Review of the art institutions associated with Károly Somossy in terms of communication

Abstract

This paper is an edited version of my thesis defended at Károli Gáspár Reformed University, Faculty of Arts Administration and Arts Management. I undertake the task of examining the communication of the entertainment institutions created by Károly Somossy, a highly influential figure of the time, from the time of the Compromise to the turn of the century after the Millennium celebrations (1867–1903). In my paper, I will explore the importance of communication, PR and marketing in the modern sense of the term, the tools were available for this, who used them and how, how much audience appeal they had, and whether it is plausible to say that the printed press was the most important communication tool of the period and, if so, how it was used by the entertainment industry. The research method I chose was to compare the popular press products of the time, the advertisements and advertising concepts of the various art institutions, after clarifying the basic concepts of communication. I have preserved the spelling of the period in the quotations. For reasons of space, I compare the data and communication of the largest and best documented institution, the Somossy Nightclub (Mulató)[1] and the Budapest Operetta Theatre, which still operates these days in the same building. This is the building which, for almost ten years, from 1894 until Somossy’s death in 1903, defined our understanding of nightlife, entertainment and amusement, and paved the way in Hungary for the uneducated child of the muses, operetta, to take off on its world-conquering journey.

[1] Since there have been several Somossy Orpheums over the decades, it is important to note that although our greatest operettas were performed in the former New Somossy Nightclub, later the Király Theatre, I am relying on the data of the Budapest Operetta Theatre at Nagymező Street 17, because this institution is still in operation and we have comparable data.