Variety (March 1908)

8 VARIETY MORRIS-CELLA SETTLEMENT DENIED. • Chicago, March 5. It is reported about town that William Morris, of New York, who held a book- ing contract for the new American Thea- tre in St. Louis, received $10,000 from Louis Cella to cancel the agreement. The American lately opened with vau- deville, and its first week's receipts were $12,000. Mr. Cella, who retains 60 per cent, of the stock, has made arrangement with the Western Vaudeville Association to furnish the acts. This arrangement, it is said, can be terminated upon ninety days' notice by either party. The names of eighteen acts are said to be submitted by the W. V. A. each week to Manager Oppenheimer, of the American, who selects the nine he requires. Business continues very large at the theatre. Questioned regarding the settlement reported above as received by him, William Morris this week said there was no truth in it. Mr. Morris remarked he still held a contract to book the American, but had not the time to take up the matter since his arrival home. POLI'S BUILDING CONTRACT GIVEN. Wilkes-Barre, Pa., March 6. ' According to information, S. Z. Poll has awarded the contract to build his theatre in this city to the Engineering & Con- tracting Company, of Baltimore. The amount named as the cost of the theatre is $200,000. The site is on South Main Street, be- tween Northampton and South Streets. The plans for the theatre were filed with the Building Department early last year, but no further were steps taken up to now. The house will be devoted to vaudeville, and have a seating capacity of 1,000. VAUDEVILLE THEATRE DESTROYED. Pawtucket, R. I., March 5. Fire started in Fay's Theatre here Mon- day night just as an audience of 700 per- sons was leaving the house. All escaped without injury but the building was prac- tically destroyed. Fay's had been running as a vaudeville house of the popular priced grade for somewhat less than two months. E. M. Fay, formerly leader of Reeves* Band, a New England organization, took the es- tablishment over after it had failed to make a profit as an independent burlesque stand. Following the fire, acts booked into the house for next week and the week follow- ing by New York agents, among them Allen and Marryat, were ordered cancelled. The bill this week was Gus Bruno, Brooks and DeCosta, Reeves and Kenney, Dorothy Ballad and Bob Lee. None of the artists was injured, although several are said to have lost some of their property. HARLEM MUSIC HALL. A plan is afoot to build a music hall at Fifth avenue and 110th street. There is a plot of ground there, and the proposition was put before some vaudeville people this week that a building would be erected, if a lease of the premises when completed would be guaranteed. It is said the music hall will be built in any event. The nearest approach to any- thing of the kind in Harlem, excepting a few nearby beor gardens, is the Alhambra at 12fith Street and Seventh avenue; also the K.-P. 125th Street house. "H. B. MARINELLI, LTD." The H. B. Marinelli international vaude- ville agency has become a corporation, cap- italized at $200,000. The agency has offices in Now York, rx)ndon, Paris and Berlin. The fornjor branch managers are now stockholders in the concern, it is said, and Charles Born- haupt, the representative in charge of the New York office, is a director. In Paris, IF. B. Marinelli, the head of the agency, is in charge; at London, E. Wolhoim is managor, while lioo Mnase is the head of the Berlin office. STEINER'S INEXPENSIVE SCHEME. Last week Alex. Steiner was ill, so ill he was confined to his room and had to have a physician prescribe for him. The physician prescribed a moderate quantity of liquor to alleviate whatever sufferings Mr. Steiner might imagine. Mr. Steiner is a vaudeville agent and attached to the United Offices. Upon re- turning to Broadway he congratulated him- self upon his recovery and called upon a foreign agent with an office on upper Broadway. Mr. Steiner surveyed the office, notic- ing upon the door it read "Paris, London, Berlin." "Why don't you open a couple more offices?" a.sked Steiner. "It's cheap enough. A good sign painter will give you an office in Vienna and St. Petersburg for fifty cents." HAMMERSTEIN HOME. William Hammerstein returns to-day on the "Lucania." It is just four weeks since Mr. Hammerstein left. As far as the Victoria Theatre is con- cerned, he could have remained abroad in- definitely based on the smooth sailing the house had had under the capable manage- ment of Mike Simon, on the stage, and youthful Aaron Kessler, "in front," during Mr. llUTiiniersU'ln's absence. GRAPEWIN BACK IN VAUDEVILLE. Charles Grapewin will return to vaude- ville at the conclusion of his present star- ring tour. Supported by a company he will open in New York, i)rohably at the 12.')th Street Theatre, May 11, playing the "Mr. Pipp" sketch. It is a year since the comedian appeared in vaudeville. M. S. Bentham booked the time. READING'S CHANGE UNCERTAIN. The policy of running moving pictures in the Wilmer & Vincent Orpheum Theatre in Reading, Pa., has not yet started and the project may be given up entirely. It was first suggested after the Reading house had gone through three or four los- ing weeks. .Tust as the firm had about decided to turn it into a piolure show, business picked up and has been rather more satisfactory since. CHORUS GIRLS' AMATEURS. Cincinnati, March 5. .\ninfeur conto.sts are being li<»id at IVo- ple's Theatre to-night. Each member or' the cliorus will be called upon to do a siiecialty, tho audienre voting a prize to Iho host entertainer. Contosts of this sort are to be kopt up each week. WILL B. WOOD DROWNED. News reached New York this week of the death by drowning on Jan. 20 of Will B. Wood, an American illusionist and ventril- oquist, who for the past sixteen years ha.? toured South America and' Europe with his own company, and was as well known in the Latin-American republics as is Kel- lar in this country. He was called "The Kellar of South America." . >' ^ Wood and his twenty-year-old daughter Bertha were on their way from Fron- tera, Mexico, to U Progresso, Yucatan, on one of the big tug boats which ply between those two ports on the Gulf of Mexico, when the ship foundered. According to advices from American consular agents and the ship owners Wood and his daugh- ter were passengers on the steamer when it sailed from Frontera. He is said to have had $14,000 in Bank of England notes on his person. On the night of Jan. 20 a vio- lent tropical stonu arose. The "Cuneto Bulnes," as the tug was named, had a schooner in tow. The tow line was cut and the little vessel tried to ride the storm out unhampered. It is related as a curious cir- ctmtsrance that wRetf the vessel foundered the captain and crew managed to save themselves while Wood and his daughter, the only passengers aboard, were losr. Neither body has been recovered and the baggage, fifty trunks besides other prop- erty, was entirely lost. Wood's wife, who was the original "Edna, the Human Orchid," when she and her husband were members of Kellar's company, is dangerously ill at her home mi Newcastle, Pa., and the news of her hus- band's trag'c death has been withheld from her for fear that the shock might prove fatal. Hastings Clawson, Wood's partner, was awaiting the magician's arrival in II Pro- gr'^sso. having gone there with a company of American artists who were to hate made up a new com])any for a tour of Mexico, the Wood troupe having just come north fr«Mn a trip throtigh Brazil and the Gui- anas. lie returned to New York when news of the tragedy reached him in II Pro- gresso. Will B. Wood was forty-six j'cars old and was born in Shamokin, Pa. He re- ceived his stage training under the tute- lage of Kellar, with whom he travelled until 1800, when he branched out for him- self. His wife was a participator in his South American trips until two years ago, when failing health forced her retirement in New Castle. The couple had only the child Bertha, who was lost with her father LOOP-THE-LOOP RIDER KILLED. Mary Wollner, who rode the Somersault- ing Automobile with the Pubillones Circus in Mexico all winter, was accidentally shot and killed by her chum, Antoinette Dcfianne, who has been acting as assist- ant to ,7ohn Deloris, the sharpshooter, while the girls were examining the mechan- ism of an automatic revolver in Miss Woll- iier's room at 215 West 42d Street. The accident happened Tuesday evening. The coroner is convinced that the shootinir was unintentional, but owing to the fact tint there were no witnesses to the af- fair the girl has been held under bail for examination. The auto is owned by Mit/.i Morok, who relurned from Mexico only a few days before the accident. It is under contract to the Ringling Bros, for the cominjj season. ACTRESSES IN VIOLENT ENCOUNTER. Denver, March 5. A little excitement ruffled the week last Friday at the Crystal, Trinidad (Col.). J. Francis Dooley and Corinne Sales were giving their act on the bill, which also contained Phyliss Allen, "The Phenome- nal Contralto." * Miss Allen is alleged to have improvised a few remarks within the hearing of Miss Sales, who resented them. In addition. Miss Sales threatened to horsewhip the singer, according to the story brought our the next day in the police court. Upon hearing of the horsewhip, Mis« Allen stabbed Miss Sales on the arm with a pair of scissors. It was nearing the ending of her engagement at the Crystal, but the manager dispensed with Miss Al- len's services at once, while the magistrate fined her $25 and costs. PANTAGES* NEXT TO OPEN, Seattle, March 6. The new Pantages' theatre at Tacoma is expected to open with vaudeville on March Ifith. It will be booked together with Pantages' other houses in this sec- tion, in conjunction with the Western States Vaudeville Association. It is rumored that Sullivan-Considine contemplate the erection of a $50,000 theatre at the corner of Third Avenue and Madison Street, in this city, on a plot owned by the firm. A great deal of friction has arisen between Pantages and S.-C. Pantages al- leges that S.-C.'s employees are enticing acts away from him. The feeling between the two circuits was greatly sharpened by the defection dately of Gilday and Fox, who broke their contract with the West- ern States to play Sullivan-Considine time at a slight increase of salary. The feeling may lead to open warfare shortly. TWO MORE IN COLORADO. Denver, March 5. " On March 9th, vaudeville will be played in theatres located at Cripple Creek and Victor. They will be added to the West- ern States Vaudeville circuit, increasing its Colorado time that much. The Sullivan-Considine circuit is book- ing a new house at Clieyenne. WILMER & VINCENT BOOK ALTOONA. When the new vaudeville theatre opens at Altoona, Pa., on Monday, March 9th, it will be considered as one of the Wil- mer & Vincent chain. The firm has been booking the attractions for the house. Under some arrangement entered into, Wilmer & Vincent hold an interest in the theatre, as well as Henry B. Harris, and others. For the week the Morris oflice has placed the Marco Twins as an added at- traction at Mishler's Academy, where a "rep" show will hold forth. ABEL RESIGNS AS SECRETARY. Jean Hughes is the secretary of the Vaudeville Comedy Club, having accepted the oflice made vacant last week by Geo. Abel, who found he was unable to devote sufficient time to his duties in that capacity and resigned. Jack Allen, late Allen and Jaffrey, 13 now a partner with Bert Press, once of Guro and Press. :