Inside facts of stage and screen (March 14, 1931)

Vol. XIII Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at Post- office. Los Angeles. Calif., under Act of March 3. 1879 Saturday, March 14, 1931 Published Every Saturday at 6253 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Calif. No. 10 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS ESTABLISHED 1924 HUGHES - FRANKLIN CHAIN FACING UNION LABOR WAR Gigolo Is Here And My, My! The Gigolo has hit L. A. And how he's going! Picture stars are falling for this racket like nobody's 'business. And so are all the sweet little social debs. So the Gigolos are grinning, as Gigolos usually do, and raking in nice coin for the management of the recently inaugurated afternoon tea dances at the Ambassador Hotel. The Ambassador Hotel manage- ment took a chance that now was the time to revive interest around these parts in the once so popular Argentine Tango. New York is in the midst of another Argentine Tango craze, and the class spots in San Francisco also have been try- ing to revive the dance. Latter spot has been handicapped however by inability to obtain the right kind of true-to-the-pamuas music. Every Thursday The Ambassador policy is exclu- sive Tango teas every .Thursday afternoon in the French room, with music by a real Argentine aggre- gation, under the leadership of Carlos Molino, who plays the violin like nobody’s business and looks like a Valentino with a touch of Barrymore thrown in. Mrs. Jeffers, whose name is al- ways way up in the social doings of L. A., is hostess, and under this mantle of social correctness there are two large tables, one for male Gigolos and one for a bevy of ex- ceptionally pretty Senoritas, latter under chaperonage of Rosita Duval, who betwixt times does exhibition dances with Ernesto Pidria. It’s all very proper, of course. No one “picks up’’ anybody, or any- thing so vulgar as might be found in the jitney dance spots. Oh no, indeed: one must be properly intro- duced. Which is accomplished by sending notice to one of the spon- ■ sors that you wish to meet so-and- so for a dance, and that’s that. So- cially correct. Oh my, yes. All For $1.50 And with a bunch of Senoritas ■ like Jliose corraled under the tutel- ' age of Miss : Duval, and -everyone of the Gigolos primed to kill with that old insistent Latin adoration, the times when someone isn’t meet- ing .someone (with social correct- ness, of course) are few and far be- tween. And all for $1.50, which admits to the exclusive French Room, fur- nishes tea, cake or what-have-you, and permits dancing as above out- lined. But be the Senoritas and the sheiks as they will, the real pull to the French Room of a Thursday afternoon is the Molino group of (Continued on Page 2) AL K. HALL, JR. Featured with hit. father, AS 14. Hail At ISili’vlrrtS, l_os Angeles, this neck SIX HOUSES CLOSE “PARIS” MOVES PLANNING MUSICAL SHOW The following theatres were re- cently closed: Arcadia Theatre at Arcadia; Sommerton Theatre at Sommerton, Ariz.; ICeyo- Theatre, San Diego; Cucamonga Theatre at Cucamonga; Iris Theatre at Chino, and the Riverside Theatre, Los Angeles. "Paris in Spring,” which has just completed two weeks at the Hollywood Playhouse to practical capacity, moved downtown to the Majestic Friday night. It was a sellout for Friday and Saturday at its new location. Bill Cullen is planning an Easter week offering for the Hollywood Playhouse. The proposed show is a musical comedy, and Cullen is un- derstood to be seeking an inter- nationally known star for the lead- ing role. Battle On As Mirror Is Opened Union labor and the Hughes- Frariklin theatre group were this week verging toward a deadlock which .might involve the whole -pro- posed chain in a bitter labor war. J. J. Franklin and H. B. Frank- lin, representing the H-F group, and Walter J. Croft, international vice- president of the Operators’ organi- zation, and H. A. Starke, business representative of Operators’ Local 15(1 (Los Angeles) held a series ot conferences throughout the week prior to the opening of the new H-F theatre, The Mirror, on Vine street. The object of the conferences was- to open the house with union oper- ators but the talks came to nothing except some very definite and force- fully uttered opinions, -and the house opened, non-union. To See Hughes It is understood that the labor representatives now plan to con- tact Howard Hughes, feeling that it is J. J. Franklin’s personality which is the obstacle in the way of coming to a peaceable settlement. Failure to contact this source, or to get satisfactory adjustment of the matter there would result in national action against all Hughes Franklin houses, now owned or which may be purchased, it is stated. Starke was outspoken in assign- ing the whole blame for the trouble to J. T. Franklin. He declared that Franklin’s attitude was that he should be given advantages over other theatrical men because he is J. J. Franklin. “But just because he has the repu- tation of being a big theatrical mag- nate is certainly no reason why he should be catered to with a lot of special concessions,” Starke de- clared. Same Terms “There is no reason in the world why 'he should be conceded a lot of points which are conceded to no one else. And if there were any rea- sons for conceding them, we could not do so without materially injur- ing ourselves. We are on very happy and amiable terms with West Coast. But if we cut the scale, or other- wise made special concessions to Franklin, West Coast would logic- ally and inevitably ask for similar terms, and so would anyone else. So what Franklin is doing in reality is asking us to lower the union scale for operators. Which, of course is ridiculous. “We tried in every way possible to maintain peace with Franklin. We serviced his house for him right up to the opening, installing and ad- justing the equipment, etc. Then. (Continued on Page 2) STAGE SCREEN RADIO MUSIC PRICE lO CENTS Only Theatrical Newspaper on the Pacific