When I started going to the theatre...- Page 3

[Fantod]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 9:03pm

That's really interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share that, After Eight

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 9:12pm

Regret  I missed Ben. Enjoy the score but as I recall "Look For Small Pleasures" may actually have been  written by Jerry Herman..

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 9:36pm

Mr Roxy said: "To Jare

 

What I was saying that you could visit a few box office and get tickets because prices were not over the top as they are today. This was the 1960's & 70's and part of the 80's.

All I was trying to say was that you were understating the issue; if you went to the box office today, you would generally need $300 to $350 to purchase 2 orchestra tickets to a musical that is not offering discounts; the same amount would get 3 or 4 cheap tickets for most shows.  in the early 80s, that same couple could purchase orchestra tickets for about 8 shows and those 3/4 people could purchase cheap seats for Closer to 10 shows.

I can't think of too many things that even approach that inflation and I continue to find it disheartening, particularly when you reflect on the fact that premium seats mean that, for a lot of shows, you can't even get very good seats for your $350.  I shudder to think what Hello Dolly is going to charge, but I suspect they will get around raising the official standard top price by increasing the number of premium seats.

 

 

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 9:48pm

In the 1970's a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn was $175.00. The 80's a 300 square foot studio was $395. Today the Studio is $2,400 the one bedroom is $2,475. I wonder how much Theatre rents have changed since the 1960's-1990's? I wonder how much performers salaries have raised over the time? Bringing a weekly paycheck of $275-$320 in the mid to late 70's $20-$25 for an orchestra seat was rather high. It is all relative.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 9:50pm

The mens bathrooms at the vast majority of these theatres are really not suited to fit men and women because most of these mens bathrooms only have 2 to 3 stalls. Plus there usually are lines there as well if you don't get there right as intermission has just started. While the majority of shows have more females in the audience the mens bathrooms are just too small to have the capacity for both.

I've always wondered why the theatres were built with such small bathroom facilities. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:07pm

Most of the theaters were built in the 20's & 30's . They reflected a more diverse audience of men and women . Men's rooms have.  as previously stated ,  a few toilets but more urinals. A very vexing problem indeed.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:21pm

Urinals also take up a lot less room then stalls. You can stand shoulder to shoulder at urinals. you can't sit shoulder to shoulders in stalls. Even if women''s room did have more stalls, I believe there would still be a line. Women's fashion and plumbing just require more time. Unisex bathrooms might be the answer.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:23pm

I worked at a theater where the ladies rioted at a matinee intermission and took over the men's room! I'm a dude but I thought, "Good for them!" I suspect the audiences at most theaters are more than 50% female.

***

A couple of notes. Back in the 1960s, we also wore sports coats and ties to fly in a commercial airplane, so there were lots of events where we dressed up. Growing up in tropical South Florida, I thought it was incredibly uncomfortable to wear so many clothes in the heat and humidity; I thought the Panamanians were so much more sensible in their white cotton shirts with straight hems, and no jackets. (I mention Panama because I visited there and because the type of shirt was named for the country.)

I'm not sure when Mr. Roxy first started going to the theater, but when I did in 1971, Broadway shows were already starting promptly at 5 minutes AFTER the advertised time. It was only in the provinces where shows started at the official time.

Those longing for the day when people took time to "freshen up" and change clothes for the theater should also recall that 8:30, not 8, was the customary starting time for Broadway shows. Musicals regularly got out at 11 or even 11:30! (Many people had time for a leisurely dinner before the show.) How commuters got home at that hour, I don't know, but I assume mass transit was still running outside Manhattan.

Confidential to Dollypop, body mikes may have become common in the 1970s (I know we were just beginning to use them in the 3,000 seat "barn" in Miami Beach), but I believe the first recorded use was by Helen Traubel in PIPE DREAM in 1955. I'm guessing the technology wasn't great back then, because we were still getting police calls over our Vega mikes in 1975.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:30pm

I started in the mid 60's .I doubt you would have said "good for them" if you had to go really badly and were denied entry.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:38pm

^^^ Actually, I would have just walked in and used a urinal. I'm pretty sure the mob of ladies only cared about the stalls. Despite the hysteria about bathrooms that seems to be sweeping the country, I don't mind saying I think we might be better off with unisex bathrooms like some countries in Europe.

Most men would leave less of a mess if they knew women were sharing the facilities.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:42pm

I remember hearing police radio Transmissions at the first version of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Mark hellinger theater

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 10:47pm

O Horgan had a great career going with this and Hair before he flamed out with such gems as Senator Joe & Dude.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/8/16 at 11:11pm

Dollypop said: "I remember hearing police radio Transmissions at the first version of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Mark hellinger theater

 

"

We gave up on them when I was high school (1970-72) because we got so much extraneous chatter. (We performed in a "cafetorium"--apparently it never occurred to the architects that the ceiling tiles designed to deaden cafeteria noise would prove problematic when the space was used for theater.) So we reverted to hand mikes with chords, even for representational musicals. How Harold Hill got a hand mike in turn of the 20th century Iowa, I don't know, but the audience seemed to get used to them and, like bunraku puppeteers, the equipment "became" invisible.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 9:13am

The small envelopes (4 1/4"x 2 1/2" that held the tickets offer some interest. Each theatre had its own envelope, listing its address and telephone number. It's fun looking back at the phone numbers in the pre-area code days. (Yes, there was such a time!) In NYC, at least, they began with two letters, which represented the first letters of words. This, I assume, was to help people remember telephone numbers. For example, the Imperial was COlumbus 5-2412. Other examples were JUdson (Lyceum), CIrcle (Cort, Music Box) , PLaza (Mark Hellinger). As with everything in life, I'm sure some of these were considered more prestigious than others. (I'll take PLaza, please.) Some envelopes listed the entire word, others just the first two letters. Beloved Henry Miller's Theatre (the only name for that theatre, in my opinion, no matter what they decided to call it), had just BR. St. James, OX. Hudson, LT. Anyone remember what those were?

A Hudson envelope was attractively designed: two aqua stripes with a white stripe in between. The print color was teal. 

Often they had ads for restaurants, some of  them long gone, either on the front or back of the envelope: The Algonquin, Rosoffs, Lindy's, The Cattleman, Longchamps, La Fonda del Sol, The Russian Tea Room. Happy memories, all. The Lunt-Fontanne had an ad for Cattle Baron which exclaimed: "Present this envelope to your waiter and receive a SURPRISE GIFT." I wonder what that  gift was.

They also advertised airlines. The most favored of these? American Airlines. Who ever thought that one day that name would be not only on a ticket envelope, but on a theatre marquee?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 9:35am

To After

 

Some of the restaurants you missed: Forum Of The 12 Caesars, SPQR,Spindletop and Davy Jones Locker 

Updated On: 5/9/16 at 09:35 AM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 9:53am

" Beloved Henry Miller's Theatre (the only name for that theatre, in my opinion, no matter what they decided to call it), had just BR. St. James, OX. Hudson, LT. Anyone remember what those were?" 

BR was Bradhurst. (That's not a typo.) OX was Oxford.

There is no LT listed. Is that correct or could it be your typo rather than the envelopes?

[morosco]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 10:20am

Remember when understudy Playbill inserts were designed to look like Western Union Mailgrams?

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 4:43pm

Dollypop said: "I remember hearing police radio Transmissions at the first version of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Mark hellinger theater

Me too!

Tickets were cheap - I have my Hello, Dolly! stub from 1967 at $3.65 for Row A of the Balcony (mailed away for many months prior).  You chose your shows and knew what was coming from the Theatre Listings in the Newspapers.    I paid $10 for my Orchestra seat for SeeSaw!  We didn't have a lot of money, so we went to Howard Johnson's and we felt rich.  We sat up high, but my parents decided the experience of theatre was more important than the location.

 

And thank you for starting this thread and to those who actually stuck to it's lovely thoughts as opposed to turning it into a bathroom conversation.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 4:50pm

The only theater stuff I had before I got married was the Playbill. Wish now I had saved the ticket stub as we save the tickets now and put them in the Playbill. Howard Johnson had an outlet of the corner where the Lunt is now and it also had one at the site of the shuttered Ruby Foo's and  the departed Rivoli Theater.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 6:54pm

Of course we often eat either before or after the show at the automat. Remember the automat?

[jo]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 7:34pm

 

No such thing as pre-theatre dinner offerings then.

 

Before it closed, we ate at Howard Johnson's and it did feel like the passing of an era.

 

When did Barrymore's open? I only remember when it closed.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 11:46pm

"Remember the automat?"

 

Yes, indeed. I was especially fond of the frosting on their cakes. They had a large mural depicting the theatre district. I loved looking at that. 

 

I remember having a very nice lunch there on a beautiful afternoon before going to see Vivien Leigh and Jean-Pierre Aumont in Tovarich  I was so elated at the prospect; it was truly a feeling of euphoria. Life was all orange blossoms and roses for me that day, and I couldn't have been any happier. The show itself made me happier still. I was enchanted by the two stars who epitomized grace and charm, and the story and songs delighted me no end.

 

If only we still had the automat. If only we still had musicals like Tovarich, and stars like Vivien Leigh and Jean-Pierre Aumont. If only!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/9/16 at 11:55pm

Hey After

 

You forgot their creamed spinach & mac & cheese.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/10/16 at 12:24am

Mr. Roxy,

 

I'm not a fan of spinach. Glad to hear it was good!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/10/16 at 12:27am

What about the Mac &  cheese?

 

Spinach worked for Popeye. Give it a shot.