In The Last Big Pandemic, New York’s Theaters Stayed Open (But It Wasn’t Business As Usual)

“Royal S. Copeland, the powerful health commissioner of New York City when the [1918] Spanish flu crept in, looked askance at pandemic responses elsewhere … [and] was philosophically disinclined to intrude much on ordinary life. He also didn’t want to freak people out.” So the shows went on, but Copeland instituted some major changes in how they did so — and kept the toll in the city relatively low. – The New York Times