The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-01
THEATRICAL WAR; DUE TO FEUD OF
 TWO PRODUCERS.
Erlinger's Anger At Shu- bert Is Cause Given
 Court

NEW YORK, May 31.-The real cause of the present chaos in the theat- >rical business in New York, Supreme Court Justice McCook was told yester- day, dates back years ago to the Shu- bert's invasion of the booking field, in which A. L. Erlanger formerly had a monopoly.
 This interpretation of the contro- versy now rending Broadway was made by Charles H. Futile, attorney for the Managers Protective associa- ton, headed by the Shuberts and by Paul N. Turner, representing the Actors Equity association, during d three hours argument on the motion of the Round robin" group of the Producing Managers association to continue the temporary injunction re- straining the Protective association and Equity from carrying out their S0-20 agreement.
 "Poaching" Alleged
 In attempting to prove that the Round Robin" agreement was drawn up and signed because Erlanger's jeal- ousy of Lee Shubert, Turner said: Erlanger had had a monopoly of book ing plays in New York until the Shu- berts entered the same field and made
 
 Then Futile said the Producing Managers association had instructed Erlanger several months ago to go to Equity and try to get from it the same S0-20 agreement to which Err langer and other members of the Round Robin" group now object. Erlanger failing to get the agreement, Futile said, and Lee Shubert was deputized to make the attempt and succeeded in bringing back the agreement.
 The fact that Shubert succeeded in getting what Erlanger had failed to get would have made Shubert very in- fluential, Futile pointed out, so, he asserted, the Round Robin" agree ment was drawn up and signed in se cret under the leadership of Erlanger and the S0-20 agreement silently voted down" when it was reported back by Shubert.
 But On The Other Hand
 The other side of the picture was painted by Samuel R. Golding, who declared he was not representing the so-caIled Round Robin" group, but the Producing Managers associa tion.
 He called the 8O-2o agreement signed by Equity and the Shubert group "a crystallized conspiracy en- tered into by Lee Shubert and Equity for the monopoly and control of the theatrical industry in New York and throughout the country" and quoted from an editorial which appeared in Equity" official publication of the Equity association, on May 15.
 '0There is more to this SO-20 agree ment than appears on thes urface,"
 Al 1Iyy provided for an Equity shop "con- cealed by whiskers. s.'
 A signer of this agreement, he charged, was guilty of the crime of attempted extortion and subject to a penalty of not exceeding fifteen years in state prison.
 Mir. Turner disagreed with Gold ing's interpretation of the S0-20 agree ment and upheld the right of Equity to decide with whom we will work and with whom we will make agree ments." He declared the Round Rob- in" managers did not object to the non Equity persons in their casts paying the equivalent of dues but merely wanted the money turned over to the Actors Fund.
 Losses Under Injunction
 William Klein, appearing for the Shuberts and the other managers as- sociated with him, declared the tenn porary injunction obtained by the "Round Robin" group was causing daily losses of $5O,O0O to $100,00O to his clients.
 He also protested bitterly against treatment accorded his twenty clients earlier in the afternoon by Augustus what he called the high hqnded' Thomas, sitting as chairman of the Producing Managers association, which had met to consider the expul- sion of the twenty managers asso- ciated under the leadership of the Shubert's. He announced he and the twenty managers had withdrawn from the meeting in protest; and at his request Justice McCook restrained the Producing Managers association from taking any action on the expul- sion of the twenty managers until aft CT he had desiced the injunction pro, ceeding.