The New York Clipper (June 1919)

Junfe 4, 1919 THE NEW YORK CLIPPER A,E.A.TO APPEAL TO U.S. IF MANAG ERS WON 'T ARBITRATE Heads of Association Reported Preparing to Place Matter in Hands of Labor Department in Order to Get Discussion of Issues. Standard Salaries Suggested by Managers. Should the Producing Managers' Pro- tective Association flatly refuse to arbi- trate its difficulties with the Acton' Equity Association, it was rumored Monday, the actors may appeal to the Department of Labor. If necessary, they say, the hand of the United States Government win be invoked to bring about the desired; con- ference. • "'"*-*■* '■' "This'is the "day of arbitration," said Frank Gillmore, executive, secretary of the actors' association, "and we can not see how the managers can get dirt'of talking the matter over with us, anyway. Such a conference, I am sure, would lead to better feeling all around." The resolution adopted by the actors at their annual meeting at the Hotel Astor last week, suggesting arbitration, has been received by the managers. Secretary L. Lawrence Weber, of the managers asso- ciation, sent a brief note of acknowledg- ment • to Mr.' Gillmore, assuring him the proposal would be submitted to the man- agers at their next regular meeting. The Producing Managers' Protective Associa- tion is scheduled to meet at the Hotel Cla- ridge this week to take up the matter. Whether the Department of Labor would consider the actors' plea is problematical, it is said. The question "Is an* actor a Laborer?" would have to be determined. Meanwhile, a plan to have the Actors' Equity Association join the American Fed- eration of Labor is in abeyance. Obtain- ing a charter in the A. F. of L.., it is pointed out, would assure the Thespians of arbitration. The hitch is due to the fact that the White Rats Actors' Union gome years ago was given a blanket charter by the Ameri- cans Federation of Labor, covering all amusements. Unless . the Actors' Equity Association is granted a separate franchise or the White Bats perish as an organiza- tion, the newer body will not be able to secure the desired affiliation with the labor unions. A number of White Rats attended the annual meeting of the Actors' Equity Association, to which they also belong. It is thought that Francis Wilson, Presi- dent of the Actors' Equity Association, will seek to have President Samuel Gompers ot the A. F. of L-, revise the method of distributing franchises in the amusement field. Thus Wilson may be able to have one franchise covering the labor in the le- gitimate theatrical stage, given to the Actors' Equity Association, and another, comprising vaudeville and burlesque, to the White Rats. This subject, it is understood, will be brought np soon at. a meeting of the Council of the Equity Association. Council was empowered at the annual meet- ing to order a "closed shop," providing the managers do not within thirty days consent to arbitration. According to Frank Gillmore, Secretary of the actors, the eight performances a week clause which the players are request- ing, means only that the actors want a day off every week, the same as other workers. Gillmore stated that Mrs. Fiake, Maud Allen, George Arliss, Ethel Barrymore and John Drew have always refused to play on Sundays. None of the Frohman stars, said he, used to work .on Sunday. Gillmore admitted that in Chicago and other Western cities nine performances 'a week are given. If the Equity Association is successful, he asserted, the eight per- formances a week rule will be country- wide in its application. Under this plan companies would play only one matinee a week, without extra pay, providing they were forced to play on Sunday night. If Sunday night performances were eli- minated, they would give Wednesday and Saturday matinees without extra charge. Gillmore specified that bis association Eevpr intended to have the eight perform. ance clause apply to stock companies or popular priced attractions; they applied only to the first class companies, and there is no desire to change the stock or pop priced contract. What the actors are asking includes: First.—An eight performance per week clause. " ■" ' . "■ Second.—That all salaries be paid on Saturday only. Many managers pay on Saturday and some on Tuesday. Third.—If rehearsals are started and a play is abandoned even before the ten days probationary clause specified in the new equitable contract has expired, each mem- ber is to get a week's salary. Sometimes a play is rehearsed for a week, the man- ager pronounces it "no good," and it goes to the scrap-heap. Fourth.—All layoffs of whatever nature, barring those under the exemption clause, such as .occurring from fire, riots, acci- dents or an act of God, should be paid for at one-half salary. * Fifth.-;—If a company is laid off the week" before Christmas or during Holy Week and is required to rehearse in the meanwhile, though receiving no salary, it shall receive half pay for rehearsing. "How about the arbitration?" asked a Clipper reporter of L. Lawrence Weber, Secretary of the Producing Managers. "Arbitration?" smiled Weber. "There's nothing to arbitrate. As we understand it, the Actors' Equity Association delivered an ultimatum " "But they said that the ultimatum rumor was all a mistake," interrupted the caller. "We didn't understand it that way," was the reply. "It was an ultimatum they de- livered to Mr. Savage, chairman of our Committee on Contracts." "They Bay they want to arbitrate," in- sisted the reporter. "Anyway," explained Weber, "the mat- ter will be brought np at the regular meeting of our Association next week." "We are willing to agree to the stand- ardization idea, if the actors will agree to standardize their salaries. That is, we will pay so much per week for a star, so much for a leading man, for an ingenue, for a juvenile, and so on down the line." Weber began to chuckle and leaned back in the swivel chair in his office in the Longacre Theatre building. "Do yon think they would agree to that?' he demanded. "Do yon think the stars would stand for such an arrangement?" 'If you're interviewing me," replied the reporter, "I don't mind yon quoting me as faying I have my doubts." "There you are," said Weber. "Just watch and see! You cant successfully vtate an artistic profession with labor unions. If you will remember, a proposi- tion of somewhat similar nature was brought before the Authors' League of America several years ago. Someone wanted Bex Beach, Booth Tarkington, Mary Roberts Rinehart and other writers to join the American Federation of Labor. The authors hooted at the idea. You can not standardize the arts—and that's all there is to it "Actors and actresses would never con- sent to the salary standards which go with the scheme of a onion, for they do not want the financial returns, which are one reward of their art, held within arbi- trary limits. I know of one. actor for whom I secured work at $60 a week. It created the opportunity; his. ability was recognized, and he was enabled to obtain a contract for $500 a week during the coming season. Suppose that actor's salary had been limited to $200 a week or pos- sibly $300? I teD yon the stars will never stand for it!" ADLER LOSES WIFE'S ESTATE In a lengthy decision handed down but week by Surrogate Schuhc in the Bronx Surrogate's Court, Emile Harry Adler, formerly of the vaudeville team of Adler and Ardine, the latter of whom was his wife, and who died .last year, is denied any interest in the estate of his wife. Adler claimed that he was entitled to three savings bank accounts, some jewelry and a life insurance, policy, all of which comprised the estate set forth as being worth approximately $2,500. The bank books, jewelry and policy had been turned over by Adler's wife to her mother, Mrs. Levine, while the daughter lay on her death bed in the Fordham Hospital, where she had been brought as a result of swallowing poison. The decedent had scribbled a will on a piece of paper .in which she had left all her property to .■her. mother and brother, but the Surrogate ruled that the instru- ment did not constitute a will according to law, because the testatrix had signed her name at the beginning of the written words instead of at the end. However, the Surrogate permitted the instrument to be offered in evidence for the purpose, as was explained in the de- cision, of establishing the intent of the deceased to give her property to those she loved. Surrogate Schulz held that the husband was not entitled to the property because the wife had duly disposed of it before her death. Back of the contest waged by Adler to acquire his wife's property lies a series of marital discordancies that led to the starting of several actions for separation of the wife, all of them being withdrawn. Then a suit for divorce, in which she was successful, was started, and a short time after she was granted a final decree. But she remarried the man she had divorced. All of which, it was testified, caused her to become despondent. Previous to their divorce, Mrs. Adler had taken out a $1,000 policy on her life, in which she named her husband as bene- ficiary. Bowever, when they were divorced, his interest in the life insurance policy re- verted back to the wife, which is the law governing insurance in this State. But when they remarried, Adler claimed, his former interest in his wife's policy automatically reverted back again to him- Apparently, the Surrogate did not agree with this contention, for, in his decision, he allows the money payable under the policy to the relatives opposing Adler in the proceedings. Had not Adler's wife disposed of her property to her relatives previous to her death, the husband would have been en- titled to a two-thirds share of the estate, according to the law which provides for that share where a wife; as in this case, dies intestate. OPEN IN LONG BRANCH "A Voice in the Dark," a new A. H. Woods melodrama, will open for a single performance at Long Branch on Saturday night prior to opening at the Park Square -Theatre in Boston on Monday. The pro- duction is a big one and forty-four stage hands are required to operate the effects. AARON KESSLERSUED Aaron Kessler has been sned by Harry Saks Hechheimer for $125, which the at- torney says is due him for services rend- ered in connection with the incorporation of a company recently when Kessler thought he would like to go into busi- ness with Edgar Dudley. He later changed his mind. MARCIN SIGNS WITH GOLDWYN Max Marcin, the playwright, has signed a contract with the Goldwyn FBm Cor- poration and leaves for Los Angeles in a few days. He is to be the scenario ed- itor for the company and will, in addition to this work, do some special writing for screen production. DOOLEY TRADES MONKEY Gordon Dooley is no longer _ of the monkey he recently bought from Jack Hughes, the vaudeville agent. This became known hut week when Dooley was seen "wearing" a snobish looking Pekinese dog he obtained in exchange for the monkey. But the chorus girls in the "Monte Criato, Jr." show in which Gor- don and his brother are appearing at present, are petitioning Gordon to re- acquire his erstwhile Simian pet Jack Hughes, who bought the monkey from a soldier, took it home with him and presented it to his wife. But, aa Gor- don Dooley explains it, Mrs. Hughes, looked at her husband and exclaimed, "Why another monkey in the house!" Nor would Mrs. Hughes stand for any Simian boarders. So that's how Gordon acquired the monkey. Then Dooley brought the monkey back- stage at the Winter Garden, where the girls "went wild" over the little ape, who reminded them so much, they said, of some of their "Johns," and a christening party was arranged for room 18, at which the ape was the "Christian" of honor. Gordon Dooley bought two bottles of champagne, and the monk emerged from room 18 yclept "Monte Cristo, Jr." But life on the stage proved entirely too much for Monty, Jr., aa a result of which papa Dooley was forced to swap his foster child for the Pekinese he now totes around the theatre, and for which all the girls are anxious to knit corset covers. FRISCO LIKES "OH, HELLO" Sam Francisco. May 28.—"Oh, Hello" was presented Sunday by the Will King Company and marked the re-opening of the Casino, where it has scored a hit In this show, Ackerman and Harris have kept up the standard established in their previous works. The chief laughmakera are Will King and Lew Dunbar, but all in the cast are gooa workers. Among the players are Reece Gardner, Jack Wise, Arthur Van Slyke, Harry Davis. Garry McVickers, Claire Starr, Vera Ransdale, Honors Hamilton, Dorothy Caldwell, Charlotte Tompkins, Jewel Loraine and Alice Morris. A chorus of thirty-five girls do stunts on an illuminated runway. To add to the attractiveness of the show, there is a mo- tion picture comedy called "Pistols for Breakfast," and a vaudeville bill .which in- cludes Clay and Robinson, the Princess Minstrel Misses, Touresti, Dan McGroth and Bertha Yeoman and Tribble and Thomas. Popular prices prevail and there are no reserved seats. NED FINLEY LOSES HAND Ned Finley, the motion picture director, is minus his left hand now as the result of a surgical operation he underwent hut week in Bellevue Hospital. Finley went to Bellevue several weeks ago, where his hand was treated for a condition known as neucrosis, a sort of rotting condition of the bones. Surgeons at the hospital decided to amputate the left hand after it failed to respond to treatment. He is now convalescing, and will probably be discharged from the hos- pital by the mMdlit of this month. Finley la married and has an eighteen- montha-old daughter. His wife is Marios Henry, well known as a motion picture actress and daughter of the late Captain Henry, who, until his sudden death hut December, was connected with the gov- ernment secret service. CAGWIN REPLACES PURCELL Jack Cagwin, who is under a three- year contract' with the' Shuberts, is re- placing Charles PorceU in "Monte Cristo, Jr.," at the Winter Garden. ' • DANDY TAKES BERNARD PART Jess Dandy is now playing the 8am Bernard part in "Friendly Enemies" at the Hudson Theatre, and u the fourth to take a try at the part since Bernard left the cast a couple of weeks ago. Charles Winninger was the first to go on in the role opposite Louis Mann, bat left after the second performance. AL Shean lasted a little longer, but retired before Dandy took over the part, leaving the understudy to play it walls Dandy was rehearsing. : ~T