Burlesque Suit

A suit more jocose than bitter was brought in Manhattan last week by Abraham, William, Herbert & Morton Minsky, proprietors of three burlesque theatres, against Sidney Ross, proprietor of one art gallery. Mr. Ross has been holding an exhibition called "The Theatre In Art" (TIME, April 11). There, on Sunday, he held "burlesque day." That made a bit of mutually profitable publicity for both Mr. Ross and the Minskys. One would have thought that it would cement their mutual respect and admiration, but such was not the case. On Tuesday Brother William Minsky caused his lawyer to write to Mr. Ross protesting a painting by one Myron Sokole, called "Burlesque a la Minsky."

"The painting, such as it is, depicting three dancing burlesque girls wholly lacking in form and beauty (one slightly cross-eyed and all ugly, fat, misshapen and sensuous) is a misnomer of its title. Remember, burlesque has done no harm to art. Why should art attempt to harm burlesque?" The Minskys asked $50,000 damages.

Undaunted, Mr. Ross stoutly declared that "it would be unfair not only to the artist but to the cause of freedom in American art to yield to your request." The suit will not come up for "probably quite a while." Curiously, the Minskys were not at all miffed with another painting called "Burlesque," by famed Thomas Benton, depicting a young woman gaily waggling her fundament at a dozen goggling male customers. "That's modernistic," decided the Minskys.

There are three burlesque theatres in Brooklyn, six in Manhattan. The Minskys own half of the Manhattan ones. Until last winter the Minsky mother house, the National Winter Garden, was at Houston Street and Second Avenue, teeming Jewish district. Father Minsky immigrated from Russia and became a leading merchant on Grand Street when Grand Street was the location of Lord & Taylor and Arnold Constable. He was also elected alderman and got in the construction business. With Lawyer Max D. Steuer he put up the Winter Garden Building. It housed two theatres, one on the sixth floor, one on the first. Brother Billy, 45, started showing films in the upper auditorium in 1912. Brother Abe, 54, had been running a nickelodeon theatre of his own and drifted in to help. When Brother Herbert, 40, acquired his law degree from Columbia and Brother Morton, 30, was graduated from New York University, they helped out, too.

For a while they showed vaudeville, but in 1915 they turned to burlesque. Brother Billy, onetime newspaperman, ablest of the group, had at that time never seen a burlesque show. He prefers Wagner, Dostoevsky, "deep books" and Edgar Wallace. Unlike other theatrical entertainment, burlesque requires no rehearsal. It is a traditional art. There are some 400 "bits" and Brother Billy simply specifies what series of bits he wants his stock company to perform each week. Sample "bit" is "Bibs & Bibs," involving two couples, one including a henpecked husband, the other a browbeaten wife. After a few drinks the situation is reversed.

"Bibs & Bibs" is "always good for a laugh." "Buzzin' The Bee" is another one in which the straight man persuades the two comedians to pretend they are bees. To ensure their silence each is given a mouthful of water. This "bit" terminates with one comedian getting a face full of water.

Inserted between the "bits" and song numbers are the "strip acts." A chorus and one of the principals comes out. When the chorus leaves the stage the principal begins disrobing. Up to a certain point she will continue to take her clothes off so long as the audience whistles, claps and howls for it. Since the Depression the pulchritude of the strip artists and chorus has visibly increased. The Minsky acts differ from week to week almost solely in their titles, which run to punning. Last week's performance was called Eileen Dover From Aiken.

From 1926 to 1929 the Minskys ran into palmy days. They advertised their show as the Folies-Bergeres of New York and were proud indeed of their "carriage trade": Otto Kahn. Horace Liveright, Frank Crowninshield. Gilbert Seldes, George Jean Nathan, who probably went to the National Roof less because it was like the Folies-Bergeres than because it represented their country's one definite contribution to the theatre.

Year ago Lincoln's Birthday the Minskys shifted the focus of their operations by moving into the Republic Theatre on West 42nd Street. When Billy Minsky applied for a renewal of the license which permits his operations there, he was last week faced with litigation that threatened to be far more serious than his embroilment with Sidney Ross. License Commissioner James F. Geraghty gave a hearing to citizens who objected to renewing licenses for the Republic Theatre andthe flea circuses, dime museums, and minor side shows which thrive nearby. Reformer John S. Sumner, Director Henry Moskowitz of the League of New York Theatres, counsel for Forty-Second Street Association and others said that such enterprises lowered the neighborhood's moral tone, depreciated property values, gave the whole city a bad name. Commissioner Geraghty seemed inclined to agree. He said that his own inspectors had been subjected to improper proposals after watching a burlesque show.

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