The Topeka state journal., 1919-10-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
ERBDERIc~y. HAaKIN. Diroea'
wazhiagtaa. d G

| . New York, Oct BID like to see
that show, but won't pay any such
price!"
This is the remark that you hear
| everywhere along Broadway these
| days. 1t rises in an almost continuous
refrain from the passing multitude,
as it hesitates before the theaters, gaz-
| ing longingly at the posters But II
| is a complaint and not an ultlnatum.
| Few really mean it, as the line berore
| the box office shows.
| The theatergoing public has never
| been more theatergoing than at pres
/ emit Never has there been more
prosperous theatrical season. Never
| have there been more appreclatlVe
! audiences Never have there been SO
many ticket brokers. Deprived or
theatrical entertainment during an en-
! tire month BECAUSE of the actors
! strike, people, seem to be doing all
they can to make up for lost time. 1t
! is not unusual now for house 20
1 have most of its seats bought out a
| week in advance by hotels and theater
| ticket agencies. The other night four
| theaters within radius or rev
+ blocks had nothing left but standing
| room when the box offices opened in
| the evening
A trip to the nearby ticket agencies
! showed them to be equally barren OF
| tickets for that evening, A few were
/
hits, which are soon to leave New
York and these were gratefully ac-
| cepted at a 50-cent premium by the
/ people who jostled and crowded each
! other in the doorway.
! This suddeE tremendous popularity
| of the theater prevails in nearly all OF
| our large cities. One woman ticket
| agent in Chicago is making $4,000
week thru the sale of seats on the 30
| cent premium basis.
/ 1t is a welI-known fact, moreover,
discussed with some anxiety by the
theater managers, that some of the
New York ticket brokers are getting
! away with huge commissions, every
time the opportunity presents itself.
There is a law which provides that
ticket scalpers are prohibited from
charging more than fifty cents in ex-
cess of the box office price of a ticket
and notice to this effect is printed on
the back of every ticket, but this law
| appears to be broken regularly
! During General Pershing's visit and
while the World Series was being
played the city was unusually crowd
ed and the demand for theater tickets
was so much larger than the supply
| that SIS was not at ali a high price to
pay for a seat in the balcony.
In view of these things, it scarcely
seems possible that last summer much
fear was being expressed concerning
the fate of the theateE Then all the
managers <were complaining how the
movies were running their business,
and if it wasn't the movies, 1T was pro-
Inhibition. More things were found
which were hurting the theater than
were ever known to hurt any other
one institutions. Then the strike came
along and actually did hurt it, and it
has been getting along famously ever
since.
| possiI,Iv +biS-aecounfs for the IA ct
that the managers can now talk with
good-na tured tolerance Of those har-
rowing days when twenty-four of the
leading Manhattan playheuses were
closed, and when several theaters
were losing $75O.000 a week each.
mana gers with much the same ten
der humor that man feels for some
! boogaboo of his boyhood. After
hearing them discuss it, you would
think that the strike was an affair of
their own invention, designed to bring
about the present era of prosperity:
THE strike was practically a fail
ure as far as the actors were con-
cerned," declared the manager of a
! Broadway theater the other night.
| five=year contract and an open shop.
| We can hire as many non-union
| members as we want to-
| What about the extra pay for hoIi-
days and rehearsals?' - inquired the
reporter.
'"rhe majority of the producing
7 managers were already making such
payments" replied the manager.
"Only one large producing firm was
| affected by this feature, so far as
Upon only one phase of the strike
are the managers still sensitive, and
that is the money they. lost thru it.
The profits they are making now do
not begin to cover those lost during
the month of August, they assert. y
The actors are also cheerful about
the results of the strike. They, too,
i are firmly convinced that they won
| 1t-that they got what they wanted.
| According to them, the chief issue in
volved was the recognition of the
Actors Equity association as the Of
| ficia1 representative of the actors by
the Producing Managers association
This issue the actors won. Every day
or SO the two associations meet
anica bly, and settle various compli-
GATED contract eases handed down
from the strike days.
At first, this was the only issue
| The Actors Equity association wanted
the producing mana gers to recognize
/ the Equity contract, calling for extra
pay for extra performances, given on
Sundays and holidays. The managers
refused on the grounds that the
Equity represented only a few of the
Is~NeSAS eNAAo all OSHGEs L ll6 Equity
promptly showed its Importance by
calling out its members from theaters
which did net have Equity contra cts.
| strike was on. Much to its own
surprise. the Equity, instead of losing
| in popularity by this action, was i'm
mediately flooded with applications
for membership. In the first week
of the strike, hundreds of new mem
beFs deserted the theaters forN its
cause, and then the chorus stampeded.
The A, Il. A. had not BEEN con-
eeFned with the problems of the
| chorus. Tt had few chorus members.
But it courageousIy determined to
make the chorus troubles its own,
now that a general rebellion had been
pTecipitated. A minimum salary OF
$a5 a week and clause requiring