Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

Jitiu 21. 1939 SHOW M 1<: N ' S TRADE REVIEW Page 3 to rial f^ciQ e Allied's Little Joke It seems that AUied threw a httle "joker" party in Minneapohs a short time ago disguised as a national convention and surrounded with all the earmarks of an open and frank discussion of many industry problems the most important being the widely publicized Trade Practice Code and Rules of Arbitration. From first'hand conversation with several dozen ex' hibitors at the ''convention," we learned that they came prepared to listen to the arguments pro and con and then to vote their own preference in the matter, believing (poor trusting souls) that it was their vote that would decide the entire matter. By now they, as well as a large group of important executives, must be completely disillusioned. They cannot help but realize that they were simply being used for suckers (and we mean suckers), and to form a background for the ""big act" of the master minds who direct the destinies of Allied. The exhibitors were never given any chance to vote their opinion. In Minneapolis the tail wagged the dog. Instead of the members on the sidelines — the boys who pony up the funds that run the organization — telling the directors what to do, the directors made it mighty plain that they were doing all the telling. Now we have no objection if Allied wants to make saps out of their trusting members. So long as the members don't object, why should we? But we do take exception when Allied starts to play jokes on important industry executives. Men who are darned swell guys despite the fact they work for distributors. By no stretch of the imagination had Al Steifes or any other officer or director of Allied the right to extend invitations for an open discussion on a subject that was a thumbs down issue with them. It was too obvious that at no time at all did the so-called Negotiating Committee of Allied expect to pay the slightest bit of attention to any member-vote on the matter being discussed. BEFORE ALL THE INVITED GUESTS HAD A CHANCE TO BE HEARD IN FULL AND EVERY POINT INTELLIGENTLY DEBATED PRO AND CON THE MASTER MINDS OF ALLIED HAD ALREADY WRITTEN ITS REPORT CONDEMNING AND REJECTING THE CODE. It is high time that some of the side-line exhibitors of Allied took over the organization and directed its future activity. Much too much authority and power is vested, at the present time, in officers and directors whose exhibition interests are so negligible as to make their decisions and opinions a farce. And too many of them appear to be more interested in what they can get out of Allied rather than what they can give to it. In the eyes of the right-thinking people of this industry, Allied must stand condemned as the organization that perpetrated one of the greatest hoaxes in the industry by inviting executives to participate in a discussion that was supposed to decide an issue that actually had been cut and dried long before the convention ever started. No doubt the Allied directors are still chuckling over the way they tricked Bill Rodgers and the many other executives who attended the convention in good faith, only to learn that it was just part of Allied's Lttle joke. A A A Convention Reactions Milton (Parenthetical) Weisman seemed to undo everything that Brandt may have accomplished, by being much too long winded about something he could have condensed into about one-tenth the time and words. The promised ''spanking" of the N. Y. Allied group took place in silence by an almost complete ignoring of that unit and its leader. Maybe Max will now shift over to some other sponsor. (We wonder who it will be???) Ed Kuykendall enjoyed every moment of his stay in Minneapolis and took full advantage of his invitation to talk about anything he pleased . . . and to his credit it must be recorded that he was politeness personified. Bill Rodgers and Abe Montague presented the distributors' side of the arguments for adoption of the Pacts and they did a very commendable job despite its rejection, not by the members of Allied but by its high command. After the final session, Al Steflfes appeared to act the part of one whose feelings were hurt by the actions of his organization. Some of the executives thought so too. From this observer's viewpoint, Al was as much a part of everything that happened as was every one of the other masterminds of Allied. Minneapolis seems to be the place where Al blew off his final explosion and we wouldn't be surprised if he faded out of the Allied picture entirely. AAA In conclusion we sum up as follows: Allied pulled a filthy trick and a lousy hoax by inviting important executives to come and discuss something that was never intended for an honest or open discussion. They were thumbs down on the Pact long before the convention. But they may find their little joke a boomerang should some of the members on the sidelines ever get up enough spunk to express themselves on the way the whole thing was engineered. — 'CHICK" LEWIS