Variety (September 1909)

16 VARIETY PAID FOR UNPLAYED SHOWS. A letter received from an artist with the Barnum-Bailey Circus in New York, indicates that a dispute arose last week over the payment of salaries for three days this season when performances were missed. Otto Ringling, who is handling the show, announced early last week that this amount would be deducted. The ar- tists in the show demurred and finally offered to leave the controversy in the hands of Harrv Mountford. secretary to * * the White Rats Board of Directors. Mr. Ringling was at first unwilling to make this concession but finally acquiesced. Mr. Mount lord visited the show in Jop- lin, Mo., and after the question had been gone over tin* show agreed to make good the whole salary which it had threatened to withhold. Mr. Mountford upon return- ing to the city refused to discuss the mat- ter. "The artists with the show." he said, "received all they asked for. so the matter is closed. 1 cannot comment upon it fur- ther." Inquiry among circus people familiar •with the situation indicates that the Bar- num-Bailey management contracts have always carried clauses covering this point, one calling upon the artists to engage in Sunday and extra performances upon the demand of the management, and the other setting forth that no salary should be demanded for shows which for any reason were not played. Under the proprietorship of James A. Bailey these clauses were never rigidly enforced. Full salaries were always paid to artists for performances missed be- cause of wet lots, bad weather or late arrival or any other circumstance beyond the control of the players. It is recorded that in one season forty shows were missed for one reason or another, but every act received full salary. No discussion ever occurred as to extra performances, for the people of the show were willing to work them without com- pensation as a return for the money they received without working. One season the show played several Sundays during a run at the Chicago Coliseum without pay, and during the European trip seven days made a week at regular salaries. It was .Tame^ A. Bailey's boast that the show had never failed to pay off every week on the set day. On one occasion the lot was so bad after a storm that artists could not get to the ticket wagon. The wagon was aeordingly dragged off the lot to dry ground and the payroll settled. GIRGUS MEWS QUITE A JUMP. Chicago. Sept. 23. .Rex Roselli. who deserted the circus field some years ago for the drama tie end of the business, was in town last Friday. He is now with "The Montana Limited." Roselli was formerlv a lion trainer. AVARICIOUS EDDIE. Chicago. Sept. 23. Edward Arlington is trying to corner all the money in the world. Not content with an interest in the '101 Ranch" he has sent out a society problem play. 'The World and a Woman" in which his wife, Kettie Bourne, is featured. SOME CHANGES EXPECTED. Chicago, Sept 23. Reliable information comes from the "Two Bills" show that in keeping with the proposed policy of further retrench- ment for next season neither Johnny Baker nor William Sweeney will be with the organization. This is particularly sur- prising when it is remembered that Baker is "Buffalo Bill's" foster son, and that Sweeney has led the cowboy band ever since it was first organized, over twenty- five years ago. No greater tribute of loyalty could be paid by Col. Cody to his new partner and manager, 'Pawnee Bill," than the counte- nancing of the elimination of these two old stand-bys from the entertainment. It is further declared that in the event that Louis E. Cooke is not retained as general agent, a fact which is not as yet assured, the enitre personnel of the ad- vance brigade will be changed, with the sole exception of Maj. John M. Burke. "PUNCH" GOING AHEAD. Chicago, Sept. 23. Punch Wheeler, circus press agent and wit, has left the John Robinson show and is in advance of F. A. Wade's "A Knight for a Da v." When Mr. Wade purchased the produc- tion of B. C. Whitnev recent I v he had dif- ficulty in locating Wheeler who was buried in some of the towns he used to "kid," when compiling booklets for the Lake Shore railroad. NOT SO GOOD. Ringling Bros. Snow played to the poor- est business any tented organization of its size ever received on the Pacific Coast, according to reports which are now strag- gling in from San Francisco. Last year the Baraboo Brothers sent their Barnum & Bailey Show to the coast, with Buffalo Bill a close runner-up. Busi- ness was remarkably good in all the towns until 'Frisco was reached and there the turnawavs were few. This vear there were no turnawavs at all in the Pacific metropolis. In the other towns which the Ringling Show made, business was not at all up to expectations. CIRCUS ABOUT "THE OLD TOWN." Chicago. Sept. 23. 'The Old Town" which Montgomery and Stone produce at the Studchakcr this week has a circus flavor. The comedians play the roles of country lads who have an ambition to shine in the circus world. The first act will show the exterior of the circus tents. KILLED WITH A BLOW. St. Paul, Sept. 23. Last Sunday a leopard on exhibition at a local amusement resort escaped from his cage and attacked a four-year-old boy. He had injured the child seriously before Chas. Reustrom, a blacksmith, rushed from his shop nearby and killed the leopard with a blow of his sledge. AIRSHIP DOESN'T FLY. Chicago, Sept. 23. The newspaper advertisement used by the Yankee Robinson show for the date at Wymore, Neb., yesterday is interesting to circusmen. It has a picture of a show- man in the center who greatly resembles the late P. T. Barnum. Above it in big letters are the words, "Yankee Robinson, Greatest Show on Earth." Another line reads "Actual Investment $1,000,000" and balancing it is a line "Actual Daily Ex- pense $4,300." At one side is a picture of an airship, and played up prominently is the announcement: ''Sensation of the hour! Marvel of the age! The Airship is Coming! Watch and wait for it! Posi- tively appears each day with Yankee Rob- inson! A sight Never to be Forgotten." The adapter of this advertisement had no svnonvm book handv for there is still another phrase—'Don't Miss This Rare Sight!" If information around Chicago is correct this airship has not been in working order at a single stand this sum- mer. It was built bv the canvasmen be- fore the opening of the season -under the direction of Fred Buchanan and is not a success as far as sailing goes. The work- men often get it out upon arrival in the exhibition town and work on it for hours but, if the reports here are reliable, it has not made an ascension vet. In a small line at the bottom the show advertises "Hagenbach's trained elephants." It is known that one big crowd is all a circus can expect in the country that show is now making. Thev advertise 5.000 seats. Figuring half reserved they could play to but $3,750 while the daily expense (according to the "ad") is $4,300. ELEPHANTS STAMPEDED. Chicago, Sept. 23. Four elephants belonging to M. E. Glass- cock escaped on the desert while being taken from Maricopa to Phoenix, Arizona, one day last week. They stampeded a few miles from Phoenix, breaking down the fences which surrounded an adobe house, and would have entered the place had the doors not been too small. The keeper subdued them. The house was oc- cupied by a Mexican woman and six chil- dren. The elephants were en route from Bak- ersfield. Cal.. to Phoenix. They were un- loaded at Maricopa (3"> miles from Phoe- nix) and that distam-e was being made overland. WILD WEST MAY CLOSE EARLY. Chicago, Sept. 23. It is reported that the 101 Ranch will end the season tli<» middle of next month. Mr. and Mrs. Del Fuego have closed their engagement with the Yankee Robin- son Show owing to the serious illness of Mrs. Del Fuego. who is at the home of her mother in Perth Ambov. X. J. SHUMAN HORSES LOST. Santa Barbara. Cal., Sept. 23. The Shuman Horses, thirtv in number when the act started out the season as a feature of the Ringling Bros. Circus, have been reduced by accident and sick- ness to twelve. The losses among draught stock have been likewise verv heavv, nl- though the full complement has been kept up to the standard. The Semon Duo, a vaudeville act which hud its first showing recentlv. has been booked by the Joe Wood agency. The young girl and boy who make up the act are grandchildren of "Pop" Semon, the vet "ran circus agent. NEW TIMES SQUARE THEATRE. (Continued from page 3.) The lease requires the erection of a 12-story office building on the corner, and a theatre on the 43d Street end. In the basement of the office building will be a restaurant. The cost of construction for the buildings is placed at $1,050,000. In the formal announcement given out it was said that "clients of Herbert T. Jennings" with Mr. Tate would incorporate for $1,200,000 and erect the buildings. The brokers in the transaction were Green- wood & Co., for the theatrical people, and Douglas S. Robinson & Co. for the owner, Mrs. Mary A. Fitzgerald. A story that "the clients of Herbert T. Jennings" represented capitalists who were prepared to go to almost any length in theatrical investment upon the lines along which the Orpheum Circuit has amassed its wealth found ready belief. Mr. Tate was presumed to have retired from the show business late last spring. During the summer he has often been in New York, and nearly always with Mr. Beck. Tate was formerly of Tate 4 Middleton, the St. Louis theatrical firm, with a stockholding interest in several southwestern vaudeville houses. He is generally well thought of and liked in the profession. "SOUBRET" ELEPHANT BEHAVING. . Chicago. Sept. 23. The elephant with "The Circusman" at McVickar's has worked well so far. Those connected with the show do not anticipate any trouble. The fact that the elephant is shackled when going to and from the theatre lead many to conclude that the introduction of pachyderm actors into dramas will not become popular. The elephant is known as "Wanda" and Louis Rue brought her to this country. Fail- ing to find a sale for her, he left her at the Zoo at Cincinnati where she was se- cured for this show. The elephant in the story upon which the play is based is called "Imogene" and the players have re- named "Wanda" though, as every ele- phant man knows it is not easy to change names of the big fellows and the trainer still addresses the "soubrct" elephant as "Wanda." COXEY FOR GRAND OPERA. (•rand opera is looking up. The Boston Opera Co., which will conduct the new Boston Opera House, opening Xov. R. has secured the services of Willard D. Coxey. He will for the present act as the New York representative of the corporation, but when the time comes will act with Theo. Bauer also a reformed circus press agent in promoting publicity. With Whiting Allen at the Metropolitan Opera House in this city and Coxey and Bauer at the Opera House. Boston, the fraternity of circus press agents will have very nifty entertainment during the win- ter "lav-off." "MAJOR" NUTT DIES. Bo*t>n. Sept. 23. ''Major" Xutt, the midget, died at his Dorchester (Mass.) home, on Tuesday, at the age of 00. He was of the famous P. T. Barnum midget troupe, retiring from the public gaze nineteen years ago. The "Major" was a pother of "Commodore" Xutt.