Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

Got a question about Broadway? Then call the Hotline: 1-855-SEE-BWAY

I talk to lots of theatergoers: in focus groups, at the TKTS booth, in the lobby at Godspell, on the subway, on vacation, and everywhere in between.

It's become somewhat of a hobby.

What amazes me every time I talk to them is how much they don't know.  They're not "dumb", by any means.  It's just that there are a lot of myths, urban legends and just plain bad info about Broadway out there.  And since our industry doesn't have megabucks to spend on public service announcements (or rather, the people with the megabucks won't spend it on public service announcements), a lot of this bad information gets spread instead of getting stomped out.

What also amazes me is how fascinated theatergoers are with talking to someone like me who does know what shows are running, who is starring in what show, how to get the best tickets, what time the TKTS booth actually opens, if Hugh Jackman is as good looking as he is on TV,  and so on.  

After disseminating whatever info I have, I also usually direct them to a website or two.

And here's where it really gets interesting (but not that surprising).

That's when they usually complain about the websites, and the lack of easy-to-find info, the navigation, the ads, etc., etc., and they usually say something like, "Sometimes I just want to talk to a person."

You know the feeling, right?  Ever have a problem with a computer?  An airline ticket?  Something outside of your everyday world . . . and all that you want to do is get a person on the phone who can give you the answer to your question, or steer you in the right direction?

Wouldn't that make your whole process more positive?  Maybe it would even make you want to do more of it?

Well, that's exactly what I thought . . . so then I wondered . . . why doesn't Broadway have a hotline?  Why doesn't it have a toll free number that people can just call to find out stuff?  Ivory Soap has one.  Coke has one.

And now Broadway has one too!

Introducing 1-855-SEE-BWAY, the first ever free Broadway hotline.  

Yep, we created 1-855-SEE-BWAY (733-2929) to help answer your questions about Broadway.

It's staffed by a bunch of the nicest Broadway theater lovers you could ever imagine (they also happen to be my staff, in a very Zappos-inspired "we all answer the phone including the boss" structure), and we guarantee we'll get you the answer to whatever question you have about Broadway theatergoing.  

Need to know what's playing?  Need to know at what times?  Price of tickets?  Suitability for kids?  Location?  Parking?  Restaurants nearby?  Sure, we got that.  And if we don't, we'll get it for you.  Promise on our autographed original cast recording of Company.  

Oh, and before you ask . . . no, we're not selling anything.  This isn't about us trying to make any money.  This is about a service that should exist.  And needs to exist if we're going to grow our audience (just like Zappos increased theirs).  

So starting today, the Broadway Hotline is open for biz.  Call it yourself, or give it to your friends, or write it on a bathroom wall for all I care.

Everyone on my team loves talking theater, so we're just taking turns trying to help theatergoers see more theater.

And when people see more theater, everyone wins.

1-855-SEE-BWAY.

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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10 Takeaways from TEDxBroadway

What a day.

Damian, Jim and I had high expectations for the first ever TEDxBroadway, but we were blown away by the presentations given by our big-brained speakers.  It was an exciting and inspiring day and all of us were so thankful to each and every presenter, and especially to each and every audience member who gave up a day's worth of work and $100 to focus on what Broadway could be in twenty years.

The talks will be online in the near (or so) future, so if you're not a New Yorker, then you'll be able to catch them all in their entirety.  

But in the meantime, I thought I'd give you one quote from each of the 16 speakers' presentations that I found memorable/insightful/funny.  And let me tell you, distilling it down to just one was haaaaaaard.

Here goes.

1.  Jordan Roth - "No one sets out to create something unremarkable."

2.  Randy Weiner - "Different is my favorite word."

3.  Neil Patrick Harris - "I find that the more I drink the more I enjoy the show."

4.  Patricia Martin - "We are poised for another renaissance."

5.  Joe Iconis - "I've never actually seen a Powerpoint presentation."

6.  Matt Sax - "I hate to say this, but Broadway is looking a lot like Vegas."

7.  Frank Eliason - "Customer service is about a simple human connection. We've lost that connection in business." 

8.  Kara Larson - "Create the future and let other people adapt to you."

9.  Steve Gullans - "The opinion of 1000 people is better than the opinion of 1."

10.  Damian Bazadona - "Think of Broadway as an idea factory."

11.  Barry Kahn - "What if all Broadway theatres worked out of the same box office?"

12.  Vincent Gassetto - "Schools + Broadway = Infinite Possibilities"

13.  Juan Enriquez - "You would be doing a disservice to the theatre to ignore today's medical questions."

14.  Joseph Craig - "Do not ignore the male audience for Broadway."

15.  Greg Mosher - "You can't Google a broken heart. That's what we need Shakespeare for."

. . . and finally, in my "prologue", I ended by saying . . .

16.  Ken Davenport - "People create ideas, and ideas create the future."

And I am so thankful for all of the people and their ideas that are what made the first ever TEDxBroadway a success.  

I am going to make a prediction now about our future.  You ready?

There will be a TEDxBroadway next year.  

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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My best advice for people who want to start producing.

I was recently asked to provide a quote for a new book about people interested in pursuing a career in the arts, and specifically producing.  The author wanted a pearl for wannabe producers on how to get started in this biz, where $10mm is now a small Broadway musical, and so many shows seem to be about which Hollywood stars you know and can get to hang out with you for 14 weeks.

I typed out a quick quote, and then realized that I've never addressed it on my blog, so I wanted to share it with you as well, since I know so many of you are upcoming and/or currently producing at all sorts of levels around the world.

So here's my attempt at a nugget:

My advice for people just starting out is to . . . start.  Producing sounds like a big, fat, scary word.  But producing really just means getting a group of people together and getting a show on.  Maybe that's Broadway, maybe that's Off-Broadway, or maybe that's in your living room.  It doesn't take millions of dollars to produce something.  Produce whatever you can produce.  But produce it today.

So now that I've given you my talking point of the day, take a moment, all you Producers-to-be, decide what it is you want to start producing today, and comment about it below.  Putting it down publicly, and on this blog, will help you commit to getting it done. 

And before you can even help it, you'll be a Producer.

(Got a comment?  I love 'em, so comment below!  Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!) 

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Favorite Quotes Vol. XXX: How risk in real estate is related to us.

I was chatting with a very unqiuely intelligent two graduate-degreed guy today.  The degrees?  An MBA and an MD.  Yep, a Doctor who could tell you how to live an extra ten years, and then tell you how much those ten years will cost you.

He told me a story about his first class in Biz School, which focused on investing in real estate, whether that meant your own home, or something you were looking to flip.  He said one of the very first things the Prof. said was . . .

If you're not sweating just a little bit each month to make your mortgage payment, you didn't risk enough when you made your purchase.

This quote hit 'home' for me, because when I bought my apartment 15 years ago, I could have had a much bigger place for just a bit more.  I could have made it work, but it would have been a little tougher to make the payments, and I didn't want to risk it.  Well, 15 years later, that other apartment increased in value a lot more than my current apartment.  But I wanted to play it safe, and live comfortably, rather than challenge myself just a bit.  

And I lost out because of it.

It's a great real estate lesson . . . but isn't this quote also true about in everything in life?

If you want to do big things, whether that's write a musical, produce a play, make money in the stock market, or heck, even have a wonderful marriage and family  . . . do you think you're going to get it without a little bit of sweat on your brow every once in a while?  You think you can achieve your dream without that little nauseous knot in your stomach every so often  . . . you know, the one that scares the crap out of you . . .  but also makes you work a little harder to make sure you do get what you want?

Everyone gets scared.  And everyone sweats.

What that Biz Professor was saying, and what I am repeating, is that if you're not sweating, that's when you should really be scared.  

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Advice from an Expert: Vol. XVII. My Mother The Theatergoer.

There's always a lot of talk about the Tonys in the weeks that follow the big show.  What numbers were successful?  Could we give the plays more attention and still hold the audience's attention?  And who fit Katie Holmes into her dress?

But the most important question for the Producers out there is . . . after watching the Tonys, what shows does the public want to see?

All of us in the industry debate this question like crazy.  But what do we know?  Most of us don't have a clue what it's like to be a family of four from the suburbs interested in seeing a show on their next long weekend.  In fact, I would wager that the people making the product in our industry and the people seeing the product are more different than in most industries out there.

But that doesn't stop us from guessing.  

I was in the middle of a heated discussion about my own guesses on what the public wanted to see last week, when I realized it was time to go to the source.  I decided to go to what most advertising agencies would describe as the model of a "traditional" theatergoer:  a suburban female in her 50s-60s who sees 3-5 shows per year, mostly musicals, and pays full price.

And that theatergoer is my momma.  And she's literally been in my backyard this whole time!

I called Mom, who, of course, had tuned in to the Tonys, and asked her if she would write a mini-blog for me about her perspective on this year's show.  Most specifically, I asked . . . "Mom, after watching the Tonys, what shows do you want to see the next time you are in town?"  

Here's what Mom had to say . . . [my comments are in brackets]
 

"I watched the Tony Awards a few nights ago.  I love the excitement, costumes, music - even the speeches.  I often get ideas about what I'd like to see on our next NYC trip.  Before I tell you what shows captured my attention from the way they were presented at The Tonys, I thought you might find it interesting to get a few additional details about my perspective (and some of these Kenneth doesn't even know).  [Yes, she, and about three other people on the planet, call me Kenneth.]

• My first theater experience was 50 years ago when I saw Annie Get Your Gun.  When the stage curtain opened, revealing a real live horse . . . I was hooked!  [When people see things on stage that they don't expect to see: kids, animals, helicopters, it elevates the experience.]
• As a teenager, I was addicted to buying show albums, and also listening to show songs popularized by famous artists.  I loved those album covers and the summaries of the shows on the back (King and I, Mame, etc.)  [Oh, if only popular artists were covering our tunes today.]
• I was a teen in the '60s, which put me in the proper emotional state to grasp the power of music.  It brought people together, challenged their thinking and even caused them to take action (Hair, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar).  

And now, here are the shows that I wanted to see and the ones that didn't interest me (there were many other shows that I had no opinion on - I'd have to learn more before putting them in the "to see" or "don't see" category).  It's important to remember that this is based solely on what I saw on the Tonys.  I might not see any of these shows, or I might see them all.  A lot of things may change my mind before I get to New York next, including what Kenneth thinks I might like to see or not.  [Good ol' fashioned Word of Mouth trumps all, and I can't believe she called me Kenneth twice in this blog.]  

SHOWS I REALLY WANT TO SEE!

Memphis:  The music and the dancing were so exciting, this is at the top of my list.  (I have to admit that 'Listen to the Beat' sounded like Hairspray's 'You Can't Stop The Beat.' but I loved the music and the dancing in that show, too!)  [Music, dancing . . . the keys to an audience-pleaser of a musical.]

Fela!:  I love the costumes, the music and the dancing.  The story (about using music to communicate) also seemed very interesting to me.  [See her comment about growing up in the '60s.  What our audience lived through helped make them who they are today and influences what they want to see.]

Million Dollar Quartet:  Loved the music and the story idea and Levi Kreis's performance.  

Red:  I really liked the premise about the importance of art and what I saw of both Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne.  [Mom was disappointed to hear she wouldn't get a chance to see this show because of its limited run.  I told her if she was disappointed, imagine how the Producers must feel.]

NAH, I'LL PASS

American Idiot:  To me, it seemed like a concert, and not a show.  I've heard about Green Day because my other son is in the music business, but I've never listened to any of their music before.  The music was interesting to me, but I'm not going to play it in my car anytime soon. 

A Little Night Music:  I don't know this show very well, so I can only base my thoughts on what I saw, but I wasn't inspired.  I love 'Send In The Clowns,' but I didn't learn anything else about the show through the performance."
 

So there are Mom's Tony Award Takeaways.

Now please remember, this is only one Mom's opinion. And the opinions expressed here by my Mom are solely my Mom's and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Moms everywhere or even me.

But she's a Mom with a Mastercard, and she uses it to buy tickets.  So maybe we should listen to all of the Moms out there more than we listen to those of us on the inside of the business.

So . . . what did your Mom think?

[Update:  My mom came into the city this weekend unexpectedly.  Although she wanted to see Memphis, she ended up getting Chicago tickets instead (and special thanks to Michael at the Ambassador BO for helping her out).  Why?  "I thought your step-father would enjoy it more."]

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XVI. My Mom.

I spoke to a recent college grad the other day who was debating the question that we're all faced with as we start our professional lives:  "What do I want to do with my life?"

I remember asking myself the same question when I was a few years out of school, because I was bouncing around from job to job and just didn't feel like I found my niche.  I acted, I stage managed, I worked for an agent . . . nothing seemed to fit.

So, I did what recent college grads do.  I called Mommy.

I told Momma Davenport that I was thinking of quitting my job because it didn't feel right.  Then I started feeling guilty for having tried so many things, and asked her when she thought I'd figure out what I wanted to do?

Mom said, "Hey, think of it this way.  With every job you have, you may not be figuring out what you want to do, but at least you're figuring out what you don't want to do."

She was right.  And to use an analogy that my instructor for my Princeton Review SAT course would be proud of . . .

Life is like the SATs.  If you don't the answer right away, eliminate the wrong ones, and the choice will be easier.

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The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social is TONIGHT, and it's SOLD OUT!

Free drink!  Door prizes include show tickets, merch, a 6-month subscription to PerformerTrack Webware, and a Kindle!

Click here for details.(please note, due to overwhelming demand the Social will now at be Hurley's Saloon)  

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XV. The BROTHER of the original Producer of Finian's Rainbow chimes in.

On Monday, I posted an article written by Lee Sabinson back in the 50s.  My press agent remembered that Lee's brother, Harvey, was just a tad bit involved in the commercial theater as well.  Yep, Harvey Sabinson worked at The League for twenty years, including a stint as its Executive Director, and worked on Broadway for over fifty!  (Just look at those credits!)  

A press agent by trade, Mr. Sabinson most famous client was . . . Mr. David Merrick.

That means that Mr. Sabinson worked on the Subways are for Sleeping ad campaign, which has been much-ballyhooed on this blog  (you may remember that we had some feedback on the blog from another of the creators of that campaign).

Well, my press agent sent Mr. Sabinson my blog, and like any great former flack, he responded right away (if only all of our current press agents would respond so quickly).  

His response was so fitting, that I thought I'd post it here.  So, here's another expert, giving it to us straight.

Thanks so much for sending me the souvenir book piece written by my brother almost sixty-three years. I remember it well. I was an ATPAM apprentice to Samuel J. Friedman on the original production. Last week, while in New York, I was Jack Viertel's guest at a performance of the show, which evoked a lot of memories.

But what amazed me was a list of about twenty producers presenting a revival of a show that only two guys did so long ago (and one of them was only an investor). I also bought two tickets for one of my sons for a total of $244. The original orchestra top was $6.90 of which 90 cents was tax.

You're not the only one who thinks that both of those things are "amazing," Mr. Sabinson.     

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The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social is tomorrow, and it's SOLD OUT!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

Click here for details.(please note, due to overwhelming demand the Social will now at be Hurley's Saloon)

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XIV. The original Producer of Finian's Rainbow speaks from beyond the rainbow.

My assistant, Melissa, who has been super busy processing all the Social RSVPs, stumbled upon a Finian's Rainbow souvenir program from the original production at a flea market last week.  She snatched it up for $10 and brought it in for show-and-tell.

She found a pot 'o gold on the last page, left to her by that lucky leprechaun, Lee Sabinson, the original producer.

Lee wrote an article on the last page which he titled, "So You Want To Be A Producer."

Lee passed away in 1991, but his legacy lives on, with the production of Finian's currently on Broadway, and with this witty and still relevant article on Producing, which we've transcribed for you below.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A PRODUCER

By Lee Sabinson

It looks so easy to be a Broadway producer that almost everyone who ever heard the word Theatre wants to be one.  I don’t blame them.  They don’t know that producing is a certain path to ulcers, baldness, gout – if you’re lucky, for that’s a rich man’s disease – and other innumerable disasters that will not be listed.

After all what does a producer have to do?  Very little!  Find a play, raise the money, cast the play, raise the money, check the production, raise the money, find a theatre and raise more money!

Now you’re on your way.  Finding a play is a simple thing.  One little note in a newspaper that you’ve opened producing offices and you’re swamped with such items as “Bertha” a sequel to “The Sewing Machine Girl,” “Icecast,” a melodrama with four people and one set that takes place in the Antarctic during winter – you can save on your electrical equipment this way.

I started as a producer because I couldn’t get a thirty-five dollar a week job reading scripts for an established producer.  I tried to find a play only to find that the well known authors were submitting plays to well known producers.  I had to turn to novels – “Counterattack” and “Trio” were the results of reading galley proofs.  “Home of the Brave” reached my partner Bill Katzell and myself only after a great many, more established producers turned it down.  So finding a play presents no problem.

Getting “Finian’s Rainbow” was no problem.  The authors were almost unknown.  E.Y. Harburg did the lyrics for such shows as “Bloomer Girl,” “Life Begins at 8:40,” “Walk A Little Faster” and for such movies as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Song of Russia,” “Cabin in the Sky.”  Fred Saidy, who collaborated with him on the book, co-authored “Bloomer Girl” and has screen credit for innumerable pictures.  But these boys are novices, there would be no competition.  The man who wrote the delightful music for the show, Burton Lane, wrote the score for “Hold on to Your Hats,” and one of the Olsen and Johnson musicals.  So he wouldn’t be difficult since he was unknown.

The day after I read the book I landed in California where the three – author, lyricist and composer were whiling their time away in the sunshine and earning a measly couple of thousand a week.  I offered them the opportunity of a Broadway production and they immediately left their spot on the beach, their beautiful homes and hopped a train for Broadway.  You see all the producer need do is mention that glamorous word Broadway and the world is his.

Came the problem of finding a director.  I knew Bretaigne Windust, who had staged “Trio” for me.  Windy presented no problem.  No one wanted the services of the director responsible for such hits as “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Life With Father” and “State of the Union.”  That is no one but Warner Brothers to whom he is under contract, and seventeen other producers.  But Windy wanted to come back to New York so that he and his wife and youngsters could move from hotel to hotel every five days.  There’s nothing like the excitement of finding a hotel to live in in New York.  These prospects so enchanted Mr. Windust that he decided to direct “Finian’s Rainbow.”

We next proceeded to raise the money.  Investing in musicals is a certain way to double your money.  So all you do is call up people with money who rush to your office immediately, their pockets bulging with United States currency and kill each other trying to put it on your desk.  The backers are now cast.

By now your job is jelling.  The show is in rehearsal.  All you have to do is find a theatre.  Do you know how hard it is to find an apartment?  Well there are nine hundred thousand apartments to every legitimate theatre available in New York.  But suppose you find a theatre are you through with the wonderful, easy job of being a producer?  You’re not!  You’re just starting out!  There are the critics out of town and in New York to get by.  If your reviews are good out of town you wonder if the New York critics are going to come waiting to see the arrival of a new Messiah.  If they’re bad you’re afraid the critics will come in bored or something.

But “Finian’s Rainbow” got rave reviews on its tryout and rave reviews when it opened.  So you think the job is done?  Now you sit and worry about how you can cast your road company as perfectly as that on Broadway.  And when you’re through worrying about that you have one or two other worries.  The show is a hit.  But you’ve got to do another show.  Where are you going to get the next play?  And so it starts in all over again.

If there are any prospective producers among the readers of this piece who let my words discourage them…they were not prospective producers at all.  For truth to tell, with all the headaches and heart aches, you feel you want to be a producer.  Well, I’ll tell you a secret, so do I.

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Only 3 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here for details.(please note, due to overwhelming demand the Social will now at be Hurley's Saloon)

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XIII. What is The Broadway League?

I mentioned The Broadway League in a post recently, and a new reader dropped me a note asking just what the heck "The League" was. 

I was in the middle of composing my own response, when I realized that I had a few questions about the League and its history myself.  So I decided to call in an Expert for all the answers!  

So, here she is, Ms. Charlotte St. Martin, the Executive Director of The Broadway League (and #19 on BroadwaySpace.com's list of Broadway's Most Powerful People) with a guest blog on The League.

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In 1930 the brand new League of NY Theatres stated in a document called "The Primer of the League of NY Theatres"  that "a new stimulus is being given to the Theatre in general as a result of the formation of the League.  While that was 79 years ago, it would be safe to say that the League still does that.  And the purpose of the League at that time, "that the public may be assured of better theatrical conditions, greater convenience in purchasing theatre tickets and a vigorous policy by the Members of the League to place the American theatre in that high position which it deserves to hold in the community" would still hold true today and would be a great mission statement today, as well as then. 

Other stated purposes at that time are still quite relevant today. 

- To eliminate theatre ticket speculation and to protect the public from the exorbitant charges made by ticket brokers for desirable locations. 
- To make theatre going easy for the public. 
- To make it possible for the public to buy tickets for good seats at theatre box offices. 

Even though our name was different then, it is not without merit to mention that one of the key goals of The Broadway League today is not so dissimilar. We have a committee that has been working on an initiative to educate consumers on a national level about "How to buy a ticket from the official sources of Broadway" to insure that our theatregoers are getting what they pay for!

In addition to New York producers and theatre owners,  members of The Broadway League also include the presenters of Broadway in over 150 cities and 250 venues across the country. The organization is a member-driven trade association representing the commercial theatre industry in those areas most important to them including: 

1.  Labor

We negotiate with the 14 unions representing Broadway in NYC.

2.  Marketing and Branding 

Through audience development programs such as Broadway on Broadway, Kids' Night on Broadway and Back 2 Broadway, one of our key goals is to introduce new audiences to theatre through education and opportunities to experience live theatre.  In addition, another key goal is to differentiate a Broadway show from other forms of live entertainment, and the branding campaign launched last year entitled "Now that's Broadway" is the face of that initiative.

3.  Government Relations

We communicate the needs of commercial theatre with our local, state and national elected officials.  Whether we are working on improving the traffic pattern for NYC, or fighting the attack on our wireless devices with the FCC, we are there to represent the needs of our members. A key new initiative is to work with our lobbyists in Washington D.C. to create tax incentives for the producers of commercial theatre, which ultimately creates a significant number of jobs across the country.

4.  Conferences and Forums

We host meetings, conferences, forums, and other types of events which are opportunities for our members to learn, network and solve industry challenges.

5.  Research

We maintain historical data on individual playhouses and productions - the Internet Broadway Database (www.IBDB.com). The League is "the" source of information about commercial theatre that is important to our members. We collect weekly box office grosses for Broadway and Touring Broadway, and provide research reports on the demographics of the Broadway and Touring Broadway audiences as well as Broadway's economic impact.

6.  Tony Awards

As co-presenter of the annual Tony Awards which are aired on CBS-TV, the awards recognize excellence and provide national exposure for Broadway.

Over the years we have been quite active in a variety of issues. We convinced the N.Y. State Legislature to drop proposed draconian censorship laws, spearheaded a boycott of segregated playhouses, fought McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist by refusing to shutter productions because of artists' political views,  collaborated with the theatrical unions and the City of New York to create a pension plan for Broadway employees, plus so much more. 

The more things change, the more they remain the same? No!  Perhaps our mission in fulfilling the needs of our members and theatregoers has remained the same.  But as those needs became more complex and diverse, so has the evolution of our organization into a modern way of thinking and one that yields positive results to better our industry.

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For more information on The League, including how to become a member, visit www.BroadwayLeague.com 

 

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XII. My own (M)ad man speaks again!

Boy, you loved last Friday's post from my reader who worked at Blaine Thompson.  I had more emails about it than I did about Piven when the fish story broke.

Since you loved it so much, I thought I'd give you some more.  This guy is like a treasure chest of theatrical lore.  Here are a few more comments from him about the infamous opening night routine at the agency:

On opening nights, producers, press agents, backers, general managers, actors, etc would come up to our office on the 8th floor of the Sardi's Building to wait for the reviews to be called in by our "friends" who worked in the press rooms of the newspapers.  The phone calls were put on speaker phones so all could hear - good, bad, or indifferent - before they were sent to the composing rooms to be set in type.  This practice may still exist at the current ad agencies.

On occasion there was more drama and excitement those nights than on the stage the previous few hours.  One night the author of a play which was very harshly reviewed became so distraught after hearing one devastating review after another that she tried to throw herself out of a window.  She had to be physically constrained.

Another time the star of a play that had just opened became inebriated and chased one of our young account people threatening to beat him up.  The show's press agent (who had been a boxer in his youth) actually knocked the actor out to stop him.  Just one punch.

I don't think it appropriate to name the people involved in an email.

I love the way that new media has exploded, but if there was ever an argument to restore the power of print and blow up the internet, it would be to experience one of those late night meetings at an agency before the papers came in. 

Oh, my guy also ended that story with this:

Blaine Thompson was a very interesting place to work.  And there are 
lots of stories.  Maybe a book?

Uh, yes.  Absolutely.  You guys would read it, wouldn't you? 

Aren't you dying to know who the puncher was?