Two-a-Night

One evening last week a show was staged in the White House. In the East Room, from 7 to 8 p. m., President & Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt of the U. S., President & Mrs. David Dubinsky of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and a few other guests watched a "command performance" of Pins & Needles, the I. L. G. W. U. show that has become a Broadway hit (TIME, Dec. 20).

For its performance, the White House furnished a makeshift stage, all props except a seltzer bottle (the White House uses club soda). Secret Service men forbade the use of a five-and-ten-cent-store cap pistol. The President roared, particularly at the skit It's Not Cricket to Picket. After watching FTP Plowed Under, a travesty on the Federal Theatre, F. D. R. remarked: "I wish the Senate and House could see this one." After listening to Harold Rome's Call It Un-American with its

When investigating Senators establish that your riches

Were extracted from the pockets of the public's tattered breeches

Never stoop to contradict the socialistic sons of bitches

Call them unAmerican.

the President commented: "That gives me an idea for a speech."

After the show, the President asked Louis Schaffer, executive director for Labor Stage, Inc., how the Manhattan critics had reviewed the show. Said Schaffer: "Fine." "Even the Sun?" asked F. D. R.*

Later that evening, like troupers doing a two-a-night, the cast of Pins & Needles moved on to Washington's Mayflower Hotel to perform before Madam Secretary Perkins and 1,000 others, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Department of Labor. At the Mayflower the show went over big a second time. In the audience was William Green, President of the A. F. of L.; conspicuously absent was John L. Lewis, who is at outs with I. L. G. W. U.'s Dubinsky. During the song One Big Union for Two, which is propaganda for the C. I. O., Green stole the spotlight from the actors, remained composed but looked uncomfortable.

Both at the White House and the Mayflower the show was cut. Omitted from both performances was a sketch, Little Red School House and a ballet, The General Is Unveiled. Omitted at the White House were Sunday in the Park, Men Awake, and What Good Is Love. Omitted at the Mayflower were political songs and skits, Call It Un-American, Four Little Angels of Peace, Mussolini Handicap. FTP Plowed Under, Public Enemy No. 1, and the dance Doing the Reactionary:*

Don't go left but be polite,

Move to the right

Doing the reactionary.

All the best dictators do it,

Millionaires keep stepping to it,

The four hundred love to sing it,

Ford and Morgan swing it.

* Critic Richard Lockridge of the right wing New York Sun praised Pins & Needles, though in somewhat gingerly fashion. *Quoted by special permission of copyright owners, Mills Music Inc.

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