Variety (Apr 1949)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Wftdnggjay, April 6, 1949 nOIJSE BEVIBWS 85 * Ginny Simma, John St Rene Arnaut, Carlton Emmy's Mad wTs. Joan Hyldojt. Arnold Shodq, nae Foster Line, H. Leopold Spu Mny Chorus, House Orch conduct- Id by Bob Boucher, "The Fan" mth-Fox); reviewed in cUrrtnt Issue of Vapiety. Roxy's new show contains most of its punch in the, efforts of its hduse .personalities,. Ice revue, dancing Hue, etc., are braced with two standard, substantial vaude turns, plus Ginny Simms, -who doesn't mean too much as the star name. Withal, it's an entertaining M^ss Simms doesn't seem to have made much preparation for the date at the Roxy. Encased in a simple, solid-color strapless gown, she got away easily with four songs, a pair of standards, and a «air tif pops. Her performance is Tarltadaisical and uninspiring. Best I Stewart; "Take Me Out to Ball was the closing, "I've Got You Gome" (M-G) among others, liliss McCall is friendly to the eye and ear in "I Got It Bad" and "You Can Depend On Me," her best; Three acts provide welcome relief tot customers who like their entertainment in a lower key, but Herman sets a fast pace for the entire show. Jerry Murad's Har- monicats make for a nice musical contrast in their click specialties, "Harmonica Boogie," "Sabre Dance" and for a topper, "Peg O' My Heart." De Lyon takes care of the comedy end in a convincing way with his musical nonsense, imitations and sound effects. He's a success with the -locals. Cathy Moore adds a touch of grace and beauty, in a couple of pleasing tap routines. Corb, Trio Capitol, Wasli. \ > Washington, April 3. Toy & Wing, Stagg McMann George O'Hanlon, Martha Under My Skin." She follows Carl- "ton Emmy's Mad Wags, an act that hasn't changed for years, and is still as entertaining*• Emmy trods on the heels of the Arnaut freres, another act that has followed a set routine for some time. They do the usual violin bits and the love A bright lineup is lending inter- est to holdover of^ screen feature at Capitoli with influx of tciur- ists showing, plenty aftpreiciation' throughbut, Acts arfe tied together in' rfeytie format by eiiiceeing of „„ „._-- ,„fj„„ ^v,„t „„t„ I George O'Hanlon, the Joe Mc- bird Piece. It s the latter that gets jjgj^jjgg warners' "Behind the the biggest returns in the 50-min-, ^igj^^ g^^jj,, ^1^^,^.^^ O'Hanlon han- ; ute program. House routines open with a "Merry Widow" item which at one time or another uses all the Roxy cast—the dancing line, ice line, Spitalny's choristers, featuring Audrey Dearden, which segues into blade bits by Joan Hyldoft and Arnold Shoda alone and to- ^ tightening. Both are still gether. Miss HyW»" {f„ obviously feeling their stage oats. dies his emcee chores straight adding little but a pleasant per- sonality to this phase of his p.a. This is the second stop in cur- rent tour of' O'Hanlon, who has teamed with screen chantoosey Martha Stewart in a pleasant little package that still needs some edit- to see on ice and Shoda is also a tricky bladester. Line carries the finale alone, working out its widely known, in- tricate "Indian" number to "In but general effect is promising, and combo builds to a sock /finish after a mild start. O'Hanlon is weakest in his sin- gle stint, suffering largely from a dian Love Call."' It is, as it always ij„geri„g' uncertainty land hum- has been, work. an inspiring piece of ' Wood. Chicago Tlicatrie,,CiiI Chicago, April 1. Billy Wells & 4 Fays, Georgia Gibbs, Bob Williams, Hoagy Carr miohael, Louis Basil Orch; "Knock On Aty Door" (Col). Earle, PliUI;^ ^ , Philadelphia, April 1. Toriy Martin, Mignon & Mortells, Penny Edwards, Jack Mann & Irv- ing Benson, Lou Schrader's House Orch; "Lucky Stiff" WA). Making his ^rst appearance here in nine years, Tony Martin main- tains his allure for the femme trade, particularly the teen-agers who thronged the Friday (1) mat- inee session caught. Martin is one balladeer. whose romantic ap- pearance matches not only his voice, but the material he uses. Crooner scores principally with the ballads—"September Song" and "Comme Ci, Comme Ca," as well as his theme, "See You in My Dreams." For change of pace there are "Waiting For the Robert E. Lee" and a rhythm arrangement of "Lullaby of Broad\Vay." A solid hit. \ Penny Edwards, blonde Warner starlet, is a looker with plenty of vocal savvy. She does "Sunday Afternoon,'' "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy," "Galway Bay" and an operatic travesty. Also a neat tap routine for nice returns. Mignon and the MartellSi three men and a girl, furnish the acro- batic opener. Comic Jack Mann is in the emcee slot and doubles with his partner, Irving Benson, in standard patter, song ; and dance to good reception.: ! Lou 'Schrader's band backgrounds acts capably. Xiagh. partner fared better on the laugh side, but '\. hole routine was draggy and garnered little audience re- sponse. M.c; Jimmy Mordecal gives out with enthusiasm in bringing on the various acts. ' Entire talent lineup is reprised in the finale, which was the only apparent attempt at a production effort. "Hollywood Revue of 1949" impresses as more suitable for col- ored houses, where audiences are more hep to the, typical Negro talent. Hold. Hippodrome, Balto. Baltimore, April 3. Woodie & Bobby, Al Norman, Marilyn Maxwell, Mischa Auer, 3 Suns, Jo Lombardi House Orch (12); "Million Dollar Weekend" (Col). Big-Screen TV s Continued ttom page I a Apollo, ]\. Y. ' Amos Milburn Orcfi (6 ) , Cfiub- by JacJcsori Oreh. (14), ' Choco- lateers (3), Jaclcic Petty, Paula Gdstlc, Dtcfc BorrQtus, "Crackshot" & Co.; "Port Said" iCol). With a little trimming here and there current bill can be worked into satisfactory layout. Most of the- lag, unfortunately, lies with the headliner, Hoagy Carmichael, who tries to maintain a note of informality. He achieves it most Of the time; but for better aud reception should perk his routine. Composer works in front of an excellent four-piece combo, recruit- ed from house orch. He opens with "Old Buttermilk Sky," chats about tune backgrounds and then swings into "Huggin' and A-Chalkin' " for hefty response. Follows with "King Be-Bop's Dream" and cow- boy number. Both are minor items and should be replaced with some- thing better. Georgia Gibbs is refreshing in that none of her songs are the Hit Parade toppers which have ■ been overdone here. Sock song- stress opens with "Big, Wide, Won- derful World," and follows with "So In Love," ' from "Kiss Me, Kate," "Manhattan Towers" and "Ballin* the Jack" for a beg-off. Bob Williams gets hefty laughs with his disobedient purps and his breathless pleas for cooperation/ Canines, when they get started, especially white mongrel, show off smartly. Billy Wells and Four Fays are a bright opener with fast-moving tumbling, with shapely gals doing tome neat flips. One femme does three-forward somersaults without use of hands, while others are also good, Lou Basil house orch back- grounds neatly. Zabe. drum material. A general modesty and naturalness gives him a good start with payees, but a succession of stale gags doesn't help. Picks up again in a routine based on McDoakes character^ and finally walks off to solid reaction after his stint with Miss Stewart in their song and danc<t number from Columbia's "Are You With It," a novelty ditty called, "Daddy, Sur- prise Me." Miss Stewart, like her partner, i registers best in reprises of her | cinema successes. In addition to i the duet, chantoosey goes well in "Hello My Baby," from 20th's "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now." Also sings "Lady Is a Tramp" to mild response, Teeoff imitation of Bette Davis, which backgrounds an O'Hanley gag, falls flat. Her vivacious manner with a tune helps. Top honors really go to the Stagg McMann trio of harmonica players, who come near to being show-stoppers. Using "three sizes of mouth organs, combo sails right into their routine with a medley of almost every tempo in the book, including "Flight of the Bumble Bee.'' Bouncing all over the stage, and gagging for effect, they go on to "Dance of the Hours" and a novel version of "My Devotion." Lads work hard and delight the galleries. ■ < Toy & Wing do a fine job as pace setters with a trio of terp numbers. Best bet is a nostalgic Irene Castle - George M. Cohan number. Register well, and ^alk off to hefty applause, Lou-e. Aside from * Amos Milburn's small combo, the Apollo's layout leans toward the mediocre'. Chubby Jackson's, band is a spirited outfit but it lacks a definite style. Round- ing- out the bill are the Choco- lateers, a standard comedy turn; a brace of "warblers, a femme terp- er and the antics of "Crackshot^" the house comic. With five rhythm, (our reed'and five brass, Jackson's crew opens with a hot tune paving the way for- brunet Paula Castle. She listr lessly chirps two ballads. for lair results. Snappily costumed, Jackie Petty displays some so-so tap rou- tines, but her pertness helped earn a good salvo. Following "Tiny's Blues," Jack- son's outfit turns to bebop with its leader joining two sidemen in chanting the. lyrics to "Lemon Drop.'! A sequence where the orch, mimicked Count Basic, Harry James, Lionel Hampton and Stan Kenton scored handily. Although Jackson .is one. of the top bass players^ in the business, he strum-; med the instrument odly for avfew bars at show caught. Frequent repeaters at this col- ored vaude stand, the Chocolateers register again with their comedy knockabout stuff. Garbed in vari- colored suits; the boys dick in a slow-motion - pantomime bit and; close to an okay reception with some adequate aero stepping. Mil- burn orch is reviewed.under Band Reviews, v hile Dick Barrows' barl- toning is listed under New. Acts. House shifts to a week of legit Friday (8) with "Anna Lucasta." Gilb. Name dominated layout reveals considerable talent in addition and sum total is potent fare. Following snappy opener by Woodie & Bobby, roller skating duo, and okay gag- ging by Al Norman, Marilyn Max- well takes hold for a solid sesh of g r o 0 v e y vocals. Socks' over "Powder Your Face," . "A Good Man," "Little Birdie Told Me" and "My Darling." Mischa Auer is another name who comes through with a real act, getting considerable laughs with his clowning and piano stuff and making his slot count for the limit. Three Suns close' with swingy in- strumental stuff on electric organ, guitar and accordion. On to solid reception trio gives out with trade- marked versions of "Hindustan," "Cecilia," "Twighlight Time" and a coupling of "Peg O' My Heart" and ■ "Tico Tico." Just right to clinch this setup and a natural for a series of strong applause. Biz all right. . . Bum.. 'Basic' Set Continued from pace 1 of a traveling outfit as legit's great- est liability, Winston began ex- perimenting several months ago with methods of cutting costs. He finally' came up with a set frame- work , made of channeled alumi- num and so constructed that it can be changed readily to fit set de- mands for any play. Device was proved practical in a tryout with "Voice of the Turtle," in which the three-room set was created without difficulty, Since all verticals can be folded into thre&'foot lengths, the entire set can be stored In the back of the chartered plane which will be used by the company. Winston figures set and alt company, bag-^ gage won't Weight more than 1,000 pounds. Troupe will go everywhere by plane, Winston is mapping a route as far north as Alaska. Olympia, Miami Miami, April 3. Billy Gilhert, Jimmie Casanova, Gaston Palmer, Gloria Villar, Rich & Gibson, Freddie Carlone house Orch, "Whispering Smith" (Par). Fare on tap this week is satisfy- Xalional, L'ville • ■ Louisville, April 1. Una Mae Carlisle, Kitty Murray, Chinky Grimes, Rocky & Vickyi Bobby Marshall, Graviates, Jimmy Mordecai, Savoy Rhythmasters (5) toith Winnie Worren, Scpio Starlets (6); "Man Who Jieclaimed His Hcod" (FC). Taxi Strilce Continued from page I they could get along on their own power or what cabs were available. An ever-growing number of cabs, however, are reappearing on the streets. ■ Majority of. the inde- pendently owned hacks are now in operation, and fleet-operators are sending out as: many vehicles as they have drivers. price at "under $25,000" is believed to indicate it will sell for far less. Other RCA execs have conceded the price might, be set finally at $15,000. (Although Paramount has never put an official sales price on its in- termediate-film system of theatre TV, it has reliably been reported to cost about $35,000 per theatre. Two systems differ in that the 20th- RCA system, in which Warners has ' also had a developing hand, pro-' jects the; images instantaneously to a full screen, via a system of reflecting and enlarging' mirrors and lenses, whereas the Par sys- tem involves the filming of TV images as they're received off the face of a cathode-ray tube, develop- ing and processing the film in a . matter of seconds and then run- ning it through the regular theatre: projectors.) 18 X 24-Foot screen New 2Qth-RCA unit represents the latest stage of the model shown last year at the NAB meet at the WB studios and that used by the Fox theatre, Philadelphia, for a pickup of the Louis-Walcott fight last June. New model has been; re- . fined down to -a much smaller size, suitable for installation in any type theatre. It can furnish a throw of 45 to 80 feet, Kreu2er said, and- ean be used on the top-sized 18x24* foot screen. Unit is devised for installa- tion on a speciallyrbuilt platform directly in front of a theatre mez-- zanine, rathef' than in the regular projection booth. The range of throw is thus, considered adequate for almost any type theatre. RCA engineers ran a closed cir- cuit transmission first, projecting. scenes televised in an adjoining Statler room. . It then showed pic" . tures taken off the.air. from a regu* lar NBC broadcast, following that with a switchover to the same pro* gram transmitted via leased tele* phone wires. Kreuzer underlined the use of the latter method for theatres, pointing out that leasing - of the wires required no FCC ap- ; proval. Any theatre chain desiring . to employ that method, consequent- . ly, will not have to worry about the availability of frequency space nor about governmental approval of ■ its programming. Demonstration Closed with a transmission of film taken from both a closed circuit and off, the air. For the film Showing, RCA utilized for the first time its "fly- ing spot scanner," used by broad- cast studios heretofore only for the transmission of still pictures. Defi- nition in all cases was excellent, and the brightness was only slight- ly less than the screen of an aver- age filmery. Slight distortion was noticeable in some instances, but this might have been due to poor camera focussing. Unlike previous; demon.strations of the unit, TV's scanned lines were in most cases completely invisible. ; ; Whether there are enough sports and special events available dur* ing an average year to merit a the- atre's laying out the money for the tele unit is still a moot point. Other plans, for programming the- atre video,- including the possible pickup of' regular broadcast pro- grams, has been discussed in the trade. Regardless of the program- <=nMA«rt''fhp''f„rmri"^ nH^ft "ling P™blem. however. Monday spots had the normal quota of „i„u^../Homnncfr»Hnn nrnvprt that Lineup of acts, backed by a five- piece orch on stage, is titled "Hol- lywood Revue of 1949." Carries line of six gals, who work in a business. Bus and subway serv- ice were taxed. The upper east side spots got most of their cus* tomers from the immediate area. It's probable that a prolonged strike, especially if violence flares, would dent the boxoffice. In legit, Circle, ladpls. Indianapolis, : A'pril 2. Woody Herman Orch., with Mary Ann MeCall; Jerry Murad's Har- nonicats, Leo De Lyon, Cathy Moore; "The Big Fight" (Mono). Woody Herman is winning kudos from the advanced class in jazz While a variety of acts takes care of the customers who aren't stam- peded by the Herd on this week's bill at the Circle. The concert- vaudeville combination is getting good results. Audiences are going in a big way for comic Leo De Lyon's fresh stuff. • Herman makes the usual band show approach, giving trombonist Bill Harris; Terry Gibbs, vibra- phone and Oscar Pettiford, on the bass, and other sidemen a chance to shine in numbers ranging from ^ow High the Moon" to "Lemon , Drop" while he shares the vocals with pert Mary Ann McCall. The distinctive Herman vocal style is applied to "Let's Fall in Love" and "I Ain't , Gettin* Any Younger." acts stacking up in quantity, but window sales were hurt to some inc vaude thouKh no outstanding 1 couple of numbers. Show is made j^ere were no casualties although layout in bomparison to bills^h .<>L.^'l.=?l^°':l'".?i'^.°L!R!."l\\^ 1 some of the shows depending upon in recent weeks. Billy Gilbert, comic, goes well with his sneeze-malaprops routin- ings. It's giggle stuff, rather than howls. ' m the emcee slot, young Jimmie Casanova makes an ingratiating introer, and in own spot gets over handily with his character im- preshes. Though some of his ma- terial could stand freshening, gen^ eral appeal and impact is solid. Teeing off is a fast pace setter via the xylophone, work of Rich and Gibson. Stint is routined ex- pertly for maximum results. So- prano voCals of Gloria Villar, an orb appealing thrush, are okay. Handsomely gowned lass purveys smart arrangements and song selec- tions to gain full values. Mixes onij? medium on quality. Standing out is Una Mae Carlisle, exotic blonde, who does her chanteusing at the piano. Registers solidly with "Little Bird Told Me," "The Man I Love," and a medley of her disk- ers for bcff returns. Vocals are dished out by Bobby Marshall, jitterbug blues singer; Carl Van Moon, baritone, and Win- nie Warren, singer and tenor sax player. Rocky and Vicky, mixed team, extent. The hits were sold out in advance. On the other hand, three scheduled closings this week may be partially due to the tieup. The strike mattered little to the film houses. Gabs are used by a small percentage of picture theatre patrons. Taxi strike gave rise to two sep- arate exploitation stunts by film and legit ballyhooers, both de- signed ostensibly to provide free night's demonstration proved that large-screen video technically is more than acceptable to any the- atre audience. turn on the fast taps and garner transportation to theatres. Twen nice applause. The Graviates pace I tieth-Fox Monday (4) hired two through several handbalancing horse-drawn hansoms to furnish stunts, inject a new trick or two, free rides for Roxy customers. Car- which hfts them out of the usual ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ plugging the ^■"rhinkv rrimps on for some fast' <=«>Tent Roxy film, "The Fan," ste?S%^nra'ynVSi;tr,%oe1i cruised midtown-Manhattan and pops and "show tunes for sock re-\~o^-^rbig with the customers, pre-1 P''^^^-*^-VP than 100 patrons ceptloHi , ceded by some slow arm and bodi Juggling of Gaston Palmer is gyrations by the Starlets. Comedy well conceived, interweaving with efforts of grotesquely garbed Kitty comedy biz to add to overall. Murray were wasted, as much of Freddie Carlone's house orch backs her chatter was lost, due to her show 111 good style. Lory. . ignoring ol the mike. Her male ceded b-y some slo_w arm and body ^^J^ Jod^ucer'^S Todd similarly used two busses for trans- porting customeirs to the Wintei* Garden, where his "As the Girls Go" is current. , 'i^,:- Ike's Vidpic || SSSS Continued from page l^aasM. cadis for each chapter to be re- peated twice, making three cycles. Interesting angle of Time, Inc., sponsorship of "Crusade" marks switch of the pub from tie-up with NBC-TV, with which it worked on convention and election coverage, to ABC, of which the Luce inter- ests once owned a piece. Insiders also speculate on whether the close working arrangement be- tween ABC-TV and 20th Century- Fox, for which March of Time pro- duced ''Crusade," may result in ABC getting first crack at the vid-r. pic package ideas the film com- pany has in the works. Thursday eve skedding is viewed as smart, as Time hits streets on Thursday and Life on Friday, and ; the video series. will give direct support to newsstand sales. Time, Inc. backing of "Crusade" 'is con- sidered a natural^ as its subsid,. March of Time, handled produc- tion. Richard de Bochemoat is I MOT producer.