Shortly after the Crosby Opera House was erected in Chicago about 1865, its owner, Uranus H. Crosby, realized it was a financial failure and conceived an ingenious scheme to save his investment. Announcing that the theater was to be raffled off, he sold 185,000 tickets at $5 each and, after the drawing, promptly bought it back from the winner for $200,000. As the stunt made the house popular and successful, Crosby soon recovered the whole $1,000,000 that he had spent to build it.