Variety (January 1909)

VARIETY niETY A Variety Paper for Variety People. PoMtabo* ovary Saturday by THE VARIETY PUBLISHING CO. Knickerbocker Theatre Building. 1402 Broadway, New York City. Telephone /4022\ |e028j- 38 tb 8t. Editor and Proprietor. Entered an eecond-claee matter December 22, 1906, at the Poet Omoe at New York, N. Y., under the ad of Oonareee of March 8, 1879. ghxoago ornoi, 70S Ohloato Opera Honae Block, (Phone,-Main MM). PRABK WTE8BEBQ, Bepreaentatire. LOVDOY OFFICE, 411 Strand (Cable, "Jeeafree, London.") JESSE J. FBEBJUB, in ohnrre. 1A* FBAVOIBCO OFFZOE, 111! Tan Veaa Are. (Boom lit). W. ALFBEB WZLBOV, BoprossntatiTO. PABIB OFFZOE, M Bia. Bno Saint Didior, EDWABD O. BZVDBEW, BepreaenUtiTe. BEBLZB OFFZOE, TTnter den Linden 61, BZESEL'S LZBBABT. ADVEBTZSEMEBTS. 20 cents ao agate Hoe, $2.80 an Inch. One page, 9120; one-half page, $60; one-quarter page, $82.00. Charges for portraits furnished on application. Special rate by the month for professional card under heading "Bepreaentatlre Artists." Adrertlslng copy should be received by Thurs- day at noon to insure publication In current lsaue. S^SMHsSffi. 89 WAgS^gC^y BUBSCBZPTlON BATES. Annusl $4 Foreign • 3 Six and three months In proportion. Single copies 10 cents. VARIETY will be mailed to a permanent ad- dress or as per route, aa dealred. Advertisements forwarded by mall must be ac- companied by remittance, made payable to Variety Publishing Co. Copyright, 1909, by Variety Publishing Co. VoL XIII. JANUARY 2. No. 4. The Lulu Beeaon Trio will open on the Orpheum Circuit Feb. 22. "That" Quartet opened its metropolitan tour Monday at the Colonial. Hardeen, "The Jail Breaker," returned from his western trip last week. Bertha Bell (Mrs. Jess Hale) has re- joined her husband in their sketch. It is reported Amelia Bingham will accept engagements over the United time. Elsie Faye, Miller and Weston com- mence their western time at St. Louis Jan. 11. "The Prize Waltz" contest is a regular Friday night feature at the London The- atre now. Harry Weston, lately of Williams and Weston, has replaced John Neff with "The Brigadiers." Essie Harrington has left "The Blue Ribbon Girls" for "The Palace Girls," now in vaudeville. Harry and KaU Jackson are presenting Mr. Jackson's new piece "Cupid's Voy- age" in the west. "Nobody Knows; Nobody Cares" is the title of a new ballad just published by Charles K. Harris. "The Modern Pocahontas," "the Indian act," is on its way east, playing next week at Columbus. Charley Wilsbin is now the Morris rep- resentative at the Lincoln Square Theatre, replacing Hugo Morris. Daisy Harcoart opens next week at the American Music Hall, the beginning of a tour on the Morris time. Saturday afternoon last week the Amer- ican Music Hall housed the largest audi- ence in the history of the place. Ned Nye and Ida Crispi play Chase's, Washington, this week. Jack Levy has taken hold of the bookings for the act. F. C. Williams, father of Belle and Lottie Williams, died at their home in Philadelphia, Dec. 19, of Bright's disease. James J. Morton and his wife, Jose- phine Ainsley, sail for London Jan. 9, Mr. Morton opening at the Palace Feb. 8. Maggie Cline has been confined to her home in Red Bank with blood poisoning. She was about in the early part of the week. Margaret Wycherly has placed herself under the direction of Pat Casey for vaudeville engagements in "The Locked Door." The Academy of Music in Jersey City closes Saturday night, of this week, and following Monday becomes a picture house. Chinko, the juggler, and his wife, Min- nie Kaufmann, the bicyclist, arrived last week. They open at Louisville, Jan. 4. Harry Walters left Chicago Saturday for his home, 20 Ruthven street, Roxbury, Mass., where he will rest for two or three months. Arthur H. Khcrns, the Gorman comed- ian, has boon engagod to play the prin- cipal comedy parts with Clark's Runaway Girls Co. Ethel Levey is back in Paris whore she is a principal in a revue at the Theatre Michel, one of the fashionable playhouses of the French capital. Willa Holt Wakefield did not play the 125th Street Theatre this week as billed. Dissatisfaction with her program position caused the cancellation. Charles Lee Calder is writing another sketch for Franceses Redding. He has also in preparation a scenario of a new vehicle for Maude Odell. The Smith Brothers, who say they are the youngest gymnasts to perform on the rings, are placing together a new act for open-air shows next summer. Williard Simms and Co., opens at the Empire, London, June 0, for four weeks, booked through the Marinelli agency. He will be busy on the continent until Nov. 1. Arthur McWatters and Grace Tyson have been assigned parts in a forthcom- ing Broadway production, but may enter- tain a few weeks in vaudeville pre* viously. The late William E. Annis, who was shot to death by Capt. Peter Hains, was a music publisher about nine years ago, having published "Dolly Gray," written by Will D. Cobb. Charles Barnold left New York Monday with his Animal Actors, bound for the Pacific coast, where he is to play the Pantages time, following a tour of the William Morris houses. Stage Manager Hall, of the Brooklyn Orpheum, has opened a store near the the- atre for the retail sale of sheet music. It is advantageously located in the midst of the shopping district of Fulton street. The engagement of Annette Kellermann. "The Diving Venus," has again been ex- tended at the Fifth Avenue. She will re- main at the Fifth Avenue another week at least, making her seventh continuous week at that house. Tom Miner has invested a considerable amount of capital in a new automobile business. Besides selling the machines, the concern propose to institute a com- peting taxicab business around the New York theatres and hotels. John Neff, formerly a member of "The Brigadiers," opened this week at the Olympic, Chicago, with a novel single specialty. Musical instruments are spread all over the stage and Neff uses them as an incidental to his talk without playing. Geo. W. Englebreth, after being amuse- ment and booking manager, Coney Island, Cincinnati', Ohio, five years, has renewed his contract for two seasons more, begin- ning April 5. He is building a new sum- mer theatre, which will be finished by that date. Ray Reveridge is ill with a severe cold nt the Hotel Rreslin. She caught cold while posing at the American Music Hall last week. During her final number she was forced to stand in a strong draught from an electric fan, which moved the light draperies about her. The Davis-Gledhill Co., bicyclists, who recently played the William Morris time, were offered an engagement in a popular priced Family theatre in Pennsylvania last week. Eight shows a day are given there. The cyclists ride five miles at each performance and declined to engage in a six day bicycle contest. A new art was placed this week in the olio of "Miner's Merry UurleBquers." It is a now offering with Harry Fox, the principal comedian and the Millership Sis- tors, featured. Tom Miner personally su- perintended the staging of the sketch in Buffalo last week. Several minor changes were also made in the show during Tom's visit Billy Inman, of "The Golden Crook" Co., purchased a numbered ticket for a gold watch raffle last week in Chicago. Billy drew "32," paid 32 cents and won tho watch. Jack Reid, with the same show, looked the gold affair over, and said that in his opinion, as an expert on phony jewelry had Billy drawn "3" instead he might not have been "stuck." William Dillon was suffering somewhat this week from an accident sustained while returning to the American Theatre from a club engagement Christmas evening. He was hurrying to the Music Hall in a cab when it was struck by a street car. Dil- lon was thrown violently on his side, receiving a severe blow over the heart. He played the evening performance al- though in distress. James E. Curt in, of the London The- atre, New York, became a grandpa on Christmas, when a telegram notified him that his daughter, Mrs. J. J. Applegate, of Beaumont, Tex., had presented her hus- band with a 12-pound girl. Mr. Curtin declared that the news was his beat Christmas gift, and insists that although he is not at all puffed up, being a grand- pa really requires a little added dignity of bearing. A curious thing about the beginning of the holidays was that last week both matinee and night performances on Satur- day were larger in attendance than on Christmas day. This has led several man- agers to consider for next year the ad- visability of closing their houses during the five days preceding Christmas, and playing a combination for the remaining day, it being, of course, impossible to secure an adequate variety entertainment for the single day. As a peculiar sidelight on the mental processes of police officers assigned to the duties of Sunday night critics at the vaudeville theatres one of those worthies refused positively to permit the appear- ance of Harry Gilfoil at the Fifth Avenue Sunday, even without makeup, because, he said, Mr. Gilfoil's reproduction of the growls of wild animals was an imitation and therefore under the ban of the law. A lawyer who was on hand to advise Man- ager Irwin, argued that Mr. Gilfoil's offer- ing was perfeetly proper, and gave it as his opinion that it was no violation. The policeman was obdurate and the manager finally decided to be on the safe side. Billy Rock won the "Apache" race only by a few days. G. Molasso and Mile. Corio, recently at the Moulin Rouge, Paris, arrived last Saturday to play on the Mor- ris time with a number similar to Rock's new dance, which opened at the Fifth Avenue Monday. The foreigners were scheduled to open at the American late this week. Molasso was on this side five years or more ago. With Salvaggi he did a straight ballet dance at Koster & Rial's. This did not catch on, and sev- eral girls were added to make what was known as the Molasso-Salvaggi troupe. Lnder Salvaggi's name the company toured the country until recently. Molas- so r^-'-ncd to Europe. This is his first appearance on this side since then.