Variety (July 1913)

10 VARIETY SPENDING $400,000,000 IN F RISCO F OR 1915 FAIR Town Will Qrow Lively From September Until Exposi- tion Opens. 50,000 Workmen to be Brought Into the City. Lots of Money and People Expected. San Francisco, July 2. Between Sept. 1 next and the open- ing of the 1915 exposition here it is estimated $400,000,000 will be ex- pended for improvements. Most of the money will be put in local cir- culation through the approach of the fair and the expected big crowds. At least 50,000 workmen brought here from outside will be regularly employed commencing with the fall until the 1915 affair is over. JUDGB TAKES 1,000 8BAT8. 1,000 seats during the first week of "Potash & Pcrlmutter" have been ordered by Judge Rosalsky of the Supreme Court. The show opens Aug. 11 at the G«o. M. Cohan theatre. Montague Glass is adding dialog to the piece just now. The writer or dramatizer of the Glass series seems to be a vague person. It is said a new character may be written in the manuscript for Leo Donnelly, who is wanted by the producer, A. H. Woods, to essay the role of a "drummer. . t» ABARBANELL WITH SINGER. Lina Abarbanell has been engaged by Mort H. Singer and will be ex- ploited next season at the head of a new musical show. Miss Abarbanell was last under the direction of John Cort. Chicago, July 2. Lina Abarbanell has been engaged to appear at one of the big time vaude- ville houses here as the headliner, opening July 28. The engagement is for four weeks. ATLANTIC CITY FIRST. The "Passing Show of 1913" will open in Atlantic City July 14. Her- bert Corthel has been added to the cast. It is due at the Winter Garden, New York, July 21. AHEAD OF RING SHOW. Frederick McKay has secured the services of E. B. Jack and George F. Hinton for next season. They will al- ternate in the management of "When Claudia Smiles," when that piece re- sumes its road tour. When one is han- dling the reins behind, the other will hike ahead to open the way. •'\0. 2." •'FIREFLY." A "No. 2" "Firefly" company, man- aged by Jack Shoemaker, will open Labor Day at Dover, N. J. It will play the central and southwest. No cast has yet been engaged by Arthur Ham- merstein for his second "Firefly" pro- duction. The original company with Trcntini starts Sept. 8 at the new Cort-Gerstcn house in the Bronx. George Blumen- thal will again be in charge of this company, which will go through the coast, the first time the opera diva has travelled the far west. Elizabeth Murray and Snitz Edwards are the only engagements thus far re- ported for Arthur Hammerstein's new show, "High Jinks/' by the "Firefly" writers. Otto Hauerbach and Rudolf Friml. "Bao PERCENT" PRODUCED. Atlantic City» July 2. Monday evening saw the premiere of the latest Cohan & Harris produc- tion, "520 Percent," by Porter Emer- son Browne. It is a comedy in four acts and the producers have chosen a good cast for the try-out. The first act set was a corker, show- ing the exterior of Mrs. Fasset's boarding house in Brooklyn, the base- ment dining room and several rooms being shown through the windows. The whole thing looked like Brook- lyn. It was in this act most of the fun of the play was found. William Keough, as an inebriated individual who had gone to a wedding four days before and had forgotten his boarding house, furnished most of the laughs. He supposedly walked around the block three times before the landlady (Mrs. Stuart Robson) recognized her new boarder. He insisted that Brook- lyn was a most terrible place. Most of the comedy of the last two nets was supplied by the "new" re- marks of Edward Gillespie, as one of the "bunk" financiers who oflFered stock that would return to the investor 520 per cent. Mr. Keough made the big- gest impression, though he was only on in the first act. Mr. Gillespie, Katherine LaSalle, Mrs. Robson, Robert Ober, George Parsons, Pauline Duffield and Archie Boyd were the best of the rest of a .large cast. NEW THEATRES IN WILMINGTON. Wilmington, Del., July 2. W. L. Dockstader is once more to have vaudeville opposition. Leffler & Bratton, New York musical comedy and legitimate managers, have secured a site here on which they propose to erect a new vaudeville house to seat 1.800, built on plans similar to those of the Riverside, New York. The new bouse is to be ready in November and ^vill cost about $150,000. This is Brnt- ton*s home town. The new legitimate theatre, the Du- Pont, now in course of construction at a cost of $250,000. which has been leased to William A. Brady, is to open Oct. 1, with Grace George as the initial attraction. Chester. Pa., July 2 Conness 8c Fdwards are croctinp a new theatre here to be ready in the fall, which is to be crinductrd as a stock house, to bo operated in coniunc- tion with their stock theatre at Wil- mington. GARRITY AT GAKRICK. Chicago, July 2. John J. Garrity, for the past two or three years manager of the Masonic theatre, the Shubert house in Louis- ville, Ky., has been appointed manager of the Garrick, jn place of Asher Levy, who recently, resigned. Mr. Garrity was formerly a Chi- cagoan, and has been identified with the show business in numerous capaci- ties. He was formerly connected with the Grand Opera House in this city, and has also had experience as ad- vance man and manager of road attrac- tions. Mr. Garrity arrived in Chicago Monday and has taken the reins in his hands. As far as is now known no changes will be made among the em- rloyes. JUDGMENT AGAINST KINSELLA. Leo Mayer, the racing man, last Friday secured a judgment for $1,- 714.18 against Edward B. Kinsella. It is the aftermath of Kinsella's efforts to promote a few years ago a music hall on West 42d street running through to where the Elks* Club is situated on West 43d street at present. The judgment was rendered on the plaintifTs allegation the money was a loan, the defense being that it was con- tributed toward the promotion of the venture in which the plaintiff was to have participated in the profits. Kin- sella will appeal. ^^^ BOSTON OPENINGS. Boston, July 2. •Within the Law" will open the fall season at the Majestic. "Widow by Proxy" with May Irwin, will open the Plymouth. "The Sunshine Girl" with Julia Sanderson, will open the Hollis, and is the first musical show to come to this house in a decade. Henry B. Warner will open the sea- son at the Park with "The Ghost Breakers." Either "The Whip" or "Joseph and His Brethren" will open the Boston theatre. DE KALB TO SHUBERT8. The De Knlb Theatre, Brooklyn, now operated with pop vaudeville by Cunningham & Fluegelman, will play the Shubert attractions next season. The house, seating 2,800, is in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, and will oppose the Broadway, booked by Klaw & Erlanger. The De Kalb will be a week stand at a $1 admission scale. Cunningham & Fluegelman re- tain the full direction of the theatre. The acquisition of the De Kalb in Brooklyn, with the announced opening of the new Cort-Gersten Theatre in the Bronx with the Trentini show (a Shubert booking), is causing some talk among the legitimate showmen. Cohan & Harris were believed to have reached an understanding with the Shuberts through K. & E., whereby their new theatre in the Bronx would house all the travelling combinations up there the coming season. It may still be a matter of agreement. The other C. & F. theatre, McKinley Square, away uptown on the East Side, will continue with pop vaudeville ac- cording to understanding, booking in with the Moss & Brill pop houses as heretofore. The De Kalb will close for alterations shortly, re-opening with the season. COMEDY TRIED OUT. V Chicago, July 2. "How Much Is a Million?" a comedy hy C. R. Hopkins, was presented for the first time on any stage at the Fine Arts' theatre Monday night. In the cast are Mr. Hopkins, Lionel Belmore, Mrs. Hopkins, Grace Griswold and others. The piece has little punch and is not destined for a long life. It was greeted by a small audience, and the applause was not vociferous. The scribes of the daily papers did not appear to take the matter seri- ously. PLAY FOR LOPOIKOWA. B. Mandelkern, nianagcr for Lopou- kowa, the ballet dancer with "The Sil- ver Slipper" the past season, has had two or three plays submitted for his star's next season. Lopoukowa wants tn act as well as dance. Orders have been given for a comedy drama to fit her. She is in the mountains at present studying English. Nothing yet read by Mr. Mandelkern seems to fit the case. "PURPLE ROAD" MEETING. A meeting of the stockholders of "The Purple Road" company was held Monday, when the owners of stock vere called upon to come forward with an assessment of 50 per cent, on their holdings. One of the heaviest invest- ors in the enterprise is said to have come forward at the meeting with an offer to take over all of any part of the holdings of any recalcitrant stock- holder. The Orange Manufacturing Co., theatrical costumers, hold con- siderable stock in payment of their bill for dresses. Last week the show did over $6,000 at the Casino and according to present intentions it will run there throughout the summer. The Jos. M. Gaites-John Cort money tangle arising from the "Purple Road" operations will not reach the courts. At a meeting of the attorneys for both pro- ducers last week Gaites produced an itemized accounting of his financial con- nections with the attraction and every- thing is said to have been straightened out satisfactorily. The hot weather this week hit the business of all the theatres and at the Casino where "The Purple Road" is, it was said Wednesday the show might close Saturday for the summer. Philadelphia, July 2. When "The Purple Road" reopens its new season here at the Forrest La- bor Day it will stay three weeks and then move to Boston for* an expected run. The show comes here under the jos. M. Gaites' management. WON'T PAY RAISED RENT. Terre Haute, Ind., July 2. The Grand Opera House is the bone of contention just now with the latest report that Manager Barhydt has flatly refused to pay the additional amount asked for a renewal of the house lease and has told the owners to take the theatre.