Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-24
THE THEATRICAL SEASON.
Millions of Dollars Spent to Amuse the
People

A special dispatch from New York says:
A few weeks ago there was half a mile Of
actors idly lounging on Broadway between
Herald square and 45th street and monop-
olizing the pavement. Their sudden dis
appearance within doors and the fact that
other people are not obliged now to walk
in the street is reminder that the the
atrical season has begun. Almost all of
New York's fifty-nine theaters open.
and the managers have produced the first
of their new plays. Some of them have not
only put them on, but have already taken
them off with marvellous CELEBRITY. But, as
a whole the failures have been few in the
nauguratio of the season of 1904-5
What the final record of the year is to
be no one can foretell. but if earnest eff
fort and lavish expenditure spell success
the New York stage is entering upon
very interesting period. We are to see not
only American stars but are to have dis
tinguished visitors from abroad the works
of native playwrights are to provide us
with an abundance of new plays and mu-
steal works; we are to have the pick of
successful plays from European sources,
and unsteady shall hear the most IA
nous artists, vocal and instrumental, OF
the artistic capitals of the world.
This is as it should be. for New York is
more than generous in its patronage of the
theater, the opera house and the concert
room. If one realizes the enormous sums
1t pays annually in the season to man
ayers, actors and musical artists it is ap-
parent why those who cater for its amuse-
ments feel that nothing is too good for
this open-handed. appreciative city. For
the opera alone New York expends nearly
a million dollars in the winter The
aters is something enormous. On several
occasions last season the receipts at sin
gle house have totaled $4,000 in week
and for long periods $4,000 has been the
taklQPS in six 0aYS for a f,lp nj
1t has been estimated that when the season
is in full swing $4,000 people are at New
Yorks theaters and music halls of an
evening Estimate what that reaches as a
total for the amusement year! Can any
city in the world show better patronage Of
dramatic and musical art?
AS Yankee blood runs largely in Amer
lean veins and begets a shreWdness. that
insists on its moneys worth for every dol
lar laid down, even for amusements Is not
the enormous sum paid in at the theaters
evidence of the excellent quality of the
goods that are offered? The American the
atergoer and opera patron is no fool nor
is he incapable of artistic Judgment, as
his faculty for occasioning a ''beggarly ar
ray of empty benches" at performa nee
that is worthless sharply testifes now and
again. Hence the great total that he paws
and the long runs that he creates are
proof that New Yorks dramatic and mn
steal standard. taken all in all, is of the
highest.
enormous investment of capital in theat-
ricai enterprises and has made the the
alter one of New York's legitimate bust
ness occupations. Note the capital in
vested. More than $4,000, 900 in one the
alter; more than 81, 100000 in another; more
than million in one house that is devoted
chiefly to drawing room comedies; a mil
lion and half in still another that pro-
duces musical and dramatic plays And
this does not include the Opera House tina t
cost it's millions.
What is the amount necessitated in the
production of plays, operas and specta cIes
on the scale of magnificence that New
YORK now demands? A London spectacle
that cost 100000 was brought here and
$4,000 was expended in its local embeIish-
ment to attain New York standards. AS
much as $4,000 has been lavished on a
historical drama and $50 900 on Society
piay-the late Augustin Daily paid $40 600
Tor wall decorations for one scene Forty
thousand dollars Is not exorbitant for sta e.
ing comic opera of today No play can
come into New York at cost for mounting
of less than $4,000 Otherwise it wouId
be called shabby
That both public and manag gers encour
age nome and foreign dramatists is an
parent when one recalls that an Amer
lean playwright has received 100000 for
one seasons royalty, and a foreign writer
has been paid equal sum-
These are big figures, but thew are ac-
curate, and they point to the great ad-
vance or dramatic and musical art in
America; they explain why the stage TO-
Gay mas taken position as a commercial AZ
Wen as an artistic undertakings: they show
the SOUND business as well as artistic basis
on which 1t rests, and they encourage the
| belief that the season is TO see a still fur-
| Their advance in the quality of amusements
| offered to the people