Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-22
RUNNING A THEATER
Continued from page 9

such failures in town, and the average weekly
business is riddled. As matter of fact, the
average gross of New York theaters for a
season is 800 week.
From such PLAYS even deadheads remain
away. 1t may be asked, How DOES a man.
ager with a fixed weekly charge of $1,000
protect himself from loss when the play is
not his own production? He insists upon a
guaranty from the other management that
the theater's share shall not be less for each
week than a stipulated sum; and sometimes
bonds are necessary, or cash deposit, be-
fore the play opens. On the road many thea
tiers demand the fist $500 outright, which is
practically their rent, and then the touring
company shares according to contract.
At the outset of season of thirty weeks
with a New York theater, the producing
manager faces an expenditure of at least
S15O,0O0, not including the cost of scenery,
ETC., and he cannot tell whether the goods
he expects to display are going to find
ready sale or not. The public is tickle, and
women make successful play Need we
say any more? And, when we look back,
one manager in past season produced II
consecutive failures, some of them so bad
that they lasted only performance or two.
Now, as there are about 20 first class thea
tiers in New York, the weekly fixed charges
are at a low estimate, 100000, and the sea-
son S liabilities over three millions of dollars
Add to this all the theaters in the country
there are said to be 5000 of all grades-and
the figures mount up to where the average
person cannot decipher them at all.
For vaudeville houses rents may be the
same; but other expenses are lower. In
popular priced houses the entire scale of
expense is on lower basis. A theater well
managed is upon the same line as any other
antarDrice -1ova1tv and ,,no,, tho
part of all employees, economy and clean
illness, straightforward dealing and keeping
faith with the public.
One element in running a theater most
difficult to control is the deadhead evil.
Technically, the only people who are legiti-
mately entitled to the courteses of the thea
ter are accredited representatives of the
press, those who are in the business, and
members of the theatrical profession. But all
sorts and conditions of people claim passes.
And once a deadhead always a deadhead
Recently one theatrical firm announced that
all courtesies would be refused at their
theaters throughout the country. The al
legged cause was that many of the business
managers and other employees were wearing
raiment far beyond their fixed salaries and
that they must be making something on the
side out of passes; also that grocery bills
were being paid for out of passes
Another trouble for the theatrical man.
ager is the automobile craze. Not only do
thousands of people own cars who have no
economic right to own them, but even in the
case of those who have, so long as the
weather remains mild and fine the car takes
the theater seeker off to country clubs and
roadhOuses. And then those who own the
cars and should not are forced to economize
in some direction, and naturally all other
amusement sources suffer.
After all is If a "D1,Si