Evening star., 1942-11-08
Mention Sun Time and Vaudeville Strs in Its Grave
ForG Suns Among
Pound the Boa Came in
Bv Ed,vin B. Green,cald.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIt

WIN only IllNt u u1SnlS, 0Uo
Sun reached across his desk, picked
up three balls and tipped them into
the air. They stayed there, chasing
themselves in pretty, rhythmic
circle.
He loves those balls. They were
his beginning; and now as he comes
toward the end of a career that
made him one of the worlds largest
bookers of theatrical talent, he still
has them close at hand.
; Gus Sun did other things be-
sides RUN a booking agency and
juggle. The circuses knew him back
IN the 90s, he had a touring minstrel
show at the turn of the century and
there was a medicine show, too.
But those juggling balls left deep
er imprint than all the rest. They
were first.
If you are young. possibly you
never heard of Gus Sun, nor OF Sun
Time. Your folks did; about every
star they saw come down the boards
in the heyday of vaudeville trav-
eled the Sun Time at least once;
and SO did about all the lesser lights
whose names your folks wouldn't
remember.
Well, Sun Time is Gus Sun, or
put it the other way around. 1t all
xdds up to a big, kindly man out
Here in the Middle West who took
4 flier on vaudeville about 40 years
Sro and kept right on flying. He
Can't count the men and women,
He boys and girls he booked into
heaters across the country until
sound films came out of Hollywood
late in the 20s, knocked vaudeville
INTO its grave and sent Gus Sun
hunting new outlets for his acts.
Talent Everywhere.
He has found them in the hotels,
nisht clubs, county fairs, bands, tab
shows. His summer circuit-the
fairs and outdoor shows-is some
thing to talk about, and it had to
be built up. Business isn't what 1t
used to be. but it's still to be had
and Gus is after it.
Gus Sun and vaudeville met
headon back in 1904. He took a
touring minstrel company into
Sacramento and the theater man.
ager happened to say:
There's a man in town who's
coming money"
wGus hunched closer. "Yeh?"
K"His names Sid Grammar. He's
running real vaudeville for dime y
Gus scurried back home to Toledo.
Vaudeville for a dime, huh? All the
houses he knew were getting around
i dollar. If Grammar could 49,.
He tried it out in Springfield be.
cause 1t had some 10000 people and
but one opera house; the opposi-
fion wouldn't be too severe. He
rented q storeroom, nailed some
boards on carpenters horses for
stage, hung a red calico curtain and
rented ia kitchen chairs which he
didn't nail down against the chance
that the whole business might hop.
Free Dishes, Friends.
It started slowly. After eight
weeks he added an amateur night"
and started giving away dishes.
That took care of everything, and he
opened his second theater a year
later. He opened houses in a score
OF other Midwest cities and dubbed
them all with his favorite name,
"The Orpheum" Each presented a
combination of movie and vaudeville
acts.
=, With all those houses running he
had to dig up lot more acts. At
the beginning he had picked up
talent where he found It, from his
friends in circuses. medicine shows,
r1instrels and varieties. They were
not good enough to play the major
circuits, but went along willingly to
Suns grind houses"
Gus found all the acts he needed.
Managers of other theaters, inter-
ested In this new phenomenon OF
show business. wondered If he could
spare them an act or two: and the
day of the little red book, in Gus
vest pocket came to an end. In
1906. two years after he heard about
Sid Grammar doing all right with
1O-cent vaudeville, he formed the
Gus Sun Booking Agency.
% Then Came Big-time.
=, r. And the veterans and the starry
eyed beginners trouped to him out
here in the country and to his
widely scattered offices. BY the time
the war came along he was booking
4 thousand acts weekly into 40(
rtheaters across the Nation.
The hooters and the jugglers, the
pony and bike acts, the warblers
and the comics all came to him
will Rogers, AL Jolson, Chic Sale
Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Tee
Cook. Fannie Brice, Ted Lewis, Ed.
die Cantor, w. C. Fields, Walter
Winchell, Eddie Leonard, IRENE
Franklin, Moran and Mack.
And there was the I-dont-care
eirl, Eva Tanguay: the elegant jim
Corbett, hoofing Pat Rooney, Kitty
Gordon with the beautiful back. anc
Frances White, the girl whose fash.
ing legs made it immaterial that she
had no voice
1IleIe WdS JAIN OCiAPoey "AN>
needed fast cash after he beat jess
Willard for the heavyweight titlt
In 1919. Gus staked him to 81 ,00(
for a weeks run at Chester Parl
in Cincinnati. In later years Demp'
sey was worth, and was paid, $500
a week on Sun Time. That was biz