Perhaps you didn’t know it but it isn’t always the well publicized visiting foreigners who come to this country to do the lecture circuit who make the most money on the lecture platform. There are a group of ladies and gentlemen who barely manage to stay within the public’s eye who barnstorm up and down the countryside, making one night stands at women’s clubs, Rotary meetings and similar gatherings of those who seek to know not too much, who finish up a tour with larger bank accounts, garnered solely by their gift of gab.
Publicity in the newspapers is not as important as you might imagine to the success of a professional lecturer. It is true that names in the news have little trouble in getting engagements but usually they are hired, not for their ability to entertain, but out of curiosity. Seldom do they last more than one season. The group with which this piece is concerned builds up a clientele. After speaking at one place, if they please, they are asked to return and are recommended to another organization. Soon they find what amounts to steady employment.
This busines of lecturing is, with the exception of the theatre, the only form of amassment that has remained unchanged for the past fifty years. It is comparable to old-time vaudeville when an act, having perfected a routine, found that it could be repeated wherever it was played. Every few years some changes might be made, but an act did not experience the problems of the present-day radio and screen stars who can use the same lines or routine but once.
The lecturer has a repertory of three or four speeches and these suffice for at least a season of talking. After a time he can deliver them without notes and soon he becomes known as a fine extemporaneous speaker.
HIGH FINANCIAL RETURNS
A lecturer cannot hope to equal the salary paid a top ranking radio performer but if he is in demand, an income of from $15,000 to $25,000 is not considered excessive. Usually he has an agent who splits fees by arranging all the details and paying his travelling expenses. Hotel bills and meals the lecturer pays himself, but the last is a negligible item as he usually either speaks at meal time or is entertained by the committee sponsoring his appearance. In addition, he can augment his income by magazine writing, and if the speaker has written a good book he can literally sell it from the platform.
Trying to make a living out of the royalties earned from a book has proven to be a difficult task and authors have found that the lecture platform is a lucrative source of income. Authors are in great demand and not only do they make money but it gives the public a chance to see and know them, which means increased sales for their books.
SOKOLSKY’S LECTURES
An example of a not very well known figure who has been unusually successful on the lecture platform is George Sokolsky. This rotund, Buddah-like fellow spent many years in China. He returned to this country and under the direction of a lecture agent went on the road. A bright, alert, lively speaker, he was soon in great demand and this season he has as many engagements as any speaker in the country. His book, “Tinder Box of Asia,” was helped appreciably by his talks and last season, with economics in the air, he did “Labor’s Fight for Power” which Doubleday Doran published. Now he has turned his attention to the Jewish problem and is giving lectures on that topic. On January 18 his “We Jews” will be issued and in the minds of his listeners he will be considered an authority in that field.
Lecturing is peculiar to America. In other countries, speakers to draw an audience, must be nationally known. Over here, we seem to be interested only in what they have to say. American audiences do not mind being insulted, in fact, they expect it, and what more could a lecturer hope for?
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
