Variety (May 1923)

1 t . . Thursday, May 17, IMS LEGITIMATE >. DROP IN PHILLY, BUT MANY HOUSES WILL TRY LATE RUN xz jJrValnut Summer Revue and Lyric Witk New Guild Appear Most Promising for Warm Weather— "Shuffle Along" Doing Well , • • «■ Philadelphia. May 16. The arrival of some real summer weather sent the grosses tumbling last week. The number of houses planning to continue is unusuaUy large this year. The Lyric, housing the newly- formed Philadelphia Theatre Guild; the Walnut, which closes Saturday but reopens in June with a summer revue; the Forrest, which will keep "Shuffle Along" as long as business warrants it; the CJarrick, which has a month of pictures following the fortnight's stay of "Adrlenne." and now, though no official announce- ment lias been made, the Shubert with "Lady Butterfly." Ever.-the Chestnut will stick along with its revue policy, since its cur- rent attraction, "Make. It Snappy." is doing excellent business, and is to be held over for a fourth week. This leaves only the Broad and the Adelphl actually out for the sum- mer months. + There is a great deal of conjec- turing here as to what house (or houses) have the most success with hot weather engagements. The choice lies between the Walnut and markably well, considering that this is He second engagement here. Last week it ran very unevenly, register- ing big grosses some rights and low ones others. Nothing was said about further continuance until Monday, when a fourth week was announced, with "Happy Days." with Harry Delf, booked to follow for a limited run. The house has taken on a new lease of life re- cently and may stay open late Into Junt; The new Shubert musical comedv; "Bal Tabarin." had a rather sad time of it at the Oarrick. It was a last-minute booking and if there fs one thing that Philadelphiane re- fuse tc patronize that's it. Half houses were the rule all week, with the balcony trade off. The Walnut had a rather dreary week with "Kempy," but arrange- ment were finally made to hold this Nugent comedy in 'fcr a third week rather than take a chance on "Bal Tabarin." as had been con- templated. "Kempy" will wind up Saturday, and the house next week will haVe an amateur performance presented b>: the Philadelphia Elect the Lyric, with the general belief tr i c C( >nr.prknv. The week ol May 2$ that the revue will find more trade during July than the straight shows . presented by the Theatre Guild. . The latter, however, hard a prom- i ising opening last week. Tuesday night saw a big jump in gross over the opening, and the Wednesday night gross practically doubled the Monday gross. The Wednesday and Thursday matinees were off, but by the end of the week the crowds were coming, and both Friday and Satur- day saw lots of real money in the house. The week's gross was re- ported at about $5,000. and those interested in the venture profess to find real satisfaction at that figure, Which normally would mean a neat profit. The fact that Gillette was the star of the week meant, how- ever, a loss at that figure. A switch was made in the play for this week. It was to have been "Winnie of the Wolves," a new play, dramatised by William Gillette from a series of magazine stories, but at a late hour this, was postponed and Clare Kummerji "Good Gracious. Annabelle," was substituted. To many this switch appealed as bad policy, as "Annabelle". has been here before, and Lola Fisher, who Is fea- tured as guest star, is not believed to be enough of a drawing card here to make a revival of much interest to theatregoers, whereas a brand new play, Especially one written by Gillette, was considered a strong bet. The reason given for the change was that there had not been eVough rehearsals for "Winnie** to give It a smooth performance. The adver- tisements now announce "Winnie" for the third we.ek.7but there, seems to be some question about this, as Francine Larrimore is commonly re- Korted as coming in fqr two weeks, eginning Monday. One of her plays is to be a new one. William Collier is another star the Guild Is trying to bring in during the hot months, following their policy of light com- edies for the summer. "Shuffle Along" caused Its back- ers some uneasy moments at the start, but at present everything Is rosy for this all-colored revue. The Monday "night house at the For- rest was good, but by no means capacity, which was taken by some as a bad sign, but Tuesday showed a definite gain, and by Wednesday there were only a few odd seats out downstairs, with a big balcony play. Strong emphases is still being laid on the fact that it is "limited en- gagement," and some of the wise- acres give "Shuffle Along" not more than four weeks, but it is generally believed that, with any kind of weather breaks, It will stick it out through June, and probably make a substantial profit. * The "Follies" had " one of the wors*: Wednesday matinees the Shubtrt has had all year, and that's going fomp. as this house has had some weak sisters. In fact, the matinee trade for this cr.t.-kerjack revue has been consistently off from the start. Nevertheless, busi- ness har been good enough to keep the revile in for five weeks, whereas four was the expected lini't. Last week however, it started t> t lip ell around, and there is doubt if ii shows a*profit on this week'.- figure The Cr.ntor revue has held up re- l j. rf*L* : l« 1 . SUMMER SUBSCRIPTION for VARIETY $1.75 (three months) $2 Foreign will fire* the theatre dork, with the reopening on June 4 with the new Gaites revue whose name, it has been decided, will be 'Til Say She Is." The cast is headed by the Four Marx Brothers. The wind-up of "Blossom Time'' had r.cthing of a trlcmphint nature* about it. This Schubert revue had outstayed its welcome by a number of weeks, and even the announce- ment of the finale did not succeed ih dragging trowds to the Adelphi. Just above $5,000 mark. This week/saw two novelties, the opened against real opposition with premiere of Werba's "Adrlenne'* aTTHBun Showers" playing the Wilbur, the Garrick. and the Guild's second show. The first-named Is in for two weeks only, when it goes imme- diately to New York. The opening night house had some real money. Next Monday the only opening will bo "Winnie and the Wolves.* the Guild's third play (unless plans are' again changed) and after that there* U nothing in sight until the Walnut revue on June 4. It is un- derstocd on good authority that Moroseo's "Lady Butterfly*' Is com- ing into the Shubert (which will be dark after this Saturday), but no ofllciaf announcement has as yet been made. A month of Alms will start at the Garrick on May 28. Estimates of the week: "Greenwich Village Follies'* (Shu- bert, fifth week). Dropped badly last week, matinee trade being espe- cially hard hit. Might have recouped more if warm weather and rain had not 1 It town at very end of week. Ends Saturday. $19,000. "Shuffle Alone" (Forrest, second ween). 'Negro revue starred a bit slowly, but got started soon and sailed through week to big money, although here too Wednesday mati- nee was way off. House scaled lower than usual. About $21,600. "Adrienne" (Garrick, first week). Musical comedy opened with mush promise and ought to realize real. promise in two-week stay. "Bal Tabarin" was way off In single week here, grossing less than $10,000. • "Kempy*' (Walnut, third week). Second week of this fine Nugent comecly was weak, gross failing to hit $0,500 mark. Nevertheless, house management preferred tak- ing chance on another week of this rather than switching in "Bal Tabarin." "Good Gracious, Annabelle" (Ly- ric). Second attraction of newly organized Philadelphia Theatre Guild which, as a rule, will limit engagements to ) a single week. BuslneM* picked ' up steadily last week with "A Successful Calamity" and reached the $5,000 mark, satis- factory to' those in back of the movement. •■ "Make It Snappy" (Chestnut, third week). Cantor show has done fine business here for a repeat. Started to slip some la«t week, but will bt held for a fourth week. Be- tween $13,000 and $14,000. lihood of any other producers giving him a fight because past experience has shown that his shows can get over here under the moat torrid weather conditions when a show produced by anybody also would flop. This is not idle flattery. It la simply that the town always has gone big for a Cohan production; he has always come through for them, he has his patrons waiting for him and they come in with the minimum amount of urging. Some talk was heard about town about '.'Molly Darling" being switched over to the Colonial after Mitsi gets through there. This, how- ever, is taken with considerable salt by those familiar with the local situation. In the first place the showing of the play on its repeat engagement at the Tremont doesn't warrant this action, a balance sheet of $14,000 for a week not comparing favorably with the $20,000 and $22,000 grosses that'prevailed when it played the house earlier in the season. Another factor to be con- sidered Is that Donahue would have to play opposition to Cohan's show and as both draw from the same class he would be likely to be licked from the start. Unless some other attraction is found the chances are that the Colonial will be dark for the balance of the season.' "Minnie and Me." grossing less -than $14,000 last week was consider- able 'of a surprise. It did $20,000 the week before that and showed great strength. The blame is placed on the show and not oh Mitzi. It is claimed the only thing that has kept the show doing good business Is the the personal drawing power of the star.. From the first the tip was out that the show was not up to the standard of those that she has been seen in* before and it was not suited to her talents. It was said she was not given enough opportunity to do the things she is best suited for. As a result there is a belief current that Savage after the finish of the Boston engagement will with draw the show and have it rewritten or BEDSIDE CHATS • By NELLIE RE VELL • tie st i.ibati m tute another. JDn the road the show" might go over on the reputa- tion of Mitzi but it will never be the money maker of those she has been seen in before. With another show she would, in all probability, repeat her former successes . But one new show was booked into town this week, that being "Lady Butterfly" which opened at Shubert on Monday night replacing Jolson ih "Bombo." The show and musical shows at two of the syndicate houses. This is* the final week of "Ltghtnln*" and is also the last -of the'two week's engagement of the Russian players at the Ma r jestic. On next Monday night the Majestic will have "The Covered Wagon" (film) for an attraction at a house scaled at $1.50 top. It is being advertised extensively. "The Fool" continues at the Selwyn, playing to fair business, but with no definite announcement of how long it will be kept on at the house. Under weather condi- tions such as prevail now it oan get by but with the first hot spell It is expected to crumple. Despite its drawing powe it is rated too heavy for a summer attraction here. This has been a season of long runs in this city, with several shows that played hero during the season cleaning up remarkably at the box- office, in direct contrast to condi- tions which prevailed in other parts of the country. "The Bat" which opened at the Wilbur on Labor Day holds the record with a stay of 24 weeks, playing to capacity on all but a few weeks of that period. It got the cream of the business and the mystery shows which followed here found the going very hard, "LtghtnhV" will run second with a stay of 11 weeks when It finally closes at the Hollis. This show came in here under a big handicap, fol- lowing the death of Frank Bacon arid then the illness of Pollock. Despite this it got along very well until the past few weeks when It showed signs of weakening and now it Is about dona One of the sur- prise%of the season was "Just Mar- ried" which from a standing start did so well at the house that if was kept on for 14 weeks and then sent on a tour throughout New England. SHOWS IN BOSTON (Continued from page 11) 'The Fortune Hunter" and "Turn to the Right." it Is figured t.* be Hie- sort tint will hit Host onions riuht for light entertainment during the summer and if it does run.- to ih" Wilbur will be the only nttrnc- tlnn Ihey will have in their housea iccording to th*» present OlftloMc, itrong enough for 1 summer play- ing. The chances are that Cohan will hive the field alone for hi* musg leal attraction. There is little like- Estimates for last week: "Lightnin* *♦ (Hollis. 21st week). Final week of this show with bus- iness running in the neighborhood of $8,000 for last week. This is about half capacity for the house and not at all satisfactory. "Minnie and Me" (Colonial. 5th week). Slid to $13,800 last week, off from $20,000 the week before and will go out in two weeks. « "Molly Darling** (Tremont. 2nd week). Flopped on the first week playing to $14,000 when nearer $20,000 was expected of the show judging it by past performances. "The Foor (Selwyn. 13th w«ek). IXropped to $5,000, but stay~stlll in- definite. "Sun Showers" (Wilbur, 3rd week). Started to mediocre takings for a musical; $6,000 first week. "Lady Butterfly" (Shubert, 1st week). "The Monster" (Plymouth. 3rd week). Hotting its share among non-musicals. "Russian Players" (Majestic*. 2nd week). Started to big money, nearly L $:•:!.000 In first week, hut manage rnent expefcts increase this week. . 1 < • > It would seem that after surviving so many other holidays without giying away to self-pity, I surely must be Immune from that inexcusable fault But somehow Mothers' Day almost submerged me and I found myself dangerously near to sympathising with myself, when I realised that more than a thousand miles lay between me and mine. • Then there came a wire from my littlest little girl to tell me that she hoped she could he as good a mother to her lltble girl as I had bean to mine. After that there arrived some pink carnations, and among the blooms there was a little card In the handwriting of my other daughter. Though hundreds of miles away, she had arranged to have Mothers' Day flowers brought to me, and it had been done out of her vary meager salary. There were a lot of other wires on the special Mothers' Day blanks, supplied* by the telegraph companies, from other children's parents and other parents' children, all reflecting the spirit of the day. And it seemed as though the more wires and flowers I got the more I wanted to cry. Then, remembering that if I looked around for someone else to feel sorry for. I wouldn't have time to feel sorry for myself. ' So I went over the list of my fellow-patients and discovered an ofd lady In the public ward who had 1 raised five children and had done a good job of it. Two of them were still living, but there were no flowers or wires for her, and -I felt sorry for her. Another mother, I learned, .had had three children, but once again she was childless. For her. also, Ty felt sorry. Then I remembered an unmarried woman who had bean here for seven years and who will be here until the Grim Reaper releases her from her invalid's bed. She had never had any little girls or hoys and has not even the luxury of memories to help save her as have the other two. I felt sorrier for her than for the lonely mothers. * —- Whether Mothers' Day was inaugurated by Miss Jarvis, Uncle Bob or the Florists' Association it matters little. It la to most of us Just another excuse for heartaches. For any mother who has ever felt the warm grip of tiny fingers about her 'own or thrilled to their pat on her bosom, or has ever looked down at a baby's happy face as It was nursing, or kissed It's little toes as she was bathing It has already been suffi- ciently honored. And everything else is gilding the lily. Work on the book and in fact everything else is temporarily suspended . while I wade through the program used at the N. V. A benefit, and I am having the time of my life renewing acquaintances with eld friends in it, tearing their pictures out to put under the glass "top of my table. And what a thrill of delight at seeing the caption on my own picture, tit reads "An appreciation from the boys in the booking office to 'Our Nell,' whom B. F. Keith catted the,big sister of vaudevHle." It must have been some of my ancestors. I am euro It wasn't me to ever deserve anything so big and fine as. that, and I am going to keep It near me, and every time I find the going too hard or the hill too steep, or. feel like being a quitter, lam going to look at it and remember that I have to live up to what you have all thought of me and done for me and are still doing. . - x Tears ago there originated the notion that In order to "play the tanks'*^ one had to bid farewell to Old New York and aeefc out such selected, spots at Mauch Chunk, Pa., and Stebblnsvllle, Kans. Misguided persons also thought that It meant sleeping in a different hotel—they call them that—every night, getting up at I In the morning to catch the accommodation, eating at railroad lunch counters and playing in dusty, in-lighted "opery houses." But I have found that one can "play tho tanks" in New York, too, even > within the radius of a few minutes' travel from Times Square, asjd I will prove it to anyone who is willing to come down to the hospital and gaze at the view afforded by my fourth-floor window. Every way the eyes are directed they meet with the spectacle of tanks, sprawling un- gainly on the roofs of buildings. Some of them are round and pot-bellied, others are tall and awkward-looking and all of them are things of ugliness and a bore forever. The circumstances of my* tour are different than those of the ordinary traveler from tank to tank, for I at least sleep'In the same bed every night, hard as it Is; I couldn't get up at 5 In the morning if I wanted to, my lunch-Counter is my chest and when my "opery house" gets dusty I can always get the nurse to clean It But just the same, four years of "playing the tanks" without a day's layoff is probably the non-stop record of the profession. Out of the Thousand Islands I have managed to get a prior lien on one. It belongs to my doctor and ha tells me that if I will get a tent and enough strength to travel as far as the St. Lawrence I aan have a perfect outing. The only thing that bothers me is that half of It is Canadian and half is American. I'm glad I won't need passports to go from the kitchen to the dining room, bu:. will it be considered smuggling every time my maid carries a steak—medium rare, please—from the stovs to the dining room table T I suppose I'll have to have a couple of customs officers *t the door of th* butler's pantry. The matter of liquid entertainment adds another complication. My guests on the front porch can only drink Moxie and those on the back porch can drink anything they want. But who will toe on the front porch, I wonder. Of course, that means that a couple of prohibition enforcement officers will have to join the others already stationed at the butler's pantry. I can see that I'm going to Have a rather large household. But what pussies me most Is this:* Why does "my doctor" offer me five acres to walk around up there when he Is trying to get a constitu- tional amendment to prevent me from walking five feet here? • In the'paper last week t noticed a photograph of the Hospital for Joint Diseases. And I breathed a silent prayer of thanks that I could have my illness all by myself. It must be something like the plan whereby they selected the livestock for Noah's Ark. Imagine the patients coming in two by two, a couple of appendectomines. a pair of tossilectpminea, a ♦wain of fever patients. However, th^re must be this advantage In hav- ing one disease between two people; each one could only have It half as bftdly as though it were all his own. But I wonder how they would divide a broken baekf Mary Moore Is nothing If not consistent. And whether it's through AI iry'a iens# of illness or a coincident ever since the tragedy that broke bf^ „ M k _j, M spends her summers at Little Neck. I suppose I can divide my lim* between Hartsdale apd Back Bay. I'd be quite at home tn flcarsdaie Hope I can dodge Cripple Creek. . S Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my doctors keep My constitution free from bile. So I can wake up with a smile.