DUNEDIN THEATRICAL MANAGER IN AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3398, 30 April 1919, Page 46

DUNEDIN THEATRICAL MANAGER IN AMERICA.

Mr Harry Cohen, the young Dunedin theatrical manager, who is now with Walter Hasts' "Scandal" Company in Chicago, writes to his father, Mr. Albert Cohen, under date March 22, stating that the. play is proving an enormous success—easily the biggest hit in Chicago this season. He continues "We played our first week here to 10,176d01., which we increased last week to 12,395d01., and we have capped it by doing for the week ending to-day 15,132d01. On top of this you have to take into consideration the fact that at present we are in Lent, and the town is in the midst of a bigcampaign for the mayoral election, which is on April 1, both. of which factors tend to hurt business a little. Wo will have at least a ten weeks' run here. "Some of the other shows which opened at the same time as us have fared badly, and have either moved on or are due to do so at the end of the coming year. Cyril Maude lasted only three weeks here. I had a few words with 'Tubby' Turner. Of course things here are" ever so much more expensive than they are in Australasia, and even more so than in England. For instance we have a room at the hotel at a reserved rate, and even at that we pay 4dol. (17s) a day just for the room —all meals, telephones, papers, etc., are extra, of course. The curse of this country is the tipping system'. Y*ou tin here almost every time you draw a breath, and at 10 cents (sd) a time it mounts up during the course of a week. "John McCormack sang here_ yesterday and the day before. I had ten minutes with him on the telephone. It hardly'seems yesterday since I went through New Zealand with him.

"Chicago is a very fino city, with a population of over three millions, and is entirely different to New York. We are staving at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, which is situated seven miles from the city on the shores of Lake Michigan. Tlie magnificence of the hotel, absolutely becrgars description." Mr Cohen states that his wife is taking the rrart of Helene in "Scandal," and that sho is making a fine success of tho character.