MenuVaudeville Wars Notes: Part 4
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Part Four Vaudeville Battles
9. The Combine and the UBO
p. 117 "Despite the AVM's success"
NYDM, June 9, 1900, 326, July 21, 1900, 16; NYMT, November 23, 1904, printed in Marston and Feller, F. F. Proctor, 83.
p. 117 "To replace the WCVT"
Billboard, September 13, 1901, 8; NYDM, July 20, 1901, 18, July 27, 1901, 16;; NYC, June 18, 1904, 385, July 27, 1901, 460, August 31, 1901, 573, February 1, 1902, 1079, April 7, 1906, 208; Variety, January 20, 1906, 10; .
pp. 117-18 "In 1904, B. F. Keith's Theatres"
Variety, June 2, 1906, 5.
1. Edward F. Albee to M. Shea, March 15, 1905, Correspondence, box 2, MSTC.
2. NYC, August 19, 1905, 643. See NYC, February 27, 1904, 5, September 17, 1904, 675; NYDM, February 27, 1904, 16, June 11, 1904, 19, September 10, 1904, 18; Variety, May 25, 1907, 5.
pp. 128-18 "To threaten Proctor"
Marston and Feller, F. F. Proctor, 96; Billboard, May 26, 1906, 19; NYC, May 5, 1906, 317; NYDM, April 16, 1906, 15; Variety, March 17. 1906, 2.
p. 119 "Rumors of a possible merger"
Marston and Feller, F. F. Proctor, 96-106; Billboard, May 19, 1906, 25, May 26, 1906, 19, August 11, 1906, 15; NYC, May 19, 1906, 363; NYDM, May 19, 1906, 18, August 11, 1906, 16, September 22, 1906, 18, October 6, 1906, 16, October 13, 1906, 19, November 3, 1906, 18; NYT, May 6, 1906, pt. 4, 2nd magazine sec., 2.
3. Variety, July 28, 1906, 10.
4. Laurie, Vaudeville, 398. On Poli see Connors, "American Vaudeville Managers," 48-49; EV, 403; Donald C. King, "Sylvester Z. Poli Story: From Wax to Riches," Marquee (Spring 1979):11-18; Laurie, Vaudeville, 397, 399-400; Kathryn J. Oberdeck, The Evangelist and the Impresario: Religion, Entertainment and Cultural Politics in America, 1884-1914 (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1999), 71-108, 179-213; Oberdeck, "Contested Cultures of American Refinement: Theatrical Manager Sylvester Poli, His Audiences, and the Vaudeville Industry, 1890-1920," Radical History Review 66 (1996):40-91; Poli's New Haven Theatre program, March 5, 1900, box 6, folder 38, WC-NMAH; Nina Purdy, "You've Got to Have Nerve," Everybody's 53 (November 1925):37-40; VO 2:2 June 1937; S. Z. Poli's Theatrical Enterprises booklet, (ca. 1908; repr., Notre Dame, IN: Theatre Historical Society, 1978).
5. Variety, February 3, 1906, 2; Purdy, "You've Got to Have Nerve," 42. See NYDM, February 10, 1906, 15, June 24, 1906, 18;
Variety, January 13, 1906, 2.
6. Purdy, "You've Got to Have Nerve," 42. See NYDM, January 13, 1906, 16, March 24, 1906, 16, April 16, 1906, 15; Variety, March 24, 1906, 3.
pp. 120-21 "To deter Poli's expansion"
Oberdeck, Evangelist and the Impresario, 194-98; King, "Sylvester Z. Poli Story," 13; NYC, May 26, 1906, 389; NYDM, May 26, 1906, 18; Variety, May 19, 1906, 2.
7. Variety, May 19, 1906, 2.
8. Variety, May 5, 1906, 4. See Hartley Davis, "In Vaudeville," Everybody's Magazine, August 1905, 235; NYC, December 26, 1903, 1064, September 25, 1903, 671; November 5, 1904, 866; NYDM, May 24, 1902, 16, March 5, 1904, 20; Variety, March 17, 1906, 2, March 24, 1906, 11.
9. San Francisco Bulletin, January 28, 1907, clipping, scrapbook vol. 1, OPNR-CU-B. See Charles Ackerman to Irving Ackerman, October 17, 1906, series 1, box 1, folder 3, Charles and Irving Ackerman Papers, CSf-PALM; Billboard, June 2, 1906, 18; NYC, June 2, 1906, 413, June 9, 1906, 437; San Francisco Call, January 22, 1907, copy, CSf-PALM; Variety, May 12, 1906, 10. On the earthquake see Simon Winchester, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).
pp. 122-23 "In May, negotiations"
Billboard, June 23, 1906, 15, February 16, 1907, 4; NYC, June 23, 1906, 494; NYDM, June 9, 1906, 16, June 23, 1906, 16; Variety, May 26, 1906, 5, June 9, 1906, 2, June 16, 1906, 2, June 23, 1906, 2, August 11, 1906, 20.
10. Variety, June 23, 1906, 7; NYT, June 16, 1906, 9; NYC, July 14, 1906, 554.
11. Billboard, June 23, 1906, 15.
12. Laurie, Vaudeville, 353. On Williams see Laurie, Vaudeville, 354-59; Connors, "American Vaudeville Managers," 45-48; EV, 559-60; NYT, 22 July 1923, 24; Percy G. Williams, "Vaudeville and Vaudevillians," The Saturday Evening Post: Reflections of a Decade 1901-1910 (Indianapolis: Curtis Publishing, 1980), 45-47; NYC, January 4, 1896, 703; January 22, 1898, 783, October 22, 1898, 584, December 19, 1914, xii; NYS, November 7, 1908, 20.
13. Variety, February 3, 1906, 9, December 12, 1908, 20, 85. See ENYC, 148-53; Stern, Gilmartin, and Massengale, New York 1900, 421-25; Variety, July 26, 1923, 5, 33.
14. NYDM, June 16, 1900, 17; July 21, 1900, 16. See NYC, June 16, 1900, 363.
15. NYDM, March 28, 1903, 18, April 19, 1903, 20. See Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, Lost Broadway Theatres (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991), 53-55; NYDM, January 24, 1903, 18, February 21, 1903, 18, March 7, 1903, 18.
16. Variety, May 19, 1906, 5, June 2, 1906, 4.
17. Ibid., September 8, 1906, 4. See Billboard, June 9, 1906, 15, August 25, 1906, 6; NYC, June 9, 1906, 437; NYDM, June 9, 1906, 16; Variety, July 28, 1906, 2.
18. Variety, October 13, 1906, 2. See NYDM, January 9, 1904, 19, December 24, 1904, xxvii, April 1, 1905, 20; Variety, May 27, 1905, 16, September 15, 1906, 2, October 27, 1906, 2.
19. Variety, September 22, 1906, 2.
p. 126 "Suddenly, the newest scuttlebutt"
Ibid., September 15, 1906, 2, November 17, 1906, 4, December 15, 1906, 12.
p. 126 "The meeting created a potent"
Billboard, January 26, 1924, 15; NYT, February 13, 1907, 9; Variety, February 16, 1907, 2, February 23, 1907, 4, January 17, 1924, 5.
20. Variety, February 16, 1907, 4.
p. 127 "A German Jewish immigrant"
On Hammerstein see John F. Carroll, "Oscar Hammerstein I, 1895-1915: His Creation and Development of New York's Times Square Theatre District" (PhD diss., City University of New York, 1998); DAB 4:199-200; EV, 226-27; Laurie, Vaudeville, 380-96; William Morrison, "Oscar Hammerstein I: The Man Who Invented Times Square," Marquee (Winter 1983):3-15; Morrison, "Oscar Hammerstein I, Part 2: Impresario in Excelsis," Marquee (Summer 1984):17-23; OCAT, 318; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I; VO 1:August 8, 1919.
21. NYC, October 5, 1889, 498. See ENYC, 523-25; Jeffrey S. Gurock, When Harlem Was Jewish, 1870-1930 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), 6-57; Henderson, City and the Theatre, 182; Charles Lockwood, Manhattan Moves Uptown: An Illustrated History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), 305-10; Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), 146; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 33, 38, 40-47, 55-59; Stern, Gilmartin, and Massengale, New York 1900, 208; PWR 2:306-7; NYC October 19, 1889, 536, December 7, 1889, 648.
22. Morrison, "Oscar Hammerstein I," 6, 7. See Albert Bial clipping file, NN-BRTC; John Koster envelope file, NN-RLC; George Blumenthal with Arthur H. Menkin, My Sixty Years in Show Business (New York: Olympia Publishing, 1936), 28-29; Henderson, City and the Theatre, 147, 149, 161, 163-64; NYDM, September 9, 1893, 5, March 30, 1895, 9, November 9, 1895, 1, August 21, 1897, 17, July 27, 1901, 16.
23. NYDM, April 4, 1892, 4. See Anthony Bianco, Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America's Most Infamous Block (New York: William Morrow, 2004), 8-27; Henderson, City and the Theatre, 170-71; Margaret Mary Knapp, "A Historical Study of the Legitimate Playhouses on West Forty-second Street Between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in New York City" (PhD diss., City University of New York, 1982), 1-15; Margaret Knapp, "Introductory Essay," Inventing Times Square, ed. Taylor, 120-21; Traub, Devil's Playground, 11-22; NYDM, December 3, 1892, 4.
pp. 128-29 "Hammerstein's plan"
Bianco, Ghosts of 42nd Street, 15-20; William H. Birkmire, "The Planning and Construction of American Theatres, Hammerstein's Olympia," Architecture and Building 23(December 28, 1895):305-7; Birkmire, Planning and Construction of American Theatres, 41-47; EV, 430-31; Henderson, City and the Theatre, 195-96, 263-64; Stephen Burge Johnson, Roof Gardens of Broadway Theatres (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985), 57-65; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 26, 84-87; Traub, Devil's Playground, 18-19; Van Hoogstraten, Lost Broadway Theatres, 19-21, 29-31, 36-39; NYDM, November 30, 1895, 19.
p. 129 "With its playbills"
Bogdan, Freak Show, 5, 264-66; Laurie, Vaudeville, 121, 177, 214-15; Billboard, March 23, 1918, 18; NYDM, June 12, 1897, 15. On the Cherry Sisters see Bianco, Ghosts of 42nd Street, 19-20; EV, 93-94; Grau, Business Man in the Amusement World, 245; Laurie, Vaudeville, 27-75; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 92; Anthony Slide, ed., Selected Vaudeville Criticism (Metuchen, N.J. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1988), 45-50; VO 3:October 28, 1942, August 9, 1944.
24. NYDM, November 30, 1895, 19, July 9, 1898, 16. See Morrison, "Oscar Hammerstein I," 8; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 95-99; NYDM, November 13, 1897, 15, December 24, 1898, 93, April 15, 1899, 125; Variety, December 28, 1917, 247.
25. Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 99; NYDM, November 12, 1898, 18; Morrison, "Oscar Hammerstein I," 10.
pp. 130-31 "On opening night"
Bianco, Ghosts of 42nd Street, 20-23, 34-41; Johnson, Roof Gardens of Broadway Theaters, 77-95; Sheean, Oscar Hammerstein I, 100-6; Snyder, Voice of the City, 74, 85--90; Traub, Devil's Playground, 22-24; Van Hoogstraten, Lost Broadway Theatres, 41-43; Victoria Theatre file, NNMus; NYDM, January 19, 1904, 19, February 13, 1904, 20.
26. NYT, October 21, 1915, 11; NYDM, June 9, 1906, 16. See also Variety, June 2, 1906, 2.
p. 132 "In retaliation"
NYDM, June 9, 1906, 16, June 30, 1906, 2; Variety, June 9, 1906, 2, 4.
27. NYT, October 21, 1915, 11. See Carroll, "Oscar Hammerstein I," 158.
28. NYC, April 20, 1907, 255. See Billboard, February 23, 1907, 13; NYC, March 23, 1907, 142; NYT, February 13, 1907, 9; Variety, February 16, 1907, 2, March 16, 1907, 3, April 11, 1919, 27.
29. Variety, April 14, 1906, 4; Alfred Bernheim, "The Facts of Vaudeville," Equity (September 1923):32. See Variety, February 23, 1907, 2, February 28, 1919, 28, March 28, 1919, 3, April 11, 1919, 28.
30. Robert Grau, "A Napoleon of Vaudeville," Theatre Magazine (October 1910), x.
10. Morris Challenges the Combine
1. Variety, December 12, 1908, 21, October 27, 1916, 10.
2. Billboard, July 25, 1914, 7. On Morris see Frank Rose, The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business (New York: HarperCollins, 1995); Grau, Business Man in the Amusement World, 12, 84, 194-98, 320-22 and Forty Years Observation of Music and the Drama, 34; Robert Grau, "A Napoleon of the Business World," Theatre Magazine (October 1910):117, x; Laurie, Vaudeville, 370-74; Leavitt, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management, 190, 198-200, 206, 213, 305, 596, 690-92, 713; Sophie Tucker with Dorothy Giles, Some of These Days: The Autobiography of Sophie Tucker (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, and Co., 1945), 86-89, 229; William Morris file, NNMus; Variety, October 27, 1926 (William Morris number); VO 2:8 November 1932.
3. Leavitt, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management, 200. See Lawrence J. Epstein, The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 3-20.
p. 135 "Liman's Union Square office"
See Billboard, July 25, 1914, 7
pp. 135-36 "In 1898, he opened"
"William Morris Agency History," http://www.wma.com/0/agency/history/ (accessed January 5, 2005); NYC, March 10, 1900, 38, March 17, 1900, 55, June 10, 1900, 352, 361, June 23, 1900, 370, June 8, 1901, 331, March 3, 1906, 69; NYDM, March 3, 1900, 18, March 17, 1906, 17; NYH, May 13, 1906, Morris file, NNMuS; Variety, October 27, 1926, 74, 110.
p. 136 "Morris possessed an extraordinary ability"
PWR 2: 502-3.
4. Variety, December 12, 1908, 21; Tucker, Some of These Days, 87. See Armond Fields, Sophie Tucker: First Lady of Show Business (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003), 35-43, 45-47, 50-54, 62-67, 158-59.
5. NYT, February 21, 1907, 9; Variety, February 16, 1907, 4, December 12, 1908, 21, 83. See Grau, "A Napoleon of the Vaudeville World," 117; NYDM, May 26, 1906, 18; NYT, February 13, 1907, 9.
6. Variety, February 23, 1907, 2, March 9, 1907, 4.
7. Ibid., June 16, 1906, 2; February 16, 1907, 4, February 23, 1907, 2; NYT, February 17, 1907, pt. 2, 9. See Bernheim, Business of the Theatre, 40--74; CGAT, 168-69, 268; Foster Hirsch, The Boys from Syracuse: The Shuberts Theatrical Empire (1998; repr., New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000), 63-65; Jerry Stagg, The Brothers Shubert (New York: Random House, 1968), 87-94; Peter Davis, "The Syndicate/Shubert War," in Taylor, ed., Inventing Times Square, 147-57; DAB 11, supp. 2:363--64; Klaw and Erlanger clipping file, NN-BRTC; NYT, February 14, 1907, 9; February 15, 1907, 11; OCAT, 235, 407; Variety, February 16, 1907, 2; VO 2:12 March 1930, 2:17 June 1936.
8. NYT, April 28, 1907, pt. 2, 9. See Dissolution of the United States Amusement Company agreement, November 6, 1907, Contracts, Box I, file 318A, NNSA; NYT, April 29, 1907, 9; Variety, April 27, 1907, 2, May 4, 1907, 2, January 11, 1908, 17.
9. Jesse L. Lasky, I Blow My Own Horn (London: Victor Gollancz, 1957), 72; Autobiography Manuscript, p. 167, Jesse L. Lasky Collection, CLAC. See Lasky, Rolfe & Co. Vaudeville Productions 1906-07 season pamphlet, programs-theater 1907-13 file and autobiographical manuscript, pp. 166-70, Lasky Collection; Billboard, July 25, 1914, 7; Variety, May 5, 1906, 2, March 9, 1907, 3.
pp. 139-40 "In early May"
Variety, May 4, 1907, 2, May 25, 1907, 5; see also April 27, 1907, 4.
10. Ibid., August 3, 1907, 2. See also NYT, May 1, 1907, 9; Variety, May 4, 1907, 2, May 25, 1907, 2, June 1, 1907, 2, June 8, 1907, 2, June 22, 1907, 2, June 29, 1907, 2, August 26, 1907, 7.
p. 140 "Erlanger, Klaw, and Morris"
Variety, September 7, 1907, 2, October 19, 1907, 2.
11. NYT, June 11, 1907, 6, July 23, 1907, 4; see also June 9, 1907, pt. 3, 2, September 1, 1907, pt. 6, 2, September 3, 1907, 9.
pp. 140-41 "Advanced Vaudeville also featured"
PWR 2: 308-9.
12. Billboard, November 12, 1921, 16. On Aldrich see EV, 407; Laurie, Vaudeville, 22, 96-97, 138, 311.
p. 141 "Besides the blacklist"
NYT, September 3, 1907, 9; Variety, August 10, 1907, 4.
p. 141 "Eager for a settlement"
Variety, October 12, 1907, 2, November 2, 1907, 2, November 7, 1919, v.
13. Billboard, November 16, 1907, 20; Player, December 31, 1909, 2. See Leavitt, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management, 690-92; Rose, The Agency, 28; Dissolution of the United States Amusement Company agreement, November 6, 1907, and USAC Certificate of Dissolution, Contracts, box I, file 318A, NNSA; NYDM, March 26, 1910, 21; NYT, November 8, 1907, 1, November 9, 1907, 9, March 20, 1910, 1; Variety, November 23, 1907, 2, January 11, 1908, 1, 17, January 18, 1908, 1, 3, February, 8, 1908, 8, November 7, 1919, v, February 7, 1919, 37-38.
p. 142 "What had prompted"
Leavitt, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management, 691.
14. Variety, January 11, 1908, 17; Billboard, November 16, 1907, 20, December 7, 1907, 31.
15. Variety, October 27, 1926, 62.
p. 143 "Morris's prediction came true"
Harry Lauder, Between You and Me (New York: James A. McCann, 1919), 198; NYT, December 29, 1907, pt. 2, 7.
16. Grau, Business Man in the Amusement World, 12; Tucker, Some of These Days, 89.
17. Tucker, Some of These Days, 89.
18. Grau, "A Napoleon of the Vaudeville World," 117. See NYMT, April 26, 1910, 1, May 1, 1910, sec. 4, 3, June 27, 1910, 4; NYT, December 30, 1911, 4, October 19, 1915, 11, October 20, 1915, 9; Variety, July 31, 1909, 4, October 22, 1915, 4.
19. Variety, January 17, 1924, 6. See February 9, 1909, 8, February 16, 1909, 4, July 10, 1909, 1, January 24, 1924, 8.
20. San Francisco Call, November 26, 1909, vol. 3, OPNR-CU-B. See NYC, September 18, 1909, 806, Variety, February 27, 1909, 4, January 17, 1924, 6.
21. Variety, May 23, 1919, 33.
22. Player, February 11, 1910, 1.
23. Harpo Marx with Rowland Barber, Harpo Speaks! (New York: B. Geis Associates, 1961), 148-49, 155.
p. 146 "The blacklist, however, had drawbacks"
Variety, May 12, 1910, 5, December 10, 1910, 56, 147, January 14, 1911, 5.
p. 146 "Morris and the UBO frequently feuded"
Erdman, Blue Vaudeville, 117-20; Billboard, November 27, 1909, 16, December 4, 1909, 16.
24. NYMT, March 23, 1910, 1. See Erdman, Blue Vaudeville, 94-99; The Federal Reporter, vol. 169, June--July 1909 (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1909), 196-201; EV, 285-87; Billboard, April 17, 1909, 8; NYT, March 24, 1909, 7, March 25, 1909, 4, March 31, 1909, 5, May 5, 1909, 11, May 11, 1909, 4; Variety, February 27, 1909, 3, April 3, 1909, 8, May 1, 1909, 5-6.
25. Variety, February 16, 1909, 8.
26. Ibid., October 16, 1909, 3. See NYC, October 21, 1911, 6; NYMT, October 7, 1911, 1, October 20, 1911, 1; Variety, January 6, 1912, 6, March 23, 1912, 5.
p. 147 "The blacklist soon doomed"
Billboard, March 4, 1911, 11, March 11, 1911, 11 July 26, 1914, 7; NYC, March 4, 1911, 10, March 25, 1911, 5; NYMT, February 18, 1911, 4, March 4, 1911, 2, March 19, 1911, 8; NYT, March 4, 1911, 11; Variety, December 10, 1910, 20-21, 33, 119, 131, February 18, 1911, 3, 8, February 25, 1911, 5, March 4, 1911, 4, March 17, 1911, 11, December 23, 1911, 3.
27. NYMT, March 4, 1911, 2, August 13, 1911, 4; NYDM, March 8, 1911, 13.
28. Letter of Pat Casey to Eddie Clark, March 17, 1911, FTC vs. VMPA, docket #128, box 73, NARA-CP. See NYC, March 25, 1911, 1; NYDM, March 22, 1910, 14, March 15, 1911, 1; NYMT March 16, 1911, 5; NYT, March 4, 1911, 11; Variety, March 18, 1911, 5, July 15, 1911, 12, August 12, 1911, 4, November 25, 1911, 5, December 23, 1911, 3, February 17, 1912. 4.