Variety (Jan 1906)

lO VARIETY. MURDOCK IS PESSIMISTIC. John J. Murdock. of the Western Vaudeville Managers' Association, is pessimistic as regards the future of vaudeville. He and Martin Beck, the general manager of the Orpheum thea- tres, were in town last week on one of their periodical visits, and in a chat with Variety Mr. Murdock, who is well in- formed on vaudeville subjects, ex- pressed the belief that the present vaudeville craze would not endure. "Five years ago." he said, "there was nothing making money in the dramatic field but musical comedy. To-day none of these organizations is really prosper- ing, and the cry is constantly heard that it is the same thing over agn'»» "We get very much the same thing from the resident managers of some of the smaller towns. One is asked why it is that a certain act, say a troupe of trained dogs, does not please. " 'It's the same old thing,' is the re- sponse. *The people say they have seen it before.' "He is reminded that this is the first time the act has played his town, but the criticism has been passed. The tricks of dog acts are pretty much the same. The name may be new but the ideas are old and therefore without ap- peal. "In the larger cities there will always be vaudeville theatres. Just as there will always be musical comedies playing the big towns, but the smaller cities will not support vaudeville for a period of years. Just at present there are many new houses where they know vaudeville to be the fad in the big towns, and it is patronized because known to be fashion- able. After a while they will tire of a succession of acts on very much the same lines, and five years from now there will be far fewer houses than there are at present. "Even in the cities there is trouble in holding interest by the engagement of new faces, but the law of supply and demand will always govern that. I should say that a1>out one-third of the new acts fail at the commencement. The rest play once over the circuits, some of them being good enough to be repeated. "The European field is being closely watched, and acts of merit are not as plentiful as they were, but what I have said of new American acts holds good of the European market. There will never be an absolute scarcity of material, but, on the other hand, new acts of real value need never go beg- ging. "We are not paying much attention to the ten-cent houses in the West. In the localities where the climate does not vary greatly between summer and win- ter and the people can wait without dis- comfort for the second night show, the houses are doing fairly well. Where the cold weather comes with November, the t^o shows a night system does not greatly prosper. Some of the places will last, some will close within the year; it is a survival of the fittest, anri no man can say what the ultimaie outcome will be. "Business in Chicago Is good. The new hou.se 's a winner because it is a novelty, and the other playhouses there have been fixed over until they are vir- tually new. The Western Association Is booking for sixty-seven houses, of which eighteen are the Orpheum and Kohl and Castle and Hopkins houses; there are seven in the Interstate Circuit, which has recently come to us for bookings, and there are forty-two smaller places. "Acts playing for three and four hun- dred dollars can get all of this time, while the smaller turns get the smaller time and the more important are played over the big end of the circuit. "We have been tremendously suc- cessful in our work through a policy of minding our own business. We do not engage in any fights, we are not devot- ing our time and energies to our com- petitors instead of ourselves, we are just going thead and giving all our care and attention to the Western Vaudeville Managers' Association. The answer is the most solidly established organiza- tion in theatricals. "There are no complaints made of fa- voritism. If we find that the Cincinnati bill is a little weak and the Indianapolis program is stronger than usual, we aver- age up. If it happens to be Omaha which is in need of a stronger show the act goes there. Each manager knows that whatever is done is done for the general good and that he will profit by the action, and there is no question raised. That is the secret of our con- tinued success. "For another thing, we do not antag- onize the performer by asking for a cut of fifty or one hundred dollars because of the consecutive routing. They write in and name a salary. If we care to talk at those terms we do business, other- wise the letter is ignored. W^e do not tell them they must cut; any such pro- position must come from them. "The great trouble about salaries is the inability of the artist to make the proper deductions. He presents a new act and is successful with it because it is a novelty. Instead of realizing that on a return engagement the act is worth less because it is no longer novel, he argues that he is now an established favorite and makes an addition to his .salary. No act on a return engagement is worth as much as on the first appear- ance except in the case of a favorite c.stablish»'d through long years of useful work. Even then they do not properly command the salaries they receive. "This matter of salaries is going to contribute importantly to the death of vaudeville in the small towns. The sal- aries are going up for precisely the same service, and they will eventually drive the small manager out of business." Epes W. Sargent. ST. PAUL ORPHEUIVI NEXT. The next Orpheum Theatre will be the house in St. Paul, which is now l)uilding. Martin Heck, the general manager of the Orpheum circuit, i.s now hooking time lo commence Aug. 2(\. There is already an Orpheum in St. Paul, but it is of the honkatonk variety and the name does not matter. This, with the newly opened house in Salt Lake City, makes eight houses bearing that name and forming a part of the Orpheum circuit. It is quite I)ossii:>le that the list will be added to before the end of tlie season. When Mile. Theo appears she will have her famous stallion, "Prince." which has won several blue ribbons at the Horse Show, besides three trained dogs. It is about ten months since the act was la.st seen. SUMMER PARKS. Raymond B. Melville, of Melville and Schultheiser, is conceded to be one of, if not the best, informed park men in the country. The firm has constructed a number of parks and Mr. Melville has the booking of over fifty summer amuse- ment resorts. When seen during the past week, and asked for his general views upon the summer park outlook, Mr. Melville said: "I don't know that there will be any changes of importance for the coming summer. It is my Im- pression, however, that there will not be so many parks in operation. A great many which failed through lack of proper management will not open, but I estimate the total number in operation will be about 650. "In New York and New Jersey, be- sides Pennsylvania, our parks are so closely joined together that the rail- road transportation is at a minimum. Around Pittsburg we have several jumps where the fare does not exceed 75 cents. "One good feature of the summer amusement business is that we can use acts of any kind and ai any price. Of course we pay more for the open-air acts, but still you would be surprised at the prices we offer for indoor features. "The parks are booming. A big sea- son is expected and preparations have been duly made." Henry Roltair of "Creation" fame, and Edward Johnson, of Borough Park, left last Saturday for London. Mr. Roltair while abroad will arrange for one or two new productions for "Dreamland" the coming summer, and at the same time complete arrangements with Imre Kil- ralfy for "Creation" in Kilrafy's new park at Sheppard's Bush on the out- skirts of England's great city. There will be a new "Dreamland ' at San Francisco, at Baker's Beach. Raymond & Schultheiser have spent $25.(»00 on their "Fairyland" Park at Paterson. N. J. Melville B. Kaymond will book for about 55 parks this summer. —A. P?*nniman, who owns Electric Park in Baltimore, has purchased Halstead's roadhouse there, and will entirely ren- novate the place, building additions, making a summer resort of it. Waterbury, Conn., Jan. 18. Elaborate plans are under way for a large park on the shores of Lake Quassa- baug, a large body of water about five miles from here. Already the grounds are being laid out. a large force of la- borers being at work to transform the place into a veritable White City. The trolley people hope to have a line laid to the new resort before summer and the new project will be thrown open to the public about the middle of the sum- mer. The management of the place is in charge of Chris Strobel. a well known jeweler in the city, who represents large monled interest;?. A. H. McKechnie. «i SklQi6"attli6/\ltiambra. ftp- proves the Bill, but Dodges tile Three Dumonds. Frances Trumbull and Gertrude Barnes, the latter being formerly of the "Wizard of Oz" company, have combined in a new sister act which will be seen at the Amphion, Williamsburg, next week, for the first time hereabouts. ("SKigie" is a boy, seven years old. Hay- ing been a constant attendant at vaudeville theatres since the age of three, he has a decided opinion. "Sklgle's" views are not printed to be taken seriously, but rather to enable the artist to determine the impres- sion he or his work leaves on the infantile mind. What "Skigie" says is taken down verbatim, without the change of a word or syllable.) I liked the whole show (Alhambra, Sunday afternoon, Jan. 14), and I sat in a chair in the balcony, and I had no place to put my back, but I didn't care for I always wanted to sit in the gallery. I liked that fellow in a soldier's suit the best (Arthur Prince), who made that little fellow by his side say, "Clear off the deck," and I liked those other two fellows (Smith and Campbell) because one of them said, "we missed our coal," and then they sang about taking a boy in the woodshed and whipping him, and then his father said it hurt him as much as the boy. and then the boy said it didn't hurt him in the same place, and that's all I liked in the show and I liked that last act (The Camille Trio), where they are turning over the bars and one of them gets his pants pulled off, and I liked the first act (Charles Serra) be- cause it was good and he stood up on a marble something. And that's all I liked in the whole show, and those boys (Five Mowatts) who threw the clubs were fine, but I didn't see it all for I went down to see Mr. Robinson as those singers (Three TTumonds) came on the stage, and Mr. Robinson had a big bunch of tickets on the table and another fel- low was tearing them up. And I liked those two Italians (Nick Long and Idalene Cott(m), but I didn't like them so much, although they were fair, and I thought water was coming up and then the stage fell over and the girl was throwing up salt from a box, and I have seen those two little peopfe (Two Pucks) before but I like them, and I have seen the pictures before, and I think the man was a fool to kill the chicken, and I don't see why you don't go and see the show yourself if you want to know so much about it. W. H. Isham, the manager of Miner's Bowery Theatre, will have a benefit on Feb. 4. ARTHUR-J>RINCE GOING HOME. Arthur Prince, the English ventrilo- quist, who, with his wife, Ida Rene, has made a large-sized hit in town since his first appearance lately, will leave for home after the Hammerstein en- gagement if the present plans are car- ried out. Mr. Prince wished very much before leaving to put on a protean comedy which he produced in London at one time called, "Sherlock Holmes," but did not wish to be considered as purloining any of R. A. Roberts' thunder.