Variety (May 1922)

LEGITIMATE Friday, May 12, 1922 INSIDE STUFF ON LEGIT A com.-niiy in I^os Ang«Us Is etlllntj ttock for a Tnuticnl comctly -writ- ten by Aaron Hoffman. Jt is undtrstood that the two directors of the company (Hayts and the Hay man. the latter who is also thought to be a plctur dlrcotor) will hold $13,000 worth of stock and are selling |12,000 of stock at 1100 a f^hare. The money, according to the report, must be paid on subscription by May 1. Aaron Hoffman has entered into an agreement with the promoters whereby he will receive a royalty. He has not received anything yet, although he wrote the play on the idea submitted by the two promoters. The show will have as a feature a high class band, which will play from the pit the first two acts and ap- pear on the stag in the third act. For the last act Hoffman has written dialog for each musician. Besides individual playing the mueician will do a part with the "line" interwoven by the chatter. Herb AViedoft's orchestra, which is playing at Cinderella Roof, is the organization the promotters are after. Herb is a brother to Rudy "Wiedoft, now in New York, and has made such a nnme in I>os Angelas that several disc re- cording companies have offered him contracts. The orchestra is to be featured in the billing, and will also contract in each city for appearances lit leading cafes after the show. It is said by interested parties that the enterprise is expected to be a loser in the small California towns and the one-night stands. However, it «;(ems the promoters are aftfr a long run in San Franci.sco and possibly Los Angeles, where it is believed the profits will overshadow the breaking-in deficit. J. J. f hubert eaipects to remain .abroad al»out two nionthf:. No especial plan was in connection with Mr. ShubertH trip. Hr merely wanttd to look over the foreign th^^atrical mart. Tlie Sljiiberts are said to ftel thfy have sufficient unproduoed play .'■cripts 0)i hand to ]ast quite a while. The my.stfry of why "The Ttifcct Fool," starring TTd AVynn. ;;t the r.eorge M. Cohan, has been reported boo':€kU out of town thi« spring in a numbe- of cities explained l>y a puljlicity stunt of "U'ynn's. He re- cently epent $2,500 in lobby frames and the displays have been sent to many big stand houses fnarked "coming soon." Wynn has a piece of the show, and although A. L. Erlangrr and 13. C. Whitney have the major holdings, the latter did not i^iirticipale in the lobby frames outlay. The way Wynn fgured it ou. ht- would have to pay the government the money spent in the advertising idea anyway. Hy means of salary, royalty and an interest in the show Wynn made $200,000 with his "Car- nival." Out of that ^ic paid the government in the form of income tax something over $80,00. He earned as high as $5,000 a week with the show, and this season with "The Per'ect F'ool' his weekly bit ie said not to have fallen under $2,300. "The Perfect Fool" will try for a summer run at the Cohan. It maintained an average of over $17,000 for the first five months, r>\jring Lent it dropped down, but has pulled a come-back, the gross for the last three weeks being around the $14,000 mark. For a $2.50 top muxicul j«huw it m t>nt of tin.* most rsuooe^^ful of the .S'uson, only "Tang^^rine" exceeding it in mcnty made to date. STOCKS The Drama I'layers' Stock, wndt r the management of J. 1#. Adams, continues its amazing business at the Crand, Kansas City. In spite of the falling off of receipts at many of the other houses, the stock aggre- gation continues to make friends. Last week the offering was "Peg O* My Heart." For week of May 7, "Lombard!, Ltd.," is the bill, Wil- mer Walter playing the role orig- inally created by Leo Carrillo, and Miss Warfleld doing "Daisy." When the company started some ten weeks ago it was in the nature of a try-out, and no one would have been surprised had the engagement ended at the end of the third week, but now the management is talking of running all summer, weather per- mitting, and announce "The Cave Girl," "The Hero," "Good Graoioua. Annabelle," "A Prince There Was" as coming attractions. The house staff is composed of the following: J. L. Adams, man- ager; Harry McRne Webster, direc- tor: John S. Fender, stage manager; Jean Ad.ims, press agent; J. T. Kel- Ifr, hou.se manager; Belle D'Arcy, Dorothy Pembroke, Martha Morton, Wilmer Walter, William Nvlte, Charles Caulkins Edwin Cherry, Franklyn Gtorpe. The Mabel Brownell stcok opened at the Victory, Dayton,. O., la.'ft week in "Enter Madame." In the company besides Miss Brownell . are Corliss Giles, Joseph Remington, Francis Farunie, Franes Pitt, Jane Marloury, Helen Ray, Frederick Bickel and Joseph Maoauh y. Tl.e mother of one of the choristers of "Zero." the amatenr show that went on the rocks at the 44th Street two week« ago, called at the Shubert offices, stating the girl had left live pairs <if shoes in her dressing room and that the girl was forced to r»main in bed because of that. The maid in question is a designer for a well known modiste establi.'^hment. Temperamental managers are almost as common as temperamental performers. But the cat's goloshes were unbuckled recently when one manager, who has had more to do with vaudeville than with legit, ordered a dancer who was rehearsing in a new f^how oi his to wear French heels at all rehearsals. 1' was not because she had to dance in French heels and he wanted her to be ftilly prepared—it was b«^«^ause he demando<l smart appearance of all principals at the r^lir^ar*^al. The svjggestion was a «ucces.s—the dancer walked out. SJie Iff' the liall r.t 3 o'clock and at 5 was on a train headed for a vaudeville date. The W»st End, New York, on West 125th street, now playing pic- tures, may install stock during the s\immer. Keiths Alhambra Stock, at 125th street and Seventh avenue, may induce the switch. The West End is operated by Bim the Button Man. Joe Weber is credited with having an equity in the house. BED^E CHATS BY NELLIE BE YELL (Nellie Revell has been for nearly thre« years conftned to her room and cot in the St. Vincent Hospital, Seventh avenue and Twelfth street New York City. Without having moved from one position within the p««t six months (Miss R«^/ell having lost the usa of har spine) she has written and dictated these wMkly articles for Variety, at the same time having variously contributed TJXother periodicals. Miss Revell has been called the bravest woman in the world by many.) Before I discovered I had a breakaway spine I imagined anyone In the worlJ could be hurried If one went about It right. I us*d to bribe threaten or bully people into hurrying things for me. I never ordered a meal that wasn't already prepared. I never had time to wait for it. The taxi chauffeurs were always Instructed to hurry. Hurry was niy middle name. The photographs for m;- ehows had to be on my desk at a certain time, no excuses were accepted. Herald.j and printing must be deliv :-ed to suit my schedule, no delay was permitted. Lithographers all knew a disappointment in getting my paper out in time meant a cancellation of an entire order. Of course I thought it was only through such rigid punctuality that I was able to do the hard work required of me and obtain the results I eometimes did. But I find that there ore things in the world that won't be hurried. No pull, no influence, wo threat affects the serenity of Nature. She does her work well, but Rhe takes hor own time about it. When Harry Weber, *Babe" Ruth and several other big leaguers came in last Tuesday 1 thought for a minute the AVorld's Series was going to be played in my room, but learned that it was becaufie Mr. and Mrs. Ruth were coming in this hospital for operations. The papers carried stories abbut how Mr. Ruth a ^ breakfast with me 'ust before he went to the composing room. I ate breakfast. He didn't. But if Briggs ever runs out of ideas for "When a Feller Needs a Friend" he might draw one of the Babe as I eaw him. If he crer looked like that at Judge I.Mindis, I am sure the ban would have been lifted. This Is twice in a few months Mr. Ruth has been under ether In this hospital, and as the operating room is on the floor with me I sometimes ktiow when patients are oing under or coming out. We always know when the mighty hitter is coming out. He always wants to fight everyone near hira. He must have remembered that this was clean-up week and was trying to do hi.s bit by cleaning up the doctors. A headline reads "Steerage Countess Says 'Journalists Scared Her.*'* They probably heard her refer to them as journalists. No perfectly goo^ ehip r.ews reporter would stand for being called that. The Victory, Holyoke, Mass., for- merly playing v.audcville, has dra- matic stock for the summer, com- mencing May 15. The Gold}-t< in Bros, open dra- matic fctock in the Colonial, Pitts- field, Mass., May 29. The sailing of William A. Brady and iiis >\ife, Grace George, last week, for the other side, must have been a s\idden decision, as far at least as Mr. Brady was concerned. Shoitly before leaving, he had no thoug.it of going abroad. He ie going direct to Berlin en some undisclosed mim- m\ )n, but it bears relation to the show business on this side. Miss George's object 1b to see some of the playe now running in Europe. Especially anxious is the star to personally witness 'Aimer' and "L.'\ Flamme" in Paris. The Bradys will return about June 15. Cohen's, Newburgh and Pougli- keepsie, N. Y., split week stock and picture policy commencing next week. The stock company plays the first half.in. Newburgh and the last half in Poughkeepsie. Papers announce "Belgian ophthalmologifit brings new instrument.^ I bet they will try it on mc. If it's as hard to take as it is to pror»ounc# it belon'»s on the convict ship. T read with alarm that the Chicago station masters have declared war upon th:? farewell ki»s at railway etations. Chicago is making it harder every day to get the original cast.s to go there. The annual siimmer btoek at Elitch CJardens, Denver, opens about June 15, und* r the management of Rollo Young, who has had the com- pany for two seasons. Helen Men- ken and Ernrst Glendenning will play the leads, the company having been engaged in New York. After being nearly three years in bed in every kind of e >ntrivance8 that resemble incubators, dog houses, iron girdles enough to build a bridge, all of which time* I have not turned nor moved, .'ind my feet Iiave been kept in bandages and stockings, imagine my joy at having all of the strappings taken from my feet and even my hose removed for the first time since I have been here, can feel the sheets on .my bare feet and can turn over alone. Of course, I can't pull myself up yet, but can help myself considerably. And while I am only permitted out of my shell for short and infrequent intervals. ^ sure do enjoy my few minutes respite from the tortuoua equipment that surrounds me. But to have again felt my bare feet on the nice cool sheets and be able to turn over iinassisted in bed. And to have the freedom of the knee^ Oh, boy! what a grand and glo-ri-ous fve-ling! > Hassard Short, who sailed on the "Homeric" Saturday to meet Irving Berlin, relative to the next "Music Box Revue," and possibly the stagifig of the present Music Box show in London for Charles B. Cochran, was given a surprlfce tend-off. Tom Oliphant, p'ess impresario for the Sam H Harris attractions, with Bill Norton and Eep Solomon of tl- Music Box, trooped onto the White Star docks with a four-piece sour-note band which led a flock of the Music Box girls. The "band's" opening number was "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here." The music was stopped for a minute when an officer tried to "air" the works, but another overrode the (lecision, and the bra^s w.ukerfi continued. It took some time to get the musieians together, none of the wind-jammers admitting they could or did play sour. George White, the super king, finally delivered the desired crew. The cornetist was a genius for striking "off" notes. The Music Box bunch traveled to thf docks in big 'buses. The band startled West 45th street as early as 10 a. m. Many a boarding house window was thrown open and actorfe' sour looks mixed with the sour music. Joseph F. Waila<^e, representative of Proctor in Albany, announces he has re-engaged Clara Joel anH her husband, William Boyd, to play the leads in the proctor Players at Harmanus Bleecker Hall, Albany, N. Y. Mis:s Joel and Mr. Boyd, at present in stock at Atlanta, wjjll return here May 29. What if* clijimed as the most imlque theatrical record is put forth l^y the cast of 'iMnc Me," which closed at Elmira, N. Y., Saturday. Har- mony among the i»layers throughout the three seasons the show has been running if the r< rord claim. Fron' the time the play went on until the final curtain ther^' never was an understudy used and b\>t one change in the cast. The piece was produced by John Golden, with Hale Hamilton and Grace La Ru? starred. It played its first second In Chicago and the middle west, hitting Broadway after that. This teafion it has again oeen on tour. Lionel B. Samuels, of the San Francisco Alcazar, started for New York last Sunday night to engage a complete new company for the Alcazar. During his Los Angeles visit Samuels engaged Herbert Heyes, iate of the Fox Film Corporation, for a special six weeks engagement opening at the Alcazar June 25. He will replace Dudley Ayres, who has signed a new contract and who will return to the Alcazar after Heyes special engagement is com- pleted. The Picker stork, playing one- night stands on J^ong Island, is to present musical productions during the summer. A,friend brings me pntti de fo gras (take no chances, Betty). The nurse a ki^ me what it was. I explained it was a French delicacy made of liver. "Oh, yes," she said, "they make it in this country, too. We call it liverwurst." Lady in Akron. No. I am not the same Revell who once worked with Jafl. Morton. Her name was Maude. She was a singer, I believe. Neither was I ever of the team of Sterling and Revell. It is barely possible that I am remotely related to Hamilton Revelle, the handsome leading man, as neither of us spell our name correotly. It should^be spelled Ravelle. We both, it seems, changed the "a" to "e," and I left the last "e' off so the name wouldn't burn so much juice when it got In an electric sign over a theatre. It hae been over a few, and even though this prediction may sound more like assininity than optimism I make it in all confidence and seriousness, it will be in lights again over a theatre. <l wish you could have seen Betty look at me just now when she read this ) No love, no friendship, nrt kindness is evior wasted. And if they be not appreciated or reciprocated by the person upon whom they are bestowed it comes from *?ome other least expected source from which we have no claim. There is no such thiiTi; as loving in vain. True, one can love someone who does not return that love. But for every unrequited love another bigger love is born. The more people you like, the more people will like you. The more you give, the more will be yours to give. The more smiles you put into circulation, the more you will have bestowed on you. Love, friend.ship and smiles are like currency. If they are hoarded, no one gets the benefit of them; If they are kept In constant circulation everyone benefits and, again, like money they always ac- cumulate something in the transit. Morris West commissioned Ralph B; rton, an artist attached to the fftaff of the New York 'Tribune," to design a new curtain for BaliefCs "Chauve-Souris" at thv 40th Street. The design is in the form of cari- cature faces of New Yorkers who have seen the show and a drawing of the curtain was printed in last Siiiulay s editions of the "Tribune" and "Times." The "Trib" had the correct nnmrs of all the p^r.'^ons in the picture, but the several individiialw connected with the "Times' were changed to "phonies" in the "Times.' Adolph S. Ochs, one of the "Times'" owners, was sent down .'«s "Jo'm .Smith"; Alexander Wollcott, the critic, was "Henry James," and George S. K.'\ufman, reviewer and theatrical reporter for the "Times," wa- down a* "Wjlliam Brown." Al Trahearn has st;>rted opera- tion of a one-night stand sto' k on Long Island. Tlic dramatic stock at the New, Baltimore, closed Saturday. The house reverted to straight pictiires. k A show just closing replaced the mal ^ lead after the first two ilays en Broadway, but the actor who went out of the cast has been paid his i^ah.ry each week, though hie contract was for the run of the play. The ftipend weekly was no little matter, the salary being $500 and the show's run nearly three months. Last week when the salary drawer heard the piece was withdrawing, he verified It with the manager, then said: "That's funny, I'm closing with ycM on the 13th and openinr in another thow on the iGth." The new uhow Is for a tryout thi« spring, but is sure Of Broadway in the fall.' Jenie Jacobs, who thought she had found a new way to etop a motor truck, writes me from her home: "Henceforth, I shall speak most kindly of the Ford delivery truck. It carried a lot of laundry—and I don't know whether or not it was clean. It was rather a dirty trick, thougbi to knock me down, kick me in the back and drag me through the street —and thon to cap the climax, to run right over me. Of course, I have a lot of vivid coloring on my back, thighs, knees and elbows—and you'd swear that Jack Demp.sey put one eye out with a bunch of fives—and now the other on^ ie commencing to be discolored anT resembles a rain- bow, tor. Shows you what a wondeiful li- posit ion Jenie has. She cvku *.ven for- give a Ford. Percy Williams writes me: "A flapper 17 to 18. just out of a convent school (known her since she was a baby) blows in as we are taking a cocktail yesterday. 'I say, I supp( «e you haven't come to this y»t.' light- ing a cigarette. She said, 'I'ncle Percy, wlwre do yon get tii<>se oM idec^- Just put a nipple on Ih-i boUle and push it to me.'" B. Michalov. for the Lynch Enter- prises, revisited New York to book principals for stoc'K companies. The Atlanta comj)any, picked by him with the assistance of the Atlanta critics, whom he brought here, has been getting profitabJe business, but Clara. Joel and Will- iam Boyd are leaving May 20, probably going to Albany. Micha- lov Is negotiating with Jane Cowl for a stock run to follow. Two new stock companies ©pen Jn Lynch (Continued on pa^e 1%) Talk aboiif surprise acts. Heir iiboit my siu'pjise part>! Ralph Bel- mont (Of Tlios. Wi.'e'f^ Co.) oomen frequently tej see me wh^n he is '*J town and asked la«t week if he might run in ^londay afternoor. I r* phca yes, I thought 1 would be in all day. He came, accompanied by Mr. "SMs® and Mi. .^ Mack, and tliey presented "jSUmories" in my room It was the first play I had seen in nearly tluee yt.us. 1 Jid not know Mr. I{«hnot»t was n« ' alone, as the others Wf re waiting outside. He .•■tarled moving I tin chairfl and tables a ound, telling me he wanted to rehearse something fo/ me. He bcgar his scene in the Thos Wise s\etch. '»'he first plinip»« I had of any of the other members <•( the company was wh'n they rc* sponded to their cue in the play. It was all so *'idd«^n 1 was over" \.".ie^med and burst out crying, partly froM nerves, partly for joy, «'»"*» I prenumr, a great deal through "memories.'^ It was a delightful *.rcavi and I sHall long cheiflsh'tl]!^ uettiory ot their visit* j