Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-15
PASSING OF TIE FIRST
Are Themselves 20 Blame
fer the Type.

Managers Are Themselves 20 BIame
fer the Tyne.
NEW YORK. Nov. 1A-Bitter recrimina-
lions have been heard from only one Of
them. He hated to have his name disap-
pear along with the list kept in the man
ayers office. That was always a species
OF patent Of nobility that stamped him
officially as a first nlghter Enrolled
there, he was recognized as a real mem
Der OF that famous but now discreditod
body that witnesses the first performance
Of plays.
That manager took my name off the list
and abolished the old crowd" said this
rebel, because he watched me at the first
night OF Diana of Dobson's,' when had
paid S12 for two tickets. How In the world
did he expect any man to look cheerful
under such circumstances?"
For whatever reason, the managers have
discovered that they prefer to submit their
plays to the judgment Of the general pub
lie and they have ceased to give the prefer
ence to the persons entered on the So
called first night list" The theater that
first put this rule into effect has decided to
test 1t at the first appearance OF a very
popular actress who has a large public DIFF
ferent from that which usually gets into
the theater on the first night she acts.
Her friends, being neither song publishers,
bookmakers. stage dressmakers. wholesale
ticket spectators or unemployed actors,
have usually had to walt for the second
or third night to see her. Now they will
have an opportunity to stand in line and
get seats in the order they reach the box
office. Whether this rule will enable the
theater to rid itself Of the old first night
gang remains to be seen.
ttTvla unapauara ora 90 aN,..z a. 49,
for the character of the first night audi
ences," one Of them confessed the other
day, because they got first into the theater
the men from whom they we're certain to
get favorable expressions of opinion. These
were largely men who were connected
with them In business. That was OF course
enough In itself to rob these gatherings
OF any social character. Then their friends
OF the manager wanted their friends 10
come along too. and gradually they also
were added. The result was a strange
mixture, but It could be relied upon to re-
ceive whatever the manager offered with
unbounded enthusiasm. So long as the
audience was docile and generous the man
ayers made no protest against its social
character. which had come TO be such
that the newspapers ceased to give the
names of the persons who attended. The
managers even let that pass because the
first night audience of It's friends be-
haved as 1t was expected to-"
Whatever the performance might be
during the last ten y~ears-the period in
which the new and d~espised kind of first
night came to its present estate-the
character of the audience was the same.
THE majority OF these first nighters
began TO look upon themselves seriously
and tried to live up to their regulations
aq fttHuan NJ NhA 49,. =,
one or two visits to the theater to turn
every New Yorker into a dramatic critic.
SO what could be expected of these regu-
lars with the duty of their positions as
first nigh tiers to uphold? They began to
grow critical and then supercilious, and
after awhile IL was all but impossible to
make them take the least pleasure in any
but a positively sensational show. Their
demeanor under average circumstance
was not only enough to chill the actors,
but 1t even had It's influence on the dra-
matte critics. They were able to say
truthfully that the audience received the
play coldly. In the managerial mind the
least 1t could do was to laugh or cry or
applaud with equal cordially whether the
play deserved 1t or not. These first
nighters created by the managers, how
4 aver, had become too critical and too
\ Important for any such mood and had
outgrown their usefulness. So the man
ayers had no more use for them. They
have now been cast into outer darkness
by the managers because they became
too sophisticated to applaud the bad
shows"
Such is the conclusion of other man
ayers than the one quoted here. They
are perfectly willing to acknowledge that
the joke is on them. They created this
audience out of very obsequious elements.
The general public had practically no
opportunity to get into any first night
performance at one of the principal the
aters. All the tickets went to the regu-
lars whose names were on the box office
list. In some cases Maude Adams or
Maxine Elliott or FRITZ Scheff would in
slst upon having ten or twenty seats for
friends. But that allotment was never
sufficient to leaven the whole lump. The
first night crowd remained practically the
same.
There used always in the past to be
certain well-known figures at first night
performances. General Sickles was one
OF them, for instance, and in his period
were John Bird, John Heckscher and later
General Horace Porter. The most con-
splcuous men to go to the first nights OF
a later generation were the late Stanford
White and his little coterie and. OF course.
the irrepressible little lawyer who is now
living in Europe, Now there are positively
80 few persons who would be noticed
among first n1ghters that the rich woman
from the west and her young Anglo-Amer-
lean husband are practically the most
characteristic attendants at first perform
Ances. OF course, there is the regular first
night gang, but their names would sug-
Eest nothing. as they are distinguished for
no other popularity.
.
THIRD AMERICAN DANCER WINS