From the Louisville Courier-Journal, September 29, 1889
The Booth and Barrett Engagement Closed With a Handsome Profit for the Managers.
Arrangements Already on Foot For Future Attractions – Mr. Booth’s Compliment.
Messrs. Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett and their excellent company closed their season in this city last evening and also their joint tour, before another very large audience. The play was “Julius Caesar.” The engagement has been a success from every standpoint, and it is doubtful if any one who has had anything to do with it is dissatisfied. Mr. Booth, in particular, who is a man of judgment and discrimination in other things as well as acting, is quoted as saying that, though he and Mr. Barrett were playing on a guarantee, and were not directly interested in the box-office receipts, he was very much gratified to see the brilliant offices assembled at the Auditorium, which, he said, would compare favorably with the best houses he had played before in New York, Philadelphia or Boston. In speaking of the Friday night house, he said it was the most brilliant audience he had every appeared before. While he finds Louisville people less enthusiastic than those of other cities, he find them more discriminating in their bestowal of applause. Referring to the Auditorium, Mr. Booth praised it for its [ILLEGIBLE] and had some good words for the management for the way in which the engagement was managed, and the ease and quietness with which the large crowds were handled.
Mr. Booth left last night at midnight for Pittsburgh where he will be joined by Madame Modjeska, with whom he opens another tour tomorrow night. After a week in Pittsburgh, they go to Cleveland for a week, and then to New York for eight weeks, after which they will appear in the larger Eastern cities.
Mr. Barrett will leave for Chicago to-night, to be present at the final rehearsal of “Gandelon,” with which he opens in that city on October 7. Miss Minna Gale goes with him. “Gandelon” is a play in which Mr. Barrett takes a great deal of pride, and he is doing everything in his power to make it a grand success.
The management of the season just closed has been entirely in the hands of Mr. James B. Camp, who has proved his capacity to successfully conduct large enterprises by the result of this one. He has given his personal supervision at every stage, notwithstanding his many other duties as manager of the Fireworks Amphitheater, and has been here, there and everywhere, as occasion seemed to demand, working with tireless emergency for the success which has crowned his labors. It was necessary that he should do so ,as the cost of bringing the Booth-Barrett company was enormous, and the affair required skillful management. All this, in addition to the amount of money required to put up the Auditorium and its accessories, was quite enough to daunt one less grounded in his convictions that such a gigantic scheme could be made to pay. But he put his shoulder to the wheel, worked manfully, and the result is success. The expenses of the engagement were $20,000 guarantee. An estimate of receipts places them at about $30,0000. This would leave $10,000 out of which to pay other expenses and make the profit. It may be stated that if success had been dependent alone on Louisville people, Mr. Daniel Quilp might come out loser; but people from neighboring towns come in in sufficient numbers to swell the receipts to a paying basis – a fact on which Mr. Camp and Mr. Quilp are to be congratulated.
Mr. Camp has embarked in another scheme already, and has, with his usual good judgment, secured the renowned Theodore Thomas orchestra for Tuesday evening, October 29. This will be another important engagement, as it will test the capability of the Auditorium as a music hall, and will probably prove a greater success, proportionately, than that just closed.
In summing up results, it may be briefly stated that the management is much encouraged, and will bend its efforts to show the public how much it appreciates the support received.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Jess Sloss (no changes).
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