In October of last year (1920) a serious slump hit the theatrical business. Even in New York the theaters were experiencing the worst depression of years. More than 3,000 actors were idle and managers were compelled to resort to the cut-rate ticket agents to sell their seats. And yet, in the midst of it, Shubert announced six new theaters for New York alone. At the same time they announced the production of forty plays.
Forty plays! If a man announced that he was going to build six new art museums in one city and fit them up with the requisite number of oil paintings produced under his own direction, he would be considered crazy, especially if it were a matter of common repute that he knew nothing of art and was having the pictures painted merely to give value to his real estate!
It indicates how thoroughly accustomed the public has become to “the show business” and the “motion picture industry,” that the announcement of these former haberdashers is taken so complacently. Forty plays!—when anyone can count on the fingers of both hands all the present-day American and English playwrights even remotely deserving of notice!
It is said that the Shuberts do not expect more than three out of forty plays to succeed. The success of a play, in the artistic sense, is not their business. To maintain enough plays on the road to keep alive their real estate investments is really the thing.
Thus it is now not strange where theatrical slang comes from. An actor who wins success is said to have “delivered the goods.” An approved actress is “all wool and a yard wide.” An author “puts it over” his audience. A girl of no particular class is a “skirt.” A young chorus girl is a “broiler” or a “chicken.” An actress who plays the part of an adventuress is a “vamp.” A very successful play is a “knockout.” Taken all together, it is “the show business.” This is the effect of Jewish control of any profession—as any American lawyer will tell you.
The only protest now being offered is by the small dramatic clubs which, whether or not they know it, are the strongest “anti-Semitic” influence on the theatrical horizon.
