Variety (Feb 1906)

VARIETY W. S. CLEVELAND IN HARNESS AGAIN. (Special to Variety.) Chicago, Feb. 10. W. 8. Cleveland, who formerly conducted the present International Theatre, will again assume the management of that house under the new ownership. The Sullivan-Considine combination remains in control, but. it is anticipated that the vaudeville policy will be changed, most likely to a first-class house. n & NEW MANAGER FOR THE TROCA- DERO. (Special to Variety.) Chicago, Feb. 10. Isidore Weinberger, former stage man- ager at the Trocadero here, has been pro- moted to the management of the house, succeeding Harry Hedges who has been in that capacity for the Columbia Company since the death of Robert Fulton. REIS IN ELMIRA. M. Reis, of the Reis circuit of theatres, spread mostly throughout New York and Pennsylvania, has leased the Auditorium, a public hall in Elmira, N. Y., and will reconstruct it for vaudeville. The open- ing will take place in about six weeks. Mr. Rteia now manages the New Lyceum Theatre in the same city, playing the legitimate attractions. SYLVIA BEECHER TO SAIL. Sylvia Beecher, who toasts the distinc- tion of having been declared the most beautiful chorus girl in New York some years ago when she was a member of "The Liberty Belles," is to leave us for a while. Under the auspices of Weber and Rush she is to make a six months tour of Europe, playing mostly the amuse- ment parks, as we describe them on this side of the water. She will open at the Oshbuda Var, Buda- pest, in June, afterward playing Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. Upon her return to America, according to her present plans, she will go back into musical comedy. For her European tour she will use a dancing and singing act with a number of costume changes. DONOVAN-ARNOLD. The expected has happened, for no one who saw the stunningly pretty Rena Arnold appearing with James B. Dono- van in "Twenty Minutes on Broadway" believed that "The King of Ireland," other- wise known as "Jim," could withstand for long. The wedding occurred last Saturday morning at St. Anne's Church on 12th street, the ceremony having been per- formed by the Rev. Father Sullivan. Congratulatory messages may be for- warded to Mr. and Mrs. Donovan "as per route." CONRIED CASE SET OVER. The case against Heinrich Conried. charged with a violation of the Sunday law, was up in Jefferson Market Court last Tuesday and was set over for a week for a hearing. The arrest was a technical one and the proceedings are purely in the nature of a test to exactly construe the meaning of the law. MAJESTIC CIRCUIT CHANGES. Edward P. Carruthers, general man- ner and booking representative; Thomas It. MacMecben, chief of publicity, and Robert Rieksen. of the Interstate Amuse- ment Company, were at the general offices of the company in St. Louis all of the past week. Matters pertaining to the opening of the new houses at Little Rock, Arkansas and Birmingham, Alabama, were arranged. As yet the managers of tlu-se houses have not been appointed. Frank Sturgis, formerly of the Odeon, St. Louis, has assumed the management of the house at Houston, Texas. A. Fitz- llugh, formerly of the central "Buster Brown" show, goes in a like capacity to ^an Antonio, and F. P. Raleigh has been made manager at Hot Springs to take the place of T. R*. MacMechen. Among the latest nets booked over the circuit are Swor Brothers, Brothers Ihunin. Francesca Redding and Co., Jane Couthorpe and Co., Ricardo's Lions, La Mont's Cockatoos, Myers and Rosa, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Hughes, Tossing Austins, "Frozini," Lindsay's Dogs and Monkeys, Captain George Auger and Co.. Powell, the magician, and "Danji." MYERS & KELLER IN LONDON. Among divers other announcements made this week by the Myers & Keller firm, it is declared that B. A. Myers will sail on April 1 with the object of estab- lishing a London branch. Myers will re- main on the other side for two months, and may open a branch office in Paris in addition to the London office. With him will go Mabel McKinley. They will arrive in London early in April and spend a week or so looking about accord- ing to the announcement, then Miss Mc- Kinley will seek bookings in the English and continental houses. The London office, according to present plans, will be a permanency. Upon the return of Mr. Myers to the West 31st street offices Mr. Keller will sail for the other side. This system of alternating is to continue indefinitely. Both members of the firm intend to spend their time while on the other side in looking for F.uropean acts which promise to be available for use over here. PLIMMER'S CIRCUIT "AT REST." The up-state towns comprising the vaudeville theatres known as "Plimmer's New York Circuit," have passed away through the neglect of the inhabitants of the various villages (which obtained city charters under false pretenses) from flock- ing to see "the shows." CHARITABLE GEORGE SWEENEY. TheTlebrew Orphan Society applied to George Sweeney, proprietor of the Vic- toria hotel, at Twenty-seventh street and Broadway, for an estimate to feed the orphan children at a vaudeville entertain- ment, to be given last Sunday night. Mr. Sweeney remarked tr the committee that he guessed he could take care of the "kids" without anything else being necessary. And he did, not charging one cent for making the children happy. Mr. Sweeney and the Victoria hotel will occupy considerable space in the next an- nual report of the society. THOMPSON RETURNS. Frederick Thompson, of Thompson and Dundy, arrived Tuesday on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. He announces that he has obtained a site on Oxford street, London, for the erection of a Hippodrome there. From his description it would appear to be the old Princess Theatre site, for so long "in process of reconstruction" on the Koitli programmes if not in fact. "The Roman Circus" will not be put on at the New York house until December, a new entertainment being provided in the fall, one section of which will be the play- ing of a football game in strict accordance with the rules. A troupe of seventy-four —count 'em—polar bears will shoot the chutes to the tank, making a clean dive of t^\i feet. The tank will be filled with fish and their diving for their supper will be another feature of interest. TRIXIE AT LAST. With Joe Weber's loss of a ''second leading lady." variety gains a "girl act," for Trixie Friganza has decided rather than be bothered by the production man- agers importuning her to "join" she will go into vaudeville, with a few prettily uowned young women in the background. NASSAU ''DIFFERENT" NOW. The Nassau Theatre, formerly Watson's Cosey Corner, on Willoughby street in Brooklyn, has been purchased by the Sul- livan-Considine syndicate, and will open as a "family" house on February 24. This gives the circuit two metropolitan hold- ings, the other being located on East 125th street in Manhattan. The town is billed with threesheets reading "It's Different Now." MAHER, TOO. Danny Maher goes abroad for the racing season and will return with six girls for a vaudeville act to be known as "Danny Maher and his six ponies." This is, of course, unless the immigration commis- sioners head him off under the alien labor law. NEW HOUSE FOR M. & K. The week of February 26 will witness the opening of the New Orpheum as a vaudeville theatre in Mount Vernon. This playhouse has heretofore been devoted to one-night stands and week engagements for repertoire companies. It is now the property of the Westchester Amusement Company, a recently organized corpora- tion, of which S. M. Stainach is the execu- tive head. He will be the house manager of the new theatre. Myers & Keller are booking for the enterprise. The first week's offering will number among others Minnie Kaufmann, Georgie Gardner and company, Wormwood's ani- mals and Chinko. Cinquevalli is expected to return to Eu- rope next month. SAM RICE TO LEAVE. Sain Rice, who wrote the book for The Merry Maidens, a burlesque com- pany, and one of the chief funmakers in the same, is to depart from the burlesque field at the close of the present season. He will be seen next season as the bright particular star of a musical com- edy to be called "The Maid and the Mule," under the direction of Butler, Jacobs & Lowry. BOOKING ONE HUNDRED WEEKS. It is not far-fetched calculation to ven- ture the assertion that the Sullivan-Con- sidine combination of the popular priced vaudeville theatres will be enabled to of- fer one hundred weeks of time, without a. week being repeated, at the opening of the season of '07. The Pacific Coast Amusement Company, in conjunction with The International Theatrical Company, both being closely allied, now directly control the bookings of seventy-six houses devoted to the cheaper form of variety entertainment. The chain is almost complete from New York city to Seattle, and contrary to the universal belief, there is no friction exist- ing between the Western Vaudeville As- sociation, composed of the higher priced circuits of the West, and the Sullivan- Considine people. Although the members of the Western Vaudeville Association are not sufficiently interested financially in the smaller priced circuit to exert any in- fluence in the direction or management, there is an amicable understanding in ef- fect which prevents any serious conflict. Mr. John W. Considine, one of the lead- ing members of the "Family Syndicate," is in town, and stated that there would be un increase of prices shortly along their line of houses to 15 and 25 cents. The quality of the bills presented forbids the continuation at the present scale of 10 and 20 cents. The personnel of the "ten cent circuit," as it is now known, is composed of Con- gressman "Tim" Sullivan, Timothy P. (little Tim) Sullivan, Eddie Burke, the horseman; John W. Considine, who is the executive head; Senator W. J. O'Brien, of Chicago; John J. Ryan, of Cincinnati, also known in the racing world, and S. Morton Cohn, of Portland. Ore. M. S. BENTHAM, MANAGER. That is the style the sign will soon read if all the reports are only half true. It is said that Mr. Benthani, who is widely known as an agent, will soon have the sole management of a vaudeville theatre to be located on Uroadwav. While the location is not definitely stated, the inference is that the property recently announced to have been purchased at the triangle at Broadway and Forty-seventh street may be the possible town house. In addition there will be at least four other variety houses directed by Mr. Hen tham within easy rail distance of New York city. Financiers of unlimited means will furnish whatever capital is required and "the producing agent" has been told 'to go ns far as he likes." ART MODELS IN SOCIETY. Jean Marcel's art studies are getting in line for a place in the Social Register. They have been engaged for an appearance at Sherry's February 24, incidental to a dinner to be given by a prominent society woman. The part to be taken by the mute art- ists in the high society function is thus described by Charles Bornhaupt, the agent: "The figures are to be placed about the banquet hall on white pedestals before the diners enter the room. They will hold their statue pose until the diners are seated. When the guests are in their places the 'statues' will come down from their plaoes and go away."