Variety (March 1923)

V A U D E V 1L L E .■'>:fv;,; 'A'--. fVjfl 'f H i'Mm-T' .W t. Thursday, March 1, 1923 VAUDEVILLE IN HIE MIDDLE WEST I END OF UNITS AND SEASON LOOKED FOR BY MARCH 17 Quick Finish Follows Collapse of Shubert Vaudeville Shows—Act in Hoffman Unit Demands Salary • Weekly "Without Cut or Stalling'' The rapiil contraction of the Bumber of Shubert vaudeville houses following the collapse of the unit outfits is indicated as a step in an ending of the Shubert vaude- ville circuit and season by March 17. It was planned to replace the unite by straight bills, but that appears to have worked out unsatisfac- torily. * This week the Gertrude Hoffman unit show, strengthened by several acts, opened as a musical revue at the Majestic, Boston, the unit house there. "Tangerine" has been booked for the Garrick, Chicago, and Loew'a State, Cleveland, which was taken over for Shubert vaude- ville last fall. Is soon reverting to L.oew'8 vaudeville. The Hoffman show in revue form at Boston has a scale $2 top. I^st week it was claimed some of the cast received but half salaries. Joe Towle and De Haven and Nice are additions to the Hoffman show. Towle i« said to have told the man- ager he must be paid every Satur- day Just like the stage hand.<t, with no cuts nor stalling. Arthur Klein controls the Hoffjnan outfit. Boston. Feb. 28. A change of policy was announced for the Majestic Monday when Ar- thur Klein's unit show, "Hello Everybody" opens an engagement of four weeks at the hoime. Eight performances a week will be given instead of 14, the usual policy with the Shubert vaudeville units and biUfl which have been playing the house this season. The "Hello Everybody" attrac- tion will be followed by the pick of the remaining units on the Shubert circuit, the length of their stay de- pending upon the business and the success of the trail-blazer. The prices for the "Hello Every- body" engagement will be from Monday through Friday nTijht. $1.50 top; Wednesday matinee. |1 top, and Saturday night, |2 top. "Hello Everybody" features C^er* trude Hoffman and has been play- ing the Shubert vaudeville circuit all eeason until recently, when the unit, to avoid "repeating," took to ijidependent bookings. LIKED "WILD WOMEN" Clyde Elliott Accused By Wife in Divorce Suit Chicago. Feb. 28. Mrs. Ma Elliott has sued Clyde Elliott, manager of the new Evan- •ton theatre, for divorce, charging desertion. She asserts her husband nnniKPd himsolf in entertaining "wild women." Mrs. Elliott states that her hus- band is the sole owner of the newly built Evanston theatre and avers farther that he owns 25 per cent. %f the stock of a $200,000 corpoia- tion. She a.«iks an injunction to re- strain him from disposing of any f'f this property. The couple were married in 1915. 'CHEAPER TO MOVE" San Francisco, Vth. 28. Harry and Dolly Cramer, on a tour of the woild, traveling in a house Viuilt on a Ford chassi.", are in San Francisco. They have si«ns on the "flivver" declaring "it ks cheaper to move than pay rrnt." They are to sail with their hr.upr on whoels on the "Moana" Manh 81 for Hawaii and the Orient. BOOKER BAWLS AT $50; REMINDED OF LONG AGO Chicago Booker Yells at Actor, Who Knew How to Shut Him Up V--' • '■■■■■ Chicago, Feb. 28. A little vatjdevllle actor out in the Chicago territory approached one of the regular bookerh on the fifth floor of the State-Lake building the other day and inquired "why" he couldn't get time. There were a number oY agents, managers and actors around, but no one close enough to hear the beginning of the conversation. The booker, who is detested through his nasty temper and bulldozing methods employed with both actor and agent, replied in a louder tone than was necessary that there was no particular reason why the act was not booked. The little vaudeville man approached the booker once more and this time quietly and without anyone seeing it tried to slip a $50 bill into the book- er's hand. That this had been done was made plain when the agent turned a second time, and in a loud tone bawled out the little actor. He waxed warmer and warmed and there promised to be a scene until the little actor .«shut him up by ex- claiming in a voice loud enough for all to hear: "You were not .<;o finicky six years ago when I used to wend you $15 for every weel; I worked." MERCEDES BANKRUPT Gained Notoriety as Bread Thrower and Wife Beater Chicago, Feb. 28. .\ft('r having acquired notoriety in the past a.** a bread thrower and wife bt^ater. M*.rcede.«, as he was known in vaudeville aithough not heard of in some time, is now re- ceiving piore public;ity as a bank- rupt. Last week, throujrh his attorneys, the Lotwenihal lirm, Joseph Mer- cedes, sometime called Jo.seph Cohen, filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in wluch he schedules his liabilities at"Tl0,000 and assets Of $297. Mercedes or Cohen first came to light when associated with an In- ventor of a tran.smitting code later used in a vaudeville act. A girl nanud Meicedes, also an assistant, charged Cohen a.sFumed' her name In putting on the turn. Later Cohen or Mercedes was barred from some local cafes for throwing bread at amateur per- fomiers, and sometime after that he was reported having had an al- tercation with his wife, Mme. Stan tone who appeared with him in the vaudeviilo turn he then pre- 8»'nted, and Ixating her. Amonif the creditors listed are: National FM-inting Company. .$1,250 E.state of Edmund Town...^.. 1,000 Delia Town ] ,000 Arthur Coiin 800 KliE.ibetn Town ' 900 Amflia Town 400 I DANCER LOST STAGE LEG Bennington and Scott were oft ihe tfill at Loew'a r'alaoe, Brooklyn. Monday', due to a peculiar aorident Bennington is a monopedic dancer and lost his stage leg ou tlio way _to the tlieatroln a taxloa b. Felix Bernard t<>()k the vacancy, ' The fal.se leg {.■? a specially con- trived affair impossible to reii'aci.- on short notice and neeea.sary to the artiet for his stage work. OJT the stage Pennington uses anorlifi- false Ifg of ."irnpler construction. "Will i<p.iuse. Chicago 500 Prinor.«s Wajiloika 300 J. I). Leich^rson. Chicago 300 y]vA. J. IX Lfi'-herRer 2oO Jt».' Cona;y. S'ln Kiancisco-. ... 250 Commonwealth Trar;sf(r 2r.O .Anna .McDonald 2.'i0 K.dniiiM ■ Town, .Tr 200 iloyd T >wn 200 Arthur Cohen 150 S.-infonl Cn\i l.",0 .\las<.)«]:iiHi.tt.«: Bonding Co.... IOC H;ish I-irtlr.g Co.. Chicniro... lOd .\Ii-s. .S. rinkeNt*in 100 H.irr.v C]»^iii« nt :....:... Kio .MorMnt r (.N'^^An.. .<» '.. TVtt Am : a Ci»m.nt 100 .\r.ulia Ci.ij'n 100 Krai.k Clemeu! 100 Ne'.lle M*-rc» «le.s 100 A»»o Coh^n 100 I'linl; ^ W.-if,'*'nulls 20 By W. S. BUTTERFIELD G. W. DUKELAN ALIAS "SLIM JIM'* What FRANK BACON was to "UGHTNINV G. W. DUKELAN la to "KUBEVILLE." After playing seven years with C. B. MADDOCKS "RUBEVILLE," during which time he never missed a performance, DUKELAN lately celebrated his seventy-ninth anni- versary in fitting style,—and was proclaimed the oldest member of the vaudeville profession. ANOTHER UNIT SHOW QUITS~$20,000 LOSER "Midnite Revels'' Ending at Detroit—Played to $4,000 Gross at St. Louis Detroit. Feb. 28. The Henry Dixon Shubert vaude- ville unit show, "Midnite Revels" will close its Shubert' vaudeville tour this week at the Shubert local unit house. The show is winding up its Shubert unit season $20,000 loser, -with 115.000 of that amount represented by its production in- Vestmrnt. Whi'le it is reported I. H. Herk is or was interested in this unit with Dixon it is also said the $-0,000 loss Is represented by an ind«'bted- ness outstanding against the show, leaving the attraction as having played so far without an actual cash loss. Just how much Is d\ie to the ac- tors In the unit for salarj-" is un- known. About three weeks ago the company refused to continue unless salaries were guaranteed. It wafi then reported Lee Shubert had guaranteed salaries for the next three weeks. If so the guarantee will end Saturday. Neither is any one connected with the company aware what will happen after this engagement. Some say the show Will be taken east and us*^d for one nighters by the Sliubert legit booking office, but in any event it is expected Lee Shubert will have to transport the company when It is ready to leave here. The linlt came in to the local house limping after having laid off last week and playing St. Louis the week or so before to a total gro:=;s on the engagement, at the Empress theatre, of $4,000. In Tittsburgh It did $5,800 on the week. ' Henry Dixon's "Midnite Revels" wa*s not included in Vaiiety's list of Shubert Vaudeville unit .«how^ losses of $l,ooO,000 publislied la.st week, through the impression pre- vailing it was included in the unit losses mentioned against I. H. Herk As the Dixon unit was about to open in Pittsburgh tlie Shubert bookipg office sent on an act from New York as an extra attraction for it. Dixon refused to play the act and iiotifled the house manaj^'em^-nt if it insisted he would nut <ipon. The act did not play. HEADING CENTURY STOCK San Franci.sro. F(.h. I'S. "When the pre.vent oolor«^d show leaves the Cf>ntiu-y at the *n>\ of its run Ackerman *i Marriw may in- stall George LeMaiie at tlie h«-ad of the permaufry. (uli:i«') mw.«ic;il «om- edy stock organization (vh!t«-R). LeMaire In .•-aid to l»ave b*^en prao- tioally closed with, lie Tii)l have .fo'» rMiilljj)R with ].'.m I', r conudy, tlie couple to r* pi'i <lr.< ^^ the .scene" Le.Maire is idiiitified wiH). LEE KIDS, EXTRA ATTRACTIO?: The L«e Children will commenrr .Saturday, Mar<li 3. an enKaK*'nv nt of two we«k6 as special i.ttr.'.« tior in the pi<n\ne program .it Crai;- man's new Metropolilnn. Tljeir talmy Ih $2,0(m) u«<l?ly. Brotb»»rs Cir- others being Heiman from he was treas- Syracuse and with him; so To my way of thinking Chicago and the middle west have never been given ths position they are en- ytled to in the vaudeville and amusement world. Everybody not only in theatrical but commercial world, figures that New York city is the mecca for all markets; but when you talk of popular priced or three-day vaude- ville, I know Chicago and the mid- dle west were first to Introduce this form of amusement and originate the beautiful theatres of the three and four-a-day nhows. Well do I remember while tour- ing with the "Duster Brown" com- pany in 1904 <the last road exper- ience I had) how quickly this form of popular priced vaudeville sprang into existence. Through my pro- motion of the building of the Henry Boyle theatre in Fon du Lac, Wis., where I spent the summer of 1904, I came In contact with Mr. O'Brien, who. In those days, was forming the circuit of Jones &. O'Brien. Seeing the gi'oss business and profits made In Fon du Lac in a little store-room show, changed my entire plans of living and made the decision to go Ijito thia form of amusement. In*looklng for new fields to cov'er I came Into Michigan. Within two years I was the operator of six or eight theatres, playing 15 cent vaudeville and the records will show I never charged 10 cent adml.ssion at n ^ht. At the same time, while '. tiiIcing myself up In Michigan. I watched the Jones & O'Brien Cir- cuit. Frank Thielen Circuit. Finn & Heiman Circuit, the Karl Hoblit- zelle Clrcyit, Allardt Cuit and several formed, i I remember Mark the early days when urer at a theatre In became very friendly much so that the early history of vaudeville will show 1 was the vir- tual silent partner in the firm of Finn & Heiman in the operation of the Oreen Bay Oshkosh. I^ockford, Davenport, Moline and Waterloo theatre*. Personally, I owned as much as the firm of Finn & Heiman did in any of those propositions. They were the interests tiiat my- self and Michigan aaso?iatC3 dis- po.«»ed of when the big Orpheum merger was made with the Finn & Heiman Interests. The progress of vaudeville: — We only have to point to the .stars now on Broadway, who in the days gone by (when they were lirst get- ting their start) figui-^d that when they "played Michigan for Butter- field" they could play any theatre in the United States. It soon be- came known Butterfield was will- ing to pay the top money he couid afford to pay for the best In vaude- ville, although the impression was always ou he drove a hard bar- gain whor it came to termr.. As an examplt't Frank Tinney 'to this day cannot forgive Butterfield for not paying him $85 when Butter- field thou/ht he was only worth $75. Acts like Charlotte Green- wood, Frank Van Hoven, Chic Sale, Harry Jolson, Marillyn Miller (who played with her sisters In an act known as the Flv6 Columbiiins), Patricola, Nan Halperln and dozens of others (hard for me to remember now without looking up the recTords) played in Michigan for their first «tart. And I shouldn't ivonder If Irving Berlin wasn't thinking of me when he wrote '"Michigan.'* In the days gone by, there were a half dozen producing manager:^ in Chicago whom all cf the cir- cuits encouraged in producing good vaudeville acts. When producers like Menlo Moor*-. Wm. H. Frif^d- landcr and Dan Ku.«seil, can go to Firoadway and proluce successful $2.f>0 and $3 shown, it proves the middle we.«t has fnrnishfd its share of the brains in the vaudeville world. If history could be wrlti^-n it Would be shown that lialf of tl»e current Nt-w York successful pro- 'lucers, managers and ag»;nts are products of middle western cities. No Pop in betroit W lieu taiking of ))i»)iieers in a hu-^lness of any kind, •e.^pecialiy ih^'«atncal busines's, e\er\liody will ;idmit Butterfield wa.s a ploncfr wlien he walked the streets of De- ■ ruit some 18 years am'o Avith ■v-iowlcflc-o and the fact stai-lntr -, t!v f.'Cf? that the'rc wa^ d. t a popular priced amusement of any kii..l in a city of 350.000 people. I'opular priced vjrudovilie and pictures '(the picture machine "ot been perf*»rted sufflcif-nt)y an evening's enJei tainm« nt). With him No no hnd for the knowledge popular priced vaude« vUle was established and a money earner in the extreme west and middle west, he walked the streets of Detroit trying to figure how h« could locate a theatre of that kind, but with hla limited capital felt forced to return to the original city in which he stopped on his inspec* tion t«ur of the state of Michigan—* Battle Creek. And it was in Battle Creek he spent hla few hundred dol- lars remodeling what waa then known as the old Hamblln. opepk house Into a vaudeville theatre. When you realize that in 18 years popular-priced vaudeville developed m Mich.gan from an investment (re- modelling an old Upstairs theatre) of $1,800 to a theatre and arcade building that cost $685,000 you may realize the growth of popular-priced vaudeville as a whole. "Necessity is the mother of In- vention," and I will have to confess that In the early start in these size towns the profit in vaudeville was so tmall it became the byword in the Battle Creek and Chicago oflnces that when Butterfield had an addi- tional baby in his family It was a siu'c .sign he was going to take on one or two more theatres to help carry the load. Being the father of five girls and having two grandchil- dren. It is easy for my friends and associates in vaudeville to under- stand why and with what object in view I have slaved for the past 18 years to build up what holdings I have in Michigan. Pictures Bumped Vaudeville With the coming of pictures vaudeville seemed to take a slump. In the past six years (during the war and just after) vaudcvillo gradually kept going backward in our size cities until pictures had reached thel;* height, but in the past year the public has realized an eve- ning's entertainment was a better one when topped with three to five acts of good vaudeville and a good feature picture. Just.now I am of the impression that for some time to come this will be the popular form of nmu«ement, not only in Michigan, but all over the United States. Primarily a vaudeville manager, personally I h.ive been weaned away somewhat, owing to the success of the picture business, but feel that big pictures and vaudeville will be the form of amusement the public will demand from now on. In my close observation of the ever-chang- ing amu.sement situation the one thing that astonishes me most is that wo have drifted away entirely from popular price. To-day the pub- lic thinks nothing of paying 50c. single admis.sion for their favorite amusement, while as late as 12 years ago they were not satisfied to pay over 20c. to see five acts of first- cla^s vaudeville. - Public Is Wis* In vaudeville the theatre-going public in our size towns are as wise as those in the cities. I have had high-grade vaudeville artists tell me Michigan audiences, as a whole, were harder to please than the larger citle-s, where the shows were only two-a-day. This is easily explained. The smaller cities play to the same cla.<»8 of people week in and week out, while in the larger cities the bigger vaudeville theatres play to a variety of audiences and a great many travelers who come simply to be pleased. They are not of the "show me" class. Fortunately or unfortunately as It may appear from a theatrical stand- I)olnt, Mi<*higao is an automobile Slate. When automobiles are In fa- vor our busincHs is always on the right side, but when the slump came, some 18 months ago, and the auto- mobile jilants were closed up, the theatrical world easily realized Michigan was one of the poor show .'^tate"!. It wa.s then suffering more, f believe, than any other section. As to the value of vaudeville, I believe it Is going to get better, for (here is a tendency of all theatres owners to more or less look after the pr«HluctIon of acts. Or, in other words, with the acts that are sold hy the the.-'.tre owners themselves and witli the great encouragement tliar Im iit'W- lieing piven the artist by 3Ir. Aline and tlie other man- agers of tiio \tiix <ircuits, it is posi- tive vaudeville will surely go ahead and )<■'■■]])•' tii< u? amusement of the ilicuir.oal v. <>;:d; ——"—" Tony Si'derkum, the Nasliville ihe.'itre owner, wax in ,\ew Yorl< this we-^k, accompanied by War! Fpln. m.^iifigei* of tlie \endome in that city. m ..;V-- t^ 41 11 1 t i »tj*% .•ftk'. /•