Mr. Wright.

stick it in the window and it advertised Jack's club, which was down on the other side of the parking lot from Abe's club.

Mr. Griffin.

Did Jack use amateur strippers in his shows?

Mr. Wright.

Yes; they all do.

Mr. Griffin.

Now, do you recall that there came a time when Jack felt that he wasn't being permitted to use the amateurs and the Weinsteins were?

Mr. Wright.

Well, Jack fought the battle. First of all, Jack didn't like to put out the money that Abe and Barney were putting out, because Abe and Barney would use on their amateur shows, which is held once a week in each club, they would use on the average, if they had the girls, maybe five or six girls. which would cost them anywhere from $10 to $15 a girl. Jack felt that that was too much money to put out, so he would. therefore, use three or four girls. But in the meantime, he was trying to get the union to stop amateur shows altogether.

Mr. Griffin.

Did the union have any sort of rule against amateur shows?

Mr. Wright.

They did and they didn't. We never actually found out.

Mr. Griffin.

What was ambigious about the rules which they had in this respect?

Mr. Wright.

Well, our constitution says that no professional entertainer is to work with an amateur entertainer. This was the primary rule that Jack was basing his complaint on, which I and most of the entertainers at the time agreed upon. But you must work in this business, and therefore, Barney and Abe, well, especially Barney, started the amateur shows, I think about 13 years ago, and he has put a lot of People in business as far as dancers go, and he has put a lot of people to work. I was on the local board at the time, and we had memos from the west coast and New York.

Mr. Griffin.

Excuse me, was this the local board of the American Guild of Variety Artist?

Mr. Wright.

Yes; it is the local executive board. We were sent memos to the branch managers that at one time the amateur shows were to cease, or these people were to join the union and then they could work. Well, this was complied with, and then not long after that, the people that were head of the various regional offices were fired and we had new memos. So actually, we never found out whether the whole thing is still legal or illegal, but a lot of the kids that were amateurs joined the union, and some of them still belong to the union.
But I imagine some of them don't. I don't know for sure, because I quit the board because of the fact that we got one memo that said one thing, and another memo that would contradict the memo before, so it got to be a confusing situation altogether. When I got out in Califoria, I went to see Mazzie, who, when I left Dallas, was the west coast regional director of AGVA.

Mr. Griffin.

M-a-z-z-i-e?

Mr. Wright.

Yes; well he was west regional director. But when I got to California I went up to see him to talk to him about what was going on in Dallas. He had been fired and Bobby Faye in New York had been fired. They went into an interim committee that took care of the union until recently. I understand they had elections, and I forget the gentleman, I don't even know the guy that is head of the thing. I haven't bothered to look to see.
See, our union is not run like most unions. AGVA is run by the secretary of the union, and then you take people like Joey Adams who was president. It is an honorary thing. Then you have the vice presidents and so forth. But the main part of the union is run by the members of the national board.

Mr. Griffin.

When did you quit the local board here in Dallas?

Mr. Wright.

It was about a month before I left town, I believe.

Mr. Griffin.

While you were on the local board, did Jack come to you about his problems with the Weinsteins?

Mr. Wright.

He went to everybody on the board about his problems.

Mr. Griffin.

Did he come to you?

Mr. Wright.

Yes.

Mr. Griffin.

Did he feel that you were helping him or not?

Mr. Wright.

Well, when I left town--in fact, the main reason, one of the reasons that I resigned from the board was the fact Jack thought after I had gone to work for Barney and Abe after leaving him, that I was against him,