Riffraff

The pro-labor paper, The Cleveland Citizen made note of the "Hearstian", anti-labor, Red-baiting film, Riffraff.

Jean Harlow and Hollywood newcomer Spencer Tracy get to show off their woiking class acting chops in this flicker, released January 3, 1936. Tracy plays a commercial fisherman, Harlow a gal working the cannery, they are married and extremely unpleasant characters.

Tracy (Dutch Miller) talks his brother fishermen out a strike, knowing the Boss, Nick Lewis, will only break their contracts and hire scabs. When he becomes the new head of the union, he calls a strike and is proven right. All union workers are driven into poverty.

Meanwhile, Boss Nick loves Hattie and tries to woo her after Dutch moves out and ends up in a hobo camp. Hattie steals cash from Nick to give to Dutch, but he runs from her, and Nick presses charges, landing the now-pregnant Hattie in prison.

Industrial sabotage. Girl prison break. Little Mickey Rooney playing a goddamn trumpet. Dutch comes clean, he and Hattie reunite - with the new baby - and everything is happily ever after.

"Miss Harlow the comedienne is one person. Miss Harlow the tragedienne is another. And when the new photoplay at the Capitol choose to accent the less convincing personality and to cast a somber eye upon such weighty matters as labor in revolt, the Red menace, motherhood and life in a women's prison, then, alas, a boisterous jest skids down the slopes of melodramatic routine." - The New York Times

Apparently the prison break scene result in a lawsuit against MGM from the California State Industrial Welfare Committee because of the women actors who became ill as a result of working through an actual downpour. They each received an extra $15.



Sources:
The Cleveland Citizen
Allmovie.com
TCM.com
imdb.com
The New York Times

The Ostriches

People’s Theater Plays
The Cleveland Citizen, December 6, 1935

The People’s Theatre will present “The Ostriches” … a brilliant comedy on war written by Rudolph Wittenberg, who recently came to this country from Germany. The Theatre itself was organized last June to present plays of social importance to a vast audience of people who have never seen their own lives portrayed in the theatre.

Many unions have given their endorsement and a great number saw performances of an earlier production, the stirring “Waiting For Lefty,” which has revolutionized American theatre of today, both in method of presentation and in subject. Also a great number of unions in Cleveland have seen “Union Label,” a short skit which is part of its mobile theatre. In one week a play was written and rehearsed by the People’s Theatre and performed in conjunction with the Union Buyers’ Club at a benefit for the (Brunk) strikers.

War is declared in Europe and two neighbors in America join in hand-to-hand combat on their own territory. After being reconciled in jail they decide to prevent the horrors of war reaching this country by forming the “International Peace Co.” Interspaced with scene of hilarious comedy are realistic flashbacks which are signaled by descending sirens.

As the theatre was founded for the workingmen, the admissions price of 35 cents is also with his budget.

The Ostriches as translated by Howard Da Silva, opened on December 23 in a former nightclub at 4300 Carnegie. The opening night performance was delayed forty minutes (accompanied by the sounds of hammering backstage) and when the curtain finally rose you could see the wet paint on the just-completed set.

The People's Theatre is not aligned with any political party. That is the euphemistic way of saying that it is not Communistic, and its organizers wish you to be clear about that. - William F. McDermott, The Plain Dealer

Sources:
The Cleveland Citizen
The Plain Dealer
Showtime in Cleveland (Vacha)

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- Cleveland Citizen, March 27, 1936

Cleveland Citizen

Maximillian Sebastian "Max" Hayes (1866—1945) was a newspaper editor, trade union activist, and socialist politician. He is best remembered as the long-time editor of the Cleveland Citizen and as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party ticket in 1920. - Wikipedia

THE CLEVELAND CITIZEN - January 5, 1936
Publication Office, Central and East 14th Street
"The Official Newspaper of Organized Labor, est. 1890"

THINGS TO THINK
By Art and Monda Bender

The conditions iin the U.S. For the next 10 years could be estimated to become something like this …

Roosevelt will lead the liberals and win by a moderate margin.

The administration in 37 or 39 will be forced to take complete U.S. Ownership of the banking system.

The railroads, by 39, will be government owned and operated.

A 30-hour work week will go into effect by 39 to guarantee employment to all workers.

Because of the miraculous efficiency of technological production, the government will be forced to exercise a strict control over production.

All public utilities, by 1945, will have been taken over.

All registrants will will be required to register under one or more of the seven natural classes of effort to secure a legitimate income: Production, Distribution Management, Professional, Creative, Public Protection and Beneficiaries.

We believe 90 percent of the widowers or widows would remarry if the conditions were favorable. This suggests that there are few real love matches. The marriage of Thomas Edison’s widow recently 70 years old, suggest she did not have a true love for Edison or that she does not believe in the existence of other worlds after death.