A Day of Rest

Day off today, so no news on the rehearsal front (though I did drop by the costume shop to see a fitting for our sumo wrestler--another fantastic creation.)
I thought I would post this, though--an example of 19th century Branded Entertainment. Today it is hard to imagine a movie that doesn't have a tie in with McDonald's or Coca-Cola. Television shows are paid millions to feature products on screen. Of course there is nothing new under the sun. When The Mikado opened in 1885 it caused a sensation around the English world. Within two years over 300 million products were trademarked using Mikado as a part of their name. Okay, that is a slight exageration but I left the book with the actual statistic back at the theatre, so trust me when I say it was lot. Hundreds. Mikado Pencils, Mikado Tomatoes, Mikado Flour, etc, etc. Other companies simply used the characters and lyrics to sell their products, as with Coat's Spool Cotton, which had a whole set of trading cards with all of the Mikado characters featured.

Back to rehearsal tomorrow, and a toe dipped ever so briefly into the pool of Act II.