The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-23
NEWS AND GOSSIP
OF LONDON STAGE
-
Mystery Surrounds Control
of London Opera House
NEW LONDON CRAZE
Revue Will Be Tried at Opera House
After Movies" and Third Rate
Acrobatic Acts Have Failed.
Beecham's Make Up
BY JOHN CARPENTER

BY JOHN CARPENTER
London. March 22.-( Especial docs Os-
car Hammerstein still run the London
opera house, and is the reputed lease
of the big house only a form? There
is considerable mystery about the place
and London would like to know just
where the "old man" stands In the mat
ter. OF course. Oscar repeatedly de-
clares, when its fate as home of grand
opera was trembling in the balance, that
never. while he had anything to do with
it, would the great pile sink to the level
of a vaudeville house" Well, Hammer
STEMS granite effigy still looks down
from the front of the building upon pass
ersby. and. what is more important his
as proprietor; yet the house has been
given over, not to high class vaudeville,
but to moving pictures and third class
acrobatic acts. Is this a graceful way
Hammerstein has of turning his back
on himself2
or course. there are men at the Kings
way house swho claim to be ,Itp and
the American impresario is backing the
venture. There is Stanley, of whom no
one ever heard until he slipped into the
place of Akoun, the Frenchman, who was
the ostensible originator of the late pol
icy of the house. Stanley, by the way,
has just been to New York and the de-
velopments of the next few months are
expected to reflect his activities while on
your side. Cheap vaudeville and mediocre
movies have not paid and an entire
change has been decided upon An at
tempt will be made to ride into pros
perity on the tail of the present Lon
don craze for "revues," whinch. in their
anglicized form resemble more the Zieg-
field ''Follies' of various vintages than
the Simon-pure French productions
Unfortunately for all concerned the crop
of men who are believed to be capable
of writing a successful revue is strictly
limited. Apparently the market of talent
in that direction has been cornered by
two men, George Grossmith. the George
M. Cohan OF England. and Max Penn
berton, the novelist. The former initiated
the obsession in this city by writing
'Everybody's Doing 1t" for the Empire
Then he contracted to write revue for
the new management at the Alhambra
a rival house within a stones throw of
the Empire. He was thus in active COM
petition with himself and as he was un-
der contract in both, cases to supply fresh
material from time to time, the situation
became an impossible one.
A similar condition of affairs threatens
in the case of the Hippodrome and the
London Opera House. Pemberton wrote
or helped to write, "Hulloi Ragtime', for
the former house and has now arranged
to write a similar show for the onera
house. If he improves upon his first at
tempt he will be slated by the Hippo-
dromers; If he doesn't he will be berated
| by the opera house Hirsch. composer
of "The Gaby Glide" is writing the mu-
SIC for the new Kingsway revue as he
did for the Hippodrome production. thus
providing a fresh complication.
| Whatever is the result of the new
plans, am assured that we have seen
tho last of the movies at the Opera
House. Everything, so far as the pres
ent management is concerned is being
staked on the revue. Thirty-five thous-
and dollars are to be spent on the pro-
duction and the prices of all the seats
Will be jumped In a last effort to match
outgo with income. Should the attemnt
fail the. house probably will be closed
for the rest of the year, during which
| time the present lease" will be in
force.
Writing of the London opera house
reminds me of some amusing details
| of Oscar Hammerstein's production OF
Lord Howard de Waldens weird opera
The Children of Dom" which wa,
| one of the events of the last days OF
the Hammerstein regime You will
probably remember that the produc.
| tion was financed TO the extent al
something like $4,000 by the scrib.
bling noble. IT has never been told
however how Lord Howard de Wal.
| den, in his anxiety to get the "atmos.
| phere" just right, insisted upon no
| only conducting all rehearsals but OF
buying all the properties. In one scene
one of the characters is tied to a tree
and as originally planned by the au.
thor, wolves were to appear and WORRY
i him into nervous wreck The re
sources of the stage being more limited
than those of the moving pictures, hi.
lordship hit on the happy idea of us.
ing dogs. In the company of the Ham.
merstein property man he spent week.
touring England, Ireland. Scotland anj
Wales in search of more or less gentle
| dogs who bore esemblance to wolve.
of the approved degree of ferocity
Finally he corralled half dozen ant
eventually landed them in the wing.
! of the opera house. The suffering sing.
er was tied to the tree and the work
of training the dogs began. They Were
/ Hiutuuitu 10 run dCIOSS the udTke ene(
stage and jump about the bound man
! Every conceivable means of coaxing ol
| forcing them to do so was tried; but IL
! vain. Immediately they were released
they rushed as il by previous arrange
ment among themselves. at the prompt
/ ers box at the front of the stage, which
carried the only light. This was finally
eStinguished and another start made
The dogs, attracted by the tiny ligh
on the end of the conductors baton
rushed in body to the footlights ant
disma1ly howled at the vacant stalls
And that was the best the mateur ami
NAL trainers could get. out of the duml
actors. Reluctantly, his lordship had ts
, rewrlte the dog scene.
Thomas Beecham's success with hi.
winter opera season a covent Garder
! apears to have worked a change in his
fathers feelings toward him. You vii
remember that Sir Joseph Beecham--
/ he of pill fame-some time ago tool
over the Aldwych theatre and begar
1 producing on his own hook. Unfortu,
nately for the milionaire's bank ac.
count the Aldwych under his manage
ment has proved even less remunera-
tive than other previous controls ano
| he is faced with the necesaitv of n, "a lr