Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-20

millions Of capital, so many thousands
of people, with it's companies scattered
throughout the whole of the United States
and much OF Europe, has to be deliberately
organized in its administrative end. Owners
and managers of theaters, owners and
managers of companies, producers, stage
managers, costumers, employment agencies,
play brokers, authors, composers, scene
painters, must all be in close touch, for
there are many and sudden shifts to be
provided for. A failure at some point
requires the changing of several routes,
the organization of a new company, the
shifting of players, the rehearsal OF a
play sooner than planned or even the
hurrying up Of some book or score, the
production of new costumes, new scenery;
and the army OF business men, of writer's,
artists and others concerned must meet,
as they do almost daily to learn of new
or changed intentions.
Nv common consent these meetings,
many of them are at some club or more
in some restaurant In the Acre
This is the business end of it, the
practical work by practical men whose
efforts bring the many thousands of plea
sure seekers to the Acre and make It's
more characteristic life.
"heh the ~
That pleasant life begins when the Acre
takes on it's first b%rilliance, when the
fronts and roofs of a score OF theaters
blaze with electric lights, when dozens OF
hotels and restaurants are little less bright
with attractive illuminations' when the
highway of the Acre is alive with hundreds
of brilliantly lighted cabs, automobiles
street cars running hither and thlther IKE
--.-.t... at,t,aota1 glouyuyormS
Then the Acre takes on its show aspect,
the restaurants. fill with gay crowds of
diners as the streets begin to fill with
hundreds of players hurrying from their
| earlier dinners to prepare for their nightly
entertainment of those thousands of more
deliberate diners. But the hurrying bust
ness of the day, the eager preparation OF
the early evening are all as nothing in
pomp and Importance, in a Long Acre
way, to the scenes after the theaters are
closed and the players and audiences rush
into the Acre for it's night gayety,
Then begins a confusing scurrying OF
cabs and automobiles, a quick filling of
the popular restaurants, cafes, rath-
skellers, college inns, chop houses and the
famous lobster palaces Of the district. The
recently reopened old Normandie hotel at
Thirty-eighth street marks the southern
most of the after supper places. And a
word about that ia at interest.
People not so old but that they can still
20 about alone at night remember when
the Normandie was a show place of a
hotel. It was far OF .st,ipreG by the early
Fifth avenue big hotel buildings, but still
held it's OWE in Broadway. Competition
came closer With the opening of the Astol
and the Kuickerbocker and the Normandi'
closed and all iIs furnishings were sold.
One at Low Prices.
But some out-of-town men saw an open
lng-and out-of. W men have seen abou
all the good New York hotel openings
and refur1;shed the old place, did il al
over anew and reopened It as a 81 and SIS
room hotel, and confidently asserted thei
belief that 1t would pay as such just a
soon as the new idea became known-in sl
months or so. The first night Of the re
opening $50 OF it's 100 rooms were taker
Then its basement rathskeller was opened
with prices proportional TO the room price,
and one more successful supper place 70
the Acre district was established in on
night,
The Albany, a couple OF blocks furth'
north, opened a dozen years or so ago s
a strictly bachelor hotel, but took off 4
restriction under new management, an
, has a college inn basement which accom-
! modates a younger set OF Joyous temper'
, ment who have not the price demand'
d In the Acre itself.
! In the newes Acre supper resort, n
r grill room, the white room and the varlo'
Il other rooms OF the Hotel Kniekerbocke
the professional life of the Acre Is mo
represented just now after the theate
y close. There, rather than at any OF q