ABSTRACT
Until the 1960s it was still not unusual to find arts enterprises which were administrated, yet had no designated administrator. Many weekly reps would keep their financial records ‘in a biscuit tin’, and, at best, the administration would be done by an assistant stage manager, or a bit-part actor for one day a week. In numerous ‘collectives’ all administrative decisions were taken by general vote. Pop groups, companies with touring shows, and radical arts groups formed and re-formed casually, often without any clear business agreement; their names, ‘The Wildcats’, ‘John Bull Puncture Repair Kit’, ‘RAT theatre’, ‘Foot’s Barn’, providing a litany to a vanished age.
