Stagehands Picket Pudding Musical During 4 New York Performances

The Hasty Pudding musical, "Strike While It's Hot," was picketed by musicians' and stagehands' unions during its New York run. The non-union show is staffed only by undergraduates.

A press agents' union warned the Pudding that it might be picketed if it did not employ union help only two weeks before the show opened in Cambridge. The agents' group is connected with A.F.L. musicians' and stagehands' unions.

The present non-union policy has a solely economic base, Harry F. Flynn '52, Production Manager, said last night. "When we did use union help, we lost close to $3,000 because the union forced us to employ unnecessary men. They piled on people so that there was a great deal of duplication of effort."

"We made money on the show for the first time last year," Flynn said. "Since it is necessary to be entirely union or non-union, the Pudding is forced to have no union employees," Flynn said.

Last year the show was picketed in Cambridge, Providence, and New York.

"There are many advantages to using union help which the Pudding is sorry to lose," Flynn said. "Most theatres are unionized, and refuse to book shows which are not."