Legs and Significance

For two months, a series of witty, satiric advertisements in the New York Daily News has spoofed OPA, Congress, New Yorkers, columnists. They cracked wide open the mossy tradition that the annual $25,000,000 worth of newspaper amusement ads must consist of pictures of leggy girls, slambang adjectives, and must be keyed lower than the customer's coin pocket.

The chanticleer in question, it turned out last week, is hip-high Billy Rose, Broadway's No. 1 spectaclemaker. The ads he had written had expertly plugged Rose's garish red and gold Manhattan nightclub, the Diamond Horseshoe. But they had also tested out his theory that U.S. amusement ads are so much alike they go unread.

The leg-conscious impresario decided that the way to get new business was to hit a new note, one of unsocial significance. In one ad he gibed at critics who liked his cabaret show ("Come, come, boys--it's not that good"). In another he kidded New Yorkers who gripe about spending summer in the city: "Thanks to that Bad Man in the White House, you're trapped in this fabled City of Marvels."

Honest Clowns, Tootsies. But the sharpest gibe was an open letter to Congress: "We fellows in the entertainment business can't compete with that big free show you're putting on. You're getting more laughs than we are. For years we didn't complain about your seersucker suits, Bronco Billy hats and Buster Brown collars, 'though the burlesque branch of our industry wasn't happy about it. Now that you've gone in for high-diving into the pork barrel and sawing the Statue of Liberty in half we must, as rival showmen, protest. Get off the stage, boys, and give some honest clowns, tootsies and yodelers a chance to divert the public."

Delightful New Dealers flourished the ad around Washington. But the foofaraw paid off, the Horseshoe's business hopped a huge 142% (Manhattan nightclub busi ness generally is up 33%). In the normally dull summer season it averaged over $30,000 a week (profit: about $6,000). But last week Rose regretfully announced that there would be no more socially insignificant ads; paper (and linage) restrictions had ended the fun.

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