New-York tribune., 1907-12-23
CROWDS AVOID SHOWS
BART'E'NDERS OTERWORK.
Saloons Preferred to Tame Enter
tainments-POkce Take 1t Easy.


the theatres and music halls yesterday, al
lowed by Alderman DoulFs amended ordinance.
Besides this, up in Harlem one could so to the
penny arcades only. for the moving picture
shows closed. while below Harlem it was
the moving picture shows which open
The moving pictures were left out of the sacred
concerts except at Keith & PrOctors Fifth
avenue house. where injunction hastily pro-
cured Saturday night and the subject of the
pictures, THE Passion Play were supposed
sufficient to keep the police from stopping
them.
None of the theatres filled as might have
been expected. The Sunday before Christmas
is always the poorest of the year, and yester-
days usual falling off in business was aug
mented by the closing of the previous weeks.
Scarcely one hundred persons comprised the
audience at the New York Theatre in the after
noon, and the evening show attendance was far
below the normal.
The Victoria had fair sized audience at both
performances. but scarcely approaching tne
usual throng- There was marked falling off
iii the numbers of spectators, too, about the
DOOR AT the Colonial and AIhambra theatres
the audiences thinly scattered about Even
the sacred moving pictures at Keith & Proctor's
Fifth Avenue Theatre did not bring the usual
crowd. The arrests for the day included
moving picture manager and four pushcart ped
1ers.
Even the concerts at the Manhattan and
Metropolitan opera houses failed to bring the
usual crowd. although each house was well
filled. When the police visited the Manhattan
to watch the performance Mr.. Han1merstein
told his door tender to pass them in but the
detectives insisted on paying their own way
FEWER AT METROPOLITAN.
Tra ipfa %, ,bo
looked much the same last evening as it did
on that of Sunday. December s. when the last
Sunday night concert preceding the announce
ment Of Justice O'Gorman's Interpretation OF
the law was given. The only difference was
that there was a noticeaby smaller audience
than usually presents itself for this particular
educational feature I'm Mr.. Conried's annual
course Possibly the box office suffered a
dwindling in receipts from music lovers owing
70 lingering uncertainty to whether the
concert would be given as announced The ad-
vance sale of tickets for the concert was con-
siderably smaller than usual but this may have
been due TO the approach of Christmas and the
exodus Of many of the Sunday stand-bys to
Christmas rendezvous some distance from goth
street and Broadway. The press agent reported
that there had been no police censorship Of the
vocal and Instrumental entertainment prepared
and the ConTied temple of music failed even TO
be distinguished by the visit of one of Com
missioner Bngham's inspectors
Only Alfred Hertz, the conductor was there
to put a stop to the applause of those in the
audience who felt the spirit calling to take an
audible part in the proceedings The absence
of the Metropolitan's Sunday night frequentcrs
was particularly noticeable in the orchestra
circle. That Iong-enduring creature the rail-
bird, was almost as numerous as a fortnight
before
Ted Marks gave his usual two concerts at the
American Theatre. which he has done for years
Mr.. Marks said that even there his houses were
a little below the usual Sunday before Christ
mas audiences
My shows are educational and moral" said
Mr. Marks, "and that's Just what our people
want We haven't any costumes and We haven't
moved piece of scenery. always have kent
we'll inside the law. and the new ordinance has
not made much difference TO me"
Other theatres which were open with their
usual class Of Sunday entertainment were the
Dewey, Eden Musee, the Gotham Harlem Opers
House, the Metropolis. the Murray Hill and
Tony Pastors With animal acts and DRAMATIC
sketches left out most of the bills were of the
usual sort. and the police censors did not have
much thinking to do II the bodices of some OF
the "artistes" were short the skirts were long so
they balanced up evenly enough not TO make them
costumes. Several small Yiddish theatres on the
East Side also gave warranted educational and
sacred concerts. The ST. Nicholas skating rink
not caring TO have it's patrons miss their sun
day skating. opened as usual but charged no
fee small attendance was observed thers
also. the Something -for-nothing" policy appar-
emily not having become well known to the
public.
In Manhattan some of the moving pieture
shows were open. but most of them were closed
particularly those of the cheaper sort on the
lower East Side and along Eighth avenue. The
big in Esd street, near Broadway had a
crowd in front of ii all day seeking admittaIce
and so did the one in the old Manhattan The
atre building The earning capacity of these
and one two others limited only by the
size of the house. Before show was over a
crowd sufficient to fill the house already
waiting its chance to enter. All the penny ar
cades were closed.
In Harlem the dance halls and skating rinks
without interference but most of the mov-
ing picture shows closed. Two or three kept
open and did unusual business
BARTENDERS OvERwORKED.
In The Bronx everything was open-rnovinx
picture shows. penny arcades and nickel the
aires. Stereopticon pictures. moral sacred
from the show and police point of view replaced
the moving pictures and that was about the
only difference. The saloons did such business
that every relay of bartenders went home ex-
hausted but thai was not different from every
where else, as everything was wide open in all
five boroughs
The Brooklyn theatre men were the only ones
to get into trouble with the new ordinance. All
the theatres where Sunday shows generally are
held were open and had a fair attendance. Nov
ing pictures were put on at the Majestic The
atre and Bianey's in the afternoon. and after
the police had made some arrests the pictures