Cabarets
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Source: Variety, 5 April 1918, pg. 10.
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Cabarets in Chicago are dead. Cabarets in
Chicago are alive. The outlook is brilliant for cabarets. Cabarets face
a gloomy outlook. The "drys" are really responsible for the
death of the cabarets. The "wets" engineered the movement to
rid Chicago of cabarets.
The above is a concise statement of the local situation. There has
never been a more muddled-up municipal tangle in the history of Chicago.
In direct sequence, the history of the cabaret battle here may be summed
up about as follows:
In 1916 flamboyant violations of various honky-tonks attracted the
attention of the newspapers to the cabaret situation. In those days the
cabarets took the word "licensed" literally, and there was no
limit to the high jinks. A "sob" campaign was inaugurated by
one of the papers, and the entire press took up the fight. It lasted for
several months.
Thereafter the cabaret situation intruded itself into the political
situation. It was a factor in the unseating of Oscar De Priest, colored
alderman. It became an issue in the trial of Charles Healey, former
chief of police. The alderman passed ordinances as regularly as they
met, and the ordinances died just as periodically.
The expected climax of the long and colorful fight came last week,
when the alderman, upon the alleged instigation of the state council of
defense, passed an ordinance which would not only kill the cabaret, but
would kill dancing and any form of vocal entertainment wherever liquor
was sold.
A panic resulted. There were only two "nays" in the city
council vote against the cabaret, and the situation seemed hopeless. A
thousand actors employed in cabarets, and about 600 musicians were
threatened with unemployment. A dozen booking agents who supplied the
cabarets with talent faced extinction. Invested capital seemed to be
wiped out in a month.
The only ray of hope, and that none too bright, was that the mayor
would veto the ordinance. Even that wouldn't save the cabarets if the
aldermen stood pat.
Then a statement came from Samuel Insull, chairman of the State
Council of Defense, in which Mr. Insull denied that he had been behind
the ordinance. He declared that the council was interested mainly in
eliminating the practice of issuing special bar licenses for dances.
Whereupon the aldermen who voted to kill the cabarets had a
revulsion of feeling. They declared it was a trick on the part of the
brewers. Alderman Frank J. Link took the leadership of a move to ask the
mayor to declare against the ordinance.
Pending action by the mayor, ways and means were discussed to bring
about an evasion of the ordinance in the event that it is passed. It was
pointed out that if a cabaret is run next door to a saloon and there is
a connecting door between them, waiters may come from the saloon bearing
all sorts of kinds of soft refreshments. If the patrons desire any "hard
stuff," they can go to the saloon and get it. But they may not
enter via the swinging door. They must go out of the cabaret into the
street, out of the street into the saloon, into the saloon and up to the
bar, drink, out of the saloon into the street, out of the street into
the cabaret, and then on with the dance.
Rather a devious system, but within the realms of practicability.
Another plan suggested by an expert was the introduction of a lady
band—instrumental music being not barred, although an additional $300
license fee would be required.
"When the furor dies down," suggested this individual, "the
lady band would begin to dress up. After a while they could begin to
parade around instead of sitting down. Then they could put on lights.
Then they could begin to dance around. After a while they could hum an
accompaniment. After another while—vive la cabaret!"
Morris Silver is the most prominent of the agents booking cabarets.
He furnishes the shows for the North American, Woodlawn, Congress,
Terrace Gardens, Moulin Rouge and Grand Pacific. Silver didn't seem to
be worried about the situation, even before the denial issued by Insull.
The other agents who book cabarets are Tom Woodburn, Ted Snow,
Izzie Ullman, Doll & Suranyi, Harvey Mack, Benson Agency and John
Baxter. Edgar Dudley books the Winter Garden. They all admitted the
passing of the ordinance would seriously affect their business, but they
all seemed confident that the new law would die as it has died before.
[End of news article]
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Page compiled: 9 April 2000
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