The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-01-10
AMERICAN AMusEMENTS.
The Immense Amount OF Money
Spent II Theaters
A LARGE Army Of Professionals Are
Sept Busy-ForfEEe- Annually
Speat IN Travelling on the
Railroads

:. Is es.fnated that there are per
bsps ss uanyas 1.0a9 travelling theatri-
81 esmraujcs II the United States,
sars tae Washington Post This in
.indes ere-vthing that can be coz
siasrei strictly professional companies
70 say nothing ofthe countless amateur
organizations OF the strictly theafrl-
cal examinations i Is safe 20 presume
that the average res. pts per night Tor
the !. 600 companies are 500 each Al
seven performances per week to- each
company tire weekly average, as VIII
be seeu. would lie s.. 500. The average
theatrical season Is forty weeks The
entire I. .o0O companies with an average
nightly receipt Of 500 would produce
~ee.,lv receipts al seven performances
r,er week amounting 20 s.. s0o.o00- This
FuuitipIsed By forty. the number ot
,--eelys IN q season. would yield gross
receipts amounting 70 sll2,09o,03o-
From the above estimates some idea
an ne formed Of what the american
peoDie spend annually for amusements
br esrnDaBies which are known ss
strictly professional Thousands Of
5ollars are also spent with amateur
theatrical organizations and lecture
bureaus
Il would appear from The above state
rrent that a great deal Of money Is made
L. theatrical people. The expenses IN
cident 10 earning sli2,0e0s00o are very
large u Is reasonable 20 say that
sne-third. or So. .0eo. eco, Of the total
Sil5. COO. .059, IS spent with railroads
Another very large item is expended
for nriutinc Great fortunes have been
srassed bF printing houses IN the
proluction Of theatrical printing alone
Hundreds of thousands ef dollars are
s1so spent Tor advertising in news
oapers Il Is safe 10 say that 90 per
-cut OF the correspondence between
theatrical managers IS carried on BY
telegraph, which amounts 20 great
ueal In a years time
The travelling companies, however,
sre not the sole possessors Of the
grand total, sll2.Co0 ,0o0- This is di-
vsded between the travelling companies
and the owners OF the houses where the
.ompanies play. The net receipts de-
rived by the companies would perhaps
re 70 the neiEhb0rhool OF 65 pere cent or
fg Der cent. making an average net re-
sultof between $1,000. GO and Sse, ,000,-
Coz. Cut Of this. Of course comes al OF
the expenditure for railroad transpor-
fafion. and over one-half Of the total
srnonut paid for newspaper adyertis-
fur Ont of this also j. paid fully .
per cent. of the amount paid 10 print
tlr Eou-cs-
The Loo travelling companies VIII
average fifteen people 70 a company,
na King total OF 1890 theatrical peo-
ole travelling over the country forty
weeks oat OF the ffty-two. This, Of
course. does not include the number
Il people employed al theaters- Upon
Size estimate made a. 70 the number Of
companies there must OF necessity be
the same OF. more number Of theaters,
e. two companies cannot play AT the
same theater on the same night. There
ere al least on an average fifteen peo-
ole employed AT every theater, which
uould be 1900 This added 10 the
number Of people travelling would
make total OF 5000 people Il is
sid that there 5000 actors and act
res=es row out of employment There
sre at least engaged in the theatrical
rusiness directly or indirectly-those
sho make d living from it-60,ooo-
some actors make a great deal OF
nouev- some do not Those who make
she most are generally those who say
the least about Il. Those who make
the least on annual tours are as q class
those who do the most talking about
having done the greatest business \
great many managers and stars hold
10 the old-fashioned idea that they
must always talk about the enomons
business they are doing, the people
they are turning away from their
-ouses. and bow many times a week
the standing Room Only" sign is out
They DO this Tor the express purpose Of
attempting 20 deceive the public. The
hest evidence that travelling theatri-
al attraction is a good one Is the fact
that large audiences attend il