Evening star., 1932-07-10
CLEVELAND FAILS
IN PLAN FOR OPERA
Civic Stadium Remains White
Elephant as Crowds
Stay at Home.
speeial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The star.
CLEVELAND. July 9 (N.A-N.A) -
The dificulties of injecting taste for
SUMMER opera into Clevelands masses
have been added to the troubled and
expensive history Of the $3.000000 sta
dium on Lake Erie, one of the few mu-
nicipally-owned stadiun1s in the coun-
try.
Few events have been held there and
almost none has drawn enough specta-
tors to pay expenses.
Just now the proposed occupation Of
the stadium by the Indians, the city S
gift to the American League, has been
complicated by council failure to au-
thorize a lease in time for the sched-
uled opening, July 81. The base pall
mana cement said it will not consider
occupation again this year, although 1t
IS showing signs of wavering.
If it does, part Of the problem will be
solved even II it will not solye the bit
ter debate over responsibility in City
Council.
Outlook Was Pleasing.
In this atmosphere the Summer
opera company went into the stadium
for an eight-night season. On paper
the project. was interesting, ambitious,
and looked like duck soup for the group
OF cultural-minded people who back the
city's growing number of institutions
devoted to the arts.
There were cheap tickets, ranking
from IS cents to 81, the promise OF the
first outdoor opera appearance of Mary
Garden. the promise of the first staging
of a new opera Tom Tom" described
as an epic of the progress Of the Negro
race, with all-NegTo choruses and Jules
Bledsoe to sing the role Of the voodoo
man.
The operas went off well. Mary
Garden acted Carmen as spiritedly as
in her hey-day, the triumphal march OF
Aida was master pageantry and audi
ences were excited as the Negro singers
and dancers took hold of the story OF
their race, chanted ancient rhythms,
shouted newer blues.
The only thing wrong was failure OF
crowds to appear.
Attendance Limited.
Twenty thousand seats had been al
Iotted as probably needed. (The sta
dunn can seat Ito, 900 at capacity, al
though only 1919 seats are perma-
nent.) At no performance did the at
tendance exceed $4,000 or $4,000 and
the average attendance was estimated
at about 1000.
Promoters assigned varying reasons.
M
two performances, other nights the sky
was cloudy. The Democratic conven-
ton was going on. The depression
brought no miraculous source Of cash.
And then there was the unfortunate
history Of the stadium, which the
superstitious say is marked by jinx,
and the critical say is marked by mex
perienced management.
plans in multitude have been made to
secure important national events. +.
z. Adams, the present manager, an
nounced Notre Dame would play foot
bali here next year and get the stadium
on various excellent front pages. Com
mInists ask that it be made into
dormitory for the unemployed. Tor
naer employe naively tried to get part
of a world series played here without
the necessary formality Of seeing tnat
the Indians won pennant.
Public Unperturbed-
Meanwhile, urchins run around the
stadium. hobos park in its shadow when
police are not around, an occasional
civic group holds a pageant, concert
or program. The Walker-Risko
fight drew q crowd Of $4,000 and every
BODY was temporarily admiriTlg.
The public generally remains unper-
turbed by the mounting expense. Tne
clamor it seems to fnd amusing be-
cause it gratifies the average American
conviction that when q public ofnclal
is inent it is not news. Citizens refer
tn the stadium, genially If bromidically.
as "our civic white elephant" and wait
for issuance of further recriminstions
from City Hall
(CopyriEht. 1892 By the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Incl