Manhattan Coup

The cigaret girl had just given her first yawn. The blonde from Showboat was explaining for the third time why her girl-friend could not come. The lawyer from an Ohio town was about to order more White Rock water "or sumpthing" The Butte, Mont., mining man was laughing at the song, which he had never heard before, of a girl named Anna, from Butte, Montana. It was, in other words, 1 o'clock in the morning and in Manhattan's livelier night clubs the evening was just beginning to bubble. In the streets outside, crowds at corner cigar stores were listening to the radio announcement of Governor Smith's nomination for President by the Democratic Party.

As 1 o'clock struck, out upon the dance floors in 18 of the very liveliest clubs strode 18 nice-looking gentlemen whom 18 proprietors recognized, respectively as among their most regular patrons and liberal spenders.

"Folks," said the 18 gentlemen, almost in unison, though they were each under a different roof, "folks, we're enforcement agents. This place is now in the hands of the Federal government. All guests must leave at once. Pay your checks before you go."

It was the biggest and best raid in Manhattan since Prohibition. The following clubs were entered, all simultaneously to prevent a "tip-off":

Texas Guinan's Mimic Helen Morgan's Merry-Go-Round Blue Hour Charm Furnace Ferndale Don Royale Silver Slipper Jungle Luigi's Beaux Arts Frivolity European Greenwich Social La Frera Knight The raiders were 100 Federal agents, picked from distant districts, whom Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran ordered to Manhattan in February to "get the lay." In couples and squads and single, well-dressed and well-heeled, they had ingratiated themselves with night club proprietors. Helen Morgan, actress-hostess, was angered to discover that the "Mr. & Mrs. Lon Tyson" whom she had played with for weeks in and out of business hours, were spies and informers.

Early last week, Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, U. S. Assistant Attorney General in charge of Prohibition prosecutions, conferred in Manhattan with Maurice Campbell, local Prohibition administrator, to settle the exact details of evidence-collection that would ensure airtight cases against the violators. Then, to prevent "leaks," the raiding squad was locked in an office without a telephone for four hours and kept there until specific instructions were issued.

Commissioner Doran, Administrator Campbell and Mrs. Willebrandt, who is a red-hot Hooverizer, denied any political connection between the raid and the Smith nomination.

Having labelled their evidence and quizzed 104 prisoners (mostly waiters), the Prohibition officials made ready to apply 18 highgrade padlocks. Pending the trials, however, all the clubs stayed open, did business indignantly. The raided proprietors accused their prosecutors of publicity-seeking. "Why do they pick on us," said one man, "when there are 22,000 speakeasies in the city where they rob you of your money and sell you poison liquor?"