The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-02-18
/ ALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS
MIAMI. Feb. 10.

TN certain vital respects condltlons
IL down here are very lugubrious
and after a fortnight Of leisure your
correspondent does not know exact
" how TO view the situation To
begin with the six hundred million
aires who control Madison Square
Garden, the institution which IS
Eronsoring a local program Of box
ing contests nine days from tonight,
have been complaining that the
newspaper boys from the metropolis
have not been writing enough about
the impending spectacle. 1 ami told
that the millionaires are at loss
tc understand why all the top lines
OF feurut date in the metropolitan
sports pages have not been devoted
10 the sweating and snorting virtu-
osity of the Messrs. Scott and Shar-
key who are to meet in what Is
technically called the main go.
II seems The miIuouaires took out a
lease on . hotel In the Beach district and
Aurned II over to the writers, or TO such
writers as felt disposed to reside there.
the guests, including wives, new brides and
blood kin, could psrtake of board and bed
at the very nominal rate Of 500 per week.
or less depending on how the parties of
the second part felt about such obliga-
tons.
TN return for this. and especially
Il In view Of the generally known
fact that 1t is impossible to partake
of board and bed anywhere on the
Beach during the month of Febru-
airy, which is the peak month of the
resort season for less than $50 per
day, the millionaires, it develops, feel
that the writer's have not been as
considerate, and certainly not as
fluent, as II was hoped they might
be.
r SUPPOSE from the standpoint
i of fair play the millionaires have
a squawk coming because accOmoda-
lions of any sort on the Beach are
very limited and it must be dis
tressing to turn a hotel over to the
writers at a trifling cost, if any, and
then see them turn their critical
attentions to golf courses, race
tracks, and night clubs, in practically
none of which are the millionaireS
financially interested.
Il Il
The attitude OF the sports promoter to-
ward the newspapers has always baffled me
somewhat. / mean to say that as a bust
ness man the sports promoter always seems
70 demand and get more publicity than
anybody else. and when this publicity does
not measure up to expectations a fever
ish protest Is raised.
There are quite a few fairly important
business men vacationing in this vicinity.
including Franklin Simon. the department
store genius. but 7 have not heard that
ne has complained because the fashion
writer's failed to crash into print with
daily blurb about some ef the gowns from
his store that the dear ladies are wearing
hereabouts. OF course 1t may be that
Mr.. Simon has complained or that he has
nothing to complain about. I merely strive
to make the point that he appears en-
titled to q complaint in the same degree
that IS habitually exercised by the sports
promoter.
THE dearth of headlines in the
l. metropolitan papers is not
the only disturbing note in the local
situation. A great number of the
boys are packing up. I do not mean
the writing boys. I refer to the
boys who came down here to play
the wheel on the word that the
town was going to be wide open
again.
The town is not wide open. For while
it was and a fellow could get a play at
anything from craps to faro. But some
thing has happened. l am told that It Is
political fight. Whatever 1t IS the halls
of chance are all closed, and from the way
things look they are not going TO reopen.
y
These places are largely patron
lied by the boys with a scattering
OF tourists and good time charles.
But it is the boys who buy the ring
side seats, and since their number
is something more than stable it
can readily be seen that when they
pack up and depart a very consid-
cradle source of revenue has been