Variety (Dec 1905)

VARIETY. A Variety Paper for Variety People. Published every Saturday by THE VARIETY PUBLISHING COMPANY. Knickerbocker Theatre Building. 1402 Broadway, New York City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Annual $2 Foreign 3 Six and three months In proportion. Single copies Ave cents. Variety will be mailed to a permanent address or as per route, as desired,.- ADVERTISING RATES ON APPUCATION. First Year. No. 3. VARIETY destlres to announce the policy k«»\ ernlng the paper, We want yon to read it. It la In- terentinir If for no other reason than that It will he eondncted on original Hue* for a theatrical newspaper. The ilrat. foremost and extraordi- nary featare of It la falrneaa. What- ever there la to he printed of Intereat to the profeaalonal world will he prlated without regard to whoae name 1m mentioned or the advertising columns. •'\ll (he news all the time" and "ahMolutel > fair" are the watchworda. YAKIKTY 1m an artists' paper) a paper to which anyone connected with or Intereated In the theatrical world may read with the thorough Itnowledfre and belief that what ia printed Im not dictated •►> any motive other than the policy above outlined. We want you for a aubacriber. If you don't read \AHIETY you are mlsslnjr something. Do you wunt to read a paper that'a honcMt from the title page to Ita lant llnef That will keep Ita columna clean of ''wash not lees f" That will not be Influenced by advertising f That'a VARIETY. To liiMurc you receiving VARIETY regularly, nend in your subacrlptlon now. You will find It coming to you regularly to any permanent address given, or "a» per route/* Writing in the fullness of spirit, a correspondent, in another column, sug gests that more attention be given the matter of scenery and properties in the better class of vaudeville houses. There are some places in town where the acts are as well staged as though the setting were to be used by some Frohinan at- traction for a run, but on the other hand there are other places, and some holding the very top position, wherein the dra- matic act is forced to get along with the scenic equipment of a one-night stand theatre and is provided with a rathe? less liberal assortment of properties. There are half a dczen houses where th*^ same setting is made to do service for three and four different acts and the same familiar bcx set fences in the danc- ing act and the dramatic sketch ween after week. Properties must be fui- nished by the artist who wishes a re- spectable setting, for beyond the barest necessities of tables, chairs and a well worn sofa there is nothing to be had. This is not at all as it should be, Managers should realize that scenery is as important as the act, and when a five hundred dollar sketch is asked to play in some moth eaten box scene, when tin* lines clearly indicate that the scene is laid in a home of refinement, much of the value of that act is lost to the man ager. A Corot would be a Corel still in an unpainted pine frame, but the lucky owner of a Corot would spend a few del Jars to have his masterpiece properly framed. Why should a manager hire a high price I act and then belittle it by providing the same threadbare set as was used aim st immediately before by some cheap musical comedian or a dia- lect sket:h team? Why should a man- ager spend money in seeing that his auditorium is kept clean and attractive while the moment the curtain rises t!e shabbine8s of the stage kills the previ- ous impression and sends the auditor home with the feeling that he has been witnessing a tenth-rate performance be- cause the scenery and stage management is of that sort? There was a time when it was the Keith boast that they could put on a bill of eighteen numbers and not repeat a single setting. They used to keep in stock three and four handsome sets for the better class of acts and no cloth was allowed to get dirty, because there was a rvene painter to keep them fresh. There was a time when the scenic equipment of Hyde and Behman's was constantly being changed and at the other houses new cloths did net excite comment. Now a new scene in almost any house is con- sidered worthy of a special notice, and there are few houses where the audi- ences have net grown sick unto death of the same old drops and flats week after week. 4 There are hundreds of persons who go to the same theatre week after week to whom the cloths are far more familiar than they are to the stage manager, who generally gives one glimpse to a set and lets it go at that. They would appreciate the frequent change of scenery. It would enable them to enjoy an act better. Ir the manager would spend a hundred dol- lars a week in keeping a paint frame go- ing he could cut it out of the program appropriation and still have a better locking show, since the increased smart- ness of the stage would impart to tho familiar act an aspect of newness it does not now possess. Some few performers have sought to srlve the problem by carrying their own cloths, but these are for the greater part shabby dye drops as dingy as the house scenery, and these do not get the price of the excess charges out of the money they ask. since the manager argues that it is useless to pay for scenery. There is not a house in town where one may go with the knowledge that h.c will not be called upon to observe the same old olio curtain with its chewing gum ad- vertisements, the same drops with the patent cracker spread all over the most conspicuous store front, and the same old wood drop for the acrobatic acts that do not get the palace set. in Europe bouses carry a special drop for circus acts. Here the only drop cf that sort is to lie feurul—at the Orpheum in Brook- lyn. Audiences are not going to stay away from a house because they do not change their scenery, but people do gel tirel of vaudeville because they believe that an act is going stale when it is merely that the act is so poorly set that the true value does not become apparent. * m In the matter of settings the roncli- linns arc even worse. There is the same set of gold chairs week after week, and the same old sofa and the familiar table with its near-tapestry cover. Lillian Burkhart, when she played in the vicin- ity of New York, brought stuff from her home in Bensonhurst, but few perform ers can do this, and the management make no effort to help the artist out. It is a penny wise, pound foolish policy, for if an act is worth two hundred dollars a week or more, that same act is worth ten dollars worth of trouble in providing a new set of furniture. Nowadays if there is ten dollars' worth of trouble taken, it is because the artist has been able to get in with the property man and promise to pay the ten himself. Bright scenery and clean stages are as impor- tant as big acts and a pretty house. A peculiarly characteristic story is told of Nick Norton and the Hoch-Elton sketch at Hyde and Behman's this week. In the course of the act Mr. Hoch breaks a plaster cast. Monday afternoon he broke it on the carpet and it took al- most a minute to clean up the pieces. At the night performance the desk on which the cast stood was so placed that the broken bits fell in front of the drop in one. By the time a stage hand had fin- ished picking up the plaster the stage was ready for the next act and a stage wait was saved. There never is a stage wait at Hyde and Behman's when Norton runs the show. The program starts ex- actly at eight and there is no let up until the final curtain falls. Once Norton sent a boy out to rosin the stage for a cycle rider that a wait might be saved; the rosin box containing merely pebbles. It was something doing and that was all that was needed. Norton likes to refer to the time in Chicago when he ran three quartets, a double and a single act all in thirty-five minutes. Several new illusions are announced for the spring season, one of them be- ing the Maskeleyne and Cook production, while another comes with no important name attached. Both promise new ideas and are said to be improvements over existing methods. This will be a chance for the enterprising Saona, who lies in wait for all new tricks and calmly takes possession without saying "By your leave." or anything else polite. To patent an act and then protect it costs more than the best illusion is worth Under the present patent laws. It is a pity that some means cannot be found to head off these brain thieves who net only copy an act but perform it so clumsily that it no longer is a mystery even to children. . One point that has not made itself ap- parent in this discussion over the diffi- culty of getting a start in vaudeville is the fact that the agent is prone to ac- quaint himself with, say a thousand acts, and book all of his bills from that list. It is a fa< t that there are agents in responsible positions who could not book (dght hundred acts in a single week (pro videl they had a call for that number) without having to look to others for in formation as to some of the acta unfa- miliar to themselves. In the lar«> < f this it is not to be wondered that agents can- not see new faces. They have trouble enough In remembering the old One agent hist slimmer was approached re- garding the George Ade sketch and as- tonished the proposer !»\ Inquiring who George Ade was. OUR PICTURES. The upper circles on the first page of Variety this week show photographs of Frederick Freeman Proctor, head of the extensive circuit bearing his name, and Louise Dresser, at the Twenty-thinf street Theatre this week. feature of Variety a cartoon by Hal Merritt dealing with some phase of the vaudeville situation. It is not intended to offer individual carricatures, but ad- here more to the line of the daily paper. Mr. Merritt is a clever draughtsman and will doubtless create comment in his new departure. He has given up playing dates and outside of concert work will devote his time to newspaper illustra- tions, a field in which he has already gained such success as may come to one whose work takes him constantly from his avocation. Charles Serra was booked to appear at the Colonial this week, but owing to sudden illness the date was pushed ahead one week. The Griff brothers re- placed him. May Eduine from the Fields' show is going into vaudeville, but the agent was so excited over the event that his thoughts would not collect into an In- telligent answer as to who May is or what she is going to do. Nellie Seymour and Josie Allen are going to appear January 15 at Hurtig & Seamon's. Miss Seymour says it's a new act because it has never played that house before. Everybody invited. If Grace Von Studdiford. should leave comic opera for vaudeville, it will not be the first time that the prima donna has "done a turn." Some four or five years ago Miss Grace rode over the Orpheum Circuit, stopping off here and there to have vocal practice. Cinquevalli. the juggler, will play nine weeks only on this trip, returning im- mediately upon the expiration to con- tinue on the Moss & Stoll tour in Eng- land. Joe Welch left town this week to re- join "The Peddler," of which he is the star. About January 15 Mr. Welch will again resume vaudeville dates. His starring tour has largely increased his value as a Hebrew dialect monologist In the continuous, and his services are In demand at a large figure. Eddie Leonard's engagement in Brook- lyn this week marks the black-faced comedian's fourth appearance over there this season. Julian Kit luge, who appears at Keith's ne\t week, is at present negotiating for a tour of the European music halls after the conclusion of his vaudeville time in this country. Next week there will he added as ;i Emmalyn Lackaye, a cousin of Wilton !.;m !<av. who has had a one act farce by I'M it h Ellis Baker, called "The Green- Eyed Monster,'- will shortly be seen In a single turn.