Night Life Blighted

In Washington, one nightclub operator gloomed: "This is the beginning of the end for some nightclubs -- for me it's al ready the end." Then he closed up. The new 30% tax was too much for him. In San Francisco, 31 nightspots closed, or got out from under the tax by firing floor shows and dance bands. In Philadelphia, 16 clubs did the same. Another 86 followed suit in Manhattan. In Cleveland, 15 locked their doors.

Although swank establishments like Manhattan's Stork Club were self-consciously unaffected, the real or fancied complaints of what the month-old tax was doing to the nation's cabarets last week swelled louder than a chorus of hot brasses. The American Guild of Variety Artists estimated that jobless entertainers would soon number 15,000. No one expected Washington to lose much sleep over this; the War Manpower Commission has been trying for months to force such nonessential workers into war plants.

But there was real cause for official worry if nightclub business fell off drastically -- and last week many clubs reported a 60% drop. Contemplating this, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Walter F.George predicted that the new tax, which Congress had hoped would bring in $90,000,000, will actually bring in less than the old 5% tax. He advocated that the tax be reduced to 15 or 20%. Minnesota's Harold Knutson had already tossed in the House hopper a resolution to lower the tax to 10% .

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