Variety (January 1914)

VARIETY 11 MOVIES THREATEN BOSTON'S THREE BIGGES T THEATRES Tremont, Park and Boston Reported Possibilities for Films Before Ending of Season. All for Lease or Sale. Now Playing Legitimate Attractions. Boston Theatre May Be First to Turn Over Boston, Dec. 31. Three first class Boston theatres may swing to the movies within a few months although the theatrical heads in the city have closed up like clams since the rumors began gaining cre- dence throughout the local Broadway. That historic old ark, the Boston theatre, which B. F. Keith bought in April, 1909, for a cold million in order to keep out competition almost next door to his pet house and also to get the passageway rights from Tremont to Washington streets seems to be fated to fall back into his hands. Froh- man and Harris have had the enormous house, which at present is using "The Whip" with success, and the lease ex- pires Jan. 29, at which date the en- gagement of "The Whip" ends with nothing booked. Klaw & Erlanger are also declared to hold a heavy in- terest in the lease. Paul Keith is said on good authority to be ready to put in low priced movies op two weeks' notice if the New York interests do not come under the wire *t the last moment for a renewal. The second theatre involved in the rumor is the Park, under lease to Froh- rnan, Rich and Harris. The Park is owned by Lotta Crabtree, the retired stage favorite. She is quoted as as- serting she wants to sell the old house which has been a good money-maker and that if another lease is made it will be only for a short time. In case such a lease is not issued, Miss Crab- tree is understood to have already re- ceived a fair offer by a syndicate who want to put in moving pictures of a better grade than the average. The third house is the Tremont, owned by four different interests and which Manager Schoeffel practically controls. The crisis in the affairs of this house is said to be due July 1, and much mystery enshrouds all the details of what is apt to happen. BICKEL AND WATSON IN FRISCO. San Francisco, Dec. 31. Bickel and Watson are due here to- morrow to open with the Irene Frank- lin show ("Girl at the Gate") at the Gaiety. Kathryn Osterman is expected to reach here Saturday to join the new Marie Dressier show soon at the Gaiety and play a travesty role. PRODUCING 'THE DOG." Boston, Dec. 31. E. E. Rice is going to produce Er. Lawshe's Play, "The Dog." Among those engaged arc Henrietta Brown, John S. Ryan, David Lythogue, Garden Burbul, Charles E Verner. by a company headed by James Mc- Hugh. Randolph Grey, Laurelle Har- rington, Leonara Ayrd and Ruby Blackburn are others in the cast. Frank Whitbeck, manager of the Pitt, Pittsburgh, and the Washington, De- troit, will take the show over the one nighters, opening Jan. 13 at Battle Creek, Mich. Johnny Black is hand- ling the advance. NEW BILL AT PRINCESS. An all-new program of sketches will go on at the Princess theatre about Feb. 2, replacing the present repertoire. The only selection so far made by the management for the next bill is said to be a comedy skit by Geo. Ade. Willctte Kershaw has been out of the cast of Princess Players for a couple of weeks. Miss Kershaw is ill. Charlotte Ives is playing some of the former Kershaw roles and Emilie Polini, the others. NO ADVANCE FOR HIT. Although many of the New York legitimate theatres advanced their New Year's Eve admission prices to $2.50 and $3, "Seven Keys to Baldpate," at the Astor, one of the biggest hits now en the metropolitan boards, sold out for that evening long before the date arrived, at the customary box office scale. LONDON'S XMAS OPENINGS. (Special Cable to Varikt..) London, Dec. 31. Among the openings last week was "The Fortune Hunter" at the Queen's. Gale Hamilton in it scored a personal success, but the show does not look like a financial winner. "The Girl Who Didn't," a revised edition of "The Laughing Husband," appears to be a success. Grace Larue in it secured much attention in the press. At the Princess, "The Story of the Rosary" looks as though it will prove the biggest of all the popular price melodramas. "Robina in Search of Her Husband," produced at the Vaudeville, was termed amusing. "THE LEPER" SHOW. "The Leper," George Scibel's new Play on eugenics, has been rehearsed NEW SCALA REVUE. (Special Cnblc to Varikt .) Paris, Dec. 31. The new revue at the Scala, "Ca Sent 1:« Rosse" signed H. Fursy, Niima Hies and Dominique Bonnaud, lias been pro- duced. It met with a fair reception. Morton, Paul Ville, Fortuge, Mmes. Made Andral, Jane Loury. G. Webb. Pierctte Mad, and Bianco de Rilboa arc the principal protagonists. Business has been bad at the Scala, the receipts the last few nights of the previous show not reaching $100. WANTS "NIGHTSTICK CENSOR." Dr. Stephen S. Wise, in a special ar- ticle printed in the Sunday edition of the New York Herald, recommends a policeman's club rather than a censor's pencil for some of the stage presenta- tions of the current season. Says Dr. Wise: "There has been too much cesspool exploitation minus high purpose and high art. "We have had white slave plays which do nothing more than stimulate an unwholesome and morbid curiosity instead of driving home a moral les- son. "Some plays require not the censor's pencil but the policeman's club. "We shall have no bettering of the conditions until the men and women of the stage begin to protest against the indignity which is ottered them. "The stage suffers from the pres- ence of half-educated men and women utterly incapable of interpreting the great things of life and letters. "No use of chloride of lime on the stage, however generous, will cleanse the polluted minds on the other side of the footlights. "The censorship that alone is needed will be exercised not-at City Hall and by the police, but in the home, and such a censorship must be not of the drama alone, but of the whole of life." RECORD RECEIPTS AT $1.30. Atlanta, Dec. 31. "Within the Law" entered up a rec- ord here when playing to $6,000 in five performances at a $1.50 scale. The show is booked for a return Jan. 15. HOLIDAY BUSINESS GOOD. Chicago, Dec. 31. Holiday business has been good in nearly all the theatres. "The Follies" (Illinois) has been doing a smashing business. Other shows have been keeping up at a good gait. "Help Wanted" (Cort) appears to have caught the public fancy and seems destined for a long run. WELLS ALL FILLED IN. Atlanta, Dec. 31. With the opening of Norman Hackett's stock engagement at the Lyric this week, Jake Wells closed the last gap in what he intends shall be a Southern stock wheel and which he hopes will free him in a large measure from booking worries. Besides Hackett, Wells now has or soon will have in his various houses, playing stock, the following: Emma Bunting, Memphis; Billie Long, Nash- ville: Grayce Scott, Richmond, and Beulah Poynter, Newport News. TWO CHI OPENINGS. Chicago, Dec. 31. The openings next week are "The Auctioneer" with David Warficld, at Power's, and "A Modern Girl" at the Olympic. PICTURE .ACTOR MARRIES. San Francisco, Dec. 31. Mnrdork MacQuarric, an actor with the Tniversal company at Los Angeles, v as married in that city Dec. 15 to May Peterson. IMPORTANT BALTIMORE. SUIT. Baltimore, Dec 31. Controversy over the lease of the Auditorium here reached the courts yesterday, when the Sam S. and Lee Shubert Booking Agency, a New Jer- sey corporation, instituted suit for $15,000 against the James L. Kernan Co., owners of the theatre, and also of the Maryland (vaudeville) theatre, for alleged breach of lease on the play- house. The suit was filed through Gans & Haman. Feb. 6, 1909, it is alleged, the Kernan Co. leased the Auditorium to the Shu- berts for five years from July 1, 1909. It is provided in the lease, the declara- tion states, that the Shuberts should pay $15,000 a year in semi-annual in- stallments of ^7,500 in advance and 50 per cent, of the net profit of the theatre. It is contended that the Shuberts complied with the terms of the lease, paying the last semi-annual rental July 1 last, bat that they were evicted from the theatre Sept. 9 last by the Kernan Co. This suit grows out of the consolida- tion of the booking offices of the Shu- berts and Klaw & Erlanger in so far as they affect this city. After the agree- ment was reached late last summer by which Ford's and the New Academy here would be booked by agreement and the Auditorium closed and the rental paid by the owners of Ford's and the New Academy, Frederick C. Schanberger, president of the Kernan Co. since the death of James L. Ker- nan, seized the Auditorium and rented it to S. Z. Poli. Mr. Schanberger claimed at the time that the Shuberts had violated their lease by the mere fact that they had transferred the house to other interests, against which, he claimed, a clause in the document provided, unless on mu- tual agreement. On the outcome of the case will rest the future of the Poli business, which has grown to a profitable figure in the ten weeks the Poli players have been appearing there. This suit will have a bearing on the booking agreement of the Shuberts and Klaw & Erlanger, and it is believed that on the decision here will rest a number of other similar cases in other cities where the agreement applies. STAYING LONGER. Chicago, Dec. 31. The Chicago Theatre Society, which originally planned an eight weeks' stay at the Fine Arts theatre, has had itr time extended until Feb. 14, when it must give way to the Irish Players. The Chicago company is now play- ing "Dolly Reforming Herself," open- ing Christmas Day, with special Satur- day performances of "The Whispering Well," F. H. Rose's fantasy. CRAVEN IN "TOO MANY COOKS." Frank Craven, who left the "Bought and Paid For" company in Boston Saturday night, is in New York await- ing the call for rehearsals for the new comedy, "Too Many Cooks," in which he has been cast for the leading com- edy part. William A. Brady plans to make the production the latter part of January. If jrou don't atlvertlfte In VARIETY, don't ndvertlM nt nil.