American Theatre Versus the Congress of the United States: The Theatre Tax Controversy and Public Rebellion of 1919

Abstract

For eight days in January 1919 the theatre industry was at war with the U.S. Congress, a nationwide event surprisingly overlooked in previous theatre history. Theatre management and its host of workers joined with the public to wage a well-orchestrated campaign in the newspapers and mail, in the theatres and on the streets to stop what was perceived as a gross injustice to the American theatre and its paying audience.When the United States Congress was framing a six billion dollar tax revenue bill to recover exorbitant war costs from the first world war, it attempted to slip in a new tax which would raise theatre admissions by ten per cent in order to return between seventy-five and eighty-one million dollars to the government. The original bill levied a twenty per cent tax on all tickets of admission above thirty cents (thus most movie houses were exempt). In addition box seat holders at theatres and the opera were to be taxed twenty-five per cent.