Variety (September 1907)

VARIETY EMPIRE OPENS TEMPORARY HOUSE. The Auditorium, Newark, N. J., began this week as an optional stand in the Western Burlesque Wheel, opening Mon- day with the "Avenue Girls." The use of this place, which is little more than a hall up a flight of stairs, is merely tem- porary pending the completion of the Em- pire Company's new theatre in the New Jersey town. Shows are not required to play the Auditorium. They may lay off that week if they so elect. "Sam Devere's" Co. is due for the stand next week, but the hall was rented for a fair for that time long be- fore the Empire people secured it, and the show will be idle. The regular house is promised by the contractors to be ready for occupancy by the middle or end of November. SCRANTON READY SEPT. 33. The contractors who are building the Scranton house of the Columbia Amuse- ment Company have promised that they will be able to turn the completed build- ing over in time to open a week from Monday. Bob Manchester's "Gay Masqueraders" may open the place. There is some doubt, however, whether the interior will be in such shape as to permit an opening, and the initial performance may be delayed until the following Monday. ARTISTS IN WRECK. Cleveland, O., Sept. 13. Viola Gillette and George McFarlane appeared this week at Keith's in their street clothes, having loet their baggage in a train wreck between Ottawa and To- ronto. There were a number of other va- riety artists on the train, and all had a narrow escape. A spreading rail ditched the locomotive. One of the baggage cars was demolished and the passenger coaches were damaged. Ziska and King, Nagel and Adams, Florence Saunders, Bellong Brothers, Walter Perkins and company and Patsy Doyle were also on the wrecked train. ADVERTISING BY STREET PARADE. Washington, Sept. 13. A street parade is part of the daily rou- tine of the "Merry Maidens," playing at the New Lyceum this week. Chorus girls and principals meet at the theatre every morning and at 10:30 embark in tally- hos, which make a trip through the prin- cipal streets. To attract attention each member of the company is equipped with a big fish horn. Staid and official Wash- ington is not accustomed to this sort of advertising, and the police have several times held up the cavalcade, causing the manager to show his permit. Campbell & Drew's "Colonial Belles" show recently announced that it would make a daily parade a feature of its tour. JOE MURPHY OPENS SOON. Joseph Murphy, widely known as "the richest actor in America," has been booked through the United Offices to open at Worcester, Mass., Oct. 7, with a condensed version of his old time play, "Kerry Gow." The sketch will be given under the title of "0'Hara." TOO MUCH RAILWAY FARE. Louisville, Ky., Sept. 13. H. S. Woodhull, who was here last week with his "Lid Lifters" company, intimated in a newspaper interview that many of the Columbia Amusement company shows may cut out some of its Southern stands rather thau pay the greatly increased cost of rail- road transportation. The party rate on the railroads was abolished by law last Spring in the South and the flat rate of two cents a mile estab- lished. This has entailed a considerable item of additional cost to all traveling the- atrical organisations. The Eastern Wheel houses in New Orleans and Birmingham are the ones that Mr. Woodhull thinks may be eliminated. "Our route," said Mr. Woodhull, "is so arranged that we jump from Cincinnati to Birmingham, Ala., thence to New Orleans and again to Kansas City. All these are extraordinarily long jumps. Heavy as these expenses have been, they will be increased this year by 40 per cent. "No theatrical enterprise can stand such a burden, and I think you will find a num- ber of companies will cut out the South altogether. Last year the same conditions faced the burlesque managers in the West, and the result was that the Far Western bouses were lopped off." HYNICKA DOESN'T WANT FEDERAL OFFICE. Cincinnati, Sept. 13. News from Washington to the effect that Hon. R. K. Hynicka, president of the Standard Theatre, would be Collector of Internal Revenue, caused great surprise here, but Mr. Hynicka immediately an- nounced that he would not accept the of- fice if tendered. EASTERN OPENS ANOTHER HOUSE. Columbus, Sept. 13. The new Gayety Theatre on the East- ern Burlesque Wheel, erected and man- aged by the Columbia Amusement Com- pany of New York City, opened its doors to the public for the first time on Mon- day last. 'The Runaway Girls" is the opening attraction. < The Gayety is a handsome theatre, and the first entirely devoted to burlesque Columbus has had. Attendance has been large, the show pleased, and there seems little question but that the Gayety has entered upon a prosperous career. DELAYED BY ACCIDENT. Des Moines, la., Sept. 13. Although Watson's Burlesquers were delayed last Sunday afternoon through a railway accident in opening the matinee on time, they came in the city with a rush, and gave an afternoon show which caused a local paper to remark that "The Watson company is by far the most per- fectly organized troupe of burlesquers that has ever visited Des Moines." The accident the company was in was not serious, and no one was injured. DREW DENIES INFRINGEMENT CHARGES. Gus Hill, through his attorneys, House, Grossman & Vorhaus, is preparing a dam- age suit against the Empire Circuit Com- pany (Western Burlesque Wheel), charg- ing that that concern is playing in the houses of its circuit an act which infringes upon his exclusive rights in the Karno pro- duction of "A Night in an English Music Hall." Mr. Hill, after some litigation, pur- chased from Fred Karno the exclusive right to use the "Musk Hall" piece in this country with the proviso that he could not show it in a vaudeville house. In the suit which preceded Hill's actual purchase of the act, the courts laid down the legal principal that it was Hill's duty to protect himself against piracy rather than Karno's. One of his employes saw the "Tiger Lilies," Will N. Drew's bur- lesque show, in Chicago, and immediately reported to the New York office that "A Night in an English Music Hall" was being shown almost exactly as it was in Hill's "Around the Clock" last year. . It was upon this report that the suit was instituted against the Empire Com- pany. A separate case, it is said, will be entered against Drew. The manager of the Drew show, which is playing Chicago this week, was served on Tuesday in that city with a tempo- rary injunction restraining the show from the further presentation of the alleged "copy" act. Drew promptly filed a bond of $500, and will be permitted to use the act pending the argument of the case in court. Drew's next move was an effort to have the matter transferred to the United States Court which handed down the or- iginal decision in the case of Karno vs. Hill last spring. Drew is in New York, but in communication with the Empire Circuit's attorneys in Chicago. "There is no ground for Hill's suit," said he. "I am using only the idea of a stage upon a stage, which is not Karno's or Hill's property, but an old scheme which has been used time and again in this country. I have no intention of tak- ing the act out of my show and will fight Hill's efforts to have me do so through the United States court. "There is not an item of business in my act that has a counterpart in Karno's. I have no 'drunk' boy, quartet or any of the other things used in the English sketch. Many of the turns in my piece work 'straight' and the comedy acts are entirely different from Karno's." One of the Weber & Rush burlesque shows is said also to have an act resembling the Karno property- and Hill may proceed against that firm if the reports reaching New York prove true. "The London Fire Brigade" has been booked for 45 weeks by Klaw & Erlanger. The Big City Quartet disbanded at Cincinnati, two of the members leaving. Fred Rover, second tenor, formerly with the Rialto Comedy Four, and George Ross, basso, have replaced them in the set. They cancelled four weeks' time, and open in New York during October. NO "LAY-OFF" THROUGH DULUTH. Duluth, Minn., Sept. 13. W. N. Longstreet, manager of the Met- ropolitan Opera House, wishes to deny the rumor that the Western Burlesque Wheel shows will have to "lay off" Duluth week on account of the demolishing of the Metro- politan. Work of tearing the theatre down will not start until the end of this season. Mr. Longstreet says that the new Metropolitan 'will be ready for next Fall, and one of the finest burlesque houses in the country. EX-CONVICT CALLS ON CURTIN. James H. Curtin, manager of the Lon- don Theatre, owner of the "Broadway Gaiety Girls," and a prominent figure in the affairs of the Western Burlesque Wheel, was seated behind his roll-top desk in the private office of his theatre the other day, when a stranger entered the room, saluting Mr. Curtin with "Hello, Jim." The manager looked the stranger over, failing to recognise him. "Don't you know me, Jim?' said the man. "Aren't you Jim Curtin, and weren't you sheriff of Harris County, Texas, 25 years ago?" Mr. Curtin took another look, and in a steely voice, said "Yes, I know you. Don't start anything here, for I've got you covered." "It's all right, Jim. I've brought a pres- ent for you," replied the stranger, reaching for his hip pocket. "You pull a gun, and you're a dead man," said Curtin as the stranger removed a filled stocking from his pocket. "It's a gun, all right, Jim, but it's not loaded, and it's for you," was the answer. "Bring it over here," commanded Mr. Curtin, "and lay it on this desk, but don't you take anything out of that stocking on the way." "You've got me wrong, Jim," said the man as he did as Mr. Curtin bade. When laying the stocking on the desk, he noticed that Mr. Curtin held a short bulldog re- volver in his right hand, which had been pointed directly at him during the conver- sation. The bullet would have pierced the one-eighth inch of wood without deflection. "Taking no chances, eh, Jim?" asked the man, "but I've no grudge against you. I brought you this gun as a remembrance. It's almost 25 years since you took me to jail, Sheriff, and you were the only man who ever treated me 'white' down in Texas. The last thing I said to you was that I was going to look you up when I got out, and here I am. This gun is for you, and to-morrow I take the ship for a trip around the world. I have spent 22 years in prison, Jim, and now I'm going to have a good time." In proof of his statement the stranger displayed a bundle of traveler's checks ne- gotiable anywhere. The unusual happening was talked about around the theatre, and when All. Curtin was asked about the man, he replied: "When I was Sheriff of Harris County . (Houston), Texas, about 25 years ago, one of my last official duties was to take this man to prison. He had had a bad record, killing about six or seven men in his time, but was convicted for the theft of $90,000 from an express company. He was caught, tried and sentenced, but the money was not discovered or located. On the way to jail he said, 'Jim, when I get out I am going to have a hell of a time. The money is planted, and if I die, it will remain there, but if I live, you will see me.'" "Well," continued Mr. Curtin, "he has kept his word, and from the express orders he found the money. He told me that while in prison when anyone called he would ask 'How's Houston getting on? Are they building much there?' and he said the growing fear that in the enlargement of the city his treasure nest would be un- earthed nearly cost his life while in re- straint through worry."