Variety (August 1911)

VARIETY FROHMAN'S NEW PRODUCTIONS TO BE MA DE BY HE NRY MILLER Charles Frohman's Illness Necessitates the Calling of Mr. Miller From the West to Take Charge. Manager's Return to Theatrical Har- ness in Considerable Doubt. The new dramatic productions proposed by Charles Frohman for the coming season will be launched under the direction of Henry Miller. Mr. Miller is in Los Angeles this week, playing "The Havoc." At the expira- tion of his contracted Coast engage- ments, he will return to New York to take charge of the Frohman produc- ing department. Mr. Frohman is still quite 111, in his apartments at the Knickerbocker hotel. Last Saturday some alarm was expressed by his friends over the con- dition of the manager. Several of the Frohman office staff have been allowed to leave. Accord- ing to authentic reports, it is a matter of much doubt when Mr. Frohman will be able to resume charge of his theatrical enterprises. His Illness is a very serious matter, and the cause of much concern. Formal announcement was made from the offices of Charles Frohman late last week, that Al Hayman had transferred all his theatrical interests and retired from active business While it is possible that a final adjust- ment of the theatrical holdings of Mr. Hayman has recently been made, it has been known for a long time to those on the inside of the "Syndicate" affairs, that Hayman has been gradu- ally disposing of his theatrical invest- ments. This move was necessitated, not from any desire to quit, but at the peremptory command of his physician that he was a sick man and any pro- longed application to business would result fatally. Realizing, howevei), that a sudden cessation of all business activities would be almost as injuri- ous as continued adherence to it, the doctor informed Mr. Hayman he could have a few years in which to effect the altered change in his mode of living. What is not generally known is the fact that most of Al Hayman's inter- ests in theatres and attractions have been assumed by his old partner, Charles Frohman. It now transpires that Frohman, in conjunction with his general mana- ger, Alf Hayman (younger brother ot Al) has been for a long time absorb- ing all the Al Hayman holdings. He now has about all the theatrical in- vestments formerly held by his part- ner, with the exception of a twenty- flve per cent, interest in the Knicker- bocker theatre lease. The Empire theatre is owned by the estate of Frank W. Sanger ana Al Hayman, and is leased to Charles Frohman for a term of years. There has been no change in this, as Hay- man never had any say in the conduct of the house, merely building it with the late Frank Sanger, as a real estate Investment. Frohman paid the build- ers more than the entire investment in the first ten years rental of the property. Al Hayman is one of the original founders of the so-called "syndicate,' which controls theatres throughout the country. The other members of it are Charles Frohman, Klaw & Erlan- ger and Nixon & Zimmerman. Al Hayman is the owner of the prop- erty corner of 40th street and Broad- way, adjoining the Empire theatre, the Berkeley Lyceum on West 44th street, the Pabst restaurant on West 125th street, and other realty on Fifth avenue. These are purely investments, and have no connection with things theatrical. OVERSUPPLY OF ACTORS. Dramatic booking agents are lament- ing the lack of work for the many le- gitimate actors who haunt their doors week after week. The supply for the present demand is so great that the agents to a man predict a hard winter lor a big raft of them. Paul Scott says that the present con- dition is the worst In thirty years. He holds the reasons for such a deplora- ble state of affairs are due to mani- fold reasons. Betts & Fowler claim that they are not doing one-half the business they did this time last season. All of the offices report the same story. One agent said the picture houses, autos, picture shows, lack of show novelties, the cutting down of road attractions, the relegation oi mel- odramas and old pieces to tne store shop, and the dearth of new produc- tions are in a measure to blame for the hard times among the dramatic people. Unless the unexpected happens there will be more actors on Broadway this winter than at any previous time in the last six years. During the week it was reported in the offices of the various producing managers that there was an unusual quantity of western musical comedy actresses in town looking for positions. The managers stated that Chicago mu- sical comedy favorites were all trying to enter the ranks of dramatic work. HACKETT OPENS BLACKSTONE. Chicago, Aug. 16. The Blackstone has announced its opening date as Sept. 18, when James K. Hackett will come to town wun "The Grain of Dust," a play made from the story of that name by David Graham Phillips. Hackett will play the part of the young attorney who falls in love with his stenographer. E. D. STAIR PRODUCING. Detroit, Aug. 16. Norman Hackett. the Detroit actor, is to be presented as a star during the coming season in a dramatization of Halite Ermina Rives' novel "Satan Sanderson." Contracts were signed last week. The first performance will be given Sept. 11, in Toledo. The dramatization has been made by three Detroit people, and will be produced by E. D. Stair, playing the Stair & Havlln circuit. Mr. Hackett leaves for New York this week to en- gage his company. All rehearsals will take place in Detroit under the person- al direction of Jesse Bonstelle, now playing a stock engagement in this city. Last year Mr. Hackett played the leading role in "The City" (West- ern) under the Shubert management, and later was leading man for the Catherine Countis Stock Co. HIP'S ORCHESTRAL CONCERTS. Announcement is made that a series of twenty Sunday night orchestral concerts will be given at the New York Hippodrome this fall, beginning Oct. 15. The musical idea was framed up by R. E. Johnston and Lee Shu- bert, while they were going and com- ing on the Lusitanla. It is planned that all the great art- ists available next season will be heard at these concerts. A noted conductor will be Import- ed from Berlin, whose nan e neither Johnstoi nor Shubert will divulge at present MANAGERIAL OPPONENTS REPEAT St. Louis, Aug. 16. Adolph Mayer, former manager of the Adelphi theatre (Shubert), Phila- delphia, will be the new manager of the Garrick, St. Louis, It is announced. He will succeed Harry Buckley. Mellville Stoltz will remain manager of the Sam S. Shubert Memorial thea 7 tre here. Mayer, when he comes to St. Louis, will be pitted against Walter Sanford with whom he was associated in Phila- delphia last season, when Sanford managed the Lyric, the other Shubert house there. Sanford is the new Klaw & Erlanger manager of the Olympic. ALL IN ONE CORPORATION. The incorporation of the Shubert Theatrical Company Tuesday, in New Jersey, with a capitalization of $i,- 800,000, is said to be the outcome of the requests made by the financial backers of the Shubert brothers for a concentration of their theatrical en- terprises, under one corporate body. The main object sought is reported to be economy, doing away with the great number of sub-corporations the Shuberts have formed, to direct each of their ventures. For these com- panies, the Shuberts boys (Lee and Jake) are said to have drawn $50 weekly each, as managerial salary, while another $50 was charged up for office expenses. With from forty to sixty sub-companies in existence, these fixed charges made large inroads, it was a custom inugurated by the late Sam S. Shubert, before the Shubert business had reached its present prominence, and in the days of the great Sam, was a providential step. The directors of the new company are William Klein, (the Shuberts' at- torney), Charles A. Bird (now said to be the chief counsellor and worker of the Shubert forces), and Joseph W. Jacobs, (the cash manipulator for the brothers). Jn a statement given out by the Shuberts, anent the Incorporation, Some mention was made of proposed theatres the brothers Intended build- ing abroad. The consensus of opin- ion, however, among those who know the conditions best, is that the Shu- berts have plenty of theatres at home. The claim is made by Shubert con- nections that the entire capital stock has been paid in. This is supposed to include the capitalization of the former Shubert smaller companies. MOVES ON TO ODOEN. Seattle, Aug. 16. After fifteen years as manager of the Grand for John Cort, Gilbert Barry will move on to Ogden, to superintend the erection of the new Cort theatre ll. ere. JOSEPHINE COHAN. Returns to the stage after an absence of two years In the No. 1 "Fortune Hunter" company this season. FEMALE THEATRE STREET. Feminine titles will prevail in the theatre signs on 42nd street, between 7th and 8th avenues, when the sea- son opens. The Belasco will announce "The Woman"; New Amsterdam, "The PinK Lady"; Lyric, "Everywoman"; Lib- erty, "The Fascinating Widow," an1 the Harris (formerly Hackett), "Mag- gie Pepper." The erection of the theatre by A. H. Woods on 42d street, adjoining the Liberty, wil be ready for occupancy by February, next, declares Mr. Wood. The plot is 80 by 100 feet and the plans to be drawn contemplate a seating capacity of 1,000. The new theatre which Mr. Woods will build in conjunction with Julian Eltinge and Sol Bloom, adjoining the Liberty, is on ground leased from the New York Life Insurance Co. for n period of twenty-one years. Mr. Woods says that he has the cheapest theatre in the United States, and that the house will have a renr;.l charge so small as to be utterly ridicu- lous when compared with other metro- politan playhouses.