The Standard Theater Scandal
A theater manager flees a business deal, leaving his cast and crew empty-handed and furious.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John Considine has now secured a monopoly of the theater business in the lower end of the city, and the exit of John Cort has raised a howl among the employees, who want their salary. The transfer of the Standard theater to Considine was effected Sunday and Cort informed his performers that he would not be in the business last night. Early in the morning, Andrew Anderson, who decorated the Standard, got out an attachment on Cort's property, but Constable C. H. Brown could not find anything to levy on. The actors were very angry and five Thespians have placed their accounts in the hands of Rose Robbins for collection. They are F. W. Baker, M. E. DeVaro, Lillie Masterson, Nellie Gray and J. Foster, and the claims amount to $293.50. A reporter had a talk with Cort who said that he could not understand why the actors were so angry when they knew the theater was not doing business and he had no money to pay the accounts.
“John Considine has now secured a monopoly of the theater business... and the exit of John Cort has raised a howl among the employees.”
The volatile, informal economy of the 1890s theater district, where managers could disappear overnight with the payroll, highlights the precarious nature of labor in early Seattle's entertainment 'monopolies'. It recalls the recurring issue of worker wage theft in creative and gig industries.
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