Two Down

Two eager aspirants to the gaudy crown of U.S. showmanship that perches on the head of dwarfish Billy Rose are no longer as eager as they once were:

P: In Chicago, shortly after Showman Mike (Streets of Paris') Todd quit the world's biggest theater-restaurant, seating 3,700 (TIME, Jan. 6), it was closed by the Chicago police. Reported reason: it had fallen into the hands of Chicago's Nitti gang, who were converting it from a family-style resort into a vast honkytonk.

P: In Manhattan last week, Showman Monte ("Only Two Zombies to a Customer") Proser's world's biggest dance hall (in Madison Square Garden), accommodating 5,000 dancers, 4,000 spectators, folded. It never got its hoped-for weekly attendance of about 30,000, finally ran into a scorching weekend, and one night only 1,500 customers appeared. Among the backers who shared the rumored $85,000 loss: Terminal Taxicab President Dan Arnstein, now en route to China as U.S.

Government adviser on Burma Road transportation (TIME, June 30), Yellow Taxicab Founder John D. Hertz, Herbert Bayard Swope. Moaned Monte Proser: "That weather and the overhead!"

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