“Picture Operators Join Stage Strike”

Headline: “Picture Operators Join Stage Strike”

Subhead: Performances Go Ahead on Schedule; Declared Musicians Will Walk Out.

Motion picture operators of St. Paul and all except a few suburban theaters in Minneapolis walked out Tuesday night, on a sympathetic strike with the stage hands, who have been out since Saturday.

The operators left just before the first show was scheduled to start in the St. Paul motion picture houses.

At the Capitol the management was given 20 minutes notice by the operators. The performance started promptly, however, the machines being manned by other employes of the theater.

All the theaters in the Twin Cities are operating as schedules, the operators’ places being taken by employes who are familiar with the machines.

Signed Agreement.

The operators signed a new agreement with the theater owners September 1, whereby they were given a wage increase amounting to 8 to 15 per cent.

“We walked out on orders from union headquarters in New York City,” George LaVictoire explained Tuesday night in behalf of the local operators’ union.

“The stage hands’ union appealed to the International operators union to order the sympathetic strike. We will stay out until the dispute is settled. We have at no time refused to meet the theater owners to try to find a solution of the difficulty.”

Musicians to Go.

“It virtually is certain that the musicians will walk out in the Twin Cities, declared E. P. Ringius, secretary of the Musicians union Tuesday night. “We are waiting for orders from headquarters.”

W. A. Steffes, president of the Theater Owners association, made the statement that the theaters of St. Paul and Minneapolis would remain open.

“We have an obligation to the people of St. Paul to keep the shows running, and we are going to fulfill it at all costs,” he declared.

He said that the theater owners do not contemplate meeting the strikers demands.