While working as co-editor of the Medical Review of Reviews in 1912, Edward Bernays received a review of a controversial French play, Les Avariés, known in English as Damaged Goods. The play brought Bernays to Broadway and his first public relations success. Soon thereafter Bernays would leave the Medical Review of Reviews and for the next five years work as a theatrical press agent. Bernays said later, "I carried out my first important activity in public relations in support of an actor." ("Emergence of the Public Relations Counsel: Principles and Recollections," The Business History Review, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Autumn, 1971), p.299).
Taboo Topic for the Stage
In 1913 public discussion on the subject matter of Damaged Goods, prostitution and syphilis, was taboo. Even in France several years earlier in 1901 the play could not be performed. Les Avariés was first heard in a private reading held by its playwright, Eugene Breiux at Theatre Antoine. Using the Medical Review to champion the medical issues of their day, Bernays and his co-editor and friend, Fred Robinson, quickly rallied behind the play by publishing a review of Damaged Goods.
Bernays went even further in supporting the play by arranging to underwrite it for Richard Bennett. Mr. Bennett, a leading actor in the 1900s, had been unsuccessful in finding a way to produce Damaged Goods in the U.S.
Techniques Bernays Used for Play Production and Marketing
Bernays raised money by forming the Sociological Fund Committee. Members paid a fee to join the Committee and received a ticket to Damaged Goods as a membership benefit. Bernays also enlisted support from wealthy patrons such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Mrs. William Vanderbilt. These wealthy and powerful people provided public endorsement of the work of the Sociological Fund Committee. The cast of the play performed without pay. According to New York Times (Feb 27, 1913, p.8) any money above production costs were "used to spread the educative propaganda against vice." All of these techniques helped Bernays both circumvent New York City censor, Abraham and raise money for the production.
Bernays' success was in his innovative technique in transforming "the controversy into a cause and recruit(ing) backers who already were public role models," (The Father of Spin, p.7). It was a technique Bernays was to employ successfully again and again throughout his career.
Success of the Play Damaged Goods
Opening on March 14, 1913 Damaged Goods was a hit and played to sold-out houses. A special performance at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. was held less than a month later for members the President's cabinet and Congress. The play ran for 66 performances on Broadway, closing only when the lead actor, Richard Bennett's doctor ordered him to rest.
Bernays did not fund the entire run of Damaged Goods. After the first few performances Richard Bennett, who had acquired the U.S. rights to the play, formed his own "Sociological Fund of America" and parted ways with Edward Bernays. In 1914 Bennett would make a film version of the play. (Today, no copy of the silent film is known.) Bernays would move on to work as a press agent for other plays, most notably, Daddy Long Legs, which premiered in late 1914.
Sources:
- The Father of Spin, Edward L. Bernays & the Birth of Public Relations, by Larry Tye, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1998.
- New York Times, Historical Archives, 1913-1914. (www.nytimes.com)
- Theatre and State in France: 1760-1905, By Frederick William John Hemmings, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
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