Variety (Oct 1906)

VARIETY Annette Duval.: Songi. Paitor*!. In the lobby of Pastor's I'lieatie thi» week 18 hung h frame holding Aye photos of Miss Duval. Did she appear on the »tage in any way resembling either of her likenesses it would be much easier to gain applause. Now she is working very hard for it without much reward. With a pleasant little voice and manner 8he might have an agreeable act were she to go out, look over her pictures and then try to copy herself. Sime. OUT OF TOWN Josephine Cohan. "A Friend of the Family." ; Lyric, Buffalo. A one-act farce by Will M. Cressy and Fred Niblo had its premier at the Lyric this week. It has these characters: John Hobbs, just married, Nellie, his wife, and Tom Grayland, an old friend. Time and place, the Hobbs summer home. Miss Cohan is the wife, in which role she shows a good bit of acting. The sketch was a laugh producer and heartily enjoyed. DuDon. V aude- Julia Marie Taylor and Company. "A Subject of the Ciar." Temple, Fort Wayne, Ind. Choosing her home city for a vaude ville debut, Julia Marie Taylor, formerly leading woman with Richard Mansfield, presented "A Subject of the Czar," a one- act melodramatic offering. Miss Taylor has the support of Frank Jones and Wil- liam Mong. It is doubtful if even the efficient work of the three can carry the piece to success. It is devoid of action excepting the dramatic finale and conse- quently is too draggy. De Witie, Lillian Apel. Pianologue. Orpheum, Minneapolis. This young woman, who formerly ap- peared in sketches, works in full stagr with a grand piano and devotes herself en- tirely to straight piano playing, with the exception of one "coon song," which she recites to her own accompaniment, some- what after the manner of Augusta Glose. She also has some verses by Louis Wes- lyn. press representative of the Grand Opera house, Indianapolis, upon which nro strung three selections. Miss Apel is a liandsome young woman and beautifully gowned, but would probably reach more in the house if she would work in one. At ])resent it is difficult to catch her spoken lines. . Chapin. The Kingston Traction Company, of Ja- maica, West Indies, has sent to New York one of its representatives with power to engage a number of American vaudeville and circus acts suflRcient to keep its amusement park at Kingston running all year 'round. Maurice Boom was ap- proached and asked to be booking agent, and will in all probability act in that ca- pacity for a while at least. The disad- vantage in playing the date is the cost of $45 for tranfi-portation each way from New York and the loss of two weeks for the round trip. f). A. Bolien, now with Eddie Emerson, will horoaftor be programed as Jerry Bald- win. PARIS NOTES. :i:'y$^'.f/ By TOM HEARN. '-'^' ■■■■••-•■ Paris, Sept. 30. Paris is full of burglars. Upon arriv- ing here I was surprised to see so many imitation acts in one city. It made me lofk my trunk. These people are capable of anything. There are two "Mumming Birds" in Paris. Reed Pinaud at the Marigny and Ciabtree's at the Alhambra. Kreri Karno says neither has the right to do his act. There are two Radhas, Ruth St. Denis, the original, and the counter- feit at the Olynipia. Many daring rob- beries have been committed, but this one is the limit. She has taken the name without the slightest alteration, making Little'"Pich" and the W. C. 'Gields" stand out as honorable artists. The Radha copy was in Paris two weeks ahead of Miss St. Denis. ••Price" and ••Revost" were at the Ma- rigny. It is hard to believe that two men would so faithfully copy Rice and Pre- vost yet be so bad. Like all ''copies" there is a roughness that will never wear off. Everhart sails October 4 for America. He has a nunjber of new tricks that keep him well ahead of all imitators. Cole and I)e Lose are at the Folies Bergere and also Spissel Brothers and Mack. I hear that both are doing well. Gadbin is the name of the man who is at present featured at the Folies. A forty liorse-power automobile runs over his hands, arms, legs and body. The car car- ries six people. Whether it will draw or n<»t remains to be seen. Being run over by motors in Paris is not uncommon. The drivers here are so clever they can hit you every time. Norman French is topping the Scala hill. Tiller's troupes are numerous. Campbell and Johnson are liked at the Olympia. Kara is back from Australia, topping the Olympia bill and a big suc- cess. Josephine Sabel is also at the Olym- pia, doing very well. The Millman Trio go from here to Amsterdam. They ex- pect to return to America January, 1008. (Jipsy Woolf and company are at the Ma- rigny. I.e Rov i.ma and Hosfo are topping the V I bill. Thev go to America ).oon. . '*'V this the best illusion act in the I- «. Following the death of the \\•Al^ .*\ I hear of the deaths of Harry Burnell and Mrs. Albert Egbert. The HoUoways will soon bo leaving for Vniorica. They open at (ho Hippodrome. R. A. Roberts' now sketch is supposed (() be his best. He has booked for South Africa and Australia in '08. Uo may ro (urn via Frisco. It all depends upon (ho price. About $2.(HM) \Nookly will do it. A nice little juinj> *'n»Mi (ho $r)()0 oti his last visit. DENIES BERNSTEIN'S CLAIM. In roforonco to (ho sui( alleged (o have boon instituted by Kroonian Hernstcjii against .Max S. Witt for broach of eon- tnu't. ex-Supro?no Court .fudge .lulius Ilenrv Cohon savs that .I»»o I'incus and ■ • not Mr. Hornstein started (lie suit, to which Mr. Witt has a good and coniplo(o «lef«'iiso, .\ bill of par(iculars ha> been a-^kod from the plaintiff, but as ye( no( fur ni«*l)ed. The Razarfs were billed at Pastor's this week but did not appear. LONDON NOTES. ? * By C. C. BARTRAM. VARIETY'S London Office, 40 Lisle Street, W. It is said Harry Fragson, at the Tivoli, will be lured to America by one of those "largest on record" salaries. S'omerg and Warner have booked for America George Mozart, 'The Universal Fun Ptovider," and Will Evans, the latter son of a circus clown and with much inherited drollery that w«mld be well liked in the States. The as.sociated agents lately broke off negotiating with the Variety Artistes'Fed- oration and agreed to disagree. The Fed- eration wanted the 10 per cent cut to 7% per cent, the agent to get 5 per cent guar- anteed and the Federation 2% per cent. Out of this reserve the Federation agreed to make good for those delinquent in pay- ment, firing them out of the Federation also. The agents figured that this 2Vi per cent would run into thousands of pounds and decided they would rather split per- centage with managers, as is now done, than contribute money to the beneficial schemes projected by the Federation. On breaking with the Federation the agents got after the managers and in order to keep the percentage rake-back they get from every salary paid an artist, the man- agers promptly decided on a world-wide combination, I believe per cent splitting is now illegal in New York State and that New York agents got the law passed. Hence your managers will hardly lose much sleep over the English percentage graft or barring troubles. A representative man at Warner's Agency says: "There is no money in Lon- don." The great West End establish- ments are excepted, but one of these tried to hire a good turn the other day for $35. Butt's bluff that he is playing Marie Tempest in excess of $750 per week "no one believes. In New York Butt was asked at Keith's agency what he thought a cer- tain act was worth. "$150 a week," said the boy from the Palace. "We pay it $450 a week and think we are getting it cheap," was (ho answer, duly proved by the books. People are expected to work cheaper here to get what they*call a "London reputa- tion." In the provinces money is much better, stars of greater and less degree -etting two or three times their I>ondon pay. In a lawsuit some time ago it was proved (hat a woman getting $25 in a I.oiKlon hall had contracted for $100 in a provincial town. One Amoriean act getting $75 in I^ondon has a trunk full of .American contracts at To an old Londoner there is something humorous in that statement about sal- aries* that cannot be mentioned, but they would \>o "eye-openers." No doubt they would. Did not your correspondent say ".omething a few letters back about the •friglitful slaughter in salaries"? Did he not say po<»ple were rushing after Rick- anls and Feiber to get away from great London? "THE MAJORS" COMING. A foreign comedy act new to this coun- try will appear on the Williams circuit (>ctol»er 'J2. Called "The Majors." it come« over under the auspices of Arthur Prince, the English ventriloquist. "SUNDAYS" CAUSING DISSENSIONS. A secret movement is on foot among a number of artists to protect themselves against the inroads made on their serr- ices by the United Booking Agency. Art- ists dare not protest openly for fear of incurring the wrath of the Keith folks, but some action is nevertheless contem- plated. .■.:•..•.■•■:..:..■.,:.■ Beginning with Sunday before last all artists playing Paterson the previous six days were compelled to come to the Brooklyn I'olly Theatre and play two performances. They were not consult- ed as to whether it was agreeable, but were peremptorily ordered to do to. A circular letter was handed each artist on Monday saying that inasmuch as the jump was a trifle inconvenient they would be rewarded with a payment of one-sev- enth of a week's salary, their baggage would be hauled free from Paterson to Brooklyn and back to Hoboken fnd that a music rehearsal was not necessary, at the leader of the Paterson establishment would personally conduct the Sabbath per* formances at the Folly. To those who protested it was ex- plained that a clause in their contracts read that the management reserved tht right to play the acts on Sunday and that the one-seventh of a week's addi- tional pay was in the nature of a gra- cious present by Mr. Bruggemann. If this proved unpalatable it was stated that the Paterson house had not been profitable and that Manager Bruggemana had threatened to turn it into a combina- tion theatre. Therefore all artists should be interested in a movement to retain ont more vaudeville establishment, and this Brooklyn Sunday show was organized to encourage the Hoboken-Paterson manager and keep him from backsliding. In some quarters, however, it is shrewd- ly HUHpected that the little Sunday "graft** at the Folly is still the perquisite of Jo Paige Smith, who represents Bruggemann in the offices of the United Booking Agency. From another quarter rises the voice of one Bransby Williams, an English artist who is now playing the Proctor circuit. The following is taken from an interview with Mr. Williams printed in a recent is- sue of a Newark daily paper: **Why," he exclaimed, "your managers here seem to want to make slaves of artists. I like my work and would not itiind giving four performances a day here, but just fancy my being ordered to carry all my luggage back to New York for just one performance that I had no idea T would be asked to give. And also being obliged to break the Sabbath by a re- hearsal as well. It is making you sweat too much for your wages." I.<ast season the foreign artists dis- sented from the Proctor policy of shift. ing players in out-of-town theatres to the New York houses. After the matter was taken up by the International Artisten Tv<ige, the Proctor management was less insistent when a strong objection was made. John T. Fay, who is a help to his wife in reading mind<», has jojnod the "White Bats." Harry Tate'* latest act, "Fishing," will be booked by the William Morris office for the season.