Variety (March 1916)

8 VARIETY A BROADER VIEWPOINT BY J. C. NUGENT Some letters and some comment has reached me regarding my action in de- clining the nomination for president or choice of other offices in the White Rats. To those interested I wish to say 1 appreciated the suggestion fully and con- sider the position hallowed by the memory of Golden and Kendall and graced later by Monroe, Niblo, Fogarty and othtrs as the highest honor the profession has within its gift. It is simply that my work is mostly west, that my interests are in the west, that I am little in New York and that I consider there are many other available men who are much better fitted for the position, and who can give it proper time which 1 could not even if elected. I feel it a much greater privilege and responsibility to be able to mould some- what the sentiments which shall eventually govern than to hold office. My article in Variety- headed "Where I Stand" covered about all I have to say on the subject and I can only enlarge upon one or two points before dropping the matter and returning to the work of acting and producing which take up all my time. There is in an argument, as in other things, a constant struggle between the analytical and the synthetic, between the constructive and destructive, between building up and tearing down; most of the articles I have read recently bearing upon our organization while containing some pertinent points seems to me to be of the destructive kind. They criticise but they suggest nothing, they give us the Dead Sea fruit of the past, but they point nothing hopeful for the future. The vaudeville business has a future, the tendency of which must be upward or down- ward from what, to my mind, is its present highest point, the building of the Palace theatre in New York and its highest artistic achievement to date, the recent engagement of Mine. Bernhardt While this is not so actually recent it is the biggest thing that has been done in vaudeville, and perhaps the last truly big thing. I hope to see vaudeville so advanced that this event will be counted just the beginning of bigger things. That modern vaudeville will become the market for the greatest ideals of creative art But the constructive and broad-minded manager must meet the competition of his shorter sighted rivals and associates: therefore the maintaining of the bate of salaries from which the others must be graded up and down is up to the artist and he can only accomplish it by organization. And there is only one organiza- tion which it is logical to consider and that is the White Rats. As Golden said, "why attempt a new organization only to encounter all the mistakes and blunders of the past over again?" For the above reason mainly it is the duty and to the interest of all bona fide vaudeville acts who have not done so, to join the organi- zation before this election if possible and to labor to so change its policies that it will be possible for them to remain in it consistently. The actor who claims he does not need the organization is selfish and unworthy; he forgets that while this may be true of himself it is not true of the majority and he owes them something whether he thinks so or not; no matter what happens we will have some sort of an organization and it may as well be right as wrong. No matter how much I disagree with the policies at present advocated by Mr. Mont- ford, we must all admit that he has done splendid work in reorganizing the order so far as numbers and finances are concerned. Why throw all this good work away? Why waste time criticising and finding fault with it? It is quite true that many of the members whom he has recruited are of no particular value in vaude- ville at present, but a percentage of them will develop and if we are to waste our energy building a house for them for the future why shouldn't they help pay for it? There is only one basic fault in Mr. Montford's policies but that is a very grave one. It commenced with the arrangement with the Federation of Labor which I opposed at the time and which I do not believe was ever the will of the order. The other points of difference can be eliminated or adjusted. The equitable contract idea everyone is in favor of, only some do not think it is as important as others. The regulation of the commission to a certain amount is also not espe- cially important as it can never have the slightest actual effect on the commission which will continue to cost its cost, whatever that may be, regardless of any written rules, and the arbitration board idea, as long as it is not compulsory, does not need to keep anyone out of the organization. My principal objection to it is that it entails asking the co-operation of the managers, and I believe our organi- zation should be complete in itself, as theirs is. However, to those who con- scientiously want an organization this detail will work out. The one basic and unsurniountable error is the closed shop idea, not because of any fancied or real social difference between artisians and artists, nor any fine distinctions between art and labor, all of which in this sense are the veriest rot, but for the very plain and simple reason that they put the artist in an impossible and untenable position. They put the artist in the position of having to choose, in a crisis, which may come any minute, which he shall regard as his most binding obligation; hit duty to his lodge or affiliation, or the honor of his signature. No matter which choice he may make, he is wrong. He has no right to assume two such oblipations knowing that they may conflict, knowing that the very incentive for taking them is that they can conflict. He cannot be true to both and he has no right to put himself in such a position. No one has any right to say that such a crisis may not arise or occur; whether it does or not, does not for a minute alter the fact he has no right to put himself in an unjustifiable position. The vaudeville business, in the legal sense, is contractual work, based upon the GABY SHOW CLOSING. "Stop! Look I Listen!" with Gaby Detlyt at the Globe theatre, will prob- ably come to a full ttop when the French girl't 20-week contract with Charlet Dillingham expiret about May I. The production may leave the Globe before that date, finishing its limited life at Boston. One story this week said if Mr. Dillingham could find place to plant Gaby's $3,750 weekly contract (which will be about $4,500 out of New York), he might close the Globe production at once. Gaby has failed at a drawing card with "Stop! Lookl Listen!" Business has dropped to an extent at the Globe, that while the theatre may be making money on its share of the gross, the production is losing. Broadway show people say that Gaby, if she has not outlived any draw- ing power as a freak attraction over here, needs the atmosphere of the Win- ter Garden to prove sdme people may still want to pay $2 to see her. The "Stop! Lookl Listen!" piece has been far from a peaceful organization in its personnel. The French starred young woman has managed to object to everything and everybody in and about the show that did not please, keeping the "back-stage" in a constant turmoil. To Gaby is reported due the leaving of one or more principals from the show's cast While the performance has been a very pleasing one, the Dillingham show was billed in a manner that threw the burden upon Gaby without Gaby mak- ing good in any tense other than pre- senting herself in person as advertised. Following a recent report regarding an open break in the professional re- lations of Gaby and Harry Pilcer (which later waa denied by Pilcer to appease Gaby), another rupture be- tween the two happened the past week when Gaby objected to Pilcer's sister, Elsie (Pilcer and Douglas in vaude- ville), impersonating Gaby in dress upon the stage. In the Pilcer-Doug- las act Miss Pilcer continually wears some costume in duplicate of a Gaby gown. His sister's act was staged and costumed by Harry. Gaby's objection is reported to have been violently made to Mr. Pilcer. Saturday 13 of the chorus are to leave. Several other cuts in the show will occur before it takes to the road. Gaby and Harry Pilcer may play in vaudeville after the closing. Their vaudeville price is said to be $4,000. SETTLEMENT IN WINNIPEG. Winnipeg, March 1. The differences between the local Pantages' theatres and its union staffs have been settled. The stage hands returned to the the- atre immediately, and the musicians will go back next Monday. SONG SELLING INNOVATION. (Continued from page 3.) their big song hits exclusively for a single distribution through the Globe Agencies. Heretofore the principal market out- let for what is known as "popular price music" (retailing at ten cents per copy) has been through the 10-cent stores, while "production music" (30 cents or more per copy) has been sold at recognized music stores locally. The Waterson (or Globe) system per- mits music of either price-class to be retailed from entirely new (as well as old) locations in all neighborhoods. The underlying scheme which pro- moted the promotion is said to have been the feasibility of co-operation be- tween the System and the store, the store having its established patronage (which likely includes a quota of music buyers), while the System's method of display advertising noting the stores as headquarters for popular song suc- cesses would bring new business in connection with the sheet music pur- chases, besides giving the store as a music retailer a considerable percen- tage of profit on each sale, at the same time allowing the retailer a return privilege that guaranteed him against loss. The music stand takes up but small space and in its design is an ornament Henry Waterson, who is the practi- cal working head behind this revolu- tionary song selling system, has shown an extraordinary keen business per- spective in many ventures of late years. He it estimated to be individually worth between $2,000,000 and $3,000,- 000, all made by him in the past eight years, and hit prospects from invest- ments in business which he actually controls outside the music trade are re- ported susceptible of trebling hit pres- ent fortune within a couple of years. One of the latest projects engineered by Waterson is a secret process for the making of barium chloride, a chemical necessary in the manufacture of dyes, wall paper, linoleum, etc. A plant has been built far uptown in New York and plans are under way for an additional structure that will be sufficiently large to permit an output of 500 tons weekly. The chemical company's first week's orders totaled $500,000, and the ordert have tince arrived fatter than the out- put capacity would permit. The by- products are also of value. Mr. Waterson is also the sole owner of the "Little Wonder Record," a smaller phonograph disc that sells for ten cents. In addition to this he has a number of retail music stores and also operates a large factory where oil paint- ings a.: reproduced to sell for $1.00 retail. JOSEPH BiPNES IN CHICAGO. Chicago, March 1. Joseph Birnes has succeeded Will P. Conley, as local repesentative of the White Rats' Actors' Union. integrity of signature. As such it differs radically from work paid by day wages, salary for indefinite periods, professional fees, or tips, and is entirely outside the realm of that which can be governed by the principles of unionism. The vaudeville artist who is in earnest in his desire for an org ..r.i/.'tion for tlie betterment, not of himself or of a few, but of the conditions under whan all shall work at present and in the years to come, should join the organ ; ration at -nice and then use his vote and influence to so shape its policy that the advance; it may gain shall be legal, logical and lasting, and to accomplish that the cloeJ shop idea must be recognized as being totally erroneous. /. C. Nuzmr. s