The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-17
MILLIONS SPENT ON THE SEASONS PLAYS Huge Expenditures to Provide
 Stage Spectacles THE RISK IS VERY GREAT Public Is Pickle and Managers Stand Good Chance to Lose Their
 Money-Some Big Attrac-
 tons for 1eo5-6.
THE RISK IS VERY GREAT
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
 1 The theatrical season of 1905-6 is in full
 swing in New York city. Whether it will 1 be a prosperous one for the managers
 remains to be seen. It starts remarkably
 well, and the knowing ones anticipate d year of unusual earnings. To back up their expectations the handful of firms
 responsible for the big production which
 the theatre-goers of the metropolis will
 see during the early part of the season
 have invested or will invest something
 like s3O00,000 in new plays.
 | This enormous sum does not by any
 means represent the whole seasons in
 vestment in productions throughout the
 country, but merely the amount that will | be spent to amuse New Workers. The
 big city will, of course, have only the
 biggest, most elaborate productions, though in towns like Chicago and Phil
 adelphia there are a few managers who
 will put loads of money into attractions 1 for home consumption.
 Altogether including productions of last year which will again be seen during
 1sO5-6, there Is upward of $1o,00O0O0 tied up in stage enterprises this year-$10,-
 0,000 wagered on that most elusive and | dangerous of all games of chance, pub | lie approval
 At first sight the figures do not seem so enormous. The reading eye has be- come accustomed to big amounts in these days of vast combinations of capital. But, whereas the men who form great
 company for manufacture of sugar, steel, or whatever else establish a business that will last for years and remain a l.&o Ixr nf ttaaA hn fri0 n
 manager stakes his millions on single | card, as 1t were. His profits, if there | be any, must come quickly or not at all, for the life of the average play Is not l more than a couple of seasons all told, | and if he has not got his investment back | in a very few months he may as well | count it lost. Furthermore, he has noth- i ing to assure him of success. Rather otherwise, for the percentage of successes l in the theatrical business is not great | one
 l But, though the manager and producer | who invests his money this year can be
 no more certain of getting 1t back than
 he ever was, the public demands more | from him than ever before and he must comply with that demand or find him
 self without an audience. The great pro-
 duction' of twenty years ago that in-
 cuded fifty people cost S15.000 and could | play to nearly as great receipts as the
 one of this season, that must have three
 times the number of people, and cost ten times as much money. Old methods and | old standards are swept away in the
 march of time. Nothing remains but the | publio's fickleness.
 One Firm Invests $s00,0oo. | The leading producers of expensive att fractions in New York are, of course, the
 so-called syndicate" Messrs. Klaw &s
 Erlanger. "Spectacles' and extravaganza on the order of those that have made l the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London,
 famous occupy the greater part of their
 attention as producing managers. though
 in Ben Hur' they set standard among | emmense dramatic productions that has
 not as yet been surpassed. In the vari- ous big attractions under their direct management Klaw & Erlanger have in- 1 vested, at the most conservative esti-
 mate, SS00,000 and are still investing. Next to them the Shuberts are the heaviest producers, and now that they have com | bined with David Belasco and others, their total investment for the season is | q tremendous one.
 | In the last few years the theatrical | business has become what 1t never was | before, a business actually managed by | business men on definite methods. The l producer does not as he used to do, risk l all he has, at least not very often. When
  or loses his rating among his fellows. The | rivalry today between the Syndicate"
 and "Anti-Syndicate' people Is bitter to the extreme, but it is not the foolish
 dog-in-t he-manger sort that used to
 wreck so many managers.
 Theatregoing Is the most popular sport among New Workers. The folk of this city do not look on the theatre as an
 institution of education, but as place where they get amusement and re- creation. There Is no denying that fact. harsh as it may be to the deyotees of
 Shakespeare and a Twentieth Century | Theatre" This is not the fault of the
 managers, they insist, but of the public. whose demands they merely try to com | ply with. Whether this is really the req I son or not it Is true that the com | Ing seasons big productions will nearly 1 all be confined to spectacle. comic opera.