A friend sent me this picture of a famous (in Broadway lore) full-page ad that ran only once and only in one edition of The New York Herald-Tribune. Wanna hear the story behind it? Good. In 1961, the notorious Broadway producer David Merrick had a musical called Subways Are For Sleeping that was limping along at the box office, losing business and about to warrant closure. One reason was that the seven major Broadway critics had been indifferent — some, outright negative — about it. So, if only to cause trouble, Mr. Merrick had his staff dig up seven men with the same names as the seven critics. He brought the men in to see the show, wined and dined them, and secured permission to use their names and photos along with quotes about how much they enjoyed what they'd seen.
An ad was prepared and submitted to all seven newspapers…and it would have gotten into all seven, some say, had not a copy editor at one of the papers spotted the hoax just moments before press time. (The tip-off? The photo of Richard Watts. The theatre critic with that name was not black.) The alert copy editor phoned all the newspapers in town and they all pulled it…except that the early edition of the Herald-Tribune was already on the streets. No matter. Merrick secured what he wanted, which was an enormous amount of publicity. The grosses on Subways took an enormous leap upwards and, while the show was never a huge hit, it managed to last out the season and turn a modest profit.
It was a brilliant publicity stunt…and one that Merrick had wanted to do since the idea occurred to him years earlier. What stopped him was that, back then, the critic for The New York Times was Brooks Atkinson…and Merrick couldn't find anyone else with that name. When Atkinson retired, he was replaced by Howard Taubman…and there was an insurance agent named Howard Taubman.
Some called Merrick "The Abominable Showman" and there are those who worked with him who still get migraines at the mention of his name. I don't doubt that all or most of their tales are true…but I do think this ad was a stroke of genius. They don't make them like David Merrick any longer…which is both good and bad.