Variety (October 1915)

VAUDEVILLE SSSSHSS WILL J. COOKE RESIGNS AS RATS' BUSINESS MANAGER Held Salaried Position Four Years; Longest of Any. Leaves Business End of Organization in Perfect Shape. No Successor to Be Appointed. Will J. Cooke, for four years the active manager of the White Rats Actors' Union, resigned from that position at the current week's meeting of the Rats' Board of Directors, his resignation to become effective on Oct. 15. Mr. Cooke succeeded Harry Mount- ford in the capacity of business man- ager of the organization and held the office longer than any of his salaried predecessors. No successor has been appointed nor is it expected one will be named. In resigning from the active work of the organization, Cooke leaves with the best wishes of the directors and mem- bership and retains the honorary title of secretary-treasurer, but will devote his future time to outside interests. The office of business manager of the W. R. A. U. is neither an elective nor appointive one, the business manager heretofore being engaged by the board of directors. It carried an annual salary and through Cooke's retirement this amount will represent an actual saving for the organization. Will Cooke was originally of the vaudeville team of Carroll and Cooke, and in succeeding to the throne of the organization manager he confronted in- numerable obstacles of every descrip- tion, but gradually, through energy and attention, he restored the organization to a business plane and his retirement finds the business end of the club in perfect shape. While Mr. Cooke has determined not to return to the stage, he will con- tinue in the business end of the pro- fession. AHEARN GOES TO JAIL. Monday morning Charles Ahearn, owner of the Ahearn Troupe, a com- edy bicycle act in vaudeville, sur- rendered to the sheriff on a commit- ment for contempt issued by the Su- preme Court, and was lodged in Lud- low Street jail. Previously Ahearn had cancelled several weeks routed for his act in the United Booking Offices at $550 and $600 a week, and disbanded his company of ten people. Ahearn was held in contempt through having failed to pay arrearages of $35 weekly alimony, ordered by the court when Mrs. Ahearn secured a separa- tion from her husband, 18 months ago, on the ground of desertion. The marital troubles of the Ahearns date back to when the Ahearn act was with a Winter Garden show. Upon leaving the Garden for a road tour with the production, it was understood Ahearn was taking a blonde chorus girl, named Laura Hill (who had been press-agented by the Garden as "The $10,000 Beauty"), to replace his wife in the turn; and later, upon re-entering vaudeville, Mrs. Hill continued to travel with the Ahearn act, receiving, it is re-* ported she asserted, $75 weekly for her services, though seldom appearing in the turn upon the stage. Mrs. Ahearn testified in the separation proceeding she had worked in her husband's act for five years without having received any salary, although she claimed it was through her efforts her husband was enabled to leave burlesque and become booked on the big time. Lately Ahearn offered to settle the alimony due his wife at the rate of $25 a week or to pay an installment upon the amount accrued. Mrs. Ahearn de- clined to compromise, she said, through having been informed the Hill woman was stating she had all of Ahearn's money. He played 40 weeks last sea- son, well into the summer. Ahearn was arrested a couple of years ago in Mrs. Hill's home town, Blairsville, N. J., upon a complaint preferred by his wife, but was later released from custody. While the Ahearn act was playing an engagement at St. Louis, when Mrs. Hill was travel- ling with it, she was arrested there for the larceny of a diamond ring from a Brooklyn man, by whom Mrs. Hill had been employed as a housekeeper be- fore joining the Winter Garden chorus. Ahearn appeared at the St. Louis police station and interceded for her, he ad- mitting having the ring in his pocket at the time. It was returned to its rightful owner and the charge dis- missed the next day in police court. The facts of the Ahearns' affair be- came familiar to vaudevillians through Ahearn seeking to defend himself in one way or another, going so far once as to attempt to force a third party to assume his alimony obligations. He has an action pending against Sime Silverman for alienation of his wife's affections. The usual term of imprisonment in Ludlow Street jail, to be relieved of contempt proceedings, is six months. VAUDE'S JUVENILE PLAY. Marie Curtis is to give vaudeville a juvenile play under the title of "The Heart of a Boy," by Charles Sumner, author of "The Natural Law." Plays based on juvenile plots have been fairly successful this season on the legitimate stage. REPORT ON ROSENBERG. Strange doings with Walter Rosen- berg of Broadway. He has been seen out with a certain party upon three separate occasions, told no dirty stories, never swore once, and it looks like a matrimonial tryout for the boy with the nerve. OPERA STARS RESTRICTED. Otto H. Kahn, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera House issued an edict late last season regarding the appearance of the Met's. operatic stars appearing in vaudeville. The edict only came to light recently when several vaudeville agents sounded out some of the divas and tenors regarding vaudeville ap- pearances during the coming season. All offers were met with flat refusals, for the question put to them last sea- son by the chairman of the board was to the effect of "where would you rather sing, in vaudeville or at the Metropolitan?" Recently Martin Beck is said to have offered a huge sum weekly for Mme. Olive Fremstad if she would consider vaudeville. The contract was to have been for 20 weeks. The prima donna is said to be booked for a country-wide tour and holds contracts for appear- ances which net her $1,250 per. Another offer reputed made by the vaudeville people was for a pianist of international fame. The concert field for the coming sea- son is looked upon as one of the best in years. The middle west and Pacific Coast cities are said to be offering substantial guarantees for artists of note. Guido Ciccolini, an Italian tenor who is to make his American debut at the Palace next week, is featuring the fact that vaudeville outbid grand opera for his services in this country. He is said to be a greater tenor than Caruso, ac- cording to his advance billing, and at one time sang with Melba at Convent Garden. CARR'S GENEROSITY. The casual visitor to the Palace stage this week is usually welcomed with a query as to the size of his hat, the line being created by one of the stage attendants whose experience as a temporary assistant to Alex Carr ex- ploited a hitherto hidden vein of gen- erosity in that thrifty individual's make-up. It seems Carr consented to play a second week at the Palace, but in- sisted upon having his dressing room on the lower floor of the stage. This necessitated the removal of his entire wardrobe and a stage attendant was delegated to look after the work. Carr was quite overcome to find everything in perfect shape at his arrival, the dressing room being decorated and his various costumes carefully folded and in order. The characterist, to show apprecia- tion, asked the youngster the size of his hat whereupon he was informed a six and seven-eights top-piece was the exact size. The lad was somewhat astonished when Carr tendered his summer straw with the suggestion it be immediately cleaned and worn be- fore the cold weather arrived. FRANK FOGARTY ENGAGED. Frank Fogarty has announced his engagement to Grace Edmonds, who is playing a leading role with a Broad- way production. OBITUARY Notice of deoth of frloada, rolothroo or of tly connected with thent- persons not directly ricolo win bo charred for at II coots o llao (soven words). Memorials, booed to. minimum, fl.TI (U tech, oot over I linos). Ooo tech, SSJt. Mrs. A. G. Whalley (of Whalley and Whalley and also the Montrose Duo) died Sept. 19. Mrs. H. Robinson, mother of Charles Robinson, the burlesque comedian, died Sept. 22 of pneumonia. The father of Sam Lewis (Lewis, Belmost and Lewis) died Sept. 28, after a brief illness James Quinn, a professional, and father of Rose Quinn, formerly with the Harry Hastings Show, died sudden- ly Sept. 12. F. J. Donelly, corresponding and re- cording secretary of the Theatrical Protective Union No. 1 of New York, died suddenly Monday in New York. C. Stanley Mackey, leader of the Philadelphia Band, died Sept. 26 at the Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia. He was 38 years old and is survived by a widow and two sons. Al Blanchard, formerly of Warren and Blanchard, and well known throughout the profession, died at St. Mary's Hospital, East St. Louis, 111., last week. William E. St John, father of Frankie St. John (LeFevre and St. John) was murdered by burglan Sept. 27 in Portland, Me. He was formerly clerk at Smith's Hotel there. H. A. Arie, an actor, committed suicide Sept. 25 by inhaling gat in a furnished room house on 23d street Despondency over his failure to secure an engagement is given as the cause. He was 35 years old. William Richard Denham, an actor of the legitimate stage and one of the founders of the American Dramatic Fund Association, died last week in a private sanitarium in New York. He was born in England and was 86 years old. Thos. H. Cullen, late manager of Poli's theatre, Hartford, Conn., and the McKinley Square, New York City, died Sept. 20 after a brief illness, suf- fering from cancer of the mouth. The remains were interred in the family plot at Kensico, N. Y. Philadelphia, Sept. 29. Charlea K. Skinner, manager of the Garrick, at Chester, Pa., fell from the fire-escape on the side of the house into the Chester river and was drowned Sept. 21. Skinner was engaged in the- atricals for 20 years, for most of that time being connected with the Chester Opera House. 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