Variety (March 1925)

ICE 20 CENTS AMUSEMENTS PRICE 20 CENTS • - ! . Ul Pnkllahvd Weekly at lt4 WaM 4tth St., New York. N. T.. hr Varlatr. Inc. Annual aubacrtptlon t7. SlncU copUa It oenta. •Entered ma aecond claas matter Oecemker 22. I>M. at the Poet Office at New York. N. T.. under the Act of March *. 1>T>. roL. udfvm^ No. 3 NEW YORK Cmr, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1925 64 PAGES 12 Flltt STARS IN "BLOOMER" FIRST AND SECOND NIGHT FREE LIST COST PRODUCER 200 SEATS H. 'Times" Tops List Getting 8 SeU for Both NighU— 54 Pairs Generally Sent for Opening and 46 as Follow Up—Rotogravure Editors Included '\^-eompilatton of flrst night Itsta, taken from throe prodacing Arms and representative of the Hats throughout New York city, reveal that for tbo usual premiere 198 ■eats (S4> are offlciall.- sent to critics and newspaper editors of the city, and that on the second alght of the performance, 92 seats (4< pairs) are distributed. In the flrst night lists, four sets Are sent to various papers to ac- commodate the feature writers and cartoonists, the papers getting these (Continued on page 18) HEARST IN LEGIT NOW SAME AS , IN PICTURES Hearst's Wash. Palmers Splurge Over Ziegfeld's New Show Washington, March 3. "A rumbling In the wind" forecasts trouble fot a few of the dallies here. Last week Flo Zleg- feld brought his latest, "Louie the 14th," Into town and the two iUearst papers wrote of nothing else. Tho news, dramatic, society, music and feature editors devoted reams to praising the show. Willie Howard In "Sky High" at Poll's, Henry Miller in "After Love—?" at the Belasco, and the regular vaudeville and picture houses were lost in the shuffle. All of the last named spend consider- ably mon.y for space in the course Of a ^season., and that is where the ii (ContiaLcd on pige 10) 3EUBERT8' WESTERN HOUSES Chicago, March 3. liocating sites for new Shubert IcKit theatres in Chicago and St. l<oula Is said to have been the ob- ject of J. J. Shubert's recent visit here.. Upon leaving Chicago he went to 8t. Louis. Locations in both cities are re- Ported liaving been secured by the Shuberts with the theatre in each town to lie locally financed. MARY GARDEN MONTE CARLOS MANAGER Prince of Monaco Con^ sidering Her—^Miss Gar- den Breaks Record Chicago, March S. Mary Garden, it la reported on good authority, may be the new general manager of the Monte Carlo Opera. Baron Gunsbourg has retired and the candidature of Miss Garden is now being passed on by the Ft-lnce of Monaco, who is considering whether the man- agement of his famous opera house (Continued on page () COURT DECISION PASSES TITLE O'Brien, Malevinsky & f)riscoIl, acting for Ida Vera Simonton, the author of "Hell's Playground," who won the plagiarism suit against Leon Gordon and Earl Carroll, In- (Continued on page 6) TWO UQUOR PRICES Boptleggers in the Times square district have confessed of late to two sets of prices for illicit liquor. One set Is for "good" and the other for "bad" booze. Liquor handlers advocate that Intending purchasers take the higher priced "stuff" and advance with the argument that such booze is guaranteed, also subject to re- turn upon dissatisfaction with quality. Any remonstratlon of a "too liigh" scale is answered by the seller with the direct statement that if th« consumer prefers "the other kli>d not guaranteed" it will (CcJntlnued on page 13) WISHBUHN HDS SCIIEEN TOURING TiUPE Cosmic Productions* Attempt to Exploit Picture People Runs Into Flop at Kanws City — Bad Check and Sheriff Also—SUrs Fled When Dancing Time Ar- rived—Got Out olF K. C to Barely Make Next Stand 18,000 EMPTY SEATS Kansas City, March 3. The whole theatrical and amuse- ment town is laughing at the out- come of the four days' visit of the "Twelve Famous Hollywood Movie 8tars," representing the flower of the Cosmic Production Company's "names." The limited stay here was replete with surprises, parties, personal ap- pearances, a show that flopped, a visit from the sherilf, with an at- tachment on the box office, auto- mobile rides, a bad check given to an orchestra, and a last minute get-away to fill a date at a small Kansas town. If the "doings" of the party were written Into a comedy picture it should be a good one, and would at least give the "colony" at Holly- wood a real laugh. The bunch, which was composed of Cullen Landis, Phyllis HaVer, Bryant Washburn, Anna May Wong. Helen Holmes, Carl Miller, (Continued on page 34) 1ST SQUAWK ON RADIO CONCERT For the flrst time in the history of Now York radio broadcasting the first objection against the calibre of "concerts" has been registered with the New York Police department. While It's anonymous In substance yet the writer slammed Station WHN un- mercifully. , The writer declared that WHN every niglit and far into the morn- ing broadcasts Jazz and girl stuff from clubs and restaurants which he stated was constituting a nuisance and annoyance, etc. He (Continued on page 6) GYP TldET STANDS UNDER CURRENT SECRET INVESTIGATION New York's Prosecutor Has Own Force 9oying Thea- tre Tickets of G]rps—^Violation of State Statute-^ Hotel Stands ''Digs*' at 50c Premium THOMAS' PLAY IN HOUSE OF SHUBERTS Handy Man" at 39th St.—Thomas' Declara- tion in "Telegraph' .»» Through pressure of Broadway bookings, "The Handy Man," first called "Odd Jobs," a play pro- duced by the Sam Comley Produc- tions, Inc. (reputed to be backed by E. R. Thomas, publisher of the "Morning Telegraph), will open at the 39th Street, a Shubert theatre, next week. Comley is one of the business heads of the "Telegraph." Recently Thomas defined "The (Continued on page 6)1) A secret drive for evidence haa been started by District Attorney Banton's offllc* against theatr* tickM agencies believed to b« charging more than the legal pre- mium of 60 cents over the box offlc* price, permitted by New York stat- ute, also the Federal law. The state law proviaes tor entorcemant through the comptroller with whom bonds are filed by brokers. It la underatood the district at- torney is acting-on information sup- plied by agents of the comptroller. (Continued on pac* IS) MRS.VALENnNO CAUSE OF BREAK WITH WILLIAMS BEAUTIES RACE IN KIDDIE C4RS Venice, Cat., March 3. Venice has a new fad tickling eastern tourists and the "sand She- bas" of the beaches here. It is a kiddie car race, held daily on the (Continued on page 12) MZZY^NCE RECORD Los Angeles, March 3. The world's record for pivot dan- cing is claimed by a local couple, Rdward Reed and Cecelia Taylor, who entered a contest in the Palais Majestic in Burbank and did a con- tinuous Dervish whirl areund the floor lasting one hour and one min- ute, milking 6,0(0 turns. Their revo- lutions are said to have covered n distance of over two miles. The previous record for this sort of a stUQt vas 31 minutes, ostab- liHhed in Kan Dle«o. The contestants wero on the ixii.it of exhaustion \vl:(ii lli''.\ fiiilBliod. Wife's Interference Re- sented—Ultimatum ^ by Producers Loa Angelea, March t. Natascha Rambova, wife of Ru- dolph Valentino, will no longer dominate affairs as far as produc- tion of ber husband's pictures for Rits Carlton is concerned. As a result of the high-handed way 'in which she endeavored to operate her husband's and producing com- pany's affairs, J. D Williams is re- ported to have balked, with the re- suK being an ultimatum to Valen- tino his wife must not interfere with production or persons asso- ciated with the company, as they felt since they were making an in- vestment of more than $500,000 in each of his pictures they had a right to decide how it should be expended. When thin ultimatum was given (Continued on page 68) COSTUMES Who will make your next ones? Those who have bought from ua say— BROOKS COSTUME CO. 1437 Br*«ilwi> Ttl. S5S9 Pmi. N. V. Clt> ,...^11,000 Costumes for RtntaU..