Visitors to the more expensive seats are
now supplied with a scented bill of octavo size, which is generally,
in addition, the means of advertising the goods and inventions of an
individual perfumer. Attempts to follow Parisian example, and to make
the playbill at once a vehicle for general advertisements and a source
of amusing information upon theatrical subjects, have been ventured
here occasionally, but without decided success. From time to time
papers started with this object under such titles as the "Opera
Glass," the "Curtain," the "Drop Scene," &c., have appeared, but they
have failed to secure a sufficiency of patronage. The playgoer's
openness to receive impressions or information of any kind by way of
employment during the intervals of representation, has not been
unperceived by the advertisers, however, and now and then, as a
result, a monstrosity called an "advertising curtain" has disfigured
the stage. Some new development of the playbill in this direction may
be in store for us in the future. The difficulty lies, perhaps, in the
gilding of the pill.
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