Posted: 12/7/17 at 12:20am
Question:
How did the place we buy tickets get to be called the box office?
Was there a time when cardboard boxes were in an office with tickets?
Posted: 12/7/17 at 12:54am
Leo Box had a theater and decided there should be a central place to purchase tickets for his shows there as opposed to using roustabouts who used to wander the waterfront trying to entice sailors on shore leave to see the shows. It came to be known as the Box office. That, and the walls were made of cardboard.
Posted: 12/7/17 at 4:23am
Posted: 12/7/17 at 1:32pm
dramamama611 said: "Because $ used to be collected in a box. Really. Google is your friend."
That's a folk myth, at least according to Wikipedia. Wealthy patrons who wanted to buy tickets to a private box had to go to a special office (near the entrance) to get tickets, hence "box office."
Posted: 12/8/17 at 11:01am
Huh....another long standing belief challenged. I'll further investigate!
Posted: 12/8/17 at 11:15am
Like many of our theatrical traditions and superstitions I'm going to guess that there is no 100% absolute answer to this question. Look at how many different reasons/origins you'll hear for the term "break a leg."
