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21, 1922.:
lit"
J3U
x v v tv- Wf '' Beauties-,
s 1 t p l-vUA- n s' ! n ! Who Are
And the Untiriiely "All-Fired" Climax to
Mr. Ziegfeld s Clashes with the Or:
Bessie Poole, the English Beauty
Who Refused to Sign Anything but
a Union Contract with the Follies.
The "49" Tag IndicatesHow the
Beauties, Like Other "Laborers" Have
Numbers for Payroll and Registration
Purposes.
rut
x
P
.AGE the cartoonist, boy! Tell him
this old sketch o Capital vs. Labor
won't do .at all for to-day's edition.
Scratch out the veralled husfcy with the
fcickaxe and dinner pail; the plump pluto
crat In the frock coat and the high hau
Here are the proper figures for an up-to-the
minute portrait of the latest -wrangle
between Capital and Labor
A slender little beauty, all silk and chif
fon, kicking her pretty pins over the foot
lights, winking at the bald heads anff waft
ing kisses to the lads in the gallery
that's Labor! And a languid
gentleman who dresses more
like a matinee idol than a
magnate and answers to the
nick-name of "Ziggie" that's
Capital! Put a few powder
puffs in place of the picks;
substitute lobster and smug
gled champagne for the din
ner pail, 'and the picture be
gins to talje form.
For Broad"way, Instead of
the coal fields of "West Vir
ginia, is the newest union
battleground; the chorines in
"Ziegfeld's -Follies" ; are, the
warring wage earners in the
beauty union; Florenz Zieg
feld, Jr.. is the head of the
beauty trust they are fight
ing; and the scrap has
reached the stage where the
toiler-broilers threatened to
strike, and Zlegfeld "fired"
all sixty of them.
The world's most famous
beauties sporting union cards
Just like miners or brick
masons; walking delegates
superseding Johnnies at the
itage door; daljaty dan
cers crying for "time and a half for "over
time"; bosses charging cuties with, mak
ing anarchistic speeches; .even the pos
sibility of the public facing & famine in
girly-girly shows these .are all part of
the "props" in theaterdom's labor drama
now being enacted with all the Intensity
of a nation-wide railroad" strikje.
Fla Zlegfeld and the Chorus Equity As
fcociation, which is the company name" of
the chorus girls union, have never been
chummy. Any chorus girl can bel6ng to
the Equity who keeps the rules and pays
$1 . a month dues. She becomes a regu
lar "union girl, for the Chorus Equity
is affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor Just like the Bricklayers' Union,
the Gasfitters Local or any other.
Flo Zlegfeld has fought the Equity from
the first. He wants to make his own laws
for his own shows. The former husband
of Anna Held and the present spouse of
Billie Burke is primarily a beauty-picker.
- Si, Wilt
.YS n
V
4v
X
ft"
A Chorus Girl's Union Card
Issued to Betty Lee by the
Chorus Equity Association,
to Indicate That She Was in
Good Standing, Entitled to
Union Wages and Affiliated
with the American
Federation of Labor.
and he says he won't have- any walking
delegates walking back of Ms stage and s "ref;rh
tnortn iininn tlTr into tha shell-tink XQ7 sot tneir rights.
first round. Mr. Ziegfeld, in addi
tion to paying Bessie her $4 plus,
put out an extra one-eighth of their
weekly salary to the entire company, union
girls or not. j
The "Follies' flitted Into Detroit. Mr.
Ziegfeld's business manager, Sam King
ston, flitted in. at the same time. j He
brought sixty new contracts which he feaid
the Equity had aipproved. Everybody
signed but Bessie. She said she'd hear
from the Equity before she'd sign. While
Bessie waited to hear, she got her hon
orable discharge. ji
"You can't fire me!" declared Bessie.
You fired yourself when you refused to
sign!" she was told. Bessie said she'd
have justice or know why. Another rbel
joined her. This was Ruth Andrews, iwho Hosenbaum could hear
had been discharged when she failed to , restless i cheering and
show up at the theater one night, i Her "whistling. F; i g u r e s
doctor, she declared, had telephoned!! she" daaoed before Mr.
was sick, uessie ana Kutn announced ikuaoilUttUi"
they would stick with the company? till
t
If
ft;
W ''X M' Who -Me
tit wJ A r Hbwl
WfyBk Vm --- "Union
' ';V:V- Men"
tif r :-'- ..s-i- -a a i - -. ?
4 i Ly?-
lyx- fir tc
V
V
5
brothers'! In unionism.
Out in mi front Mr.
whispering union talk Into the shell-pink
ears ui uio ueauucs o jivau.
That was the first Issue on which Zleg
"feld and the Equity split. It reached a
deadlock when Zlegfeld declared he'd close
bis theatre before he'd let a delegate pass
the stage door. Another clash came last
Fall, when the "Follies' began the annual
tour.
. Eleven of the sixty members who packed
their trunks for departure packed uniou
cards along with their pretties. But first
they had a pow-wow with "Ziggie." He
told, them he'd pay them the minimum wage
prescribed by the Equity. $35 a week, and
an additional $10 a -week because they
were going on the road. He says they
accepted. They admit they accepted but
with reservations. : ,
Pittsburgh welcomed the "FolUes so
Joyfully that art, extra matinee was given.
By Equity rules, as -extra matinee calls
for an additional one-eighth of aer sal
ary for every little union coryphee.
One of the eleven union girls In the
Follies' was Bessie Poole, also known
as Eliiabeth Chattertoiu When she got
her pay envelope at the end of the Pitts
burgh week, she pulled out $35, her sal
ary, and $10, the extra bonus promised
tor the road tour. Butthat was all
Bessie cheeped loudly. She wanted aer
toe-eighth, her $4 plus, for the' extra
matinee. 'Where do you get that stuff?" ,
asked Ziegfeld's manager. ; Wasnt Mr.
Ziegfeld paying her a ten-plunk .UonnsT
$4,500 in
that night;
They stuck. By the time the "Follies'
hit Chicago for a dizzy Christmas week,
everything and everybody was red hot. In
cluding the telegraph wires to Ziegfeld
In New York. Ziegfeld was branding
Bessie Poole as a trouble-maker. She was
getting up a petition declaring she Wasn't
any such thing, and demanding reinstate
ment. Among those who signed it were
Raymond Hitchcock, Florence 0"Denl
ehawn, Fannie Brice, Ray Dooley.f" Van
and Schenck and other notables. '
The "Follies" arrived in Chicago Sunday
morning. They were to open Sunday tight.
At five minutes after 8 o'clock, just ten
minutes before the curtain was to rise,
Edward Rosenbaum, company manager,
.rubbing his hands gleefully over the S. R.
O. house, looked up and beheld a formid
able delegation approaching him la the
wings. . -j "
A group of chorus' girls headed the
party. They were accompanied by a
lawyer, the traveling representative lof tho
Equity, andxepresentatlves of the Stage
Hands and Musicians' Unions. The lawyer
poked into Mr. Rosenbaum's paralyzed fin
gers a contract which he was to sign It
called for Immediate reinstatement of
Miss Poole and Miss Andrews. It il called
for permission for J walking delegates of
the Equity to come behind the scenes. It
called for other things all of them pet
abominations of Flo Ziegfeld. f -i:
-sign or tnere u do no snow to-nignii;
N3
A I
on jthe
y.lPlgTetQ r yAJ lla tiw b iWyliuuL uvuua 4 wa. uia u ar uv ouv v - wii0uti,
Wasn't the extra oa-eIgh.ta Included In was the ultimatum served on Mr. Rosen-
thatt "Ton betl said the manager. -"You
bet not! " cheeped Bessie.
The cheeping led to . an arbitration
conference in New York - between tho
Equity and the Producing Managers Asso
ciation, Bessie icon tho decision in the
banm. The manager protested. The man
ager pleaded. The striking chorines were
just as hard-boiled as bo many pick-beavers.
They were backed up, they informed
Mr. Rosenbaum, by the Musicians'! Union
and tho Stage Hands! .Union, I their
the ! house
$60,000 ad
vance sal e already.
And It would all take
wings i if j he i didn't sign
dotted line!, Mr. Rosenbaum signed.
; When the I news reached New
York,' it bad the effect of dynamite
on the temperamental Mr. Zieg
feld. ;. Reinstate; a girl who had
fired herself 1 Allow walking dele
gates to have the run! of bis stage!
Why. that; was; a privilege he? had
accorded I mobody ever! Mr, i- 5 Ziegfeld
jabbed one linger on a button, and yelled
for his stenographer. ; IT . j :
; i The Chicago strike .was, ln his own
language; the last straw. 4 ;
I i "This Is the blow-off! he cried. ,
I ; He wrote a letter, demanding a meeting '
of. the Equity land the Producing Mana
gers' Association. He Issued orders clos
ing the !Fpllies four weeks: ahead of
schedule because, he declared. It would
cost ; the actors $54,000 in salaries and
teacn tnem a iesson. ana, uy reiusin tu
make a nerw contract with any of the sixty
chorus girls, in effect: he fired them all
"Mr. Ziegfeld is in the wrong and knows
it," declared Paul DullzeU, for the Equity. 1
"The whole trouble was ' caused because
this man. who; boasts of .bis minion-dollar
productions, begrudged a little chorus girl
ai few1 cents extra to which, she was en
titled by extra ;"work ;-f i :i !
; j"I . have 1 3 been ; very 4 unjustly trfeated,"
asserts Ziegfeld. "Conditions; in tho thea
tre to-day are! deplorable. No self-respecting
manager would tolerate them. Therell "
bo brand-new faces in my next show. The
girls will; be young and they; will be ama- ,
teurs.' And. i if the1 Equity makes the
chorus a dosed shop , by 1924, as It threat-'
ens to do;ithat's when 111 quit the show
business In America!" . , .
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Florence
O'Deni-
shawn, the
Dancer, Ono
r of - the .
Signers of
Miss Poole's
'etition for
Reinstate
j ment, l;
ill
A ,y. ttai
All
"This 'U the Wow-offl'
cried Mr. Ziegfeld, - j
and off it: blew!;
C2At SrUsta Slhto Besq-rea.
Ave 1
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Cepyriett. 1922. by XnUnaUanali restore Serrice, loo,
1 - 11. -V- ''-U1' ft
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