Variety (November 1907)

VARIETY MINER BETS ON NO "LAY OFFS." There is a possibility that the Western Wheel burlesque shows will play half a week in Wilmington after this until the new house, now building in Brooklyn, is completed. The other half of the week will be filled in Orange, N. J. Tom Miner's "Bohemians" are at the Grand Opera House, Wilmington this week, the first burlesque organization to show tnere. It is a Nixon & Zimmerman prop- erty and has played legitimate attractions up to this time. If the policy of bur- lesque promises success upon the showing of the Miner company, the managers may offer the house upon a long term agree- ment. "The Bohemians" offered as special at- traction Wednesday an "amateur night," and a free debate upon the topic of tem- perance by local speakers followed the snow Monday night. Delaware is a "local option" state on the liquor question and just now Wilmington is a storm centre of temperance discussion. The "wet" and "dry" factions are about evenly divided. The local newspapers "played up" the de- bate Monday night and the house was packed. On Election Day no matinee was given, but two performances were run ofl in the evening instead. One started at the usual time and the other ran from 11 in the evening until nearly 2 o'clock a. m. Tom Miner has a bet with another Em- pire Circuit manager that he will not "lay off" his people more than four days dur- ing the entire season. Mr. Miner has a clean slate to date. He booked the Brook- lyn week as described. Another "lay off" occurs on the circuit, caused by the delay in securing a home in Newark, N. J. Mr. Miner has about completed arrangements to play Altoona, Johnstown and Harris- burg, Pa., and Elizabeth, N. J., to occupy this gap. "The Dreamlands" and the other of the Miner shows will also play the time thus opened up. CHASE STOPS NOISE. Washington, Nov. 8. The . performances at Chase's Theatre here have frequently been disturbed by entertainments given in the Armory of the Washington Light Artillery, which is un- der the house. This week P. B. Chase completed negotiations by which he will take over the battery's lease o'f the prem- ises for a long term, the soldiers moving their headquarters elsewhere. SALARY GUESSING CONTEST. Waterbury, Conn., Nov. 8. Manager Clancy, of Poli's, is working up a unique contest this week. He offers a prize to the person guessing closest to the amount paid in salary to Sie Hassan Ben Ali's Arabs, and Cressy and Dayne, both of whom are booked for an engage- ment here shortly. All the artists are wondering if Clancy will "cheat" in nam- ing the right sum. LEE HARRISON BUYS ACT. Lee Harrison, the star of "Lee Harrison and His Broadway Girls," now playing the Klaw & Erlanger vaudeville circuit, has purchased the act, and it is now his own property, raising Mr. Harrison to the rank of "manager," with the proper salute cus- tomary upon the acquisition of any new piece of property. MONEY READY FOR BUILDING. During the recent financial panic in New York $75,000 on deposit in the Williams- burg Trust Company, Brooklyn, to cover contractors' certificates for the Empire Cir- cuit's (Western Burlesque Wheel) new theatre in Williamsburg, was tied up by the closing of that insitution. The New York headquarters of the Cir- cuit got into communication with Rankin Jones, the Cincinnati attorney for the cor- poration, and a few days later the Miner Estate, which is acting as custodian of the funds, received a check for $75,000. This was deposited in the Miner Estate's own bank in New York, and is ready to be drawn upon for the needs of the Williams- burg enterprise. GRABBED DIAMONDS AND SKIPPED. Cincinnati, Nov. 8. Mrs. Frank Martin, a vaudeville actress, a few days ago reported to the police that her husband had deserted her after taking two solitaire diamong rings valued at $1,500. They had been partners in a vaudeville sketch team and arrived in Cin- cinnati a few days ago, looking for an engagement. Mrs. Martin said they had been in Dawson City, Alaska, for a year, and left there on June 21, stopping for a while in Seattle. GREENWALL'S ASSISTANT MANAGER ABSCONDS. New Orleans, Nov. 8. Mori is Marks, assistant business man- ager of the Greenwall, and nephew of Man- ager Greenwall, has absconded with over $3,000 of the theatre funds. Marks, in conjunction with his theatrical employment, had interest in two saloons opposite the Greenwall, and these failing to pay, it is supposed he used the money to pay bills. Marks has been connected with the Greenwall enterprises for over twenty years. The news of his defalcation" came as a shock. SKETCH REPORTED FOR GILMANS. San Francisco, Nov. 8. Since the two Gilman Sisters, Eunice and Pearl, half sisters of Maybelle Gil- man, have gone away from here in search of publicity and coin in Eastern territory, the report has come back to us that they have a sketch in their trunk. The action is said to take place about the highly-colored incidents in the Gil- man-Corey affair. Maybelle does not know her relatives. The sisters played about on the Sullivan-Considine and Western States time, with average suc- cess. STAMPING "BARRING CLAUSE." The contracts now issued by the United Booking Offices again carry the rubber stamped clause that playing in an oppo- sition theatre in any of the cities where there is a house booked by the Uniteu will lie considered a violation of the agree- ment, and cancellation will follow. There is a difference in the present clause and the one formerly in use by the old Keith Booking Office. The stampeu matter now covers any city booked by the United, while the similar clause em- ployed before mentioned any city called for in the contract. HILL NOTIFIES DINKINS. John J. Sullivan, attorney for Gus Hill, has given notice of his client's intention to start an action to restrain Thomas W. Dink ins, the Western Burlesque Wheel manager, from using in one of his bur- lesque shows material which Hill claims lias been pirated from his musical show "Happy Hooligan," now on the road. Hill declares that the principal come- dian of the Dinkins Wheel organization is James Leonard, who several years ago played a leading part in "Happy Hooli- gan" for him. BESSIE LAMB DIES. Cincinnati, Nov. 8. After a lingering illness, Bessie Lamb, a local singer quite well known on the vaude- ville stage, passed away Oct. 30, at the home of her uncle, Ben Heisler, at 438 Hopkins street, Cincinnati. When the craze for "rag-time" music was at its height, Bessie Lamb was sing- ing at the concert halls on upper Vine Street. Her wonderful mimicry and sing- ing established her reputation, and she subsequently went on the road, being prominently identified with the Reilly & Woods' and Hurtig & Seamon's shows for a number of seasons. Miss Lamb was about 28 years old, and had been in poor health for the past six months. POOREST WEEK YET. Last week was one of the poorest in point of returns since the theatrical season opened. Nearly all the burlesque compa- nies playing in New York fell below the average of the houses they occupied and reports from other parts of the country bore the same gloomy complexion. Unset- tled business conditions and the near ap- proach of election day were taken as the reasons. MAY B0LEY. May Boley, who achieved a phenomenal success in vaudeville last season with her headliner act, known as "May Boley and Polly Girls," will open at the Majestic Theatre, Chicago, Nov. 11, in her new "Showgirl and Saleslady" monologue spe- cialty as one of the leading features. Miss Boley's new offering is strictly up- to-date and includes several new and orig- inal character delineations, displaying to advantage the highly amusing and even ludicrous characteristics of the showgirl and the shopgirl that are not only ex- cruciatingly funny, but will be instantly recognized as being true to life by the theatregoer and the department store pa- tron alike. The act will be amplified and embel- lished with numerous strikingly original costume novelties which are veritable creations in their line, and will be inter- spersed with numerous new songs which Miss Boley will introduce there for the first time. One deserves special mention as one of the very latest European successes, entitled "Sailing in My Balloon," a song which has set all London a-whistling, and which will undoubtedly score as big a hit in America as it has across the pond. Miss Boley has been prominently featured in musical comedy during a very success- ful summer season in Boston and New York, and will again be welcomed as one of the leading comediennes in vaudeville. BURKHARDT FEELS LIKE MONEY. "Ten thousand shares of stock at $12 a share is $120,000," repeats Charles J. Burkhardt, the comedian, as he wanders up and down Broadway in quest of some- one who knows how much $120,000 is. Mr. Burkhardt, who severed his connec- tion with the Weber show earlier in the season to go into vaudeville with his new musical comedy sketch, "Levy, the Fencer, or the Yelldiw Slipper," written by hit? brother, Addison, played last season in "Miss New York, Jr.," a Western Bur- lesque Wheel show, noted for its general excellence, including "cleanliness." The show was quite the vogue in Western towns, and while in Duluth with the organization, Mr. Burkhardt was pre- vailed upon by acquaintances there to in- vest in mining stock, then selling for twenty cents a share. He bought 10,000 shaiea, and holds a written guarantee from one of Duluth's wealthy men, and a large holder in the mine himself, that he would repurchase the stock at any time after January 1, next, for $3 a share. Last Sunday night Mr. Burkhardt re- ceived a wire saying the stock had jumped to $12 a share, and not to sell until he heard further. Mr. Burkhardt remained up all night, with pad and pencil. Sleep had flown, and Monday morning, bright And early, the Hebrew comedian was read- ing the morning papers. When he ha"u the financial pages . letter-perfect, .Mr. Burkhardt informed friends of his good fortune. BROOKE'S BAND IN LINE. After fourteen years, during which time Thomas Preston Brooke's Band has played over two hundred weeks in the big amuse- ment parks and one hundred and eighty-one weeks in concert tours of the United States and Canada, the band is to appear in vaudeville. Negotiations are just about completed with one of the big circuits whereby the band is to play its time. The organization will number thirty people, consisting of twenty-eight players and Grace Chaliear Caborn, soprano, besides "Tom, Jr." FIRST SEPARATION IN 12 YEARS. For the first time in twelve years Jos. Hart is separated from his wife, Carrie De Mar, this week. Miss De Mar is play- ing the Grand Opera House, Pittsburg, and Mr. Hart's business engagements have prevented him keeping her company. Miss De Mar has received an offer of foreign time through the Marinelli agency, and it may be accepted provided it is ar- ranged for next summer, when her hus- band will take the occasion for his vaca- tion, and accompany her. DALE AND O'MALLY GIVE UP. Dale and O'Mally, the English conver- sational team, who opened about a month ago at the Colonial, have given up their American tour. New York audiences did not take very kindly to the foreigners and they cancelled their engagement at the Twenty-third by agreement this week. The understanding is that they will short- ly sail for home. Their place on the Twenty-third Street bill was taken by Anna and Effie Conley, who make their first metropolitan vaudeville appearance as a "sister" act.