Variety (December 1907)

VARIETY London, Dec. 14. All the agents are pricking up their ears to hear what will drop at the Fed- eration's special Sunday meeting, at the Camberweli Empire to-morrow. It is sure that a fair and square form of "office copy" will be insisted on, while that brazen bunco, the "next engagement" clause, by which you split twenty per cent, with* the agent who secured your date and the agent who got it before, will receive heroic treatment. Two days hence, next Monday, Dec. 10, the Coliseum doors will swing music- ally open, and Mr. Stoll will have hi.s "try, try again." There is little doubt that the "splendid failure" will revert to a "splendid success," under the new scheme of "nothing cheap except prices." The highest seat in the main auditorium is now but a half crown (sixty-two and one-half cents), while a rich plush chair in the balcony can be had for sixpence. Still there is a slightly raised fee for "early doors" and advance booking, six- penny .seats jumping to ninepence, half crown seats to seventy-five cents and so on. Private boxes for six people now cost $5.25. Miss Dressier has certainly "made good" at the Palace, and no American would object if she yanked Butt's leg for $5,000 a week. Believe what you please about her salary, if you are a good believer, and meantime we will con- tent ourselves with saying that even the $1,000 salary of Fatiina Miris at the Hippodrome is not quite correct, the exact figure being $730.75. This was testified by Manager Fred Trussell in a legal tilt over commission which Miss Miris had with her agent. It is close enough to the advertised amount. Still, the facto go to prove a point, but . At the Pavilion wrestling rather re- ceived a black eye from the late tripping and fouling contest between Zbysco (Bishco) and Padoubny. For thirty-five minutes the interlocked leviathans tugged and pushed and pulled, forehead butting forehead with an impact that could be heard at the back of the packed house. It was a case of the irresistible stalled by the immovable, and each of the parties seemed too elephantine to get a good grasp on the other. The carpet, at least, was not hurt, and in the end the gentle- man with the end of the alphabet name was disqualified for tripping. George llaekenschmidt was present but would not publicly express his opinion of the contest. Zbysco is a very powerful man, but is not the artist at the game that Haekenschniidt is. The latter has made $125,000, if rumor may be believed, and means to retire in due time to English country life. Fred O'Connor, late manager of the Douglas, Isle of Man, Hippodrome, is here to put on the holiday circus at the Crystal Palace.—George Bandurria, head of the well-known troupe of mandolin players, has passed away very suddenly. —The remarkable success of Harry Lau- der in America has aroused great inter- est in his forthcoming appearance in pan- tomime at the Royal Court Theatre, Liv- erpool, the sale of seats being greatly in advance of la^t year.—Bransby Williams opens at the Hippodrome Monday with Dickens' Christmas Carol.—Maskelyne and Devant are making a sporting offer of $25,000 a year to anyone who can climb up an unsupported rope and dis- appear in the air, as described in the well known lie retailed by travelers to India. Meantime they give a variant simulation of the feat themselves, and when the climbing man is shot to his disappearance, the impression is that he has vanished into the scene behind.— Burt Burnell (Four Burnells) was mar- ried to -Ms J Hender*r.T» «f the Brixton registry office last Monday.—"The Magic Circle" (Maskelyne, president) has just had its second annual dinner. It doubled membership the last year, and now claims 200 exponents of "now you see it and now you don't."—Papa Brown, the Brixton agent, who suffered three ribs damaged and smaller injuries through a tram car accident, has received a check for $125 in accordance with the accident coupon issued with every membership ticket of the Music Hall Artists' Railway Asso- ciation.—Albert Gilmer, so long manager of the Oxford, and later of the Stoke Newington Palace, has secured from B. F. Keith a long lease of the Princess, Oxford street, and the company backing the ven- ture will spend $80,000 in alterations, opening next summer with a special drama by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.—The Palace has just celebrated very success- fully its fifteenth anniversary, the bill being rather crowded with "legits."—A few months since Alfred Butt, the man- ager, circulated for "press puffs" that he was paying Marie Tempest in excess of $750 per week, and had the nerve to claim libel when it was doubted. Similar press stories have been circulated as to Marie Dressier receiving $2,500 per week, and with this as a text the agent, Hugh J. Didcott, turns "Doubting Thomas" in "Mammon," writing that paper that pos- sibly Miss Dressier might have been in- duced to take a trifle less than the 2,500 plunkers. But the worst rap of all was given Butt by the London Hippodrome management, which said that its salary of $1,000 per week paid the protean ar- tiste Fatima Miris, was the highest va- riety salary ever paid in London. This loaves a discrepancy of $1,500 per week to be accounted for by Butt. NEW HOUSE IN ELMIRA. Elmira, Dec. 27. The Keystone Amusement Company, in- corporated last week, has purchased a plot of ground on East Market street, and will erect a theatre to hold vaudeville. It will be offered to one of the New York booking agencies. Geo. W. Middle- ton and two other local men are inter- ested. SHEEDY'S, BROCKTON, OPEN. Brockton, Mass., Dec. 27. Sheedy's theatre in this city opened last Monday, much to the surprise of the the- atrical people in town, who had heard of the decision of the United Booking Of- fices in giving its vaudeville franchise for Brockton to Andrew Hathaway. Louis Pincus, of New York City, a vaudeville agent, was here Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Pincus seemed much inter- ested in the theatre and bill. It was ru- mored that he had booked the show, and another report said he was the actual manager of the house. No information could be obtained of M. R. Slieedy, also in the city. There is much conjecture as to the outcome of Mr. Sheedy's relations with the United Book- ing Offices, which is now booking Sheedy's at Fall River. Hathaway's is giving vaudeville here as well. In about three or four months Hathaway's new theatre will be opened. Sheedy's now surpasses the present Hath- away house in building, location and show. The Sheedy bill this week is made up of Renier and Sterling, Lavelle's Dogs, Le Maire and Le Maire, Tanner and Gilbert, Nellie McCoy, Healy and Vance and mov- ing pictures. Two shows daily are given, and the program reads "operated in conjunction with Sheedy's other houses." It was declared as long ago as Septem- ber that Hathaway was favored for con- trol of the town of Brockton by the United Booking Offices as against Sheedy. At that time Mr. Hathaway himself even stated that he held an exclusive contract with the United for Brockton, although Sheedy had already announced his intention of opening there. One of the reasons for this favoritism is probably the fact that Hathaway is backed in the Brockton enterprise by W. B. Cross, manager of the Brockton Fair Association and principal stockholder WRESTLER AT HAMMERSTEIN'S. Tanieinon Hitachiyama, the giant Jap, champion of champions of the national game of Sumo (wrestling) of the Mikado's empire, who performed upon the mat in the East Room of the White House re- cently for President Roosevelt and a gath- ering of distinguished cabinet ministers and ambassadors, will appear at Hammer- stein's, week Jan. C, before proceeding on his trip around the world. He will give a demonstration of the Japanese wrestling, which is much more spectacular than the Graeco-Roman, catch- as-catch can or collar and elbow. It differs from the American styles in that a fall consists of throwing your opponent out of a ring fourteen foot in diameter or when any part of the body except the feet touches the mat. Hitachiyama has with him four of the best wrestlers in Japan, Omifugi, Ilira- tayama, Wakanoura And Elec. . a«d a famous Japanese referee, Kingo Nagai. The other wrestlers will participate in preliminary bouts, the winner taking the centre of the ring for a battle royal with the other three, after which the champion will take on four at once. lie will then challenge any one in the audience to go on the stage and wrestle with him or any of his assistants with the proviso that a fall shall be according to the Japanese rule only. Hitachiyama is 34 3 T ears old, 5 feet 8% inches in height, and weighs 300 pounds. He is managed by Philip K. Mindil. in the only other theatre there, the Brock- ton, which plays combinations. Mr. Cross is accounted a very wealthy man and is associated with Cahn & Grant in several of their New England theatres. The United people probably figured that with Cross interested in both the legit- imate and vaudeville theatres in the Massachusetts town, they would have nothing to fear from future invasion. catch- anded air to i friend, j Now, Boyle toesn't Chris Bruno, of Bruno and Russell, is ill at Jacot's Hotel, Boston. Mr. Bruno has been confined there four weeks. tnis week—pictures ttrst md pictures last, with music In between. There's all kiuJs of .*usic from grand opera BERTIE HEBRGS Miss Herron Calls Herself the Min- strel Miss. That's a mistake. She's a Hit. She Makes Up Like This flight Before the Audience. to minstrelsy. The bill is mostly music, partly novelty and altogether pleasing the This matt spent i Gl —wl open Mnnl T! ety, i Send croat in fa TJ are j elded "iiin lead) child or 1 Th tionl Hlldl Is tl beaut voice Swifl Ga High with will I part ' bartj Courtcny Columhus, O., "Citizen.* 1