Variety (Jan 1934)

IVies^y*. January 9, 1934 TINES SQUARE VARIETY 51 Broadway m. Park Ave. ^ntlnued from paere 1) protection) It ta considered doubt- ful whether Broadway ean support Ave such bl? cabarets. Hard Sledding OA the other hand, apart from the mldtown- ^nd fashionable, east 'side hotj&ls, which have suddenly oome Into their own with rOpeal, the former class places are also find-; jng It tovirh going* There are oc- casional spots that do ti^de on cer- tain nights, but wh^n they must 'charge $10 a quart for legal cham- pagne, on top of other fancy tariffs, •that's something which only a small. ' iblnorlty will. stand. for under the gtllBe of pseudo-ezcluslylty and se- lectivity of patronage. . Broadway Is experiencing Its i-fourth big evolution. since prohibi- tion. When the Shanley's, Rector's, •Beiseriweber's, , ChUrchiirs, Jack's and others of their, day gave way. to Volsteadlsm. It paved the way for. the first , big Broadway upheaval— the Yellow' Peril, so-called, when the chowmelneries took possession of the Main Stem, and also the rialtps of the Harlem, Washington Heights, tion of the mass cabarets like the aradlse-Hollywood. Hence the Palais Royal; hence the music hall dea of the Casino de Paree. Whether It will succeed In bringing em back to Broadway Is an open question and It's sure to be a struggle. Reports on New Tear's Eve re- action ishow business biggest since the .war almost all over. The various key repbirta across the . country follow: Brooklyn a!rid otner locales, ana did landbfflce business with pop-priced club dinners plus a band; floor shows,, etc., thrown In. From that evolved the high-tarr Iffed boites, -the nite clubs p.f the: Texas Gulnan, . Helen. Morgan, Belle Livingiaton .and Beatrice: Lillie type, running ^ gamut from frank, rowdyism to snooty class, and cost- ing plenty either way. Costing plenty, It got. both types of patronages. The swells thought they were sluming when-Tex called 'em suckers, and the swells couldn't take It, as did the rest of the boys and girls who weren't, so recherche In their manner or their, sources of ihcome. From which developed the Club Lido type Of nltery With a $5 couvert—'just to keep the rlff-raifl^ out'—and from that also th,e exclu- sive drinking restaurant. When the 1929 cataclysm proved a great economic leveler for almost everybody^ and couvert charges wen- out of style, Joe Moss and •Tacob Amron, with JJTG (Gran-, hind) then in the combine, figured that the Hollywood restaurant would have a chance with a no couvert bargain entertainment so long as they could do a big turn- over trade. So they gave the yok- els a strip type oif floor show with plenty of nudity 'and found that It paid. The hlhterlanders visitlng^ New Toric put the Hollywood bli the •must' list, along..wlth the Empire State Bldg., Radio City, etc. The la^t checkup at the Hollywood showed an 86% out-of-towA Patr ronage. The al fresco,, mardl gras spirit of the place to a $1.60-$2 club din- ner, sans couvert, led thenl to be- lieve this was the real Broadway whoopee, and It paid big dividends. The Hollywood restaurant^ as also has the Paradise, which sprang up as a competitive spot, saw weekly "gross receipts up to $20,000, which made the $8,000 floor show. Invest ment worth while. The girls were the best available alumna of the musical revuesi and the dance mu sic was always of name, quality and ultra, Thus, after the Chinese Invasion, the Guinaii sucker regime, ahd the Hollywood-Paradise nudity sttiff, the current trend is a. bring-back Broadway move. That's what Mar ^ •den, Steinberg, et al. are undertak' Ing. Whether' It can be done has yet to be seien, Too Maiiy Yokels The big headache about the re habilitation of Broadway Is that there are top many yokels on the Main Drag. Tears ago It was - a thrill and an experience to come to Broadway. It meant spending Woliey then and having a go,bd time Now the Brooki'ynites, Brohxites, Jerseyltes and hiiiterlahders are, on Broadway every night, practically live thiere,. in fact, The deluxe cinema, of. course, has much to do with that. The picture houses weren't what they are day, 10 and 15 years ago. When they come downtown for a. show now, and having been In Tlines Square for dinner and the theatre, the trek to., another environment, the less hectic east side sector has _.-:^.9^t-en to__bjB_a_h ab. it:in: .reo. ent-.years, seems to continue so toii be. That explain^ the smarter hotels On the east side absorbing the trade which the snooty, peek-through-the-door apeaks formerly got Broadway is now engaged In try- »>S to bring Park .Avenue over to .Broadway. The new trend Is tp give the patrons more comfort and more elbow room rather than" the conges done up In bond from , liquor stores which they pay 25c for and serve at l>Oc functioning as messenger which Is legal under the law. But restau- rants not selling at all. Sale of liquor in restaurants In many In- stances here - meant the difference between profit and loss lii .operation. Like the ir, Saved Ohi Chicago, Jan. 8. Just as the World's Fali: was a life-saver to Chicago business for Khe hotels, New Tears Bvfs acted as an Insurance for a few nipre months. Every hotel- In town with special dining rooms did capacity, business, .with the Congress;. Palmer House, and Sherman outstanding.;^ With their two or more dining rooms and charges rahglng from $6. to $10 a pefison, all pla,yed, to capiaclty. Qn the other hand, only one cafe did outstahding business,, and that William Mansbach, in charge of Chez paree and for many years head man of the Outstahding highteries of this burgi summed it up In few words, and that was : 'This was the most orderly New Tear's in the his- tory of the cafes or hotels,, due. to the fact that when a party sat dpwn they stayed. ,There was no roaming fronv hotel to cafe and vice versa. They'didn't change their drinks; If they started with wine, they finished with wine; If they started with. Scotch, they stuck to Scotch. Dur- ing prohlbitloh, when, a man ran o'ut he took whatever he could get, and, going from place to place, he switched/ This was true not only at" the hotels but cafes. The hotels and cafes also, handled hip-toting by a notice on every menu. on tables that there would be a charge made of $1 a pint bottle brought in, $2 for each quart bottle, , $1 for ginger ale or water, and a $2.60 charge for Ice; and there were never over a dozen cubes of ice in any container. Chicago' is very free of blended and bad liquor or wines. The top liquor gross of the town was the business done by the Palmer Hou8e-r$17,000. The business ran like this:, Chez Pares,. 900 people, $10 per person; Congress Hotel Ur*- ban ROom,- capacity 700, $10 a per- son;/ POmpeii, with a feature, 'The Merry-go-round Bar,' $6 cover charge, 800 capacity ; Palmer. House, Empire Room, $10 cover, capacity 700—Grand Ballroom, $7.50 cover, played to 600 people!; Sherman Col- lege .Inn, 1,000 capacity, $7.50 per person; served. a qUart bottle , of champagne for every two reserya- tions;^ Bar Tavern, 800 capacity, $T.60;* Grand Ballroom^ $6, about 1,100 people. Theatres like the Chicago, Palace, and the State-Lake, with midnight shows did capacity business. There were no special shows, just the reg- ular billis. Legits all did a midnight show and also played to capacity.- Holiday prices charged, with ' nO advance, outside of the Palace, which put In a reserved seat charge of $2. Biggest in 10 Years Pittsburgh, Jan. .8. The biggest N^V Tear's, eve lij 10 .years. That -was. the general comment here iafter the noisiest, costliest. New Tear's, celebration since, long before the depression. Midnight .shows were sell-butia everywhere, , spme of the smaller houses grossing more at this, one performance. than they usually do all week. There wash't a big house downtown that didn't turn at least 1,000 away.'-The nite clubs, hotels and cafes did a land-oMce business, with prices rahglng from $2 to $10 a cbiiple, highest-priced spot the Wil- llani Pienn hotel ballroom where top prevailed. Peiin had Its biggest night in history, with • every .iavail- able inch of Jspace, Including , ball- room. Chatterbox,. Urban; Rooni,; Cardinal and Blue roomis all jammed to capacity. Even the most insignificant nltery z Pa reer- -had-to-s&nd;^>ut-«a;lls^«r^OFe'«hai¥& the same night In other years. At the Elks Club more than 1,000 were Accommodated and at the Hotel Schroeder about the same number got In. A year ago 400 were pres- ent at the Schroeder^ and 26 wait- ers served what they could. This year 60 served and had thglr hands fulL Eagles club, Milwaukee Athletic club, Pflster, Blatz, Wisconsin, Plankinton, Knickerbocker and Shprecrest hotels were just a tew. Of the places packed to the last bit of space for the big'doings. Most theatres reported excellent business,'with jiist a few spots, off. FRIARS'NEW aUBROdS and tables, some of them golngrhay wire on their crowd estimates. Pennsylvania blue laws, which, forbid sale of liquor from midnight Saturday to seven a. hi.-. Monday, had most of the spots with liquor licenses considerably worried at firist oyer prospective loss In revenue, but not for long;. With evei-y request for. a reservation; they Inquired if they wished liquor, too, explaining that If bought before. Sunday, it could be served at their tables any- time. That even went for all sorts of cocktails, where the explanation Was that they would be prepared 'the night before* and .be ready to serve. At last minute, officials ruled , this procedure illegal, but that didn't seem to make much differ ence. But crowds were chiefly tot- ing their own. Local vaudeville agents .were also smiling for the .first time In years. Demand for acts Was unprecedented, with a number of turiis making as many as three spots in the same hight. Cafes were really paying for turns, too, singles ordinarily satis- fied with $6 a night getting, as high as $26. In addition to clubs, flock of theatres also went for special stage show;s, all of which were re- cruited locally. . Business flush even extended to the restaurants; where they were all slapping on a ' lO.w cover and jumping their regular menu prices. Childs got such a big play that at seven a. m.'it .had to send out an. SOS for inbre fbOd. bntreal Sees 'Coin Montreal, Jan. 8, All hotels, cabarets, dance halls,- hiteries and midnite shows at main stems Were up 30% from last year and turn-away biz was the /rule mo^t places. Many tourists re- pprtied from S. Loew's had .best attendance of midnite shows, with 3,000 seats but of 3,200 taken. Palace arid Capitol also did; fine, biz and Princess had full house. Of the, nabes Rlalto, prosperous northr house that has hot been in the red since pne week two summers agO, was away 4n-fFont<- MoUnt Royal, Windsor, Ritz and Queen's capacity reserved tables at $6 a, head, iriuch .lower thail pre- vious years. Report big. biz eyery- where. Chez Maurice, Villa Mau- rice arid Krausmann's turned 'eria away and were reserved, to capacity. AH other dance halls arid riiterleS took own biz arid oyierflCTW and were full. Nothing like as much money spent in this city for past three yieaM.' in Wurfs Hollywood Hollywood, Jan. 8. Theatres didn't fare as well as the night clubs locally oh New Tear'k eVe, with the three-day dpwnpour. of rain killing th€|lr business. . ,Only houses that had ah; advance realized anything bn the holiday. No box bfllce sale at alll In either the picture or legit houses. Night clubs all did capacity^ with the rain doing Iktle harm tp their business mainly because a,ll ^tjie class--spots;; got their cover in ad- vance. Limited number of places to play on. New Tear's eye was a help to the cafe business with mpre custoriiers; than there were spots to accommodate them. . Hotel and restaurant men put the clamp oti selling: hard liquors and cocktailis In town Saturday (6) of their own volition, -claiming the 'piublic. hot iri-terested enough.. Sign- ing ■ petitions for enactment pf law- would permit serving these bever-i ages in addition to light wines and -beers Jnhotels ^aAd ^irice Repeal, liquor "had^- been served for about three Weeks until last Saturday. Hotel men feeL however, that when folks find it hard to get liquor, they, will sigri the petitions, as only 30,000 out of 110,000 names were subscribed In Southern Californla; Some hotels are buying individual packages of cocktails and liqribr.s illy Still Philly Philadelphia, Jan. 8. Plenty of gtief here jn Philly that" the calendar brought New Tear's on the particular day it did the first time since Repeal. Strict Sabbath laws here cost botels, restaurants^ and night-clubs dollars galore and turned holiday biz right Into Gam- .den's lap. Most of the hotels had their cele- bi^atlons Saturday night, but had to stop serving dance music at mid- night with closing at one a.m. A few of trie restaurants arid night clubs tried to dupe on Sunday night, but found conditions were even worse. No liquor allowed at all un- til seven a-m. Monday morning and no dancing until midnight. Result was a wild. exodus to Jer- sey, which started, serving liquor at one o'clock Sunday afternoon; . Shows (legit) did nothing much Saturday night bebause those who did celebrate downtbwn wanted tp. get to their hotel or reistauriant as early as possible, sinCe they .would be chased Out so soon. Only real profit makers wei'e pic- ture houses., Midnight ishows Sun-: day. in downtown houses all got ca?- paclty trade. Aldine, Boyd,. Stanley- and Fo3p were especially in demand. That was about, all the celebratbrs could do. Nb Maybe in Milwaukee Milwaukee, Jan. 8. There was no maybe abc^ut the way Milwaukee went about Its first legal whoopee party New Tear's Eve. Not In years hajj. there been anything like the general celebra- tion that tobk place, in hotels, clubs, taverri3,==iiight="clubs=and^home$f Downtown,, Milwaukee at midnight was packed. Every kind of noLiie- making device was in action and everybody was haying, a merry old time. . One of the most noticeable' features was the absence of drUnks all oyer town. Crowds we're reported doubled in every spot ovei* other turnouts for All the late spots here, cleaned up. In the hotels and night clubs reser- vations had, been, made ahead fbr practically all table space; all were thronged early; and turnaways were the rule. Money loosened amazingly, and a significant fact was that the early New Tear drinking featured chaitt- pagne. Most of the spots revoked coyer charges, getting It all back and more bn the booze profits. Practically all the film and cpm- bltiatlori houses threw midnight shows and capacity was the cue, even the community houises doing bang-up biz. One house downtown, more' than doubling admlsh (from top at the usual 66c to $1.66 for the midnight event) turned away hiinn. dreds. Friars' Club was have signed the papers yesterday (Monday) for a lease on new quarters in the: Hol- lywood theatre building. New TOrk. Space takes. in the penthouse aijd another floor in the building. Club has raised about $22,000 . in pledged loariS from members for its refinancing and riioving. it expects to vacate its small space in the Ag- tor hotel for the new club robrii about Feb. U. S. A. REPEAL CLOSES MEX. BORPE CABARET Mexico Diminished biz, plenty bf booze In the. U. sOunded.'the black swan song for th e - Qientral—Bap—and^^-Cabaret.,^ from , haia Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso; Tex., which was long a favorite; re- freshirient spot for American tour- ists, locale for short story scribblers and a yisltlTig place; for Jlriimle Walker and other celebs. Closed after New 'Tear's celebra* tion. Best Known Redcap Gets a Hotel Job Chicago, Jan. 8. Samrny Lewis, .the most publicized redcap in Annerlca, has switched from the LaSalle street depot to the LaSalle hotel In charge of transpor- tation. reservations, "When at the LSalie station Lewis had such personal clients, as; Samuel Insiill, Da,ye Stansbury, Jesse Lasky arid the leading industrialists fuid show business heads of the couritryt taking -charge of all their reserva- tions and transportatlOA needlBi Samue.r8town Goes Oasis \ New Orleans, Jan. .8. . With New Orleans ian oasis in dry territory. New' Tear's eye was, a sellout in night clubs, hotels and restaurants, except in few Instances.' Robseveit hotel . made quite a splash in opening its 'Blue Rbojna.', town's finest downtowner for the bedhaters. Club Forest, Suburbeyri Gardens and Saddle Rock were all capacity. Louislane, St. Charles^ Silver Slipper and about 2 of the lesser ones had heavy tills. General cbuvert wais $3.50 to $6 with the supper In. Repeal is bringing them in droves for miles to sample this burg's fa- mous Gin Fizzes, Sazeracs and O-jens. ital 25% Better WashIrigton, Jan. 8. Despite'miore coihpetltion all the established hotels and night clubs pulled in approximately .26% more patronage this New Tear's Eve thafl last. Prices were about 20% less at most places. Average ran about $5;50 as. compared to $7 last year. Low cost eritertalnment got the real gravy. Auditorium went over top with Fred Waring arid radio prbgra-m playing to $1.65 per dancw. Picture houses had 'em standing outside at one a.rii. All theatres kept price scale same as on regular holiday, except RkO-Kelth*s which Jumped from 60 to 90c. Denver Packed 'Em Denver, Jan, . ;0enver celebrated New. Tear's Eve by packing all the first runs that had midnight, shows,.two at $1. Sec- ond aiid subsequents reported turn^' awayis arid the restaurants arid night clubs sold out a week In advance. The larger houses that aid not reserve seats had a fight to get the house filled by midnight. Orpheum, i<rith^;Coo-"BGai^"^g<jt"aii=i«*m^^ 'Traffic fllied the streets four abreast downtoyvn, and backfiring made it jjound like a major battle on the western frrmt, Licjiiof- flowed .freely and 50 drunks wcro in the city bastile bp- fore rnornlng. Thp two largft hotfl.s, the Ilrii -n .aiii Co.smopolitan, f harK''(l $5. a .plate. 6,500 liiibibe Spirits Strictly on House Minneapolis, Jan. 8. 'Cafe ,ExceptIonale,' newest, local night: cliib, .celebrated Its ojpenlng by -having 6,600 Invited guests par- take of its hospitality' without any charge. Whiskey and glri highballs werei dished out gratis. Charles 'the Flpn' Harron and Chuck: Saunders are the owners. They're Losing Money Des Moines, la.^ Tuneful and briighter were the 'alimony blues' for some in the county of Polk durlrig 1933. The grass widow take was $16.- 182 lighter than in 1932, paynients then totaling $96,576, with 1933 showing $79,384. And going back to 1931, the total was $112;600. No figures available on the red, where former swa,lns were unable to come through. BSAWS 5 DATS Philip (Red) Mohun, former stunt flier for Paramount,,'was freed Friday <6) in.General Sessions, Ne'W Tork, of . a charge Of grand larceny. ,But he dfo'w five days in the Tombs for driving without a Jlcense.-. Grarid Jury Indicted MOhUh for. stealing the car of Kenneth ColUnB, an insurance broker.. The car w^ found seyerat .hou:i|l later wiUi Mohuri asleep at the wheel; .Collins decllried to press the charge and the Iridlctment was dl0- mlssed. Chester Jones, 2i, musi<!lan, of 112 West 98th street^ was sicqultted In iSpeclal Sessions, .New. Tork,. of. a charge of possessing a gun, Jones was arrested Dec. 2i in an apartment of a friend. The gun was found In the. place, hxx% Jones .satisfied the court It did not belong to him.. BIRTHS Mr. arid Mrs. .Eddle;^ Weaver, daughter, Jan. 2, in New Haven* Father Is Paramount thoa.tre or- garilst* Mr. a.hd Mrs. William Slater, dauirhter. Now Tork. l''ather haJs. IjC'on In prcs.s <1ej>t, pf U. A., Para- niount, MiiKctit and now editf Naborhood Nuws.