A Broadway History Question...

[GreatBroadwayFan]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:09am

This is going to sound like an odd question but does anyone know what time of day Broadway shows used to perform back in the 1930s and 40s (both matinees and evening performances)? I have been trying to research this and cannot find anything. I am asking for a very important project. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:17am

Can't you find old advertisements from the time, or scans of old ticket stubs? People sell that stuff on eBay, etc., or just Google image scans, I'd imagine, no?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 11:28am

I bet Jen Tepper would know.

[Ziva56]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 11:43am

In Michael Riedel's book he talks about how in the 70s they changed the time to 7:30, and then 8:00, from 8:30 because of how dangerous Times Square had become at night. I don't know if 8:30 was the time during the 30s and 40s though...

[Tag]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 12:14pm

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1038713

[daredevil]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 1:01pm

When I was growing up in the early fifties and through the sixties, Broadway musicals listed  starting times of 8:30 P.M. for their evening performances and 2:30 for their Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Non musicals usually began at 8:40, or 8:30 depending on the length of the play. In 1959, Wednesday matinees were changed to 2:00. The only time a play started earlier was if it was incredibly long---Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf started its evening performances at 8:00 and all its matinees at 2. I am not sure when Saturday matinees switched to the 2:00 starting time. In the early seventies, when the Broadway theater was in a terrible slump, evening performances during the week were started at 7. This did not last too long---the restaurant owners in the area felt it hurt their business, and  most plays moved back to the 8:00 start time. I am not sure when the 7:00 Tuesday evening performances were begun---the other evenings beginning at 7 are a more recent phenomenon. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:08pm

I agree this calls for doing the original research but I'd also caution that generalizing from the 50s has some potential problems. The 30s had the depression, and the 40s had the war. What did that mean for curtains? I don't know. 

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:13pm

8:40 used to be a standard curtain time in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. Much of the plot of Dinner at Eight hinges on this, and it's where the musical Life Begins at 8:40 gets its title from. I don't know precisely when curtain times were rolled back closer to 8:00, but it started sometime after WWII, around the time that the formerly urban audience was beginning to move to the suburbs and thus wanted earlier curtain times. We've seen that move even further in the last 20 years or so, as 7:30, 7:00, and even 6:30 have become standard curtain times for evening performances.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:21pm

AC126748 said: "8:40 used to be a standard curtain time in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. Much of the plot of Dinner at Eight hinges on this, and it's where the musical Life Begins at 8:40 gets its title from. I don't know precisely when curtain times were rolled back closer to 8:00, but it started sometime after WWII, around the time that the formerly urban audience was beginning to move to the suburbs and thus wanted earlier curtain times. We've seen that move even further in the last 20 years or so, as 7:30, 7:00, and even 6:30 have become standard curtain times for evening performances."

Also, AC, isn't that the idea behind "Around a Quarter to Nine," or at least the use of the lyric in  the stage version of 42nd Street?

 

"

 

[carnzee]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:22pm

Thanks for that information,AC. The title Dinner at Eight always confused me, since they were going to the theater after. 

But still, it seems like they'd be rushing to dine and get everyone to the theater by 8:40, even if they lived just a few blocks away.

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/5/17 at 2:26pm

carnzee said: "Thanks for that information,AC. The title Dinner at Eight always confused me, since they were going to the theater after. 

But still, it seems like they'd be rushing to dine and get everyone to the theater by 8:40, even if they lived just a few blocks away.

 

"

Well, the characters in Dinner at Eight intend to arrive at the theater late--the better to make an entrance.

And Henrik, I believe you're right, although I haven't listened to that song (or read the lyrics) in a few years. So I couldn't say for sure.