Like Moths To A Flame: Broadway Show Promotion in the 1920s

In the early years, Broadway show promotion was a matter of money, popularity, beauty, and sex appeal.

In the 1920s most of the Broadway shows like the Ziegfeld Follies and others that copied the Follies' format like George White's Scandals, which offered nearly nude women, relied heavily on word of mouth advertising.

Plus, the nearly constant stream of news that came out of Broadway thanks to Broadway beat writers like John Runyon, and the bright neon lights to attract customers like moths to a flame.

Very little overt advertising or Broadway show promotion was needed to pack the seats to many of the popular shows of the day. The neon lights kept them swarming into the theatres. The beautiful faces kept people coming back.

Women, like the #1 siren of Broadway, Louise Brooks, and others like Marion Davies, Clara Bow, and Barbara Stanwick attracted male visitors and admirers from all sides.

1920s Broadway was the most popular place on Earth

Celebrity was common to Broadway shows. Socialites rubbed elbows with silent movie stars. With the celebrities came the regular folk, who filled out the audiences and went home to states like Kansas or Missouri tell their tales of splendor and high society.

The celebrities who graced 1920s Broadway included:

• Beautiful Silent film star: Gloria Swanson

• Film Mogul: Cecil B. DeMille

• Bootleggers, Gangsters, and Speakeasy Owners: Jack "Legs" Diamond or Owney Madden

• Famous Baseball Player and the Unofficial King of Broadway: Babe Ruth

• The Most "Famous Person Who Ever Lived": Charlie Chaplin

Broadway show promotion was easy in the early years.

New York was a mecca for the beautiful: Vapid Gold Diggers like Davies, as well as the erudite queens like Brooks kept fans flocking to Broadway.

Broadway would never have been the same without the word-of-mouth promotion of adoring fans, rich and famous suitors, lurid tales of lust and sex--the colorful characters of 1920s Broadway.

In those days, show promotion was simple, let the characters be themselves and the audiences will follow.

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