Successful Throwaway

To patrons of the New York legitimate theater. Playbill Magazine is as familiar a fixture as the man in the tuxedo taking tickets at the door, or the middle-aged lady peddling watery orangeade between the acts. During the season, ushers in 35 theaters--all but the off-Broadway houses --distribute some 240,000 copies of Playbill every week. Although each copy costs the publisher 9¢, and although Playbill must pay each theater for the privilege of circulating there, the program costs the theatergoer nothing. Playbill does such a thriving business on Broadway that it has decided to go national. Beginning Jan. 1, said Publisher Thomas A. Steinfeld, Playbill will also be distributed to theatergoers in San Francisco, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia.

The expansion testifies to the success of the oldest and most unusual throwaway publication in the U.S. Most throwaways are just what the name implies, but surveys have shown that 89% of Broadway theatergoers take their Playbills home --and some 5,000 of them, including two customers in India and one in New Zealand, buy leather binders ($2.50 to $5) with which to preserve their copies. Most throwaways are hurled at the largest possible readership. Playbill has been interested only in Broadway theatergoers, of which there are but 1,600,000.

More than a Program. For all its popularity, Playbill is faced with occupational hazards that no other periodical has to cope with. Although it grosses $1,500,000 annually in ad revenues, its net profit is chronically so low (about $40,000 after taxes this year) that it can afford only a one-man editorial staff: Editor Charles L. Mee Jr., 24, Guest contributors -- Producer David Merrick, Playwright Emlyn Williams, Gossip Columnist Leonard Lyons --are paid nothing at all, or honorariums so embarrassingly low that Playbill chooses to keep the amounts a secret.

Circulation varies wildly, not only from season to season but from day to day.

During the summer, when half of Manhattan's theaters close, circulation plummets by more than 100,000. Saturday circulation (which includes matinee performances) is more than double Monday's, which is not a matinee day and is also a poor theater night. Yet. by the terms of its contracts, Playbill must estimate attendance at 35 theaters with such exactitude that no ticket holder will ever lack a program. To do this, it keeps one man roaming the theater district every evening counting the houses. On the rare occasions when Playbill's man miscalculates, the magazine rushes in an emergency supply of the next week's issue.

More than an Invalid. The decision to go national underscores Playbill's ambition to become something more than just a theater program with ads. For most of its 78 years, that was all it was. Its creator, a New York printer named Frank V. Strauss, started in 1884 with a one-page flyer, pretentiously titled The New York Dramatic Chronicle, that gave theatergoers little more than the cast, inappropriate ads (CHEW WHITE'S YUCATAN GUM) and, by way of editorial fare, bad jokes ("The hen is not a cheerful fowl: it broods a great deal").

Under successive changes in ownership, Playbill has evolved into a slick magazine of 44 to 60 pages, with an editorial content deliberately big enough--sometimes 20 pages--to frustrate quick consumption between acts. The diet is varied: an article by Wall Street Broker Gerald Loeb on theatrical investment, one by New York Times Art Critic John Canaday on the high cost of old and new masters, a disingenuous appraisal by Editor Mee of the coming season ("There will still be shows produced this year according to the old formula: What will please the audience, what will fool the critics, what will be Good Box Office'').

But Playbill's"success is solidly based on the playgoer himself, who seems thankful for it wherever it appears--as Playbill discovered when it invaded Los Angeles last January. Now installed in eight of Los Angeles' 36 legitimate theaters, the magazine hopes to do even better there, and in its new outlets. It is convinced that the stage is not dying but growing. Says Publisher Steinfeld: "We don't believe this stuff about the theater being a 'fabulous invalid.' It's booming in every major city."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.