Taking One’s Own Medicine

It is nothing nowadays to pick up a copy of the Billboard, or any of the papers devoted to amusement interests, and read the cards or wants of professionals. But it was not ever thus, as I well recall. Now you may read the personal address of John Drew and Jim Flake - good on either end - side by side, followed by the announcement of Maude Adams and Gertie Glue.

While with Newcomb & Arlington at their minstrel hall on Twenty-eighth Street near Broadway in 1871, (11) I became the New York correspondent of John Stetson’s Sporting Times, writing on theatrical matters and incidentally looking after some of the Boston publisher-and-manager’s other interests, considerably to my profit and a good deal more to my satisfaction. (12) Being so pleased with New York, I elected to remain in the large town and not accompany the black band on tour. As it resulted, I was the better off for it financially. But the “X a week” for the letter from Stetson would not permit one to hang on to Gotham except by the eyebrows. So, to add to my income, I contributed a series of humorous statistics to the New York Sunday Mercury, now extinct but then a powerful and highly profitable and successful newspaper. It also issued a country edition with the “Sunday” omitted and a large share of the extra issue devoted to amusements in an endeavor, a vain endeavor, to compete with the New York Clipper. (13) And, by the way, I also wrote for the Clipper.

Fortunately, during the summer, John Stetson came to town and I made his acquaintance to considerable advantage, selling him a serial and getting thereafter many jobs that he was glad to put in my way and I was joyful to execute. Stetson was coining money and paid liberally. Although the ex-pedestrian was a terror to some of his employees, we never had a word and I was never more fairly treated by anyone for whom I shed ink.

Occasionally I was called upon for special writing or attention to some manager’s or star’s interests and I did not scramble for existence by any manner of means. But I had to spread lots of ink on paper to foot my bills. It cost a pretty penny to live in New York and keep up with the procession.

Some professional people were not loath to announce in the Clipper that they were “resting” or had “open time.” A good many, in fact, of the younger performers and actors and managers were also tooling their teams and trying to sell their claims. That was what aroused the cupidity of the Mercury folks in seeking to trespass in the Clipper’s field of tall grass.

The growth of amusement advertising in the Clipper was slow and it was some time before local managers used it as a medium or lent it any encouragement. Laura Keene was the first to lead the way. Being an Englishwoman, she, of course, was a reader and a believer in the class paper because she appreciated its value by the knowledge and use of the London Era. And it may be remarked that the Era was originally modeled in the same type as the Clipper and was devoted to sporting matters and amusement interests as well. Later, the Era dropped the sports.

Living at the St. Charles Hotel, 648 Broadway - the circus headquarters - I came in contact and acquaintance with many advance agents of the tent shows and was a welcome visitor to Room No. 1 where they gathered to exchange stories and boast of the triumphs of the past season. A smart, sharp, jolly lot they were. And I wrote them up in the circus number of the Clipper in a big spread entitled “Room No. 1, A Night with the Circus Folks.” (14)

By the time my yarn was in print I was ready to follow off a red wagon and, being an advertiser, I took my own medicine and inserted the following card in the Clipper:

To Managers of First-Class
Circuses and Menageries
CHARLES H. DAY
New York Correspondent of the Sporting Times, Author of “Humors of Show Life,” published in the New York Mercury; also “Alice Drayton,” “Jersey Blues,” “Actress and Minstrel,” “Up Hill” and numerous other novelettes, can be secured as

WRITER
For the Tenting Season of ‘72 and ‘73 by any Responsible Management. Five years’ experience as an Advertiser. Two years Agent and Business Manager with Miss Laura Keene. Address care St. Charles Hotel, 648 Broadway, N.Y.

When the announcement came out in print, I was called to account and “read out of meeting” by the sticklers, who looked upon advertising for an engagement as non-professional. And I believe that I would have been put under the ban and ostracized but for the fact that I was earning a dollar and could be touched to a limited extent. Even some of my circus friends shook their heads and remarked, “I would like to see you get into the business but that is not exactly the way to do it.” Those who did not like me somehow just sniffed and turned up their noses and remarked: “Upstart!” “Mr. Fresh!” “Bran’ new!” “Oh, what a gale!”

Well, being an advertiser, I did not feel guilty of any crime; and if I had disregarded the ethics of the profession, the matter was already past mending. I couldn’t see why I should go barefooted because the shoemaker’s wife did. And I knew that even doctors and lawyers had no objection to publicity without expense; so where was the greater sin if you paid for it? I did not cry over the adverse comments of my carping critics. Neither did I smile, I will admit. I was firm in the opinion that to ask for what you wanted was very proper. A personal experience satisfied me for I had proved the problem by replying to an advertisement by Laura Keene in the Clipper and securing the engagement invited therein. Certainly there could be no harm in the agent’s advertising; the manager needed the service and the agent needed the situation. The newspaper column served as the means of communication. That was the way I looked at it. All the good things of the amusement press are not for the manager alone.

For all the warnings of the false prophets, my want was supplied; and through the Clipper announcement, added to the influence of Mike Coyle, I became director of publications for John H. Murray and remained in his employ for four years. (15) And I am quite sure that neither Murray nor Coyle thought any the less of me because I advertised.

After that, when I was “at liberty,” I made haste to herald the fact and always successfully. In fact, I found such publicity better than direct application to a manager, circus, theatrical or minstrel. If a manager is much in need of you, he may wire in haste; but if you write, he begins with the shrewd palaver, “I think it might be possible to use you at a moderate salary. You see, etc., etc., &c., &c.” Having time in correspondence, the applicant is held at arm’s length and negotiated with. The advertisement of the agent or the performer opens competition to the advantage of the advertiser.

I am free to admit that up to a much later date in after years my occasional cards in the show sheets were a subject of sarcastic comment. In advertising to gain the object sought, I tried to make the announcement catchy, just as much so in my own interests as if I was penning it for an exacting manager. And why not, pray? I recall one of mine in the columns:

CHARLES H. DAY
AND
HIS PEN
CAN BE SECURED
Wasn’t that cute? It got me an engagement. And I’ll tell you the rest of it frankly; the very next week appeared an advertisement similar to this:
BILL ROCKS AND TWO PENS
can be secured for the concert of any circus that pays salaries and
does not feed the troupe on monkey bread.
I never knew the result but I will wager the fellow did not get lost in the shuffle.

Footnotes

11. Newcomb & Arlington opened at the lower Apollo Hall, located on the north side of 28th Street, N.Y.C., a few doors west of Broadway, which they had fitted up for a minstrel hall, on April 17, 1871. Newcomb performed as Tambo, Arlington as Bones.
12. The Sporting Times was a Boston publication from 1867 to 1872. It was revived with a shortened format from 1884 to 1886. Stetson was a millionaire publisher, who at one time had been a champion ten-mile runner and had given pedestrian exhibitions in the circus ring.
13. The New York Clipper was first published on April 30, 1853, by Harrison Fulton Trent to serve as a theatrical and sporting weekly. Sporting subjects included boat racing, prize fighting, baseball, pedestrianism and even checkers. The paper’s theatrical focus increased during the 1860’s until, practically speaking, it was the only periodical in America dealing with show business news throughout the decade from 1865 to 1875; and it continued in the forefront as such until competition from the Billboard and Variety forced its demise in 1924. The paper was sold to Frank Queen in 1855. Under his guidance, the Clipper befriended the popular amusements of the day - minstrelsy, circuses, variety halls and concert saloons - neglected by other publications and became known in the trade as “The Old Reliable” and “The Showman’s Bible.”
14. Day’s article, “Room No. 1, or A Night With The Circus Folks,” appeared in the April 18, 1874, issue of the New York Clipper.
15. Mike Coyle was treasurer for John Hayes Murray in 1871, contracting agent in 1872, and general agent in 1873. Day’s first season with the show was in 1872 as press agent. From 1866 to 1871, Murray was in partnership with Den Stone under the title of Stone & Murray’s Circus. Murray then became the sole proprietor through 1878.


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William L. Slout and Circus Historical Society, Inc.