Variety (March 1925)

s?- • WedRe*<'>y> March 4, 1925 VAUDEVJLLE VARIETY CHANGES ACT-BOOKING rOUNGEII STAFF MEN STEP INTO r ■■':.. «Trio of Ted Lauder, Mark [\ Luescfac^ and Eddie Dar- !«| line Will Set Salary for New Acts, Giving Imme- |:" diate Action—Special De- ^^"^apartment Created to As- i'- sist Acts at Expense of Circuit — Senator Henf>y Walter* ip Charge of r Realty Operation* for the i. Keith - Albee Theatres — ^. Eddie Darling Supreme Head of Booking System ALBEE-MURDOCK LET UP r- A erignntic leorganizatiott of per- Boitiiel and l>ookinK systems hus just been wortted out by the Kelth-Albee Circuit. It will have a revolution- ary effect on all future bookings. lender the new system Eddie Parting will be the booking head of the entire circuit but will not handle a book, relegating the booking of the Palace. New York; Albee, Brooklyn, and other former Darling- booked houses to assistants, to cn- kble him to act as general super- vising booker of the entire system. Darling will also decide upon the costs of the shows and other ex- ecutive details. . Ted Lauder, Darling, and possibly Slark Liuescher, Keith's . publicity agent and director of the Hippo- drome, will be a committee of three empowered to set salaries on acts. C. Deyton Wegefartfi will head a Hew department, the duties of which will be the||nsp«ctlon* of bills all over the circuit' and the exploita- tion of acts needing production or ausmentation. The net* order will enable E. F. Albee, head of the circuit, and J. i. Murdock, general manager, to de- vote their time to executive mat- ters only, and will give the younger members of the Keith-Albee atafC an opportunity to run the booking end of the business along the new lines. Keith's general manager has been investigating intensively for the past two months, meanwhile allow • ing his assistant. Major Leslie Thompson, more leeway In the ad- ministering of the routine duties of his department. Others Af'octed Others affected by the shift of duties and new booking scheme will be Senator Henry Walters,-who will continue to devote his time to legal matters, but will also handle real estate operations, including the lo- cation and legal angles of new the- "atre construction. One of the most important angles to artists in the announcement is the method for setting the salary of aots which will do away with the present practice. In future new acta and acts desiring a showing will be booked Into houses included in a apecial department now being cre- ated. The act, while playing, will be paiised upon by Darling, Lauder and Luescher, with the triumvirate immediately accepting or rejecting and setting a value or salary upon its services. This will eliminate one of the chief sources of com- plaint from new acts anent playing eight or more metropolitan houses at cut salary during the "showing" i>eriod without having a salary set. Aiding Acta ▲iiother important angle will be the ■ special (Contract department uudej: Wegefarth, which will recom- mend certain changes in material, construction or production of acts when needed. Unlike fornieejex- perin-entB. from now on the Keith- AiUee Circuit will bear the expense ' (Conlinvied on ]*a!ie 83) : ■ . t "NAMES" IN MIAMI AT ANY PRICE > Miami, March 8. Practically any musical star or dMicer with a ""name" can secure bookings here for the asking. The more notable^ they are the easier the engagement. Price is no object' this season, the realty boys and the "heayy sugar" vacationists cinching the overhead for the enter- tainment before the places open their doors^ Last week a local cafe wired its Chicago hooking represent- ative to send them a "name'' attraction witli tlie salary sec- ondary. The tourist trade still U tre- mendous for this time of the season. There never has been a season like tlUs. Hotel res- ervations-in Miami or Miami Beach are at a (M'emium, while Havana complains of a deartli of tourist travel. UZaE" MEANT WOMAN TO PANTAGES George Yeoman in Jam Through Billing—Used It for 15 Years :■ Los Angeles, March 3. Alexander Panlages just cannot keep from jamming himself with actors playing his circuit. His last one was with George Yoenlan's appearing as Yoeman and "Lizzie' on the circuit until a week ago. Yoeman had a 14-week and op- tional service contract with Pan- tages and played the route as far as San Francisco wben the head of the circuit saw the act. There were some 19 people, it Is said, in the audience at the time Pantages saw the act. « According to reporta, he was disappointed in not seeing a woman in the act with Yoeman. It Is aald Pantages aent for the actor and told him that he waa un- der the impression that "Lizzie" was a woman carrieC In the act. Yoeman informed him that he had been playing his act for 15 years and that all of the managers knew that "Lizzie" was spurious and simply a "gag" for his iype of turn. Pantages returned* to Los Angeles that night. At the end of the week, the house manager informed Yoe- man he was not t3 go to Los Angeles with the road show the next week but was slated to play Long Beach which would skip Los Angeles and San Diego. Yoeman protested and was instructed to see Pantages fn Loa Ang'les. This he did and waa told that Long Beach was the place be would play. Rather than airgike at the time with the head of the circuit. Yoeman went to Long Be."xh and opened his engagement. The following day he came to Los Angeles and called upon Pantages and asked him to give him a release from the optional portion of the continuance of the conaract. At first Pantages balked but Anally was persuaded by the actor to sign the release. After the re- lease had been signed Pantages told Yoeman he would like him to play Loa Angeles anyway and that he would also arrange a few dates to break lila Jump east. Yoeman thou^t that it would not be a bad idea and when be anished Long Beach was ready to .iccept the date. Then it Is said Pantages made him- self scarce '^o far as Yoeman was concerned and after the actor had remained around for five days after concluding his engagenient at Long Beach and could get no word from Pantages as to hla future, he left for Chtcagro, •■!' .v< GPAGRAirS HOOOAWEEK Competition in Miami- Hotel Fleetwood Wins Miami, March 3. The local battle over the services of Gilda Gray finally has been con- cluded with the Fleetwood Hotel, tlie magnificent structure on Miami Beach, the victor and obtaining the dancing star as the shining light of the entertainment that la to be of- fered on the- new rojf garden open- ing tomorrow night. Both the Hollywood and the Coral Gables developments were bidding for her In addition to the hoteL At the former Glida Gray and her sextet of dancing gtrls appeared for nine weeks at the Golf and Country Club and attracted a whale of a business. She was originally signed for five weeks, and then the engage- ment was extended tour additional weeks. Tomorrow night at the Fleetwood there is to be an Inaugural Ball which is to mark the height of the local season. In addition to mark- ing the inauguration of President Coolidge, It will likewise mark the Inauguration of the ball room atop the hotel. Gilda's salary Is said to be 14,000 weekly for the two weeks here. As soon as the fortnight at the Fleetwood Is completed, the star will start on a tour of the Famous Players' theatres, opening a new house for the organization at Char- lotte, N. C, following which she Is to work her way to Los Angeles In the theatres controlled by this cor- poration. The melodrama, "A Little Girl In a Big City," which waa one of the popular-priced hits of latter days in the field where thrillers once abounded, has been secured by the Delbert Production through Jay Packard, and will be directed by Burton King. The picture Is to be a release in the Independent market. "The same organisation has also se- cured "Tlie Police Patrol." REV. JANE PRIEST IN C.S. A visit to New York of Janet Priest, a former child prodigy and later a single In vaudeville, disclosed that she had been consecrated as a minister In the Christian Science Church, entitled to preach anywhere. She has been assigned a church In Boston as "Rev. Jane Priest." Miss Priest left the profession when she married a wealthy young Philadelphian, whom she divorced and remarried and redtvorced, charging drunkness. She took up Christian Science In the hope of re- forming her husband. It waa futile in that missk>n, but she ciyitinued and became a healer, recently gqlng further and being ordained a min- ister. Loew's Next Dividend Loew's, Inc., has declared its quarterly dividend of SO cents a share, payable March 31 to stock- holders of record on March 14. Theatrical. Cross-Word Puzzle Composed for Variety by ED. LOWRY HORIZONTAL 1—A kind of nght. 3—Actora do Tt but seldom sdmit it. A —Recaptures. »—Ws fst it in Moatrasl. ft—Ths actoKs bible. 12—4 ehows daily. 1ft—A fruit (respenaible fer the meat famous Joke in shew business. 17—What Joe Miller wss. 1ft—A Joint. It—Person we speak sf most. 20—Ws leva to collect it. 21—Msites great highballs. 23—Great Northern Limitsd. 26—Actora brafl of it (plenty in Herron). 26—Many are stolen. VERTICAL 2—A aailor. 3—Agent'a commiaaion. 6—Bad wmy to go on atage 7—fnertness. 8—An actor who atasia msterisl. 9—It leada to stage entrance. 10—A priokle. 11—A rube. 13—Oregon, Pacific and Northern (abbr.). 15—To know (Scot). 22—If we don't work—we don't— 23—Dialog (slang). 24—Southern State (abbr.). Senator Murphy's Puzzle Varlety'a first cross-word puzzle has brouglit 11 answers dnd one squawk to date from the riddle deflers. ^ Postal regulations demand that in case of s^ tie In a prize-giving contest, the winners must each be awarded the equivalent ot first prize, in thia case two 2-year aubscriptions. Figuring that the prize offered would be enough to keep the puzzle demons off thia one and Variety would be "In" oo Senator Francis Murphy's donation for his brainchild, Murphy'a ace In the hole aeema to have been that he made the puzzle auch a pushover that almost all the answers are hitting it on the nose. If any more come In It looks as If Variety's entire circulation will be donated to p.iylng off the syn- onym fiends for the next two years. The only laugh (sarcastic) to date, from this end. In that the registered "squawk" came In minus any attempt at a solution and to the efr;;t that the Senator had made it too tougfi. This week's puzzle, submitted by Kd Lowry, has no prize tag line and runs slntply as a possible filler tn a stage wait. RED MUSTACHE UNEXPLAINED BYSIRMG. Admits Mrs. Howard Dyed His Hair, but Mus* tache Came Naturally Sir Jos. Ginzburg hung around Variety's office for four hours Mon- day morning, trying to get aome- one to listen to him tell how Willie Howard bad said a Variety man had a grouch against him. Sir Joe called it "professional Jealousy*.' and "denounced" it. When Sir Joe got the ear of a sympathetic admirer the titled one denied he had ever ridden on a street car aa Variety related laat week. Sir Joe went quite far up- atage in apeaking ot atreet cara. He said that he bad always ridden In taxla and once—once only—had paid as high aa SOc for a taxi ride. Another aquawk let looae by the world's leading entertainer waa that he had sent a wire of congratula- tion to WUlie Howard when Willie opened in "Sky High" and that he had prepaid the wire, amounting to 12.75 In cash. .Sir Joe regretted he had not asked the telegraph company for a receipt when the Variety man appeared to have his doubts about that pVepayment. Sir Joe showed the original wire how- ever, in proof, stating Willie had returned it to liim as evidence. . Flash of New Muatache Suddenly the Variety feUo\r caught a flash' of a new mustache on i^ir Joe's Up. Accusing Sir Joe of wearing a phoney, Sir Joe al- . lowed the Variety fellow to try to pull it off. Getting that close to it, the Variety man noticed the color of the mustache waa red. Sir 'Joe's hair*on his head is coal black but slightly streaked with grey at the sides. * Asked to explain how be hap- pened to get crossed in this man- ner. Sir Joe answered he never had been crossed by anyone exceptiog John McCormack, Jr., and Sir Joe said he did not want the name of John McCormack, Jr., repeated. Sir Joe grew indignant at tits suggestion at one time his head- hair had been red and that he dyed, but later confessed he had dyed hia hair black at the augges- tlon of Mrs. Willie Howard. Sir Joe could not recall but he thought Mra. Howard also had furnished him with the dye. From Sir Joe'a description the dye had come in a box that looked like shoe polish. Sir Joe Bluahaa Sir Joe blushed when told that the red mustache haa removed 2S years off of hla looks but grew sore again when ahM Informed his changed appearance made him look like a cop too short to get on the force. Sir Joe answered be pre- ferred not to si>eak ot his good looks but drew attention to two new medals he had lately received, one from the Masons of Hohokus. N. J., so Willie Howard had said. Asking to be excused at last. Sir Joe mentioned he had to compose another wire of congratulations as Willie Howard was to open again in "Sky High" at the Shubert thea- tre that night. He assured every- one within hearing he would again prepay the wire. Told that it would l>e cheaper to walk over and leave the wire at the stage door, Sir Joe wanted to know who thought he wasn't a money getter. Sir Joe mentioned his engagement of two weeks at the Columbia, New York, last summer, and also that Eugene Howard had promised to place a radio scene in "Sky High" In which (!ir Joe would be starred. Before leavlnc Kir Joe anxiously Inquired about liow many times the V.irl^ty man thought •'Sky High" ml?ht move thl.-* season and if there uafcii't Home way to write a tele- irram of copcM'MKtion co»>ting'tws • (!ian |l'.7Ji» ' • - ! •<»»%-( i«i