Variety (January 1921)

Friday, January 28, 1921 EDITORIALS 11 TftniETY l'r«(lt>- Att*i _iMi«r*4 rublinhed Weekly tgy VARIETY Inc. 81MB SILVBRilAJ*. PrMid«at 114 W«it «6tb str*«i New York City SUBSCRIPTION ARnual IT Foreign SI 8lngl« copter. SO cent* VOL. LXf. 120 No. 10 AMONG SHOW L11S. "When Crossroads Meet Cross Itoads," a Rupert Hughes short story in this week's Collier's, sticks Into fiction for the first time the Ed- win Forrest home in Philadelphia, and does it with grace and sympa- thy*. The Hughes attitude toward sliowdom, as manifest in his scriv- enlng, invariably reflects kindliness and understand ng, a marked con- trast to Charles Belmont, a special- ist in short stage fiction whose aim generally seems to be to mirror without sympathy' the weaknesses and errors of stage folk rather than their attractions. The heroine of the current Hughes tal i is "Pretty Fanny Keeney," and proves an interesting and faithful enough example of feminine psy- chology among women of the stage after fifty. Fanny in her day had been the toast of the town, of many- towns. Then came othc** days, other towns, other successes, other failures, and t >ward the end the fiy- by-ntght transit of obsxuire troupes with experiences that all wayfarers along the highways of Moliere, Shakespeare and torchbearers of to- day know. And one n «ht, with her troupe stranded. Fanny, now the aged charaeter woman of the show, has a stage-door caller. It is an ad- mirer of her youth, a worshipper of her halcyon hours. Her caller is in the sere and yellow, poor and pitia- bly forlorn. Among her admirers in his student days, lie had turned to the ministry. And wh.le Fanny was giving herself to the state and get- ting as much as it 'ild give her out of it, socially and spiritually, the man of the gospel had been giv- ing h'mself to the church and ail it meant. He had reaches a stage where he no longer attracted as a preacher and was not a good isset as an evangelist. Worked out In thj service of God, *he church no longer had a place for him. < And it Is at this stage that he sees an an- nouncement of the presence at the local playhouse of Fanny. And he calls. Come other routes for Fanny, other failures. And then, at last, but cheerily, the Forrest Home, for the declining sun for Fanny with the aged minister left, figuratively, on the outside looking in. In the current Smart Set a fiction trifle of the froth character peculiar to the wares of this periodical shoots at smutty burlesque. "Freud vs. William B. Thompkln," authored by "B. Harlowe," links to the generally accepted least intellectual field of the theatre a phase of the psycho- analist still riding a popular wave. The hero, Thompkln, is a producer and player in the sort of burlesque that get the hearty laughs in the mill towns. In the story his wife plays the broad and unbeautiful spouse of burlesque, ever the victim of intrigue between her husband and •ome lightweight cutie. The flossie is a chic, »morous Oui! oui! la! la! And the sayings and doings of the la! la! and the philandering bubble are scandalous enough for the real stage thing. But the hero, who in the burlesque, writ by himself, ex hanges talk with his wife and the vamp that even a drunker sailor might balk at, has a dream. And in the dream somehow things come to him differently. And he emerges from his Freudian snooze reformed, and starts in in- stanter to refor m his burlesque and his own stJg*e"~attitude toward his spouse. With William Archer telling us In a published confes'slon of the week that he got the story of his currently successful play, "The Ureen Boddoss" from a dream, who knows where the domed Freudian thing Is going to stop? G. B S. AND THE STATES. ♦ i Q '» B ^ w U t0 Vibit Amorica ** last. After a score of years of dodging. the bad boy of Anglican satire has made up his mind Its now or never. ?m ..«" always had " i* his mind to go. His current New York play- bill, Heartbreak House." has nothing to do with his proposed trip. \ i "°5 ial "notations Of the flagellating Irishman are necessarily con- stricted, as against the freedom current here before the war. But It isn t that England is less cordial than it's been, nor that Lloyd George or the other powers, now wrestling with a gigantic current of unem- ployment and unrest, oppose the Shaw trumpets for Ireland, that makes <». B. S. look with anticipation toward the nation that's given him fortunes in royalties. It's to lecture, and, perhaps, though he won't admit it. to take \ closer look at the screen. Acclaimed one of the most brilliant, as well as Wittiest of users of the Anglo-Saxon tongue, with Imagination, fancy, intellect and a profound knowledge of men and things of the past and |*rew:>■'.-..-,-<;■ i•. */V wd-vent in Ao.iik.i, whatever his purpose, should be meat for the newspapers. Kven over here he is live copy always. Reports from h s play brokers in American reflect a falling off in re- ceipts for "Heartbreak House." with the end of the run imminent, and no tour for territory outside of New York so far arranged for. Shaw is lor tin* guild of artists Who are sponsoring the art movement in the thea- tres of America, and it is presumed that it is with some idea of helping the combination he is planning to visit. The success in America of Chesterton as a lecturer, Kipling's devotion to screen play technique, now a fact, or the recent exodus to America of an Impressive group of imposing literary and stage entitles, including William Archer, are said to have nothing to do with the decision of O. B. S. to take a look. But, one Miing is sure, and that is, hVa going. Shaw's affection for America Is real. Since "Candida," revealed him to the States through the medium of Arnold Daly at the forgotten and since destroyed Princess theatre on Hroadway years ago, the man who, with all his stage masks is at bottom tender and humane, has cherished the desire to come and see and be seen by the countless millions in the States and the Canadas that his writings have variously diverted, shocked or informed. "Stage hands, with their bloated union scale and overtime extras have drawn down as high as $150 for a single week's work. "Newspaper advertising that used to be pretty well done at a gross of $500 for an attraction on Broadway now hovers close to double. "Production costs are sky high. Five musical comedies now playing c . more than $75,000 each to produce. 'Sally' cost $105,000. The new Hitchcock show cost $175,000. It's operating expenses cost over $14,000. With a minimum charge of more than $4,000 per week against production cost if Hitchy is to get his investment back in a season of 40 weeks, the business he must do per week to break even, even where he gets 69 per cent., must stick round $25,000. "These figures while actual sound opiumesque against the g~oss oper- ating overhead of 'The Merry Widow' a decade ago of $4,200 weekly, and a total weekly nut of only $2,800 for 'Zaza,' with Mrs. Leslie Carter. "The managers' troubles now must in no sense be interrupted as pass- ing hysteria. His hardships are actual. The musical union is among bis harshest oppressors. From that quarter, nothing that was is. It's come through with every ounce of flesh or get under the guillotine. SHOWMANSHIP AND COMMERCIALSM There must be a lin'j somewhere between showmanship and commer- cialism. There have been many Anders of it, no doubt, but Loew's Yen dome theatre, Nashville, couldn't see it. 3ince Variety reproduced a couple of weeks ago a circular issued in that city by Lebeck Bros., a department store, offering an opportunity to the Nashville public to inspect the back stage portion of the Vendome thtatre, along with dressing rooms, artists' making up and other the- atrical matters back stage no public should see or be concerned in. there have come letters and wires from Nashville and vicinity, trying to tell us why Variety should not have published the circular and other whys. The Isst to appear is a long letter from the advertising manager of Lebeck Bros., intended for publication from its style. It says the public wa.- not invited to a regular performance at tiie Vendome, and that tnsuing publicity anent the matter made it plain. Accordingly why could it not have been made plain in the lirst circular? And again, why should actors be turned into freaks for a morning exhibition of make-up, dressing or any tiling else? Lebeck's and Loew's manager might reply the Lebeck store paid the actors, although that would not .cover up the commercialism under the guise of showmanship, that permitted a theatre to open its doors in the morning to parade its actors before -he curious, to .aid a department store sell phonograph records. For the Lebeck store required each observer of the Vendome's stage to purchase a phono- graph record. The Lebeck letter says that owmg to the widespread pro- test felt by it following the publication in Variety, the store called off its advertising stunt and gave those entitled to see the morning exhibition via the phonograph route a pass for a regular performance. All of their customers, says Lebeck's, willingly agreed, thereby giving, force to an o nission that the customers were not so curious in the first place as the Lebeck store and the Vendome tried to make them. 'The road, which used to be the hope of producing managers who survived a stay in New York, is no more. The towns making transit profltable don't exist. The film maw has swallowed them. The rail- road situation, save for companies of a handful, is a condition gone mad. When things were normal, a manager could safely charge a gross of $10 per capita per week against each member of his traveling company and Icnow that sum would cover the railroad charge. Now the man who pays the theatrical railroad bills pays out that much approximately per day. "More than half a hundred play* came back from the road between last September and January 1, big shows and small ones, big casts and small ones, musical shows, dramas, farces, all sorts, and more than half of these returns that had never seen New York were voted by experts in titles outside as metropolitan material." INSIDE STUFF ON VAUDEVILLE. The "illuminated" poster pictures which have been appearing in the lob- bics of the big time houses in New York are planned to be used generally in the Keith houses. The pictures are in water colors on tinted cardboard of 28 by 40-inch size. The Segurs brothers, Spanish artists, do the work. Special pictures of the feature turns are made and employed In addi- tion to the lobby displays of photos. No charge is made to the acts, each house being taxed pro rata. The posters are sent on in advance like with photos, the distribution being handled by the photo and press bureau. Lebeck's apparently had another object in calling off the freak exhibi- tion; possible loss of the visiting theatrical patronage, as the letter states many of their professional clientele appeared sensitive about Lebeck's delicate scheme of exhibiting actors. Lebeck's is also apprehensive that its competitors, whom, they say, complained to Loew's Vendome about the scheme, inspired Variety to publish the circular, thereby "making Variety an innocent tool." Lebeck's need not worry over any of its com- petitors having anything to do with forwarding Variety the circular. It came from an actor then in Nashville who seemed to have a better under- standing of what that circular meant than those who got it out and others who indorsed it. The Fifty Club started something when a resolution was passed last week that, it would henceforth be a stag society; which meant that thereafter women were not to be admitted to the clubroomi. The Fifty Club commenced as a unique organization with its member- ship limited. The club has mostly professionals as members, in the majority newspaper and theatrical. During its two years or so of existence members, at least several of them, were usually accompanied by their* wives when going to the clubrooms. Other members (only men can be members) would escort other women there. The social S'de of the club seemed to appeal to the women, especially tht. wives. The club held an impromptu entertainment almost nightly, after show time, and the wives relished that as well. They also seemed to relish gathering to themselves, where the discussion was presumed to include almost anything that happened daily or nightly, and particularly the Other women brought in by other members. Some of the unmarried members or those who didn't mako it a prac- tice to take their wives to the club pushed through the "no-wife" resolu- tion. That Is reported to have started one panic and one riot—the panle among the husbands of the club who thought the resolution was aimed at them and their wives, and the riot among the wives when they heard of it. Some of the members, taking offense at the new order, are reported to have threatened to resign, while other members are said to have been told by their wives they might just as well resign, for if they (the wives) couldn't go to the Fifty Club their husbands could not either. Which may add a few new members to the Friars. It must strike anyone that in a city the size of Nashville or even larger, any theatre is desperatelj chancing business by solely catering to one store of many, with the inevitable aftermath the other stores would take umbrage at the preference. That is not either showmanship or commer- ( ism, just common sense. That Alice Lloyd certainly is the record breaker of vaudeville. Last week at Montreal she took all the box ofllce records of the Princess. Through doing it she broke down the figure set by Wilkle Bard when he appeared there, Which has stood since that time. This week Miss Lloyd is at Ottawa, next week at Hamilton, Ont.; then St. Louis, Chicago, and over the Orpheum Circuit until the warm weather starts. The Friars Sunday evening gave a beefsteak to Marllynn Miller and Leon Errol. AH seats had been disposed of before Sunday afternoon, leaving many applicants unable to secure a reservation. Women were permitted and this aided in the overflow. Miss Miller is the first girl to have ever been a guest of honor at an affair of that nature in the Friary. A MANAGERIAL KICK. Blood on the moon against the boatload of tumors tearing down the legitimate theatrical business is apprehended at the next regular meet- ing of the Producing Managers' Association. Violent emotions violently expressed against injustice harassing them are every day features of informal business and luncheon sessions among the men whose money, courage and brains make a native theatre possible. With every other ally of business reducing its charge for employes and salaried aid of all kinds, the theatrical producer finds himself Instead slashed at from every conceivable angle at the wartime swollen top overhead, and so thonged, hemmed in and fettered by union restrictions as to bs helpless. Speaking for himself and his fellows, one of the organized fraternity with two productions now holding down Main Street stages in New York, said yesterday: "The legitimate productions of Broadway exceed 60, and not 10 are profitable. More than a score of players are drawing over $400 per week, ten over $500, ten over $600 and a half dozen over $700. "Players available five years ago at $100 simply don't exist anymore. 'The SeidlitZ Powder of Times Square," another bit of fluff In the current Smart Set, designedly an annihilating swat at both the pub- lisher and the dramatic critic of the New York Times, wholly misses its mark and boomerangs. Phobic throughout. coiv--e when not nau- B<v»n 'v r. • : -.f. the dintHbs i* a first-class MUUBpla Of._a small boy bashed in the eye and striking out futllely in the presumed direction of his basher. Whatever Mr. Ochs or Aleck Wolcott did to the writer of the screed, George Jean Nathan, it must have been "tumble. ' J. N. raves through page after page, ex- huming the lit. of the Jutes, the In- dian puranas, piling kn->e high au- thorities of past, present and future savants, dramatists, philosophers, including some slabs from Montaign to prove that (1. .1. N. Is a better critic than the incumbent In the Times chair, without proving it. As a bit of verbal gargoyl'ng in thongs, the C*t StiqUS s some ram* embert, Little Sammy Rzeszewski, the 8- year-old chess marvel, p'.a>eu in Cleveland this week under the aus- pices of the City Club. Last we. k, according to Ma Budniek, his manager, the boy drew $975 int the box office of the Stone theatre, the admission being 60 cents to $1. A two-reel picture of the boy in action now is being made. The "Wawarsina Times" a four page paper gotten out by Fd Jolly • Jolly and Wild) in his home town Wawarsing, N. Y. Sale price Is marked at live cents. The size of the page Is six Inches deep and four Inches wide. Ad'/prtl^emen's The common belief that agents ordered to reimburse acts for lost salary usually received the money back from the acts, had a set-back recently, when a manager upon ordering an agent to pay an act salary due for time not played, informed the act if it returned the money to the agent the act could never play another date for that circuit. Another case, also recent, is where the owner of an act, after having received a check from its agent, told the agent that while he regretted accepting the money and could not then return it, owing to his financial condition, that he later would pay the agent weekly Installments until the amount had been returned. This story, when passing around, brought a smile, as the owner ofthe act Is reputed worth at least $75,000. Very often the source of a vaudeville act induces someone to attempt it. Whether the act's material is just the thing seldom counts in that case. It's more the belief that through the source bookings will bs secured. That was the case recently reported of a woman who purchased a sketch from the manager of a big time vaudeville house in New York City, paying an advance of $100 to the manager. Not satisfied with the conditions and likely not securing expected bookings, the facts came to the attention of the big time officials who are said to have ordered the manager to refund the advance payment on the theory the woman needed that amount more than the manager did. are carried, and an announcement states the paper was hand set. A squib that should excite Wawarslng is: "Scientists say blondes will disappear In 300 years. Choose your blonds now." Incorporation papers were filed last week In Ohio by the Vine Street-Lyric Theatre Co. of Cin- cinnati, which recently took over rh,> Lyric theatre building The capitalisation is $.'00,000. The present lease of the theatre Is held by the Ifeuck Amusement Co, and Idoes not » xpirc until next Bcpteih* . i»er. The hou.-e will combine to J play the Shub'rt attractions until 'thai time. Controlling Interest in the house is held by I. W. McMahan, Jerome Jackson and Frank Buss. Try-outs hsvs been discontinued at the Byekman, uptown. The Keith office had assigned Thursday nights for new turns. It was de- cided becaUss of the bad acoustics the acts were handicapped, a posi- tive echo being noticed at times. Sunday concerts, however, will be continued at the Byckman. ( Chester E. Morris, son of Wll- llam Morris, the actor, and who played with Lionel Barrymors in The Copperhead," has Joined ths Westchester Players, at Mount Vernon, N v. •*<