AA in the Theater

EXCEPTING FIRE and bad third acts there is nothing so feared in the theater as alcoholism. Long before it was known for the disease it is, it afflicted many of the brightest stars of the stage, as well as countless lesser performers. Those with long memories assure me that it was a scourge fifty or sixty years ago. They add grimly that it has become far more epidemic and virulent in modern times. Since it respects neither talent nor fame, it keeps a large part of Broadway in constant jeopardy and wrecks both promising productions and careers.