Frain's Boys

May 7, 1932 a Chicago Irishman named Andy Frain contrived to get caught crashing the gate at the Kentucky Derby, insisted on seeing Derby Impresario Matt Winn. Then he interrupted Colonel Winn's tirade, took him to a window, pointed out how inefficiently the crowds were being handled: Here was a gate not being used; there a parking space in utter confusion. Whipping out a blueprint of the grounds, Andy Frain presently persuaded Matt Winn to sign over the ushering to him. For last week's running of the Derby (see p. 40), Usher Frain needed the help of 250 trained aides brought from Chicago, 500 high-school and college boys hired locally. Clad in snappy blue & gold uniforms and rigorously trained, they got from $5 to $10 apiece. Andy himself got $1,500.

Other regular Frain assignments include Brooklyn's National League ball park. Cleveland's Thistledown and Bainbridge race tracks. All told, Frain employes usher at some 40 events a day; a permanent staff of 1,500 work out of Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Los Angeles, London and Dublin. The annual payroll is over $500,000.

Youngest of 17 children, Andy Frain-- who now clears $15,000 to $25,000 a year --was born poor, never went to high school, started his ushering career as a sideline to being a helper on a department store truck. He found ushering generally inefficient, characterized by stupid or unpleasant workers who made their living on tips for showing balcony patrons to orchestra seats. From Paddy Harmon, manager of the Chicago Stadium, Andy got his first big job; was soon so successful that Chicago hoodlums demanded a cut. He beat up their emissary. Four mobsters then tried to shoot him, but he and two of his brothers gave all four a beating. Usher Frain was never troubled again.

Now 32, he has an organization that runs on several unusual principles: If any usher gets caught taking a bribe for a favor, the Frain organization gets no pay that day. Ushers must go through a training course, may not smoke on jobs, must take regular exercise, have regular drill under the eye of an exMarine, marching to their own bugle corps. Most are high-school or college boys and Andy Frain likes to think he has helped put more men through school than any other person in the U. S.

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