The New York herald., 1921-12-18
By LAWRENCE REAMER.


- o far there has been no actual step in
the direction Of a theatre censorship
~ taken by representatives of the law
who believe that the actions of the theatre
managers need to be held in some SORT of a
check if the decency of the theatre in this
country is to be maintained. Nor, for that
matter, has anybody outside the law, as yet,
taken any measures to bring such measure
before the public and thus eventually before
the legislative bodies that would make such
a measure a legal restraint on the managers.
"As yet" is the qualifying phrase which
describes the present security of the impre-
sarios Nobody has taken any step to bring
about the existence of a theatre censorship.
But the subject is in the air. 1t is discussed
whenever a manager is told to bring TO an
end the performances of a dirty play or
there is the threat that theatre license may
be revoked unless. the producer of some
especially rancid farce causes its representa-
tons to cease.
The censorship of the moving pictures has
naturally turned the thoughts of the public
to the stage, which in this particular season
has been frequently accused of flagrantly
violating the laws of dramatic decency.
of in more than one official quarter
Comes to the Fore This Year
In Effort to Fill Theatres
1t is enough for the managers, of course,
that the scheme has been discussed as the
possible remedy for condition which came
into existence through their own fault. If
the subject has been more in the air this
year than ever before, it's prevalence was
7,,a tha aff ma oprc
have been compelled to make to interest the
public in the theatre.
Following the eXtravagant, thoughteSS
orgy of money spending which came during
the last two years of the and for year
after the armstice, the theatres prospered as
they rarely had before All sorts of inferior
plays met with sufficient success 10 lead
their managers to the belief that anything
would go" In the sober reaction to
period of economy these pieces went and,
for that matter, so did many others that
may have deserved a better fate 1t simply
happened that the public, full up with thea
tregoing which was not nearly so good as 1t
might have been, began to keep away from
the playhouses.
To this day it takes unusual merit to fill
a theatre. There are plays that enjoy
weekly a degree of financial success that
would have seemed impossible decade ago.
sally" 1.-THE Music Box Review" Good
Morning, Dearie" THE Circle" and few
others are able to get 81 and So ticket on
Saturdays, and the weekly receipts hover
in the neighborhood of $4,000. This does
not indicate that the public has given up all
plays or that only frivolous ones are prov
ing attractive, for Sothern and Marlowe
played at the Century Theatre to receipts
that exceeded $4,000 at the Saturday natl
nees alone.
But only the best are making any such
appeal to the public. The managers seeking
to arouse theatregoers from their apparent
apathy, have been seeking to find something
stimulating to a jaded appetite. The COM
mon denominator in this country-the one
element common to all the nations that
make up the great American public from
which the theatre must live-is, in the opin-
ion of every theatre manager, sex. If he
can get play with a strong appeal to sex
it will bring in every division of the public.
The stronger he makes the sex appeal the
greater are his chances of permanent sue
cess.