New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-12-07
Charles Cherry Explains
What Has Happened to
''Dressed-Up'' Playgoers

There are still a few we'll dressed
men in New York. But the many imi
tators of E. Berry Wall, famous for
their smart clothes, their authority on
what to wear and when to wear it, men
who were always seen at the first nights
in the theaters, have passed out of the
night life picture of New York. There
distinguish an audience at the premiers
or lend color to the smart restaurants
after the play.
What has become of this side of New
York? This question is often heard in
the lobby of the theater when the pro-
fessional frst-nghters foregather to
discuss the play
There are several reasons for this
condition. The dinner jacket began to
be novelty in New York long before
the war, but after this country mobil-
lied its forces and the Federal govern
ment began to conserve men and ma
terials, when it was for the rich alone
to have sugar in their coffee, then the
dinner jacket was considered un-
patriotic, a symbol of anti-American-
ism, and its popularity has been on the
wane ever since. With the country
raising billions of dollars to clothe and
equip the fighting forces, and with the
industrial army at home making all
sorts of personal sacrifices for the
boys in France, fashions had no place
in the lives Of real Americans.
AS for the theater, there is still an
other perfectly good alibi for the abb
sence of the we'll dressed man. Charles
Cherry, who plays the principal male
role in Scandal" at the Thirty
Street Iheater, is competent to talk
on this subject.
theater audiences to-day are more
democratic than ever" explained this
mold of fashion. Zone of the princi-
pal reasons for this lies in the fact
that the theater in this country has
developed so rapidly in the last few
years that it has outgrown the here
tofore small society patronage, the
class that made up the audiences of
most of the plays on Broadway But
nowadays nearly every one has the
money to go to the theater, and they
do go, with the result that the man
ayers have expanded their business,
punt more theaters, produced two or
enree times as many plays as before,
and now the conservative element is
swallowed up in the cosmopolitan
stream that flows into the theatres.
Ten years ago New York boasted
OF ten or fifteen theatres. Then the
aver gong was an event, pastime for
the rich to enjoy, and the theater one
Of the show places Of the city. But
today, with fifty or sixty frst-class
theaters to select from society, when
1t is spread out over all the theaters
does not make much of a showing in
| any one playhouse. / would not like
to think that New York, the greatest
city in the world, with all its wealth
its great institutions for learning and
its appreciation and support Of art, was
going back in the little amenities, the
graces that distinguish good breeding
and culture from the ill-bred and igno-
rant.
To-day people are earning and learn
ing and think in another generation
New York will again pay attention to
the little things that reflect the finer
things in life as we'll as the material
istic things. New York is to-day the
greatest business and financial center
in the world and within its gates more
people make their home than in any
other city. When the people slow up
little in their pursuit Of gold then
will we have New York Of both wealth
and refinement"