Evening star., 1914-05-03
Drawings by Hy Mayer

1
managers If We commercial man
aeers what would be the fate OF
"art" nlanasero Would he be expected to
produce all the plays of a thousand unrecog- ~
nized geniuses? Would he be expected to tast
make stars out OF all the and actresses 80
that the public decides it does not care to " ~
patronze in stellar roleS2 Would ne be ex-
pected to do his work in velvetdraped y
studio, instead Of in office, and would u ,
the walls of his place OF business have to be lIL
decorated with college diplonaso w
1t is difficult for US to conquer in the strug- In
gle for the survival not only Of the fittest, N 4
but Of the wisest. Where would the art " "
manager be at the end OF his first season i u
if he managed to begin regular season -
at all? ;
Nobody thinks it at all out of the way
that publishers, booksellers, and art dealers
should be men of affairs. But the theatrical
manager is ridiculed because he takes all the -
precautions possible to conserve his property -
and make some money in essentially spec
ulative business.
The manager is really the most uncom w
mercial of men, the obsessed by his
in plays and players that he takes continual
chances in form of enterprise that any truly COM
mercial would reject at a glance.
The aim of this article is not to attack those whose
genius and cooperation essential to the theater
as the activity of the manager himself but simply to
throw light the situation and to make argu
ment for fair play The who truly commercial
commercalism down to science, matter how much
they talk of their art and how much real art they
be responsible for. They take chances. They play
the game only to win and never to lose-whch IS real
cornmercal1Sn.
However rich the actor nav be- he will generally
fuse any risk exploit himself for he knows just how
great the risk is and has not enough confidence in HIM
self take the plunge. Yet the manager is taking
risks for hin-al the time!
Authors much the in this respect; although
heIru
seldom take the chance Of producing their plays;
for they also lack confidence when it to spending
their money. The actor well as the author
undertakes to himself to the managers by pre-
tending to be modest, by asserting that he does not
sufficiently understand the business But he actually
knows every inch of the business and knows it better
than ANYBODY else. He will take chances on him
self or his hat is why there times
rich actors and authors than rich managers.
EVIDENTLY the public does not appreciate the fact
= that actors and authors may grow rich on produc-
tons that leave manager in debt. But such IS the
case. So long the production continues, the actor
gets his salary regardless OF the income at the boxoce
and the author gets his percentage of the not
of the net! If drama by some noted author plays to
a gross business of thousand dollars week
New York City, and this author-being noted man
is getting the high royalty of per cent the result
will be as follows: The manager of the theater will get
thirtyve hundred dollars, half of the gross and the
producing manager will get the other thirty five hun
dred but of his share the producing manager will
have to pay the author hundred dollars, ten
per OF. the total In other words the producing
manager pays the royalty without the aid of the theter
manager ALL but that royalty is based the income
Of both house and company After paying this royalty
the producing manager will have just twentv-eight
hundred dollars left, which would be decidedly insuf-
cient the payroll Of first-cass company
gether with such expenses advertising, billing print
ing, orchestra, and managerial staff.
Another point must be considered The producing
manager doesn't hcoin make real profit until he