DIFFERENT WAYS OF ADVERTISING A LECTURE--AMERICAN IMPRESARIOS AND
THEIR METHODS.
_Buffalo, January 13._
When you intend to give a lecture anywhere, and you wish it to be a
success, it is a mistake to make a mystery of it.
On arriving here this morning, I found that my coming had been kept
perfectly secret.
Perhaps my impresario wishes my audience to be very select, and has sent
only private circulars to the intelligent, well-to-do inhabitants of the
place--or, I said to myself, perhaps the house is all sold, and he has
no need of any further advertisements.
I should very much like to know.
* * * * *
Sometimes, however, it is a mistake to advertise a lecture too widely.
You run the risk of getting the wrong people.
A few years ago, in Dundee, a little corner gallery, placed at the end
of the hall where I was to speak, was thrown open to the public at
sixpence. I warned the manager that I was no attraction for the sixpenny
public; but he insisted on having his own way.
The hall was well filled, but not the little gallery, where I counted
about a dozen people. Two of these, however, did not remain long, and,
after the lecture, I was told that they had gone to the box-office and
asked to have their money returned to them. "Why," they said, "it's a
d---- swindle; it's only a man talking."
The man at the box-office was a Scotchman, and it will easily be
understood that the two sixpences remained in the hands of the
management.
* * * * *
I can well remember how startled I was, two years ago, on arriving in an
American town where I was to lecture, to see the walls covered with
placards announcing my lecture thus: "He is coming, ah, ha!" And after I
had arrived, new placards were stuck over the old ones: "He has arrived,
ah, ha!"
In another American town I was advertised as "the best paying platform
celebrity in the world." In another, in the following way: "If you would
grow fat and happy, go and hear Max O'Rell to-night."
One of my Chicago lectures was advertised thus: "Laughter is restful. If
you desire to feel as though you had a vacation for a week, do not fail
to attend this lecture."
I was once fortunate enough to deal with a local manager who, before
sending it to the newspapers, submitted to my approbation the following
advertisement, of which he was very proud. I don't know whether it was
his own literary production, or whether he had borrowed it of a showman
friend. Here it is:
TWO HOURS OF UNALLOYED FUN AND HAPPINESS
Will put two inches of solid fat even upon the ribs of the most
cadaverous old miser. Everybody shouts peals of laughter as the rays
of fun are emitted from this famous son of merry-makers.
[Illustration: AS JOHN BULL.]
I threatened to refuse to appear if the advertisement was inserted in
the papers. This manager later gave his opinion that, as a lecturer, I
was good, but that as a man, I was a little bit "stuck-up."
When you arrive in an American town to lecture, you find the place
flooded with your pictures, huge lithographs stuck on the walls, on the
shop windows, in your very hotel entrance hall. Your own face stares at
you everywhere, you are recognized by everybody. You have to put up with
it. If you love privacy, peace, and quiet, don't go to America on a
lecturing tour. That is what your impresario will tell you.
* * * * *
In each town where you go, you have a local manager to "boss the show";
as he has to pay you a certain fee, which he guarantees, you cannot find
fault with him for doing his best to have a large audience. He runs
risks; you do not. Suppose, for instance, you are engaged, not by a
society for a fee, but by a manager on sharing terms, say sixty per
cent. of the gross receipts for you and forty for himself. Suppose his
local expenses amount to $200; he has to bring $500 into the house
before there is a cent for himself. You must forgive him if he goes
about the place beating the big drum. If you do not like it, there is a
place where you can stay--home.
* * * * *
An impresario once asked me if I required a piano, and if I would bring
my own accompanist. Another wrote to ask the subject of my
"entertainment."
[Illustration: AS SANDY.]
I wrote back to say that my lecture was generally found entertaining,
but that I objected to its being called an entertainment. I added that
the lecture was composed of four character sketches, viz., John Bull,
Sandy, Pat, and Jonathan.
[Illustration: AS PAT.]
In his answer to this, he inquired whether I should change my dress four
times during the performance, and whether it would not be a good thing
to have a little music during the intervals.
Just fancy my appearing on the platform successively dressed as John,
Sandy, Pat, and Jonathan!
* * * * *
A good impresario is constantly on the look out for anything that may
draw the attention of the public to his entertainment. Nothing is sacred
for him. His eyes and ears are always open, all his senses on the alert.
One afternoon I was walking with my impresario over the beautiful
Clifton Suspension Bridge. I was to lecture at the Victoria Hall,
Bristol, in the evening. We leaned on the railings, and grew pensive as
we looked at the scenery and the abyss under us.
My impresario sighed.
"What are you thinking about?" I said to him.
[Illustration: AS JONATHAN.]
"Last year," he replied, "a girl tried to commit suicide and jumped over
this bridge; but the wind got under her skirt, made a parachute of it,
and she descended to the bottom of the valley perfectly unhurt."
[Illustration: THE WOULD-BE SUICIDE.]
And he sighed again.
"Well," said I, "why do you sigh?"
"Ah! my dear fellow, if you could do the same this afternoon, there
would be 'standing room only' in the Victoria Hall to-night."
I left that bridge in no time.