Quotes

The orchestra's place is filled by pianists who labor industriously five hours a day each. As they practically live at the piano, their knowledge of current music and their adaptability and skill are often surprising, but they are the most universally abused men I ever met. Everyone who comes off the stage Monday afternoon says of the pianist that he ruins their songs, he spoils their acts, he has sinister designs on their popularity, and he wishes to wreck their future.

[on the code of conduct in vaudeville theatres] Said a lady to me, 'They are the only theatres in New York where I should feel absolutely safe in taking a young girl without making preliminary inquiries. Though they may offend the taste, they never offend one's sense of decency'. The vaudeville theatres may be said to haver established the commercial value of decency. This is their cornerstone. They were conceived with the object of catering to ladies and children and, strange to say, a large - if not the larger - part of their audiences is always men.