Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999 - 80

CW: WeU, we thought we would be better than thaI. We
had something like 35 or ,,0 pre-registrations, as I
recall. But in those days, everybody walked in off
the street.
Interviewer: So you and your committee just had to sit
and wait and hope?
CW: And hold our coUective breaths.
Interviewer: So how did it go?
CW: Things started out great, but then canle the cocktail
party the first night.
Interviewer: The what?
CW: ... Oh, one of the things that came out of the San
Francisco conference-I'm sure Dick Arnold mentioned it, if he didn't, someone else will-was the
infamous Top of the Mark cocktail party story?
Interviewer: No, I haven't heard of tlus.
CW: Have you ever been in the Mark Hopkins Hotel in
San Francisco?
Interviewer: Yes.
CW: Have you been at the Top of the Mark? That is the
bar. ..
Interviewer: ... at the top of the hotel?
CW: At the top. If you have a non-foggy day, it is a gorgeous view. In any event, we scheduled for the opening night of the conference a get together in the Top
of the Mark. Of course, we had done it not expecting quite as many people as showed up. But anyway,
the way it was supposed to be, we provided the food
as part of the conference fee. But it was not an open
bar. First of all, it was not reserved; the Top of the
Mark was not reserved just for us. It was simply
where the event was happening...
Interviewer: But the general public was there as weU?
CW: Yes, the public was there as weU. But the person on
my conference staff who made the arrangements did
not make it clear to the hotel that it was not to be an
open bar. It was supposed to be a cash bar. Since
this wasn't made clear to the hotel staff, it had been
an open bar to everyone, both USITI members as
weU as the general public, all of that evening. The
bar tab came to 800 and some odd doUars.
Interviewer: WeU, tlus is a tlursty group.
CW: It was a very thirsty group. I didn't learn about tlus
until I got to the party. I got there late, because I was
dealing with other matters, registration among
them, and had been trying to total up those figures.
So I got up to the Top of the Mark light at the very
end of the party. I don't recall that I got much food,
because there wasn't much food left. Then one of
the members stopped to thank me for the open bar.
WeU, you can imagine my reaction! It was way too
late to stop it, so at that point I didn't bother. I simply said, "Yikes, there goes any potential for a profit
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right down the tubes. ,. So the nex1 morning, at the
opening session-there were no competing sessions at that time, there ,,"as one single session in
each time slot-so at the opening session, I got up
and said, "We had a slight problem last night, in tllat
we had an open bar when we had not budgeted for
an open bar. I ,,~U be at the back of the room when
the session is over with a large paper sack; and I
would really appreciate if those of you who had
some drinks last lught could be called upon to
throw a couple of doUars into the sack to see if we
can reduce the lut.
Interviewer: The bill?
CW: Yes, because at that tinle we had no idea ...
Interviewer: ...whether you were going to make
money or not.
CW: Right. As I recall there were a couple hundred dollars in tllat sack. That evening I finally got tlle final
registration figures from my registrar. I remember
sitting at a desk in tlle conference-rather ilian a
conference office, tlley had a conference hotel
room-and I remember sitting tllere by hand doing
the figures and coming to tlle end and saying, "you
mean, even with that we're going to have a profit?"
We not only broke even, we made $3,000, which
even 1972 was nice, healthy, little surplus.
Interviewer: Hallelujall!
CW: Hallelujall indeed! And I remember going down and
looking up Walt Walters and saying, "Walt, we are
going to be OK. We are going to have a profit."
Interviewer: WeU, it was a big deal ...
CW: ... it was a VelJ) big deal ... in Dallas we went from
60, somewhere between 60 and 66, I can't remember tlle exact number in Dallas. And we went to 300
plus ... we had around, as I recall, the number was
323 in San Francisco. And from tllen on, in terms of
the conferences it has been all uphill, all tlle way.
The 19 Os embarked on an era of phenomenal
growth. The next year we were in St. Louis. I think
tlle next year was St. Louis. That was the key there.
Would we be able to also make money? Because we
weren't at all sure that St. Louis would come up in
the black. And it did. It canle up in the black. 1 believe that every conference since then has been in
tlle black. We were over the hump! .:.

The Living HistolJI Project is chaired by Richard D.
Stephens, who edited the above article. He wishes
to tbank Sarah B. Faszholzfor assistance with
transcrijJtion and editorial snggestions, as well as
Douglas C. TaylO!; US/TT archivistJor research
assistance.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999