News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

February 8, 2026

JOSEPH STEIBEL RESIGNS.

Popular Assistant Manager Quits

on Account of Ill Health.

Joseph Stiebel, the well known and popular assistant manager of the Orphem theater, has resigned, but will remain with the theater until a successor is named. For four years Mr. Stiebel has been with the Orpheum and he made a host of friends during that time. He has been under the doctor's care for more than a week and as soon as his successor is chosen will go to Excelsior Springs for a several weeks' stay.

"My health has not been the best for some time," said Mr. Stiebel yesterday, "and I felt I owed it to myself to take a vacation and get my strength back. I was unable to leave the house two days last week and the doctor says it is necessary for me to get away from hard work for a while and rest up."

No successor has been secured for Mr. Stiebel and he will remain with the Orpheum until the place is filled.

Labels: Excelsior Springs, Joe Steibel, theater

December 22, 2025

POLICE CAN'T UNRAVEL THIS.

Jupiter Brothers Do Their Tricks at

Station, Mystifying All.

"You may be able to do that act on the stage, but I don't believe you can get away with it when your audience is gathered close around you," said Joe Steibel, assistant manager of the Orpheum, to the Jupiter brothers after he had seen their cabinet trick Sunday afternoon. Mr. Steibel, like all press agents, is of a suspicious nature.

"We'll do it anywhere on earth," retorted "Bud" Jupiter. And Mr. Steibel took the next car to the police station, where he made arrangements for the brothers to put on their act before the police.

The brothers arrived at police headquarters yesterday morning. They carried a gas pipe frame, an iron chair and a black cloth. The frame was erected, the cloth was thrown over it and the chair was put inside the cabinet.

"Bill" Jupiter sat in the chair and his brother tied him and sewed the sleeves of his shirt to the legs of his trousers. A crowd of policemen examined all the apparatus, searched the men and approved the knots and the sewing.

The curtain hung so the policemen could see the tied man's feet. The curtain was closed, and through a hole in it he stuck his head. Immediately, hands began to appear from holes all over the cabinet. They were evidently Mr. Jupiters hands, but they appeared and reappeared so quickly that it seemed as though there were a dozen.

Then the hands began to hand out flowers, carnations, roses and lillies. A tamborine, bells and a zither were handed in and these were played all at once.

The curtain was drawn back and Mr. Jupiter was found to be securely tied and the threads were not broken.

The Jupiter brothers are from Pond Creek, Ok. They used to do this trick for the benefit of the neighbors and had no idea that their act was of value until an agent for the Orpheum circut discovered them.

Labels: Central station, Joe Steibel, oklahoma, police headquarters, theater, visitors

April 15, 2025

CARTOONIST'S FUN

WITH JOE STEIBEL

SAYS HE COULDN'T MAKE HIM

"LOOK PLEASANT."

"Apollo" Bergfield, the Big Copper,

Also Suffers at the Hands of

the Visiting Artist.

CARTOONIST LEVI'S LIBEL OF "JOE" STEIBEL, THE POPULAR PRESS AGENT OF THE ORPHEUM THEATER, WHOSE SMILE IS PERENNIAL.

"Behold the man who never smiles, or to whom it is at least painful to smile," said Bert Levy, as he pointed out one of his drawings of Joe Steibel, the affable pres agent of the Orpheum. "I tried every way in my power to make him even look pleasant, and at last he turned on me, serious as he could be, and said, 'Levy, I can't smile; I'm a sick man.' But I know the reason why he is so doleful -- it's because he has been working too hard this season.

"Why, just look what he has been up against all year, another vaudeville house in town, a bank suspension and lastly, Judge Wallace. It's enough to take the humor out of anybody."

"In this man you see the one who has made and unmade vaudeville stars and Kansas City. He doesn't care whether the actor was headliner in the last city or whether he was put in the most inconspicuous place on the bill; if his act has merit, Joe will pick him out and begin work on him at once. Honest, he is the busiest man about the Orpheum theater -- no wonder he can't smile. He hasn't had time to practice.

The other picture here with the cop as centerpiece is true to life," continued the artist. "I made a sketch of this picture while standing out in the foyer of the theater, and this is just what I saw. People look upon this genial officer of the law, Joseph Bergfeld, I believe is his name, with real fear in their faces. What there is for them to be afraid of is more than I can see, for during the three years that Joseph has watched the box office window to see that the ticket seller does not take in any bad quarters, not an arrest has been made. At least that is what Joseph himself tells me.

Officer Joseph Bergfield as seen by artist Bert Levy

THIS IS JOSEPH BERGFIELD, THE WEST NINTH STREET APOLLO, CAUGHT IN HIS FAVORITE POSE BY CARTOONIST BERT LEVY, WHO LABELED THE DRAWING "INTIMIDATION."

"It may be that the reason for this is that the benign cop is put together in such wonderful and fantastic proportion that the 'con' men prefer to risk arrest in some other quarters. Just what would be your feelings when you march up to the box office window and have to pass between it and a ferocious looking cop, slowly balancing himself first on his heels and then on his toes, his heavy club swinging behind his back in time to the musical movements of his body?"

Mr. Levy is cartoonist on the New York Morning Telegraph. In speaking of his life work he said:

"My career as an artist began when I was but 13 years old, in the rear of a dingy little pawnshop in Melbourne, Australia. It was a pawnshop which belonged to my brother-in-law. I was put in to mark the tickets which we used in the show window, an I would delight in cutting them out in heart-shaped and different designs. The letters I would form as artistically as possible. This gave me a start, and as days went on I began to sudy the faces of the men as they peered in through the show window looking at the articles for sale. Then I began to copy them, and I am afraid let my pawnshop business pass iwth little attention. Soon my brother in law caught me at the drawing and I was forthwith discharged. I was them put into school, and after much pleading with my father I was allowed to take a course in art.

"Two and a half years ago I left Australia and came to America. When I arrived in New York I was penniless. I had nothing save my portfolio of drawings and a courage which was born of centuries of persecution. Immeidately upon my arrival in that great whirlpool of hope and despair I went to the editors of the New York papers and tried to find a market for my work, but because I was poorly dressed, and I was, for my shoes were almost off my feet and my coat was in rags, and because I was a Jew, I was given no hope, no chance to show that I could draw.

"For five days I wandered about the Ghetto, hungry and in dire want. My meals were picked up at the free lunch counters, and my sleep, what little there was of it, I got any place htat I could find. Then after many efforts, I succeded in getting a trial on the New York Telegraph, and, well, I am still on their staff, and do work for many other large publications. I won out after a terrible struggle, but I think of the thousands of talented artists, geniuses, who are almost starving in New York simply because fate wills it."

Labels: arts, immigrants, Jews, Joe Steibel, Judge Wallace, New York, Ninth street, theater, vaudeville, visitors