Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1899 — $70,000,000 for Amusements. [ARTICLE]

$70,000,000 for Amusements.

“There are five thousand theaters in the United States if we count all kinds,” writes Franklin Fyles, In the Ladles’ Home Journal. “More than' two thousand are fairly classable as legitimate, and over one thousand more are devoted to vaudeville. The two thousand others taper off in various ways. To estimate the capital invested In all this theatrical property is difficult But about $100,000,000 is invested in three thousand first-class legitimate theaters. That Is an average of $03,333 each, which hr low enough, some costing as much as $500,000 each. It la equally hard to compute the money paid by Americans for theatrical amusement. Separate audiences yield from absolutely nothing. In extreme cases of failure, to as much as $20,000 at an exceptional performance of opera. A conservative calculation Is that the aggregate reaches $70,000,000 a year. Not less than one and a half million persons sit In these theaters each weekday night in the season of at least eight months.”