The billboard (Jan 1911)

JANUARY 7,1811. The BI 1 lboard 1203 Schiller 8t. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. Bnlldiof. 103-100 Itandolph Telephone Central'JttU. 8T. LOUI8. * 80S lllaeourl Trnat Bulldlnf. SAN FRANCISCO. I ItMihllna* 830 Mtrkrt Hi* Innrtlnn i Kill, .ml S.ock.on &,„. Haiti UJ1. LONDON,'ENGLAND. 170 Tun pie Cbambera. E. c. PARIS, FRANCE. 121 BBS Montmartre. 1R&TTED WEEKLY, end entered •» Serond-Clana Matter at Poet Office. Cincin- nati. Olilo. Addrvaa all couimuuk-atluoe fur the editorial or Lualima department to publication office: THE BTLXnOAllD PUBLISHING COMPANY, 410 Elm Street, Cincinnati, o.. V. 8. A. i Telephone, Ualn 2T0O. Cable Addreea (regiitered) "miljboy." ADVERTISING BATES.—Twenty oanU per Una, inii meaearemeat. Wbole nana Ilia - half pan. *T0; ijj. P No' ,d.. r : tiaement meaiorut lane than Bra liaea accepted. V„ - _ . .- _V___- a- - NO MUl nsws-stiLBds Canada, wk Vowi Co. a BITLBOABD la for aala on all trains and thronsboat the United Statu and — cb are aupplted by the American France When St e. "aaaVnotify tnte office. Bamlttaaea* ehould. ba made by pott-office or aapraaa money order, or rerietered letter ad- dressed or made payable to The Billboard Pnb- UabJaf Company. The editor can not undertake to return Then and Now. That title of uncertain significance and opprobrious inference, "an- gel," which was so commonly in use among amusement people only a few years ago, has just about dropped from the nomenclature of the profession of entertainment. The reason for this lies in the fact that the amusement business has been placed upon a commercial basis. Busi- ness men are not enchanted by the prospect of a glamorous career as proprietor of a circus or theatrical enterprise. They are not drawn into the field by the mere scent of sawdust or the dream of being worshipped (albeit without true reverence) by be-painted and be-wigged chorus girls. They are not influenced by sentiment or impelled by vanity; their egotism does not induce them to enter the field for the gratification of their personal vanity and sentimentalism. The prospect of standing ai the entrance of a big top in silk hat and Prince Albert coat, flipping their package of "comps," is not the incentive that it was for their prede- The business has changed. With all honor and all credit to its Eioneers, we may sav that.it has changed for the better. The amusement usiness is to-day owe of the recognized fields of commercial enterprise and endeavor. It is looked upon with respect by our greatest and most able financiers, a number of whom engage in it as they engage in other business—for the profit and the power it affords. Looking back over the past decade, we can observe that the men who have risen to the front rank in professional amusement were really cap- tains of industry. In the circus field, James A. Bailey was an exemplar, but his death did not leave the business without men of brains and ability at its head. There are nany able showmen in America to-day. Some of them own and operate shows of their own, while others are content to work for the princely salaries and the independence that such positions afford. The big tent-shows are framed up on business principles, and in the dealings of circus men with those engaged in the railroad business, and other forms of transportation, as well as the producers and jobbers of all the paraphernalia, stock and provender necessary for the equip- ment of a show, demand and to the dignity of their pursuit. The theatrical business, in the meantime, has been organized along equally unassailable commercial lines. Theatres have been formed into circuits, plays are being produced by corporations and syndicates and companies of men trained and experienced in that business. Where only a few years ago independent attractions booked "wildcat" dates, paid exorbitant railroad rates and fared as best they could in the face of prejudice, growing out of their want of combination of mutual sympathy, the manager of the attraction now leaves the city of his first date with his route card printed, and all preliminary arrangements made. System, uniformity of method, and adherence to strict business prin- ciples have brought about the metamorphosis. Pessimism has no place in the showman's system of logic. Just at this time the discussion of cleanliness and salacity in theatrical attractions is agitating the amusement purveyors, not only in New York, but throughout the balance of the country. Broadway managers com- plain that some of the attractions offered in Gotham are of a nature calculated to prejudice the public and legal authorities against amuse- ments generally, and for this reason they have taken it upon themselves to adjust the situation without the muck-rake methods that would be used if the cleaning up was left to other influences. Of course, public sympathy and public judgment are with the Broadway managers, but their position is more delicate than appears on the surface; for they are laying themselves open to unwarranted though acrimonious opposition. The managers of the high-class attractions and of the theatres playing high-class attractions in New York are not more of a power in their districts than the manager playing other classes of attractions in parts of the city where the first-class show is unknown and not wanted. This is the reason that those managers who have allied themselves against what is termed the indecent show are accused of making a sentimental and illogical plea to public sentiment. Like all other cases of a similar nature, the results will be threshed out through the public press, the daily newspapers, of course, taking their stand with the managers who have proclaimed their object as the uplifting of the drama. It is only the short-sighted theatrical purveyor who can not see that pandering to the lower instincts of society's undercrust is hurtful to amusements as an institution. Therefore, the managers who are op- posing unclean shows are the far-seeing ones. Though their object may not be merely altruistic, the results will be the same, and both the public and the amusement profession in general will profit. It is fitting that in an issue devoted to open-air amusements, and in which there appear articles and treatises contributed by the best-known authorities and most facile writers on the subject of outdoor amuse- ments, we should say something editorially regarding this great field of enterprise. Outdoor amusements, as we know them, are indigenous to the United States. Fairs they have in England and France and in Germany, but their fairs are practically devoid of show features, being devoted almost exclusively to agricultural interests. The English amusement park, and the amusement parks of France and Germany are rather tame affairs compared to our Luna Parks, Dreamlands and White Cities. America is a country of open places, and we are essentially a people who love our amusements in the open air. Our rich are not sportsmen as they are in Europe, for the rich man of America is not the man of leisure. He is usually tbe individual who has devoted his life to building up the business upon which his fortune is based. If he inherited his wealth, it came from an ancestor who was busy, and he handed down the spirit of industry to his heirs. The Amer- ican man of wealth mingles with the small shopkeeper and respectable middle classes at the summer amusement resort, whether it be park, exposition or circus. This universal patronage is the basis upon which the tremendous plan of American outdoor amusements has been founded. We have hundreds of amusement parks in the United States, costing each not less than from $1,000 to $500,000. There are, furthermore, a number of parks, costing more than $1,000,000. Every attraction at one of these parks is made as elaborate as money and ingenuity are capable of compassing. To the European visitor making his first excursion to Coney Island, N. Y., the magnificent array of costly amusement devices is a marvelously strange and unwonted sight He may be familiar with all the best there is in the way of amusements in his native land, but he has never seen that which will even approach the magnificent devices and amusements at this nucleus of all American amusement resorts. He may next visit one of our big circuses which he has possibly not had any chance of seeing upon its visit to his country. If so, it is just a:- wonderful, compared to the tent show exhibitions of his own land, as was Coney Island in contrast tb its parks. The explanation for this superiority of ours in the way of amusement organizations may be found in the fact that Americans are constitutionally an amusement-loving and amusement-patronizing nation. Our adopted citizens contract the same spirit. We remember, not long ago, having seen a company of Bohemian peasants in a railroad station. There were a number of children among them who were dropping penny after penny in the gum slot machines. In their native Bohemia there would have been no inclination to do this. e\en if the slot machines were there as an inducement. It seems to be in the atmosphere, in the associations, or whatever you will. At any rate, it is a spirit that doesn't prevail on the other side of either ocean. For instance, there is in England no annual event of such importance . and so universally attended as the Canadian National Exposition; while I in the United States, our annual state fairs at Springfield. Illinois, and 1 Dallas, Texas, are unequaled in extent and attendance anywhere, except at the Toronto Exposition, mentioned above. Half a dozen years ago, the carnival business, an exotic from France, was among the most important of our open-air amusements. But the carnival business waned, probably through abuses by unscrupulous pro- moters engaged in the enterprise. There are a few carnival companies still in America, operated on extensive plans and paying tremendous yearly profits. The offenders of public taste and professional propriety have been exterminated, and the carnival business to-day is an important, honorable and respected factor of our summer amusements.