The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1959-12-25
LOST COLONY
Continued from Page One)


as kind of ritual, but don't think
we have many of those. The one
thing which neither The Lost Colo
ny or Horn in the West has ever
tried, at least not to my knowledge,
is intensive and perceptive adver-
Using, promotion, and year-round
build-up. The advertising and pro-
motion men, the writer's, the sell
lers of tickets, are nearly always
$4,000 year men who have been
teaching school or working in a
radio station, or finishing mas
ter's degree in drama, or something
like that, people who basically
know little or nothing about how
to sell, how to promote, how to
put something across. They have
good hearts and honest motives, but
they have been fruitless. AS far as
| can tell, Gillette has just about
the same razor they had twenty
years ago, but they keep selling
new ones because they advertise.
l cannot persuade anyone at Boone
to see the advantage of paying a
man $4,000 for one year to sell
that show, giving him real wad
of dough to do a real job. 1t works
in everything else in the United
States-why won't it work in out
door drama? We have to spend
money to make money. We have to
borrow twenty thousand more, and
II we do for one season, we will
sell thirty thousand more in tick
cts. | am perfectly sure of that,
especially after seeing a real pro-
motion man at work last summer
in Pittsburgh, man trained in
that work, man who has made
it his business to promote things.
So that is the main reason why !
don't agree with this proposal, why
l didn't agree several years ago
when the Winston-Salem Journal
talked about it. We are not apollo
giving for the shows, or admitting
that they are no longer interest
ing-we are looking for new
clients. But apparently no one else
shares my views on that. The usual
method is to putter along all sea-
son, barely breaking even, taking
the state money to pay the bills
borrowing more for the next sea.
son, and then praying to heaven
someone will come to see the show
we just open the doors and ex.
pect people to come. If anybody
tried to run a restaurant a mote
haberdashery, or mountain-tor
scenic attraction like that, he would
go broke, and you know it. What
are you going to do at Grandfather
Mountain when everybody has seer
it: Obviously, that time will never
come. You depend on an ever.
changing clientele, an ever-broad-
ening ripple of advertising, word.
of-mouth and otherwise, to bring
new customers. 1t is the same with
the dramas. The fact is that no one
is really, vitality interested in them
except for meeting or two during
the year, and about a month before
they open in June. The surprising
thing is not that people don't come
to see these shows, but that any.
one does. 1t is entirely possible t.
drive all the way from Illinois
Texas, Florida, Pittsburgh, OF
Louisville to within ten miles OF
either Boone or Manteo and never
know there is such thing as al
outdoor drama anywhere around
l know, because l have made thost
drives myself, purposely looking
for advertising. We may as well
admit, in spite of honest efforts
and good hearts, that the advertis
ing and promotion is exceedingly
bad, exceedingly third-rate. w
have been sending boys to do mems
jobs, and the result is two sicl
dramas.
"My second great objection i.
that both shows would require ;
lot of explaining. We like to thinl
that Horn in the West utilize:
mountain ballads, mountain speech
mountain customs, and that they
would be meaningless anywhere bu
in the mountains. If these play
were impersonal and universal il
scope, there would be no problem
but they are both tailored to fl
the precise spot where they arr
being exhibited. All through Horn
in the West are lines such as this
81 look out there where the SUI
falls across old Grandfather Noun
tain," or "It's sure is good to ge
back up here in the mountain!
again and look at these beecf
trees and oak trees all around ,ant
smell the pines," or "You take this
wagon and go off down the noun
tain there to the NORTH" or "Tht
winter night sure is cold ant
snowy. These things don't fit al
Manteo, any more than Queer
EliZabeth'S colonization fits in the