The Daily Alaska Empire

RUMBA HAS 'EM GOING BOTH IN EAST AND WEST
Reasons for Latest Dance Fad Is Given by Man Who Makes It Pay
By GEORGE TUCKER
NEW YORK. July 12.-Until the other day my first hand knowledge of the rumba was rather vague. I knew that everybody was doing it but I didn't know why. Not until Monty Proser came to town and aired his views on the theme. Then it all added up. It made sense. It was simply a matter of simple arithmetic.
Monty is an old hand at weighing vogues and dealing with nightclub commodities. Years ago he came out of the hobo camps to help put the speakeasies over. The Everglades club was one of his early ventures. When Repeal came he continued right along in the nightclub line. He promoted them, just as he did other ventures, including a safari in the heart of the South American jungle by one of the Roosevelts.
Well, he went to Hollywood, and shortly thereafter reports began to drift in of a place called La Conga on Vine Street, right across from the Brown Derby. Walter Wanger and a lot of film producers gave some big parties there. It became a tourist center. And it was Cuban, fashioned in the manner of a Cuban village, with little courtyards and adobe dwellings, and a tropical bar.
And naturally I cornered him when I bumped into him on his latest quick visit back to New York. I wanted to ask him his formula for hitting the jackpot in such short order.
"Well," he said, "it's the rumba. Nightclubs have terrific overheads and unless you take in a lot of money you invite disaster. So you can forget all about the waltz and the Big Apple. Young lovers like to waltz and kids do the Big Apple. But youthful lovers and kids haven't got money. It's the successful man, the older business man who peels off the greenbacks for those tidily tabulated nightclub checks.
"And the rumba is made to order for him. First, in dancing the rumba the man doesn't have to do so much. He is a pivot for the girl and as a pivot he shows her off. Second, the rumba has a fascinating rhythm which appears difficult but in reality is quite simple. Everybody in Hollywood dances the rumba, just as everybody in New York and in all the large cities do. Louis Mayer and Joe Schenck are the best rumba dancers in Hollywood.
"Now, let's take this place, the place we are in right now. It has two orchestras-a swing band and a Cuban band. And about 60 per cent of the time is given over to Cuban music. The same is true at the Riviera, and at the Waldorf and at the Rainbow Room. And that's the way we do. It's our big staple. It gives the old man a chance to feel his oats without foxtrotting himself to death."
Having divested himself of this information, Professor Proser suggested that we go over to Radio City Music Hall and see what we could see. "Don't tell me you've got a Cuban band over there too!"
"No, but I've got a picture over there-a picture called 'Blockade,' and that's why I'm in New York at the moment. I came east to open it at the Music Hall and also in Washington. It's a Walter Wanger picture and I do an occasional trick for him."