Variety (April 1915)

VAUDEVILLE The Constantinople restaurants are giving the Broadway section of New York something new in the way of a table d'hote dinner. The side street table d'hote places have never been as popular as this season, when the high price of cabaret food sent the ordinary eater's restaurant check to bankruptcy figures. That the cabarets themselves, with their expensive bill-of-fares, have realized they were losing dinner busi- ness is evident by the several now selling a table d'hote meal between six and nine at one dollar or a trifle over. The traveling diner can get al- most any kind of an internationally cooked meal in New York. Italian, German and French have had the call, principally because they were different from the American style of cooking, also because these restaurants would dish out five dollars' worth of absinthe for 20 cents. That is, it would have been five dollars' worth if it had been absinthe. So the Constantinople drops in just in time. It serves a Turkish dinner for 65 cents, including wine, at its uptown place, 153 West 48th street, and a 50-cent dinner at its other restau- rant, 17 East 24th street. There are some names on the bill-of-fare the German comedians could get a laugh with. Skish kebab, Enguinar otourma, Patlijan karni-yarik, Lokma and shan revani are among them. Any number of show people are dropping into the Constantinople, just for the change, and becoming regular patrons of the Turkish dinner. The CUremont at Broadway and 135th street is one of the most ex- pensively fitted out cabaret restaurants in New York. It is furnished and decorated in the Moorish style, with an oval dancing floor. The Berry Broth- ers are the proprietors. It has a large capacity and will have a summer gar- den addition in the rear of the restau- rant proper by the time the hot weather rolls around. The Claremont is a new restaurant in a new building that also has a theatre in it. The full title is The Broadway Claremont, to avoid a connection with the old Claremont on Riverside. The latter restaurant has brought injunction proceedings to re- strain the use of the Claremont name. The Berrys will probably discontinue the long title anyhow, believing a shorter one is more preferable. Two stage struck girls from Roch- ester, N. Y., wrote Arthur E. MacLean, proprietor of Hunter Island Inn on the Pelham Road, soliciting his influence to place them with a theatrical com- pany. The girls had the craze very badly, according to their letter. Mr. MacLean replied by sending each, one of his menu cards, saying if they would learn to cook everything on that rather elaborate bill-of-fare they would stand more chance of becoming famous than by going into the show business. Dur- ing the week-ends over the summer Hunter Island will have a cabaret pro- gram of some length, for Saturdays and Sundays only. The Inn is to have its formal opening of the remodeled restaurant and ball room all of next week. A Fox Trot Masque Ball will be iifld on the New York Roof Monday light, April 5. The following Monday night, April 12, will be the Movie Maskers' Ball, with 50 prizes to be awarded to the best impersonators of popular pic- ture stars. During the weik of April 12 the Roof will have a Muiic Publishers' Night each evening. This is the final week up there of the Ida duller Girls Next week the cabaret bill will have specialties only, with some special event nightly. "Too Much Mustard" is the title of the revue for Reisenweber's Ned Way- burn is staging, to be first shown Mon- day night. Edna Whistler, Marie La Yarr and Barrett Greenwood are the principals. Eight girls are in the chorus. The Amsterdam Roof show is re- ported as coming within a few dollars of reaching the $2,000 mark in admis- sions Saturday night. This amount of course includes about 20 or 30 standees. Harry Glynn opened at Shanley's this week, his first cabaret appearance in New York. Fausfs at the Circle is another cab- aret about to put on a revue. Los Angeles, March 31. Solomon's Pavilion will not have dancing according to the last decision of the local police department who re- fused to issue a permit to Thomas Al- len Rector to give dancing exhibitions at the resort. The police state they are willing to grant a license anywhere else in the city, however. QUEENIE NAZARRO. A striking portrait of QUEENIE NAZARRO. of the Nat Nazarro Company, again appearing at the PALACE THEATRE. NEW YORK, thi« week (March 29). CUT RATE TICKET BATTLE. (Continued from Page 3.) showed him fully a thousand tickets left over for that night. Leblang makes an outright buy, usually at about 75 cents a ticket. For these he gets $2 or $2.S<0 a pair. With the way the show business has been within the last few weeks the scalper has been caught "long" to the extent of about $300 to $400 a night. This figures a weekly loss of between $2,000 and $2,500. This is figuring total loss on the day with the profits of what sales there were counted in. This week, Holy Week, the Leblang agencies take only one-half of their usual quota of seats. At present he is carrying seats for all of the Shubert houses, the Brady houses, the Selwyn attractions, the opera and a scattering of other plays in town. It is a question whether or not Froh- man's tirade of Monday was directed at the cut rate agency or at the use of the league tickets. In either case, he has brought down the wrath of the general public on his head, as witnessed by letters printed Wednesday morning in the Times and an editorial comment that was made in the Herald the same morning. Mr. Frohman's theatre has in the past made use of both of the mentioned channels. Only as recently as two weeks ago, while Ethel Barrymore was playing at the Empire, one of the cut rate agencies was receiving 75 "regular" tickets nightly for that house. When "The Beautiful Adven- ture" was in town early this season, the cut rate agencies also carried "regu- lar" tickets for that attraction. "Regu- lar" tickets are those held at the box office price and sold by the cut rate agency for what may be secured. How "regulars" reach a cut rate agency no one but the manager of the agency usually knows, as the line of travel for the tickets cannot always be definitely fixed. In the instances of the Froh- man tickets, however, it is unlikely Charles Frohman knew the agencies were handling coupons for his theatre or plays. Yesterday, at the Hotel Astor, New York, theatre managers met, by invi- tation of jGeorge M. Cohan, to talk over the cut rate proposition. A so- lution was striven for, through dis- cussion. Some managers disavow the cut rate as injurious, through teaching the public a lower scale, also as apt to draw away from adjacent neighbor- hood theatres, such as a dollar price to a Broadway show drawing a Brook- lynite to a New York theatre to see it, accomplishing two objects there- by, seeing it more cheaply and before it would reach Brooklyn. The experi- ence of the Standard theatre at Broad- way and 90th street this season, its first, does not bear out this managerial belief. Another idea of those against the cut rate is that it stifles competi- tion, although there has never been a standard of theatrical production by admission scale. This was indirectly referred to by a letter writer in the Times, who mentioned that if some managers did not want the box office prices of tickets reduced why did they permit them to be raised over the established scale through hotels, specu- lators and agencies. The theatrical managers who say the cut rate is necessary at times claim that the cut rate brings a new class of business to the $2 theatres. It's quite commonly known from this sea- son's experience that a "house" can quickly be detected by an expert as to whether it is "papered," "cut rate" or "regular," through the people pres- ent. The managers in favor of abolishing the cut rate by agreement would prob- ably be disposed to favor a bill at Albany that provided a theatre ticket could not be sold for more nor less than the amount stamped on the face of it. Some such measure was sug- gested when the question of ticket speculation between the syndicates came up a while ago. In fact, many believe the present cut rate agitation is merely another "scrap" between the Klaw & Erlanger and Shubert factions, and it has also been surmised that Mr. Frohman may have been "inspired" to send out his statement. Nevertheless, it must be true that some of the legitimate successes', those that could and would draw money at the regular $2 box office scale, must suffer when hotels, agencies and specu- lators will "push" the tickets of the theatres without as well established hits, for the more profit that may be secured in this way. The usual profit on the regular scale to the scalper amounts to 25 cents. This is particu- larly so in hotels, where the transient ofttimes depends upon the opinion of the man selling him the tickets. Although "cut rate theatre ticket offices" are almost as frequent as policemen just now in the middle sec- tion of the city, it is claimed the People's League ticket handling is badly hurting even the best known cut rate agencies, although Leblang's is said to have been doing the biggest ticket business this season ever done in New York. The proposal for theatres cut rating to adopt a flat one dollar scale to cover the situation and avoid the evasion as now practised is met by the state- ment of show people that, were this done, it would mean New York plays going, upon the road, could not charge more out there than they did in the metropolis, practically debarring them from travelling after, appearing in a New York one dollar theatre. JACK BOYLE MARRIES. Los Angeles, March 31. Jack Boyle (of Hussey and Boyle) and Kitty Bryan, also a vaudevillian, were married here by Justice J. W. Summerfield. Hussey and Boyle are at the Orphe- uiii this week. FIGHTS WHILE ACTING. Pittsburgh, March 31. During the engagement at the Grand opera house next week of Willie Ritchie and Sister, the famous light- weight will box six rounds Thursday night with Johnny Griffiths at the Puquesne Gardens.