Horowitz: A Biography of Vladimir Horowitz

pp. 396 - 397

For both his 1965 and 1974 returns to the concert stage in New York, Horwitz stage-managed the ticket sales and publicity. He wanted no mail-order or advance sales. What he wanted, and what he knew people would do, was to stay all night in line waiting for the box office to open. Then, as before, he would send them coffee and doughnuts and generate publicity. In fact, he visited the line personally, after making sure TV and newspaper reporters would be there. “On the evening of November 4, all the variables fell into place nicely. Five hundred people were lined up outside the Met, and it was another cold and rainy night. Horowitz came to Lincoln Center directly from the airport. When his car pulled up, he coyly announced that he would not walk across the plaza because photographers were present and he did not want his appearance to be construed as a publicity stunt. In the same spirit he declared: ‘I’m sometimes frightened of myself! Always when I play, the people wait in line for a whole night to buy tickets. Why does it happen?’”