Variety (December 1913)

VARIETY CHICAGO MAKES HIGH BID FOR "SOCIE TY DANCER" Windytown Restaurant Starts Agitation Among Profes- sional Whirlers. Salaries Qoing Up. Seven Dancers Engaged for New Yorit Roof. One Qirl Dancing With Two Male Partners. The professional dancers around New York became agitated last week when the report of Rector's restaurant, Chicago, offering Joan Sawyer $1,200 weekly to dance out there spread about. Miss Sawyer is under contract to Wil- liam Morris, and appears at the Jardin de Danse (New York Roof), where the present taste of the New York public to see professional dancers has led Mr. Morris into engaging seven of them. The professional dancer of the "classy" type is a recent experiment in Chicago. It was a success at Rector's, where Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle packed the feedery o' nights, re- ceiving $1,000 weekly for doing it. At the College Inn, Chicago, Maurice and Florence Walton accomplished the same result in a business way, they securing $500 weekly for their services. With the Castles about to leave, Rector's found itself short an attrac- tion strong enough to follow them, and sent a representative to New York. He approached Miss Sawyer, who repeated the offer to Mr. Morris. That man- ager is said to have informed Rector's man he could have the dancing girl by paying the New York Roof a bonus of $1,000 a week. Besides Miss Sawyer, who is the star of the New York Roof group of profes- sional dancers, there are Mae Murray, (Miss) Billie Allen, Guillame de Ley.er, Carlos Sebastian, Enrico Muris and Leo Van Dell at the aerial dancing place. Miss Sawyer informed the Roof di- rector, Eddie Pidgeon, she wanted two male dancing partners. Previously she had been content to step with Sebas- tian alone. Now she alternates with Muris. Competition between Misses Sawyer and Murray for popularity as well as diversity in dances gave the former the double partner idea, some- thing new around New York in the dance line. "Class" dancers are discovering they will be better paid in the restaurants than on the stage. A chorus girl of yesterday may become a dancer tomor- row, and a barber, if he is graceful and can handle a dancing partner, will find himself in demand (provided he has "appearance") in the dancing-Cabarets. In fact, there are now a couple of ex- barbers lightly going through the rag steps in the New York restaurants. From reports of VARiETr's corre- spondents all over the United States and Europe, it would seem that in- stead of the craze for dancing dimin- ishing, it is in its infancy, and growing daily. The London music halls ap- pear to have a tendency to drop the "trotters" as attractions, but the res- taurants continue without abatement there, as elsewhere on the other side. William Fox's hall in the Audubon theatre building and Moss & Brill's in the Hamilton, upper West Side, have started off with sensational success at 5-cents-a-couple dances. Fox's new theatre being erected at Broadway and 97th street, with offices and lofts in front, will have a floor given over to dancing; the Strand, in course of con- struction at Broadway and 47th street, has leased the top floor of its office building for a similar purpose at 125,- 000 a year to a Detroit company which operates a series of "trotteries" throughout the country; someone (identity concealed) has an option on the old Metropolitan skating rink at Broadway and 53d street; Charles Rec- tor's new restaurant at Broadway and 48th street (Mecca building) is fitting up a floor over the restaurant for a dancing hall, and all the real estate brokers have received commissions to hunt up available sites for the estab- lishment of similar enterprises. LADIES NIGHT OFF. There will be no "Ladies Clown Night" at the Vaudeville Comedy Club Dec. 13. Instead, the proposed affair, which would have been built as much for the women as others, has been turned into a "stag," probably at the suggestion of some of the husbands who wished a night alone that evening. (Yes, the club's phone will be dis- connected while the show is going on —and after—and before.) The Comedy Club will appease the women by having an impromptu "Ladies Night" New Year's Eve. MT8S BRENNER WITH WHITE. Dorothy Brenner will be Al White's next partner, succeeding Bessie De Voie. BUIIiDINO TWO PRIVATE CARS. Bridgeport, Conn., Dec. 3. Gertrude Hoffmann is having built for her special use in the car shops of the Barnum & Bailey winter quarters here two palatial private railroad coaches, including the most sumptuous sleeping, dining and drawing-room abcommodations. LAUDER AT MUSIC HALL. After the Held engagement, Harry Lauder, under William Morris' man- agement, will be the attraction at the house for two weeks, commencing Jan. 5. S-CS STARTING POINT. The Sullivan-Considine road shows arc now openinpr at the Empress, Ft. Wayne, making S-C routes start one week later than at present dated, throiij^h the closing of the Broadway, Detroit, where formerly the shows commenced. The Lyric, Indianapolis, fills in for the lost Detroit week. The travel will be Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, etc CHANGE BTH AVE. BOOKINGS. The F. F. Proctor big time houses, Fifth Avenue, New York, and Proc- tor's, Newark, have been booked for next week from the "downstairs" Proc- tor booking department in the Putnam Building. They will continue to be booked from there, under the direct supervision of Harry Brunelle, who is in charge of the Proctor small time office. Mr. Brunelle will have George O'Brien as chief assistant. Gus McCune will continue to man- age the Fifth Avenue and Creorge Stew- art will keep on taking care of the Newark house. The big time bookings were looked after by Fred Proctor, Jr., before his recent illness. While the younger Mr. Proctor has recovered, he will not be as active in the booking details as here- tofore. Business of late at the Fifth Avenue has not be over-healthy. The condi- lirns in that part of the city are bad, however. The Union Square, a Keith big timer, a few blocks away, is even worse off for patronage than the Proc- tor stand. "SOFT" FOR SIOUX CITY. The Orpheum Circuit is having it pretty "soft" in Sioux City, where acts playing the time must cut salary down to almost one-third of the amount re- ceived in other towns on the line. By this saving in salary the Sioux City house usually has a weekly ex- pense of not over $1,800, including cost of show and operation of theatre. The average gross there to the Orpheum Circuit is $4,000 weekly. Tuesday it was reported the Or- pheum headquarters in New York had canceled two acts that declined to agree to the cut demanded for "Sui- cide City," although it looks as though the town is the best "melon" on the circuit. MANAGER'S SALARY VERDICT. Cincinnati, Dec. 3. Phil Kussel was awarded a verdict to-day in the Federal Court for $1,648.- 50 for salary as western manager of the American Music Stores. SENDING MUSIC BACK. As a further evidence—if any be needed—of the low water mark in the sale of sheet music, one ten-cent store recently took stock of the music it had on hand and returned to the various New York publishing houses over 14,- 000 copies of music that had been sent to it on memorandum, finding no sale for it. MAYOR SHANK ACTING. Chicapo, Dec. 3. Ex-Mayor Shank of Indianapolis is at last making good on his oft repeated press apented threat of invading vaude- ville. He will play a few weeks around the middle-west for Sullivan-Considine, opening at Ft. Wayne shortly. YOUNG, GEN. PRESS REP. Philadelphia, Dec. 3. George M. Young, formerly corrc- cpondcnt of VAniKTv in this city, is now general press representative here for B. F. Keith. PROTECTING SONGS FOR WEEK, The protection of songs for the week in the vaudeville houses is grow- ing to be a bane with the artists who sing them. The Monday morning re- hearsal now calls out a brigade who believe it will soon be necessary to re* main up all Sunday night to registei their list of songs first with the or* chestra leader. The one that gets there ahead of the others has the privi- lege of singing the songs as per music submitted, for the week's stay. WitW so many singers using the same rou- tine of number or similar songs, the race for the clear field is growing in- tense. Monday morning of this week Ar- thur Deagon reached New York early. It was too early to go home to Free- port. Mr. Deagon tried to kill time. He had breakfast at Wallick's, then thought he would stroll down to the Union Square and see what would be doing until rehearsal time came around. It was 8.25 a. m. when Mr. Deagon reached the stage. In the early morning dusk, he walked down to the orchestra pit, and as he was about to lay his music roll on the lead- er's rack a hand shot in ahead, saying "I'm firstl" It was Elmer White of Burkhardt and White, on the bill. Mr. Deagon was obliged to dispense with "I'm Crying Just For You" as the team also had it in their music. He used a number instead as he had done in London, called a "cello song." Last week at the Bronx, Johnny Cantwell (Cantwell and Walker) thought he would take no chances with "You Made Me Love You." He go' to the theatre at 8.30. The stage doo keeper did not arrive until nine. 'Soft said Johnny. "I'm the first one hef^j so I'll wait for the leader to show." The leader duly arrived. Mr. Cantwell walked down with his music. The leader glanced it over, remarking "Yoo are late." "Not so, young man," an- swered Cantwell. "There is no one else in the theatre." "Maybe," was th* answer, "but this 'Made Me Love Yon* song was reserved by wire." T\i< Farber Sisters had wired the leader they would sing the song and the other teams had to use a substitute. Monday Mr. Deagon forwarded copies of all his music to the house management of the Savoy, Atlantic City, claiming the first rights for next week when he plays there. POIiAlRE GOKS Hb5lE. The contracts for ten weeks held by Conistock & Gcst with Polaire and Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson expired last Saturday, with the two women closing the Cattadian run of three weeks. The trip over the bor- der cost the management a large sum, hut enough may have been made with the three-star show to even it up. Polaire sailed Wednesday on La Lorraine for France. She is to open at the Wintergarten, Berlin, Dec. 16, hooked in by H. B. Marinelli. Next season the French woman may return to America for a starring season in a play under the Comstock & Gcst man- agement. Lady Richardson is reopening in .American vaudeville at llainmerstein's Dec. 8.