Playchoice

The gallery gods are dying. People who used to sit in the balconies at the Theatre, now prefer, at the same expense, to occupy the best seats in the gaudy shrines of Cinema. How to fill the emptying baloconies of Broadway's legitimate houses is a troublesome question to theatre managers.

An answer was suggested last week by John Krimsky of Manhattan, president of Playchoice, Inc. He advocated a subscription plan whereby balcony seats for picked plays would be sold at a discount from box-office prices--six plays for $10 perhaps. By the immemorial agency of the bargain he hoped to attract flocks to the vacant rookeries. He had already consulted the Brothers Shubert, was negotiating with other managers.

Playchoice, Inc. is a mature organization, well equipped to conduct such affairs. One day six months ago, youthful, ruddy John Krimsky, bond salesman, sold all his securities. Two days later Wall Street was in full panic but Krimsky's money was safe for Krimsky's scheme: he would apply the book-of-the-month-club system to the theatre. For a membership fee of $45 per season, Playchoice offered a pair of good seats (first to eighth rows in the orchestra) for six plays-of-the-month selected by a critical committee atfter witnessing all promising plays during their out-of-town tryouts. This arrangement delighted everybody. The producers of the chosen plays acquired considerable kudos and business at a time when financial depression was cutting the profits. Indeed, the successful play Death Takes a Holiday was saved from the warehouse only by Playchoice's good offices.

Playchoice has prospered. For January it chose Death Takes a Holiday; for February, Rebound; for March it offered a choice between Topaze, The Last Mile, The Green Pastures. Several hundred enthusiastic subscribers now boost Krimsky's scheme. Among them: Mrs. Archibald Roosevelt, Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Samuel Sloane Auchincloss.

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