Lean Kitties

In the gambling casinos of France the managers tucked up the tails of their cutaway coats, counted the kitties, made their reports to discouraged stockholders last week. It has been a poor season. Deauville, Le Touquet, Aix, Biarritz, Vichy and Cannes all reported losses averaging from 25% to 66% of their 1931 income. There was only one bright spot. Fifty years ago when nearby Deauville contained nothing but shrimp fishermen and Norman cider makers, Trouville was a fashionable resort. This year there were in Trouville enough holiday makers who could no longer afford Deauville prices to jack its casino profits from $68,600 to $92,000.

Because kitties have grown so lean, Frank Jay, youngest son of the late Jay Gould, leased his string of Riviera casinos and hotels last week for the pittance rental of 2,000,000 francs ($80,000) per year to a French syndicate in which Mayor Jean Medicin of Nice is prominent. Thus "M'sieu Goolt," who enjoyed poor health last summer, transferred to Frenchmen the thankless job of running these properties on the cheap until kitties grow fat again. Other Gould properties in France, including his paper mill, chocolate factory and the spa Bagnoles de l'Orne, remain under the managership of Frank Jay's parent corporation Holding des Palaces et Casinos (S. A.).

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