Evening star., 1932-01-17
NOW A NEW
TICKET TAX
By Percy Ham m ond.

n have dullcu W OlIcCb Jul
thoughts to the more melan-
choly aspects of existence. This is as
it should be in time when we are in
clined to view life as just bowl Of
cherries and to follow the counsel of
that immortal rhyme In Mr.. Whites
Scandals:
Don't take it serious.
It's too mysterious.
Last weeks product was particularly
fraught with sadness, including as it
did some of the most pensive notes that
were ever poured through the dramas S
mellow bugle. Thus:
Lost Boy"-An uneven essay in ju-
venile penology, illustrating the tragic
fate of an honest lad who, prosecuted
by the law, turns homicidal and wreaks
an awful vengeance The boy is acted
by Elisha Cook, jr, with q fine appre-
citation OF his faults and virtues; and,
although the play is q wabbler in many
of its scenes, it moves playgoers to
temporary reflection If not to activity
against the wrong it indicts.
Never No More"-In this you may
see a troupe of Negro players in the
most faithful acting afforded by the
Broadway theaters. They represent a
family of colored cotton -pickerS, the
happiness of whose lives is destroyed
by the lust of its blacksheep member
for q white girl. He kills his victim
and is burned to death in an off-stage
scene full of linked horrors, long drawn
out. The play, by James Knox Mil
len, is written with fidelity to character
and speech, and you can believe what
1t tells, whether you like it or not.
QQnQfp-
nous melodrama, exhibiting an oily
lunatic in abnormal displays of mur-
der. Among the alterations OF this
miscreant is the belief that he Is a
sculptor, working in new medium. He
snares models to his mysterious man
sion on the Hudson, and there plies
them with petrifying fluids and freezes
them to alabaster. Walter Kingsford
imperSonates the maniac embalmer
with gracious urbanity, and all he lacks
is squeaking shoes.
Mr.. Melons proposal to fatten the
Nations depleted exchequer from the
lean cupboard of the theater provokeS
passionate objections from the produc-
ers. Already barefoot and out-at- elbows,
the stage, they say, needs aims, not
disbursements, and that If 1t is to
carry on in it's errand of edification 1t
must be exempt from any further tolls.
1t is said that an extension OF the
ticket tax to include admissions costing
50 and less will retard the devotions
of drama-lovers and may force them TO
seek soIace at other less worthy shrines.
The idea that the drama is an extrav-
agance and, therefore, should be penal
lied by burdensome assessments Is
held by the managers to be an error
in economics. Tt is necessity, they
contend. and its uses should be en-
couraged rather than impeded.
X
Since the theater has few friends
among the statesmen it is improbable
that Broadway's prayer will fall upon
sympathetic ears. Although its own
charities are willing and numerous
they are often forgot when 1t asks a
favor for itself. Like Timon of Athens
it was born to do benefits" and it
does them. So it seems that in these
gray DAYS of it's own penury the stage
should find its cakes returning on the
waters Of gratefulness, and be excluded
from the hardships of cumbersome
tithes. AS an amateur student OF the
dramas finances I do not believe that
Mr. Melons proposed exactions Will
deter many playgoers from going to
plays. They may lament the veraclty
of the ticket brokers, but seldom do
they complain about the 10 per cent
irnpost Of the Federal Government.
The patrons of entertainments such as
Mr. Wynns 1.-THE Laugh Parade" Mr..
Carroll's "Vanities," Miss Cornell's
The Barretts of Wimpole Street" "
Messrs. Ryskind and Kaufman's "Of
Thee I Sing" or Mr.. Selwyn's "The
Devil Passes" pay the prescribed
bounty without objection and presum-
ably without depriving themselves OF
any of the other necessities OF life.
he does not mind the extra so cents,
and if he invests in a bad one he is
consoled by the fact that he has con-
tributed mite TO his. needy Nation.
But Mr.. Brady, Mr.. Hopkins and their
embattled associates are reasonable
men. They know more about 1t than
I do, and when they rise up in oppoSl-
ton to what they believe to be hurt
full embargo, I Withdraw my super
fetal impressions Still, ever desirouS
to be constructive, I submit sugges-
ton. It is known that the drama is
powerful in propaganda, and that 1t
can reform abuses by the exercise OF
its strength. Why not, then, nave
tragedy constructed, setting forth the
i'll that overhangs the play houses, and
warning the legislators that If they do
not desist in their prosecutions the art
will have an unhappy ending. Such
an exhibition, if performed by Miss
Anglin and Mr.. Hampden, for instance,
on the steps of the Capitol before an
audience Of the lawmakers, might save
the institution from its impending
disaster