Before we get to the advertisements, there is one other thing all these programs have in common- rules! Safety and etiquette were enforced in theatre programs both to heighten the visitor experience, but also to protect all involved in the case of theatre fire. Theatre fires have been, historically, some of the most deadly public disasters, with the 1883 Victoria Hall Disaster killing 183, the 1903 Iroquois Theatre Fire taking the lives of 602 and the 1927 Laurier Palace Theatre Fire killing 87.

The Iroquois Theatre Fire led to the implementation many safety innovations in theatre construction, including doors with panic bars that opened in the direction of egress (two protections against the stampedes that took so many lives). These theatre programs, from the early 1920s, feature diagrams and instructions against panic: “Do not try to beat your neighbor to the street.”

(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)