Variety (October 1914)

VARIETY 11 I LI Eg ACTORS-MANAGERS' MEETING TO ASSURE FAIR CONTRACT With Both the Managers 9 Producing Association and the Act- ors 9 Equity Association Willing to get Together on Uni- form Agreement* Important Session Pending. With a view to reaching a mutual agreement by the parties interested a meeting will be held within the next fortnight between committees repre- senting the Actors' Equity Association and the Managers' Producing Associa- tion wherein a uniform equitable con- tract will be submitted. The managers have been sounded by the actors and at the forthcoming meeting all the salient points pro and con will be carefully gone over. As contracts now stand one manager may give two weeks' notice, another one week, a third 6ve days and still another three days, etc. This is ex- pected to be changed by a stipulated time for all players in the new con- tract. Furthermore, the actors would like to have two weeks' work guaran- teed if they are given four weeks' re- hearsal. The Equity Association enters a de- nial to the report it is shortly to oper- ate an employment bureau in connec- tion with its present offices. Included in the -cast are Thomas V. Emory, Aldrich Bowker, Malcolm Duncan, France Bendtsen, Arvid Paul- son, William B. Moore, Morton Will- iams, Gregory Kelly, Eleanor Gordon, Olive Temple, Kate Mahew, Aletha Walters, Alice Madison. ON THE ONE NIGHT TRAIL That some parts of the road are played to death is best illustrated at Cumberland, Md., where last week were 10 performances by more than half a dozen different traveling combinations at the Maryland theatre. "Ma's New Husband" has hit the North Dakota trails under a Mr. Crow's direction. "On the Frontier" is the roadster which Tom Casey is piloting through Iowa and the middle west. "Henpecked Henry" i» a new Halton Powell attraction which Harry Rice is blazing the trail for in the west "DELPHINE," $12,000 LOSER. Savannah, Oct. 29. Klaw & Erlanger's production of "Oh, Oh Delphipe," closed here to- night after a tour lasting eight weeks. The musical comedy is reported as $12,000 behind since leaving New York. DELEGATES SELECTED. Local Union No. 2, Billposters of New York, affiliated with the Inter- national Billposters' Alliance, held an important meeting Sunday afternoon. The following delegates to the In- ternational meeting in Scranton, Pa., starting Dec. 5, were elected: William McCarthy, John Busby, Henry Gal- lagher, Harry Regansburg. JOS. BROOKS' "CHICKENS." "Mother Carey's Chickens" is being dramatized by Rachel Crothers and is reported as a January production by Joseph Brooks, with Edith Taliaferro in the leading feminine role. 5-HOUR "MERCEDES." Boston, Oct 28. Julia Arthur (Mrs. Benjamin P. Che- ney, Jr.) is to return to the stage, after retiring a number of years ago. She will give one performance, the pro- ceeds to be given in aid of the Euro- pean Actors' Relief Fund and the American Red Cross Fund to be sent to Paris. Rehearsals have been in progress at the Plymouth for two weeks and it was intended to produce the Bailey Aldrich masterpiece "Mercedes" at this house Friday afternoon, Nov. 6. The advance sale has been so heavy it was announced the performance will be shifted to the Boston theater, which has a seating capacity of 4,300. The cast will also include Ernest Glendin- ning, William Courtleigh, Forrest Rob- inson and Madame Mathilde Cottrelly. NEW PLAY COMBINATION. Syracuse, N. Y., Oct. 28. A star who has never before ap- peared in spoken drama, in a play never before exhibited, by a play- wright who has never before been known as such, formed a novel com- bination at the Empire Thursday night. The combination was Mme. Lopo- kova in "The Young Idea," by Ethel Watts Mumford, and produced by Harrison Grey Fiske. The play is a comedy based on the conflict of the iu w ideas of democracy, the rights of labor and the sphere of woman on the one side, against the oppression of capital, wealth and so- cial position on the other. The play Hid a good business for three nights. RAMBEAU DIVORCING MACK. Marjorie Rambeau is preparing a suit for divorce against Willard Mack, and has instructed her attorney to file papers as a result of the discord which has disturbed their marital happiness for several years. A separation was threatened a year ago, but through the kindly offices of a mutual friend the pair were reconciled. Miss Rambeau is quoted as saying this action will be final. Mack is the author of "Kick In," at the Longacre theatre, New York. It was elaborated from a vaudeville sketch, once played on the circuits by Mr. Mack and Miss Rambeau. Another Mack Play Rehearsing. Helen Lowell has started rehearsals of a new play by Willard Mack, the author of "Kick In." In the cast there will be Charles Crompton, Katherine Belknap, Pell Trenton and Frances Carson. HIGH PRICES FOR GLOBE TICKETS The high price obtained by the speculators for tickets to the Mont- gomery and Stone show at the Globe gave no signs of falling off this week. Nearly the entire orchestra has been placed "outside" with McBride report- ed to have secured the majority of the coupons for each evening. From $6 to $7 and $8 a pair have teen obtained for front seats. Not- withstanding the speculator sale, the Globe since the "Chin Chin" opening has seriously cut into the receipts at the Knickerbocker ("Girl from Utah") and the Winter Garden ("Dancing Around"). The Knickerbocker's gross each evening last week averaged $700 less than for the same day the week before, and the Garden, always good for 10 weeks of solid business with a new attraction, felt the immediate ef- fect of the opposition. "SALAMANDER" CLOSING. "The Salamander," the dramatiza- tion of Owen Johnson's novel which Selwyn & Co. presented at the Harris theatre last week will breathe its last Wednesday next. Until Monday the Selwyns had made up their mind to "plug" the show, but on that day they cancelled $3,000 worth of newspaper advertising laid out. Nazimova ; n "That Sort" will be the attraction to follow -nto the Harris. The opening date is set as Nov. 6. STAIR & HAVLIN WITHDRAW. Altoona, Pa., Oct. 28. All Stair & Havlin bookings for the Mishler theatre, this city, have been cancelled, as well as at the Cambria, Johnstown, owing to dull business. At- tractions appearing at the local theatre the first half of the week and at Johns- town the latter half failed to draw at popular prices. Burlesque and such shows as are ob- tainable will appear at the local house the remainder of the season. ROAD BILLING COMPETITION. When Phil de Angelis started out a number of bill posting outfits over land he did not know he started something. Nevertheless, sending one outfit to Bridgeport billing every foot of the Boston Post Road; another to Poughkeepsie, via the Albany State Road, and a third to Long Island, re- sulted in the Shuberts sending out road crews, with A. H. Woods following it up last week. PATTI TROUPE SOUTH. "Lucky Sam from Alabam" is the title adopted by the Black Patti troupe for its three-act musical show which has been given a southern tour. BRANDON TYNAN SPRING STAR It's Broadway talk Brandon Tynan, now with "Joseph and His Brethren" is to appear as a star in a new Irish piece early in the spring under the direction of Liebler & Co. Line on Stock Play. "The Woman on the Wall," a new play which may hit the road later, was given a stock production last week by the Ewald Co., Akron, O. STRICT ORDERS IN BOSTON. Boston, Oct. 28. Bare legs, aisle parading, and the use of the runway by the chorus were officially taken up by Mayor Curley at the petition of the Watch and Ward Society and Police Commissioner O'Meara after the first performance here of "The Passing Show of 1914." £. D. Smith, manager of the three Shubert Rouses, was called Tuesday afternoon to City Hall and after the conference it was announced that for the next three and a half years, which is the length of time the present mayor has to serve, there will be no more mingling of players with the audience in any Boston theater. Bareness is forbidden hereafter. "The Passing Show" when it reached the Shubert theatre carried knee trunks, tight fitting, that had been found necessary in Philadelphia and it was the Philadelphia agitation that started the storm here. The previous week Al Reeves at the Gaiety sent his girls down through the audience without any objection by the "purity squad" which has kept Boston managers on their ears ever since "The Easiest Way" was barred from every Boston theatre. "Nudity or a draped form is no more art at the Old Howard in a burlesque show than it would be at the Boston opera house," said Mayor Curley em- phatically. "But it is not any less art, either." Tuesday afternoon the mayor positively stopped the use of even the runway on the backs of the orchestra chairs which dates back to "Sumurun" in this city. Later he changed this for a "trial week" on condition that the chorus cover their thighs and not kick footballs or display their legs unneces- sarily. Keith's this week is showing Hen- riette De Serris and her IS models in living reproductions of famous works of art, but no objection was raised. Philadelphia, Oct. 28. Director of Police Porter has an- nounced that hereafter chorus girls in burlesque and musical companies must not appear in bare legs. A censor- ship has been established and plain clothes men will attend first night per- formances to prevent undraped dis- plays. The police decided, according to one wag, that "a knee is a joint and not an entertainment," and have put the ban on for good. "Blindness" on a 8hoestring. Ed. "Cosey" Dolan and Frank Barry (the latter formerly of the A. H. Woods office) are going to put out "The Blindness of Virtue" for a con- templated tour of the one-nighters on a shoestring. The "firm" has exactly $60 which they are willing to spend on the production. None of the members of the com- pany is permitted an advance. The production is to open in Som- merville, N. J., with two dress re- hearsals, matinee and night. Saturday two additional dress rehearsals are to be given in another town. The "firm" hopes to get a little fall money for the troupe in this way.