Variety (November 1914)

VARIETY 11 MANAGERS SWITCHING SHOWS BACK AND FORTH ON BWAY "High Cost of Loving," "The Only Girl" and "Kick In" Change Houses. Fields Buys Show From Woods. "My Lady's Dress" Leaving. Wallack's Dark. Changes on the city's theatrical map this week will see a general switching about of shows from one house to an- other. The net result will be that one show will go to the storehouse and one new production will come into town Thursday of next week; also one house will be left dark. "The Battle Cry" at the Lyric is the production slated for the storehouse and Joseph Weber's "The Only Girl" will move from the 39th Street to the Lyric. Lew Fields in "The High Cost of Loving" moves from the Re- public to the 39th Street and "Kick In" will be shifted from the Longacre to the Republic. "What It Means to ?. Woman," the new H. H. Frazee pro- duction, will open at the Longacre Nov. 19. Liebler & Co.'s production of "The Highway of Life" will move from Wallack's to the Montauk, Brooklyn, and will close after a week at that house. Wallack's will remain dark. Joseph Brooks' production of "My Lady's Dress" has but another week in New York at' the Playhouse, closing Nov. 21. The piece will be seen in 4 Brooklyn and Newark for a week in each town and then will go to Chicago, where it will probably play the Black- stone. "Polygamy" is slated to open at the Playhouse Nov. 23. There is a general impression about lhat the attraction to succeed "Papa's Darling" at the Amsterdam within a month will be Charles B. Dillingham's revue "Watch Your Step," which is slated to open at Syracuse Nov. 25, and due in New York shortly after. It isn't likely Klaw & Erlanger will send "Papa's Darling" on tour this season. Reports regarding Hazel Dawn in "The Debutante" are to the effect that this piece will come into New York in a couple of weeks, possibly at the Lib- erty, although some believe that should "What It Means to a Woman" fall down there is a possibility that it may go to the Longacre. Lew Fields' "Suzi" will remain at the Casino until succeeded by Emma Trentini in "The Ballet Girl," which opened in Albany Thursday night. It will remain four weeks out of town. Lew Fields has purchased the inter- est of A. H. Woods in "The High Cost of Loving" and now has that production under his own manage- ment. It was the intention of the Woods office to close the Fields show the month of December, prior to Christmas, and then send the produc- tion on tour. This, Mr. Fields believed, would endanger the value of the piece and rather than have the lay off he made his manager a proposition to purchase. AGREE ON ADVERTISING. The house, producing and other man- agers throughout the city seem to have come to a general understanding re- garding the extra advertising cam- paigns which were being conducted in the newspapers during the past six weeks in an endeavor to build up busi- ness at the theatres. At one house $3,500 a week was laid aside for a newspaper campaign. After this money was spent it was found, that, although the show was a mighty good one, business was not aided ma- terially and the managers concluded a further splurge would do them no good. Several other managers were also trying to pull extra business by the means of big ads, but found that with "everybody doing it" none derived special benefit. Last week there was a mutual under- standing between the powers on both sides of the fence that they would not sanction or share on any big advertis- ing other than the usual daily and Sun- day space that was being used. Only one producing management decided not to go in on the agreement and that at- traction is being "plugged" by the means of big ads. In this case the pro- ducers are standing the entire expense of the extra. "AUCTION" ON THE STAGE. "Auction," Rex Beach's story, which first appeared in serial form in the Cosmopolitan, is reported as being a new stage piece. A. H. Woods is understood to have taken an option on it. MAY IRWIN IN OLD SHOW. May Irwin has decided to undertake a brief tour in one of her former suc- cesses prior to appearing in a new play under the management of Liebler & Co. She has selected her support- ing cast and will be ready to open in about a fortnight or so. MUSICIANS SUFFER, TOO. The present period of general de- pression is manifesting itself among the musicians. A number of managers have not only cut out the "augmented orchestra," but have reduced the size of the "traveling orchestra." "NO. 2" "TRIAL" NEW YEAR'S. Chicago, Nov. 11. The "No. 2" show of "On Trial" (Cohan & Harris) will be presented at Cohan's Grand here New Year's week. It is also reported Cohan & Harris will put out a "No. 2" "It Pays to At! vertise" shortly after the new year. ERLANGER CUTTING. A. L. Erlanger, accompanied by Al- fred E. Aarons and Pat Casey, left Monday for Chicago. After spending several days in that city they will go to French Lick for about three weeks. Wednesday word arrived from Chi- cago Erlanger had made several changes in the management of two of the Chicago houses. George Davis, manager of the Illinois, was replaced by Augustus Pitou, Jr., formerly man- ager of the Blackstone, and at the lat- ter house the treasurer was appointed to succeed Pitou. Another outcome of the visit west will be a smaller salary role for "The Little Cafe." The fact that the pres- ent season is such a disastrous one has compelled all managers to put a policy of retrenchment into effect, and Mr. Erlanger in preference to closing the "Cafe" show, has decided that if a cut in salary is accepted by the cast, he will continue the tour of that company. SHOWS CLOSING. Toledo, Nov. 11. "The Dummy" wound up a disastrous road tour here Sunday at the Valen- tine. The last of the "Under Cover" com- panies to be sent out will close Satur- day in New England. Two other com- panies are presenting this piece, one in New York and the other in Chicago. The "Minstrel Maids" Co. has been closed on the road by Carl M. Dalton. The Fritzi Scheff show, "Pretty Mrs. Smith," which expected to take up a road tour for the remainder of the sea- son, is declared off. Will Locke has taken his "The Girl and the Gawk" off the one-night stands. FEATURE FILMS ON ROAD. New York booking men say that there are few feature pictures that can go as road shows and make any money. There have been several traveling com- binations that have done unusually well in the legitimate houses in past sea- sons, but there are few right now that can lay claim to any "clean ups." What has been a "killer" has been the competition of daily and semi- weekly changes of features at five and ten cents. Only in the big cities have the big features turned in any big profit. In several instances where big picture ex- hibits have done tremendously well in the bigger places they have played to almost empty houses on the one-night- ers and three-day stands. COMPLETED "STEP* CAST. The completed cast of those who are to appear in the Charles B. Dillingham revue, "Watch Your Step," includes Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle, Frank Tinney, Elizabeth Murray, Harry Kel- ly, Elizabeth Brice, Charles King, Re- nee Gratz, W. C. Fields, Harry Ellis, Justine Johnson, Wm. Halligan, Dama Sykes, Al. Holdbrook and Sam. Bur- bank. DeWitt C. Coolman is the muj cal director and R. H. Burnside is stagier it. There will be 50 girls in the chorus. SHOWS IN BOSTON. Boston, Nov. 11. Business took a bad slump last week and it looked for a while as if Boston had caught the fever. But Monday night of this week broke chilly and it drove them in gloriously. Julian Eltinge at the Colonial in "The Crinoline Girl" and Cyril Maude at the Plymouth in "Grumpy" both reaped a harvest. Eva Tanguay has put Keith's on the capacity list for the week and the other houses all picked up materially. William Hodge at the Wilbur in "The Road to Happiness" got good returns from a big advertising cam- paign in the dailies. "Potash and Perl- mutter" at the Tremont fell badly and did not climb back very high. Next week brings Sam Bernard in "The Belle of Bond Street" to the Ma- jestic, where "To-Day" is in its last week. Bernard comes in for two weeks only and is underlined by "Omar" with Guy Bates Post. Nov. 23 brings "The Yellow Ticket" to the Tremont for an indeterminate run, after which "Seven Keys" it ex- pected to round out the season at this house. Lydia Loupokova in "The Young Idea" at the Hollis will be succeeded a week from Monday by Margaret Anglin in the revival of "Lady Wino|i* >> mere's Fan." SHOWS IN 'FRISCO. San Francisco, Not. 11. Stock is fooling them at the Alcazar, where the increase in the attendance is noticeable. "The Whip," in its third and final we*ek at the Cort, has shown no ten- dency to climb; in fact, has slumped off. "A Poor Little Rich Girl" it doing nicely at the Columbia. "Let's Get Married" closes at the Gaiety Sunday night. Business dropped away after the opening. The future of the "Let's Get Married," which winds up its engagement at the Gaiety Sun- day night, is uncertain. It will likely disband and again may be reorganized for a road tour. If the Kolb and Dill revival of "The Girl in the Train" can pm itself in readiness in time the Gaiety will hare it as the next attraction, starting Mon- day. SHOWS IN NEW OttlAH* New Orleans, Nov. jil. "The Yellow Ticket" with ar*- in- ferior company is attracting ffflr pat- ronage to the Tulane. "The Sins of the Father," a offering, is doing little at th Business is good with t Bunting stock at the Bun Preuchi-Gypzene appear at The South Pole pictures I a successful engagement at I the La- fayette. ordinary Crescent. t Emma g. The e Lyric doting JANIS SHOW FSB. 1. At the Charles B. Dillingham omce it was stated this week that Elsie JaSs would be ready in a new show about Feb. 1. The present title is "The Missing Link" and its author is Paul Dickey, Miss Jam's is at present appearing in pictures on the coast for the Bosworth company.