Variety (Jan 1935)

114 VARIETY V All Drvili. E Tilesdar, January 1» 1935 Second Oldest UntOB la 8an Franolaco of the mid' by repeating the neat Bpngr and Everyone knows: the world's old- I dance he had seen at the theatre the «Bt proifesslbn, but. what's the sec: on<j oldest profession? • Probably that's open tp plenty of | ereument, but' the specialist In en- tertainment seems able to make a| pretty . ttir bid for the^euce '■ spot; [ 'though he iwas'not Jilvvtlys kno%b"as: a variety actor- or yaudevlllian. • Probably the first specialized en- tertainers arose, shortly alter .pre- historic man developed the clari pr gfoup jdoa. J[h all likelihood there were ne;ile-mlnc1ed fellows who on- tertalncd around the campflre with night, before. The cues differed slightly, but were pretty much alike. In the late '808 thitf writer recalls a performa;nce of 'Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde' (not by- Mansfield), . with a. cpmio ppllcemah and a maid in Jekyl's hpme singing "The House I#^:Baunted'.- Just>;before: the big soene.; ■ : VHpdgdbn'* Ambitibh . / ' sometimes the play was done with a view to making the performance include an plio. For many years It was the ami)itioh of the latis Sani K. Hodgdon, then booking manager for pantomimic depictions of the: hiint Keith, to send out a '10 Nights in a ahd pthcr triba! niatters. It is r^a- Barroom' company ^ with : half a soriable to assume that this panr Ljozen variety actors ta do their spe- tomime presently developed a dance cialties in the barroom. He ilggred forrti which in tiirn evolved into theLj^ playing only the small towns, ritualistic daiices by ; whlqh the ^hd airgued he could get the patron- trlbcs BO light: ±6. find favor with ^g-g hundreds who wotild not aN tlibli' gods. It Is no stretch pf the tend a theatre unless urged by the probabilities: to proclaim the ancleiil -gtrong moral lesson of the pia^^^ nietllcine. men as, the " first dance kpho Wouid enjoy the vaudeyllle:cnce stagers, ■ In turn, tbe prayer-dance becam® the mystery drama, in which, the sacrcci traditions of, the tribe were depicted, passing, by slow' degrees, into the mystery plays of early thiey Were In. Hodgdon had earlier been virith :yaribus concert parties and he knew the small towns like a '.book. .-■ ■ But that Is getting ahead of the advancing vai'lety; Tliere was com PtvriqMnnity and ao to t h ei secular j <np a ohnnga in thie form. . Whiero once the variety actor; sang in ;th^^^ bajrooms lor throw money, he came, back:. to these ; iplaces, or some of them, as a paid-attraction. The4)ar ijecame an a,djun'ct to tlVe actor, but a most •Impoi-tarit part. Originally it was of the beer garden form; with the audience seated at tables arid platform as stage drama proper. Through it all the specialty actor I held his Owii, whether as the clowrij of the tom-tom era.;Or the za.niiy | (generally the :deyll), in the niedle el sacred, plays, ^^■^^': .; : .. The dancie, tooi- held Its own. Naiitch dancers of the Ganges teim- pltes. arid their^ equally /able-bodied aririking arid' eating through " the Bisters of the Nile, merely arite- datcd Little Egypt and GUda Grey I by a few handfulis of centuries. .It's I .toe sameigeneVal idea. There were acrobats in the Roman cirbus -. and 6ri the Greek stage,- and I Nero isiye ianimal shows Ipng before ] Hagenbcck and Al. (3. Barries. in a word, the ispeclalist has en- .dured from earliest times, whether | sho\*;. As tiie entertainrtient became more. Iriipprtant a stage was provid- ed in ari aiiditoriuin With fixed seats, but there was continuous servicp in the seats, .thei barroom gener- ally opisned off the. theatre, and the receipts! from t!^ bar generaliy eX"-, cecded the; bbic oijico return. The auditcirlum did not entirely supplant the concert hall; The iat- Bnildiiig Unit Around FiU Osborne's Ork A vaiide unit Is being built around the Will Osborne orchestra by centiirr. •«* him about th» Jokes jjarry Puck in associatibn wltii and tbo It ha« to bo told. It Is uriprlntftble. - Pretty much the ^amo thinf applies to the eastern spots. .:■ Pastor's idea :,:.^^,. :; It was Tony Pastor, not b;, F. Keith, who arrived; by a simple problem in mentid, ftrlthmetle: the fact that two sexes could prob- ably buy more theatre , tickets .than the nien alone. . He set but to cap-, tiire the wpmeh. He instituted give- aways (tben generally confined to the lesser maglclM touring cbmpa- nles), and at the. matinees hams, dress .patterns.. .and: :aU :.eottB pi things were , distributed, as door prizes/ He backed. this ,tip with a careiruHy (Ibr those days)'* edited Harry A. Rpmrin, OsbPrrie's manager. Unit will includii 12 girls and tWo oomedy acts besides the band. DELAY HNAL OK CHANGES Bopkera were:: riiriiilng wildly up and dpwn the atrebts Jail last\week huriting fpr viude talent. Vaude shows, and the best playeiti he cbuld I acts of any desorlptlpn were as scarce as Republicans in .the White -Hpuse. Acts wei-e being paid, net get. Pastor played ihem all,; but he is particularly remembered as the dis- coverer of Lillian :RuSBeli; who was presented in a iserles of .burle&ques on current pperfettas. But he Intro- duced Maggie Cllhe, the Irwin sla- ters—Maiy a,hd FlP-Jacques Kru- gor and scores of others. He paid top salaries, too. Aei much as .9^0- J75 to Weber and Fields, the Rus- sell:'Brothers and the KernellSi :It became "not only respectable but fashionable to attend the show at Ipr what they cpuld do, but just to be bh a stage. For tiie flrist time In five- years there was a real. scarcity of vaudiB mB,terlal lor special New T6ar*s Eve shows. : In iho midwest the:; shortage airiburited -to something like IBO acts.- ■ Balabarii & Katz. Iiduses.in Chi- cago were being bbbked while thia curtain was 'going up; Several bobkers there, whb used to .be perr ^:s^:ZiM::^S:r^e;S at tprmers^^WAhek he bie.tlie wandering nilnsttel of the ter flourished until prohibition, but age of chivalry or Bojangles hoof- ing It up the stairs which,, to hirri ,at least, are golden.. In some form .or another there has a,lways existed the variety siieciallst, ' tlibugh ript | in any definite form. The tastes on a waning scale. Many were cori- dUctcd decorously as family reisorts, and sb late as the close of the cen-. tury Koster &. Blal's music hall on 23d: street; just oil Sixth averiue, was one of the three places in this change and with theni ch anges the | country ..aible tb show acts imported from ^E:urope. The other two were speclallist. Only. the fac t ot enter taiririient remains Unchanged. Vaudeville Is iri a coristant, ferr ment of change, and. at t^e moment ^mayliiei in the. thrbes of anotbet re . birth, vaudeville will cpme back. the American in; Chicago and the Orpheuni,-^dn Frariciscp. Koster & Blal's Cork Room was famous throughout-the-country. It was by sorifie! regarded as the per. But that does not :m'ean that the!sonal office of the devil. Others held Palace will . again revert to two shows a day and only the Pathe News for fllnv There is a change , pendlrig.; but it will come through -- the- evolution of a-riew'- form- ratlier than a retui-ri to pld, standards. Probably the: BillyVl'-pse riiuslc hall . - Id^a, Is the seed; but it' is unlllceiy . • tliat this win .be- the exact form .of t the comeback. Tha^ is merely the 1 iransitory stage. And there will, be '- no ;defliiite;reylval :until that defl; nite new form Is evblved. Vaudeville's History Vaudeyllle lii America has .a corii• para'tively brief, history.- It'bovers It more, highly In esteem.. It was herb tiiat the players, chiefly, the wonien, were .eritertained Ijy their friends; . Cliq-nipagne was the only beverage, arid as . the bottles vwere opened, the-cprits were affixed to the wall. ., . . Willing Mugs Smailer places—most of them—« had wine robriis,; but little, wine, was served. Any mugg-who \va3 wiriing to pay twOTblta fbr the sa!me biefef served In the general biar for a nickel was privileged to mix with the actresses. In. rriany places even the femriie half of a mixed team was but a few hiindrcd years, yet in tha:t [ nht <mtiiiiTiP_f.i!nm_«ar-itiP.n_in-t:hA iyiWp tlirie many changes have been wlt- nessccL Probably it started In the] taverns of old New Ariisterdam with itinerants dancing arid singing lor 1 tiirow money. They rated as vaga- H ti o iidH, a : t > lmde abuvu —the tuwii room. ; It \\ya.s up to her own riibntal adroitness to extricate lierseif from the too ardent advances of her friend of the" riioment.: It did: not help the tone of the places any, and even Koster <fc Jtsiai's was regarded as none too proper, though as niattcir of fact the place was con- ducted Vwlth propriety. When they [ made a newspaper sensation of Car menclta, the Spanish dancer, tlie loafers, but they could entertain, and so were tolerated Just as abroad mirist rels and actors were rated in the' social ^cale.-juSt above the gypsies. - Wltlv :the; .c^^ the" theatre: rboxes were thronged with socialites ' some oC these found :empioynient on eager to see the current craze, but the regular stage, .iplaylrig; .InV the: unwilllrig to admit their patronage opening farce and contributinig their of a beer gjirden'; specialties at other points. In those Conditions; were worse' : in. the. days the theatre opertbd early witli .No, woriiari \yith a farce, followied by a shprt olio and pretensions of decency ever attended —e nding with the ' drama. Wh e n th e one bC llit!a« plawti lii tUtf early half march of time ; demanded quicker} of the century. Nor>was the type;of action, the farce was dropped, but I performance plahriied to attract her. as late as 1885 thiere: were ri:\ariy The show generally consisted ;bf the moment, to other theatres; . It regained for B. H. Keith to spread the gospel. . Keith was N candy butcher on a sriiall circus; for which E. F. Alt>ee was :the adjuster; otherwise, 'the fixer.' Keith spent^ hls^^inteirs . in Boston and Alb.ee in. Macblas,.::Me;:| -^Kelth.: rail aieross a;, prematurely-- borri Negro baby, 'welghliig abbut four pounds, and put it oh display in a store show on the site of what later ■was the dining room of the Adains Hpusift in Boston. He backed up: the .living display with .a spread of inanimate; curios.. He was as sociated in the venture with QeOrge Batcheller. When the baby tcok on weight,, he suggrested to his partner that they cbntiniie the. museum and add a. small variety 0hpw. Batchel - Ibr was agreeable and with the aid of Albee, KeUh put/up his share of the |2a,00.0 It/was nEpire<t woula be needed. The venture succeeded, b.ut Keith noted that ticket sales if ell 6ft afiter the hoiir-lbrig sh'pw had Started. Peppla would not come in for the last half hour; Keith 'went contin-- upus. It seems to be authentic that he took the ide^a from a, place In Springfleid/ Mass., but Jhe made It peculiarly his, own. He did so well that her was: able to :btiy but- Batchr eller and go, on his own. Preseritly, with Albee, hb built the sumptuous, Keith theatrb, the flirst, vaudevflle de lute house anA.:the oniy riyal tb the palatitd Tabpr Grand in D Later he pperied theatres in Prov- idence' arid Philadelphia^ >ut F. F. Proctor beat him . into New York With H. R. JacoinS Prbctpr had been running a string of 10-20-30 the atres (drama hbuses): In varipus up- -Atate-snntH. Previously he ha d run a variety: theatire In Albany; He was hlmBelf. ari bid variety and bir cus actor a^ one-hal^ of the Levan tine Bros., pedal jugglers. Proctor tbok over the old :23d Street theatre, giving It ms naine niinstrel . first part, fpUowed by an olio a,nd::an afterpiece. "The latter, was :orie of the Innumerable skits ing irii makeup Iri case they should ;ha.ye to go pri thenniselves.: . in the putlylng districts in the midwest hpiises were being; bebkbd •with prpmises, the bookers aending but phony lists of shpWs a:rid: then hoping they'd be able to get a shpw Iritp. thej theatre before the curtain wentup.' .";-'^..;: ■";".':':■:',■•:-i: ; ■. ' ;; ; ■■; ,; ^ Detroit, Dec. 31. Talent-^or Now 3rear's;^E^ . Washington, Dec. 3i. "VVlth' the way fpr flnai;. iapproval clear, NRA; Is holding Up formal ac- tion on vaudeville amendments to film cbde until disputes; oyer the v leaslrig clause and the government proposal to hold exhibitors ^respph-; Bible ,;fpr paynibnt bf yaude iacters under contract hayb been settled; ; The several changes recommended by the cbde authority in vaude labor sections will Sb through with only - minor alterations fbr the. ''Bake . of clarity; Deputy Adriiinistrator Farriswbrth 'Indlbated tpday,, and.; fprmal; Pkay is . riPthing but .a Per-; functpry procedure.- . Delay ln.:'wprkiriB put reylsibna pt the ihterlerence-with-lease; ban and the . igpyer'nmerit labbr Buggestloh has been' caused by. interruption of holidays and difficulty in asseriibllrig data promised ;of two propbsltions. Farnsworth 1e cbnfl.derit,; hbweyer, .that satisfactory agreements can be reached: on both points and jthat work can be wound up shortly. , : scarce, arid a^ premium is being paid for ;thb better . class of material. ■Tbeatres that have; riot had a "shO've. in-four"years are back in the fold, principally; the vEastown, Century and Annex. • Cafes and beer gardens are offer-. Ing. additional entertainment . prp- granril Even the^amateurs are be- Irig pressed Irita service for tli la occasion. . : The Starvation By JOE SCHOENFELD Tlie vaudeville agency buBineus has hit the bottom. From a .com- paratively soft thing up until five or six years ago, it has slipped even beyond the point of being a survival of the fittest. With very few exceptions, those aigents who cater to yaude alone are In a starvation business; Chief rea-- ^on, naturally, is the greatly de- pleted Btate of the variety biz. Sec- ondary cause, biit in a way as de- vastating as the first, is the crowded condition of the field. " Cpmblned. they raise a bafi-ier against livable earnings. A survey pf the playing time avallablb, not only from the major circuits, but also the Indies, clearly show's the futility of expecting any fair measure of profit in the peiilnEf of acta solely for yaude. Unless an agent these, days is hep to the an- gles of the picture, nlte club and ra- jdio biz,; with an Equity franchise also important, he might Just as ell count^himael^out-of—the-pro-- -sonio of the—indie-i'epsr-the-vaude- fosslon.. In vaude alone, on the present ratio of playing time avail- able and the amount of acts used weekly*, an agent is Just wasting his ^Ime.-—'■'; ■ ' ■ ; '■ .■ .' '■" ' '-' - ' and put over the continubus idea almost over night with the slogan 'After Breakfast Go to Proctor's' to which Nat Haines added 'After Proctor's Go to Bed'. ;^: The Changing Field : Meanwhile- things - In the. general field also had been changing. Fol- lowing the American tour of Lydla I of present-day Thompson and her British Blondes, agents can . be Among RKO, Lbew, Warners, Paramount arid the Indies Com- bined, there are no more than 50 weeks of playing time for an aver- age of 250 acts bought every seven days. Selling, these 250 acta are 200-odd agents, each averaging the sale of little more, than one act a week. But a more concise notion incomes of some gotten from the there arose a number of all-wbmen checks passed out weekly by RKO's m<natrAi} trniipftH, generally working vaudeville collection agency. . Onfe the British Blbnde into the title, ot the commission slips this season There were also the Rentz Santley was as low as $2.46 touring melodrama companies of the cheaper class which made the blip a distinct feature of the: entertain ment;. others dropped the olio but [ termed; -nigger, acts,' ;whether done Included some specialties lri\ the In Avhlte or blackface. Most yarlety show proper. One of these was' a actord Were fariiiliur with scores pf " show headed .by ?'ohn W. Rarisome; these, and there ;seldbm ;wa3 a re who later gained vaudeville fanie as hearsal.' After the music rehearsal an Iniperisonator of Richard Crpker, for;.tlie 'a.cts the chief comedian of V the then "Tammany boss. He was the .week would discuss the selection probably the first to use the word with the others, decide on a piece, 'vaudeville' as a tea-m for a variety give . but, the.;parts, and the after- performance, and this at a time piece would; be put on cold' that when fi. F. Keith was still a candy evening, butcher on a circus. Even in the'better places the dla- Where the acts were ^vritten Into log was dirty.. ■ penman Thompson the performance, they were usually was doing a sketch that, later was worked , in 'one.' The" perfbrmer developied into 'The Old Homestead.' virpiild stroll bri, announce h«^ had an It was filthy in its. origlrial Iprni. ^ppblntmont with a friend, ; who It was not the sleek Innuendo of >med to be late. While he was ! todayi^bu't a crass vulgarity of lin- troupes, along the same lines. These took bookings where they could get them. In the late 'TO's Ida SIddbiis headed one of these troupes, man- aged by her father. It dlftered froria the lady-minstrel idea In that it was framed along the lines of modern burlesque; th^ first with that routine. She clicked above the others and presently headed the main troupe Vfith two or three sec- ondary. ' companies, to play . the sri^allcr spots, .;' ■ ■ ' ■ This was fpllPwed by a glut pf all- girl:'troupes, generally under some such title as 'Adamless Eden'. The 60 Agents, 65 Acts RKO is booking 12% weeks out of the New York ofliice,'' buying about 66. acts each week—and there are eO frarichised RKO> agerits tp sell the: 65 acts. With, the budgets totalled,. RKO: is spending around $28,000 weekly for talent, which, at the basis of .5%^' reaps a total agent-commlsh of $1,400, or an fiverage of $23^33 for each of the, 60 agents. But many a week iSassbs when at least IS agents don't receive any commission checks at all; Conditions - are belter at Loew's booking office, where there is the first pf these even carried Its pwn same amount of playing ;time avail women ushers. Eventually they all able ;as at RKO, but only 25 Iran w:ent to the standard burlesque pat- chlsed agents to sell the.avbrage of tern, Rentz Santley, Lilly <3Iay, Rose G 5 acts weekly. It's at the Warner, Sydell and the rest. There were .Paramount and ihdle booking bfllces (Continued on page 116) :Itb.it the competition is the keen bst, lor here the offices are open to all agents. RKO is also practically wide open, despite the Irainchiso gag, Loew's being the only booking office.' to . adhere strleUy to the cloaed-dour Byntein and pr o t ec t it s , franchise holders, The W^arrier;bfBce, for-Instance, lias but twp and :a hall weeks on its books, yet la visited by around i .60 agents. Paramount, -with five weeks, gets the same amount: of callers. Tb« Indies are likewise swamped, al- though between the three largest- Arthur Fisher, Lawrence Gblde and A. & B. Dow—there aren't 15.week^ ol good playing time. Anything Goes . The business has reached the; point where chisellrig has come to - be regarded as almost a necessity, with the Iridic booking oMpes.still the; -worst offenders. T.b sell an .act these days is almost an achieve- ment and agents will accede to al- most any booking office demand. Early last summer, probably the result of the nefarious practices of agency business . was threatened with licensing by the New York Li- cense Department. Matter went to court and the agents won after spending $1.000 .on counsel fees for Ulaurlce Gbpdmah and Harold M. Goldblatt. They fought the case despite Commissioner Mobs' prom- ises that licensing would weed out the undesirables from the agency biz .and narrow It down. to . a, more, equitable basis. Although they did not fight the licensing bn this prern- Ise alone, moat ol them figured that If tough business conditions couldn't narrow down the agent-person- nel,. Commissioner • Moss certainly couldn't. : A few high-ppwered agencies. im- portant as well in other phases of the .show business, havb alsb cbn- trlbuted greatly tP depleted, bank deppslta pf the unaffiliated agents. In this categpry must gp the Na- tional Broadcasting Company's and Columbia .Broadcasting Systemls artists' bureaus, with their special salesmen for vaude alone. Also in.- eluded is the William Morris; agcricy, which specializes In M branch in particular • and covers them all. :• •-•■"■ ■.; . They monopolize the greater por- tlon of playable acts, for they have so much; more to offer than those agents who have nothing but ah RKO pr Loew franchise, pr rip booking . bfllce alfiliation whatsp- ever, and whp knpw nothing else but selling: an act for vaudeville; These:; are the members of vaude.r vine's starvatibn brigade.