The St. Mary banner., 1910-04-30

than London, Paris and Berlin taken
together. That means that New York,
with a population of about 4,500,0 900,
supports greater number Of play
houses and kindred places of amuse-
ment than the three largest cities of
Europe combined, with their total of
100000 or more persons. When
one thinks of London's devotion to its
music halls, of the reputation of the
theatres of Paris and the dramatic en-
thusiasm of the German metropolis,
one is tempted to read that first sem
tence over again to see if there isn't
some mistake about it. But no, it
means just what it says.
'Most extraordinary, bah jove," the
Londoner would say, "but quite abb
surd, warrant you"
Impossible" comments the vola
:ile Frenchman.
''Ganz komisch und unglaublich,"
is what the loyal German would NUT
ter over the top of his stein.
Right here is the place to bring on
The authorities and the figures, before
the Briton and the Partisan and the
Berliner work themselves up any fur
ther about it, On the face of it the
statement seems impossible. One can
run through a Baedeker and add up
something like thirty regular theatres
in London, with about the same num-
Der of suburban playhouses and some
sixty music halls of various sorts. |
Paris will show about forty theatres, |
including the vaudeville houses, and |
another forty or so can be totalled up |
In Berlin. That makes a good deal |
for New York to beat, but yet when |
those figures are Strengthened out the |
American city manages somehow to |
stick in the lead.
A number of the theatre managers |
Of New. York City are responsible for |
he statement. They made it, not be- |
cause they were proud of Gotham's |
position, but because they weren't. |
IAl Hayman, proprietor of the Knick-
9arbocker Theatre, was the man who |
started it all. Then he was backed |
up as to the verify of his figures by |
Alfred Hayman, his brother, who is
Charles Frohman's manager, and a
number of others. The bomb was ex-
ploded at the sixth annual dinner of
the Association of Theatre Managers
Of Greater New York, held last week
at the Hotel Knickerbocker.
1t wasn't case of letting the eagle
scream, and there was no romance
about it at all. The managers simply
expressed their opinions of state of
affairs which they believed to exist,
and which they wished didn't exist.
The keynote of the matter was about
like this: New York has far more the
aires than 1t can support with its
present population, and that means
money out Of the managers pockets.
There are eighty-seven theatres in
New York City-real theatres, that
is, exclusive of concert halls, moving
picture and picture-vaudeville combi-
nation shows. OF theatres and halls !
1T which moving pictures are present
ed there are more than 500. Thirty
nine first-class houses and forty-eight
theatres at which vaudeville and bur- {
lesque are given at popular prices
that is how the first batch of eighty
seven is split In addition to all this &
he city is giving over 900 perform 6
aEces Of grand opera during the
.wenty weeks of the regular season.
This is asking New York to sup {
port more theatres and places of I
than the cities of London, a
Paris and Berlin combined" was the 7
Keynote Of Mr.. Hayman's views on
he subject. Managers and capital a
sts are going theatre mad. A halt p
hould be called, or colossal amount '
II money will be lost" Then the b
manager went on to explain that the b
upply Of theatres and theatrical at v
was far greater than the de- t
nand, and that II steps were not TAX p
n some of the houses would be d
orced to close their doors-or even t,
1orse. 10
''It Is easy to get money to build a O
heatre." he went on. "but it requires p
n attraction to keep a theatre open. ii
here are not nearly enough theatre Il
oers in New York by many thou Il
ands," he continued, ''to fill all the b
heatres and places of amusement d
ow running. But almost more than cl
nat, If the population were great 81
nough. the scarcity of capable actors 81
nd actresses would keep things prac- b.
cally as bad" II
Now. OF course, that kind of talk Il
NJ ALI the mana cors in a vary r1oae
ut mood. It was nice easy sort of a,
lartyr-like feeling, with lots Of 9TH B
s in the same boat, and so 1t wasn't fo
ard at all. And they all agreed that vi
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