Variety (December 1912)

12 London, Dec. 8. Willard, "The Man Who Grows," made his British debut at the New Hippodrome, Newcastle. His opeiiii r was rather quiet, the natives nut seeming to quite understand the act. Every succeeding performance brought better results and by mid- week all the town was talking about him. Some local doctors supervised a demonstration and the papers took up the story with great seriousness. Charles Urban has arranged a spe- cial Christmas show at the Scala thea- tre. It resembles a stage play and contains many novel features, includ- ing a series of natural colored pic- tures, some remarkable lighting ef- fects, some dialog and some songs and dances. He has engaged Leedham Bantock to play Father Christmas and Mdlle. Favronowa to appear as Ting-a-Ling. "Moritz," of "Max" and "Moritz," VARIETY LONDON VARIETY'S LONDON OFFICE • ammMK ar. t m o«m mqvamm. W. BUCHANAN TAYLOR. R«~->*ti (BAYASD) Mail for Americans and European* In Bwo will be promptly forwarded. If rem, ixntdom*") ve. care VARIETY. abort, gard to censored plays and titles, the name was altered to "Share The Room." The sketch is the property of McDonald Young. The Victoria Palace will pay 5 per cent, on its first year's working. A sum of over $23,000 has been written off for preliminary expenses and over $6,500 has been carried forward to the next account. Marjorie Maxwell has been engaged to play the leading part in a new operetta, "The Harem Lily/' music by ALICE McNAUGHTON An English girl, who is under the management of Werba £ Luescher, and hae been re- engaged to create a role In a mw musical comedy the Arm contemplates producing. the two finest monkeys that ever per- formed, is dead. The act was en- gaged at the Hippodrome, Brighton, and on Sunday night Moritz took sick and the two had to lay over. Mal- colm Scott was around to take their place. Paul Lincke. It is to be done at the London Pavilion. "Oh, Oh, Delphinel" has been se- cured by Robert Courtneidge for Eng- land. It is now thought he will open the spring season with it. "Everybody's Doing It" is being transferred from the Empire to the Apollo theatre, a new version of the Revue having been written by C. H. Bovill. As a curtain raiser they are using the Grande Guignol thriller in three tableaux "After the Opera." Charles Hannon has written a Scot- tish sketch called "Share The Bed." It was accepted by the Syndicate Halls and arrangements made for its production at the Oxford, but in view of what has recently happened in re- A young London actor named Eric Maturin walked from London to Brighton inside 24 hours on a wager of $5,000. He was attired in evening dress and his footwear throughout consisted of dancing pumps. I aaw a version of Rex Beach's book, "The Barrier," play on the Ele- phant and Castle theatre stage this week, and I am now going to read the book once more to get the taste of the drama out of my mind. For two acts all went well with the exception that the man who played the part of Stark insisted on thinking that he was Si- mon Legree. The acting generally was good, bat the dramatization after the jfceond act was hopelessly poor. All 4m poetry had been hammered out of the story and some of the best in- cidents had been overlooked. It seems a pity that a work of this kind so re- plete with dramatic opportunities should have been so sadly mauled. A Scottish Sketch, The Visit of the King," which followed "A Venetian Night" at the Palace, was not the thing by any means. It dealt with the story of an ex-provost who owing to an accident to the reigning provost was called upon to act as chief citizen on an occasion of the visit of the King to the town of Carbuckie. Fred Karno won an action against Albert Bruno, one of his. comedians, the other day. Karno had Bruno under contract from August, 1910, to the end of 1911 with options for the three following years. On the strength of this he had made contracts with music halls for his company in which Bruno was the leading number. Bruno being dissatisfied, engaged himself to Herbert Darnley. With Karno, Bruno was getting $62 a week in the pro- vinces and $75 a week in London with certain extra money for extra per- formances. Under the options he was to get $100 a week in 1913 and $125 in 1914. When Bruno made a kick at Karno, Karno made an alternative offer of $100 a week for three years. His contract with Herbert Darnley was for $250 a week for three years, forty weeks a year guaranteed. Karno applied for an order against Bruno to prevent him playing for Darnley and in this he succeeded, the jury giv ing a verdict against Bruno with costs. Arrangements are nearly completed for the production of "Hamlet" by Martin Harvey and Max Reinhardt. Pauline's opening at the Palladium exceeded in success even that san- guine showman's expectations. There has been for many years a black mark against hypnotism and mesmeric work- ers on the English vaudeville stage and Pauline was warned that he would have many difficulties. That he over- came them all is doing but little jus- tice to him. He gave a splendid per- formance without a semblance of of- fensiveness and created such laughter as had not been previously heard with- in the walls of the Palladium. The Christmas attraction at the Court theatre will be a detective drama called "Written in Red." It dripped from the pen of F. M. Doug- as and will be produced and stage- managed by H. A. Saintsbury, who followed William Gillett in this coun- try as the exponent of "Sherlock Holmes." The Variety Theatres Controlling Co. have booked the Pa the Freres "Phono-Opera." The Three Rascals have landed here and open at the Empire Birmingham. Gene Greene has proved a greater success in the London suburbs than he did at the Palace. At the Strat- ford Empire he sang nine songs at one show. ADELAIDE MASON The ■prlfhtlj UtUe dram major malt at the WXBBR * FISLDS' MUSIC HALL.