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After a protracted hearing, lasting from 10 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock in the afternoon . . . the Police Commission took under advisement for one week the charges of illegal liquor selling preferred against the Vienna Buffet by City Editor Scott of the Herald and a number of reporters for that paper. . . .
What most impressed the large crowd of onlookers was the shamelessness of the vile confessions made by members of the Herald staff that they boozed with abandoned women in the Vienna Buffet’s underground passage and accepted the caresses of these painted old harridans.
They boasted of sickening immoralities in telling which a self-respecting man would hang his head. They said they were hired to go there and pollute themselves, and they did it.
Irving Sayford, a reporter for the Herald, . . . [said] he had visited the Vienna Buffet March 31 last, for the first time. Accompanying him was F.T. Seabight, also a reporter for the Herald. Under instructions from the city editor, they endeavored to learn about the sale of liquor in boxes. . . .
A waiter, named “Ray,” took them to the dressing-rooms. A knock at the first door brought the reply “busy,” but when the waiter tapped at the next door a girl walked out into the passageway, and, throwing both arms around Sayford’s neck, exclaimed, “How do you do, sweetheart?”
This affectionate greeting was followed in the next breath by the touching appeal, “Let’s have a drink.”
The girl was attired in a diaphanous knee skirt, the effect of which she somewhat heightened by putting her feet on the table. Another girl was called in, and the drain on Herald finances began.
When it came time to go on stage, the girls laid aside their sacques [outer garments with sleeves] without requiring the reporters to vacate. Sayford assisted the
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actresses in the preparations by buttoning up the back of their stage dresses.
Still another girl appeared and sang a ditty of doubtful merit. In the meantime, the actresses had developed an unquenchable thirst, and high-priced liquids in great quantities were being consumed at the expense of the Herald.
. . . Reporter Seabight took the stand. . . . He remembered that the actresses had an “immense” thirst. He said the girls were bold in manner and very vulgar. They held down the reporters’ knees [apparently, by sitting on them] and failed to show a retiring disposition, and all the time the drinks at 25 cents Herald money were being poured into the Vienna Buffet vortex.
E.H. Tanner, a Herald reporter, testified . . . [that he] quaffed some “Mumm’s Extra Dry” [champagne] at $3 per pint . . ..
B.H. Canfield, another Herald reporter, . . . was in the buffet Monday night . . . an actress consoled him . . . until 1:04 o’clock yesterday morning, he declared. At 1:15 the girl clamored for another bottle. A waiter called “Curly” assisted.
J.W. Crooks, otherwise known as “Curly,” told how impressed he was with the generosity of the of the Herald men. He told how the reporters had recklessly thrown away money which looked like that wrung from preachers and widows and orphans in the promotion of fake schemes.
“It seems to be a general craze to meet actresses,” declared the attorney [for the saloon, a man named Rush.] “When histrionic stars come to Los Angeles there are many who try to make their acquaintance.
"…but never before . . . did I know of a case where everybody, from the old patriarch at the head of the paper down to the pressmen had such a craving for actresses and were so willing to spend money for the purpose. …”
Rev. Mr. Pitner declared that the question was whether the dressing-rooms had been put to an improper use. The best actresses did not sit on their admirer’s laps and sing and tell risque stories, he said. . . .
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