FORMER MOTOWN RECORDS PRESIDENT AND SALES CHIEF BARNEY ALES DIED AT 85. LONGTIME ATLANTIC RECORDS AND UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP EXECUTIVE PAUL COOPER DIED AT 76.T
HE NEWS IS FULL OF
“unprecedented”
situations, but Billboard is
126 years old, and we’ve
seen it all — including the
1918 influenza pandemic that killed an
estimated 675 , 000 Americans and shut
down public gatherings in many big cities
for weeks or months. A look at the
magazine’s archives shows that the issues
facing the entertainment business at the
time seem frighteningly familiar. (Back then,
Billboard covered it all — Broadway to
burlesque, circuses to state fairs.) History
may not repeat itself, as the saying goes
— but it often rhymes.DOLLARS AND SENSE
The Oct. 12 , 1918 , issue of Billboard de-
scribed the theater business as “practically
paralyzed” by the pandemic. Some of the
fairs Billboard covered at the time wentahead against the advice of medical experts,
but a representative for a Birmingham, Ala.,
event said, “We feel that the health of the
community is of more importance than the
financial success of the fair.” By the Nov.
issue, as the pandemic began pummeling
the West Coast, Los Angeles theater own-
ers complained that they were being forced
to lose money while “mercantile establish-
ments” were allowed to remain open.LOCKDOWNS AND LOCKUPS
According to the Dec. 14 issue: “Managers
of 14 [Terre Haute, Ind.] theaters ignored
the closing order on Nov. 28 and as soon
as they had opened, they were arrested
and taken to police headquarters and
thence to jail, where they gave bonds.
Six of them, after being released, again
attempted to go on with their shows and
again were arrested. Following the second
arrest every theater became dark.”GARTERS AND GUNS
Livestreaming wasn’t possible in 1918 ,
of course, but performers still needed
another source of income. After numerous
burlesque companies found themselves
waiting for gigs to materialize in a shuttered
St. Louis, during the last days of World
War I, the Nov. 2 issue reported that “a large
number of the chorus girls ... have gone to
work in the adjacent munition factories.”MASKS AND MONKEYS
In October, a Georgia state fair was al-
lowed to take place as long as “everyone
entering the grounds would be compelled
to wear a flu mask.” (Billboard ran a photo
of attendees, saying they “resemble the
old Jesse James gang.”) Two months
later, Billboard reported that some health
experts still derided masks as “poppy-
cock.” But at least one ape wore one: TheNov. 16 issue of Billboard reported that,
“Joe Martin, the famous orang-outang
[sic] at Universal, has been condemned
to a flu mask, his keeper, Curley Stecker,
fearing that his valuable pet would
contract the disease without adequate
protection.” (Editor’s note: Martin was
actually a chimpanzee. Billboard regrets
this 102 - year-old error.)CONCERTS AND CANCELLATIONS
“Off again. On again. Postponed again.”
This wire from a theatrical manager about
a Los Angeles fair planned for November,
quoted in the Dec. 7 issue, could as easily
apply to this year’s concerts. Then, as now,
uncertainty reigned. The Nov. 2 Billboard
ran with this headline: “Influenza Situa-
tion Shows Improvement,” but an issue
the next month reported “recurrence of
malady causes cities ... to again close.”
—JOE LYNCHHistory Repeating: The 1918 Pandemic In Billboard
SMITH:^ COURTESY^ OFPORTERNOVELLI.^ SOMMER:^ BETHGWINN/GETTY^ IMAGES.^VENUE:^DARIN^ KAMNETZ.16 BILLBOARD • APRIL 25 , 20208market_1918_goodworks_corporate [P]_27895752.indd 16 4/22/20 5:17 PM