Variety (April 1920)

p^^p|ff!»lf?^pplP^iP Vf.'.JI /.J;'^ *X"'\'V''''- ';':•'?' • W..'^'*^r^i,t 15 INSIDE STUFF ON LEGIT ^ , - . ■ Tidings Tiave been drifting eastward ' from time to time anent the Finchoa '; and Marco revue, "Let's Go," which ;. left the coast and has been touring I toward Chicago by slow stages—stages ^ tnade' slower by repeated return en- \ gage'ments. The show is said to have I all that Frisco zip which so often has ;, served as pace setting for New York* . '/musical stuff, and how it has been re- . ceived is illuminatingly illustrated by ': the following incidents in Waterloo, Iowa: "Let's Go" played there to good ' business the first time and was im- , mediately booked to return. Its sec- ond visit was held up by a railroad ■ wreck and a capacity house waited in until 10:30, but the troupe did not ar- rive until midnight. A third booking - was made for March 21, matinee and : night. Again railroading ^was of the ■^ now customary mid-west kmd, and the ■ company arrived after S. The 'entire - audience was still <>n hand and at 6:15 the matinee curtain , rang up. The audience was dismissed at 9 and by 9:1S - the night crowd packed the house and i- at 9:30 the evening show began, clos- ing at 12. A fourth engagement was then contracted. Chicago is the pres- ent objective, but the date is yet in- '' definite while the Fanchon and Marco* presentation zigzags around with^such returns as above described. - • . f \ ^ Clifton Crawford was out of "My Lady Friends" at the Comedy for two ■ days last week. —Ernest Truex went into his role temporarily but Craw- . ford's name was o)it of4he biUing and I advertising until Monday of this week. The star's run-ins with the manage- ' ment have been more than temper- ' amental. And there has been friction ■ Uetween Crawford and other ■ cast ~ members, largely through his trick of . re-writing the play during the per- formance. Recently one of the fem- inine leads, stopped a scene and re- ■ marked to Crawford that when he was finished ad-libbing they would go on with the show. In "My Lady Friends" Crawford has the best chance in years. .' After a "heart to heart" session with - H. H. Frazee, Crawford returned to the sh<Jw Friday last. ^■^ '■. y One of this season's new producing firms which blew^up recently after staging a brace of failures, also brought troubles to several employes i in a Broadway bank.. A check for several thousand dollars made out on a Texas bank was deposited. The New York institution requested the Texas bank to wire an O. K., but in- ' stead a letter was received, "with the check enclosed marked msufficient '. funds. Then, the clerk who received ' the message forgot to inform the pay- ing teller and checks made out by ihe ' firm practically consumed the firm's balance.. A bonding company must make the bank's losses good but the clerk will lose his job. A report that the Punch and Judy . was under lease to Charles Dillingham , was probably confused with the term of tenancy of R. H. Burnside. When Charles Hopkins went abroad early in the winter with the idea of putting "Treasure. Island" on in England, he arranged with Burnside for the latter to take over the little house. Bum- side used it for "Miss Millions". but his arrangement extended until the ' middle of March at a weekly rental of $1,000 weekly. The Punch and Judy has been spasmodically tenanted since . the withdrawal of %is8 Millions." The latter was Burnside's own venture and it brought a loss of around $70,000 to the producer. ^ George M. Cohan's greatest concern s JUit at present is said to be his stom- ach. Mr. Cohan exercises much care in choosing his food. This prohibits himirom eating much of what he likes, otherwise dypepsia ,wduld affect his ordinarily lively disposition, according to his friends. Mr. Cohan's 19-year old daughter Georgette, who lately ai^ rived here, after ftn absence of seven years with her mother, Ethel Levy, has been taken to the arms and hearts Of all of the Cohan family. Georgette is a talented girl, has been unustially well educated and seems to make friends unconsciously. "What's in a Name,'^ at the Maxine Eliott, is arousing niuch attention among shMvmen because of its produc- tion; des^ibed as "fifteen years' ahead of its time.". The attraction has 22 loads of settings, but there is no scen- ery, the production consisting of hanjg- ings, draperies^ panels, screenS and lifting effects. Fifty grips are needed to operate the show. It is-in a com- paratively small house for a musical attraction. The scale is $330 for the entire lower floor, which equals the top rate yet charged regularly on Broadway. A larger, house may be allotted the piece next-month. The-''Follies" road season may be lengthened this -season, due to ex- cellent business on tour and the fact that few players in the present show - {ire to appear in the new edition. Van and Schenck is to be the only act to be held for the new "Follies" thus far. The new Ziegfeld show is de- signed to carry a story, the idea being to provide a .chafige from the revue type of attraction. It is said that is the reason why Edward Royce has succeeded Ned Wayburn as the stage director for Ziegfeld. ' The night before litorris Gest and Will Page bailed for England on the "Mauretania" they entertained the of- ficers of the vessel at the Century and later on the roof. This may, or may not, have had some bearing on the fact that "Maurie" and "Billy" secured the bridal wte on the ship,, which was turned back at the last moment by an' important financier who was com- pelled to postpone his trip. In back of the switch of "My Golden Girl" from the Nora Bayes to the Ca- sino next week is said to be the in- fluence of Al Jolson with the Shuberts. Jolson has been mentioned as being interested in "Golden Girl," but has denied it. "Betty Be Good," which was mentioned for the Casino as a suc- cessor to "The Little Whopper," was brought into New York last week. It is now named to open at the Casino not later than April 26. A producing and theatre manager called a couple of treasurers before him the other day, asking that they tell him the actual amount they had re- ceived from ticket agencies since Janr uary 1. One treasurer figured up $3.- 800, the other $2,700. The Comstock & Gest, offices are mailing post cards to the buyers in town, getting a list of their stopping places from the dailies, plugging "Adam and Eva." RUSSIA HARD ON ARTISTS. Russian artists in Russia are not averaging to-day more than 40 rubles a t/eek; plus an allowance in bread ra- tioning. Russian art is subsidized un- der the Bol^heviki regime. An artist whose figure under the Taarittic regime averaged thousands of rubles a tiight, as in the case of Challiapin, of the Moscow and. St. Pettersburg operas, is not getting more than the average pay of other artists. The entire artistic jmovement of Russia (pi-oper) is under the sole direc- tion of Maxim Gorky and his wife. The fact that he had been thrice re- ported dead in American newspapers IS incorrect. He and his wife are today the leaders of artistic direction, and scarcely any matter appertaining to theatres playing the legitimate type of shows, or the opiera, the concert halls, the ballet, and even motion pictures are shown without first having the artistic censorship of the Gorkys. This information comes from Andrew Soutar, correspondent of the London "Timies," a recent arrival in America. lie is not long out of Archangel, Si- beria, where he fought with the Brit- ish forces under commtind of Gen. Ironsides, in addition to acting as cor- respondent. At the time he was in Archangel, that city, the then headquarters of the ahti-Bolsnevik forc'es, it was the meet- ing point for al! Russian artists who had been compelled to flee Russia. De- srribing theatrical conditions in ^tch- acgel, Mr. Soutar declared that a big dwelling house had been converted in- to an impromptu sort of theatre. This theatre was under the direction of Davidoff, who was then in his 82nd year but remarkable for his vitality. Like the others he had fled from Mos- cow and was playing repertoire with a troupe of about 30 members. Of the business -done in that house/ Mr. Sou- tar, declares "capacity." The members of this particular troupe, however, were not averaging more than, the artists playing Moscow or Petrograd bouses, but they received an additional measure of bread in excess of the al- lowance secured by the workingman. Continuing Mr. Soutar described a pathetic in'cident that occurred there. It appears that a young man. a promi- lient dancer in Warsaw had been in- ducted by a big increase in his contract, to abandon the engagement he had in Warsaw and go on to Archana:eL In Archangel he .faced a court martial due to a-misinterpretation by the police and "spies" of the anti-Bolshevik forces. This dancer had been brought before a tribunal, the specific charge against him that he had sung a parody bn "Tipperary," that they-^eemed" disloyal to them and loyal to the Bolsheviks. ~ He proved his innocence and was ac- quitted. Despite his acquittal, however, he was deprived of his bread card. ' Living then became a hardship for the artist and he resolved to escape. ,NEW HOUSE FOR •'HONEY GIRL." Boston, March 31. "My. Honey Girl," which has been playing to capacity at the Park Square, will be forced out of the house through Erior booking at the end of the week, ut moves over to the Majestic on Monday for an additional two weeks. House shortage is keeping this at- traction out of New. York, but it may later go into the Cohan and Harris there. He drew a rough map of the country, but was caught crossing the lines and cast into prison. . The correspondent then asked to see the prisoner who explained in broken English that he 'had once played the music halls of Manchester and London. In the best way he could he also de- scribed the fact that he had been tbown into prison on the charge of crossing to the Bolshevik lines with maps and information to the enemy, when those maps were nothing else than a rough sketch of the country that would enable him to escape to a place of freedom with more bread to sustain life. "As far as I know," declared Mr. Sou- tar, "he may still be th'ere, for my in- tervention availed nothing." In addition to what Soutar has been told about Maxim and his wife being the leaders of artistic direction in Rus- sia, he further declared as he was in- formed by Russian artists, that the theatres in Russia (proper) were never so patronized in numbers as they were PROVINCETOWN PUYERS. The Provlncetown Players Is offering Its fifth blUof its fourth New Tork aea- : son at Its "theatre" on MacDougal street. oonslstlDff of thr^e playlets. They. are "Last Maake," by Arthur Sohnltsler: "Kurzy of the Sea," by DJuna Sarnes; "Exorcism," by Eugene O'Neill:. The first and third are "tragedies" (ia . the seneral-meaningr of the word) and the middle one is comedy. All three , are freakish and not likely to be seized upon for vaudeville purposec. "lAnt Masks" depicts a small ward in a publlo hospital in Vienna. Seated in a ohalr is a broken-down dramatlo crjtto who Is dylngr. He begs the phy- sician to send for a prominent actor, to whom he avers he has soniethinGr Im- '^ portant to communicate'bflfore he dlea While waiting f6r the actor he confldes to another patient that he has cherished for years a hatred of the star and in- tends to tell him that he was the lover of the thesplan'B wife. The actor arrives, is kindness itself to the dying man. the invalid's bitterness subsides, he allows ' his "enemy" to depart In peace, and sinks back dead, what Is evidently in- tended to be conveyed is that the oritlo's body has boon eaten, away by bitter- ness. "Kurzy of the Sea" is a rather whim- sical comedy. The scene is laid in a ootaage Jn Ireland, overloolflng the sea. Mrs. MacRae has a son grown to man- hood who, resolutely refuses to marry. All day \6ne he dreams of a duchess, a goddess or something of that sort before he will wed. Father enters carrying a young woman in a huge fishnet which he had dragged from the sea. Rory is Immediately smitten, hitches up the old mare and takes her for.a drive. He re- turns in the course of time and an-, nounces he had thrown her back Into' the aea to determine whether she was human or celestial, whereupon she had cast off her dress, thrown it to him. underneath which was a bathing suit and had swam away, after telling him she was barmaid at the local tavern, had often listened to his mother's incan- tations and had played a Joke upon them: Toung Rory tells his father to keep his horse as it is a boat he'll be needing. The O'Neill playlet, "Exor- cism," is a most depressing afCalr, de-' void of all uplift The son of a well-to- , do gentleman has been cast off by his family on account of drink. He Is liv- ing In a dingy lodKing house on the water-front. He determines to end it all by taking a dose of morphine, but takes too little, and after 34 hours is as. alive as before. His father had been sent for and offers to take him back. He promises to begin over again, his oronles enter with a bottle of whiskey and he falls back, into the position In which he was when the playlet opened. The weakling's observations on life and . things are of the most morbid kind, showing a depraved, degenerate telnd which nothing can alter. Confessedly amateurs and making no claims to anything else, the actors are not to be taken seriously, nor'ls It the Jirovlnce of this publication to pass udgment. favorably or otherwise, on non-professional players. /otoa,. ZAGATBARTH RECITAL ^ The Helen Zagat-Hans Barth realtiil to have been given Sunday, March 14,'but stopped by the 8al>bath Society, took place last Friday afternoon at the Little Theatre. Miss Zagat Is a classle dancer who payn more attention to the meaning , of her dances than to their simple teoh- nlQue. In other words, there is little of the pretty gesturings andvposlngs that often make classic dances «s given to- day more conventional than the eld-tlme minuet. Her dance to Chopin's "Revo- lutloary Etude" really conveyed the feel- ing of blind, massed force that eventually must break through suppression an^ waii much better than the 'prettier" dance* done to Schubert and Brahms. Mr Barth, on the other hand, is so excellehl a technician that other elements In hte playing are not noticeable. He plays very much as Benjamin de Casseraa writes—in the latter case one Is lost in admiration for his ,command of words; in Mr. Barth'a case the hearer Is lost in admiration at his (Command of notes. LeeO. m today. Everything artistic was flour- ishing on the biggest scale imaginable. This was due he explained to the small admittance charge, and also due to the cost of production and artists' salaries being minimized to the 40 rubble scale. , "Art may have not suffered," he ex- plained, "but the stellar artist certain- ly must have sliced his income. ^_.^^ Soutar is in this couqtrv aruitfing fcr the sale of several of hitf fiction stories for motion pictures./ "Other Men's Shoes," a story-of hi«, has al- ready been filmed. "The Beggar and Purple." and "On Principal,? tfre now being bid for. ,< 'm .. I ■ / Si • ■■Si ■ f.' '•: -.75 -. -.rs ■-..vS ■'•a "■'■} >A