Variety (Apr 1907)

VARIETY A Variety Paper for Variety People. Published every Saturday by THE VARIETY PUBLISHING CO. Knickerbocker Theatre Building, 1402 Broadway, New York City. Telephone 1887—88th St. 8IME J. SILVERMAN, Editor and Proprietor. Entered at teoond-claee matter December 22, 1005, at the pott office at New York, N. Y., under the act of Oongrest of March 8, 1870. CHICAGO OFFICE, Chicago Open House Block, (Phone Main 4380) FRANK WIE8BEBG, Representative BAN FRANCISCO OFFICE, 1116 Van Noes Ave., (Boom 118). W. ALFRED WILSON, Representative. LONDON OFFICE, 40 Lisle St., W. 0. 0. BARTRAM, Representative. ADVERTISEMENTS. 15 cents an agate line, $2.10 an inch. One page, $100; one-half page, $50; one-quarter page, $25. Charge for portraits furnished on application. Special rate by the month for professional card nnder heading "Representative Artists." Advertising copy should be received by Thurs- day at 10 p. m. to Insure publication in current issue. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Annual $4 Foreign 8 Six and three months in proportion. Single copies ten cents. VARIETY will be mailed to a permanent ad- dress or as per route as desired. VARIETY may be had abroad at INTERNATIONAL NEWS CO.'8 OFFICES. Breams Building, Chancery Lane, LONDON, E. 0., ENGLAND. Advertisements forwarded by mall must be ac- companied by remittance, made payable to Variety Publishing Co. Vol. VI. No. 7. Nothing could have been more calcu- lated to undermine the belief held by artists after years of distrust tliat a contract under the present condition of affairs in vaudeville is a valid piece of paper than the Empire City Quartet de- liberately breaking its agreement with Weber & Rush for the purpose of playing an engagement with Klaw & Erlanger. It is a deplorable matter of record that the Massachusetts judge did not grant Weber & Rush the relief prayed for in their petition. The childlike plea that William Hammerstein in agreeing to a cancellation of the Quartet's appeannce at his theatre canceled all remaining time of the Quartet in the United Booking Oflice may appear tenable to the laymen in sympathy with the contract breakers, but if it has any actual basis, could not be presented as sufficient evidence in a court of law, for Mr. Hammerstein did not have the authority to cancel any con- tracts other than his own, and as a matter of fact, after the Hammerstein matter had been agreed upon, the Quartet solemnly assured Messrs. Weber, Rush, Atbej and Williams that it would play out its contracts. Not alone has Mr. Mor- ris overturned one of the firmest struc- tures regarding contracts, erected by him- self, through the support given by him to this contract breaking, but he has set a precedent for the opposition. The threat made that if any further steps were taken to restrain the Empire City from breaking its contract, means would be found to remove Vesta Victoria from the Keith bill in Philadelphia this week, while technically perhaps a good business move, will not inspire confidence that when an advantage is to be gained or obtained, either will allow a little thing like a written contract to stand in the way. Had Weber & Rush brought their action in the United States Court, we have not the least doubt that a permanent injunc- tion would have been issued, and the re- fusal of the Salem justice to restrain the Quartet from playing should not be ac- cepted by any artist as good law. The opinions of the court as expounded in this case were peculiar, and its sympathies ap- parently mistakenly directed towards the Quartet. The Boston Quartet sails for Eirfope next fall to fulfill an eight weeks' en- gagement. Jack Wilson and company start West on Monday to be gone one year, playing the Western time. 'The Black Crook, Jr." company play- ing burlesque in one-night stands closes at Altoona, April 30. • • The meeting day of the Vaudeville Comedy Club has been again changed from Tuesdays to Sundays. Nat Wills opens at Williams' Alhambra Theatre on May 6, and will play six or eight weeks around New York. The Victoria Theatre will remain open during all the summer season as no time will be taken for improvements. Rube Welch and Kittie Francis, a new act for New York, have placed themselves under the direction of Jack Levy. "The Three Chevaliers," John DeLoris' singing act, will play its first engagement at the Atlantic Gardens on April 29. Shannon and Mason in "The Astrologer" will play the Fifty-eighth Street April 29, with Pittsburg, Buffalo and Detroit to fol- low. The new sketch soon to be produced by Bert Leslie will be named "At the Bath." Mr. Leslie is now appearing in "Hogan's Visit." Max Berol-Konorah, president of the I. A. L. of Germany, will be in the city during the next two weeks, preparatory to sailing for home. Violet Duseth, after four seasons under the management of H. S. W T oodhull, has signed with Chas. E. Taylor's "Parisian Belles" for next season. Franklyn Wallace for next season has in view the rendering of poems in verse and song somewhat after the style of H. Sims Reeves, the English tenor. In Europe at the present time when an artist of any rank is asked what his plans are for next season, he answers the act with a sensational "double" from "Oh, I'm going to America." the ground. When time has been secured for Vic- tory Bateman, the actress will reappear with "Sweethearts," the sketch employed by her when last in vaudeville. John Keefe has been engaged by Klaw & Erlanger for a part in the summer review to be presented by George M. Cohan on the New Amsterdam Theatre Roof. Henry Myers closes his theatre in Yonk- ers after the week of May 6, and will im- mediately start rebuilding the edifice, con- siderably enlarging it for next season. Harry Corson Clarke closes his season to-morrow night at Hammerstein's Vic- toria. His vaudeville tour has extended from coast to coast, covering 69 weeks. Fields and Ward were booked for the K. & E. Philadelphia house next week, but may not play owing to sudden illness overtaking Fred Ward on Thursday last. Nick Norton, manager for Hyde & Beh- man, expects to leave for Mt. Clemens on May 10, to remain away three months. This is Mr. Norton's usual summer recrea- tion. The Klaw & Erlanger vaudeville enter- prise in Philadelphia has developed a sys- tem of "repression" in the matter of ad- vance announcements of bills on both sides. The United Booking Offices has taken a lease of the entire eighth floor of the St. James Building beginning May 1, and will sublet the rear offices to the favored agents. Frederick Donaghey, who had charge of the New York Roof press work last sum- mer, will spend his vacation this warm season at Chicago, attending to "The Man of the Hour." Jack O'Toole is proprietor of the Bijou Theatre at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. "2,800 miles from Broadway" is the man- ner in which Mr. O'Toole describes his present location. The newspapers of New Orleans are predicting a change of policy in the Cres- cent, Greenwall and New Baldwin the- atres, similar to the one outlined in Variety two months ago. The Orpheum, Brooklyn, will close for vaudeville, May 27; the Colonial on June 3, while the Alhambra may remain open all summer or as long as conditions during the warm weather warrant. Keith's, Philadelphia, is giving away advertising souvenirs in the shape of a baseball counter or scorer. By revolving circles a complete record of the game may be kept. It has a prettily decorated cover, and is convenient to carry. Frank (Slivers) Oakley and Charles Sicgrist have been booked for twenty-five weeks next season through the William Morris offce. The clown and the acrobat will travel as a team, Mr. Siegrist closing An Associated Press dispatch dated Reno, Nev., last week, said: "Reno, Tono- pah and Goldfleld are each to possess a $75,000 theatre within the next six months. The Orpheum Circuit and the Shubert Syndicate will send their attrac- tions there." Harry Leonhardt, manager of the K.-P. Twenty-third Street Theatre, will invite the employees of Ellis Island, about 400 in all, to attend one performance when Joe Welch produces "At Ellis Island" in the house for the first time during week of May 13. From London comes the news that Fanny Fields has lost the suit entered against her by Manny Warner, the Eng- lish agent, for booking her in the music halls, which time she afterward can- celled. Warner recovered a judgment in full for $375. The report of the Variety Artists' Fed- eration of England for the period from February 18, 1906, to March 31, 1907, in- cludes among its items, $25,000 paid to members called out in the recent strike, and to those on picket duty. The balance in the treasury at the date of the state- ment was $7,500. Grace Filkins, who has been away from the varieties these several years, will re- turn next week, appearing with James Home in "Proper Improprieties," the sketch in which Mrs. Thorndyck Bouci- cault was seen in 1902. The piece is at the Union Square, Monday. Albert Sutherland's latest importation is the Renwood Troupe of acrobats. The act is done on a black velvet draped stage. The costumes and apparatus are treated with a chemical preparation making the performers stand out with wonderful bril- liancy from the black background. The conspicuous success of several of the better class burlesque shows this sea- son seems to have borne it in upon the burlesque managers that a good deal more is expected of them than they have been in the habit of delivering, and on all hands there are promises of expensive productions next season. "The Four Terrors," an English girl act, resembling that of the Original Mad- caps, are due to arrive here May 10. They open with "Pat White's Gaiety Girls" at the Gotham Theatre, New York, the fol- lowing week, and will spend the summer with the same organization, which is scheduled to play summer stock burlesque at the Theatre Royal, Montreal. Belle Ashlyn, formerly a member of "The Rollicking Girl" company, and Mabel Frenyear are booked to open at Keeney's next week with a new "sister" act CAlled "College Chums." It is a full stage offer- ing and serves to introduce as an inci- dental one of Thomas W. Lawson's blooded bull pups, now the property of one of the girls. It is probable that the act will not be in shape to play the Keeney date next week, in which esse it will be put over until May 6.