It was not just the churches
in Hamilton that were closed by the Hamilton Board of Health, that same piece
of legislation also ordered doors of Hamilton’s many theaters shut tight. The Spanish
Influenza epidemic was spreading exponentially in mid-October.
In response, Hamilton
Medical Health Officer, backed by members of the Hamilton Board of Health,
ordered closing of places where the influenza might logically be expected to be
spread indiscriminately.
While many other communities,
including Toronto, did not go so far as closing movie and vaudeville theaters
because of the epidemic, Hamilton’s theaters were ordered to close. Ambrose J.
Small, owner of Hamilton’s Grand Opera, was also president of the Canadian
Theater Managers’ Association, and in the latter capacity, he wrote the
following letter of protest, calling the theater ban in Hamilton unjust and
unwise:
“Editor Herald, - In connection with the
temporary embargo which has been placed on the Grand Opera house and the other
theaters of the city of Hamilton, I respectfully submit that all citizens in
your community should be treated alike and no distinction made as between
places of amusement and any other place of business or quarter of the city
where the public are wont to congregate or assemble for any purpose whatsoever,
as no logic or reason can be found in endeavoring to abate the epidemic in one
place if it is to be encouraged in any other. The Grand and the other principal
theaters of your city are thoroughly well-ventilated and infinitely less
dangerous to the general public than departmental stores, market places, office
buildings, elevators and street cars that are jammed to the point of
suffocation during rush hours.
“I fully appreciate the
sincerity which undoubtedly moved the board of health to take the action in
question, but nevertheless feel that they cannot be fully aware of the very
serious consequences to the managers of the theaters and those in their employ,
and to the members of the various companies booked for engagements at Hamilton
in the immediate future. The business has been brought to a complete
standstill, all employees are thrown out of work, and the incoming attractions
are forced to lay off and lose every dollar expended on salaries to their
performers, customs duties on their scenic productions and advertising material
that had to be paid before they could enter Canada at all, together with the
hundred and one other items of expensive incidental to the transportation and
movement of theatrical companies from point to point in the province of
Ontario.
“It is, unfortunately, a
fact that those employed in the theatrical calling, are not, as a class, saving
people, and I can assure you that in the case of theater employees in Hamilton,
the loss of income due to your closing order is going to be an exceedingly
serious matter in very many cases. I am informed that several have already
expressed themselves to the effect that they will be forced to go to other
cities in search of work, and the disruption of the local theatrical business
that will certainly follow, unless the order is very soon rescinded, will mean
a financial loss to both managers and employees which it will be quite possible
to estimate.
“I would not press this
seemingly selfish point of view if I was not thoroughly convinced that the
opinion of the chief officer of the Ontario provincial board of health, Dr. J.
W. S. McCullough, who expressed himself as not considering the closing of such
places as theaters necessary, is founded upon sound judgment. I respectfully
refer you to Dr. McCullough’s published statement in the Toronto Mail and
Empire of Tuesday, October 8, in column three on page five, and I also quote
you the following from an editorial in the Toronto Daily News of Saturday, Oct.
12 : ‘We do not believe that the range or severity of the influenza epidemic is
sufficient to justify the closing of either the schools or other places of
public resort. Those who are suffering from the disease are at home. Why compel
thousands of young people to expose themselves unnecessarily to infection by
remaining in close touch with the patients?’
“If thought desirable by the
board of health, the management of the Grand Opera House would be altogether
willing, as a matter of more abundant caution, to fumigate the theater under
the direction of the board, at such intervals as they might think proper. By
keeping the theaters open, well-heated places of amusement are furnished to
hundreds of people who otherwise will be forced to spend their time in lodgings
and other places where they will be much more liable to contract colds and
influenza than they would in the comfortable surroundings of the theater. Those
who attend theaters are very rarely face to face, and the danger of infection
is by no means as great as in places where large numbers of people are meeting
face to face. The long, continued wet weather appears to be over, and with it,
we may reasonably expect better health conditions.
“In conclusion, the
theatrical season is a very limited one, not more than nine months of the year
at most, and the earlier portion of it (September, October and November) are the
only months in which the managers of theaters are at least fairly sure of some
profit and a reasonable rate of interest on their investments. After that
period, the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest to the great detriment of
the business in theaters, the three weeks immediately preceding the holidays
being invariably the dullest of the entire year; and once the Christmas and New
Year festivities are over, it is but a short space of time until the Lenten
season is ushered in, and with its advent, the theater is always due another
protracted period of depression.
“I sincerely trust that your
board of health will see their way clear to rescind the closing order and
respectfully submit that in many parts of the United States, where the type of
influenza is much more aggravated than in Canada, all theaters have been
allowed to remain open, with only this restriction : that the members of the
audiences are warned that they must use their pocket handkerchiefs when sneezing or coughing, under a penalty of
ejection from the theater.
Yours very truly,
AMBROSE J.
SMALL,
Canadian Theater Managers’ Association.
Tuesday,
October 21, 19181
1“Letters
to the Editor : Closing of Theatres”
Herald. October 23, 1918
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