The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-08
THEATRE SEATS
 ID BE CHEAPER Financial Returns Will Be
 Increased NEW YORK CONDITION Some Women Song Birds Are Very Winthrop AtnaS fo R1ild
NEW YORK CONDITION
Some Women Song Birds Are Very Vain-Winthrop Ames to Build ''The Little Theatre
 Doctors as Actors
By JAMES GRANT rHuRsToN


 sight. No less an authority than John Cort, one of the best known theatrical
 producers in the country. is authority for
 this prediction. He declares that s1.50 in-
 stead of S2.5o must before long be the
 standard price for the ''best seats' in the | best show houses.
 Why is this? It's business pure and sim
 pie. MT. Cort believes that theatre owners will find they can do more business in dol
 lars and cents at the lower rate. He says.
 With the exception of New York, where 1 there has been an unprecedented number l of successes-1S-this is one of the worst
 show years in the history of the theatrical | business Wherever I go I get new eS- planation for the condition. In one place
 I am told that the movies have killed the show business. in another that the auto
 mobile Is responsible for the decline in the
 box office receipts in another that the l crops are bad, or that it's the year before | a presidential election. T do not place much reliance in any of 1 these explanations. For. in the northwest | the crops are fine. At the bankers con- vention, held in New Orleans a few days ago, it was reported that there is more | money on deposit throughout the country | than dl any OlfeI llIfle III lilt idSl lNS | years. It seems to me that the whole country is waiting for something to hap pen What that something is no one | seems to know. 1t is just sense of un- | easiness, a feeling that something may l turn up that will affect the money mar lSet."
 "But why doesn't this uneasiness affect l the New York theatres?" MT Cort was asked
 | tray TO supported chiefly by the visitors. A man I does not go to New York unless he has a certain amount of money to spend. New York will always be a good show town | so long as there are good shows, regard- | less of the financial conditions. It so hap | pens that this season we have an ususual- | ly meritorious group of theatrical enter tainments on Broadway, and the public finding what it wants, patronizes liber- ally.''
 MT. Cort, in addition to his position as president of the National Theatre Man- agers' association, controls the destinies of 125 theatres in the northwest, owns tke Cort theatres in San Francisco and Chi- cago. and by the first of next october will have his own playhouse on Long Acre Square, New York. And if this theatrical
 magnate has the courage of his convic-
 tions and puts the sl.50 scale of prices into
 
 popular movement which other mana
 gers cannot afford to disregard. "Yes, l am familiar with the arguments which have been advanced by some theat- rical managers in New York this season that prices should be advanced instead Of being reduced" said MT. Cort, but that | in my opinion, would be suicidal Person- ally, don't believe there are five shows | ill the United States today that are worth l g a seat. It would be a much easier task | to name 100 which are not worth p cents | than to select the five worth g I think that 50 cents for gallery seats. 75 cents and $l for the balcony, $l.50 for the orchestra and g for the box seats is a sufficiently high scale for any theatrical l amusement except offerings where an ex- ceptional amount of money has been in- vested in scenic display.
 Tt is true that the competition of vau- devlle has almost doubled the salaries of the most gifted men and women on the stage and the cost of scenery, of stage hands, of orchestras and of printing has all advanced enormously within the last five years or six years. And yetgl believe that the producers will find that the box office receipts at a s1.50 scale will exceed the present revenue under the S2 scale.
 "Of course there is another element
 to be considered-the very much upstage star who will contend that 1t Is a reflec- ton on his ability to play to less than g houses But this is an absurd prejudice, which can be overthrown as soon as one or two level headed actors and actresses set an example of sanity by dsregarding such nonsensical ideas.
 M Gatti-Casazza. the manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, was talking
 about famous song birds.
 "These women, as a rule, are modest, he said; "but now and then we meet a song bird of the inordinate vanity. Tn Milan. in the Arcade, I chanced one afternoon upon a song bird of the vain type, and she asked me how I had liked her performance the evening before.
 "'It was superb, perfect said.
 "she beamed with such delight that, to please her still more, l added: Ut was divine--lil<e an angels song. <"Rut at that she hit her lip.
 "-I don't see any need she said, with an annoyed air, of dragging in the angel.
 Winthrop Ames has at last informed -Nhe public of his plans concerning the doi like playhouse which he is to erect in Forty-fourth street. an outlet for those activities which he was forced to curb when the New theatre was abandoned py it's millionaire patrons MT. Ames pace of entertainment is to be called "The Lit tie theatre" There will be no gallery or balcony and the seating capacity Will De about 90o. At the matinees tea will be
 served in the evenings coffee--in 'tne lounge" which is to be located below the auditorium Among tho plays to be pre- scented the first season are Euripldes ..Electrai with Edna Wynne MattJlsoi in the title role: ''The Pigeon.' new comedy by John Galsworthy, author Of | strife and Justice" a new play by Charles Ram Kennedy. author of 'The Servant in the House." and a new play by John T. Hayes an unknown Ameri- can author.
 MT Ainss. who was the director of the New theatre, has secured the services or George Foster Platt as his stage manager, and F. F. Lyon as his treasurer, poth l having been associated with him Tn siri- liar capacities at the Central playhouse.
 The price of tickets will be S2'e | Doesn't factoring pay in England? Sir Conan Doyle used to be doctor. but he l quit to be playwright and novelist. w. Somerset Maugham also practiced medi-
 cine for while and then took to writing
 plays. And now here is C. Aubrey smith. | He is Miss Billie Burke's leading man this
 season in sTrhe Runaway He is Cam
 bridge university man and studied medi- cine but instead of sticking out his | shnele he went on the stage
 | Here Is a long distance record, indeat- ling at least amiablity and perhaps ever. | sterner virtues; in career of 1s years
 as star. John Drew has only had four Heading ladies-Naude Adams, Ida Con ouest. Margaret Dale and Mary Boland 1,,,iet Sholhvs shol1derine many of the