, some seasons ago. The present freezer is the embodiment of the qnventor’s advancing ideas in improvement. From three to four orders a minute are © ~ by the machine, which serves fruit ices, sh %, fruit salads and any other liquid which must be frozen to serve. CHARLES FREEMAN, NOTICE! Mrs. Marie Freeman-Griggs is worried over her son, harles Freeman, a showman, whom she hag not heard from since April 23. She says he was with Miller’s Show at Clinton, ‘Ky., at that time. Auybody knowing Mr. Freeman’s whereabouts will confer a favor on his mother by writing her at 1707 N. 4th avenue, Birmingham, Ala. fick wok Pres a caninnone mors pe oe MaRS Si + ee