The Phoenix Jewish News

The National Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers has cancelled plans to hold its 1956 spring board meeting at Camelback Inn because of the resort's anti-Jewish discrimination policy, the Phoenix Jewish News learned this week.

Instead the board will meet April 18 to 21 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, which has no such policy.

The decision resulted from protests from within the association's directorate. Although only a tiny minority of the directorate is Jewish, association leaders took the position that the group should not hold its conclave at a resort where un-American practices of discrimination appear to be the established policy.

Quite a Bit of Business

The board comprises about 100 people. Many of the board members will be accompanied to the convention by their wives. Also attending will be members of the association's sales council and state directors, along with representatives of local manufacturers. Hence Camelback Inn's "selective clientele" policy has cost it the revenue from several hundred convention-goers.

Bert Shoemaker, assistant manager of Camelback Inn, said the association did not actually book the convention there but "looked the place over" and then decided to go to the Biltmore.

A spokesman for the Biltmore said the ice cream manufacturers held their board meeting there two years ago.

Attorneys' Cancellation Recalled

Camelback figured similarly in the news last year when the National Association of Attorneys General cancelled its convention there and held it instead in West Virginia because of discrimination at Camelback. Shortly afterward, U.S. Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R.-Mass.) cancelled a booking at Camelback for the same reason when he came to Phoenix to address Arizona Republicans. Both incidents occurred after the individuals involved were notified of Camelback's policy as a result of action taken by Phoenix Jewish community leaders.

Asked whether Camelback has lost many conventions because of its policy, Shoemaker commented, "Bookings have been so heavy that when we lose one, we get two. That seems to be the trend."

Camelback has pursued a policy of catering to off-season conventions of groups that include Jewish delegates while it declines to accept individual "Jewish reservations" during its in-season period.