Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-04-02
Night Club Patrons
Pay Little Attention
To 80 Per Cent Tax

Washington's night spots took the
80 per cent tax in stride last night
but 1t was Saturday night.
Lets see how business will be or
Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednes-
days." said the headwaiter of Treas
ure Island
The dance floor at the Troika
was so crowded at midnight that
it looked impossible for another
couple to elbow their way on, but
the headwaiter reported that bust
ness was slower than usual.
Teddy at the Mayflower, John at
the Statler and Fred at the Carl
ton all reported they had to turn
couples away.
Peter Borras at the Madrillon and
the headwaiter at Del Rio both re-
ported full houses.
Dancing Hour Moved Back.
Some of the night clubs and
cabarets found partial escape
from the 80 per cent tax placed on
their entertainment by simply
moving the dancing hour back.
Patrons of cocktail lounges now
will find very little afternoon dane
ing. Dinner guests will have to be
content with just dinner and or
chestral music - with no dancing
between courses.
Department stores in the city re-
ported that business had gone back
to normal, which still meant one
of the heaviest days in the year.
Ordinarily, they pointed OUT, the
day before Palm Sunday isa the
busiest pre-Easter shopping day
This year it was different. Yester-
day was crowded, but nothing like
Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Shopped Before Tax.
The abnormal emphasis on mid
week days, they laid entirely to the
efforts of shoppers to beat the tax"
Even though the increased levies
affected only certain items-such as
furs, cosmetics, toilet goods, electric
light bulbs, luggage and liquor
those who came to stock up on these
articles stayed to complete their
Easter shopping
At one of the large department
stores, March sales of toilet articles
and cosmetics were double the pre-
vious month. Sales of fur coats
and expensive jewelry were excep-
tionally brisk. Yesterday, although
the apparel departments were
crowded as might be expected before
Easter, the cosmetics, luggage, jew
elry and other departments affected
by the tax, experienced a slump.
Just how much tax-buying went
on last week was somewhat obscured
by the normal Easter shopping that
went on simultaneously. One store
official said the Easter buying could
be expected to taper off beginning
tomorrow. Another one pointed out
that buying ordinarily remains
heavy during the week before Eas-
ter, although purchases are usually
confined to accessories to costumes
purchased earlier.
The day after Easter is the low
point, he SAID.
Ads to Show Tax.
Taxes on the items affected by
the new revenue act will be adver-
tised hereafter as part of the total
price at the request of the Govern
ment, store officials said. If the
retail price of an article is SIS, 1t will
be advertised as Sc, including 20
per cent tax" Previously, adver-
tisements listed the retail price
plus 10 per cent tax" Price tags
it was pointed out, will show the re-
tail price, the tax and the tota.
cost.
So far as telephone messages and
kilograms were concerned, patrons
could do nothing. The tax now
has been increased from 20 to q
per cent on long distance calls anc
from 10 to Is per cent on local bills
Theater admissions too, have gone
up. In some cases, amusement spots
offered advance tickets for perform
ances in the next few days. The
new tax, however, doubles the ole
levy. 1t now costs a penny for every