Evening star., 1932-07-05
TAX FAILS TO CUT
BROADWAY CROWDS
Theater Receipts Increase
Despite New Federal
Levy on Tickets.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, July 5.-The Federal
tax of 10 per cent on all tickets cost
ing more than 40 cents has, as yet,
worked no encouragement to New York
theater patronage. Last week and
this crosses for the IL Broadway show
shops now open have been up bit
and the theaters move into August, al
ways their critical month, with more
assurance than the gloomy phophecies
indicated.
This in spite of the closing Of the
Roxy. the vast. ornate movie palace
scuttled and sunk by a $3,600,000 mort
gage. Literally and figuratively, the
Roxy went down with bands playing.
The closing performance Thursday
night seemed like a gala event, with
$4,000 spent on a preliminary adver-
tising ballyhoo and a general flare and
flourish which never before attended
Federal receivership. It's an old Broad
way custom. Possibly a bit punch
drunk anyway, the theater district
seemed apsthetic and paid strict at
tention to its own red ink.
Puzzles OId-Timers.
with about 20 new openings sched-
uled for August. there is a stir in
Broadway which puzzles the old-timers,
who see no reason for any immediate
return of the vanished box-office lines.
Some persons have attributed the
tremor of hope to the fact that New
York is steamed up with the idea that
prohibition is about over-that with
both conventions voting for a refer
I1oIaro1 or,f will 1o
perfunctory, and that, before long, beer
and wine will be legalized.
1t is true that bootleggerS are dump
ing their stocks and cutting prices.
This writer was informed by a mid
town real estate dealer that restaura-
teurs were scouting locations, some who
had been out of business planning to
reopen on the assurance that the long
dry spell is nearly over. A house ham
ding bars and bar supplies, out of busi-
ness for many years, is planning to re-
open. Whether Broadway is a better
gueSser than Wrong-horse Wall Street
remains to be seen, but certainly it is
running away with the idea that the
amber days are back again.. and it is
quite possible that the infection has
reached the theater magnates.
Regardless of hope or gloom, the de-
centralizing forces which have been
changing the character Of the metrop-
oils for the last few years are at work
in the theater. There are this Summer
in the resort and suburban area around
New York nearly 20 little theaters,
many of which have drawn upon
Broadway talent, building excellent
casts. Most of them are doing surpris-
ingly well and. where prices have been
reasonable, there has been unfailing
patronage.
New Ventures Multiply.
There is scarcely a week which does
not record some new venture in this
field. Plays produced are the classics
of the theater, with occasional recent
Broadway successes. Summer resort
stock is doing nicely, the latest entry
being Noel Taylor, great-great- great
great-grandson of Chief Justice John
Marshall, who is organizing company
to tour the leading Eastern resorts.
An idea which has been wide open
for years, but never before tried, has
now been seized upon. 1t Is the simple
and obvious expedient of making a
showboat out Of an old ferry boat and
showing 1t into the Hudson River and
Long Island Sound ports, the abodes of
great estates and considerable loose
change. The first boat, just starting
out, is doing well, and Broadway is
watching closely the box office angles
of this venture. One deck Is reserved
for dancing. Another boat, heavily
bankrolled and with blue-book patron
age. is now being reconditioned for the
more exclusive ports. Broadway has
toyed with the idea of nautical show
marship for years, but it took the big
depression to get it under way.
Copyright, 1881