Variety (Nov 1927)

S TAG E BROADWAY SCREEN CENTS HITS AND FLOPS pA FOUNTAIN LAST STAND OF DESPERATE QU NITE CLUBSI I lUjabo First—Offers New Sport With Betting Me- " dihiee-lHip Toters Get Ae Air—Fight for Right to Sell Cracked Ice aiul Pop—Verdi's Warning r - Chicago, Nov. 1. Kakcba Oardens, Chicago's larg- Mt oabarH, faoed with tha nacaa- •itF «f tailBC • way aut against a •arts* a< Mvaraa court ruUncs, Ml attanpt ta ba tha flrat aoda t«4iitAUi catarat Thia Is tha eafa ^at alao la putting in pai lai with Mutual ^achiaes for betting. Fred Mann, owner and manager •f ■ Ralnbo, win Install soveral fountains and will tiy to make the bo«t of a situation which threatens to wipa cabarets out of thi.s town. Meanwhile, the other cabaret men 1 ara making every effort to get a reversal •( tha appraaaiva ruUngs. Bmlnaaa la gana, and thajr are compelladt for aelf-preservation, to ask palrona aat ta partake of hip flask refreshments, and to aak them to leaTo if they inaiat. This len't making: any fri^Mids for thft survisors Of a racket ttiat is "all •hot." Nick Verdts, oi>erati)r of the Paradlaa Nig4it Club, 180 N. Dear- born street, in the heart of the Iioop, in m paid display ad run by the dailies, warna and defies the dry squad as follows: ''Warning to Prohibition Agents— Z>ear Sirs: This is to advise you tliat I will seek le^al redresp should you interfera witlt the serving of nraokad ica ar ginger ale in t!.a Paradlaa Night Club. . . I exer- cise reasonable precaution In, oper- ating my club within tlie provisions •f .tfaa Volstaad Law, but I cannot be rsaponabia for the acts of Chi- cago viaitora who come here eaoh night.'* Vardla signs it over tlia W( rd •raapactfuiiy." As a busineH»-gett iHK innovation la tha cafe field, the Hollywood Bam, north alda night club, will run a boxing show every Monday ni|?ht on its dance floor. Cliarley Levlne, i —nugiliatie . promoting. Opening card win have eigni Cop With Stage Yen SyracuHO, Nov. 1. If a cop ia bittaa by the theatrical bug, thare'a Ba Mil- ingr what he may do. Harry S. Harrington, local patrolman, with a yen for the staga, has converted his garage into a theatre, and in it stages his own plays for which ha also paints the scenery and supplies Mit- ing effects. To date, Harrington has turned out six plays, produc- ing three of them, in." troupe is hand-picked from his own neighborhood. I NEW BOX SCORE WiaeheU Leads WHk ,H GaWM, Two-Year Lead- er, TkM—Variety at .862 7 2 or EN, Sa PAIL $600,000T0$1,000,000 POSSIBLE JOLSON GROSS t*out4i, three rounds each, national enuUeur rules governing:. The liKi>t- ere will not interfere with or delete the regular floor ahow. The Barn's hoxinp i.it''M and the Hainbow (Garden's Jai Lai grimes ara among the novelties att«>mpted by caf#s h#re thie season. In the minds of ahowmt n Al Jol- son could earn from ftJOO.OOO to $1,000,000 in a year if ho were .10 inclined. Harold B. Franklin, presi- dent of tha West Coast Theatres circuit, stated ha would like to have .Jolson's services for a full year and claims he would tiave no dif- flenlty In booking him at |20,f00 a week, or an annual gross of |1.- 000.000. William Morris estimates Jolaon can ba routed and rerouted in 15 mammoth picture theatres for a total of 30 weeks at 120,000 a week, or a $600,000 gross. Such propo8.nl8 to Jolson have been rejected because of a dnfer^-nce to tho Warner Brothers* A'itaphone production of *'Tha Jass Singer," which eliminates New York. Hoston, Philadolphia and Chicnisro as bid- ders for Jolson's personal appear- ances. With the pictura slated for runs in tb<;He citi*»M. Jols<*n will not opportc hlruKelf on tlie sr reen. That was the reason he rejected the Cap- ItOl l I1I. 000 Mi a wes i t < i a <> is w of the Warner theatre across the Mtreet. Jolson played for AVesf Coast at the Metropolitan, I»s Angeles, st |17.r,00 a we'^k. and ah.'ittercd the house record to such an ext*»nt it more than compensated the theatre f«>r the phenomensl salary booking. Of 72 pliiya .which have opened on Broadway this fall, 29 have already flopped. And those 29 are the bsBis for Variety's first critics' box score of the •27-'28 sea.^^on. These figures about equal ihe number of tha failurea over the sama parlod last yoar a^ tlM il ahowa Higil^^eiiad and if Aa usual UM* IMI tiia openlnga have been pretty well congeated. That is from two to six shows have (MiDsiFtent ly prr-miered the same uigtil. This haa kept the second string reviewmns buiQr whila ac- counting for some of the varsity men "catching" as few as but nine, 10 and IB of the 29 failures upon Which tha oritica reoeivie ttiair flrat rating of the theatrical year. In tha cases of Vreeland ("Telegram"). Woollcott ("World") and lUmmond ("HeraM") a further cauaa for their low totals in tho "shows reviewed" column is that th^se men returned (Continued on page -»0> DRAHAHC CRITICS'BOK SCORE Tha key ta tha abbraviatlana iat %R (shawa raviawad). R (right), W (Wvanf), O (na apMilan aapraaaad), Pat. (piriiiijUiiK: SCORE OF . OCTo » M WINCHELL ("Graphic*) IS DALE ("American'*) , If GABRIEL ("Sun") ..••« H COLEMAN ("Mirror^) f HAMMOND ('Herald-Tribuna") f VREELAND ('*TeleflraiM^ 10 ATKIN80N cnrimaa") IS ANDIR80N (''Poae^ 16 MANTLE ("Newa") 14 08B0RN rEvening World") 14 WOOLLCOTT ("WoHd") • vARirrv'e OWN score 8R R VARIETY (Combined) 29 » ft 16 14 11 7 7 7 f t 7 4 W '2 3 t 2 3 3 t f 1 W 4 .•e 1 1 • • '4 JI7» M Jit .777 .700 .S71 Pet. TWO MORE B'WAYPUYS UNDER D. A.'S SCRUUNY Hmm Nofie Misic Rochester, N. T.. Kbv. l. Orchestral acoompaniment for iiome movies and Itn i>08sihtli(ir;s had a demoa.stration here with Kastman Kodak officiating. The new wrinkle took placa in cunjunc tlon w lib tbe shoivlruf of a UorIi»*s- ter Community flayers' amateur movie. Thr* nia>:lunc playing for the par- lor films N prsrtlrally an cbntrlc phonograph, with two record turn- tablea to permit one to / change while the other is playing. B*;lect- od records were played by tbs operator from a "cue " sheet. t» iM ^^mmm^^*\.^^ Waslnn^T^ ban no intention of following this up at Ihe present time, althouxh wltetht>r the double turn-table and electrical pickup device for amplifying Is go* in(? to be pursued and developed is not known. F.-K mechanics conj^tructed the mathlne used in this in«rtsnee. Altbough the names of addUloaal alio#i >iiiidar aurvelllanca by tha district attorney of New York, ware not ofllclally in;«do known. It la un- derstood that besidea those men- Uoned. "Under the Mulberry Bush." and "The Immor^il Isabella?", arc .'ilso Ufidor Invf»fltlffatb)n. It Is ex- pected that definite action will be taken by tha district attorney by the end of this week when J. O. Wallace, play exrwrt. will rnak* a complete report of his findings to his chief. Since District Attrirney Bsnton*.s announcement tiiat complainta had been received concerning Broadway productions Mr. WaHaoe has re- viewed six shows. Of these two have deleted the objectionable parts. Ona^ "The Matrimonial Bed." has prone off the* boardt; tha mana^era of two others have Informed the district attorney that the script of their shows have been rewritten, j and the sixth is reported as "The (Command to Lovn " Thre»» of these siiows will be SKuin visited by Mr. Wallace to ascertain whatb4r or not the chaiif^es have been made aa re- ported by the managers. ARROW TRIES EVASION BY Ticket Agency Corp. DU« solved on Legal Advice —Tuttle Idea Cottly AUTHORS ON SCBE£N While abroad, a. A. Knopf, who returned last Veefc, took motion pic- tures of every author whose books he publiBhP!'. , He will use the hlniM for public- ity purposes, aiming for the news- reefs if possible. Thestricst Asriat ^_ . Meyer Davis plans to organise a commercial a0rl.1l tr.iiisport <ntor- prise for operation in 192i. Prime lnt*»roMt will h^ i;iv« p (o Ihe alrplan* tr.in*- (mw 11 ion ih« - atri<^Ml playtfi. iioifM-a anM g»ge. Arrow Ticket Offi* e. one of the 1!0 odd Uroadway tbf.iite ticket agencies which admitted (evasion of tha Federal M per oant. levy tag law lust summer, and which took a HUHpcnded sentence along with tita others, has Withdrawn from tha agreement entered into with U. 8. Attorney Charles Tuttlw not to Kell xt more than 60 cents premium until the constitutlonalUy of tha levy Is t' sted. This has been dOINI by diHMolvinf? t]i<- (01 (Miration US* d< r will* )i it did biiMiiieHS. The agency claimed it was losing (Continued on^page 42) Card Game On Film "Names'' LoH Ahk' icH, Nov. 1. Mrs. Tom Miranda, wife of tha «f »-nario writer, in aft«T u copyrlKl't on a <'ard K<*me buMcd on picture stars und directors. ' The game's appeul will be mostly fur ■> oiiri!', t'ldkan biiK- BROOKS THE NAME VOU GO BY WMEN VOU CO TO BUY I COSTUMES 1437 ewav. NV TCLt»»0 ec^•«.