Ballet War

Last autumn, when Choreographer Leonide Massine announced that he would leave the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo for a more congenial job with World-Art, Inc. (TIME, Nov. 1), things looked bad for Colonel de Basil's toe-dancers. Temperamental Massine had always felt that de Basil cramped his style, had long awaited a chance to launch a company all his own. The chance came when Chicago's art-conscious celebrity-chaser. Mrs. Charles B. Goodspeed, steered him toward Yeast Tycoon Julius Fleischmann, who had cherished a secret passion to patronize the arts. Upshot was the organization of the World-Art group with backing ($500,000) by Fleischmann, Harold F. McCormick and other Midwest socialites. De Basil lost not only his principal working choreographer (Massine) to the new group, now named The New Ballet Russe, but long-legged Ballerinas Tamara Toumanova and Alexandra Danilova, and the aegis of crafty Concert Manager Sol Hurok as well.

But last week, when flies in de Basil's soup seemed thickest, handsome Prince Serge Obolensky (onetime Diaghilev supporter) and his cohorts of Manhattan socialites (Aldrich. Biddle. Vanderbilt et al.) and White Russians thundered to the rescue. To the Obolensky-de Basil standard rallied white-haired Choreographer Michel Fokine, several of whose past creations (Don Juan, Les Elements, L'Epreuve d' Amour) already studded the proposed repertory of the Massine-World-Art company. Besides the exclusive future services of Choreographer Fokine, the Obolensky-de Basil company acquires the bulk of the present repertory costumes and scenery of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; claims sole right to the use of the term "Ballet Russe" Both factions are proceeding to gird themselves for rival U. S. tours next season.

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