Variety (March 1921)

Friday, liarcli 1 ^ 1921 ! VARIETY 29 r'. TO VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS In Reference to their Acts, Pictures, Costumes, »■ >»■„. ■. . . ^ * -i*,- <•'■/. • Appearance on the Stage, Etc. Besides being printed in the trade papers, the jolio wins letters have been sent to every manager in the United States and Canada and to every artist: TO VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS: Vaudeville has taken such tremendous strides in the past ten years that the patrons of the theatres are. getting more critical each day, and on account of the high standard set, my advice to artists is to keep up to that standard. Even an act with fair ma- terial can get by many times with fine wardrobe, appearing in dainty costumes, carefully studied, and as up to date as possible. All this has an jnterest to the audience. The first impression of the public, in looking at the pictures in the lobby before the act comes to the theatre, and during its engagement, has a good or bad effect according to the pictures. If the pictures are poorly taken, costumes ordinary, and there is no effort on the artists' part to create a high standard for themselves, the impression is bad. On the other hand, if the pictures are of a high standard, the effect is favorable, and that impression is carried into the theatre by the audience. Vaudeville artists are inclined to be a little lax in this very essential of vaudeville, and many of them suffer on this account. A manager is impressed with a fine line of photographs. If they are cheap and tawdry, and the costumes are the same, he is liable to put them to one side, although the act might be excellent and worthy of the greatest consideration. In- asmuch as costumes and pictures are the artists' principal stock in trade, outside of the merit of the act itself, my advice is to first try and have a good act. If there arc any shortcomings, work hard to overcome them. Don't stick to the same old act year in and year out. Add something new to it. Keep up with the times. Remember that the majority of the greatest successes in the dra- matic field are not good for over two seasons. Vaudeville audi- ences are more liberal, but they want new acts. Don't grumble and blame it on someone else because you cannot get work. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it is the artists' fault for not having the proper material, and the act properly dressed and properly presented. I build a new theatre, and 1 build another one, and still another one, and then I cannot stop. If I do, some other manager will be forging ahead and I will be left standing still. It is the same way with the artists. They think they can continually present the old material, and they wonder what it is all about when they don't get .work. They find new artists with new material coming into the field. The only way to safeguard this condition, as far as the artists are personally concerned, is to beat the other fellow to it; keep up with the times. Instead of complaining that you cannot get this, and you cannot get that, read the newspapers, study theatricals, work on new material, and if you find you are not qualified for the theatrical business, try some other. Surround your act with good dressing. The higher class, the better. Have plenty of photographs, and see that they are kept up. Don't have these taken as cheaply as you can. Spend a few dollars more, and get something that will give a little distinction to your act, and furnish plenty of them. If you find they are misused, write a letter to this office about it. I started in here to advise the artists about photographs, and I have rambled on into general conditions, as I personally find them, especially in view of the number of letters I receive from different artists. My greatest desire is to help vaudeville artists. The antagonistic feeling prevalent prior to the past three years is very nearly, if not altogether, wiped out; but no matter how much interest is taken in improving conditions as far as the theatres, the contract, and the consideration in many ways which is evident between artist and manager today in vaudeville, are concerned, it will never be anywhere near perfect until the artists take an interest in themselves, their act, their personal appear- ance, and their personal behavior. Keep your act clean, and free from anything that can be criticized in an objectionable way. I refer both to dress and speech. The acts that live the longest are those catering to the human interest, to the hearts and minds of clean thinking people. Let the vaudeville public carry home with them some sweet thought that they can talk about in their family circles; something that, tiiey will want to take their children to see and hear. E. F. ALBEE. March 14, 1921. TO MANAGERS OF ALL VAUDE- VILLE THEATRES: riease find enclosed copy of a letter written for the benefit of the artists. I think it behooves every manage!" to interest" himself in the artists in a kindly way; speak to them of their shortcomings in a manner which will not offend, but be taken as advice. Then I suggest you carry out these precepts in a practi- cal way. Take care of the artists' photographs when they come to you; see that they are sent to the next town, or wherever ad- vised to send them. Don't allow your man to rip them out of a frame, or throw them around in your billing room, or leave them exposed in the lobby where the urchins on the street can handle same. Have a glass put over the frame containing them. Give a little thought to helping out this condition, and you won't find so many things to complain of. To the manager who sits in his office and grumbles about artists' photographs that come to him in bad condition, which he says cannot be remedied except in the Booking Offices, let me offer a little advice: If a manager has the real instinct of a manager and patrols his house to see that his help is neatly clad, their shoes shined, their hair combed, ami that they wear clean collars and cuffs; if his theatre is clean; if his lobby is attractive) and the pictures not torn and covered with dirt, then he is» doing his part to elevate our business. Set a standard for it, and by working together, the artists with the managers, and the managers with the artists, something is going to be accomplished, and the first thing you know, the managers who are working for others will receive promotion, and that pro- motion will come because they have taken an interest; they have taken the initiative; they have shown that there is something else in them outside of mere office work. I don't know what right I have to advise people outside of my own circuit what to do, but inasmuch as the burden of this work has fallen on my shoulders, having been appointed, as I have, by the Vaudeville Managers' Protective Association to look after the ethics of that institution, and inasmuch as the Vaude- ville Managers' Protective Association covers about all the vaude- ville houses in the United States and Canada, perhaps I haven't gone entirely out of my province in advising you personally of the things which I consider will improve all of our conditions. I have a lot to learn, and I have been in the vaudeville business 'forty years. When I started, there was a world of room for im- provement. Today, conditions are far better, but we w r ant to continue to improve them, and you can not only help the general cause, but you will be surprised to see how your own institution will advance, by co-operating in the above mentioned manner. £. F. ALBEE. NEWS OF THE DAILIES (Continued on page 25) chattering monkey managed to call attentate to the move ami tin- re- sult was (darn it all) every New York newspaper carried half a col- umn on the invasion. Rights to the Somerset Maugham play, "The" Tenth Man." have been acquired by "rederiek Stanhope, who staged "In the Night Watch." Lawrence Langner of the Theatre Guild arrived this week from Lon- don with Bernard Shaw s new play. "Methuselah," tucked under his arm. He also has new plays by Arnold Bennett and St. John Br« vine ami first rights to product ions by Jacques CODeail in Paris and Nigel IMayfair at the Queen's in London. Out in Pittsburgh Fire Marshal Pfarr has began a crusade sgainsl women ushers in theatres. II'' has issued a booklet, distributed 40.000 copies, and in it remarks that women arc as eourteous and effi- cient as men, but lose their heads in times of danger. The Detroit police R< i v« d notice on Henry l-'ord that n<\vsbov.s haw k- ing the Dearborn independent musl not cry out reference t<> the publica- tion's attackp on Jews. Citlsene had eomplained of the practice, said Wil- liam P. Kutledge, superintendent of police. Mary Garden, whose contract to manage the Chicago Grand Opera Company has two more years to run, announces she will retire at the end of next season. Plans have been filed for the alter- ation of the Broadway front of the Hotel Astor. They call for the ex- penditure of $150,000 to convert the frontage into a series of stores, to be ready for occupancy by Oct. 1. Right stores will be arranged facing Broadway and opening upon an in- idt prom«aiade within the hotel. One of them has already been l e a s ed to the International Millinery Co. The main lobby will be entirely changed. Carpenters were at work building sheds on the 45th street side this \v< < k. W. w. KInshaw has relinquished his lease on the Park to William Fox, who will present pictures there for six months. Jlinshaw is plan- ning a permanent theatre for Kng- lish operai to ho presented by th*» Society of Ameri c a n Singers. Ann.i Pivlowa finished her Amer- ican tour la -,t week, having estab- lished a new* record with a gross of $750,000. 11• r* own net earning! are e stimated at $100,000 and those of her manager, Fortune Gallo, the same. Her last twelve performances In New York are h ;id to have grossed $00,000. Elba Wood has been made gen- eral understudy in "The Pose Girl." "Dreamland," the old amusement site at Coney Island, was ordered sold at auction this week by the N«\v York Supreme Court. Counterfeit "Annie Oakleys*' for ' Veronica's Veil," the Passion Play Which has been running at West Hoboken, S. J., came to light during the last week. How mu< h the pur- KITTY DONER WITH SISTER ROSE & BROTHER TED DONER Return engagement B. F. KEITHS PALACE next week,>larch 28 Direction HARRY WEBER