Women & Wine

On the June evening that the Democrats of the land were nominating New York's wet Governor for President, those whose duty it is to enforce Prohibition in the land consummated a multilateral raid, said to be the result of months of preparation, on 18 of New York City's flashiest, dashiest, most expensive nightclubs (TIME, July 9). Last week, 45 more of the district's 20,000-odd nightclubs and speakeasies were proceeded against. Also, last week, the persons made defendants by the first raids were indicted. The Federal activity began to spread to roadhouses in New York's wet suburbs. Seymour Lowman, Acting Secretary of the Treasury,* said the work in the New York area had "only just started." It was again denied that the raids were timed for political effect.

Technique. The June raids in New York had been sensational because they were directed at what is supposed to be the inmost-vortex of the pleasure-chasing current of American life. Last week's developments were notable because they transmitted a realistic picture of that vortex to millions of people who had never seen it except through the falsifying medium of cinema.

The Federal agents who had worked up the evidence told just how they had acted and what they had seen and heard in the liveliest night life in Manhattan.

Agent Lon H. Tyson told how, accompanied by his wife, he had made the acquaintance of one Louis Zalud, headwaiter at "Helen Morgan's Summer Home," who served them a pint of rye whiskey, some ginger ale, a quart of champagne and a cover charge, all for $55.75. The rye was served in ginger ale bottles. Headwaiter Zalud stirred the champagne in the glasses with a wooden stick and said: "This is to get the gas out of your champagne."

The Tysons and Agent John J. Mitchell/- went to the Helen Morgan Club again and again. Their check was $92.60 the second time. On their third visit Louis Zalud brought Helen Morgan, the "hostess," to their table and introduced her. She sat down and asked for brandy. When it came, they complimented her on its quality. She told them it ought to be good because "it costs us $6.25 a quart wholesale." She explained : "We don't handle gin because all the college boys drink gin....They generally have only about $20 to spend in an evening and bring their own gin." The Tysons & party paid $15 per pint for the $6.25-per-quart brandy. The whole check was $67.50. Agent Tyson offered to buy an interest in the place.

Hostess Morgan said: "It's not for sale, but I'll help you start one in Dallas" [where Agent Tyson had said he lived].

According to Agent Tyson, Hostess Morgan told him she had "an arrangement with Campbell whereby he doesn't bother me any more." "Campbell" was Major Maurice Campbell, Prohibition Administrator for the New York area, whose men illegally axed, smashed and evacuated a club where Hostess Morgan "worked" last winter.

At a place called the "Salon Royal" on the ground floor of a Greek hotel, Agent Joseph L. White and his wife had similar experiences. Through a night-club entertainer whom they "picked up" they were introduced to one Ernest, assistant headwaiter, who served them a quart of champagne, two half-pints of whiskey, a cover charge. The check was $141. Hostess '"Texas" Guinan came and talked with them, asked them if they had seen "our other place," run by her brother Tom. Agent & Mrs. White went again and again to the Salon Royal. . . .

Newspaper estimates of the expense involved in this sort of evidence-collecting, at the first 18 nightclubs raided, reached $75,000. At Washington, Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran said the total expenditure was less than $9,000. "I consider this a reasonable amount," he said, in view of the many indictments and padlock orders obtained. He said the agents had spent their own money, being reimbursed by Federal vouchers upon presentation of their expense accounts and not before.

Antagonists. When the agents' affidavits were published last week, Hostess Morgan quickly said she had been "misquoted" about her alleged "agreement" with Administrator Campbell. Hostess Guinan's first reaction was violent scorn for her betrayer, Agent White. "I wouldn't call him a rat or anything," she said. "But I bet, at that, that this fellow White lives on green cheese!"

Neither Agent White nor Administrator Doran was the Hostesses' real antagonist, however, and after saying, "Oh, boy! Wait until I get on the stand and tell what I know about Prohibition agents," Hostess Guinan got to the heart of the matter. She said: "This Mrs. Willebrandt, who arranged all this, is a very remarkable woman--but Mrs. Bessie Guinan didn't bring up a damn fool either!"

It was, in other words, a contest of wits between two sharply contrasting types of professional women. On the one hand was the Assistant U. S. Attorney General, Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, college trained, intellectual, an able lawyer, the "emancipated" Modern Woman. She it was who, after Administrator Campbell's strong-arm methods failed in New York last winter, went over his head and over the head of the U. S. District Attorney in New York and planned the June raids in Manhattan with Commissioner Doran's assistance, to make sure her department would get the evidence she believed necessary to obtain convictions.

In Manhattan nightclubs, on the defensive against the Modern Woman, were modern representatives of one of the oldest types of woman, the professional entertainer.

Mrs. Willebrandt used to be a schoolteacher. Helen Morgan is the daughter of a schoolteacher, the pretty daughter who went away to the big city (Chicago) where her charms found the financial backing necessary to send her, in 1923, to a Montreal beauty contest, which she won.

She had a voice which she took seriously, studying for the Metropolitan Opera, until it became lucrative to her in Ziegfeld's Sally. From revue work she got into the night-club business, which she has studied in Paris and London. Prohibition raiders put her into the headlines, made her rich. She is a quiet brunette.

Producer Ziegfeld was vexed with Helen Morgan for getting herself arrested. "She has definitely withdrawn from after-theatre singing" he announced, meaning that he would enforce his contract for her exclusive services.

Mary Louise ("Texas") Guinan, about 45, was one of cinema's earliest cowgirls. She has been a Winter Garden girl and has had three husbands. There is not much left of her voice for singing purposes but she makes up for the lack of melody with a line of raucous smartcracks widely famed. She calls her public "suckers" and keeps them happy by making them laugh at each other. But it is only toward the loosely rich and meanly dissipated that she is scornful. Her real friends are many and to them she is generous.

When the cases come to trial, Mrs. Willebrandt's men, the Prohibition agents, and the men commanded by the Misses Guinan and Morgan, will joust like champions for their ladies. It will be one man's word against another, doubtless with a certain amount of nocturnal chivalry shielding the night-club ladies from the reports of visitors whom they received and entertained in good faith.

When she appeared in court to plead "not guilty" she said: "I'm no quitter. ... I feel like an architect. I've got so many plans."

The Press. In the Manhattan press, the chief theme for comment was the lavishness of the Willebrandt men's "investigations," the amount of money they spent, the quantity of champagne they drank.

Said the New York Times: "Uncle Sam is rich enough a buy us all a drink."

Said the New York World: "The raids do not touch the sources of supply. The gigantic traffic goes on, known to everybody."

* ln the absence of Secretary Andrew W. Mellon and Under Secretary Ogden L. Mills. Ordinarily, Mr. Lowman is the Assistant Secretary in charge of Prohibition.

/-Not to be confused with John J. Mitchell Jr., son of the late famed Banker John J. Mitchell of Chicago.