Variety (March 1921)

Friday, March 25, 1921 EDITORIALS 11 sc KIETY Xradt-Mark U«n«t a r«d VARIETY ■1MB SILVERMAN. Pre«ld«st ||| WMt 41th Stre.t N.w York atjr SUBSCRIPTION IT ror«lta.....#....tl > .• -> • 20 No. 5 yOLv LXII. 1 ■ ■ Caryl Wilbur sailed/or England on the Caronia March 16. Detxel and Carroll have Joined tfeM O'Brien's Minstrels. v I *Maytime" will close its season at the Shubert-Riviera April 2. Arthur Somers Roche, the short story writer,-is at work on a play— r dramatization of one of his tales. THAT PRODUCTION MANIA. The announcement laat week that next season In vaudeville will be the year of the simple act, comedy preferred, as against the production, should be borne in mind and taken to heart by artists planning for the forthcoming season, Many a storehouse load, carrying with it wrecked hopea, lost time and money and the never-retrievable and never-forgettable sting of failure, will be the result if vaudeville acts Ignore the warning. The b.'tf men of vaudeville, who irf a large measure decide the xieedntee of the players, have sat on the matter, have judged it from their stand- points—which, naturally, Include their idea of the public standpoints— and have decided that in general the acta of standardised size and shape are to be encouraged as against further innovations into the realms of girls acts, spectacles, revues, tabloids and miniature operettas. The fact that they, themselves, encouraged the big acts heretofore, should be forgotten, now they have turned. Harry Ha'bcrt, former dancer and aviator, who has been in the coffee business, is returning to the stage. Edward Sheldon, who fu -nlshed Doris Kenne with "Romance," is writing a new play for her, to be produced next Reason. Cortex and Peggy of the "Passing Show of 3921*; jointly and separately. deny that tney are engaged to be married, as reported. Melville Rosenow, ionnerly with XYkQ 'Bijou Fernandez agency, ancT more recently with Edward Small, is now in the offices of Jcnie Jacobs, "field man/' George Choos left this week on a vacation trip west. Mr. Choos ha> been preparing several new and old productions and the rest became a physical compulsion. Variety is not the mouthpiece of the managers in this or in anything. If Variety thought this decision of the managers was wrong or unjust it would say so. In advising actors to observe the situation and act accordingly it is neither advocating nor opposing the managers'*policy. But it is seeking to serve the artist by bringing home to him and her that in vaudeville it is very difficult to force down the managers' throats what the managers do not want. One may produce a play or show and, with trials and tribulations, may go over the heads of the theatre- owning bosses and get an appeal hearing nom the public, direct; but in vaudeville this is impossible—no author, artist or producer can rent or Otherwise engage a vaudeville house. The managers control the game. They can say "No," and that settles it. Now the vaudeville managers are on record as balking against paying production costs, railroad fares and salaries of mediocre supporting performers, jazz bands, choruses and stage mechanics added to house crews and house orchestras. Big acls were novelties, and as such paid for themselves and their excess. But when they become common the novelty ceases, and when the novelty ceases they cost much and draw little. Artists may think that by padding and adding they make them- selves stand out, and by demanding and even commanding large gross salaries they secure billing and ^importance. But the managers are not hoodwinked; they know wha* they are buying, and they have now taken the stand that they will not buy "extras." pictures. Because vaudeville U peculiar. But why make it more so? Why give any girl or boy in a community who may have a good home and does not need the stage for a livelihood, with the boy possibly having prospects of a business future, a chance to show a local cultivated voico or parlor comedy at an amateur night, to please his or her friends, to justify the parlor verdict—and then make professionals of them. Where does the regular professional come in? Where does the vaude- villian enter in a matter of this kind? If there are 1,500 vaudeville acts laying off each week, and there are certainly between 750 and 1,500 idle weekly, why is it necessary to give amateurs a chance before giving the lay-offs or the new acts seeking recognition an opportunity. Is It be* 'cause'the aitiatears are uherap*« , T ,, 'Jt- , va»'i>Le <hM =*i*v>n «;*>»'jce.viiHt'im*■* »* reasonableness of many salaries now being paid In vaudeville. Some of the best turns receive the smallest pay. That though is a matter of themselves, the managers or their agent. But this dragging of raw talent right into vaudeville, from a nice fireside, and upon invitation, with the intent of creating a larger vaudeville supply, seems simply foolish. Vaudeville has enough. Let vaudeville find out how to encourage in- stead of discouraging producers, to give new acts a living chance, to make less cut \.-eeks and split weeks for try-outs, and this around New York; in short, to have someone study vaudeville in its booking end who would seem to understand what vaudeville is, what vaudeville needs, and what vaudeville can get, if intelligently and properly directed. Everything else about new faces and new material is just hunk and will be bunk always, while someone who does not know enough about it Is permitted to judge, and book, and waste time and starve acts. And "what the public wants." The biggest bunk of all. It's what the bookers give them, and few of the bookers have any idea of what the public wants. A WORD TO ALL PRODUCERS. The time has come for all "right thinkers" and "forward lookers" to get together and bust right Into-the show business if they have the brains to order their thoughts, impulses and ideas according to the necessities of stage and picture production. The time has come because the country is in a wilderness. Politically and financially, it needs a Moses to show the way out. A concomitant of this condition, so far as shows and magazines are concerned should be clear enough. What the vaudeville Supreme Court Judges have decreed for next season is a return to'the old-style snappy, brisk, light turns of few people in each, each person a desirable individual with outstanding specialized talent and pronounced personality; bright and novel ideas and light drapes and sets, and clever material for such artists, will, of course, as. always, be considered elements of legitimate expense toward fixing salaries. r After he has launched John Drinkwater's "Mary, Queen of ^Bcots," William Harris, Jr., will pro- duce a new comedy by Abbie Mer- chant, entitled 'Irish Dew." The Pantsges complaint against Barton and Sparling over a refusal to play under a contract signed last season has been adjusted. The act opens at Des Moines March 19. Mervyn Le Roy (Le Roy and Cooper), a cousin of Jesse L. Lasky, says he will give up vaudeville for the rest of the year and have a go at the pictures in Los Angeles. Pat McMahon, owner of the local theatre in Glen Cove, Long Island, has purchased a plot of ground in the business section of the town on which he will erect a 50,000 sq. ft. public garage. But, despite talk of opposition in the air. it is entirely safe to predict! that the present booking congestion will lap over iuto the fall. Acts in "one" will be more fhan ever in demand, because they represent the back- bone of vaudeville comedy, and comedy is what the rhanagers have ruled is to be the leading fashion for 1921-22. If Smith and Jones are" a good buy at $600 a week, the managers would rather buy Smith and Jones at $600 a week than to buy Smith, Jones & Co. at $1,000 with the other $400 swallowed up in paying a carpenter,* or four girls, or a scenery investment, and fares and excess, etc. Smith and Jones may think that by running their salary up to $1,000 with the difference going into costumes, salaries of minors, excess and fares, they have elevated themselves. But they will find that they will have a hard time selling themselves hereafter on that plan. If Smith and Jones have $600 worth of pulling power and talent and personality, the managers want to buy those assets for $600, without having to take into the bargain $400 worth of mediocre talent or over- head that they don't want at any figure. Johnny Hines, Dorothy Leeds and Dorothy Mackaill, who have been making two-reel comedies, are being used as a special feature at the local Loew houses this week, ap- pearing at three houses each day. The Gaarick, St. Louis, which was recently vacated by the Loew in- terests, who transferred their bills to the King, will be entirely reno- vated and the house is now reported on the market for sale or rent. Anyway, a good single, team or trio coming out of a big act where they have made good, is usually a better bet than a single, team or trio that has made good surrounding itself with a big act, an act yet untried, an act requiring large initial investment, an act requiring others of limited abilities, an act requiring featuring and a late spot and a big salary in which many fares and supernumeraries' wages arc ingredients. We need help. Everyone has his knife out and is talcing (let us hope) honorable part in the general rough-house attendant on grabbing off the wherewithal necessary to purchasing the next meal. The scramble Is so terrific as to induce the general state of mind in which men and women seek the church, looking for hope, finding some consolation. They can find it, too, and should find it, in the theatre. We have had our pl«y-time since the great war and have spent our unearned inflation of the currency. We have seen our light diversions, our romances and clapped heartily everything but the problem drama. Uplifting romance, clean farce, laughing comedy—for these there will always be room, but there is room once again for plays staging present day problems. Everyone has reflected on the great war, come to some broad, general conclusions and producers who put forward these con- clusions or point to them are going to clean up as few others during the coming season. People have gotten over the idea that life Is all play and no work, for something very close to this notion sprang from the con- fusion and reversal of values attendant on our entry into the European struggle. Thoy are back now to rock-bottom values. Playwrights and producers can cash in on this general mental and philosophic condition by emphasizing it as a fact and then clothing its motions In bright colors as something that means virtue and happiness. Threading the moral motto through plays is not only the obvious, but the sound business policy, particularly if the,dramatic preachment emphasizes life and its returns in happiness, rather than the death and hell-fire of the preachers. Leaving out any question as to whether the managers are right or wrong, whether the managers know what the public wants or what artists should do, it may be well to repeat and if possible to Impress that, in vaudeville, the public will largely get what the managers want it to get and the artists will play what and as the managers want them to. So, therefore, - '# sane. Don't break yourself trying to show the managers they are wrong. Don't "fight the City Hall." Ruth Grossman is staging the dances for the production to be pre- sented by tho students of the Ap- plied Arts, April 8, at Webster Hall. The title of the entertainment Is "Art, Where Art Thou?" Fanciful dress, designed by tho students, will be a feature of tho performance. Miss Grossman is the daughter of William Grossmann, of House, Vor- haus & Grossman, the attorneys. Miss Ruth has had no professional experience, but concealed a talent for producing daqce numbers that found its vent in the present piece. She is of the Applied Arts classes. An influx of ten shows is expected In the eastern territory during th? coming summer due to reports reaching managers of companies of this order in the west and s >uth to the effect that the small towns In the east are show hungry. It has been understood for some time that it has been impo.-isiblo for the one night stand manager to lay out a satisfactory route for his show due to the refusal of local managers to pull out pictures and play on at- traction with which they have more bother and unless they are assured of a piece with a reputation or a name, player stands to play to lower net returns than a picture would bring them. ! . MAKING VAUDEVILLE ACTS. To what extent does vaudeville call for new faces and material? That "new face stuff" has long been a vaudeville bugaboo. When the new face turned up, if it were pretty enough, it could get in some kind of an act, and if the face had personality or magnetism, it didn't care much whether vaudeville wanted it or hot. "Material" is much the same bunk. A producer, whether a single, double, just skit or production in vaude- ville, may lie awake for months thinking out, writing or buying new ma- terial and show it, to have some office boy give him an opinion as to its value to the public, or have a youthful booking man tell him what to do with it, or have some other booking man with prejudices, preferences, likes and dislikes, throw the new material aside before it ever gets. a chance. And if a production or sketch where several people are engaged, the new material is sent over split salary and split week time to starve to death before It can got enough money in any one single week to pay off and leave a profit.* The established vnudevillian is a different thing. He or she secures re.(o£n't*Ott o?i hi*'or her •reputatfo&j am? if- t'i<4r — ^fltiiflif is ;H-a, tluvv know how and what to do with It. But established vaudevillians are not new faces. Which is a preface to the Keith booking office apparently encouraging "try-outs" in its big time houses of local talent, such as have been held of late at Keith's, Syracuse, under the name of "Inspirational Nights.* 4 That is an amateur and try-out night under its newer name. Local talent is invited to contend, and the regular Keith audience s<<>s the turns. As a box otllce card by itself, it may he good showmanship, for the local interest aroused, if confined wholly and solely to Syracuse .or any town it is employed in. But inviting amateurs to turn professionals, giving anyone an opportunity to go upon the profi ssional stage, trying out someone who is a raw amateur last week and making the turn a professional one this week, a* happened in Syracuse this and last week, is doing something for "new faces" and "ruw material" in vaudeville that is of mighty little encouiagement to the established vnudevdli.in or to the struggling, aspiring professional who wants io entoi vaudeville and who comes under the description of thai difficulty in the first paragraph. An open invitation to go on the Stage in a small lo'-ality, such 81 Syracuse, or evci. a larger town, does not naturally draw from the tal- ented. Vaudeville unfortunately can gei along without talent. Most of vaudeville just now is talentless and has been for the past live years. Vaudeville Is full of hybrids, mostly people with nerve who couldn't g«t on the stage in any other? bran b ajpd wouldn't ha?tf a» qhanc e even in NEW FACES IN BURLESQUE. Two veteran burlesque veterans, known to Variety but who prefer to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, offer a sensible amendment to the managerial slogan, "New Faces for Burlesque." New faces by all means, but let's have as well some new production brains. That is the gist of their position. These players have outlined their views for Variety. Here's their own editorial: Ther have been several articles, notices and advertisements, clamoring for "faces new to burlesque," and as two performers and producers in this very exacting and arduous branch of the theatrical profession, we wish to say that we are heartily in accord with this slogan. Give us by all means, new faces in burlesque, on the stage and in the offices; men whq are supposed to put up enormous sums of money and to sustain heavy losses year after year just to give us a Job; its new faces we want there, and new methods. Get rid of the old dead wood that produce a show with an exterior and an interior and a lot of "start-them-at-forty" actors; the men who get one good man and cheat on all others, or those that get a real cast and cheat on equipment. The days of 1000 per cent, are gone. I et them get some real pro- ducing managers who will Invest a dollar and be satisfied to get a fair return on their investment. Why can't this be done in burlesque by all managers as i. is being done by a few? We have an assured season; this is no experiment. Producers of musical comedies Invest $60,000 and take a chance; in burlesque there Is no chance. Give the public the goods and they will buy it. What is the use of one manager spending money and putting on a real show if the shows ahead of htm ate cheating? We have a few real producing managers; give us more of them. Instead of crying for new faces in the casts, let them try to keep the ones they have. Kvery. week »a Bead of jyioUter prominent uiirlcsqiier leaving burlesque for vaudeville or musical comedy. Why? There they are given proper surroundings. There are hundreds of men in America looking for an outlet for their capital, who are willing and anxious to equip a show as it should he equipped. Why not take a few of the "Moss Backs" that are in now and retire them in favor of some new blood and real money? Get a real burlesque comedian; surround him with a well balanced cast. Buy a hook—don't expect the comedian to put it on or let the people sit around the rehearsal hall and each "stick In a bit that they saw someone else do." Mount the show and get some cos- tumes, the eye must he attracted by tho frame of the picture. Carry an electrician; have the stage light. Have tho costumes clean and bright colored. Have light, action, color and merriment. If the above is done, as had as we burlesque actors are and as tiresome as our faces have become, maybe, even we could make good if we were properly presented. It's tho tout ensemble that counts. Why can't the managers, owners, producers and performers try and live up tO the motto of the Three Musketeers and also of their club: one for all and all for one"? «• Don'* cheat. ^sl ch a;>u dJ.