The fundamental principles of Balaban & Katz theatre management (1926)

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF for your ushers you will find yourself very much handicapped in building up an organisation of our standard and qualification. In recruiting your force the best schools in the city and in your neighborhood are good places to solicit applications for employment in your theatre. In forming the copy to be used in the want ads in order to recruit your organisation, do not hesitate to prescribe educational and home training qualifications, so that these ads may automatically eliminate the type of young men whom you do not desire in your employ. Service Boys and ^Messengers With reference to service boys and messengers, we have learned that the smaller type of negro boy, not over five feet four, of slight or slender build, well formed and in good proportion, not markedly of the negro type with heavy features, but one mentally and physically alert and spry, capable of understanding our principles of service, is most satisfactory. Jtfaids Your maids should be colored girls about twenty-five or thirty years of age, well past the frivolous and playful age, of a serious and quiet nature, of medium stature, preferably those who have been trained as domestic servants in the homes of cultured people. We have many times found that well trained nurses and governesses make excellent maids in our theatres. You should keep in mind that these maids do most of their work in the Ladies Rest Rooms where there is absolutely no supervision. For that reason you must give particular attention to their thorough understanding of service and sincerity in performing their duties. Porters In selecting your porters be guided by a type of colored man of about thirty to forty years of age, preferably one who is married [20] BALABAN 6? KATZ THEATRE MANAGEMENT