Sophie Spanked

In U. S. show business, most working performers belong to unions. The union which is supposed to take care of vaudevillians, night-club entertainers, circus performers and such is the imposingly-named American Federation of Actors. Like other entertainers' unions, the A. F. A. is more or less tied to the apron strings of a mother, the Associated Actors and Artistes of America ("Four A's"). Watchful grandma is the American Federation of Labor. Last week in Manhattan, Mother Four A's had A. F. A. with its pants down ready for a spanking. Grandma stood by.

When A. F. A.'s Executive Secretary Ralph Whitehead read in trade papers last winter that his union was incompetently and bossily run, he demanded that Four A's either give him a lollipop or a licking. Four A's, handing out no lollipops, investigated, last month issued eight charges against A. F. A., cited it for trial last week. Some charges: that A. F. A. was not run democratically; that it withheld some of its records from Four A's investigators; that it had used for administrative expenses $12,997 it had collected from benefits.

A. F. A.'s President Sophie Tucker, stout trouper who is widely regarded as a lovable prop executive, held an A. F. A. meeting to get a vote of confidence. Miss Tucker wept, a blonde bit another actor, there was a free-for-all and no vote of confidence. Last week as the A. F. A. trial opened, Miss Tucker, other executives and A. F. A. lawyers walked out on it, charging that it was packed and illegal.

When the A. F. A. members had departed, an accountant testified that the A. F. A. benefits had profited its out-of-work members nothing, cited other figures in an attempt to show that its financial methods were careless. Two swimmers, a dancer and a show girl from Billy Rose's Aquacade at the New York World's Fair, which the A. F. A. had been supposed to organize, vowed that A. F. A. had double-crossed them in a tiff with Mr. Rose over salary and rehearsal pay.

The Four A's found the A. F. A. guilty on all but part of one count, revoked its charter. This birthright Four A's thereupon presented to a new union, the American Guild of Variety Artists, with a constitution all written. Day later, the Guild was hard at work signing up A. F. A. members. A. F. A. executives declared they would go to court. Sophie Tucker said brittlely: "It is all very amusing. It is very funny."

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