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The New York City Riot Of 1908 Caused By A Free Hat Giveaway
A well-intended promotion to attract ladies to Broadway went horribly awry when it wasn’t planned well
Everybody likes receiving something of substance for free. Accordingly, businesses and enterprises often rely on giveaways to attract their customers. The only problem with this is making sure to have enough freebies to meet the demand. The downside of this was found out the hard way by a New York City theatre in 1908 when they advertised free hats for lady patrons who attended their play, but had to shut the production down when they underestimated interest in their promotion and wound up having to call police to restore order after angry women revolted.
The June 14th, 1908 issue of the Chicago Tribune reported the trouble seen in New York City’s theater district the day before when a well-meaning give away went horribly awry. A production of the play The Merry Widow had announced they were giving away lady’s hats for those sitting in the ground-level $0.50 seat at the matinee showing on June 13th at the New Amsterdam Theatre. 1,200 hats, 28 inches in diameter in hat boxes, were obtained for the event. Believing that men, most of whom would not be interested in one of the freebies, would make up a significant portion of their audience, they were…
