The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-06
WEEKLY THEATRICAL LETTER
Fly JAMES GRANT THURsTON

New York, November 5.-(Special)- There are several very wealthy theatrical managers who are stirring up trouble for themselves by urging the opening up of theatres on Sunday nights. This Is re- garded as short-sighted policy, as it is bound to arouse the opposition of church people, who are a power here.
 If they are successful we may expect a revival of the religious sentiment which put a stop to betting at the race tracks. The actors are against Sunday work and the labor organizations, which are still powerful here, will. 1t is believed, sustain the actors.
 Recently six members of the Spanish Joe'' gang were arraigned in Essex mar ket court. They had created reign of terror on the East Side.
 The strike of Variety Actors union No. caused the trouble. The actors who have been employed in moving picture houses struck because the proprietors threatened a 20 per cent reduction in sal aries
 Men and women pickets were stationed at various street corners, and they soon cut into the business of the theatre own CTS.
 The tip came forth that members of the Spanish Joe" gang had been hired to beat up the actors.
 Not until detectives drew their revol- yers and threatened to shoot were the arrests made. , The gang travelled in automobiles so as to throw the striking actors off their guard.
 Some one employed on the stage at the Gaiety theatre, where George M. Cohens "Get Rich Quick Wallingford, is play ing. came near causing the play to col lapse Much of Hale Hamilton's effective work in the comedy Is done on the tele- phone. In fact. much of the plot depends on the telephone. The other night the bell rang and Hamilton reached for the phone. It was not there. The actor had tn think quickly. He "cut'' the telephone scene and was about to read the missing lines from letter. when one of the ac- tors walked on the stage with the tele- phone half concealed and placed it on the table The audience saw the blunder and there was litter all over the houseS. However. George Conan didn't litter when he rushed back of the curtain and ex- pressed his views, and they were views.
 One of the most embarrassing experi- epces of this kind once occurred when he was playing The Pit" MT. Wilton Lack aye was acting. One of the effective eli maxes was a pistol shot off stage. The audience knew when the shot was heard that big speculator had killed himself. One night the property man failed to fire the pistol and Lackaye stood for several minutes trying to improvise finish act.
 Finally he had to pretend to do the "poison act'' and fell to the stage so as to round out the scene. Years ago a noted English actress who was portray ing Lady Macbeth in a Dublin, Ireland, theatre was about to exclaim: "A drum, a drum. Macbeth doth comey' when a stage hand blew a trumpet by mistake. Immediately the actress exclaimed, "A trumpet, a trumpet"-but that was as far as she could proceed. A gallary god went to her rescue, balling out this happy ter mination, And Macbeth doth stump it." The audience roared; the actress bowed towards the gallery and subsequently re- warded the god with present of $1o.
 As prophesied months ago, the Metropol- itan Opera House will not go long without competitlor.s Y M. Maurel appeared as a The next wfll9be MT. Beech- am, the manufacturer of London and Brooklyn, Thomas Beecham of London, who is now giving a season of opera at Covent Garden, He is a, man of immense wealth. He is looking for theatre suit able for opera and will probably find it.
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 In the pre- e-election excitement at the Lambs club,t William Collier made 1t plain that he opposed the election of John l.. Golden as libfarian. He voiced his