The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-06
Two Topeka Theaters to Ignore
Union Contracts.
Successors to L. NJ. Crawford
Announce a New Policy.
ORCHESTRAS FOR TWO WEEKS
Old Agreement Will Be in
Force for Musicians.
Stage Hands Walk Out-Opera-
tors, Musicians Next?

The contract of the stage hands
union with the Grand and Novelty
theaters in Topeka expired Tuesday.
and no new contract has been signed
by the new lessees of the theaters,
Roy Payne and A. L. Schober.
Members of the union this morn
ing declined to discuss the rumors
that a, strike of the stage hands, the
motion picture machine operators and
the orchestras had been called for the
two theaters.
Il don't know anything about it
until we find out whether a new con-
tract will be signed" F. w. Rausch,
who is president of the stage hands
union as well as a member of the
strike committee of the Santa Fe shop
men, said today. Rausch said that
the members of the union would not
work unless a new contract was
theaters.
1T is strictly against our rules to
work without a contract Rausch
said.
Wouldn't Sign Contract.
Roy Payne. one of the new mana
gers of the show houses, said that he
was asked today by Don Pickering,
business manager of the stage hands.
whether he wanted to renew the con-
tract or to sign new one.
Il told him I didn't want to-" Payne
said. Il had already asked the men
employed as stage hands at the
Novelty and the Grand, if they wanted
20 keep their jobs. One of them told
me he was leaving town, and the
others said they wouldn't be inter
ested. 1 considered that that closed
the matter, and we have engaged a
complete staff of stage hands who will
not have contracts"
Hold Orchcstras.
The statement was made by Payne
that the union musicians who have
been playing at the Grand and the
morning, and demanded either two
weeks pay or two weeks notice from
L. NJ. Crawford, the former manager
of the theaters.
I'VE have agreed to keep the union
musicians on for the next two weeks.
At the end of that time we will have
brand new orchestras lined up Tor both
places-which, by the way, will be the
best orchestras in Topeka" Payne
said. II have not asked any Of the
men 1 have hired for the orchestras.
whether they belong to the union or
mot"
H E. Barnes, head of the local
union of musicians, stated today that
no official knowledge was had by the
trouble at the Novelty or the Grand
Walk Out in Sympathy.
"Our orders would come thru our
international heads if we were called
out" Barnes said. "Our international
has an agreement with the interna-
tional union of the operators and the
stage hands, whereby If they walk out,
we walk out with them, and vice versa.
We have no grievance with either the
Novelty or the Grand at the present
time. In the ordinary course of events,
if the stage hands walk out, we will
be ordered out after two weeks notice,
in sympathy with them"
Operators viii Strike, Too.
Greg Prout, an official of the local
union of moving picture machine
operators, stated today that if the
stage hands didn't go back to work
at the Novelty and the Grand, the op-
orators wouldn't.
1t was brought out that at the pres
ent time three Topeka theaters, the
Best, the Cozy. and the Gem, are op-
Grating without union musicians or
operators. There are no stage hands
at any of these theaters.
The musicians at the three theaters
named failed to agree with the man
agements as to their new contracts
when they expired, and the operators
walked out in sympathy with the musi-
clans, Barnes, speaking for the musi-
clans. and Prout, for the operators,
Declared fodav