The Theater: $500,000 Down

For nearly three years the ten owners of Life With Father sat tight and looked haughty. They were in no hurry: oil was gushing in their own backyard, and Hollywood's checks could be waved away. The ten owners—Producer Oscar Serlin, Adapters Lindsay & Crouse, Mrs. Clarence Day, John Hay Whitney and the rest—saw Life With Father gross $973,000 on Broadway the first year, $860,000 the second, could still count on a tidy sum the third, while road companies grossed $2,000,000 more. Inwardly they rocked with laughter thinking of the $15,000 Warner Bros, had...