“Women ushers are not as brave as men when danger comes,” he argued.
“Experience has proved that statement purely theoretical and absolutely untrue,” responded the managers of playhouses which employ girl ushers.
“Women ushers are all right to hand out programs and show patrons to seats, but that is all,” the fire prevention chief remarked.
And thereby Armageddon was set down in the midst of the theatrical world.
The first strategic move of the opposing forces--the girl ushers of Chicago-consisted in the organization of an effective fighting machine.
“The Girl Ushers’ Anti-McDonnell League” it is called--and the name conceals little of the organization’s plans of procedure.
“Our work is to us what other kinds of work are to other girls--our means of earning a livelihood,” said Miss Marie Donlan of the Princess Theater, chairman of the league. “To the assistant fire chief the change from women ushers to men would mean only the vindication of an idea. To us it would mean the loss of our positions.”
The campaign contemplated by the league has no place in it for consideration of the feelings of the fire prevention head.
“We shall ignore him with pleasure,” volunteered Miss Blanche Lamb, head usher of the Garrick.
Here is the plan worked out by the members of the league’s impromptu war council: A petition will be prepared and presented to Mayor Harrison by a committee selected from the membership of the league. The petition will recite actual instances in which girls have proved their bravery “under fire.”
New friends sprang to the defense of the young women at the council committee meeting. They were Aldermen Coughlin and Dempsey. The former cited the instance of the Iroquois Theater fire, when “men ushers failed to prevent terrible loss of life.” Alderman Dempsey said it would be wrong “to throw so many girls out of employment.”
Girl ushers active in the new league include the Misses Eleanor Cline and Gertrude White of the Princess Theater, the Misses Lucile Perkins and Blanche Lamb of the Garrick, and the Misses T. Crowley, D. Dennis and G. Kennedy of Powers’.
The council judiciary committee voted to defer action until after the managers of the theaters had been given an opportunity to be heard.