Variety (September 1919)

V '"■;-"•■■• .".--" .'-----• .'. gjj ■■■-■•-■- --. - H'W ■■ ■ '■"■ . •;■ • -■ VARIETY . . , U Tim* JMriM Betfitana Published Weekly by VARIETY, lac, ana swyzbiux. madias 8ao>r« New Yerk SUBSCRIPTION ' Annuel .'••.... |5 Foreign *6 Single copies, 15 cents Vol. LVI. No, 2 ' The-lesion of this strike, is that man- agers and artists should not fight One another. If they differ they should arbitrate. . That is the lesson whether the strike has been settled by this time or is yet to be. ——_- H The strike of the Actors' Equity AstI sociation was brought on by the Pro-J Educing Managers' Association. Irre-} 'j. spective of what any manager may say, j Jr that is true. Whether the A. E. A. intended to strike, before or after go- Z^; ing under a charter of the American Federation of Labor, is beside the fact. If the A. E/A demands had been 7 granted there would have been no strike. That the. managers' associa- tion acknowledged the justice of those demands through granting them, and more, to the Actors' Fidelity Associa- tion is proof in itself the A. E. A. was justified in asking for them. e£ The managers will likely interpose,/ if the strike is settled, the reason for their, submission that the American Federation of Labor stepped into the battle. But the Actors 1 Equity had closed several theatres before the stage hands and musicians sympathet- ically took part. " • ... The strike has been simply a matter oi "stick" by the actors arid they stuck. , They stuck to one another, in their - association^ the Actors' Equity. It pre- \v- sented to the managers an amazing situation, the actor that they knew >. itnd looked upon only as an actor, .^sticking together without playing at a ,Ttime when the actor is popularly sup- posed to be badly bent financially, and I doing it for four weeks, without giv- ing the least intimation at any time during that period that they would not stick it out just as long as the man- agers did. Arbitration should be. the thing in show business for any/difference of opinion between the various forces of it, against each other or within them- selves. Seldom should the show busi- ness go to court for its internal af- fairs. Arbitration is much nicer and cheaper in the end. If the managers ; have secured another impression of v the actor, and they must have another impression now, arbitration should be . sought by the manager when the ac- tor makes a demand and also by the artor when the manager makes a de- mand. Arbitration may decide it with greater speed than a strike will, if .. the A. E. A. strike is to be the cri- ' terion of the show business for the future, and no doubt but that it will be. By arbitration for actor's, the legit is not necessarily solely referred to, for a settlement the strike in that field brings arbitration with it, through the contract. It goes for every theatrical field, including' pictures. When the actors are right, be with them and not against them. It's not a good reason for a manager to say that because he never heard before of the actor acting like mad that the actor should not act like this or that to gain something for himself, something'that he would not |' . otherwise gain. The union connection with the play- I ing side of theatricals has accomplished .; things. It has given the actors what he has never had before, many things in fact, but the most important of these is an even break. Though the actor had to fight for it, it was worth fight- ing for. Unionism, according to the manager, means a wage scale. That is nonsense. Unionism means union, unison and concert, not of Or in a wage scale, but of action, whether that is for a scale of wages or reforms. If a union can not regulate a uniform wage scale for its members that would seem to be a matter of trouble for the union itself to adjust with its members and not for the employer to bother over, since the employer is thus absolved, by vir- tue of it, from having a demand for an increase of all employes pressed upon him at one time. With an actor's union it removes the salary question, for at the most an actors' union could do would be to set a minimum wage. The managers pleaded broken con- tracts and a closed shop, besides recog- nition as their three reasons why they would not confer with the A. E. A. for a settlement. The closed shop was mentioned before by us. We think no more of that as a reason now than we , then did. That, again, is a subject more for the union itself to worry over. The recognition naturally is a matter of right and might and determines it- self, always. Broken contracts, how- ever, when pleaded, are open to two constructions, legally and morally. The managers say the actors broke their contracts when walking out of thea- tres. The actors say the managers broke the contracts when refusing to .arbitrate. Who broke the contract will" only he settled by adjudication through a trial and possibly appeals. The point was not and can not be settled by any argument or opinion in an application for a temporary injunction that may have been' granted pending the trial of the action in equity the application was based upon. That is the legal as- pect of the alleged broken contract. And if the actors, through their asso- ciation, were advised by the counsel for that association (A. E. A.) that the managers had violated their contracts with the actor and through that, that the contracts with the managers were no longer in full effect, the actor then walked out of the theatre in the belief he no longer had a contract to work under. The actor may act upon the ad- vice of counsel as well as anyone else. If the A. E. A. so informed its mem- bers through advice- of its attorneys, the actor did not morally break his contract nor did the A. E. A. tell its members to break contracts, nor were the actors in this circumstance to rest under the impression or order that he must give two weeks' notice, for if it is legally decided the manager breach- ed the actors' agreement when refus- ing to submit to arbitration than the manager erred. That is the moral side ot the broken contract allegation against the actor. A strike in labor is like a war of j nations. Neither side will lose nor give an advantage if that may be avoided. That the actors worked while the managers played in this strike does not whitewash the man- agers nor besmear the actor. As a matter of fact, the managers seemed by their idleness to be helping the ac- tor, and about the only thing they missed in doing that during the strike was to make a contribution to the strike fund of the A. E. A. The man- agers were hot aggressive. They set the Actors' Fidelity League rolling after two weeks of-doing nothing, and then set back for another two weeks, waiting for something to happen. It took the managers a week to realize) this strike would be a battle with the! A F- of L,- if going through with it. What position the Actors' Fidelity League will find itself in in a settle- ment is for the future. The Fidelity may be called the haven of the man- agers. It was and is an opposition so-i ciety, an attempt to split the legit actor' through giving the actor an excuse to \ belong to another organization and to ' weaken the actors' union body. The ; Fidelity might be stolen by its mem-! bership away from the managers' con-, trol and then assume any attitude its; members decided upon. But with an! opposition organization the managers \ believe they can bide that time, mean-; while using the weapon-at hand, in this strike, the only weapon the man- agers appeared to possess. Though the Fidelity claimed 2,500 members the j producing managers did not become j wildly enthusiastic over the prospect : of casting Broadway plays from its j membership. —' The cost of the strike runs into the millions when all angles are taken into consideration: the lost money, at the box office, the lost salaries, the losses in accessories and affiliations and the lost time. For the season will open at least six weeks late. And the greatest loss after all may be the loss of the illusion of the stage by the public. The public sees the player in the play upon the stage in his or her character. The publicity given the actors' strike may require some time before the public will forget that Mr. or Miss So and So "walked put" It's the distinctly bad feature of the af- fair, but was necessary. We don't presume to advise the man- agers after the expert direction they have had during this trouble, but it does seem to us that where a body of producing managers are_ joined^ in .a protective organization, that the vote of the members of that organization should be based upon the number of attractions or theatres or both oper- ated by any one manager. Just why a manager with one theatre or one show or two shows and one theatre should have an equal vote on critical ques- tions with a manager of ten theatres and twenty attractions we fail to see. That is the way and manner the Pro- ducing Managers' Association has been proceeding. „ . But it has been a Class A strike. We agree with that. * And let's trust there will never be another, not a strike, to stir up the theatre, dish its dirty water over the public, break up friendships of years' standing, create all kinds of trouble and losses for the theatre and its folk, when arbitration could and would settle anything within the thea- tre's confines with but those of the theatre knowing of it. Let there al- ways be arbitration between managers and managers, actors'and actors or managers and actors, for the legit, moving pictures, vaudeville or bur- lesque. It's the best way, it's>the only way. "•/•■" Sime. Flo Rhienatrom is with the Harry A. Shea office. Belle Gold arrived here Sept. 3 on the Finland. She was with the Over- there Theatre League in Franc'e for eight months, and met with an acci- dent when an army truck collided with the bus she was in. She has now re- covered. Prescott and Hope Eden, mind read- ers, gained the reputation of being the first act to fulfill an engagement by aeroplane when they flew to Syra- cuse from Buffalo last Sunday by aero- plane. They met with three bad storms on the way. They landed safely at 3:10 p. m. at the State Fair grounds, where 2,000 people received them. Magistrate Simpson, in the Jefferson Market Court, New York, Wednesday dismissed the charge of assault made against Miss Ayers by Miss Goerecht. The trouble started in the Hotel Marl- borough, where both were, in the cab- aret. Miss Goerecht claims she was , struck with a pitcher. Following the lead of the dancing masters, the Producing Managers'As- X v ; sociation passed a resolution to ask k the Methodist Church to remove the *■; religious ban on theatre-going, one of " > the three "vices" barred by the church, the other two being dancing and card- • playing. The former was declared ex- > .. empt at the church's national conveh- : vg tion recently, the P. M. A desiring a .Q;. similar ruling when the next meeting ;; takes place in Des Moines next May. The P. M. A. sets forth that the stage) 1 ;^ is an' art, an amusement and an" edu- cation. ■- •.- ' ■ Writing from Berlin, Cyril Brown, ■■ the New York World's correspondent,. _.]■ states that a flood of evil drama has 7 hit the German stage, that it's being inundated with vicious and immoral plays and pictures as an aftermath of the war. This post-war evil is a fault^ , of the populace, however, and not the ::j officials. Camouflaging as "a morality, ' Propaganda film," "The Prostitute's^: laughter" was being exhibited m a •.y picture place on Unter den Linden. In the midst of the show a roughhouse ' started, and almost resulted in blood- shed. A band of soldiers took it upon themselves to stop the show's proce-!:..So dure. The audience resented tluV v interference on the ground of ad- missions paid. The hall was cleared;" however. . A renewal of activities V> the following day resulted in a V. v similar riot. In Munich, where Frank; " Wedekind appeared in "Pandora's". Box," the performance concluded^ in similar fashion. Wedekind him- self is famous, or rather notorious,' £' for his authorizing another piece; -i "Spring's Awakening.": The "Pandora" V: ; thing, however, exceeds the limits of any person's elasticity of mind of what constitutes the propriety of a realistic 1 drama. The management got wind of ; a "demonstration" planned on the part . of the audience. They offered to re^J; tund admissions to anyone who de- sired it. No one took advantage of the offer; The last act saw the grandest::; rumpus, far exceeding the worst ex- ;S pec tat ions of the management. Jo*«ph Burdell, alias Ward, who al- leges former legal legitimate conoeci ^ tions with the show business, is how- reposing in the East 126th street jail as a result of an acknowledged meat- ' rical "gyping," which, while not new, %M has been successfully practised by for-':■':.\ mer swindlers. George Wiley is the '••; complainant. Having answered Bur- dell's advertisement in a local daily. . of July 3, for a job as a comedian, ajtii $35 per week, with a pseudo burlesqut^^ troupe, titled "The Welcome Horned Girls," he was separated from $12.06by. i' ! Burdell, who demanded that sum as railroad fare to the show's opening ■',::■[ date. In the meantime, he was tola ,-; to report to a certain hall for re- hearsal.. Inquiry at that place elicited no information or knowledge on the " janitor's part of Burdell's lease of the place for that purpose. Returning to v the address, where Burdell was known ■ as 'Ward," at 1785 Lexington avenue;,- 1 the victim discovered the bird had * j flown. A month later another "ad," • somewhat similarly worded came to V 1 Wiley's attention and aroused his sus- picion, the -address this time being 65 East 126th street. Accompanied by a. : detective, they posed as easy come- ' onsJHmd were divorced from $15 apiece on a similar excuse. Burdell's arrest followed, although he did not recoigi^ v nize his former victim. Wiley alleges ' ; - Ward and Burdell are one and the same person.' .-.'-vvluitltj A FULL REPORT of shows presented this week under the auspices of the Actors' Equity Association will be found, on pages 7 and 14. •' 1 I i ' s\ mmm .. -^sl f; . : X ' ." '■■■■"'I