Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-08-02
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Gotham the Home Of the Actor-Merits
of the Stock Company System.
Passing Of the Billboards.
Especial Correspondence

/ theatrical center of this country. The
moment an actors engagement closes
he HES himself back to Gotham to seek
work, or, failing that, to promenade up
! and down the narrow limits of the con-
/ stantly shifting Rialto, there to relate
to admiring friends who have not been
OUT his triumphs in Podunk and
| Squeedenapolis. The same thing prac-
ticaIIy may be said Of the managers.
| Those who have had failures are ever
ready with excuses to explain away
their troubles. In many cases they are
determined to take out the same piece
which experience has shown to be
worthless, and it never occurs that
these fellows are not negotiating with
a prominent broker" who is willing to
advance ''any amount Of money" to
give the piece such a production as the
country has never seen before. The
average theatrical manager is the most
mercurial sort of fellow imaginable.
When every body else realizes that the
country is in a bad way, he can see
nothing but prosperity ahead. His only
lament IS that the dramatic schools are
turning out @ lot Of incompetents,
which, after all, is more than an idle
statement.
Next season may be trife better
than the last. It cannot very we'll be
any worse, but there is really not
single thing yet upon which to base an
opinion.
transformers Getting Ready.
Despite all this, however, the Zone
night stand managers are already pre-
dieting that the coming season will be
the best that the theatrical world has
known in 90 years. It is safe to assert
that a larger number Of theatrical en-
terprises will be sent out than at any
time before in the history of this city
This is due III great measure to the
fact that nowadays q company can be
equipped for much less than in former
years if only the small towns are to be
visited. Then, too, the recent copyright
law has made it impossible for the
pirates to steal current plays for which
special scenery had to be provided, and
they are falling back upon the old
printed plays which can be put on with
house "stuff, = thus eliminating most
important item of expense. In addition
to all this, these pieces do not require
special paper, as most Of the prominent
photographers have stock printing on
hand which they are willing to sell at
very low figures There are very few
villages now which have not theaters
OF some kind, and these must be occu-
pied. 1t is Of course impossible to get
the better class of companies into them,
and therefore the frepertags, as they
are called in the profession, are given
chance to exist.
Merits Of the Stock Company System.
At first blush this would all look
very discouraging for the theatrical
business, but it is really promising in
dication, for it would seem to indicate
partial return to the old stock system
under which the drama reached its pin
nacle Of prosperity in this country, and
which is today responsible for the aver
age superiority Of foreign trained actors
to the home product. Here beginner
is put into one part, which he plays for
one Or more seasons. He has little or no
opportunity to acquire versatility, with
out which no actor can hope to rise
above respectable mediocrity. Abroad
man begins by going into a little stock
company which presents perhaps a
score Of plays each season. Under this
system he is enabled to study light and
shade, and if there be anything in him
it is certain to be developed slowly and
permanently. Anything therefore which
tends in that direction in this country
is an encouraging indication and should
be hailed with delight by all real adj
mirers Of conscientious theatrical effort.
1t will, if it should ever prevail, be sure
IL
Booths. Barretts, Jeffersons, FIorences,
FORESTS, Andersons, Keenes Deans and
Cushmans, who, as things are now con-
ducted can never hope to rise much
above the ranks.
Passing OF the Billboards.
While Oh theatrical topics it may not
be amiss to remark that if the Bill
posters union is to get next season the
better wages it now purposes to de-
mand there will have to be a reversal
of present tendencies in theatrical adj
vertising. Managers for several years
past have been ready to do without bill
posting on very slight provocation. The
Association of Travelling Variety Man
ayers of America has agreed that one
year from this summer it will do away
altogether with the window Autographs
that have hitherto provided cheap tick
cts for cheerful multitudes. Then, too,
quack medicines, soaps, liniments and
table luxuries have gained almost mo-
nopoly of the gaudier colors and the
bigger surfaces, SO that theatrical signs
are insignificant. The palmy days of
lavish expense upon the billboard ad-
vertising will not soon return. Marc
Klaw of Klaw e Erlanger expressed
the sentiment Of managers in general
when he said that newspapers get the
advertising nowadays.
A Story Of Barnum.
''Barnum once used billboards, - said