The South African man from Benoni who pioneered the world’s first online booking system
Launched in 1971 by Percy Tucker, Computicket was the world’s first fully functional, centralised, and commercially successful computerised booking system.
It revolutionised ticketing worldwide, and its existence owes much to Tucker’s love of show business, a scathing insult from a famous actress, and a formative experience involving ticket scalping.
Born in Benoni on 10 July 1928, Percival “Percy” Tucker’s love affair with theatre began at the age of seven, when he was taken to The Criterion theatre to see a performance of Gracie Fields.
“The seats were three and sixpence, and I remember getting all dressed up and going off to see the famous Lancashire Lass,” Tucker said in a 2016 interview with Theatre Lives.
“The orchestra struck up, the lights came on, and this glamorous blonde lady in a beautiful sparkling blue dress came on stage. I fell in love, not only with her, but with show business.”
Tucker said he was immediately starstruck and stage-struck. He also had the good fortune of living across the street from the Benoni Town Hall, and he soon joined the East Rand Theatre Club.
Unbeknownst to him at the time, the East Rand Theatre Club employed only professional producers. This provided Tucker with an unrivalled theatre education while attending Benoni High School.
A core memory was receiving a tongue-lashing and demotion from the indomitable actress and producer Taubie Kushlick, who told him, “The only thing you’re good for is to be a ticket seller.”
Tucker had recently been made a lighting technician, and during a 1948 production of The Guinea Pig, his assistant flubbed a cue, bringing up a spot on the wrong side of the stage as the lead actress entered.
“Taubie came backstage and used words that I’ve never heard before,” Tucker said. However, the seed about being a ticket seller was planted. He worked with Kushlick for many years after the incident.
Gutted by scalpers
Another formative experience was when African Consolidated Theatres announced a season of eight operas starring Beniamino Gigli and Tito Gobbi.
Tucker was part of a group that queued for three days and three nights outside His Majesty Theatre in Johannesburg to secure tickets.
“We slept on the pavement, played cards, and made great friends,” he said.
Despite being third in line, when Tucker got to the counter, the cashier informed him that all the cheap “seven and sixpence” tickets had been sold out.
Tucker was incensed. “I was a student. I never had two guineas to pay for the best seats. And I was booking for the whole of the Benoni Musical Society.”
Jim Stodel, who had recently taken over as CEO of African Consolidated Theatres, the company his father, Harry, had founded, was standing on stage. Tucker could not contain himself.
“To my surprise, I got up on the stage, and I said, ‘Mr Stodel, you have no integrity. You have no honesty. You don’t know how a booking office should be run.’”
Tucker demanded to know how all the cheap tickets were sold out if he was third in line, explaining that half the music group he was booking for would now not get tickets.
After giving Stodel a piece of his mind, Tucker said he told the CEO, “One day, I will show you how a booking office should be run.”
However, in hindsight, he said that he was still a youngster doing his accountancy articles. How would he know how to run a booking office?
Still, on 16 August 1954, Tucker launched Show Service, a booking office situated at 100 Eloff Street in Johannesburg.
“When I started Show Service, my father didn’t speak to me for a year, as he thought that with my chartered accountancy degree I should make more of myself than a ticket seller.”
The business grew rapidly, but Tucker remained dissatisfied with how long people queued to get tickets. Knowing there had to be a better way, he began exploring computers in the 1960s.
The computer revolution
No computerised reservation system existed at that time. The first electronic booking systems, such as TRS/Ticketron, only emerged towards the end of the 1960s.
These early systems did not work well and were unprofitable, as their clients would only provide 30% to 50% of available seats, not a complete ticket inventory.
During his travels in search of a solution, Tucker saw his first computer in Los Angeles in 1968. However, the trip was a disaster as he found that electronic ticketing was a white whale no one could catch.
Two years later, on 31 December 1970, he heard that UK publishing powerhouse Reed Group was about to shut down its electronic ticketing subsidiary because it was not turning a profit.
Tucker boarded a plane to London that night, negotiated a favourable deal, and relocated the venture’s 12 top team members from the UK to Johannesburg.
“They were all out of jobs, and it was a very cold winter, so we brought them to South Africa in February 1971. Six months later, they had devised a system, and we called it Computicket,” he said.
“I was a very hard taskmaster. I never took no for an answer. Every time they said it couldn’t be done, my answer was that if it can be done manually, surely it can be done by your wonder machines.”
In 1971, he found a company, Sigma Data, willing to test the system on its IBM 360. The world’s first computerised entertainment booking system was unveiled to the press on 11 June 1971.
Tucker’s story made the front page of The Star, but tragically, a drunken driver killed his father that same night. “I will never know whether my father read the article in The Star.”
Computicket launched with four branches on 16 August 1971. Anglo American bought Sigma Data in 1973, and Computicket moved to Anglo’s computer room, which occupied an entire block in Fox Street.
In 1976, Computicket was migrated onto the first minicomputer ever used in South Africa and relocated to its own premises in Marshall Street.
Ticketmaster, the global electronic booking giant that has become synonymous with the industry, was only founded in 1976.
Tucker remained CEO until he retired in 1994. Computicket was sold to Mweb, then a Naspers subsidiary, and later merged with TicketWeb. Shoprite Group acquired Computicket in 2005.
Tucker passed away on 29 January 2021, at the age of 92, due to complications from Covid-19. His partner of 50 years, Graham Dickason, had died in November 2020.
More photos of Percy Tucker
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