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Show DENVER THEATRES AND THE FLU. THE way the flu situation was handled by the Denver theatre ' managers and employes the other day as told by the Post sets an " example which might be emujated to advantage locally. It is outrageous out-rageous that the theatres should be forced to remain closed with every other business going full blast, and the public is about as tired of it as those directly interested. The Post story reads : t The flu ban was imposed Friday afternoon without warning and as suddenly lifted Saturday morning. In fact, it was off before it was 'j-on 'j-on . When the board of health announced that all the churches, " theatres and schools should be closed no one was prepared for it. Theatre managers were utterly dumfounded. They had not been advised ad-vised that such action was under consideration. They had borne the first ban without complaint, but Friday afternoon they held an indignation in-dignation meeting and on Saturday morning they went in a body to city hall with a following of more than a hundred and fifty of their employes. Their leaders declared they only wanted a fair deal; that if it was necessary for the public health that theatres and all places of pub- lie amusements should be closed they were willing to co-operate, but & they insisted that it was unfair not to close every other line of busi- x ness. They said that closing would mean a loss of not less than $25,000 a week to the theatres, $50,000 to the film exchanges and the throwing throw-ing out of employment of six hundred to one thousand employes. Attention was called to the fact that New York managed to con- , trol its epidemic without closing the theatres, and they cited the ease of the twin cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minneapolis was closed, while St. Paul remained open. St. Paul, they said, had a far lighter death rate than Minneapolis. They insisted that the theatres were on an average far better ventilated than shops and stores and that patrons did not come into as close contact as they did in elevators. It was represented that sick , people did not go to places of amusement, but that persons suffering from incipient cases of influenza had been known to goto work and I stay at work until they had to be carried out. ft The provision that everybody must wear a flu mask made au- l diences Saturday night look like gatherings of the Klu Klux Klan. It is hoped that this simple precaution will be sufficient, because if the ban had again been imposed some of the theatres would have suffered E, a greater financial loss than their owners could bear. Kg' t W1 sk sk H H |
