The Complicated Truth About Public Closings
They may only delay the arrival of the coronavirus, but that delay may itself be crucial.
Two days ago—an eon in coronavirus time—the Broadway producer Scott Rudin announced that tickets to some hit shows, including The Book of Mormon and West Side Story, would be available for just $50. “This is an unprecedented opportunity,” he said, “for everyone to see a show that they otherwise might not have had easy and affordable access to.”
In the midst of the great flu pandemic of 1918, a young manager named Harold Edel decided to encourage attendance at his movie theater in the city. It was featuring the new Charlie Chaplin film, , and the crowds were so large that Edel extended its run. The manager was. While other theaters had been shunned, he wanted to congratulate patrons who “take their lives in their hands to see it.”
