Evening Star Newspaper, July 12, 1931, Page 65

he Sunday Shee [E5 Magaszine : e — WASHINGTON, D. C, W T . Music 20" PAGES. ST —3 PART 7. — e THE FUTURE OF THE THEATER iLhere May Be Life in “‘the Old Road’” Yet—Tlie Problems of Movies, High Railroad Fares and Labor Costs— And the Subjects of Mismanagement and JULY 12, 1981 Petty Rivalry— A N oted Critic Writes as He Thinks. Drawn for The Star's Sunday Magazine by HARVE STEIN, 11l over the country there are people who are ready and willing to go to the theater if and when a play comes that they 1want to see. BY WALTER PRICHARD EATON 1 you will glance at Kitty Goodale's recent book about her tour with Edwin Booth, across the Continent in 1886-87, you will find a record of huge, enthusiastic audi- ences, even in comparatively small and remote cities. Those were the palmy days of the road. you will say. They are gone now. High railroad fares, labor demands and, above all, the competition of the “movies” have killed the road. The “legitimate” theater is no more, outside of a few large cities. Let’s see about it. Within the last year Ethel Barrymore, in *Strange Interlude,” a road company; Walter Hampden, in “The Admirable Crichton”; Lunt and Fontanne ,in “Elizabeth the Queen,” a Shakespearean company you probably never heard of, and Walker Whiteside, in a mystery play, have, in points as widely separated as Salt Lake City and Hartford, Conn., Texas and Minnesota, drawn in sums at the box office which would have made Booth gasp. Ethel Barrymore, in one performance at a Richmond, Va., auditorium, played “The Love Duel” to 3,715 people, who paid $5,783 to sce her (one hopes they also heard her). Walter Hampden, in Hartford, Conn. (where the last “legitimate” theater closed its doors nearly a year ago), this Spring took in over $6,000 in one performance. The Willlam Thornton Bhakespearean company played Salt Lake City for three performances and a matinee to the eapacity of the house. In Pittsburgh Miss Barrymore and Nazimova (in a Guild play) divided $50,000 in one week. In their tour in “Elizabeth the Queen” last Spring, Lunt and Miss Fontanne faced packed houses In almost every place they went, as far West as Minne- apolis. People motored in from towns as much as 75 miles away to see ‘hem. The Guild's “Strange Interlude” company, which last Win- ter made a tour of the smaller cities, even the towns, frequently played to almost incredible receipts. ONSIDER some of these “Strange Inter- lude” receipts in the one-night stands. The record was made in San Antonio, Tex., where, of course, the play was given in a large auditorium, not an ordinary theater. It was $6,872! Dallas, Tex., paid $8,000 for two per- formances, and so did Oklahoma City (both these cities later were high spots on Miss Barrymore'’s tour). Greensboro, N. C., ylelded $3,063, and Raleigh, N. C., $2,965. Memphis paid $9,000 for three performances. Daven- port, Iowa, yielded $4,045 for one performance, and Sioux City over $3,000. Flint, Mich., gave up $3,000, and Scranton Pa., $4,062. These are impressive figure, actually more impressive than the showing the play had made just previously in the larger cities. Its average weekly receipts in Chicago and Philadelphia were slightly over $20,000. It did as well in Hartford, Conn., and better in New Haven. It averaged better than $30,000 for two weeks in Detroit, and did $35,000 in Cincinnati and $30,- 000 in Washington and its second week in St. Louis. But from the larger cities business was to be expected. The tour of “Elizabeth the Queen” last Spring averaged $22,000 weekly in receipts, playing only in regular theaters, in larger cities, as far West as Minneapolis, and South to Washing- ton. Its highest weekly receipts were $27,000, and its lowest, in a city badly hit by the indus- trial slump, $14,000. The first season Lunt and Fontanne toured for the Guild, in “The Guardsman” and “Arms and the Man,” we were riding the prosperity wave, but their aver- age receipts were only $17,000 weekly. With “Caprice” the next season they pushed this up to $19,000. Now it is $2%,000—and in the face of hard times and a “dying” theater. If this means anything at all, it means that the road has learned to trust the Guild and these actors, and increasing receipts are a sign that the public will pay for what it has confi- dence In and likes. But it dses not trust eve» the Guild blindly. It paid $15,000 a week to see “Green Grow the Lilacs,” a totally new play, this season, but last year the tour of “Wings Over Europe” lost $12,000. The road would have none of it. NCIDENTALLY, th: Guild expected just this to happen. They generally expect Shaw to succeed, and are seldom disappointed. “The Apple Cart” this last Winter, which was none too well reviewed in New York, played to $22,500 during the week in Baltimore. $31.000 in two weeks in Boston, $18.000 in Pittsburgh and profitably in nearly all other cities. The road knows all about Shaw and is eager to hear his latest words. Figures such as these are impressive. They certainly do not indicate that the road is dead, and that interest in the “legitimate” drama has shrunk to the side streets off Broadway. But they need some careful inspection. Before we say cither that the road and the “legitimate™ drama are dead, or that they are on the eve of a rebirth, it is essential to consider and analyze the actual facts—something, we venture to say, the theater managers have never done. In- deed, the slap-dash, uncritical, day-to-day and hand-to-mouth way in which they have run their so-called business in, these last changing decades has had a vast ‘deal to do with the theater's present plight. Sitting in New York, absentee owners local theaters over the land, interested ch‘