Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1967 - 30

his feet. He must know more than union rules and how to
set up campaigns, ticket sales, etc. He should be trained
in more than theatre; he has got to know a little about
sculpture because when the theatre is dark, he could put
a sculpture exhibit in the foyer; he should know something about painting; he should be able to read a score; he
should be able to keep that theatre going all the time. Why
not have the equivalent of ladies' days, as in baseball;
nobody is doing that. The manager should be trained to project excitement into the theatre. To get the audiences back
into the theatre, he's got to be trained as a public relations
man. More than just giving a course in theatre management,
you've got to train managers in all kinds of areas and enterprises.

"joint" will be deserted anyhow. Legit theatres were built
long ago, long before television made smoking the universal
vice of every American man, woman, and child. Hence the
smoking foyers are much too full; people are packed in,
dangerously close to hundreds of cigarettes. This gives rise
to that peculiar, pungent odor, the odor of holes being
burned in wearing apparel. Intermission in the legitimate
theatre has created a boon in French weaving.

The word is out that we need not worry about the survival
of the legitimate theatre, the colleges are taking over. Perhaps they can teach young men to manage although we cannot imagine a class in theatrical management graduating a
David Merrick. I suppose there is rather more to it. The fact
is that the very term" manager" is remarkably inclusive and
MODERATOR: To provide that leaven of practical experiencE' conveys all sorts of meaning. There are working managers,
in this field, I now invite the Editor of Variety to take the operating managers, and manipulating managers. Some of the
floor, Mr. Robert J Landry.
managers are campaign directors for fund raising committees;
here
and there, one smells a con man. It was obvious,
LANDRY: It may be appropriate here for me to mention a
therefore, that the modern manager needs much beyond a
fact which I usually suppress; it is that I was born in a theatre, that my grandmother was a manager and my father was tuxedo carefully brushed against dandruff. One of the younger
a manager. By the time I had become conscious of show Lincoln Center managers remarked in an ecstasy of-I can't
business, my father had two theatres in a small town. My pronounce that word-aesthetics, "This is our very own San
sister and I often had parties for little friends up in the Marco Piazza." This hints at yet a new kind of manager;
there is a quality of culture here.
boxes. My father, who had a somewhat sporting nature,
would send up ice cream cones for everybody. So we were As I remarked last fall, culture is an enrichment for enterextremely popular. But when my father got sick and lost his tainment. Insofar as I quibble about Lincoln Center, I am injob and was no longer a theatre manager, there was a clined to excuse the managers and blame the architects.
sharp collapse in our popularity. It was in this way that I What sheer genius it was to put the Columbus Avenue autobecame a student of human nature.
mobile traffic directly in line with the path of crossing foot
Once my father hired the son of a close friend. A few traffic! An absolute genius for forty thousand dollars a minweeks later, he discovered that this young man was giving ute. What superb architectural self-indulgence at the New
back to the cashier untorn tickets for the purpose of resale York State Theatre to force show-goers to climb over twenty(which is one of the oldest dodges in the theatre and one seven laps to reach the center of the auditorium! The archithat the manager must constantly watch against). My father tect Iiked it that way. As to the acoustics, what an embarwas, of course, very, very angry; but the usefulness of this rassment! Perhaps the most notable managerial improvement
experience is that it taught me quite young the nature of a at Lincoln Center this winter is in the food you get from
manager's problems. It seems to me that nothing has changed Sherry's Cafe. It was once atrocious; it is now not bad. I
very much through the years. People still eat ice cream haven't heard of a waiter spilling anything on a customer in
cones in the boxes, and the doorman and the cashier still a month. You see how broad the manager's problems are,
run a racket if they can get away with it. Very emphatically, and how complex modern management is. I'm not sure that
I would like to offer a gratuitous suggestion to anybody con- colleges will ever tell future managers the source of possible
templating a candy, popcorn or snack stand. Watch out! To donations-that possibly is a college trade secret. However,
hire hungry, high school youths is to court bankruptcy. Take any course in management must consider that.
a middle-aged employee with stomach trouble. Since I knew
I think that the Met Opera got through its first season comI was coming here today, I asked a chap, the manager of a
paratively well; and I am willing to congratulate the managenightclub, the question, "Well, what have you to tell me
ment if we start with the second opera. What the Met obabout the problems of being a manager of a nightclub? What
viously needs is a simple thing: like a vending machine for
trait is most needed?" He promptly replied, "Patience."
scotch, or some taxi cabs at the taxi cab tunnel. My one
Patience is a trait needed by all managers of entertainment
reservation concerns the policy of excluding late-comers,
places, for they are constantly dealing with the possibilities
of making them wait until the first act is over. At $15.00
of a riot, always contemplating all sorts of unforeseeable,
you ought to be able to sit down even if late. But I object
unpredictable, and quite horrible events.
to such a "make them suffer" rule partly because I suspect
Generally speaking, you don't learn much from considering that it was decided by a planning committee. Perhaps we
the theatre manager in the film situation. They may be in a ought to recognize that now, though we may ask for more
jacket or a tuxedo; sometimes they are pimply youths; some- efficient and charming and knowledgeable managers, what
times they are senile old men; and very often they are we are going to get are more committees. Committees and
second cousins of the wife of the general manager of the culture go together. It's reason enough to give second
circuit. Film theatre managers tend to have no authority and thoughts about culture. And as regards the policy of excludtherefore, I suppose, no ideas. The one thing that a film ing late-comers, I have a suspicion that some members of
manager could do to be helpful, he frequently does not do: the Met Opera Planning Committee are slipping into their
this is to go up upstairs and awaken the projectionist when boxes late. And they are not under the influence of ice
the film breaks or goes out of focus. So much for the cream cones. In fact, this is where I came in.
cinema.
MODERATOR: The spectrum of management is a wide one,
Let's consider the legitimate theatre. Old theatres were de- ranging from the practical experience inherent in the designed on the philosophy that if you have a hit the public mands of commerce to the cultural needs among those in a
will stand for anything; and if you haven't got a hit the metropolis who can't afford $ 8.50 a seat in the theatre.

[].ill[] THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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