Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-02-08
THEATE & PRICES.
Good Reasons WhV the We naSers
BhOuld Lever Their hates.
z. wHITMORE.
Publisher and Proprietor


shOuld Lever Thsir hates.
New York wOrld.l
The theatrical managers are al
most without exception complain
ing of the times. They have been
trying every expedient known to
the theatrical mind to fill their
houses, and their houses remain
empty. They are willing to play
to dead-heads, but even the dead
heads decline to come, and the
managers are at their wits end.
We suggest to the managers that
the fault is not in the times, but in
themselves. Alone of all trades
men they have perSistently refused
to recognize the difference which
the last three or four years have
made in the prices Of their wares.
Their first advance in prices, when
the price Of gold went up, was 80
per cent. This was reasonable
enough as things were then. Their
second advance exactly doubled the
prices charged before the war.
There may have been a brief period
during which this advance was
properly maintained. That period,
if there was any, was very brief.
But it is notorious that Americans
are the easiest-going people on the
face OF the earth under an extor-
ton, until it, becomes really scan
dalous. Moreover, the years just
following the war were +" flush
times" and people spent their
money recklessly in play-going and
everything else, though even so the
prices of theater tickets were too
high in proportion to general
prices. Now, however, all that is
changed. People do not feel like
throwing away their money, and
they will retrench first on enter
tainments which they can get on
without. They will retrench these
things all the quicker, however,
if they feel that the price Of these
things is extortionate with refer
ence to general prices. That is
undoubtedly the case with the
theaters now. They have re,
fused to initiate the example
which in the price of newspapers
was set by the World and followed
by the Herald, and which has been
followed in every branch Of bust
nesa except their own. General
prices are not moro than one-third
more now than they were before
the war. In some industries
prices are even less, The general
tumble" has extended to al Glasses
Of business, and while many indus
tries have been absolutely pros
trated, many industries have been
put upon a firm basis and got into
4 healthy condition by means of it,
An increase of ten per cent. in
prices is not maintained or thought
of anywhere but in the theaterS,
the prices Of which are an anomaly
in the present condition Of business.
The result has been exactly what
the managers might have ioreseen.
People refuse to 60 to the theaters
IL ia of no use for the managers to
cudgel their brains with new expe-
dents to get them there, An at
tractive novelty may make q lively
episode in the dullness of the busi.
ness of q theater. But no manage
ment can make a constant success
sion of sports. 1t must look fol
its gains in q moderately steady
and prosperous business, and tina
is precisely what it cannot expec
to get while it ia charging double
the old prices for its wares, and a
least sixty per cent more than gen
: eral prices warrant.
We have left the ticket Specula
tor out of the account, though s,
many play-goers find him an i'm
portant element in it, 1t is ba,
enough, in fact 1t is altogether TO-
bad, to be asked double prices TO-
theater tickets. When In addition
to this the buyer finds hlmsel
charged with an additional com
mission Of twenty-five per cent, b
. a person whom he strongly sus
poets the manager to be in collu