New-York tribune., 1922-09-10
Americans the
Best Audience
In the w DrId
European Theatrical Taste
rs Morbid, While Ours
IL a Wholesome One
By Forrest Davis

by producers home from buying trips
abroad, should bring q thrill Of honest
pride to the heart Of every 100 per cent
American.
1t comes opportuneiy, at moment
when our national esteem has grown
different under the barbs and shafts
Of the young intellectuals. They have
been deriding claims to pre-eminence
based on tallest buildings, fattest
banks and cheapest automobiles SO
earnestly that we have lost some of
our faith In such symbols. The word
that we have achieved first place in one
of the departments of finer endeavor
should cheer even the youngest intel
lectuals.
Moreover, 1t has brought a dash Of
the red-blooded spirit of competition
into an activity that is subject on the
one hand to the anamia of art and on
the other to the corpulency of COM
mercialism.
Henceforward when we wish to i'm
press visitors from overseas we shall
escort them to the gilded halls of
Broadway. II they express desire
to go up in the Woolworth tower we
shall take them firmly by the arm and
to see Mr.. Ziegfeld enameled pa
a - Joo Jo,o
heartily, ais the First Theater in the
world.p II they incline toward view
of Wall Street we shall bundle them
into one of Mr.. Belasco's playhouses,
where, under the spell of his methodist
patterns, they will be almost certain
to yield awed Difference. Or should
they banker to go to the Polo Grounds
we shall deftly sidetrack them to
George NJ. Cohan production. There
the stranger will feel the warm flow
of our spirit and be able to salute the
flag at one and the same performance.
Let no skeptic regard the fact that
the wallets of the Homecoming i'm
presarii were stuffed with manuscripts
and performers contracts as diminish
ing the verify of their utterance.
Those papers, viewed rightly, are but
testaments to the symmetry of our
priority. If we have native lacks, as in
the item of plays suitable for adults,
we are ready to fill them by liberal
purchases in other countries.
Manners and Morals
OF European Theatex
But the returned entrepreneurs have.
not, in my opinion, told the whole story
of the premierity Of our theater. They
have said nothing OF the relative worth
of audiences in the Old and New
Worlds. Therefore I propose, as
playgoer who has paid his money at
box Offices in q half dozen capitals
within the last season, to supplement
that our First Theater is attended by
the First Audience in the World.
European theater congregations are,
it seems to me, subordinate to our own
on several counts. They are 1) less
polite than ours, (2) more professional,
to customs in dress, 60 more morbid
and less solicitous about maintaining
the stage on it's highest and best plane.
To put my observations in another
way; European audiences sometimes
hiss when they are displeased, they in
sist somewhat obstinately on their
moneys worth, they stand conserva-
lively by old favorites, they eat and
drink liquor in their playhouses, they
wear formal dress more uniformly than
we do, and they are more given to
somber plays, highbrow drama with
sad endings and sex.
The difference between the American
and the European begins with the ap-
proach. Your Englishman, for in
stance, buys tickets thoughtfully as an
investment, and he demands fair re-
turn. Moreover, he clings to the habit
Of buying them at the box Office in
stead of at spectators. If disap
pointment is his portion he is resent
full and may, if sufficiently outraged,
demonstrate his feeling audibly.
Americans have more of the am
ateurish spirit. We are wont to flip
coin for the choice of the show, and
we go hopefully and in no exacting
spirit. If the show is funny we laugh
and clap cur hands; if it is pathetic we
snuffle and applaud, and if it is OBJ
tuse and heavy we are bored and silent.
We do not expect too much because
we have taken chance, and if we are
let down we console ourselves with the
gamblers "better luck next time" We
are entirely too well-bred or uncon-
eerned to hiss even under extreme
duress.
In our relations to actors and ac-
tresses we are also more amateurish
and free hearted. I have seen prime
donne In Berlin who have just won
their way into the public's graces at
&sirty. They have begun to bulge with
middle age. although they have trained
voices and are well practiced in their
trade. In. Paris, Of course, youth, If
beautiful, has an early day in the
theater, but even there we find a
calculating selectiyeness which de-