Variety (January 1922)

PRICE 20 CENTS Published Weekly at 154 West 4Gth St. New York. N. T., by Variety, Inc. Annual subscription $7. Single copies 20 cents. Entered as second class matter December 22, 1305. at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., under the Act of March I, H7t. r 0L. LXV. No. 10 NEW YORK CITY, FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1922 48 PAGES THEATRE BUSINESS JUMPS DOLLYS PLAY 10 WEEKS IN 5 FOR $25,000, NEW HIGH MARK Open at Palace, New York, Feb. 20, Booked by Marinelli—Double Houses Each Week—Have Been Abroad Two Years—$2,500 Weekly MAY *i :*. Dolly Sisters (Roszica and V-nc- *0. playing in Europe for the last ^two years or more, have been booked over here by the Marinelli office, opening at the Palace. New York, Feb. 20. | The Dolly Sisters -cooking calls !»r ten weeks of Keith time, but it 1 will be played in five weeks, the act Hbubling each of the five weeks, Which includes the Palace booking. The sisters will receive $2,500 weekly for each of the five houses played, with a similar Balary for the bouse doubled each week. j { The booking totals slightly less : &an $25,000 In salaries for the sister act, in the five weeks of playing, a record both in the amount of money received and the fact of playing ten Weeks in five, and at but five houses. AL TRAINS TO BOOM PATRONAGE PLAY'S BROADWAY REPEAT . The Selwyns have decided on a .Jibvel booking experiment which fwill bring Jane Cowl back to Broad- way in "Smilin' Through." This drama ran at the Broadhurst two seasons ago. This season the repeat 'engagements played attracted big- ger business than the first dates and the managers expect the same re- sults for a Broadway repeat. • It is planned to bring "Smilin* Through" back about Easter time, flhe Times Square probably being assigned the attraction. That book- ing depends on the run of "A Bill of Divorcement" which is still pulling strongly at the Times Square. M GALLERIES AT 50 CENTS Chicago. Jan. 23. Prices of admission at the Powers -Shd Illinois hero for admission into ♦he galleries of these houses have **«n cut fi-om $1 to 30 cents. Harry J. Powers, who operates these theatres, says he mads the re- duction to conform to the spirit, of Jho times, which is a dsslrs to get hack to "old fashioned prices" and V> make the second balcony seats or.ee morn attractive to the public. Kuth Chatterton is appearing in are reported to have wired * ..i i •Mary Rose" at the Illinois, and "Mr. j LA*»nml« flom h "' oflfcri "? V."" gm Passes By" is the attraction atUtJ.00* tot the CUta from loo U »tl1i* Powers. - ; . WlTtft! Up-State Small Timer Goes After Outlying Territory Watertown, N. Y., Jan. 25. The answering barrage of the Avon theatre in the Sesonske-Emp- sall vs. Nathan L. Robbins "war," resulting from the Robbins invasion of this city through the purchase of the Olympic and the Palace, came this week when the Avon pulled its long-heralded "30.000 Week," so- called because Charles Sesonske claims the Avon must play to 30,000 admissions during the week to break even. The Avon's big stunt was to ar- range for. a special train to run through from Carthage nightly, making all intervening stops, with a return schedule after the last Avon night performance. V The Avon bill for the fitst half featured the Agnes Ayres £lm, "The Lane That Had Nd^Xufning," ad- vertised as "first time outside of New York"; the musical farce, "Pardon Me," and four vaudeville acts. For the last half, the film feature is Doug. Fairbanks' 'Three Muska- teers," with five other vaudeville acts completing the program. The two Bobbins' houses offered strenuous opposition, the Olympic booking the Cosmopolitan-mad<' "Oct Rich WalllOgford" and Larry Semon's "Rent Collector. The Pal- ace had William Duncans "Where Men Are lien" and Jive acts of Vaudeville at 20 cents top. Improvement Appears Prac- tically Country-Wide — Broadway Receipts En- courage Optimism—"Cap- tain Applejack" Leaps to Van—Combing Road for Broadway Attractions SALES OF 100,000,000 TALKING RECORDS, FORECAST FOR Music Publishers Bound to Prosper by Boom Looked For Following Cut in Retail Price of Standard Disk Makers—Must Sell More Pianos PRODUCTION SPEEDED UNIONS "TAKE ALL" FN YIDDISH THEATRES Agent in Box Office Collects Show's Share for Division 'FOOLISH 1VI7ES" CUI3 OFFER Los Angeles, Jan. 25. Che ;.-r rjennett. he id ot Bonnet! Film Luboratoi I •■-. and Fran!; Law- rence, for r L'nhersal Mm < dttor. An upward movement In box office figures in virtually the entire Broadway list was the feature of the legitimate field last week. Dramas in many cases enjoyed a boost in gross of $1,000 and more over the normal pace those attrac- tions had been going. Following the statements from the road a week earlier that business was bet- tering, it supplied for the first time this season a note of confidence that the slump was ended. Particu- larly from Thursday on last week (Continued on Page 2) CALLS ON CHURCHMEN TO ELEVATE STAGE "Support and Advertise the Lord," Plea of Minister Mt Vernon, N. Y., Jan. 25. TIarry Davenport, of the "Thank You" company, who has been ap- pearing and preaching at New York churches, read the scripture lesson at the First Presbyterian church here yesterday and Rev. J. Hollister took the occasion as an appropriate one to- preach regarding the evils of the present day stage. He blamed \« opie lor not taking a hand to cor- (Continued on page 11) The Yiddish theatrical unions have been paying some attention to Equity tactics. The latter body has been known to appoint a special deputy to represent the company, when the manager was behind in salaries, in order to see that the at- traction's share of the gross went to the players. That has* usually been done with the consent of the management. The Yiddish unions have taken the idea and "improved" on It, the show's director (also a member of the union) sitting in the box office of a current attraction and pocketing every penny that comes in. The gross is split up among play- ers and other members of the union who are employed In the house, there being a union for ticket sell- ers as well as, stage workers. As the agreement in the Jewish theatre provides for the manager guaran- teeing a season of 38 weeks, he can do nothing to interfere. His only "out" is that the players will be- come dissatisfied with sum allotted to them and bring about a closing of the house. There is no^news- paper-ndvertising, since there is no one who will pay for it. One of the critics of Hie downtown union meth- ods explained the closed shop had virtually closed the house. STATE CONVENTION IN FEB. The convention of the Ne.v York State men ' rs of the M. P. Theatre owners of America is to be h^'d in Albany lub. 14-16. LOS ANGELES, JR., MARCH 1 I«os Angeles, Jan. 23. The opening of the Hill Street Junior Orpin-urn is set for March 3. Martin BeMt, Mort N. Singer and Ployd B. S"ott, general i ■esi repre- sentative, are expected to return here for the Opening of the new theatre. The "mechanical" situation frames up more optimistically for the music publishers than has been the case th3 past several months. With the Columbia and Victor records re- duced to 75 cents retail, it is only a question of time before the other standard makes such as Paths, Okeh, Edison, Emerson and Bruns- wick will also come down to the "six bits" figure, at which price a really good recording can be mar- keted. The other less costly rec- ords have cut in on the sales of the standard make., who at least can guarantee the publisher royalty re- turns. A questionnaire sent out by tltj National Retail Dry Goods Associa- tion regarding the phonograph end of the business estimates that 100,- 000,000 records will be sold during the year 1922. There are six million talking machines in use in this country, with a prophecy by the in- dustry that one and a half million more will be sold this year, making an average of one talking machine to every 72 American citizens. The royalty returns on such increased (Continued on page C) ''FORGOTTEN ACT" Agent Htsrs from Lay-off Turn- Couldn't Remember New Act The big time agents have been telling one another and others of a story lately coming to their cars of an agent who notified an act that had laid off for 15 weeks of an en- gagement for the following Monday. The agent received this reply: — "Never mind the date. We have for- gotten the act." ELSIE JANIS and her Rang in their all American aervlce revue were completely "Ureas a.-rvice.r* by U-9, EH! Kvrrifthino in Attire for the Theatre 113 Went 40th Street. New York City ... ■■■■ir' --H roof .let So, to , ' . . .. ■■