Heavy on the Red

Trying to get rich by backing a musical show is like betting the bankroll on the daily double. Despite the odds, American Legion officials got the notion about two years ago that the Legion could make some money backing a touring revue. The result, a flag-waving extravaganza called Red, White and Blue, was weary, flat, stale and exceedingly unprofitable.

Backed by $300,000 in Legion funds, the show opened last October in Los Angeles. It was a professional production but an obvious flop. It wheezed eastward, losing money steadily, except in such Legion strongholds as Indianapolis and Topeka. In Chicago, the Legionnaires decided not to let the deficit get any bigger. This week the show folded up.

If it had beaten the odds by breaking even, Red, White and Blue would have been just another lackluster revue. But it lost at least $600,000, and thereby achieved a certain distinction. Except for 1926's The Ladder, which a free-spending angel kept running through two Broadway seasons in a nearly empty theater, Red, White and Blue was the costliest flop in U.S. theatrical history.

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