Variety (May 1919)

LEGITIMATE IS I ROUTING OF ROAD ATTRACTIONS FOR NEXT SEASON VERY BRISK Shubert and K. & E. Books Already Overloaded with Touring Shows. New York Business Beginning to Flop. Summer Outlook for Brokers Not Bright. Preparations for the road for next season are far advanced with present indications that at least a' third more attractions starting out early in the fall. The final line-up during the sum- mer* should see a greater percentage over the past two seasons. The pre- diction is that even the smaller com- munities will be given more offerings than ever in the history of theatricals. That means that the going will be hard for "turkeys"' wfiich are known to have cleaned up unheard of profits during the past season.. Last.fall the road was denuded of attractions in some sections through the influenza. But the readjustments from that con- dition and the adaptation of the rail increases have finally been made and with general prosperity expected to continue, managers are looking to a big road year for 1919-20. The Shubert books" are even now practically filled with routes and that office will start the new season with more shows than the K. & E. office perhaps for the first time. There are to be two traveling companies of al- most every attraction which made the semblance of a Broadway run and as New York has furnished more appar- ent successes than ever before, the number of touring shows is bound to be larger. The Shubert affiliations greatly boost theoutgoing flock with A. H. Woods and Comstock, Elliott & Gest listed as the most active support- ing producers. The latter will have around 18 shows on tour and the for- mer office will easily exceed that num- ber. The Shubert office itself has a lengthy string and in addition is now readying twenty new productions for Broadway. It is true, that that num- ber of available theatres on the road has not materially increased, yet many have been without regular legitimate attractions. The K. & E. office is also primed for a big out of town season and the conditions which may obtain if the two . firm principals separate is not expect- ed to interfere with the bookings. Most of the big K. & E. shows have been called in from the road, which is taken as a sign that some settle- ment in the Klaw & Erlanger squabble is imminent. Report has it that a de- cision one way or the other would come this week. Business on the road dropped decis- ively within the past ten days. Along Broadway it again slightly declined, but is regarded very strong, the con- tinued weather break helping. Mati- nees are off and so are Saturday nights, that incident to the beginning of the week end season. Among the new attractions '.The Lady in Red" doesn't shape up to pre- dictions at the Lyric. It drew down $10,500 its first week, but the going was not strong early this week, even though the demand in the ticket agen- cies was good. "Pretty Soft" at the Morosco is getting a play mostly through its salaciousness. The police looked in Monday night but 'up to Wednesday had no disposition to in- terfere. "John Ferguson," the . Irish play at the Garrick, is attracting at- tention, in spite of it being a grue- some affair. Attendance was strong enough to have the piece held over, though it was listed for one week and a third week was indicated. "Toot Sweet" is flourishing at the Bayes. The two last named attractions show that location is not essential. The Overseas Revue proves -fast and divert- ing, upholding the Chicago opinion. The gross last week nearly touched $5,800 a goodly share of lithograph tickets aiding. The show turns a profit at less than $5,000, gross. "Sweet 6 was given in total Sunday night, the man- agement classing it as a concert and with no objections from the police. Broadway's leading attraction con- tinues in "The Jest," which established another house record by drawing $18,- 887. That was possible through the reseating of the balcony, which now has but one row of dollar seats. The date-set for the piece to stop for the summer is June 21. Eight attractions withdrew from the lists last week, but the number of dark houses continues to be nil since new offerings were immediately routed in. Replacements -during the week are "Love Laughs" at the Bijou (succeed- ing "3 for Diana"); Walter Hampden in "Hamlet" at the 39th Street (follow- ing "Come Along"); "Who Did It" en- ters the Belmont. (replacing \ "Our Pleasant Sins"). But one withdrawal was set for this week, "Come On Char- ley" out of the 48th Street. "Dear Brutus" will withdraw from the Em- pire in two weeks at which time a group of others are also due to end their runs. •' "It Happens to Everybody" withdrew from the Park after one week, as ex- pected. Next week the house goes into pictures with the Rothapfel program. A new picture will go into the Harris succeeding "Fires of Faith," the Sal- , vation Army film, which could do noth- ing. Griffith's first picture offering at the Cohan is a success and doing real business. It looks like a long lean summer for the agencies as far as outright buys are concerned for the two big musical of- ferings of the summer season. Last week Flo Zeigfeld signified his inten- tion of not doing business with the brokers and this week George White turned down an offer of an eight-week buy for the lower floor of the Lib- erty for the "Scandals of 1919." The agencies stood ready to take a chance on the White show's success and buy without any return privilege. The "Scandals" will have a $3 top scale on the opening night and $2.50 after that. What the brokers are wondering at is the strength of the buys that are in force at present. Usually at this time of the year there are about six buys for musical shows running, but the count this week shows that there are 16 still on tap. The new one being added is "Love Laughs" which opened at the Bijou. The buy there is for 250 seats a night for two weeks. "Take It From Me" has but one addi- tional week to run and "Up in Mabel's Room" has two weeks. With the buy for "The Jest" now booked until June 21. The others are "39 East" (Broad- hurst); "The Royal Vagabond" (Co- han and Harris), "Three Wise Fools" (Criterion), with four weeks to run; "Lightnin"' (Gaiety), which looks like it will remain all summer; "She's a Good Fellow" (Globe); "Listen Lester" (Knickerbocker); "The Lady in Red" (Lyric); "The Velvet Lady" (Amster- dam); 'Tumble In" (Selwyn); "Good Morning Judge" (Shubert); and "Monte Cristo" (Winter Garden). LEXINGTON'S WINNING SEASON. The Lexington Ave. O. H. is to have a winning season. The theatrical year at the'house closes tomorrow (Satur- day) and for the first time the play- house will show a profit. The house is now held by The Masks Inc., under a lease from the corporation that took over the property about a year ago. Bartley Cushing undertook the active management at that time and laid out a policy that meant all the attractions playing at the theatre would have to guarantee the house first money. The house asks for a guarantee of from $1,250 to $1,600 first money on a percentage basis or on an outright rental $2,000. The Sundays bring any- where from $450 to $600. Last week the Winter stock closed after a season of four weeks and this week the Amex Revue of 1919, the same attraction at the Manhatten O. H. for a week, is holding forth under the auspices of the "Carry On" asso- ciation. COMIC OPERA IN PROVIDENCE. Felix Wemdelschafer has booked the Tressi-Andfe Comic Opera Co. for an indefinite-run at his Providence Opera House, commencing June 2, with Vic- tor Herbert's "Her Regiment," to be followed by "A Modern Eve," "The Lilac Domino," "Red Feather" and other light opera successes. The principals include Elinor Andre, Norma Brown, Mildred Rogers, Lenore Hanna, Eleanor Hale, Bobbie Woolsey, Dan Marble, William Naughton, Ed- mund Fitzpatrick, Nelson Riley, Gil- man Williams. Joseph Tressi is musical director, Dan Marble producer and William Bartlett manager. There is an ensemble of 50. PRODUCING "OFFICERS' MESS." "Officers' Mess," an English musical show, is to be produced by the Shu- berts in conjunction with C. B. Mad- dock and Max Hart. The play ran for five months in London at the Princess but was stopped in the midst of its success through the sale of the theatre, which .occurred during the American visit of Andre Chariot, who produced the piece. C. cVH. SELL "CAVE GIRL" "The Cave Girl" production complete, was sold this week by Cohan & Har- ris to Comstock & Gest. The latter firm will put the show out in October. The piece was written by George Mid- dleton. Cohan & Harris gave it a try- out of three weeks early.in the spring, then retired the play for future pre- sentation. ARLISS' RIGHTS. George Arlits is enquiring about a production by George Anderson, said to-be in course of preparation and due to open shortly in - Washington. Mr." Arliss's interest arises from the fact the Anderson play is called "There and Back," A successful farce which Mr. Arliss wrote 20 years ago has the same title. Charlie Evans starred in it here. Mr. Arliss is still drawing royalties from it, as his London bank informed him on his arrival Monday. He has just finished his road tour in "The Mollusc" and Barrie's "A Well Remembered Voice," and June 10 sails for London for a six weeks' visit. He has not been there in five years. In the meantime, he will call attention to the fact that Mr. Anderson, who is Fritzi Scheff's husband, has innocently called his rights into question. "COME ALONG" FOR THE COAST. "Come Along," a musical show which struggled along at the Nora Bayes Theatre for five weeks and then moved to the 39th Street-last wee'r, stopped Saturday, the loss being something over $40,000. During its final .two weeks the show dropped something over $3,- 000 each week. It is practically set, however, starting June 9, for'the offering to tour to the coast, with the Canadian northwest especially in mind, with-the show final- ly arriving in Chicago in September, The road idea depends on some "fresh' money" which the play's producers have attracted, a quarter interest hav- ing been disposed of. Control, how- ever, remains with R. M. Nelson, brother of the composer of the score. MUST IMPROVE SHOWS. ' AH musical comedy attractions will have to be improved 50 per cent, next season over the run of shows that the current season has brought forth. That statement was made by a pro- ducer of musical comedy attractions this week. His contention is that'the audiences this season were willing to accept almost anything in the line of entertainment on the musical comedy stage because of the war excitement.!' Next season they will be more critical. :t;-fi Geo. White's "Scandals" All Hi. Own. George White's "Scandals of 1919," which opens in Washington^ Monday next prior to its Broadway entry at the Liberty, is carrying a heavy pro- duction. Despite reports of backing, White in- sists that he is entirely on his own with the new show, which entails a pro- duction cost of around $50,000, about one-half going for settings. MARILYNN MILLER THE LEAD. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., stated this week Marilynn Miller would be the principal: woman of this season's "Follies." The; show will have its initial presentation during June instead of being delayed until July as was first believed. There will be no auction sale of seats for the opening-night this year. \ : >^r.. A LOST COMPOSER. Louis Cline. general factotum for. George Broadhurst, is trying to locate; George Spink, the composer, who is responsible with him for the musical' piece entitled "The Film Princess." The piece is to be produced this.fall and Spink is somewhere "overseas," and as the contract calls for both the author and composer to be on the job, the production will have to be held up until Spink can be located. • ;ifc $m BROADHURSrS WESTERN PLAY, George Broadhurst will produce next! season a play by Langdon McCormick dealing with the Canadian Northwest, . There is only one woman's part..! Who will play it has not yet been de- cided, but Beatrice Prentice and Made-; line Delmar have had it under con- sideration. •■- Marty Herman's "Simple" Operation. "I'll have to blow out on you fel- lows. Doctor wants to operate on me for about lS'niinutes. Some little thing that I suppose I'll have to stand for," said Marty Herman one day as he ! walked away. • ■ r ■ The doctors operated for two hours and one-half. Mr. Herman was in bed for about eight days and not even the members of his family knew of it un- til he walked out, fully patched up, last Sunday, v " Now Marty says there is but one more operation he should go through and then he will be all set. cJm Bonie McCoy with Greenwich Co. Bessie McCoy was signed this week for the "Greenwich Village Follies" and at the same time Harry K. Morton was signed for the summer run of the piece. Murray is under contract with Jacobs & Jermon for three years and is farmed out by them for this engage- ment, through an arrangement with Chamberlain Brown. Zella Russell, James Watts and Carles Dickerson have also been signed for the show. I m am fimtmt ■ i !/,,.v.!7-v,. I. V A. V 1 _