Variety (Nov 1906)

VARIETY OFFER TO GENARO AND BAILEY. A prominent Broadway manager pro- posed to Dave Genaro, of Genaro and Bailey, this week that he allow a play to be built around the different sketches Mr. Genaro and Miss Bailey have played in. Upon Mr. Genaro's consenting the manager agreed to have the production ready for next season and play it over the Stair & Havlin time. Genaro has a new sketch "Tony," which will be played at Hammerstein's Nov. 9. It is away from the type the team has been associated with and represents a large investment. ARTISTS' FORUM HAMMERSTEIN WILLING TO SELL. Asked for an affirmation or denial of the rumor that he had disposed of his ownership in the Hackett Theatre, Oscar Hammerstein said the other night: "No, it isn't true, but I should be glad to sell the house. My grand opera investment thus far foots up over half a million dol- lars in cash, with plenty more items to be settled. You can readily understand that I can use all available ready money, and for this reason alone I am anxious to sell." GRAU MUST HAVE LICENSE. Robert Grau's office was visited by an inspector from the License Bureau on Thursday. The inspector's call was for the purpose of serving Grau with a final warning that unless he immediately ap- plied for an agency license he would be summoned to the Court of General Ses- sions and asked to explain. ENGLISHMEN MAKE HIT. On the strength of their success in a comedy bar act at the Victoria Theatre this week William Hammerstein is negoti- ating with the Artois Brothers to play the Victoria roof all next summer. FEATURING CARRILLO AND VARIETY Baltimore, Nov. 2. The advance billing for the Albaugh's Theatre's show next week is out. One of the features reads "Leo Carrillo, Va- riety's Famous Cartoonist." SUTHERLAND SAILING. Al Sutherland expects to sail for Eu- rope to-day or next Wednesday. The agent's mission is to look over the for- eign novelties in the Latin countries where fairs are now being held, and select at- tractive features for his list of parks next summer. A FOOTBALL SKETCH. With the football sport swaying an admiring public, Harry L. Tighe, formerly with Virginia Earl in her vaudeville sketch, has had a story of college life written by C. H. Fuller and will produce it in a week or so. It will run for eighteen minutes, carry- ing four people besides the principal. Mr. Tighe, who is a Yale man, will have the character of a big strong fullback, long on the knowledge of the game but short on his studies. The billing will be "Harry L. Tighe and his 'Collegians.'" The title is "Those Happy College Days." Confine year letters to 150 words sad write en one side eff Anonymous communications will not be printed. Nam* of writer must be slf si bo bold la Strict confidence. If desired. Chicago, Oct. 31. Editor Variety: In order to correct an erroneous rumor set afloat about me having been closed in Rock Island, 111., the facts in the case are: I was working the last show Mon- day night and some rowdy sitting down front made a remark to me. I ignored it and went on working, but any one who does a talking act fully appreciates how hard it is to remember your lines when you are being interrupted. So he made another remark, then I said to him. "Now, see here, I'm good at 'kidding" people. I make a living at it, so don't be grabbing my job for nothing." The manager's assistant came back to •my dressing room to reprimand me, and I told him that if I were a three dollar a week chambermaid in some hotel the manager would protect me or allow me to protect myself from insult, and as an artist I expected as many rights as are granted to a chambermaid. He said I should have notified him. I suppose I should have sent him a postal card telling him some one was annoying me. He was not even in the theatre at the time, neither was any one else in charge. Wal- ter Poulter, the manager, was sick in the hospital. So on Tuesday I was closed, not for my act, nor for "roasting" the man in front, but for objecting to the manner of this assistant when he came to my dressing room. We are not in Russia, and we are not convicts, and there is no reason why we should be subjected to insults and then have some one who doesn't know a three- sheet from a handbill roar like a bull at you. They should have had some one there to maintain order, for the night before Miss Hardy Landon left the stage almost crying because the boys in front annoyed her. I demanded a week's salary. One of the stockholders, who drives an ice wagon, laughed, but offered to pay me for one day. I went to the Masons and the Mayor. They got my full pay. When I arrived in Chicago the Western Vaudeville Association gave me more and better work. If I had been in the wrong they would not have done that. But the iceman in Rock Island knows more about the show business. Nellie ReveU f "The Woman Who Says Things." >! There is a new boy in the family of George Hickman, of the three Hickman Brothers. His name is George, Jr. Chicago, Nov. 1. Editor Variety: Please publish in your next issue a direct contradiction of one Tom Wilton in regard to Unique Theatre, Sheboygan, Wis., dated October 20, which you printed last week. In the first place there are no "warm, large, airy, dry dressing rooms. All dressing rooms are downstairs in the cellar and the proper name for them would be box stalls. They are made of rough boards, cold and damp, and so dark that in midday you have to light a match to find the electric light. No windows for air or light. When you take off the shoes you wear on the stage and place them on a shelf, the next morning they are blue and mouldy. There is no such a thing as a "smoking room and green room for art- ists." If the manager (E. P. Klein) isn't personally pleased by an artist, he sends in a bad report about the act. He has even asked an artist for the loan of twenty-five cents, and the "nerve" of Tom Wilton to compare that house with a first-class theatre! Please keep out my name. Sign "Old Performer:* New York City, Nov. 1. Editor Variety: Will you permit me to correct one or two statements contained in an article headed "Family of Ventiloquists Here," published in your issue of the 20th inst? The article tends to show me as Miss Edwards' business manager in an unfa- vorable light and I shall be glad if you will kindly insert this letter which will fully explain the situation as it really stands. The true facts are these: In Eng- land Miss Edwards was continually ap- proached by innumerable agents who asked her to quote a salary for America, but the only office through which we did any actual business was that of H. B. Marinelli. Finally contracts were signed for fifteen weeks, and Miss Edwards trans- ferred her English engagements, in many cases at a big financial loss, and acting on instructions booked "her passage from England. On her arrival here Miss Ed- wards was informed that she could not open, and it was only after considerable pressure had been brought to bear that her first appearance was arranged for Fall River, October 15, with a week at Kee- ney*s, Brooklyn, to follow. In spite of her success Miss Edwards is now resting after giving up first-class work in England awaiting the pleasure of "the powers that be," the said powers calmly informing us that if we "worry" them they "will wash their hands of the entire business." Whether that can be done or not remains to be seen. We English artists are continually told that an American contract here is not worth the paper it is written on. That also remains to be proven. This kind of misrepresentation is not calculated to in- spire confidence in English artists who may be approached by agents acting for this side, so in the interest of the pro- fession in general and ourselves in particu- lar, we are determined to see this matter through. Miss Edwards was engaged for the Will- liams and Hammerstein houses, but so far as she is concerned they are a myth. Tom Edxcard*. New York City, Oct. 31. Editor Variety: There is a comedian in burlesque by the name of Sam Howe. Since we have been doing a "Hebrew" act, Howe has re- peatedly asserted that we stole the dance he originated, a statement he cannot prove, as we are not doing a Hebrew "cakewalk," but a burlesque on a Russian dance called "Kamarinska." This is the dance I did before Howe knew what the show business was, to be exact, nineteen years ago at the Arcadia Theatre in St Petersburg. We hsve found that Mr. Howe deliberately stole our idea of the Hebrew jockey and is using it in the burlesque show he is with. We would never have paid any attention to this had not he given us occasion. He cannot prove that we use his Hebrew dance, while we would have no difficulty in showing that he stole our Hebrew jockej idea. Maw Qilday Of Gilday and Fox. Editor Variety: In Joe Barton's letter which appeared in Variety October 3 he stated that he and I performed the ladder trick four years ago, and as proof said that same ladder could be seen at Miner's Theatre, New York City. Mr. Barton was willing to give away $500 if it were not true. In proof that it is not true he gives himself away accidentally by stating in his last letter (October 27) that the ladder was built last year. Now then if Mr. Barton is a man of his word he will forward that $500 to Variety for the Actors' Fund. Barton also says he couldn't perform the ladder trick this season because of a eon- tract with Mr. Miner to play comedy parts, but it is a fact that he is doing a bicycle act in the show. In regards as to who is the best rider we can settle that when we meet. M. O. Berg. Philadelphia, Oct. 29. Editor Variety: The unknown Harry Hatfield, who in your last issue had the galvanized nerve to claim he was the original "Dixie Boy," I have been unable to locate or find any- one who ever heard of him. Yes, my name is Noble, and from Kentucky. Don't carry programs or letterheads; am the origina- tor of originality, and the title "The Dixie Boy," and always with a good show. Billy Noble. Philadelphia, Oct. 30. Editor Variety: The discussion regarding title of "Dixie Boy" amuses me. For three years I have used this, and I know of at least four who have stolen it from me. I came by it through a song. Bob Adams, who wrote the song, advertised me from coast to coast as the "Dixie Boy" and I have held the title ever since. Eddie Cassady. Duluth, Minn., Oct. 26. Editor Variety: We wist to sny that we are the original "Dixie Boys," having been connected with the show business for over twenty years, and that we are native sons of the South. The person claiming that title now was put in the business about four years ago by a well-known artist who discovered him in Louisville, Ky. We think he had bet- ter wait awhile before claiming anything. James and Davii, With "Yankee Doodle Girls" Co. Chicago, Oct. 29. Editor Variety: I notice that one Billy Noble claims the title of "Dixie Boy," also others. All are mistaken, for Daniel Emmett, author of "Dixie," gave it to me in 1878, when I was playing at the Olympic Theatre, Chi- cago, then known as the Metropolitan, under the management of Walker ft Kouster. Frank Williams, Of Williams and Pullman.