Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-12

ficient number Of locally managed, inde-
pendently conducted houses at strategic points
to take care OF the good plays and the
tablished stars, and to ignore all others. 1t
is useless to expect such houses in all towns.
There would not be enough good productions
to fill them If they existed But hundred
such houses across the country with the
larger cities supplying 90 per cent of the
booking. could insure highly profitable season
tours to all really Legitimate" attractions,
and nobody would talk about the road being
dead. And 1t is coming, perhaps faster than
think.
A MOTHER thing the poor old theater will
have to get over besides its idea that
any old play tossed any old way on to the
stage, is good enough for the hicks, is the
idea that there Is some magic superiority in
its Legitimacy" The public, especially the
younger public, doesn't draw any hard-and-
fast distinctions between legitimacy and it's
opposite 1t regards theater-going as form
of entertainment. whether furnished by living
actors or their photographs, and it looks for
what it thinks will give the most entertain
ment for the money spent
Whatever you and think of the movies"
we cannot deny that the people in the smallest
town can and do see the very same players, the
very same productions (minus, maybe a SYM
phony orchestra and a ballet between filns)
which are visible in the largest cities The very
best acting, the very best screen drama to be
witnessed, are available everywhere-at least
those Of American manufacture are And thew
are available for much less money than the
spoken drama, much more frequently and gem
orally under far more satisfactory physical con-
ditions. The theater is cleaner and newer the
seats are more comfortable, the ushers are
more courteous, and so on
AS result OF all this the people of the whole
country have developed instructive sense of
competence to play presentation. don't say
the masses have developed a sense of COM
petence in the higher reaches of play writing,
for that would not be true. But in the matter
of dramatic surface, at least, and in the matter
OF acting, setting and the projection of vivid
personalities the masses of Americans have
been taught by the movies" to know the good
from the bad. Not only have the movies" long
since killed entirely the time "ten-twenty-
thirty cent" melodramas, like Nellie the
Beautiful Cloak Model" which Owen Davis and
his school used to write, but the "talkies" have
now made it virtually impossible for poor and
incompetent second and third companies to
survive on the road.
AS between cheap road company acting a
f1imsy comedy with first-rate players
couldn't make q real success on Broadway and
a movie produced by a Clarence Brown let us
say. with vivid personalities to project all the
leading roles, who wouldn't choose the "movie?"
The more, of course, because he could probably
see 1t cheaper in much cleaner and more
comfortable theater, and at his own time
ater is up against the road is the stiffest
sort Of competition-not with a second rate
product, but with q hrSt-rate product-With the
very best America has to offer on the screen
1t can meet this competition only by giving it's
own best. not its second best, and most assuredIy
not its worSt-which in the past it has too often
tried to foist upon the provinces And it can
meet this competition intelligently only if 1t
knows what 1t has to offer that is different
from the movies" and that knowledge will
inevitably lead to a knowledge of what kind Of
people to appeal TO. and how to appeal to them.
II the theater producers were wise, if they
even attempted to run their business on busi-
ness principles, they would have insisted long
ago that all the theaters they control on the
road keep q list Of regular patrons and know
exactly what sort Of plays they come to; even
now they would make q careful survey Of all the
companies on tour IN the last two or three
years. to ascertain receipts, town by town. In
those towns which showed q profit with some
consistency the local theaters would be con.
sidered. the type Of local manager the nature
Of local civic support. Still more, perhaps the
survey would extend into the amateur dramatic
activities Of the town or community TO determine
how far such activities promote an interest in
the professional drama.
Tor instance, II years ago Sam French didn't
even bother to send his amateur play
catalogues to North Carolina because interest
in the theater IN that State was virtually ex.
tinct. Today, thanks to the work at the State
University, every high school has its dramatic
club the university players tour the State with
plays about local life, and Paul Green has
arisen. 1t certainly seems highly likely that
there is q connection between all this and the
fact that Miss Barrymore drew her second most
profitable audience in this State and Strange
Interlude' did large business there
Both "Interlude" and Miss Barrymore drew
huge receipts in certain cities of Texas in
Oklahoma City and in Memphis In all these
places there are hourShing Little TheaterS
which have enlisted civic interest, or there are