1928: The Rise of Giants

Chapter 135 Big Harvest and Small Goals

No. 32 Xiafei Road, office area on the second floor.

"Second Young Master, this is the list of girls who have recently successfully applied to be dancers at the Black Cat Ballroom." Hua Mei handed a document to Ye Luo.

Hear the words Black Cat Dance Hall.

A group of key members of Ye's Investment Company present showed various complicated expressions.

Ever since Ye Luo confirmed that he wanted to do the dance hall business and put it on the agenda, positioning it as an important entertainment industry together with the film company, everyone had discussed it privately many times.

Doing a dance club business in Shanghai today is even more bizarre than selling cars.

Because in their inherent impression, ballroom dancing is more high-end than driving, and it is a luxurious pastime only for the most upper-class people.

Not to mention that it takes a lot of money to enter a dance hall, but it is difficult to gather a group of people who can dance.

Many rich people cannot dance because they are not in the core social circle of real tycoons, so they still cannot dance even if they have no money and no social groups.

Ye Luo's approach is undoubtedly to popularize ballroom dancing into a national sport.
Now they just hope that the second young master who is invincible in the mall will not stumble this time, so as not to lose the prestige he has accumulated over a long period of time.

Ye Luo took the list and scanned it roughly.

As expected, even with Ye's name, there are still very few women who are willing to switch careers and become dancers in dance halls.

After several days of recruitment, a total of nine qualified dancer reserve girls were recruited.

Less than half of them are prostitutes who changed careers, which shows that people have a deep prejudice against this profession.

But by the time the dance industry became popular in Shanghai, by the end of 1928, countless small and medium-sized dance halls had sprung up all over the place, and the number of Chinese dancers had completely surpassed that of foreign dancers, reaching an astonishing tens of thousands.

Most of these Chinese dancers are not full-time employees. Some of them are employees of foreign companies, female factory workers, students of girls' schools during the day, and even ladies and daughters of wealthy families!
It can be seen that the strong ability of this industry to attract money can make so many "good people" put aside their dignity and completely indulge in it.

The dance trend lasted until 1948, when it was curbed by a "Dancing Ban" issued by the Jinling National Government.

During this period, it has always been the most profitable entertainment industry, bar none.

"Du Aimei, Chen Xueli, Mai Wenqing, Chen Zhuohua, Wang Ji." Ye Luo read out the names on the list one by one, and his face gradually became weird.

"Second Young Master, are there any problems with these girls?" Hua Mei asked in a low voice, with a worried look on her face. They were all qualified dancers that Hua Mei had recently recruited. They had all visited the company, and only Ye Luo's seal and signature were needed to officially sign the contract. , started tutoring.

"There aren't many of them. Let Nia focus on it. I looked at my resume. They all have a background in dancing. Maybe they can become famous after opening." Ye Luo smiled lightly and said nothing more.

These five people were the "Black Cat Dancers" who later became popular in Shanghai and became famous for dancing with them at the Black Cat Dance Hall. Among them, Wang Ji, who was the youngest but had the best figure and appearance, was even called the "Black Cat Dance Queen". It is known as the "Gone with the Wind" in Shanghai during the Republic of China.

Ye Luo designated the first dance hall as the famous "Black Cat Dance Hall" in history. He wanted to use this to promote ballroom dancing across the country. He also took advantage of the trend to create stars and produced batches of "Black Cat Dancers", opening up his relationship with social circles at all levels of society.

"Yes, Second Young Master!" Hua Mei let out a long breath and glanced at little A Qing secretly.

All the four beauties in Fengming House chose to stay with Ye Luo and accompany him to enter the dance business. Among them, Hua Mei, who is the most sociable, did her part and became the female boss of the first dance hall, Black Cat!

She wanted to earn face for the second young master and the eldest sister, and also set a good example for the sisters who would later become dance hall owners, so she was very concerned about this business.

"First let them learn to dance from the foreign dancers. One week before the opening day, I will go to Black Cat to guide you personally." Ye Luo said, putting down the list, and then looked at Lin Ruxian, "Sister-in-law, the profit of the big world during this period How is the situation?" "Since our opening on September 9st, we have sold a total of 1 family annual passes worth 100 oceans, 658 couple annual passes worth 50 oceans, and 1411 individual annual passes worth 30 oceans. The total profit was 3988 Ocean; the total profit from all other projects and amusement park tickets was 190190 Ocean, of which the Winter Emperor's performance brought a profit of 200887 Ocean, and all the money has been donated to the foundation for disaster relief according to your wishes; in addition, the amusement park The total profit from facilities, shops, etc. was 68000 oceans.”

Lin Ruxian smiled broadly, and gently tapped the financial statements with her green hands, making a crisp sound.
"The Great World Amusement Park has made a total profit of NT$448479 in the five days since its opening. It is a perfect answer."

Everyone gasped, shocked by the terrifying ability of the big world to attract money.

When it was first built, no one thought Big World would be very profitable.

After all, the last new world was already half-dead, and the package price was less than 30 oceans.

It is generally believed in the business community that only gray industries such as brothels, casinos, and opium dens can achieve similar profit results as horse racing halls.

And Ye Luo gave them a hard punch in reality.

"Oh, by the way, the total profit in the New World is about [-] yuan, but the three tycoons, Edward Sassoon and others suffered heavy losses!" Lin Ruxian pursed her lips and chuckled.

She estimated that within a month, under the haze of the big world, similar amusement parks would quickly close down to avoid being crazily beaten to death by the number one club in the Far East.

"Well, the profit situation is similar to what I estimated." Ye Luo was not too surprised, but nodded slightly, "I spent 50 yuan to let Sister Huiyin build the big world, and I also gave the French Concession and the Public Concession every year The rent of 30 oceans, if you can’t get back the money, that’s too bad.”

Behind the beauty of the big world is huge expenditure and consumption.

When he said this, everyone who was shocked by the profit of more than 40 yuan in five days came to their senses and began to look at the problem rationally.

"Yip's Film Company has currently screened three episodes of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple", with a total profit of approximately NT$29." Zhang Shichuan and Li Minwei, who have recently joined Yip's Film Company, eagerly reported to Ye Luo the current situation of the film company, ""Blood and Tears of Yellow Flowers" " is initially scheduled to be released at Yip's Guangming Cinema on September 9. Lianhua's boss Luo Mingyou has also brought "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" to the north, and it should be released within this year."

The situation of other companies is as stable as ever, and they continue to climb up while making profits, shining for Ye.

Only Yip's Radio Factory was in an awkward situation. The promotion of the new generation of crystal radios was hindered. The high research and development costs and expensive parts imported from overseas made it difficult to reduce its price. It was unable to truly popularize the radio among the people, and naturally there was no big profit.

The three brothers Su Guoguo were dejected, but Ye Luo smiled and waved his hand: "Director Su, don't be discouraged. This is what scientific research projects are like. You have to invest a large amount of money first, and it may even take several generations to take root, and then it will be successful." , it is a great cause that benefits the country and the people, and it is a good thing."

The three of them looked at each other and stood up and bowed gratefully to Ye Luo.

The second young master is the most tolerant investor they have ever seen in domestic scientific research.

Nowadays, domestic products are far inferior to foreign products. They cannot compete with foreign companies in terms of technology and manufacturing. No businessmen are willing to invest in scientific research and domestic products, which has led to the birth of a snowballing situation.

Only Ye Luo has been investing and supporting more or less here. Some Chinese businessmen are unwilling to be acquired by Ye's, but he doesn't mind at all.

The world only knows that the Second Young Master is the savior of poor people, but they don’t know that he is also the savior of the domestic industry!
"When the sound equipment sent from Hollywood in the United States arrives in Shanghai, we can start developing sound movies." Ye Luo mentioned this, and Li Minwei lowered his head in shame.

His mistake resulted in the second young master being defrauded of 27 yuan by the Sassoon family.

The amount was not much for the second young master, but this dumb loss greatly damaged Ye's morale and made the second young master lose face for the first time.

However, looking at Ye Luo's appearance, he didn't seem to care about this matter. He will attend Edward Sassoon's birthday party as usual tomorrow.

After an internal meeting, the key members of the Ye family were full of confidence. They secretly set a small goal in their hearts - to have the Ye family have more than 1000 million oceans of liquid cash before the end of the year!

(End of this chapter)