The Attraction at Club 55

In Hollywood these days, Club 55 is packing them in. Its parking lot is jammed with expensive and flashy cars. Inside, the crowd is sprinkled with cinema luminaries. But they are not waiting for the floor show. "Club 55" is showbiz lingo for the Hollywood unemployment office, and the attraction is $55 a week, taxfree. Any out-of-work Hollywood toiler, even if he earned a quarter of a million in his last picture and is scheduled to start on a new one next month, can collect his $55 a week during the interim.

It is perfectly legal. Unemployment compensation is not relief but insurance, paid for by employer contributions, and anybody who is out of work involuntarily is entitled to it whether he needs the money or not.

Drawing the Maximum. Those who take compensation they do not need are not confined to show business.

sbIn Miami, a recently retired Army colonel applied for compensation, explained that he had been retired involuntarily and would be perfectly willing to take any colonel's work the unemployment office could offer. There is precious little demand for regimental commanders in Miami, so the ex-colonel collected the Florida maximum of $33 a week for 26 weeks to add to his comfortable pension.

sbIn Houston, the retired president of a large corporation made a bet that he could collect compensation, told the unemployment office he had been retired only because of the company's age limit. Since the unemployment office failed to find him any work in his field, bossing corporations, he collected $18 a week for 18 weeks.

Show business people, however, display a special affinity for unemployment compensation. As soon as Nanette Fabray finished her starring stint in the Broadway musical Mr. President, she headed for the Manhattan unemployment office to collect her $52 a week. In Hollywood, so many notables line up at Club 55 that movie people refer to it as "Central Casting." Says Chick Chandler, longtime character actor and Club 55 regular: "If you wanted to cast a very fine picture, from producers to hairdressers to extras, you could do it all by standing here for a week."

Drawing Guffaws. Actors Michael Wilding, Fernando Lamas and Ricardo Montalban have all appeared at the club to collect at one time or another; under California law they could keep coming back for 26 weeks in a row, make one well-paid movie appearance, and then begin again. Adolphe Menjou is a frequent visitor. After completing her part in Burke's Law, Rebecca Welles drove to Club 55 in her $10,000 Facel Vega. William Beaudine, director of TV's Lassie, often works one week out of three, collects his compensation the other two. After a filming of the Perry Mason TV show, with a lapse in work ahead, the whole cast and crew turned up at Club 55.

No wonder Steve Karmen, a folksong satirist, draws guffaws in Holly-woBd-- with his recording of a not very funny take-off on Gimme Dat Ol'-Time Religion:

Give me that old unemployment, Give me that old unemployment, Give me that old unemployment, It's good enough for me.

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