In February 1909 there is a running theme in the NYT concerning indecency in the theaters. There have been several letters to the editor complaining about the license being taken by directors and actors, with some calling for censorship or at best a return to the "good old days." In the February 12, 1909 NYT there is a story reporting on a speech given by on Mr. Burnham, President of the Association of Theatre Managers:

Every self-respecting manager would like to be an Irving or a Daly," he [Burnham] continued, "but New York is a town of sensations. It runs wild after a reputation. Let but the word be passed that a play is broad or indelicate, and the town runs wild about it, while some play of merit, bright and entertaining, is laid on the shelf.

"Women are more to be blamed for this than men. No play can exist that is not patronized by women. When `Sapho' was put on a man haunted the box office to get tickets for himself and his wife, because the police had raided it. When the official ban was withdrawn the man returned the tickets and said in apology, `My wife doesn't want to see it now. She says it can't be so very bad after all.'"

In illustration of his point, Mr. Burnham told how while `Sapho' was drawing $18,000 a week, an adequate performance of "As You Like It" brought in only $200 a night. Lester Wallack's widow is now in want, he said, because her husband stuck to the standard comedies at $300 a night, when "Forbidden Fruit" was drawing three times as much."

"The lesson of theatrical history," he concluded," is that the theatre is made by the public, and when the public demands higher things the theatre will respond."

We see the same thing today in movies, music, television, and the Internet, where the "indecency" seems to increase every year (although Gordon Tullock has an interesting take on censorship and how it might have the unintended effect of leading to more of the censored behavior).

The idea that the public drives the theatre might also apply to professional sports where doping is decried on the radio and in the halls of Congress (neither of which directly affect player/manager/team owner wages) even while revealed preference at the events or for telecasts (both of which do directly affect player/manager/team owner wages) show that the public appreciates the outcome of the doping.