Variety (Nov 1938)

IffeiatiiKj, Novembev SO; 1939 VAUDE-NIGHT CL^S VAMBTV 4S Moss Hokk Agent for Violation 0( Licensing Law; AED Pushes Drive .Assured of the 'luU cooperatiop' ct the recently formed Associated llntertalnment Directors of New ilfork, offshoot of the Entertainment Managers Assn., Y, License Com- 'Viflsloner Paul Moss this week '•'ikSled Paul Lester, agent, into court. Wst being held in $100-bail lor spe- ' dill-sessions' after a hearing last week; It's Moss' first pinch in long- winded agent licensing and cleanup v igjijpalgn. AED members have been acting as special,deputies for Moss and lepoifting all agents booking ehows without licenses. ,»' AED merhbera will become licensed by Moss today (Wednesday). They aim to give Moss the co-opera- tion he has sought for past five years, fitates AED, which looks upon such a move as benefiting club date busi- ■ riefes. Moss will be asked to sit in Vt its monthly meetings and will tio be tendered honorary member- ship in the organization. Together With industrialists and business lead- ers, he'U also be requested to help vwork out l)roblems'pf the entertain- Ihent field. Well known business 'leadei^s have fdready been selected ind their acceptances will be an . nbunced Shortly, according to AED. • Moss has had several test cases as eommissioner but all fell through. ' He says he-s making no mistakes now, claiming full' proof of Lester's violations.. Latter was bagged for booking an unidentified nitery show minus a license^ Moss has aid of the police department, which is fur- nished .with-^names of every-act working a cabaret. He gets, agents' names and evidence through the acts. AED, now numbering 25 members, lield its-first, mass audition of acts on Sunday (27). Similar plan has been in operation among EMA members tot past several years. Forty-six acts attended the gathering which is also designed to eliminate 'auditions' ^blch turn , out to be paid shows, but for which acts get nothing. Harold Koenigsb'erg, of the AFA, attempted to prevent acts from appearing at •event, says AED. Koenigsberg counters with reply that information was deliberately withheld from him when he asked information relevant .to the audition. , He only told acts to protect themselves against any viihiseling, he says. AED has simi Arly Ignored AFA's nix of its at- empts to sign acts to contracts. AFA leld it was inequitable. AED members started signing acts ast week,, but are limiting them- selves to those to which they can, for the present, give guarantees of work. Cancellation wimin 30 days if no work la permitted. AFA figures that contract would not stand up in court and is await- ing a .test. . There's stiU no stipu- lated amount of work or money guaranteed by AED nor is there a bond posted to insure payment un- der its contract. AFA claims, how- ever, nothing official can be done on matter until Ralph Whitehead, AFA's executive secretary, returns from.out of town and holds a coun- cil meeting, it's understood. Tliis week AFA bagged afeent Paul Benson on complaint of Alice Murphy that he. had not paid her for working a date. Benson had to pay $50 due Miss Murphy since Nov. 16. MOUNT ROYAL LONDON That's AU Outdoor Showmen Hear Whitdiead Explain Stond Chicago, Nov; 29, Ralph Whitehead, executive secre- tary of the American Federation of Actors, explained to the convention of International Fairs and Exposi- tions at the Sherman . hotel today' (Tuesday) the position of AFA in its current drive to organize carnivals. Whitehead :iaid his organization coiild no longer permit its members to work for carnies which are inimi- cal to the best interests and welfare of AFA members. AFA, he said, would see to it, too, that its members would work only for those carnivals which fully op- erated within the salary and time provisions of the Federal wage-and- hours bill. CEOROE FMCE STACDIG FINANCE SamiES'SHOW GEORGE WHTTE'S SHOW MAY GO INTO Dm Beat Coffee in England QUAUTY INN Leicester. Square LONDON, WEST-END MAURICE COLLEANO Dressed by SIDNEY FISHER 75/77, Shaftesbury Avenue PICCADILLY, LONDON, ENG. A George White revue may go Into the International Casino, New York, succeeding the present Clifford C. Fischer shows. This may precede Earl Carroll's idea of shifting his Hollywood show to the Broadway spot next spring. Paul Small, of the William Morris agency,, has been talking the White deal and prior thereto Harry Kaufman (Shuberts) was talking a tabloidized 'Ziegfeld FoUies* for the mammoth nitery. Fischer, Paris and London pro- ducer, is en route back to New York from abroad, and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow (Thursday). Mean- time, the International's financial directors (banks) have been makhig stringent economy retrenchments, in- cluding a provisional two weeks' no- tice to the bands and show. George D. Lottman, p.a., when offered a large cut, quit. He's gone over to the Hotel Astor. N. Y., this too being un- der Bob Christenberry's general supervision. Latter, v.p. of the Astor,. was installed by the banks as man- aging director of the International. Carl Erbe succeeds Lottman as In- ternational's p.a. Biz at the International has been poor of late, although starting out big. A recent police squawk over nudity forced a one-day (Sunday) closing, but that's not figured to be any con- tributory element at the b.o.; if any- thing, that sort of publicity usually helps. Nothing will occur before Fischer gets in tomorrow, however. Fresh money came into the spot within recent weeks to keep things going. Lou Brecker, Joe Moss and George Olsen comprise BMO Corp., the owners, although there are prior liens, bankers' claims, etc., before any profits can be shared. Moss' other spot, the Hollywood, following 77b last spring, has been refurbished, but its reopening postponed several times. Georgie Price, former vaude single, now a stockbroker, is staging the an- nual show of the Financial News Writers Assn. at the Hotel Astor, New York, December 16. This is a sort of Gridiron Club affair of the Wall street commentators. Price was Impressed into service when R. H. Bumside, originally con- tracted to put it on, had his contract settled. Among the current year's authors are Burton Crane, of the Wall Street Journal, formerly of the Japan Advertiser and Variety mugg in Tokyo. Crane is quite a iisong- writer avocationally, and also has been extensively recorded by Colum- bia in the Far East, where he. was perhaps the only American exponent of the geisha-type chansons. WariKTS, PhiDy Tooter Unim Reach Pact Endiiig llteat to Chse Earle TRO¥, imEE, YOUNGSTOWN CAFES OPEN Troy, Nov. 29. ' Ray Buckell has opened the Club Mirador in the Trojan hotel here, with the Sherman brothers and Tess's Swingsters as the . show. Tom Walsh is manager. EDGAR CARVER AMD HIS TROUBADORABLES NOW APPEARING AUTO SHOW NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR (November — December 4th inclusive) GEORGE SUEFFERT, Personal Representative Per Address: 1666 Linden St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Phone BEereinan 8-1464 Hartmans Open Vaude, Cafe Tour Dec. 6 in Det With the Shubert musical, *You Never Know,' folding at the Winter Garden, New York, almost simul- taneously with their closing at the Persian Room, the Hartmans are go- ing out on a liotel and picture house toiu-. Open Dec. 6 in Detroit and thence Cleveland at the Statler hotels; followed by theatres. MCA booking. Comedy dancers are due back at the Hotel Plaza, N. Y. (Persian Room) Jan. 17. Milwaakee's New Spot Milwaukee, Nov. 29. New nitery, Lakota's opened' this week under the proprietorship pf Harry Lakota, with Johnny Strain as manager. Entertainment to be arranged through Dick Pritchard, local ca- baret booker. Yonnsstown Nitei^ Beopens Yoimgstown, Nov. 20. Shuttered after three weeks of bavarian entertainment policy, which failed to. click, Heidelberg Village, night club at Idora Park hercf, hak been reopened with Al t). P'rSis*' band and a floor show policy. Spot will operate nightly^ Sundays* Floor show talent-wilL^be changed weekly. * Ben B^mie Opens New Band Setup in Plv^y. Philadelphia, Nov., 29. V Ben Bernie orchestra practically set for the opening of the Benjamtin band ,1 Franklin • hotel's new named policy Dec. 28. Music Corp. of America hahdlln'i^ the deal. ' \, Philadelphia, Npv. 29. Warner Bros, threat to shutter the Earle at the expiration of the mu- sicians' termer Thursday night (4) —wl|ich even went to thd extent of not booldng a show to open this Friday (2)—melted, last week at the final showdown with the tooters' local. - Set-to was actually over the pit band at the Fox, which remains left over from the days when the house had vaude. WB was anxious to get rid of the band entirely, as it's claimed to be imnecessary now, or at least cut it considerably. Union retaliated with a threat to take the band out of the Earle) where it's a positive necessity. Warneris, how- ever, announced it would shutter the Earle first. Result was an agree- ment in which the 35-piece crew at the Pox will be cancelled lor 15 weeks each summer. Prior contract called for cutting down to 15 men-for the hot sea- son. WB's original compromise offer was to slash the present pay- roll from $1,690 a week to $1,000, or $52,000 a year. Under the present arrangement it'll hand out $59,150. Union gained one extra day of vaude a week at the Oxford for 10 pit men. House was formerly with vaude two days a week. Allegheny, Kent, Frankford and Alhanibra con- tinue with vaude on Fridays and Saturdays. The Earle contract re- mains just as it is. Weekend Datfes Booked For McGee in Midwest Chicago, Nov. 29.. Fibber McGee. radio imit, with Jim (McGee) Jordan, Donald Novis, Billy Mills, Bill Thompson and Hal Peary, is booked through midwest for Sat- urday-Sunday dates on a 50-50 basis. Goes into Iowa theatre, Cedar Rapids, tills weekend (3-4) and into Granada, South Bend, Dec. 10-11. Radio dates prevent other types of hookings. Robitschek Delays Vaude; Talks Deal with Shuberts Kurt. Robitschek has definitely postponed opening his proposed three-a-day New York vaude. Orig- inally skedded to open at the Pal- ladium, nee B. S. Moss' Broadway, Nov. 27, date was cancelled because of money troubles and fear of holi- day season lull. Robitschek is also dissatisfied with the theatre and is talking a deal with the Shuberts for one of their theatres. In the event latter goes through, the Shuberts may buy piece of show. They now have another vaudeville unit, Olsen and Johnson's "Hellzapoppin,' at the Winter Garden. ROLLYandVERNA PICKERY RECALLED AFTER ONE WEEK'S ABSENCE s«B hkturn bnoaoemekt At the DRAKE HOTfi '^""»*'^.0 Nix Burley for Theatre Philadelphia, Nov. 29. Bondholders of the Shubert thea- tre here have decided they will not accept burlesque offers for use of the house. Spot had been operating burley for the past four years, but it's feared that continued use of the I house for that field would lessen the ' value of the building. Various offers have been made for the theatre's use. Izzy Hirst, burley promoter, was the only one prepared to lay cash on the line, however. Will Weber Bankrupt William S. (Will) Weber, nitery and general theatrical agent of 1560 Broadway, filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in the N.Y. Federal court last week listing his debts at $6,678 and no assets. Among the creditors named are $160 for State income tax, 1937 and 1£38; $277 judgment to Ed Luntz, 1560 Broadway; $150 commissions to Ted Nelson, 1650 Broadway; $250 loan to Mildred (Tony Lane) Link, 209 West 48th st., and $50 loan to Bob Krollog the same address. SINGINQ SLUGGER OF THE BRCli^ifYN DODGERS AND LOMAX "THE WOR SPORTSCASTER" Raidio'a Leading Sports Commentator ON THE AIR EVERY NIGHT AT 7 * (Coartesy WOB Artist* Boreaa) IN THEIR OWN NOVETY PRESENTATION OPENING FRIDAY, DEC. 2 BROOKLYN STRAND NEW YORK Thanks to HARRY MAYER ■ OPEN FOR FUTURE BOOKINGS FOR THEATRES AND CLUBS AXSO BOOBINO BUDDY HASSETT AS A SINGLE PEBSONAI. MASAQEBilENT OF BOB ROSEN 1564 Broadway, Palace Theatre Building BRyant 4)—0210-5211