Variety (Jan 1937)

Wediiesaay^ Janiiary 6,1937 VARmTY 198 By HAL HALPERIN , icago, Jan. 3. . •Do they really want yaudeyille^ This h^s; been asked by theatre men of ten during the .past: fe\v yiears. They point tp the decline of • vaudeville as the reason in itself v^hy vatideyille died, They accept the effect as the, the lesult as the symptom^ ■'And yet, !even a cursory glance around. thei really-success*. fill yaude theatres in the country today indicates that 'they' stai want vaude. They want it, frorii actual box office proof, itt iuch ^widely separated situatipfts as Baltimbrej Indian^, apblis, Detrpit, Chicago, Kansas City, MilWaiikee and Los AngeleSi And if they want it in those cities, surely there is sufficient evidence that they will want it elsewhere, sihce the Ain<erican: amusemient^S^^^^ public. is, pretty much the jame all over the country. Otherwisje there wouldn't be »UCh things as hit songs,, playsj radio prpgraitis or pictures > They, have proven they want vaiide by tW successes of <Qie HiplFlodrome in Baltimore, the Lyfid in.IhdianapoHs, Fox in tfetrpitj Stalie-Xjake ' Chicago, Tower in Kansas City, Biyerside in Milwaukee^ Orpheiim in tos Angeles. Each of these independent houses was ^ against althost idchticai problems, primarily lack of picture product, and found jri vaudeville the . sblution' to the" prbbW tipn against ppvi^erlui competitive forcies. These theatres inade good hot wilU^the best of everything; but With every; ippssible obstacle ; tossed " in their path. They made good, not with the irtoist favorable background, but against: tre- mendous odds, if yaude caii make good in suCh situations, .howSyould it go With the prQper.solicitucle and backing from the powerful prgsuiizjations in show Is 'lt»:Flop? ' This, in spite Of the general opinion in show busineiss yaiide is a Hop because of the'public's distaste for that type pf ehtertaiiiment " If that were theire; would be no vai-iety shows i ite clubsj shows in legit, variety programs on the air. In nearly:,every, one. of . the Cases mehtiohed the houses were orphans before they' were-taken oyer and opened With yaudhlms. The houses were da;rk, shuttered, and; cobr webbed. /Nobody waii They were ready for the wreckers. • But Izzy Bappapprt took the shuttei'ed |{ippo.drbme iii Baltimore after it, had been geheraliy considered • washed upi He took the house against the advice of niiany frienids i show businiess and he - opened it ageiinst the powerful LoeW circuit And in one year Riaippaport made the house such a ' winner and such a thorn in the side of the Century in that town that Loew's finally declared it 'opposition.' But even that didn't stop Rappapdrt. Today it remains a profitable house! as a vaudfilmer' and the so-called ,sniart , theatregoers; icaied that they BaUimore haven't Vaudeville; For several years the State-Lake was boarded and bolted after RKQ quit the house. Balaban & Katz Was begged: to take the house over tut it laughed , at the suggestibri. Then in 1933 Aaron Jones, Sr., of Jones, Lihick & Schaefer, took over the spot," and everybody laughed. Today, the State-' . Lake is in the Winning coliimn ahd last Labor I>ay w(eek turhied in a gVoss of $19i6(D0 for an attendance and money" record under the present ;pplicy of vaudfllms. And yet, are, those, who claim thait audience. Despite fact the State-Lake with its strictly- slough: pfbduct must depiend almost solely its vaude fpr:attendahce;: . At $19,600 the house showed a prpfit 6f more .than In Milwaukee In Milwaukee the Riverside :was the joke of the town. Only a sucker would think: of tackling house which was off the niaih stenrt . and away fro^^^^ of thi It went through the usual financial jams of the depii:essi,on era and finally the desperate overseers: of the house turned it over to Eddie Weisfelt to see. whiat he cbuld dp with.it; "rhey didn't .have much hope,, but were willing to any thing once. Arid the "story or .Riyersi is. also, npw , knpwh throujghput show biz, :With a y'audifllm .;policy and smart handli . the Riverside is today one of . the . ripesi money- makers of Milwaukee. An^d here again is- a situatipn lacking film product. The State-Lake has to make the .best of it with slough films. The Riveriside's..prbblem is .to get-product. Of .ainy kind. - The State-Lake's . poorest pictures . would, be geiiis fbr'; the Riyersi . And yet, Ed.die Weis^eli made and is conti ing .this house as; Winner .with .his showmanship and his yaude.-.- ; Charles, Olspn has rmade av bUt pt^ Lyric i Indianapolis ;and had retired, jirepared to take ' it easy sunny Oalifbrriia. But: came the depressibn and. the :LyriC,: pf Which he had; disposed^ got into financial jams, a^ Qlsbn; was .called back. He- canie back tp- the. house at the very depth; of the depress Everything iboked hopeless. -But Isph' rexnembered What;he had done; for years at: the .house with-Vaude and, it was. with vaude that' he .again pulled that house, out of the. red and turned it .intb a highly, profitable stop in the Idepression' years, , Other houses, such as the a.ce indiana in the town, :coUidn't .vmake a go of :it,; but Olsph turned the trick at the Lyric i " big^^waiy. 'With; yaude. Arid the Indianapolis i ience is. .the ayerage . American a^^ dienCe; They didn't then, and still hayen'ti\s|giyen any indica-; tiOh that they don't care for yaude. •The same story of success against all odds terrific cpmpetitioii can be ;told about' Dave Idzal . Fox, Detrblti "With the city cpritrblled largiely by the Paramount- "irendle, interests,* Idzal, with his own' -initiative 'and. ability^ to bpbk.money shows arid pUt togetheir n>oney vaudeville,, has place for himsett in Dfjtrbit and; t^^ . Dave Gockrni tur^ned the trick at.the :Denham; lri Denver, until tpdayj d<^sipi,te the pressure- of. a .powerful ibcal circuity • the Denhariv is a; wi . arid th<i ppsseSsor of the .public's cpnfidence.. .'.And'.Others And there's M.,Wv Reinke:a the Tower in Kansps City arid . Sheril'l Gbhen. the Orj^heum in Los Angeles.. Both have similar .stories bf making good agairist bddii. - Each took ai house . a . 'hopeless* situation arid turned it into a money- niaker against every, disadvantage, cbmpetitipn and ppposi-. tion, against seemingly irisurinpuntable obstaclejs. But each man made gbod, and they made, good with yaude. W; ■ There are exariiples frorii coast to coast, They are not jusi one ; tw'o inistances,' but in spots across the coUritry. Arid each Story is the sariie. Vaudeyille id it with the help' of ai persori, who beli in vaude arid proved that those Who Say:'the jjublib]doesn;t^^^W^ vaujdb^ are, wrong.; Not biily does it prove that there is a vaude-gbing liriblic, bu that, a - yaUde-mihded, showman: who ,wants to ,gb plaees J shovin business, who is ari individualist aind whb .ca^^^ think for himself arid work, can riiake a mark in the industry. The Mataager.' ', Blame has been placed ori the circuits alorie for the d^iirie Of vaude. ;That isn't exaiitly fair. The hlariie, rests ori the ; nambyrpamby, what-the-hell and take-the^easiest-way type of managers the circuits have developed. These riiariagers are: sitting back and are content to Cbllect thei.r Salary for doing: the least possible work. They fijgure they out-smartirig somebody else, when they tell the home office that the public doesn't want vaude, since such a statement means ti^i^re's less work for hiriiself; He gete his shbW in a can.;^ rib fuss, rip worry; no trouble With acts, rip squabbles dressing rppriis, : biUirig, animal acts, etc. And he takes no chances with. a losing Week riow. and then. -. He takes his film and slajis it on; the Screen, as per instruc* tion, and calls himself a manager vtrheri he gets the houi* 'clpsed exactly on Schedule. > ^ ■ •In many instances a Check-up on' thbse. situations wheire the mariagei:& ha^ e ireported that the 'public doeisn't want vaude' will discover that it's the jrianagCr who didri't want it. That's nb: Tefle(d^tiori on the rirtariageri beybnd, he simply isri!t;vaude-min,ded. He has no Reeling .for; that end of the business arid no desire to tackle the extra work arid effort that vaudeville riecessarily entails, since , in yoii'ire Working with liye, human people. The facts show that stage eritettainmerit spliced with initiative, individuialism arid showmanship still ,will makt mbney. Dpes the public want vaudeyille? ■« The Record Says ^Nol' By Joe Schoenfeld ; Vaudtyille found the tbboggah ftill ifast in 1936;,' , It was drbpping jieadily into nowhere. Decline variety eritertai.nmerit; In. theatres can best be; realized by. looking at the record of the;, past four , years, the period - pf time in Which vaudeyille was supposed to :fi.rid.its balance after.taking, the great ip. with the advent of sound. Corii- pufed on the basis of playing time of four riiajbr circuits, RKO, Loew, Paramount arid Warner Bros., vaude- ville's fall was drariiatically sharp. December; -1933, four ma; jprs had a total of ,49 weeks of play- ing time. RKO was the leader, with 20%, Weeks; LOew's second with 17i Paramount had nine, while WB ranked fourth with two and a half. A year later, 1934, the riiajor circuit playing: tirne had shrunk a total of 15 weeks to 34 in all; RK6 agiaih was" tbps, but with only 13% weeks* L«ew's had nine and a half; Para- mount, six and a half and WB fbuf and a half. With riot as much room to slip in 1935, the maibrs* vaude commitments decreased by 10 weeks Arid this Xmas, 193©, Wafe yaude- ville's blieakest. AU four majoirs cbmbihed could Only muster 19% weeks. RKO has eight and a halt ori its books; Loew's, ; Parar .mount, severi,; and Warner ros., Saddest; coriimentary alU bn vaudeville, however, the fact that there's only majbr Strictly va- riety house in vail of Greater: New York, this Loew's State On Brbad- Ayay. RKO, the leader in: va- riety entertairimenjt, as successor' to Keith-Albeerbrpheum, hasn't a single stage show hbuse ' all of New York', live borbughs, where, only eight years ago, it Could offer: an act 18 solid Weeks. The recoi-d speaks for itself and is enough to turn the most coriflriried optimist prt the future of vaudeville inlo, the' glppmiest pessimist. With but a total of , l9% weeks divided amoiig the four majors, ; indi- cation is that ri mbrtis has set for vaudeyille as a stage enter- mment and theatre b.o. factor; The iehltghts , i 1936 high- ise drab vaiide- was musicians' union trouble in three keys, plus the cbmbi.ned 'picketing of fprm'ei: ■ yaUd- fllmers in N. Y. by the Aniericari Federation of Musicians, Local 802, and the American Federatiori of Actors, which,- alphg with the AFM, is affiliated with, the American Fed- eration of 'Labor. Second, and the only bright tint. in .4hte portirait, was arid is the .success of the N. Y. Paramount With its pit band pblicy; Had there been any real iriani- ^eriai interest, in stage shows, the N. Yi Pafambunt's ijfolicy, instituted eJhristmas Day bf 1935, could just a.s Well ;have been the foreruriner fbr.:a revival Of some sort of live enter- ta.inment in theatres of its .kj|nd. Unlike vaudeyille of present tiriies and its scarcity bf good acts, the N. Y, ParambUnt had no difficulty in obtaining bands, The dcluxer rC' pealed only one orchestra, during the entire year, Shep Fields, (riot countr ing the ,return of the Casa Loma Ore. for: celebration of the Par's first an- niversary ) arid ' only one specialty; act, Betty -. Jane Cooper. This, coupled with; the ajppareiit sympa- thetic support Of the unions, eyeri though less stageba:nds are Usied thaii in the regular prbductibnsr oil the Stage,:-made the ideis^ suc^' cCsstul ;for .the Parampunt and ad:aptable to other theatres ;eq;uipped With: large ;brchestra pits.. But nbr: body foUbwed, the leader, in, this In- stance, bespeaking the cool attir tude- p£: the managers towards -stage, eritertairimeiit., 'They ither dbri't know, ' ' both. ; nipn difficulties struck, f^rstl iri New York, where .bbth : actor and musician jiickets started paradirig in: front of the fprmei* major circuit yaudfilmers that dropped variety for straight picture policies.: It wais a United attempt by the "aiictbr, and musici ; unioiis ' the metropblis to Av in public support for the rcr turn of live music arid talent to, the stages,- Campaign is Still in force;; but there has ,been ribthing as yet but, tacit; refusal frb,m the thCatrb^^ Operators to restore stage shows> . l*icke!ting' ,might been , effec- tive, if grosses Were hiirt, but ,there'S^ no sign of that, ither. The rather, strbng-worded- placards, eVen accusr.! ing the theatre operators. of 'Starv- ing' out the. niusicians :arid actbrsii are havirig , rio apparent effect . on the wickets. "To siorirxe extent, .the .picket ing had . a more dembiraiizing/effect on the Unions than on the -theatres. Actors and nuisicianS had believed ;that^ ion -members of the ,bther cirafts in New. York y^oiild refuse to pass through the: .picket lines. ;Iri fact, the AFA riiade it a point tp pub; liciie the riecessity; for unions to 'work together- in the, house 'bfgans of other unions, but/with little no- ticeable effect. rosses of the theatres remained unaffected,, with the result that; the theatre operatprs did not go through with ; jplans,; forhiulated when ;the picketing began, , to take the; matter to court for a ruling on whether picketi/" is permissible if no strike is ,in. Now they're sitting back, waiting for the; AFM-AFA campaign; to run itself out. Musician strikes In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for igher wage spales struck shortly aftei: the " start of the picketing in New Ybrlc, arid were rather inimical to,on^ anothei:. On hand, the, musicians were asking eriiplbyment, bri the otheir, highei^ wage?. Pittsburgh, strike, ,Which tbbk vaude put Of WB's: Stan- ley there,, was everitUally settled. Philadelphia situation: hung fire. till a 'few days before Xmas, yv^heri; a settlement Was. reached to permit shows to Open at the: Earle i time for the, hbliday'weeks; A musiciaris* stri raged at Loew's CentuiryjV^Baitimbrei This: was brbught about when the house went straight pictures for the ^show- ing of 'Great Ziegfeld' (MG), and then later tried to reinstate the..pit- brches.tra bri. a contract that guarari-; teed only .20 weeks a year.- Union -re- ifUsed these terms, demandirig a full time contract, and startied piicketirig the theatre, with, the pit men ca ried on 'strike' salaHes. Lbew*s, thbiigh admittedly in need of stage shbws '. Baltimore to? offset , the cbmpetitibri bf the indi -; Hippo<Irori\e, did not.shbw signs of capitiilating till iast'week. Little eLse was of import in .. - ville in 1936, the business standing still On ideas and salesmanship, and mpving ; backwards in playing time. Arid it could not be. ternied wholly the fault of yaudeyille itself, because stage entertainment proved iri ;tW:0 New.York iiistances that it could be made. to" pay. Lbew's State, for;.', one,, has been Iringing up pirofite week in and v/eek out, not haying haid at los- ing week . the past year. Four* times since the Xmas of .193.5 the. hbuse; record has been shattered by attracli irst it was Ed SuUiyari, Coupled with Marx. Bros.'. 'Night at .the Opera'- (MG), last New Year's week; then the Jack Beririy unit topped Sulliyari's gross, with Burns iand . Allen; foUowi : ;iri shbrtly thereafter and. topping them all. Iri Noverhber - Rudy! Vallee's orchestra, and 'Libellied Lady* (MG) grossed Close to. $44,500, an all-time topper • f or the house, 'Follow the' Leader' Patronage at the .State has con sistently mounted, its vaude policy clicking, to the ,extent that the house is drawing regulars; niuch the same as did the; old Palace. This may be due to the fact that it is the orily 'big\ tirive' vaude spot in N. V., but aggressive' booking, arid exploitation come for ,. , goOd ,phare Of the bendis. It could and shbuld be a pointer tor RKO, but the latter is conyiriced. it can" show, greater prof- its, or lose less, with double features than vaiudfllrii. No ne>y acts, of Importance: came into viaUdeyille in the past yea.r> and the old, ones did everything possible to switch theiir. routines to fit riite club work; ;it's;:tp the riiteries that acts must now turn for cbrisistent work and Compensation, and it'is the niteries that are rioW. playing; niore vaudeyille, than the theatres.; But acts tryirig to crack the caife field are;: up against the sanie prbb- lerii. bf new vaude acts—no develop- ing grb.und. Either they .whip- them- selves into ■ shape in the ■ rehearsal halli Or .else they play/cheap bier- stubes arid , taverns fbr .short coin under heart-breaking conditions. However^ the .; itery . field arid its talent bobking. bperatibns are .pres- entiy; Showing .signs of- getting-.or- ganized. , When and if ; this cbriics about, its, less favorable coriditioris; will, be bleaired; up arid a new era will dawn for yariety talerii. It may cori)e, within the year,' with; iteiries offeri .- routes as .'advaritageous as. the vaude: contracts. As- yaude U^elf, it is rib^y just a'. whisper in the darkr—shby^irig no sighs of going: up arid plenty .Of eyi- dCnce bf going even further dbwh; EXPO SHOW'iS DATES , Jari:. Mme. Centennial Revue' has been booked at the River- side, Milv/aukee, and the State-lLake, Chicago, after which it will-play-10 bne-riighters bn the Butterfield time, doing mi ight performances at $1.10 top. ■. Unit, lately came up from Texas vi ighters. Baltimore,, Jan. Loew's Century . .musiciant^ Lpcial 40 reached ari acCbrd, and stage shows will shortly be restoreil to the house, pirbbably bri .an 'bcca- sioriai* basis. Agreemerit calls lor contract that perniits theatre to hirit pitmen when needed^ with twb weelis caricelXatioh'clause^ , Bill Saxton,: lioew^s city manager^ and union, heads are thrashing bill a few detailis in, new contract, espe- clally juist what ^um theatre -\vili pay each tiniie it release? nlusiciari^ That clause: is a new wrinkle. Breach wa^ . 4-^ when house dropped. 2or straijght plx. Mrs, Benny W3|ianis Held for Questionnig InJoe EHiisKjDin^ St. Louis, Jan. 3., Mr|j. Anne, WilUams, 26, hostess at the Royal Frolics, Chicajgb, and Wife of Benny Williams; songwriter, i» being held by local gendairhies peiid* irig inquest into the death: bf JoSephi Ellis, paroled iVisconsi ex-convict who was siain in a.' rbvblyet duiel with three local city detectives on downtown street last wieek.. After the; slaying Mrs. Williams* fpund ii;t a Ipcal hotel; told police she met Ellis, who used name ot Larry Leland and said he was wealthy miriiel .iw operator of San Francisco, , the nitery Xrtas . eve. urged her to go to Ctoast with him, but cariie to St. Lbulis instead. purlnjg ; their brief acquaintance, Mrs. Williams said, Ellis purchased « $95 coat for her arid a few hbit-s be- fore his fatal encounter with detecf^ : tiyes gave hct. $30, telling her to rcr' turn to Chicaglo. Ellis opened fire bn\, detectiyes When they sought toques- tion him on tip he was Claucle Mc*;. Gee, fugitive murderer, who .es-' caped frorii jail at Benton. Mo,. Nbv. 18. Two of detectives wci-e slightly injured by Ellis' bullets.