Variety (May 1923)

VAUDEVILLE Wednesday, May 30, 1923 ACTS PLAYING FILM HOUSES HIT SNAG WITH VAUDEVILLE Booker for Same Territory Turns Down Turns Through Picture Theatre Playing—Under Head- ing of Close Opposition—Difference in Scales Hegular vaudeville booking men have begun to take cognizance of the vaudeville acts playing picture houses close to vaudeville theatres, and refusing to plfty the acts on ac- count of the repetition. Ever since the picture bou* v have started adding vaudeville actl to their programs it has only been a question Of how long the vaude- \ille bookers mould shHt their eye* to the condition. Last week in the Keith office two arts that have played most of the Middle Wf stern picture houses were turned down by a Keith booker, with bouses in the same territory. The booking man railed the dates off to the acts' agent, much to the latter's surprise. The arts were booked in another territory by another Keith booker, but the K«ith man -who finally booked the turn first assured him- si if the acts hadn't played any pic- ture houses in his vicinity. This places the pictara houses in the same relative position that «x- istfl between several of the vaudeville circuit. The Orpheum won't play an act for two years after it once plays the Vantages Circuit with houses adjacent to the Or- pheum string. The same goes for ihe Jefferson (Keith) and City (Fox) in New York. A difference of admission existing between the two brands of enter- tainment also detracts . from the value of the act when offered to the vaudeville men after playing a pic- ture house near by. 4- 1 ACTRESS IN PULPIT Juanita Hansen Addresses Wash- ington Congregation Washington, May 29. Juanita Hansen, who has been niuking vaudeville appearances and writing an expose of the drug evil, appeared Sunday in the pulpit of the First Congregational Church tare and spoke on the same topic. The newspapers commented upon the occurrence, which is new in the Kast, although screen players have spoken in churches in California. Miss Hansen is appearing at the Century Roof, Baltimore, this week, and the church appearance was printed extensively in that city. Mrs. Wallace Reid \v;is to have spoken at the Congregational Church, but was prevented by 111- ness. Miss Hansen took her place. SONGWRITERS' SHOW Big Bill, with Many Song Hits at Sun6»y'» Benefit WEST, DIVORCE AND SONG Kloise Kahn has instituted di- vorce proceedings against Eugene Wett (Kahn), the songwriter. West wrote "You Know You Belong to Somebody Else So Why Don't You Leave Me Alone." An unknown woman in the Markwell hotel, New York, is mentioned. The Wests embarked on the marital seas exactly Vne year ago, June 1, 1922. , James A. Timoney li acting for the plaintiff." MIRIAM IRENE PHYLLIS MARMEIN SISTERS in England GLASGOW CITIZEN"—"They express drama by motion and pos- ture. Such dancing is now new, but they seem to me to tie working on original lines, and from what I have seen of the Marmcins. I should say that in dancing, they have discovered the secret of happiness." LONDON "ERA"—"These clever artists presented an ambitious song and dancing scene for the first time in Loudon on Monday evening, and achieved an emphatic success. Among others, two numbers, stand out conspicuously. A hearty and well-deserved recall rewarded this entirely pleasing act." "ENCORE"- Full of manifold charms are the drama dances, both grave and gay. so delightfully presented by the Marmein Sisters, Miriam and Irene, assisted by Phyllis, who are successfully making their London debut here this week. The ad was an Instantaneous success and I shall look to see them as a special feature at a prominent West End house shortly." Victoria Palace, this weak (May 28). Representative for America: EDWARD S. KELLER. Foreign Agents: WILLIAM MORRIS and FOSTER AGENCY. PAID $1,000 TO SMITH & DALE Joe Smith and Charles Dale's re- lease from the Shubert contract re* • lilted from 'he shubcrt.V not ful- filling the .".<» Hcks' guarantee i>c- i iod. Smith and n.iie only worked ;j weeks during th*> past season. I hey ;nc "aid to have received ♦ \000 from the shuberts. Ne- gotiations for .i production an <'«' rentli pending; EXPENSIVE VOCAL INJURY Chicago, May 30. TIm jury, afl< i a day's trial in the Circuit court of Cook county, ren- dered a verdict of f.'.'.iiOO in favor of Maude Robot- of Bobby add Maude Huberts, VS. In. Milton L Smith, who operated upon her throal for tensile and nj ired bei < oi< < The Songwriters* benefit at the Century Sunday evening was a suc- cess. An almost capacity house saw a good show; the boys made money and had a lot of laughs. Not half the acts listed were able to go on because of the length of the program. Leo Wood, treasurer of the affair, is still trying to find out how much money was made. Pinal returns are not in yet. The box seats sold for $25 each, the orchestras $5 and the rest scaled proportionately, so the receipts were large. The expenses were small, including $750 for the theatre and $350 for the orchestra. Henry Waterson paid' $1,000 for a book of song hits, past and present, autographed by the writers. One of .the novelties was the in- troduction by Willie Collier of the Gianfs ball club, including 'nearly every regular on the team, and the presentation of a cup to the club, received by Hughey Jennings. Hughey in turn Introduced the play- ers individually to '.he audience as they stood about the stage, George Kelly and Frankie Frisch getting the big hands. Another novelty was 10 pianos on the stage, with songwriters at each, followed by famous writers of hits playing or singing their own hits at a piano in the centre. These writ- ers appeared as follows:—Ben Davis and Harry Carroll ("I Am Always Chasing Rainbows"), Con Conrad ("Margie"), Ous Edwards ("School Days"), Byron King ("The Vamp"), Lou Handman ("Blue"), George Gershwin "Swanee"), Chas. K. Harris ("After the Ball"; sung by Gus Edwards), Walter Donald- son ("Caroline"), George Meyer ("Tuck Me to Sleep"), Eugene West ("You Know You Belong to Some- body Else"), Theodore Morse ("Dear Old Giii"), Jim Tnornton ("Sweet Sixteen"), Roy Turk and Russ Rob- inson ("Tomorrow), Sigmond Rom- berg ("Sweetheart"), Harry Ruby ("Tennessee"), Abner Silver ("Angel Child"), Wiliam Jerome and "Jean Schwartz ("Bedelia"), Louis Silvers ("April Showers"), Dorothy Terriss ("Three o'clock in the Morning"), Maude Nugent ("Rosie O'Grady"), Victor Herbert ("Kiss Me Again"). Bill Halligan, the announcer, in- troduced Senator Jimmy W r alker as the man who wrote "Will You Love Me in December as You Did in May" and also the Mullan-Gage law. The last got him a big re- * eption. The show opened with Victor Herbert leading the orchestra. Ana- tole Friedland followed with his act.* Then came Pearl Regay, Memphis Five, Will Rogers, Newhoff and Phelps, Sizzle and Blake with their "Shuffle Along" girls, Fradkin, Fay Mai he, Jimmy Hussey, scene from "Apple Blossoms" with Romberg at the piano, Bert Hanlon, Buck and Bubbles (colored boys), Frank Sil- ver's orchestra, Eva Clarke, New York Giants. Al Jolson and the song writers. COMPLAINT MOT AGAINST 0. H. The complaint hied with the Vaudeville Managers' Protective As- sociation by Fisher, Binns 6 Co., for salary due, is against the Strand, Bayonne, N. J., and not the Bayonne opera house, as reported last week. The Bayonne opera house is a Feiber & Shea house booked through the Keith Exchange and is a member of the V. M. P. A. The report that the opera house was the subject of the complaint was an error. SOLUTION OF TRAFFIC The Keith circuit. this week started a prize competition among the patrons of the 29 Keith metro- politan houses for suggestions to | improve the present traffic condi- tions, in conjunction with the cele- bration of the Silver Jubilee now in progress. A cash prize of $1,000 will be given the winner with the most construc- tive idea along practical lines, the competition to be open to all pa- trons of the Keith, Proctor or Moss houses during the Jubilee. DANCER CALLED HOME Mitty Listens to Word From Grand mother in France San Francisco, May 29. Germs!ns Mitty, French danseuse, appearing at the Golden f'.ate sud- denly cancelled her theatrical con<- tracts and is to return to France. "My grandmother, Mme. Mario Serres has wiytten me she will die unless 1 hurry home," said the dan- cer In explaining her action. "Sne is 75 years old, and we have not seen each other since last August. My husband and dancing partner, Eugene Tillo, and I will sail from New York on July 4." GEO. RENEVANT IN SKETCH TJeorge Renevant is to invade vaudeville in a live-people sketch by Sidney F. Lazarus. Renevant was Georpe M. Cohan's fir«»t star after the dissolution of the firm of Cohan t\ Harris, He appeared In Cohan's production, The Crowd t nd the Genius." The sketch is titled, "Matching "Wits," and is to Include Ave people, with special scenery. Alf "Wilton is offering the act to the K-.'h of fice, DECORATING N. V. A. CLUB Los Angeles, May 20 Edwin Plagg is mailing his fifth i- 'o New York sin.'f January. On this occasion he has been ••aliel east to undertake the job of re- decorating the club room* of the N V \. NEWS OF THE DAILIES Alexandra Carlisle has beeen named defendant in a suit for di- vorce tiled by her husband, Dr. Al- bert Pfeiffer, of the Massachusetts State Department of Health. He claims that his wife deserted him in April, 1920, and has refused to live with him since. One child, a daugh- ter of six, lives with her mother. Miss Carlisle has not made any statement, but has engaged counsel. Zona Gale's novel, "Faint Per- fume," is to appear on both stage and screeen next season. Brock Pemberton will produce the play and Preferred Pictures the picture. The 42d Street Owners and Mer- chants Association of New York City has started a movement to pro- hibit the practice of attracting cus- tomers to a store by means of phonographs, radio "horns or mega- phone devices. Many other civic" organizations are supporting this campaign. Representative Sol Bloom Is one of the backers, declaring that this indiscriminate playing of phon- ographs is cheapening the city and EVA AT COLUMBIA Cyclonic On* Will Be Added At< traction June 18 Week Eva Tanguay will appear as a. extra attraction with the Dave Marion show at the Columbia, New York, week of June 11. The en- gagement marks Miss Tanguay'* first in burlesque. She will receive $2,500 for the en- gagement. A jazs band will assist MORE HOUSES TURNED OYER Detroit, May 2*. The Temple, Detroit, will become a Keith owned and operated house next Monday, when officially taken for the Keith Circuit by B. F. Al- bee and J. J. Murdock, who are In Detroit. The other James Moore house, Temple, Rochester, which has also been purchased by the Keith people, will not reopen as Keith link until fall, having close for the shimmer. ;,; EDDIE DARLING SAILING Eddie Darling, Keith booking will sail for England on the "Ma- jestic," June 23, to be gone about a month. Mr. Darling will vaca- tion in Europe also looking over tl European field for vaudeville novel« ties. Upon his return I. R. Samuels wil go abroad for a vacation. • LONG ISLAND'S FIRST PARK Playland Park, Freeport, Dor Island, opened Decoration Day. Tl park, the first of its kind on Donf Island, Is in the same locality ai the Lights Club, a theatrical organi- zation. AV0NS OPENING FOR KEITH" The Avon Comedy Four with Jo< Smith and Charley Dale will ope» for the Keith's next Monday at Proctor's, Newark.* The other tw< in the Avon combination will b< Arthur Fields and Harry Goodman. KEITH MANAGERS' CONTEST The annual contest among Keith! house managers for the most pro-] disturbing workers in~nearby"offices! 1 £ res8iv e business boosting idea has] been set for the week of June 18. Edward Ellis has written a se- rious sketch for the Lambs' Gambol at the Earl Carroll theatre, Sunday- night, June 3. It is called "The Fin- ished Story" and will be acted by Frank Morgan, Frederick Burton and Robert Conness. The Close-Up," by William Fraw- ley and Ivan RudisilL may be pro- duced next .season by Schwab & KUSell. Louis Shipman. editor. of 'Life" has written a play entitled "Boor Richard." It will have an earlv fall opening, with Maclyn Arbuekle starred. Stella Larrimore was exonerated or the charges made against her by ueraldlne Farrar by a decision handed down last Monday by Su- preme Court Justice Lehman. The alleged co-respondent was not satis- fied, however, claiming that she had been robbed of a jury trial and was not yet completely vindicated. It is reported that she intends to brine suit against Miss Farrar. Alfred J. Kvale, son of the Min- nesota minister who won -his seat in Congress by defeating Andrew J. \olsjead, eloped to Indiana and married Ethel Virginia (Billee) Stanfleld. former "Follies" beauty The bridegroom plays the saxo- phone in a Chicago cabaret. Jane Cowl will appear In "Antony and Cleopatra" and another Shake- spearean play—probably "Twelfth Night"—on Broadwnv next fall. Be- fore this she will rest and then play Romeo and Juliet" in the West Afterwards she will nil an engage- ment in London. . __ A Yiddish Drama Guild has been organized in New York city ac- cording t to an announcement made recently by its executive secretarv Mendel Helkin. y> NEW ACTS Joe Carroll (Cook and- Carroll), comedy monolog. Jim Hughes and May Wagner, variety athletes, using same rou- tine, formerly employed by Larad< and Hughes, Chicago. Sandy Ackland (Ackland andi May) and Kitty McLaughlin, two- act. Billy Baskette, Juanita and De« lores (sister team) and Phillip'i Band (six men). Athatasia Lee, an actress, drank MnliT, a , 4 w h ntrf>H ]o *Klng house Monday night and was last repbrted to be dying in Bellevse hospital Her baggage held labels reading Wine, Woman and Song," from which it was inferred that she had been, with the burlesque show of hat name. she is described as being about 20 years old and de- cidedly beautiful. A IT Woods will produce -The Corner. Kate Jordan's new comedy a hour the middle of August In the cast are Florence Eldridge, Basil Rathbone, Louise Closser Hale B, a Anson and Charles Waldron. Another new Woods play will be the Jury Woman" by Bernard K. isurns. HOUSES CLOSING Keith's Royal in the Bronx will close this week for the summer, re- opening in September with the pres- ent two-a-day policy. Two of the Keith southern houses booked by Jules Delmar will remain open all summer. They are Rich- mond and Norfolk, both of which! closed last season during the hot] spell. The balance of the Delmar booket houses will close as follows: Sa- vannah and Jacksonville close weel of June 4; Birmingham and Atlanta, week of June 11; Mobile and Nei Orleans, week of June 18; Batoi Rouge and Shreveport, week of Jun« 25, and Nashville, week of July 2. The Florida houses will remaii open indefinitely. All of the Kekl southern houses have had a pros- perous season and will reopen th< latter part of August. Cosmos, Washington, D. C, close* Saturday. Loews Dayton, June 3. BIRTHS Mr. and Mrs. Dave Loew at theii home in New York, May 27, son. 11 is the couple's second child, botl being boys. Harry Lorraine, the one-night] stand booker of the Fally Ifarkul office, sustained a strained bacl when thrown from a pony in an amusement park last week. Fountain," Eugene O'Xeill's nei play which deals with the wander- ings of DeSoto. Ann Nichols, whose Abie's Iris) Rose" is the marathon champion onl Broadway at present, will produce several new comedies in association] with Augustus PltOU next season. Among them are "Marelli" by Faulj Wilstach, designed as a vehicle /or Kmma Dunn, 'Tho Great Mogul by De Witt Newing, and 'Seven Mil'* 1 Srihii? iVitS' h ? 8 t T en •* lect <*l *>y «0 Arden," dramatized by Miss •• ead in The Nichols from a story of that name.