The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-10
few ROAD SHOWS
War Still Shows Effects on the
Touring Productions.
Are Fewer Theaters for Them
to Show in Now.
T0nFVEEEO uIuT aFr nrQT
TOPEKANS WILL SEE BEST
Useless to $50 East for Con-
tracts" Says Crawford.
Agencies Know Conditions
Grand Must Take What Comes.

It is useless to make any trip east
to book shows.
One night stand shows are becom-
ing scarcer and scarcer.
II a show is coming to Topeka it
viii come. If it won't it won't.
In those three short pithy para
graphs, Roy Crawford summed up the
prospects for the coming theater sea-
son for the patrons of the Grand. He
leaves for his annual vacation in Los
Angeles next week and there is small
prospect of there being any activity
in the bookings here until his return
several weeks hence
The booking agencies know more
about the drawing power OF show in
Topeka, than the Topeka managers,
according to Crawford If they be-
I1eYe that the show will pay here and
If their routing permits. they inform
the local managers what date they
can show in Topeka and forward
contract. If their routing is not con-
venient, no matter if they know they
could pack the Grand for two per-
formances, all the personal visits and
kilograms in the world won't move
them, the show shows somewhere else.
Tho Bookies Know.
"a mighty good instance of this was
last winter when the Wichita theater
wanted Guy Bates Post" said Craw-
ford The route and other conditions
were right for Topeka, but while the
Post managers knew they could make
money in Wichita. declared the town
was off their route, and besides they
had to cover the western territory in a
certain length of time. Every effort
10 book Post for Wichita theater-g oers
was in vain
Every booking house in the country
has records of the Topeka business for
the past ten years. They know the
number of tickets sold for each show.
what kind of weather, the financial
condition of the territory for that
period. politics, conventions and other
attractions in the city and of course
the real worth of the production itself
as shown by the seasons records in
other cities. OF course they go wrong
sometimes but as nearly as anyone
can predict in advance the boOkies are
hep every minute.
War Still With Us.
The war is still playing hob with
the one night stand shows, according
to Crawford During the war, trans
portation. finance and actors enlist
ing, ct cetera, cut down the road COM
panies to the extent that the theater
managers quit. Their places are now
either pictures houses or vaudeville
houses and have no accommodations
for one night stand companies. They
do not want them.
Fort Worth, Dallas, Oklahoma City
and several other of the larger south
ern and southwestern cities are now
in this condition. In these places the
Interstate Exchange, the western
vaudeville circuit, has taken over the
theaters that used to be combination
picture and one night stand houses.
When Al Fields minstrel show hit
Fort Worth last season, he had to
build his own stage and put his own
scenery into the city auditorium in or
der to be able to show in the town.
With fewer road shows on the road
because there are fewer houses where
they can show. Topekans will find
that the coming season viii e
booked up with the higher class of
productions which will play more than
one performance