AFTER THIRTY YEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1933, Page 13

AFTER THIRTY YEARS

THEATRE BOX OFFICE

CHANGE IN CONTROL

The theatre box office, which has been in ttfe hands of the Bristol Piano Company for more years than most people care to remember, is about to be transferred to the D.I.C. Alterations in the Bristol Piano Company's premises have necessitated tho change —only the second change in the theatre box offico's locality in the last" fifty years — am i tho D.I.C. management has mado arrangements for tho new box office to occupy a three-sided counter on tho ground floor of tho building near the escalator, and not far from tho main and Panama Street entrances. The change takes effect from Monday uoxt, but probably it will take a little time for the public to get accustomed to the new location. For over thirty years seats have been booked at the Bristol, and force of habit is still likely to lead people thither. However, they will only have to cross the street to rectify their mistake. The theatre box office and the history of Wellington's entertainments ,*re naturally very closely knit together: the history of one is virtually the history of the other. Fifty years ago Holliday's book and stationery shop on Lambton Quay undertook what little theatre booking there was at that time, and the work was not arduous. • When the Bristol (then the Dresden) Piano Company started its operations in the main cities in New Zealand, some forty years ago, it took over box-office work, and a little over thirty years ago the Bristol Piano Company took over Wellington .theatre box office from Holliday's, and in that company's hands it has remained ever since. MILEPOSTS OF THE YEARS. Thirty years ago the theatre box office business in Wellington was only a fraction of what .it is today; There were bookings to be arranged for the old Opera House, and that was by no means occupied continuously throughout the year by travelling theatrical companies or by visiting artists. In addition to the Opera House, there were variety shows which in those days were the main, entertainment of the populace. But about twenty yeaTs ago, with the advent of the cinema houses, the work of the office began to grow rapidly. New Zealand in, the meantime had been placed more securely on the map as regards theatrical companies from Australia and England, and eminent singers and .musicians increasingly extended their Australian tours to include New Zealand. In Wellington a new Opera House had been, built, cinema theatres increased in numbers, and the work of the box office proportionately increased, until" in the heyday of theatrical popularity as many as 3000 seats might be booked in one day. Now, with a multitude of picture houses, reservations of seats amount to close on half a million a year. ' There have been times when the queue at The Bristol has started to form tho night before the morning on which the booking for a certain show has opened, and quite frequently a small queue has started to form in the very early hours of that morning. It would be possible to give a very lengthy list, covering the last thirty or forty years, of " shows which have resulted in £1000 or more "being txken at the office «ach 'day, and the statistically-inclined can.work out for themselves what that figure represents when translated into numbers of tickets. The visits of some opera companies, Clara Butt's first visit, GalliCurei's: first visit, Paderewski's tour, and Kreisler's tour are Jiut. a few examples of times when the theatre box office did what might be called a roaring trade. Examples might bo quoted, too, of times when it was expected to do a roaring trade but did not. It would be kinder, however, not to specify these. .'.-■■• . . ■ ■ MANY NOTABLE FIGURES. The successive - managers of the theatre box Office have been brought into personal contact with many celebrities in the world of music and drama, and- each in his time has accumulated a big collection of signed photographs of visiting '^artists. This gallery of portraits recalls many a name practically unknown to the pre^ sent generation, and mutely suggests stories of theatrical enterprises, successes and failures, of- singers and players whose names are still household words, and of others who have long ceased to strut the stage. The theatre box office attendants, too, whoso sole duty may bo to exchange tickets for cash, can add their quota to the inside history of box office management. They can tell of folk who for years on end have always, booked the same seats on first nights, and who consider that they have: a grievance almost worthy of redress by Parliament should someone "jump their claim"; of fussy people who' keep the queue waiting behind them while they waste time in the choice of seatS; Svanting to know all about possible draughts, visibility, fire exits, -and the like; and of people who Tesort to all kinds of terminological inexactitudes and subterfuges in their endeavours to secure seats for nothing. To bo connected with a theatre box office necessitates tho possession of infinite tact and patience.