Show aas Ala sPoor poor yorick capital has seen lis its last theater by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington As washington hurries through summer forced to commute to philadelphia for its major distraction it is faced with a painful prospect of less diversion next fall this city which once boasted of almost a dozen legitimate theaters when it had a much smaller population is about to have the last one that lingered on alone turned into a movie house the old national theater which opened in 1935 was burned and rebuilt tour four times collapsed once is now about to end its legitimate days on an issue which is giving the democratic party equal concern civil rights the actor s equity to which most actors belong won t play here because negroes agrenot permitted in the audience there is talk that the old belasco theater erected in 1895 on madison place facing acme la fayette square may A be reconditioned abc atc and leased to a management which will lift the racial discrimination tice the belasco is currently gov emment property and Is used as a storehouse it the belasco is not re opened washing ton will be theater less baukhage washington s theatrical tradition began early one of the first theaters here was the washington theater at eleventh and C streets it opened in 1804 and its ads proclaiming the grand premiere added in small type no segars are to be smoked during the performance when that edifice burned a second washington theater seating persons was opened in 1821 it boasted numerous im prove ments and innovations in eluding stoves reserved seats improved acoustics no liquor in the box lobbies and facilities for negro playgoers facilities today t satisfy accod would have to be on a basis of race equality fourteen years after the new washington theater had bad opened its doors the national theater appeared on the site of the present movie house to be it is located in the very center of what only recently has been called downtown on E street which meets pennsylvania avenue just before it bumps into the treasury building skirts its northern front and ambles past the white house important clubs hotels and res tarrants tau rants are only a few blocks from the national today but when it was built it was like any other point in the young capital well nigh in accessible in inclement weather when it rained or snowed pennsyl vania vanla avenue became a residential areas except those in georgetown t far from the center of town in the early but because of the rough going the wealthy didn dian t like to risk their fancy equipages out on bad nights it cost as much as 10 to get from home to the show now yon you can ride all the way from capitol hill to what was forest and farmland in 1835 for 30 cents the capital capitals s greatest theatrical development began right after the civil war and went ent on for three dec ades by the time I 1 attended my first show here in 1914 there was no dearth of dramatic entertain ment and sometimes three original broadway companies would be play in different theaters at the same time it was a good town for open ings jp ap until fairly recently there is one theater now a mu seum which is still a point of to in terest for tourists originally it was a baptist church on tenth street in 1861 it was converted into what was called christy s opera house later it became ford fords s theater in the upper stage box of this theater president abraham lincoln was as by the actor john wilkes booth there was a saloon on the corner below the theater where booth was said to have had his last drink be fore he crept into the theater shot lincoln and leaped to the stage tripping on a piece of bunting and breaking his leg for many years over the bar of that saloon bung hung a crude picture of the assassination and on the boor floor was a metal marker where the half mad actor was supposed to have stood as he warmed his courage in preparation for bis his theatric crime washington theatergoers were well acquainted with john booth s acting but better still with that of his elder brother edwin who had the greater talent but they never saw edwin booth on a local stage again he was so heart broken over his brother brothers s crime that he never again played in the capital A theatrical performance in wash ington plays one role that it pi plays aasin in no other american city it becomes on certain occasions few or many according to the taste of the in president a ceremony of state no matter how private a pres ident wants to be when he sees a show he cant can t help being a public personage on such occasions the secret service responsible for his life wouldn t think of letting him sit anywhere but in a box where he is separated from the crowd this on the other hand makes him con bous one guard outside the door to lincoln s box in the ford thea ter could have prevented the as sass sassi mation nation the tact fact that there was no provision for protection by the govern ment in the temple of music in but falo cost the nation its president wilham william mckinley since then the chief exeen has had a bodyguard cheth er he likes it or not and a body guard can t hide its light under a bushel entrance and exit from a public building become a little bit of a pageant no matter how they are effected woodrow wilson loved the theater he liked vaudeville and was a tre fre quent visitor at keith s now one of our big movie houses edmund starling head of the secret service under several presidents talked to me about how much W kon lon loved the theater starling enjoyed it I 1 enjoyed it and perhaps er we exaggerated wilson s affect tion lor for the footlights but starling used to say that wilson got more recreation from that source than any other in his book starling of the white house hs he says wilson pre berred musical comedy and vaude ville to serious drama that was the general impression among the newspapermen I 1 know both the Roosevel ts theodore and franklin were great theatergoers ne ther of them was a blushing v olet as far as receiving adulation of the crowds was concerned but for a number of reasons largely the hectic times of the late roosevelt Roosevel ts s regime the former made his at anywhere more of a show although an assassin s bullet did lay low a man in franklin roosevelt Roosevel ts s entourage mayor anton cermak of chicago when both were visiting miami theodore roosevelt was himself actually shot and badly wounded on one occasion however this was after he left the white house and while he was making a political speech in milwaukee it was the movie which drove out the later washington legiel mate theaters but this death blow to the present day national theater arises out of the growing demand to end segregation a demand which made itself felt after world war I 1 and which in creased in world war II 11 the frequent well publicized con trover sies over lifting of the seg re gation ban in constitution hall property of the daughters of the american revolution and one of the few available concert halls in the city have spotlighted washington s segregation habits they aren t laws the manager of the national thea ter Is not closing the theater for social reasons he simply can t book shows if he continues race and he thinks that if he raises the ban he cant can t sell tickets to enough white people to make it pay to southerners it probably seems absurd that such a question should arise and northerners probably will be just as surprised for the opposite reason washington was once a southern city now it is a mixture of north and south and typical of neither embrace pity then endure before his third party s conven tion in philadelphia henry wallace repeated several times the assertion that he was not a communist that be he didn dian t want communist support to in tact fact that he wished they d get out of his party for this as some observers pointed out wallace was mildly spanked by the daily work er mouthpiece of muscovite Mus kovite corn cam in america it seems to me that wallace Is following one of alexander pope s quatrains in reverse remember pope said vice Is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen yet seen too oft familiar with her face we first endure then pity then embrace I 1 having embraced the reds wal lace seems to be beginning to back up through pity and now I 1 is s ilbak finding ding that he has to endure them whether he likes them or not |