Variety (August 1913)

10 VARIETY $82,000 FOR BOSTON THEATRE ON KEITH'S HANDS AFTER FEB. Present Tenants Will Not Renew Five*Year Lease Then Expiring. House Too Big for Money Maker. Kiaw & Erlanger, Charles Frohman and Rich & Harris Now In Possession. Boston July 30. B. F. Keith's Boston theatre is for r£nt, after February, when the five- year lease issued to Klaw & Erlanger, Charles Frohman and Rich & Harris expires. The rental is $1,000 weekly the year round, with taxes, etc., addi- tional, making the gross rent about $82,000 annually. The present tenants do not want a renewal, from all accounts, as the the- atre at the expense involved is not a money maker. SHOWS IN CHICAGO. Chicago, July 30. Business last week took a big jump in the downtown theatres. At the Garrick, where "When Dreams Come True" is now in its seventeenth week, the receipts reached almost $10,500 for the week. Over at Cohan's "The Tik Tok Man of Oz," the matinees were so big they taxed the capacity of the house, and the night business also Packed up. The show hat been a splen- did attraction for children. At the Fine Arts "How Much Is a Million?" has been pulling in good houses. "The Blindness of Virtue," at Mc Victor's, has also felt the impetus on account of cool weather. The show closed Stturday night ,; The Ginger Girls," at the Columbia, have bten drawing well, and the en- gagement will probably last until the regular burlesque season opens. . The Majestic, Colonial and Great Northern Hippodrome have been jammed to the doors at nearly every performance. The summer parks have not done so well, but they have been getting a fair share of the business. FIRST IN BOSTON. Boston, July 30. "Kiss Me Quick" with Helen Lowell will open the new season at the Shubert Aug. 4. The town has been placarded with bills, giving only the title of the show. Boston is without a legitimate show at present, and "Kiss Me Quick" should do good business. Olive Wyndham in "What Happened to Mary" will open at the Majestic Aug. 18. GIRL'S ASSASSIN SENTENCED. Los Angeles, July 30. James L. Murphy, convicted of mur- der in the second degree for the killing of Irene Smith, a chorus girl, was sen- tenced last week to serve twelve years in the San Quentin penitentiary. Murphy's niece, Steele Moore, charged with being an accomplice, was discharged. CHAPPELL MOVING. Chicago, July 30. Harry Chappell, for the past two years business manager and treasurer of Power's theatre here, will make his residence in Madison, Wis., during the current season, where he has been en- gaged to manage the Fuller Opera House and the Orpheum theatre. Chappell was formerly a Madison university student and consequently is well acquainted with his new field. MOHAWK WITH 8. A H. Schenectady, N. Y., July 30. Stair & Havlin will play their attrac- tions at the Mohawk the coming sea- son. It is L. Lawrence Weber's the- atre. The Van Curler has been mentioned in connection with the new Progres- sive Burlesque Wheel, but no decision has been reached, according to under- standing. The Van Curler was to have played burlesque three days, with the combinations occupying the remainder of the weekly period. CONNOR'S QUICKSANDS. W. F. Connor, who doesn't care any more for money-than Abe Thalheimer, is out with an offer of a certificate of character to anyone who can make a good, big man's size quicksands be- have. The quicksands is over under the foundation of a Wool worth office building that Connor has been trying t» make obey the building laws for the past two years. The building con- tractors have succeeded in lassoing the quicksands as often as Oscar Ham- raerstein has been in court, but at the first sign of relaxed vigilance on the part of the constructors, the subter- ranean sandbank is up and away and off on an underground jamboree. Men along Broadway who at differ- ent times in their career have had won his kind regards when they ex- pected a piece of change, are chuckling over the report that all the money Connor has been making on Broad- way is going out of the Fourth avenue <nd of his horn of plenty. v The Fritzi Scheff contingent that ex- pected to ride into Chicago, after their engagement at the Globe theatre, on a sharing basis at the Studebaker, which Connor at the time controlled, is specially ill-natured, for the reason than Connor, after Fritzi's agent, Joe Drum, got r into Chicago, wired the house manager that Fritzi could have ♦.'•e Studebaker only on a rental ar- rangement a decision that forced the Scheff management at the last moment to surrender to Connor in New York Globe theatre receipts they had figured upon using to carry them over possible bad spots in Windytown. Late reports from London say that the Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan com- bination never wrote the line, "Shake yo' feet," nor did he have any relatives in America who would use any but their own ideas. ADVANCE FOR K. a B. TICKETS. All the theatre ticket brokers in town dealing with the Klaw & Erlanger box ofifces must pay an additional tax of 25'OQflts on each seat purchased for successes in the K. & £. houses here- after. The new fiat went to the agencies yesterday, and the agencies are already paying the added impost on tickets for the Ziegfeld "Follies" at the Amster- dam. The added tax is not asked on attractions playing to but average good business. The new order means that all dealers in theatre tickets in bulk from K. & £. box offices must pay $2.25 per seat, with no returns al- lowed. Hitherto the regular box of- fice price obtained with the agencies, provided they signed to take blocks of tickets for each performance with no privilege of returns. The Marks-Lange theatre booking agency with headquarters in the Heid- elberg Building will operate the com- ing season without the arrangement hitherto in force with the Shuberts, whereby the theatre managers sup- plied the Marks-Lange combination, operating under the title of the United Ticket Agency, with the first four rows at all Shubert houses, a privilege for which the ticket distributors paid at the rate of $25,000 per year. Comstock & Gest are said to be ne- gotiating for the canceled United con- tract. Tyson & Co. are also in the field for the privilege. RUSHING "PRINCESS CAPRICE." A hurry call was sent_out during the week for immediate preparations for the production of "The Princess Ca- price," the new Leo Fall opera, which the Shuberts will produce. The booking of "The Purple Road" in cities outside New York, and the decision to start the Casino's new regu- lar season with the Fall piece follow- ing the run of the Peters' opera, caused the summons to De Wolf Hopper, May de Sousa, Grace Fields and the others signed for the new work. Fred Leslie, the English comedian engaged, 'is on the ocean. Get Jim Clancy before the summer fades. Pretty, pretty! MEETING TODAY. The committees representing the the- atrical managers and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes ?re to meet today (Friday), according to the adjournment of the first pro- posed joint conference Monday. A wreck in the west delayed some of the I. A. T. S. E. members. The object is for the factions to reach an agree- ment. The managerial committee, which comprises nearly all the prominent the- atrical managers in New York, was to have met the committee from the Musi- cians' union yesterday. The Musicians' union appointed the following to be its representatives: Joe M. Weber, Otto Ostendorf, R. Oleson, D. A. Carey. Wm. Kerngood. Chicago, July 30. The Musicians' tJnion have jumped into the limelight here again with a demand for an increase in wages, sup- plementing it' with another that the managers deposit $3,000 to insure a complete season's employment. * The managers' association will un doubtedly oppose the union and a stiff fight is anticipated. The last wrangle between the musicians and managers was satisfactorily arbitrated with the musicians on the percentage side. SARATOGA LIVING AGAIN. Saratoga, July 30. The Saratoga Pageant which took place this week, just prior to the open- ing of the racing season, was the most successful event of its kind ever at- tempted in this section of the state. The affair was presented under the di- rection of the Business Men's Asso- ciation of Saratoga, and the thousand or more participants were all local residents. The pageant was staged in Congress Spring Park and was given in three parts with a prologue, interlude and prelude. The theme dealt with the early days of Saratoga when inhabited with Indians, the purchase of the land from them, etc., right up to the present time. Chauncey Olcott, on horseback, was prominent in the early section, accom- panied by Mrs. Olcott. "The Battle of Saratoga," "The Sur- render of Burgoyne" and the review of the past and present were presented with exceptional care. Margaret McLaren Eager arranged and directed the production. "MARY'S LAMB" SOUTH. David Pfirrmann has completed ar- rangements for the coming production of Richard Carle's "Mary's Lamb." which he will tour through the south. Dan McGrath will handle the principal role, supported by Bertha Yeoman. Florence Guise. Violette Rco. Doris Mann, Henriet Hausen. Terry Hart. Arthur Bell, Sydney Algier and John F. Adams. Wm. Miller will handle the business end of the outfit. Pfirrmann will also produce "The Power of the Press," once the Carle piece is well on its way. Nat Royster will be the company manager. MAXINB BROWN Discovered at Denver by J. J. Rosenthal for the Ingenue roles In the Anderson Stock Co. Mr. Rosenthal has formed (or the new Gaiety, Baa Francisco. The Carbondale (Pa.) Opera House has been given up by the Reis people and will hereafter be booked by the Eastern Managers' Association.