Variety (Oct 1906)

VARISTY CAN'T BREAK CONTRACTS. A toreign artist who will arrive iu New York on October 15 with the intention of playing the Keith time, after having been booked for thirty-five weeks by William Morris before he left New York, will prob- ably have an injunction served upon him- self if the attempt to evade the Morris contracts is made. Morris has declared that he will allow of no breaking of any contract entered into by him, and will take legal steps to pre- vent it. The artist in question while on the other side became nervous over the re- sponsibility of the managers booking through Morris and engaged with Keith, although it was known by the Keith agent that the Morris time had been contracted for. ALMOST HAD STEVENSON. Charles A. Stevenson, who has been leading man with Mrs. Leslie Carter ever since that actress has been established, has been for several weeks making prep- arations to make a vaudeville debut. The piece selected by him is a drama entitled "Just a Man's Fancy," requiring the serv- ices of four people. Everything progressed smoothly and M. S. Bentham, to whom had been intrusted the bookings, was ar- ranging for immediate time. On Wednes- day, however, Stevenson received an of- fer for the legitimate, the nature of which he refuses to disclose, and the scheme was temporarily abandoned. FRED RAT MARRIES. V Toronto, Ont., Oct. 6. At one fell swoop Fred Ray, woman hater extraordinary and Roman travesty actor plenipotentiary, who is here, has an- nounced his marriage to Lillian Reed, daughter of a local lumber merchant, and his coming retirement from the stage. The wedding took place at the home of the bride in Toronto on Monday. The couple met on the steamship "Qarpathia" while en route for Europe two years ago. Ray says he will bow out after one more year. DE VRIES NOT SATISHED. Henri DeVries may not appear in the legitimate after all. As announced in Variety some time ago, there has been a hitch in the acceptance of the play writ- ten for him by Lee Arthur. Leander Sire, under whose management the thitch protean actor is announced to star, has under consideration another piece by the DeMille Brothers, but neither of the plays submitted are entirely satisfactory. WINTER QUARTERS DESTROYED. The winter quarters of the Cummins' Wild West Shows at Geneva, Ohio, near Cleveland, were destroyed by fire Tuesday. One man was burned to death and a large number of animals were incinerated. Wal- ter L. Main, the circus man, was the chief owner of the show and the loss, estimated at about $40,000, will fall for the most part upon him. BARNUM & BAILEY CLOSING EARLY. Owing to the great damage done by storms in the South it is probable that the Bamum & Bailey show will close its sea- son October 25, two weeks earlier than was intended. The show has been a heavy loser because of weather conditions in the South. FOREIGN BOOKING ARRANGEMENT. . o' ^; ^ — London, Sept. 27.' Clitford I'. Kihthei, the New York agent, lias entered into an agreement with Som era A Warner, the London agents, by which a number of the acts controlled by the aforesaid firm will be brought to this country. They will be booked here over the William Morris cireuit and the commissions will be divided equally between Fischer, Somers & Warner and William Morris. KEITH FINED $i/)oo. : The opening of the Bijou Theatre, the Keith establishment in Jersey City, has been indefinitely postponed, owing to labor troubles. The house was bought last Spring and extensive alterations have been making ever since. Among the changes was the building of a new front to the houue. The girders and other iron work necessary were ordered in Allegheny, Pa., but when they were delivered in Jersey City the ever-busy labor delegates discov- ered that they had been made by non- union hands and refused to touch them. At a recent meeting of the iron workers' union a fine of $1,000 was imposed on the Keith people. Work will be held up until this penalty has been satisfied or some compromise has been arrived at. The last announcement was that the house would open October 15, the studio which is pro- viding the scenery and drops having been notified that delivery must be made by that time. BROADWAY AFTER CHRIS RICHARDS. Efforts are being put forward from various directions to secure the services of Chris Richards, the English character comedian, who is now playing the Wil- liams-Hammerstein houses. It is under- stood that Oscar Hammerstein has been endeavoring to secure him for next sum- mer's roof garden season and that Joe Weber wants him for his stock company when it opens at the music hall about the first of the year in the new Smith- Herbert opera. BURLESQUE MANAGERS TRAVELING. L. Lawrence Weber, of Weber & Rush, will leave for the West next Tuesday or Wednesday to be gone two weeks on a business trip. He will be joined in Cin- cinnati on the following Sunday by Sam Scribner, another manager. MAKING PEORIA FIRST CLASS. Peoria, 111., Oct. 6. It is the intention to convert the Main street theatre into a first-class vaudeville house playing the larger acts. It is booked through the Western Vaudeville Association. Louis Simon and Grace Gardner are one of the features engaged. THE MURPHYS FEATURED. Mr. and Mrs. Mark Murphy will go starring next season in a comedy drama called "The Irish Jews." The leading character in the piece is called Moses Mc- Ginnis. DESSAUER MURRAY HILL'S MANAGER. Sam Dessauer was installed this week as manager of the Murray Hill Theatre on the Eastern Burlesque Wheel. BLANEY WANTS MISS McKINLEY. Charles E. Blaney ih negotiating with Mabel McKinley tor h starring tour in the popular priced housert in a three-act play to bf- called either "The Girl from Washington" or 'The <iirl from the. White House." Blaney is looming up us formidable opposition to the Stair «& Havlin circuit. He is rapidly acquiring houses of his own for the presentation of his numerous at- tractions. Only recently he made a bid for the Murray Hill Theatre. It is also reported that Mr. Blaney has approached J. Austin Fynes with an offer for Mr. Fynes' recent purchase of the plot at 125th street and Fifth avenue in Harlem. Owing to tlie conversion of the Harlem Opera House for vaudeville there is no legitimate theatre now left on the West Side excepting the West End far over, which plays the Stair & Havlin attractions. , , ATTACHED EDWARDS' SALARY. Chicago, Oct. 6. No salary has yet been received by Gua Edwards from Kohl A Castle for the per- formance here last week of Edwards' "Newsboys' Quintet." The act played a Kohl & Castle house. In accordance with the booking agreement made through the oHice of William Morris, Edwards should have sent his boys to Cincinnati to open last Sunday. This being inconvenient it w as arranged with John J. Ryan that the act might play Cleveland instead. This is where the composer-producer showed his well-known Italian hand. The act did not appear at Cleveland and a Chi- cago attorney at the behest of Ryan and Morris attached all salary due Edwards by the Chicago firm to the extent of $1,000, the amount of damages claimed. The money is in the custody of the court pend- ing the adjudication of the action. "CHINK" ACT COMING. En route from San Francisco are eleven Chinamen, seven men and four boys. All are consigned to Louis Wesley, of Reich, Plunkett & Wesley, who will place the leather-faced heathens in vaudeville. A variety of features shown by their own countrymen in past years at local theatres will be performed in the act, with new tricks not yet known. Mr. Wee- ley believes he has a novelty, owing to the crowd and the strict immigration laws. THE FAYS OVERLOOK NOTHING. On last Tuesday evening while the Fays (John T. and Eva) were giving their "mindreading" act at the Colonial The- atre, for which they receive $1,200 weekly, John T. Fay, who passes pads and pen- cils among the audience, rushed up and down the aisle shouting, "I am short one pencil. Who has it?" CANADIAN THEATRE OPENINGS. London, Ont., Oct. 6. The remodelled Bennett Theatre tUvows opens its doors on Monday next. It is one of the chain of vaudeville theatres in Can- ada known as the Bennett Circuit. Other houses on the list which will have openings in the near future are Ottawa by December 1 and Montreal by New Year'i. SOUTH AFRICA HAS ANOTHER. Sydney Hyman, who is now in ^hia country looking over the field for attrac tions for the Hyman circuit in South .4frica, received a letter from his brother this week bearing the information that a site for a new Hyman theatre had been secured in the seaport town of Duval, just south of Cape Town, and building opera- tions would be commenced immediately. Mr. Hyman came over here for a very short stay, but was compelled to postpone his departure from week to week, owing to business engagements. Now he hae de- cided to stay until November 1. HOUDINI DRAWING MOBS. Pittsburg, Oct. 5. No attraction in Pittsburg vaudeville in recent years has drawn the crowds that Harry Houdlni, "The Handcuff King," does this week to the Grand Opera House, where Mr. Houdini is the feature. That people would pay $1 to sit in the wings on the stage while Houdini per- forms was something unthought of be- fore his arrival. That has been a common occurence all week, however, and the stories which reached here last week of the mob clamoring to gain admission to Chasers Theatre in Washington, where Houdini played, are now easily believable. MAY YOKE A STAR. Placing a negative on all other plans. May Yohe, she of international faraje reaching from the United States Army to Japan, will be featured in **M'zelle Cham- pagne" when that piece, after being re- written, is played at the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre which has passed under the man- agement of George A. Blumenthal. Henry Pincus produced "M'zelle Cham- pagne" on the Madison Square Garden Roof last summer. It is now under the management of A. M. DeLisser and will ije the opening attraction at Mr. Blumen- thal's bandbox. FIFTH AVENUE FAMILY GROUP. The newspaper men who attended the opening of the Fifth Avenue Theatre on Monday afternoon were quite astounded to find B. F. Keith, Percy Williams and William Morris seated in a box amiably talking things over. In fifteen minutes the section of Broad- way between Twenty-sixth and Fortieth streets was humming with the report that Keith and Williams had come to some sort of an understanding and henceforth there would be no opposition. NEXT WAYBURN ACTS. The next of the Ned Wayburn acts, "The Phantom Phlylers," will be produce.! on November 15. The opening engage- ment has been set for the Albaugh The- atre in Baltimore, although that is sub- ject to change. "Phantom Phlylers" is another name for "Aerial Ballet." On December 1 the Pickanniny Min- strels by the same producer will be shown for the first time. MORRIS' SECOND BUFFALO WEEK. Buffalo, Oct. 5. The coming week, which will be the second for the Morris vaudeville in this city, will have for a headliner The Great T.iafayette. This week's show proved ex- tremely satisfactory.