Variety (March 1916)

VAUDEVILLE VARIETY MANAGERS DECIDE ON FUTURE COURSE OF ACTION At Meeting of Vaudeville Managers 9 Protective Association, "Mountford Method" Under Discussion* Managers Take Cognizance of "Closed Shop" Policy of White Rats. The first important meeting of the Vaudeville Managers' Protective Asso- ciation was held in the Palace theatre building Thursday of last week, when official cognizance by the body was taken of the recent reorganization of the White Rats, together with one of the professed policies of that order— the closed shop. A definite course of action in the future was decided upon at the man- agers' meeting, but what it might have been could not be learned. A com- mittee was appointed for some pur- pose. It was generally believed around the Association was prepared to. adopt any measures the committee agreed upon and advised. The "closed shop" promotion by the White Rats under the guidance of Harry Mountford is responsible for the renewed vigor the Rats have taken on of late weeks, was accepted by the managers as a part of the "Mountford method," as they phrased it, and the managers seemed agreed that any op- position exercised by them to the White Rats should be centered upon Mr. Mountford. One story of the meeting said there was some talk during it of the vaude- ville managers closing their theatres to vaudeville forthwith and bringing the entire argument of manager vs. actor to an immediate issue. No con- firmation of this report could be secured by a Varibtt representative who spoke to three or four managers regarding it One replied, "I don't know whether that was discussed or not. but everybody seems to forget we could play pictures just now as easily as not, and another thing about that is, that if we should close our houses to vaudeville and the picture policy suc- ceeded, we would, as sensible busi- ness men, continue the picture policy in them." Another manager who was present at the meeting when asked why it was thought necessary to call a special meeting of the dormant V. M. P. A. at this time, replied: "For many rea- sons, the most important of which is the Mountford agitation. We do not hesitate to express our opinion on these matters. We have been peacefully pur- suing our business for some time and having trouble during the hard times to break even. "We do not propose to permit Mount- ford to upset our business, and any action we take is directed against what we term the 'Mountford method/ not the White Rats as an organization, against which we hold nothing. Dur- ing the period Mountford was not active with that organization, follow- ing his departure from it, we had no trouble with the Rats. Their attorneys (O'Brien, Malevinsky & Driicoll) settled any legal differences between our managers and the members in a perfectly amicable manner. "But when we can not imagine what on earth any actor who is playing for us can possibly find a grievance about, we do not intend to stand idly by while Mountford stirs up the actor, not alone the actor who is not playing for us for some reason, but perhaps the actor who is. "It is endangering the peaceful pur- suit of our business, and we members of the Protective Association got to- gether to talk it over. Our talk be- came a serious one. We took the matter from every side and concluded it was time to step out of our silence. We have said nothing so far so the profession has only heard one side. We don't care to say a great deal but what we shall say or do will be directly to the point, and we are prepared to meet any emergency." Asked if the managers were opposed to an organization of artists, the man- ager answered: "That is a silly ques- tion as you well know. Our position on the subject has been expressed too often to be mistaken. We would wel- come a friendly association of artists." At the managers meeting were pres- ent E. F. Albee, Martin Beck, Marcus Loew, William Fox, B. S. Moss, Sam A. Scribner, John Ringling and Morris Meyerfeld, Jr., president of the Orpheum Circuit, who was in New York. Another managers' meeting is under- stood to have been set for the latter part of this week. Boston, March 1. A meeting of New England vaude- ville managers hat been called for to- day in this city. Maurice Goodman, attorney for the United Booking Offices of New York, came here this afternoon and it is said he will address the as- semblage. RE-ENGAGING CHARLOTTE. Charlotte, the toe skipping ice skater at the Hippodrome was about to sign an extension of her contract Wednes- day with Charles Dillingham. Mr. Dillingham may intend taking Charlotte and several of the other skaters at the Hip on the road, when "Hip, Hip Hooray" starts on its travel. The method of securing an ice sur- face for the changing stands is to be settled upon, although Charlotte's father is said to have patented a device for manufacturing ice in sections, bringing the several parts into a whole on a floor, or if stage, in sight of the audience. If you doa't advertise In VARIETY, don't ndvartlan HOWARD-HUSSEY TALK. Boston, March 1. When "The Passing Show," a Shu- bert production with Willie and Eu- gene Howard featured, played here last week, Jimmy Hussey and Jack Boyle (Hussey and Boyle), came over to see it. After watching the performance Wil- lie Howard and Mr. Hussey are report- ed to have had a conversation that required two hours or more to com- plete. Both boys are Hebrew come- dians aloflg similar lines of individual work, rtoward is said to have accused Hussey of borrowing the Willie How- ard type of character, manner of work- ing and other things. Mr. Hussey, ac- cording to the story, replied he worked naturally and knew no other way. The visit of Hussey to see a piece in which Willie Howard was playing seemed to indicate the Shuberts are not any too certain the Howard boys will remain under their management, and may have thought of retaining Hussey for an emergency call to replace How- ard. That method is not foreign in the Shubert's business-conducting category, although it is said around here the Shu- berts had some idea in connection with the Howards through using Hussey to appear here on the scene. John T. Murray and Dixie Gerard have left the company. Mr. Murray left in the middle of the week after an altercation with the manager. The show is booked to go to the Coast The present cast is composed princi- pally of chorus people with the excep- tion of the Howard Brothers. It is understood those comedians had to stand for a cut. That is the real reason why Hussey and Boyle were sent here, it is said. "SOFT," SAYS SAM BERNARD. Cincinnati, March 1. "When I played in pictures for the Keystone," said Sam Bernard, who is at Keith's this week, "one fellow got $3 a day and had to be a victim In an ambulance wreck. I got $400 for res- cuing him. "In all I received $25,000 under a 10 weeks' contract from the Keystone, during which I actually worked 13J4 days, making two pictures. Pretty soft, eh?* •TWO RASCALS AND JACOBSON" FRANK VAN HOVEN lamled in England on May 10, on the good ship "Hesperian." Later it went to the ocean bottom when hit with a German torpedo shejl. These boys were very, very kind to Van Hoven on hii opening, and these three Ameri- ca!) boys headline all bills in Great Britai*. More power to them. Van is moat grateful to theae boy*. MERCEDES WINS TITLE CASE. Detroit, March 1. The injunction proceedings in the case of Mercedes against Mercedes Crane, heard before Judge Perkins in the Wayne County Circuit Court this week, resulted in a victory for Mer- cedes, the complainant, Judge Perkins issuing a permanent injunction re- straining Mercedes Crane from using the name in any manner in this coun- try. The decision will necessitate the rechristening of the western act The case arose through the question of proper ownership of the word Mer- cedes, the Mercedes Crane act claim- ing prior title on the grounds of it being her proper name. The com- plainant (Joseph Cohen) claimed prop- er title to the Mercedes name on the grounds he had made it a professional trade-mark and popularized it in vau- deville. Recently Cohen had his name changed legally to Joe Mercedes. Mercedes is playing Keith's, Toledo, this week, having replaced Violet Dale, who failed to appear. He journeyed to Detroit during the hearing and was present when the decision was render- ed. The Mercedes Crane act is play- ing somewhere in Indiana. MOUNTFORD'S ELECTION ASSURED. With the publication of the ballot for the forthcoming election of of- ficers of the White Rats (an official copy of which appears in this issue of Varibtt) the election of Harry Mount- ford as International Executive is 'as- sured since no opponent could be in- duced to compete with Mr. Mountford for the office. Several prominent members of the organization was approached with a view to provide more than one nominee for the combined office, but the result was obvious and Mountford hat the slate to himself. The fight for president of the or- ganization promises to be a spirited one since both the nominees (J. Wil- liam FitzPatrick and Edward Es- monde) have a large following and the interest is at a higher tension than at any past event of this kind. A BOBBY WATSON ARRESTED. A "Bobby Watson" was arrested in New York this week for the murder of a young woman. The crime was committed in the apartment of the victim, who was mar- ried to a barber. The assassin cooly left the scene of his deed and pro- ceeding to a nearby saloon phoned police headquarters to send an ambu- lance around. The lieutenant answering the call traced its location and notified the proprietor to hold the man who, when arrested, gave his name as Bobby Watson and his profession as actor. MRS. EMMETT DIES. Chicago, March 1. Mrs. Hildred Emmett died yester- day, after an operation performed upon her for appendicitis in a local hos- pital two days before. She was the wife of Hugh J. Em- mett, and both were in vaudeville*