Variety (December 1924)

Wednesday, December 24, 1924 VARIETY 1ft 1. . . H • ■■*»■■ ■ /■-•*' t' . . .. AAT OPEN LETTER To Those It May Concern (including the editor of "variety"); >: ■•*■■''■:•' * :■*> j. S'-r tir. ■ •••I ;( :. !.•' From SAM A. SCRIBNER I i.«- \ ■■: i .'■t The article in last week's Variety about the lid being taken off at Hurtig & Seamon's is all wrong. The lid is not off in Harleni or anywhere else. There was a time when Woodhull had "The Lid Lifters," but that was a long time ago. Harry Miner is not going to permit the style of enter- ■ tainment we are giving him in The Bronx to be changed in the least. We are not giving musical comedy shows, but we arc presenting "COLUMBIA BURLESQUE." • ; ; MUST HAVE CLEAN SHOW ;. ! ' The producer uses his own judgment in putting his shows together. AH we ask of him is a clean show. He engages his own people, gefs his own book and materiaL We don't tell him whom to engage or whom not to engage and we don't issue any instructions regarding scenery or costumes (except bare legs, and the authorities bar bare legs in some of our cities). There is nothing musical comedy about our shows. We say to bur producers if the public wants musical comedy they will go to a musical comedy theatre, and if they want burlesque they will come to a burlesque theatre. . ,. TIPS FOR *«VARIETir You also state that the producer thinks tfie Hurtig & Seamon incident is a "rift in the clouds." It is a wonder that you birds wouldn't get a real Columbia producer in a comer some time and get something that vou have never had yet,—real dope, regular info' and authentic news. If any producer on the Columbia Whed is presenting ■■' mtisical comedy it is his fault, and if we catch him at it we will stop him and see that he produces bunesque. There is one thing you can gamble your last dollar on, THEY ARE NEVER GOING TO RIDE ME OR MY ASSOCIATES TO THE HOOSEGOW IN A PATROL WAGON. FEEDING ROUGHNECKS RAW MEAT Some pinhead tries to tell us now and again that we ought tc cater to the babe that wants "real burlesque," ia spite of the trips the producer of "real" burlesque takes t© the police court for feeding roughnecks raw meat. Wa have fought toioth and nail against the producer who want! to take a short cut across the lot to easy money and let next season take care of itself. We arc not moralists; we ' never posed as such. -' \.:^ 1 \ :^ .V ; ; NEW YORK CITY. Dec. 22. /We run the Columbia Amusement Company to make money, but the methods pursued in our money making . >; efforts are decent. We can go home nights and face our families with the realization that our day's work was not a dirty one. What better example do you want tliati the following? '■■'■*'":>'"' " ' ; .St. Louis, a house we couldn't control ilntit this season, presented "real burlesque" and their business went from $15,000 to $3,500 in less than a season. It took five year* to kill off that house with "real burlesque," and it will take us about three years to bring it back with "Columbia Bur- '^lesque." •,*- LIKE A JUNE FROST "A rift in the-clouds." Rift, hell. Where would Boston with its average, Pittsburgh with its average, Baltimore with its average. New York with its average, Brooklyn with its average, Newark with its average, Buffalo, Washington, Kansas City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence, Paterson* Cincinnati, and in fact all our houses, land if they under- took to present "real burlesque," as it is called. These theatres all have the same class of people visit them as visit any other family theatre in their cities, and they would last about as loqg as a June frost if they under- took to feed their clientele raw meat. I have talked with some representative of every branch of the show business, and on every side all I hear are com- plaints about poor business, and they all' seem to think that our business is remarkable under existing conditions. Except in a few isolated cases the business in all our ^eatres has been better this year than last, and at that some of our house managers, when they see a rival dieatre filled by shows that no decent man would look at, let alone take a woman to see, they write me that we ought to get some of that coin that tfie raw meat merchants are coppinf. WHAT WE ARE MAKING IS CLEAN MONEY AND DIRTY MONEY WONT MIX WITH IT We are commercial, that's all. There are more decent *■ folks in every town than roughnecks, and burlesque cannot ' be staged to attract both classes. We are after the better class because they represent more ticket buyers and tickets are all we have to sell. And at that I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 1 •, •••-..-♦".••, :.| 1./. .■.)..