Variety (December 1916)

VAftllTY ^Wf WeaUf fey VARIIXY, Ibc. •N "Jjsffi'CtSW'li umh^iUm Mil t» tUr at New Y«rk Vol. XLV. No. 5 Happy New Year I White Rat members and all playing members of the vaudeville profession may now perhaps realize the risk they would have been asked to assume through the one-handed rule of the White Rats to go on strike if Harry Mountford in his single-headed com- mand had been allowed to continue his solitary march toward that vaudeville greatness he dreams of and can never reach. To order a strike, any union or any one man should have resources to carry it forward, for a short while anyway. Mr. Mountford's sway of the White Rats organization, his vain boasts and his blatant threats may now be gauged by vaudevillians, when they know that the single-headed rule of the Rats has placed a mortgage upon its only remaining available asset, the fur- nishing of the Rats clubhouse. ply the Board of directors voted to execute the mortgage, but the Board of Directors voted to give Mountford sole executive power in the Rats, so the Board is only Mountford after all. The menace of Mountford was never more set forth than he has done him- self in this last play made by him, mortgaging the only available free and unencumbered asset the White Rats has left { to hold up a final bluff that was a failure before it started, foil Mountford never had the grounds to base a strike of vaudeville actors on, ex- cepting those grounds he had prepared himself by talking too much and of no concern to anyone in vaudeville except- ing Mountford, himself, those who could not obtain work and the Mount- ford horde that has been living off the White Rats since Mountford returned to it. The vaudeville player may well con- gratulate himself that he or she escaped becoming enmeshed in a never- to-be-forgotten struggle with the man- agers, during which Mountford and his lightweight bank account might have faded entirely away, leaving any actors who had unthinkingly "walked out" to take care of themselves. Varibtt asked Mr. Mountford in print and in person to tell the actors the truth about the financial condition of the White Rats. Mr. Mountford would not. When we offered him free space to answer Variety's editorial of Dec. 3, 1915, it was with the proviso Mountford told the actor the truth, and Varibtt told Mountford if he didn't we would. Mountford pleaded with us to wait, not to do it at that time, to give him a chance, and we did, but we kept our promise to tell the actor, although we waited until Mountford had gone too far, until he had himself forgotten what he should have remembered, that the entire White Rat affair up to date from the time he again took hold, not- withstanding any and all who may have been connected or associated with Mountford during that time, has only been a matter of Mountford, the menace of Mountford, really. We would like to go way into this menace of Mountford matter, in de- tail, to expose Mountford as it were, to show how little he had behind him in the working actor and how his com- plete mastery over the affairs of the White Rats was achieved by him, not by any great stroke of statesmanship or genius, but we are not going to do that at this time, for it might be made a pretext for saying Varibtt is against the Rats as an organization and against any artists' organization, which is not so. Varibtt is against Mountford as a leader or as connected with any asso- ciation of vaudeville players, varibtt is against any man whose capabilities are so limited he must perforce use de- ception to gain confidence and is then willing to sacrifice the innocent to gain his own ends. That sums up Mountford and his single-handed rule of the Rats. He is not a leader, for a leader anywhere and of anything will and will willingly take the same risk his men do. Most leaders will take that risk first, for the title of leader tells in itself the one who bears it is to lead. Mountford, though, has never taken a risk excepting upon his salary, which is less by much than a great ma- jority of the acts he asks to endanger themselves. Those acts can earn by their merit their money week in and week out. It depends upon those acts whether Mountford can rule them sin- gle-handed. Mountford's salary is a "■■**■ vv^ii^t" —-—ii-v-r -rr- ££ mble » his position is a gamble, un- or order a strike, Eut how could ne""~*i ess ncTouiu stw up 'Ac v*tfl!^«Mrti' That mortgage was given for $5,000, an amount probably hardly more than sufficient to pay the hotel and telegraph bills of Mr. Mountford and his many aids during the,past three weeks when these aids (if they have been such) spread throughout the country. Yet Mr. Mountford seriously planned a strike, notwithstanding what he might say at this time. He sought to disrupt vaudeville, threaten the millions of dol- lars invested in it, and jeopardize the standing of artists on the strength of what money he could raise by pawning the furniture and fixtures of the White Rats clubhouse. That pawn- ing brought him $5,000, against which may be an avalanche of accumulated debts. The $5,000 may or may not go toward wiping them out. Whether it will liquidate any of Mountford's sal- ary as the International Executive of the White Rats Actors' Union, only Mountford, as the single-headed ruler of the Rats, likely knows. A condition like this does not alone seem one for the very thoughtful at- tention of all vaudeville, but it appears a serious matter of consideration for the American Federation of Labor, with which the White Rats Actors' Union is leagued. The Rats' union per Mount- ford has made free use of its affiliation with the A. F. of L. It has presumed upon it, monkeyed with it, held it be- fore the actors' and the managers' faces, made a flag of it and at the finish it may have helped to back up a chat- tel .mortgage for $5,000. The A. F. of L. has not been accustomed to see- ing one of its branches use these des- perate means. Nor does the A. F. of L. probably want a wild man running around loose with its name as his only shield. Mountford with his single handed ■j.ut.ho«-ity migh1 1 run the .W hite Rats alone have the temerity to chattel mort- gage an the Rats has left without ask- ing the members who paid for those things whether the furnishings should also be sent along with the rest on a hopeless cause? Mountford might re- tor into" the White Rats and then- se*v. himself so firmly into the organization for life at a stated salary nothing could dislodge him. That date is too far off now, for Mr. Mountford has talked himself out of vaudeville in America. Vaudeville actors had better never forget this lesson Mountford has given them. He has given it to them twice in the same place, and twice should be enough. The next time anyone comes along and asks the vaudeville actor to pay him to find out how to be ruined in the profession for life, the vaude- ville actor had better ask that person for a show down in the first instead of the last place. One good way to prevent a recur- rence is by safeguarding the future of an artists' Organization through pre- venting the actor who says he is in vaudeville and is not, the one who can not work at his professed profession, from joining. Discrimination in mem- bership will accomplish a great deal. And we wish to call the attention of the Vaudeville Managers' Protective Association to this very thing also— discrimination in membership. It's as necessary for the manager to be.careful who is allowed in his organization as the actor. The bad manager and the bad actor I Don't forget them. They are two of the three evils and both should be kept out of any reputable vaudeville society, whether managers or actors, for both bring only trouble with them. If there are playing vaudevillians in sufficient numbers who yet belong to the White Rats or if there are White Rats who cherish (he memory of Gol- den, let them get together now to pre- serve the remnants of the order Golden founded and Mountford nearly de- stroyed. Golden's maxims may vet come true if the vaudevillian is true^to his memory and aghast as he should be at the phantom revealed by the single- handedness of Mountford's rule. Were Golden to observe today that his visionary though substantial and wholesouled thoughts for the vaudeville actor had brought White Rats of for- mer days to the point where they are declaring without remorse they are not White Rats, Golden might not regret his absence from his old field of labor. The change has been brought about by Mountford. one man, so thoroughly but only for himself that the only as- tonishing point about it is that the vaudeville actors ever stood for him. We could also take up the oft- repeated Mountford assertion of what he did for the Variety Artists' Federa- tion of England. The best thing he ever did for the V. A. F. was to leave England. The V. A. F. of England, working with the English managers on a friendly basis, has developed strength. That looks to be the future of the Na- tional Vaudeville Artists over here. Force appears to gain nothing—cooper- ation everything. The answer is ob«\ vious and the White Rats should listen. Mort Fox and Jack Wells have sep- arated. "The New York Girl," a burlesque or- ganization, is playing in the Northwest. Frank Jones was unable to report Christmas through illness. Frank Fogarty opened on the Pan- tages Circuit Sunday in Minneapolis. Winona Winter is playing as a spe- cial featured attraction with the Fried- lander tabloid, "The Suffragette Girl." Lester Mayne is on the road as trav- eling representative for the Sheedy agency. Leo Maase, who was in Berlin con- ducting a theatrical agency, has been ordered into action with the army and irTe*agc'ncy TsTToTc ITT '"*"""" ~~~ ~ The Majestic, Brooklyn, will start playing Sunday concerts Dec. 30, booked through the United Booking Offices. B. Obermayer's suicide in Munich about a year ago is reported to have been for a different reason than was at first assigned. The real cause may crop out after the war is over. Mr. and Mrs. Edward 8. Lawrence (Lawrence and Harrington) will cele- brate their 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow (Saturday) at their home, 425 Webster avenue, Long Island City. The engagement was announced in New York this week of Alice Dovey of "Very Good Eddie" to marry Jack Hazzard, of "Miss Springtime. Th will be married in the spring. hey Tommy Gray ran across a couple of highwaymen one night late late week near his home on the West Side. When Tommy regained consciousness his mother was poulticing his face. All the stick-up fellows got was Tommy's goat. Harrison Grey Fia 1 e has secured the stage rights for "Ole Reliable," which ran in story form in the "Saturday Evening Post" and will produce the piece in association with Corey & Riter. Betty Washington, who played in the New York cabarets before going abroad, has been bapked in England until 1020 at an average of $150 weekly, Willie Edelsten placed her on the other side. The California Hippodrome time has dropped the Star, Astoria, Ore., as a regular stand. Shows are booked in irregularly as part of a split week wKh Portland, breaking the jump- from Portland to San Francisco. fraphne Pollard sailed for London last Saturday on the "New York," there to be featured in the new revue open- ing at the Hippodrome on Jan. 29. Miss Pollard is under the personal di- rection of Jack Hughes, who obtained contracts calling for her appearance in London for seven months. The Sheedy agency will book the new Strand at St. Johns, N. B., playing five acts a full week. It opens in Feb- ruary. The same agency places the bills at the Strand, Halifax, also a full week. The Central, Bath, and the opera house, Biddleford, Me., started Sheedy book- ings this week, three acts each on a split. v Les Darcy was being shown over the Times Square map by Leonard Hicks this week. Mr. Hicks came on from Chicago to meet the Australian fighting wonder and his manager, Tom Sullivan. The Australians came over on a tramp oil steamer. Darcy looks to be about the size and weight to put against Dil- lon for a first go that would draw a lot of money around here. He would seem like a boy against Willard. He is much smaller than Moran. Darcy wandered' through the Palace theatre building and said he could do an act if called upon. The Australian made a very good impression among the show people. Justice Platzek in the Supreme Court awarded a decision to W. A. Brady, the defendant in an action brought by Rose Curry (Sire) who claimed 30 weeks' sal- ary on a contract which she held for one of the "Bought and Paid For" com- panies sent on tour in 1912. Before the company left the city the contract was cancelled and Miss Curry was paid the usual two weeks' salary. The case was tried before a jury of one, the attor- neys in the case agreeing that it was sojely a point of law and the court con- curru'iv'. kcierrm'K to il'.c ^aymcul u r the two weeks salary i\i& court's deci- sion was "For it is conceded that noth- ing was then due her for services'ren- dered." The decision is to be ap- pealed.