St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-27
THEATRICAL RUMORS THICK
A Notice Of Lis Pendens in the Henne-
pin Deal.
CURIOUS DICKER FOR SALE.
Il. Il. Harris, the Owner Of a Circuit
of Theatars, the Mark Aimed
At.

The refusal of Messrs. Merrill and
Phelps, of the Loan and Trust CON-
pany, to carry out the agreement made
with Manager Conklin, of the Grand
opera house, Minneapolis, in regard to
selling the Hennepin Avenue theater to
the syndicate which controls the opera
house, has not been taken kindly by
Mr.. Conklin and the syndicate, and
yesterday afternoon they filed a notice
of lis pendeds, declaring that they
would at once begin suit in the
district court against Messrs. Mer-
rlll and Phelps to compel them to
carry out their part of the contract. HI.
G. Truesdale, the Grand opera house
syndicate attorney, was seen .at late
hour last night. He said that, after a
great deal of preliminary discussion, the
terms of contract for the. sale OF the
Hennepin Avenue theater by Merrill d
Phelps to the Grand opera syndicate for
S125, 900 was agreed upon Jan. IL and
EXECUTED AND ACCEPTED
on the 18th. The only condition named
was that all the lien creditors should
agreed to accept 80 per cent OF the face
of their judgments; this to be paid by
Merrill Il Phelps. All this was to be
done by the 10Th. 1t was impossible to
obtain the release of the liens by that
time, and when the Grand in st. Paul
burned On the 21St, Merrill. realizing
that this event put the Hennepin theater
on an equal footing with the Grand
opera house in Minneapolis, claimed
that the Grand had forfeited its con-
tract by not securing release OF all the
lien judgments by the 10Th: but he
80 hot 1,ni,,t md
diately raised one regarding an alleged
equity still owned by Sackett & Wig
gins or their receivers. That point was
finally overcome, however, after hay
ing recourse to the courts at two separ-
ate turns in the road, and it began to
look like
PLAIN SAILING AGAIN.
1t had become apparent, however,
that Messrs. Merrill d Phelps were in
no hurry to sell, and I'll. G. Truesdale,
attorney for the Grand syndicate, in an
interview with W. j. Hahn, who repre-
scented Merrill & Phelps, discovered that
Merrill had telegraphed Hahn that in
his Judgment the contract was null and
void. and he (HahM had better
telegraph Harris to that effect.
The contents of this telegram
were not willingly given up by
Hahn, who once denied having
received the dispatch. 1t was then dis
covered that the Harris referred to is
H. II. Harris, the owner of circuit of
theaters in the East, who had been ne
gotiating for the purchase of the Hen
nepin theater, and it appeared that the
deal with the local syndicate was merely
feint to get
BETTER PRICE
for the property from Harris. All the
delays and legal objections were made
to protract the farce until the deal
could be closed with Harris. Mr.. Trues-
dale does not believe that Mr.. Hunt.
who has an interest in the property and,
in part, represented Merrill & Phelps.
had any connection with the scheme at
all, and thinks he was honest in his ell
deavors to close deal with the
syndicate represented by Mr.. Conklin.
The notice of lis pendens merely pre-
vents any other deals being made until
the claim of the Grand opera house peo
pie is settled. just at present the city
is full of theatrical rumors. One is to
the effect that Manager McCaddon, of
the dime museum, has been offered the
option of a purchase of the Peoples
theater; another is that j. W. Pence,
the owner or the Pence opera house,
will lower the building to the first story
at once,