No Admittance

John J. Daly, dramatic editor of The Washington Post, one night last week bought himself a ticket at the box office of Poli’s Theatre. There was a new show on. Editor Daly stood ready to view, then to review it. At the door, Editor Daly proffered his ticket. Up rushed the house manager employed by the Poli’s lessees, Messrs. Shubert of Manhattan. Politely but firmly, the house manager possessed himself of Editor Daly’s ticket, marched to the box office, cashed the ticket for its face value, handed the money to Editor Daly, explained that on no account would the Messrs. Shubert permit Editor Daly to enter their Washington theatre after what he had said in his paper about Artists and Models, a Shubert show on tour which had visited Washington earlier in the month. There was naught for Editor Daly to do but take himself away from the Poli Theatre, naught to console him but the memory of his review of Artists and Models.

The review had been headed: “Artists and Models Found to Feature Suggestiveness—Revue at Poli’s Called Blend of Old-Time Burlesque and Vaudeville, with Vulgarity and Coarseness Striking Numbers.” The review had admitted there were lovely, even exquisite, scenes, but had said that the show wound up “with dirt behind the ears.” Other Washington critics had agreed that the show was somewhat off-color, but only Editor Daly had said: “Evidently everything has to be tainted to get in Artists and Models.”

Manhattanites recalled a time when, for many moons, the Messrs. Shubert similarly banned the rotund, genial presence of Critic Alexander Woollcott* in any of their Broadway pleasure palaces; recalled ruses, disguises, trickery resorted to by the genial Woollcott to deceive the Messrs. Shubert and slip in unperceived; recalled the waning of that feud, a reconciliation and Critic Woollcott’s presence again regularly gracing an aisle seat whenever the Messrs. Shubert had something new wherewith to beguile the public in its idle hours.

*Critic Woollcott has been variously associated with The New York Times, The New York Herald and The Sun (New York).