Theater audiences

At center, mannequin models are being constructed as stand-ins for actors. They are surrounded by scenes of price gouging, poorly attended performances, the use of wooden actors, indifference to customers, and haughty attitudes by theater staff, and the resulting failure of business. Above the main scene are the ghosts of past actors labeled “Booth, Gilbert, Forrest, Cushman, [and] Wallack.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Ehrhart was producing double-page spreads in Puck by 1903, approximately once a month, on social subjects, in a template of one major cartoon surrounded by a galaxy of related humorous jokes. Occasionally these commentaries had “bite,” however, as in this cartoon.

An attractive young woman talks to a handsome young man at the theater. They are discussing the benefits of marriage. Caption: Miss Blossom — But a married man always has some one to share his sorrows, you know! / Jack Bachelor — Not always; – every married man can’t afford to keep a valet and a butler.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1902-04-02

A Jewish family is getting ready to attend the theater. Caption: Mrs. Bernstein (getting ready for the theatre) I see dere vas a real fire-engine in dis blay. / Bernstein (sulkily) Den I von’t go. / Mrs. Bernstein But it eggsblodes on der vay to der fire. / Bernstein (merrily) Hurry up, dear! Ve may be too late!

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are two subtexts to this cartoon. First, there were a fair number of theater fires on Broadway in this period. Shoddy construction and materials were to blame; as theater owners (part of a meme of the day — a stereotype that the Theater Trust was populated by Jews) improved safety conditions, many stage curtains actually carried the Legend “Asbestos,” to assure patrons that some items were fireproof. The other backstory of the cartoon by O’Neill, once again trafficking in Jewish stereotypes, is the accents found in the caption and the frequently employed cliche that Jewish business owners engaged in arson to collect on insurance policies.

At center is a theater manager, his hands and pockets stuffed with money. Around him are four scenes showing how he manages a scam to extort higher prices for the theater tickets, using scalpers (called “Speculators”) and by bribing the police. A fifth scene shows how the public can change this practice, by not attending the theater productions. Caption: The manager the real culprit.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck here ventures into a controversy largely forgotten today, but a hot issue at the time, when theaters and musical production proliferated on Broadway. The so-called “Theatrical Trust” was comprised almost exclusively by Jewish mangers, owners, and producers. The “culprit” in the center drawing by Ehrhart has mildly Semitic features, but in the pages of Puck‘s rival comic weekly, Life, the first decade of the century saw a relentless campaign against scalpers, purveyors of offensive content, ticket scams, shoddy construction materials (theater fires were not uncommon), and banishment of certain critics. Life ran many theater reviews, and its critics were banned from many theaters. The “war” attracted charges of anti-Semitism because of vituperative columns and cartoons with caricatures.

David B. Hill appears as a strong man on a stage in a theater, wearing a suit stuffed with straw and medals that state, “I am a Democrat, From Liquor Dealors, [and] Champion of Peanut Politics.” Weights lying around him, also stuffed with straw, are labeled “Powerful Influence Against Cleveland, Anti-Reform Club, Strength with the New York Machine, [and] Hill’s Presidential Prospects.” Edward Murphy Jr. is standing at the “Box Office” in the background and William E. Chandler is the only person in the audience. Caption: [S]tuffed “Strong Man” … Dave Hill / [Trea]surer … Ed. Murphy / [Applau]se Furnished by … Bill Chandler

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-04-18

A woman and a man sit in chairs at the theater. Caption: “Eyes have they, but they see not.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-01-31

In the “Grand National Congressional Theatre” the performance of “Fair Promise Combination No. 47 – Great Reform Bill – Act I Tariff Reform – Act II Civil Service Reform – Act III Internal Revenue Reform” is concluding. The audience is pelting the cast with cats, eggs, onions, turnips, and other vegetables and fruits. Among those on stage are David Davis, Thomas W. Ferry, George M. Robeson, Jay A. Hubbell, Frank Hiscock, Horace F. Page, and William Mahone.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-02-28

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, with the trained animals for various operas, and a woman sit in the “celebrated ‘Horseshoe'” section of the opera house. The surrounding vignettes show Alfred Hertz as a young man and as the current conductor, Enrico Caruso, “Italy’s Standing Army,” which is a group of men dressed for the theater, possibly critics, actors with props, and a prima donna too large to “fit the chairs of the period.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1915-01-09

A man and a woman embrace on a stage beneath the heading “Asbestos” as the theater audience rises to depart.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1915-01-16