New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-10
nEAD.llEAUS.

DEAD.HEADs.
A good deal of attention has lately been paid
in London to the system of admitting gratis TO
theaters and places Of public amusement the
representatives of the Press. lie seems that
the practice had reached an extent which was
found practically inconvenient. One manage
states in his declaration of independence, that
to open his doors without pay to all the mem
bers of the Press claiming admittance would
be to forego every chance of profit. Another
shows that in the year 1852 forty odd daily
and weekly papers received | 900 admissions
to single theater under his control, one
weekly paper occupying nearly FIVE hundred
seats in the course of the year, or ten week;
while the entire body of papers filed nightly
some forty seats. Bat, for London at least, il
is all over The system of newspaper dead
heads is there abolished by unanimous consent,
and hereafter no editor or reporter will take
his place in pit or boxes without the conscious
ness that he has paid his shot like other pco-
pie.
AS yet no such movement has taken place
in New.Yorl, probably because the necessity
for it is not felt by managers. A great dead
head system is maintained here, and we ven.
ture to say that there are few leading Journals
which do do not receive more than ten free
admissions weekly to any very attractive place
of public amusement. Managers hold It to be
for their interest thus to compliment the
press ifnot with the hope Of receiving favor.
able notices, at least with the expectation u
notices of some sort. Among journalists, on the
other hand, the compliment has come to bo
regarded much as a matter Of course; We
read only day or two since paragraph In
daily paper to the effect that the editor, not
thinking the seat allotted him by manager
sufficiently commodiOus, had torn up the billst
Cflocation and spit upon its fragments, where
at the manager sends him a note to the effect
that his free admission is stopped altogether,
and he reduced to the level of the multtude
We recOllect another case occurring some
years since, in which the manager coolly threst'
cned an obnoxious critic that he should notw
admitted at all even with a ticket regularly
purchased, threat which, on second thoughs'
he wisely judged best not TO execute. Iss
fact, however, was curious as Illustrating ~
relation which mistaken manager might ~
tempt to institute between himself and ne
press.
Now we regard this entire state OF Thug
as pernici0us. We are convinced that
would be more truly for the interest Of evey
really meri;Orious drama, opera, or show, tore
frain from seeking the presence of dead-heat.
Editorial or other. Poor exhibitions, per-
formances designed to impose upon the pqSHk,
might fail to receive puGs which now sonk
times aid them TO false and faetitious pos
larity, but On the other hand, whatever
worth noticing and commencing or condemnilG
would command the attention Of every jounS
Of any influence quite as much as nov. Wses
Jenny Lind, or AlbOni, or Sontag, or ~
cready, or Miss Cushman appear, no Deg'pe
per that is in the habit Of reporting sss
events can afford 10 omit speaking OF tbo'
We should send competent critic TO SonESs
last new opera or to the Exhibition OF thew
tional Academy just as certainly without
free admission as We DO with; and we hss
declare that We will hold ourselves under pfS
found obligations to the manager who VIII y
derttke and cary out, in the abolition
dead-heaos, q reform which must prove as oesS
fetal 10 journalism as TO Art.
IL is 1seless for single journal TO atEenS'
tits reform, We remember that FIVE years ~
Tie COarieT and Enquirer undertook 10"
fusing free admission at the Opera, but
custom was too strong, ard with the most ~
oralle intentions our contemporary had 70 -
cumb and return TO the old practice IL W
Lot be changed until the managers thelas0
feel il to be Improbable, aud unitedly refuse
continue it, as they have now done at Lohs~
AslOrg as they arc willing to give tickets S
the majority Of the press viii receive them
out scruple, and viii readily acknoSiedse "a
obligation by notices ofsOme kline 10 return =
as long as q considerable payt Of the prev