Art of Stage Dancing — Chapter 3: Ned Wayburn—An Inspiration

By CARLETON B. CASE

Every line of endeavor has its outstanding leaders.

The men and women who do great things in a grand way ever command our admiration.

We like to hear about their public careers and the intimate side of their exceptional lives is of decided interest to us.

This I think is especially true where the noted ones are among our public entertainers, the player-folk, who bring so much joy and happiness into the world out of nothing--creators of innocent pleasure.

Long years before this was penned, and while yet my locks were innocent of the whiteness that now typifies my years, I was closely associated with the family of Wayburn.

I was a man in Chicago when Ned Wayburn was a boy in the same city, starting on what was destined to become a truly remarkable career.

I know Ned Wayburn well.

He is a king and a thoroughbred, as man or as manager, and to know him is to esteem him.

[Illustration: CINDERELLA] His fame is peculiar in that it is based so largely on the success of other people--the actors and dancers whom he has discovered or directed and so helped to become stars of the first magnitude.

To name them by hundreds is easy; to number all who are approaching stardom or who, now well placed on the professional stage, have materially profited by his aid and instruction, will go into the thousands.

Surely such a record of achievement is ample cause for pride.

Ned Wayburn possesses an almost uncanny faculty of discerning latent talent in the line of his profession.

You may not know one dance step from another, yet his discerning eye will detect a possibility for you in some branch of the dancing art that results will later prove as correct as they are surprising to yourself.

I have heard him tell of Evelyn Law, that when she first came to the studio she exhibited a tap and step dance as her specialty.

"This type of dancing was totally unsuited to her," said Ned, "and I told her so.

And I also told her what her 'line' was.

She took my advice, and today she leads the world in that type of dancing, and her salary has four figures in it every week."

The man who can do that is a genius, and Ned Wayburn has done it many, many times.

There is one outstanding fact in his entire career as producer of shows and director of the education of his pupils in his dancing studios: He insists that everything and everybody about him shall be "the best."

His studios are fitted up "the best," regardless of cost.

Sixty thousand dollars he paid for the fittings and furnishings of the two floors contained in his perfect establishment for teaching dancing at Columbus Circle, Broadway and Sixtieth Street, New York.

His instructing staff must be "the best."

His pupils must be "the best."

I

mean by that, not that the pupils are so qualified when they enter, but that when they are ready to graduate from his institution into the professional life of the stage, then they must be "the best"; nothing else will do.

So, too, in his own stage productions, and he has several, and more are in prospect.

They are nowhere slighted.

The best cast, music, dancing, costumes, scenery--everything--always.

Ned never was a piker.

He wasn't born that way.

Lavish some consider him, but he finds his luxuriant presentations are appreciated by the line in front of the box office.

He couldn't put on a "cheap" show if he wanted to.

One goes to a Ned Wayburn show with the assurance of getting his money's worth in beauty and pleasurable entertainment.

It pays; and the financial test is after all the one criterion by which to form a final judgment in things theatrical.

Now I am going to give some details of the inspiring career that began with an ambitious boy possessed of an artistic temperament, a love of music and of the beautiful, and who was at the same time a "hustler" and a born executive--a career developed by experience, still in progress and not yet at its culmination.

As you read, it will seem almost incredible that one man, still comparatively young, could in so brief a period have accomplished so much that calls for great mental stress and extraordinary physical activity.

* * * * * Ned Wayburn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his parents were socially prominent.

Later the Wayburn family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and thence to Chicago.

During his school days he first attracted attention as an amateur athlete, winning recognition as a fast runner, trick skater, tennis player, center rush on various football teams, and finally as a semi-professional baseball pitcher and home-run hitter.

While employed in his father's manufacturing plant in Chicago, he took part in many amateur theatricals, and became noted as a dramatic coach for charity entertainments and clubs, leading cotillions and taking part in many society and club entertainments.

It was at that time that his success in directing and writing dialogue for amateur theatricals attracted the attention of Hart Conway, of the Chicago School of Acting, who promptly engaged him as assistant.

At the same time, he had the privilege of seeing and studying the greatest stars and the best attractions at the Chicago Grand Opera House, where he began at the very bottom of the ladder as an usher in the gallery, balcony and main floor.

Finally he became chief usher--then sold tickets for the gallery--took tickets at the main door.

The late Aaron Hoffman, famous playwright, was opera glass boy at that time with him, and the well-known star, Taylor Holmes, was one of his ushers!

Eventually he became Assistant Superintendent of that theatre.

To gain additional experience, Ned worked as a "super" with many different attractions, including the companies of Olga Nethersole, Otis Skinner, Walker Whiteside, Julia Stuart, etc. , finally playing small parts in the legitimate and Shakespearian drama.

Having displayed a natural aptitude as a director while holding "prompt books" at rehearsals, he became a dramatic director and actor of eccentric comedy and character parts.

Then his natural instinct for dancing asserted itself, and he became a specialty dancer, practicing from three to eight hours a day to perfect his dancing, incidentally developing his talent as a musician.

The late Col. John Hopkins saw Ned Wayburn at a society benefit performance in Chicago, and induced him to play one week's engagement.

Thus Ned Wayburn made his first professional appearance at Hopkins' Theatre, State Street, Chicago, being billed as "Chicago's Leading Amateur"--a singing and dancing "black-faced" comedian, doing a "ragtime piano" specialty, and dancing act.

This led to other engagements.

The "piano specialty," which he originated, started the "ragtime" craze.

He played in and around Chicago and the middle west.

He came East to New York, and was booked by the late Phil Nash, on the Keith Circuit, billed as "The Man Who Invented Ragtime."

In his piano specialty he created the idea of playing the classics in "Ragtime," being the first person on the stage to play "Mendelssohn's Wedding March," "Oh Promise Me," "Star-Spangled Banner," etc. , in syncopated rhythm or "Ragtime."

He was also the first on the stage to do imitations of the harp, bagpipe, mandolin, banjo, etc. , on the piano.

His act was much imitated all over the world.

Upon reaching New York he met with misfortune.

There was no piano for him at his opening performance and his original act had been stolen and performed in New York ahead of his appearance.

This culminated in a period without work.

Finally he found himself walking Broadway from one Thursday morning until late Saturday night, with neither food nor money!

Having looked forward so much to New York and what he expected it to bring him, he was at first discouraged and inclined to give up and go back home with each succeeding rebuff, but he made up his mind to stick it out, no matter what he had to do until he got on in a first class company.

After months of patient canvassing of all managers' and agents' offices where he was denied recognition, he was finally given an opportunity, through an acquaintance who heard him play in a 26th St. theatrical boarding house, to demonstrate his ability in a tryout for the most popular star on Broadway at the time, May Irwin.

She immediately recognized his ability and gave him an engagement at . 00 per week, to introduce ragtime to Broadway.

(He was receiving . 00 per week when he first came to New York.

) He wrote for Miss Irwin the first ragtime song, "Syncopated Sandy."

He was so hard up at the time that he sold a one-half interest in this song to a man named Stanley Whiting for . 00, so this man could have his name on the song as co-author.

For an entire season she sang it and he played it in the performances of "The Swell Miss Fitzwell" at the old Bijou Theatre, New York City (Broadway between 30th and 31st Sts.

).

"Syncopated Sandy" sold over 1,000,000 copies.

It was used to teach people to play ragtime.

All Mr. Wayburn ever received out of its publication was a . 00 advance royalty, which he was glad to get.

He also helped write the third act of "The Swell Miss Fitzwell," and re-wrote the second act, including some of the musical numbers, for which he received no royalty.

Incidentally, he was promoted to the position of stage director by Miss Irwin, and wrote some of her most successful songs, receiving a salary of . 00 per week.

He taught society to play ragtime and to cakewalk.

However, he had confidence in his ability and worked hard to gain experience.

He canvassed the music stores while en route with the company and sold sheet music which helped defray his expenses, and he saved his spare pennies.

Finally, he signed up with Mathews and Bulger, a very popular team of stars.

From that moment the star of success glowed brightly for Ned Wayburn.

For two years following he toured the United States and Canada with Dunne and Ryley's musical comedy success, "By the Sad Sea Waves," which he helped write and stage, introducing "ragtime," now known as "Jazz," to America in nearly every city of over 5,000 population.

Gertrude Hoffmann was one of his dancing girls in the chorus of this show.

[Illustration: FAIRBANKS TWINS] Being a born musician he turned his talents, in his spare time, to writing songs, many of which became quite popular, and from which he derived considerable revenue.

"He Ain't No Relation of Mine," "Spend Your Money While You Live 'Cause You're Gonna Be a Long Time Dead," "Ragtime Jimmie's Jamboree," etc. , etc. Mr. Wayburn then staged George M. Cohan's first musical play, "The Governor's Son," and George Ade's first musical play, "The Night of the 4th," the latter at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, New York, with Joseph Coyne and Harry Bulger as the featured comedians.

Thus began an unending succession of triumphs as a theatrical producer and stage director.

Mr. Wayburn was engaged by Oscar Hammerstein as producing stage director for Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre Paradise Roof Gardens, at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue, where the Rialto Theatre now stands, where he had charge three summers and staged the very first "girl" acts, including Ned Wayburn's "Jockey Club" with the Countess Von Hatzfeldt, which toured to the Pacific Coast and back to New York, booked by Martin Beck.

He was then engaged by Sire Bros.

as producing stage director for their New York Theatre and Roof Gardens where he, a mere boy, staged and directed the greatest company of stars ever assembled under one roof, including Jessie Bartlett Davis, Mabelle Gilman, Virginia Earle, Marie Dressler, Nina Farrington, Thomas Q. Seabrooke, Dan McAvoy, Junie McCree, Louis Harrison, Marion Winchester, Emma Carus, etc. , etc. "The Hall of Fame" was one of many productions staged for them.

He then became producing stage director for Klaw and Erlanger.

During the next four years produced and helped to create: "The Billionaire" with Jerome Sykes, "Bluebeard" with Eddie Foy, "The Rogers Brothers in London," "The Rogers Brothers in Paris," "The Rogers Brothers in Ireland," "The Rogers Brothers in Panama," "The Ham Tree" with McIntyre and Heath, "Mother Goose" with Joseph Cawthorne, "Humpty-Dumpty," "The White Cat," "The Pearl and the Pumpkin," "Little of Everything" with Fay Templeton and Pete Dailey, and many other productions for the New Amsterdam Theatre and Roof, also for the New York Theatre Roof, acting as general stage director of both.

He leased and managed the New York Theatre Roof Gardens, where he conceived and produced some very successful headline vaudeville acts, among them, "Ned Wayburn's Minstrel Misses," and "Ned Wayburn's Rain-dears," which afterward played the Keith circuit and other vaudeville theatres to previously unequaled success.

Left Klaw and Erlanger to engage in the vaudeville producing field for himself through the encouragement of B. F.

Keith, E. F.

Albee, Percy G. Williams, William Hammerstein, F. F.

Proctor and Martin Beck.

Owned and produced the following headline acts: "The Futurity Winner," "The Star Bout," "The Rain-dears," with Neva Aymar; "The Dancing Daisies," with Dorothy Jardon; "The Phantastic Phantoms," with Larry and Rosie Ceballos; "The Side Show," with Harry Pilcer, and about 100 other big acts.

Produced his own musical comedy attraction, "A One Horse Town."

For Mortimer H. Singer at the La Salle Theatre, Chicago, produced the following Musical Comedies: "The Time, the Place and the Girl," starring Cecil Lean--and which ran 464 consecutive performances to "standing room only"; "The Girl Question," "The Golden Girl," "The Goddess of Liberty," "Honeymoon Trail," "The Girl at the Helm," "The Heart Breakers," etc. Founded "Ned Wayburn's Training School for the Stage," which first occupied the American Savings Bank Building, 115 West 42nd Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue, New York City, and then expanded to the entire five-story building at 143 West 44th Street, next to the Hudson Theatre and opposite the Lambs Club.

John Emerson, President of the Actor's Equity Association, and Zelda Sears, author of "The Lollypop," and many other successes, were then members of his faculty.

For the Shuberts and Lew Fields staged "The Mimic World," at the Casino Theatre, New York.

For Lew Fields (of Weber and Fields), at the Broadway Theatre and Herald Square Theatre staged: "The Midnight Sons," "The Jolly Bachelors," "The Hen Pecks," "The Summer Widowers," "The Never Homes," "The Wife Hunters," "Tillie's Nightmare," starring Marie Dressler; Lew Fields in "Old Dutch," Victor Herbert's "The Rose of Algeria," etc. For the Messrs. Shubert at the Casino Theatre, N. Y.

, the following musical comedies: "The Girl and the Wizard," starring Sam Bernard;

"Havana," with James T. Powers (made the American version of this libretto); "The Prince of Bohemia," with Andrew Mack, and "Mlle.

Mischief," starring Lulu Glaser.

Staged and appeared in "The Producer," written by William Lebaron, a headline vaudeville production (fifty people) which opened at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, New York City, and played for months in vaudeville, headlining in all principal eastern cities.

Staged "The Military Girl," starring Cecil Lean and Cleo Mayfield, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Chicago.

Engaged by Lee and J. J.

Shubert as producer for New York Winter Garden, created a policy for that theatre and a formula for musical productions still used there; staged "The Passing Show of 1912," "The Honeymoon Express," with Al Jolson and Gaby Deslys, "Broadway to Paris," "The Passing Show of 1913," etc. For the English manager, Albert de Courville, at the Hippodrome, London, England, at the highest terms ever paid a stage director, he directed George Robey, Ethel Levey, Harry Tate, Billy Merson, Shirley Kellogg, and other famous continental stars.

He staged "Hullo Tango" (ran over one year), "Zig-Zag" (ran one and one-half years), "Box of Tricks," "Joybells," etc. Opened offices in London, producing "The Honeymoon Express," which ran five years in London and the provinces; produced "Dora's Doze," at Palladium Music Hall, and leased Middlesex Music Hall, London, to stage his own musical productions with American, French and English stars, in association with Oswald Stoll, but was obliged to stop productions there when war was declared.

* * * * * Next he staged and presented his own production of a farce, "She's In Again," at Gaiety Theatre, New York City; also put on his own ,000 production of "Town Topics," with Will Rogers, at the Century Theatre, New York, for which playhouse he created a Continental Music Hall policy.

It was soon after this that he accepted an engagement as producer and general stage director for Florenz Ziegfeld and staged the "Follies of 1916," "Follies of 1917," "Follies of 1918," and "Follies of 1919." [Illustration: OSCAR SHAW] In addition to the above, Mr. Wayburn devised and staged for Mr. Ziegfeld nine successful Midnight Frolics and two Nine O'Clock Revues atop the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, during this time.

For Mesmore Kendall, devised and staged the opening presentation for the Capitol Theatre, New York City, September, 1919, including an elaborate and very successful revue.

For Dillingham and Ziegfeld, at Century Theatre, New York, he devised and staged the sensationally successful second act finale to "The Century Girl" (1916), where the 50-foot circular revolving stage was employed so ingeniously in the "Uncle Sam" finale.

Staged "Miss 1917" at the Century Theatre, New York, with Irene Castle, Elsie Janis and 40 other stars.

For Lew Fields: "The Poor Little Ritz Girl."

For A. L.

Erlanger and B. C.

Whitney: "The Ed Wynn Carnival," at the New Amsterdam Theatre, N. Y.

For A. L.

Erlanger: "Two Little Girls in Blue" (with the Fairbanks Twins, Oscar Shaw and Evelyn Law), at the George M. Cohan Theatre, N.

Y.

Founded Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing and Ned Wayburn Booking Offices.

Staged F. Ziegfeld's production, starring Will Rogers, also "Follies of 1922," which ran 67 consecutive weeks in New York City and about 40 weeks on tour.

No other "Follies" up to this time ever ran over 16 weeks in New York.

Produced many vaudeville acts, among them, "Ned Wayburn's Dancing Dozen."

Arranged motion-picture presentations for the Famous Players-Lasky Theatres.

In association with Ben Ali Haggin produced several tableaux, including "Simonetta," "Dubarry," and "The Green Gong," which were presented in many of the principal cities.

Staged the musical comedy "Lady Butterfly," at Globe Theatre, New York.

Staged the Anatol Friedland headline girl act for the Keith-Albee and Orpheum vaudeville circuits, and "The Birth of Venus," a series of beautiful tableaux which were shown in many principal motion picture and vaudeville theatres.

Staged for Florenz Ziegfeld "Follies of 1923," at New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, which attraction played to the largest week's receipts of any Follies ever produced at New Amsterdam Theatre.

Staged the following headline vaudeville productions: "NED WAYBURN'S HONEYMOON CRUISE" --an elaborate junior musical comedy, adapted for vaudeville, with a cast of dancers, principals and ensemble, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios.

This act, the highest priced in vaudeville, started on tour in January, 1924, and broke all box-office records of the Poli Theatres in New England, as well as those of many other theatres on the Keith-Albee Circuit, including the premiere vaudeville theatre of the world, Keith-Albee Palace Theatre, New York, and the new ,000,000 Earle Theatre in Philadelphia.

It is still breaking records, and is one of the most sought-after acts in vaudeville.

"NED WAYBURN'S DEMI-TASSE REVUE" --another headline act, composed entirely of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios.

Now on the Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.

The opening engagement at Bridgeport broke the attendance record of the Palace Theatre there and the same results followed at New Haven, Hartford and Worcester, when the audiences and newspaper critics alike declared the Revue even better than Ned Wayburn's "Honeymoon Cruise," which had previously held the attendance records in those cities.

"NED WAYBURN'S SYMPHONIC JAZZ REVUE" Another new production, also composed of pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios--touring the principal motion picture theatres in the Middle West and also Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits.

Staged the dances for Geraldine Farrar in an Operatic Fantasie--"Carmen" (all the dancers in this production being pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios).

SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY AND PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENTS

For Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, 2nd, devised and staged her "Mah Jong Fete" at the Hotel Plaza, New York, for the Big Sisters charity, December, 1923, and her "Persian Jazz Fete," December, 1924. The Princeton Triangle Club's Musical Comedy, "Drake's Drum" last year and "The Scarlet Coat" this year.

The Filene Store's musical comedy, "The Caddie Girl," Colonial Theatre, Boston, in April, 1924, and "Barbara Lee," in April, 1925, presented at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, for one week, with Leah Ainsworth, a Ned Wayburn pupil, in the title role.

Penn.

State College Thespian Club's Show, "The Magazine Cover Girl" last year, and "Wooden Shoes" this year.

The Third Annual Masonic Fashion and Home Exposition at Madison Square Garden, New York, May, 1924. Elaborate entertainments for the Willys-Overland Company, at the Hotel Biltmore, New York (three years).

Jewelers' 24-Karat Club Annual Entertainment at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York (three successive years).

"Own Your Own Home Exposition," at Trenton, New Jersey.

Shriner's Frolic, at Washington, D. C.

Kansas City "Junior League Follies" (December, 1924).

Atlanta "Junior League Follies" (February, 1925).

A Musical Revue for the New York Edison Co. , 1925 (so successful it had to be repeated).

The Providence Junior League Show, 1925. The New Haven "Junior League Nautical Bal Cabaret," 1925. The Vincent Club Musical Comedy, "Fez," in Boston (April, 1925).

"The Chatterbox Revue" in Rochester (April, 1925).

The Massachusetts "Tech" Show, "The Duchess of Broadway" (1925),--and a great many other society, charity, masonic and church entertainments.

It is out of this amazingly wide and varied experience that Ned Wayburn evolved the courses in stage dancing, stage-craft and showmanship which are being taught with such great success today at the Ned Wayburn Studios.

Ned Wayburn is known to thousands as the genius who staged the very best editions of "The Follies" and "Midnight Frolics" at the New Amsterdam Theatre, N. Y.

But in the world of the theatre--among those who _know_--he is recognized as America's foremost creator, producer and director of musical comedies, revues, headline vaudeville productions, motion picture presentations, fetes and every other form of entertainment that features beautiful, original or spectacular dancing.

[Illustration: DOLLY SISTERS] His versatility knows almost no limit.

His wealth of theatrical experience runs the gamut from his own first appearance as an amateur actor and coach to a succession of triumphs as producing director of the most gorgeous theatrical presentations both here and abroad.

Added to his practical stage-craft there is the vital flame of imaginative genius, a creative faculty that clearly stamps all his work.

It is this, as well as his extraordinary executive ability and his all-embracing knowledge of stage technique, that makes him the most sought-after of all directors.

It also explains the distinct advantage which pupils of the Ned Wayburn Studios have over all others, in that they are being constantly sought for desirable engagements because of the thorough way in which they are trained, both physically and mentally, in dancing.

[Illustration: NW] THE NED WAYBURN METHOD OF TRAINING