The New York Clipper (July 1919)

I'liiimu iniiuii::iiiniiiiiiiiuiitiiini.iHiiiiiii;iiiiiiiii:iiii:iii.iimniiiiiv,'jii:!iiiiisnHiimiiiiiii.-'.riiiii!. Copyrighted, 1919, and published weekly by the Clipper Corporation, 1604 Broadway, New York. Entered at the Port-office at New York. Jnne 24. 1879. aa lecond-claas mail matter under Act of March 3,1879. Fouded by FRANK QUEEN. 18S3 NEW YORK, JULY 2, 1919. VOLUME LXV1I—No, 21 Price, Ten Cents, $4.00 a Year MOSS TROUBLE TO BE SETTLED I THIS_WEEK UNIONS TO WIN, IS REPORT ' The differences between the Inter- national Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em- ployees and Motion Picture Operators of the United. States and Canada and the B.S. Moss chain of vaudeville theatres in Greater New York, will probably be set- tled this week with the union the victor, and their men to be employed in the Moss theatres in the future. This information came to light last week through the .meet- ing of the musicians, when a statement was made that if the latter will accept' the managers' proposition the managers will see to it that the Moss theatres are brought into the union fold. ! When efforts were made on Monday, to obtain a statement from L. G. Dolliver? in charge of the New York branch. of '. the I. A. T. S. E., he Baid that a statement at this time might embarrass him/ but that he expected that before the week was out the agreement with Mobs would be signed. . The signing of the peace pact will bring to an end a labor controversy which has existed with Moss since he inaugurated the chain of theatres with Sol. Brill seven years ago. In 1018, the labor people first started a campaign to call attention to the fact that Moss was not: employing men belonging to an organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Moss retaliated, at the time, by saying that his men were union, belonging to the Amalgamated Theatre Stage Hands and Musicians? Union. The L A. declared that all of the heads of this union were em- ployees of Moss theatres and, therefore, it was an internal organization. How- ever, nothing was accomplished. In 1917 the labor people took the mat- ter up again and were going to call on the A. F. of L for support, but the coming along of the war caused any activities of this sort to be dropped for the time being. Several months ago B. S. Moss and Dol- liver had a conference, at which the mat- ter was gone into again and,- according to Dolliver, Moss left him and stated that he would let Dolliver know within a few weeks of his decision in the matter. How- ever, the time passed and nothing was heard from Moss. So, when the American Federation of Labor Convention took place in Atlantic City last week, a joint resolution on behalf of the musicians and stage hands was submitted to the con- vention, and was unanimously adopted by the resolution committee. This resolu- tion was framed for the purpose of deal- ing with all theatrical interests employing labor which might be construed as antag- onistic to the A. F. of L. affiliated or* ganizations. The resolution follows: Resolution 81. By .Delegates J. N. Weber, D. A. Carey, C. A. Weaver, Joe Winkler, of the American Federation of Musicians, and C. C. Shay, L. G. Dolliver, F. J. Ryan and J. J. Barry, of the Inter- national Alliance of Theatrical Stage Em- ployees. . {Continued on page 25.) COMES HERE FOR PLAYS George Marlow, the Antipodean pro- ducer, accompanied by his wife, who is known on the stage as Ethel Buckley, arrived in this city last week from Aus- tralia to acquire plays, - which he plana to present in Australia after his return there next month. This is Mr. and Mrs. Barlow's first visit to this country. Until two years ago, Barlow had been in the theatrical busi- ness in Australia for thirty consecutive years. In 1916 he sold the Adelphl The- atre in Sydney, which he built, to B. ft J. Fuller, the Antipodean vaudeville mag- nates, togother with his interest in the Princess Theatre, Melbourne. Having closed out his thetrical interests he de- voted his time to a racing stable. Recently, Marlow decided to re-enter the theatrical business, so he has come to this country to acquire the rights to plays. In addition to the production of plays, Marlow says he is planning to build his own theatre in Sydney, and it is quite likely that the house will be erected from plans drawn by an American archi- tect, for he says he is greatly impressed with the architectural beauty of the the- atres here. - Commenting on the theatrical situation in the Antipodes at ! present, Marlow stated that, in his opinion, the war has tended to give more impetus to the the- atrical business than anything' else since a theatre was first' built in Australia. "And - as for vaudeville in Australia," continued Marlow, "there never was such an-opportunity for■ establishing a high- class vaudeville circuit in Australia as there is now." ZUKOR AND AUTHORS CONFER Following the reports along Broadway that Adolph Zukor and his Famous Players-Lnsky Film Corporation associ- ates were going to form a dramatic pro- ducing syndicate for the purpose of con- trolling the producing and motion-picture rights of plays written by prominent authors, Max Marcin, Eugene Walters and Roi Cooper McGrue called on him Monday to discuss the situation. After the interview with Zukor, Marcin stated that the matter stood where it had when Zukor first made the overtures to himself and the other two authors, that Zukor-made no new proposals, and, as far as he and his associates were concerned, he would not be in the least surprised if an announcement were forthcoming from the Famous Players-Lasky officoes that a theatrical producing company had: been organized. FRIARS CALL SPECIAL MEETING An aftermath of the annual election of the Frairs* Club, when the opposition ticket went into the discard is a call for a special meeting of the club to be held on Friday, September 5. . - The opposition ticket was not voted on at the election on account of it being de- clared illegal, in that fifty members in good standing had not signed the nom i nating petition as provided for in the club's.by- laws. The meeting is called to decide upon the advisability of amending this portion of the by-laws, which also provides the manner in which the proposed officers axe to be nominated. The question of making a new due classi- fication for travelling agents and press representatives who are absent from the city for the greater portion of the year will also be considered. PROCTOR MANAGERS HOLD ANNUAL OUTING D ESPITE RAIN "General" Bill Quaid Leads Army of Theatre Managers in Vigor* out Salient Against Witzel's Grove, College Point, Where Battle Rages Until Late Hour Old Jupe Pluvius could not dampen the hearts and spirits of "General" Bill Quaid and his expeditionary forces of Keith and Proctor managers in their salient upon Witzel's Grove, College Point, last Fri- day. Bill and a. selected forty-five or so of managers and agents from the Palace Theatre Building had arranged to hold their annual Field Day and Clam Bake at the grove.. . But old "Jupe" got on the job and said, "You may hold the .bake, but nix on the field part of your program." So the bake it was, and, naturally, other means had to be devised tp take the place of the field program. These were easily devised aa will subsequently be told. "General" Bill had his warriors on the job at the point of rendezvous at 11 o'clock. However, as is ever the case with those who rule their own destinies, the managers stalled about chatting with friends, invading lunch rooms and other places which might close down before they hit the Rialto again and lingered -about until 11:30, which was half an hour after the zero hour mentioned for the start of the salient. Then, about thirty-five of them were loaded into a sight-seeing car and started on their journey. Of course, there were stragglers—what good army does not have stragglers?—but they finally made their start shortly after noon. Bill,, like all generals, did not ride with his "command." He made his way to the Point in a little roadster. Truck No. 1. got as far as Twenty-fifth street and Jackson avenue. Long Island City, when the motor balked, and it was compelled to stop. The driver and his aide got out to make repairs. So did the gang to make suggestions as to how they should- be made. This rattled the boy quite some, especially those of Sol Levey, who offered several ideas aa to how it should be done, basing his opinions on his many years' experience aa a motorcycle owner and expert. The chauffeur finally informed Sol that this car had just a few more parts than a motorcycle and, there- fore, his suggestions were of no value at all. Further controversy was avoided by someone then suggesting that Sol sing one of his favorite Harlem Opera House ballads. Sol was profuse in apologies In declining this honor, saying that it was impossible to do so without the use of "slides." By this time the mechanics were able to get the. machine adjusted and ready for the resumption of their trip to the' grove.. Well, It was "all wet" when the young army arrived at Witzel's. The baseball diamond was flooded and the ground and walks were soggy, so the general staff was called into executive session by "Gen- eral" BBl and instructed to devise new means of entertainment. All sorts of in- door sports were suggested such aa ping pong, pussy in the corner, who's got the ball and "goes into." The latter waa ad- vocated very Btrongly as a wonderful exer- cise for the forearm. It is played in two counts, and, it being the idea of some of the boys present at the affair, it would be unfair to divulge the secret. We could call it by another name, but "Bill"'and the boys asked us not to do so. We did not promise that we would or would not, but we shall not, anyway. This sure was a strenuous exercise. Some of the boys would engage in it for ten or fifteen minutes and then take the air. Others, with a little stronger physique, were able to stand the task they bad selected and held out for several hoars. It lasted until dinner was announced. A lot of the -boys benefited wonderfully through the exercise, while others were very much "down and out" when it was over. Anyway, they all enjoyed them- selves. Our friend Harry Burton, having been tipped off in advance, brought- along his personal cartoonist, named Bradley. Mar- tin, to make sketches of this form of in- door sport. We sure would like to see some of those sketches, but Harry would not allow it. He would not even let Brad- ley pull out bis pencil and pad while ye scribe and another pencil pusher were in the vicinity. But Bradley bad plenty of time to do this work later, as the scribes found that some members of the "General Staff" were not overjoyed with their presence and, after a few hours of linger- ing, made their way cityward. Yes, there were other in-door sports in the card reading line. Managers' and agents were somewhat proficient in this, having at some time or other come into contact with such work through playing Jack Merlin on their bill. Then there were others who sought different kinds of diversion, including Sam Kenny, Jack Lewis, Louis Splegelman and Mark Nelson. These gentlemen, not having an oppor- tunity at other timee to get a glimpse of the morning papers and magarfnff, re- paired to tibe reading room and spent many a pleasant hour reading. Lewis was all business, of course, and interrupted his diversion several times by getting ton office and other placet on the 'phone and transacting a bit of business. However, we were a bit disappointed, for our old friend, the theatre king of the Bronx, Al. Darling, had promised us he would be there. But he was not, and we sure missed him, aa did some of the other boys also. Nobody could keep Chris Egan indoors. He got together a number of the future generation of agents and managers and took them out to the ball diamond. Then, in the mud and driving rain, they indulged in a clean and wholesome pastime known as "fungo." It sure most have been ax enjoyable sport,- for they kept out in the driving rain for more than an hour. {Contmutd on fog* 29.)