Variety (January 1950)

Wediief^ay? Jtouary 25^ 1.1TKIIA11 69 Seek Mar Copyrirhis The Authors Guild 1$ mulling a tampaign to get magazines to put ♦He copyright on stories and arti- nils in tht name of the authors rather than the publication. A dmilar drive in the book field has vieided excellent results for the etiild* with publishers giving the uriters copyright credits. How- ever the periodicals jiaye been „.,auing against the practice, claim-^ Jnl that copyrighting in the name of the scribbler on the first page of his piece would take away from the liiag’s identity. However, the winters are proposing that one copyright boXf similar, to that, in which photo credits are given, be used to list the individual owner- ship of rights. The copyright Ofr fice in Washington is now being' gueried pri the plan’s ■ legal, accept-. Geist Award to Mrs, FDR First prize''in the 1949 Irvihg Geist; Foiindatioji Awards went to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, accordirig to an announcement of the awards committee made in New york Monday; (23). Laurel of $500 was Handed Mrs. Roosevelt because her N. V. World-Telegram-Sun column, “My Day,” last year coiistituted “the most distinguished cohtfibu- tiori to iinterfaith and interracial understariding appearing in N, Y. city newspapers;” Ruhnersup were the NT Y. Post’s Ted Poston and Oliver Pilat who jointly copped the second prize of $400 for ‘‘outstanding reporting” on raciai friction. Third prize of $100 was awarded Seymour Marks of the Long Island Press, N. Y., for a series on a Roekaway, L. L. slum, which helped focus civic au- thorities’ attentioh on the situation. Launched in Oct., 1948, by; N. Y; phi]anthropist Irving Geist, , the^ awards are made annually in cpop- c ration with the Newspa;per Guild of N. ,Y. Judges were Herbert Bayard Swope; Lewis Gannett, N. Y. Herald-Tribune book editor; Henry Moscow, former managing editor of the N. Y. Post; A. H. Ras- kin, N. Y. Times labor reporter, and Franklin D. RPosevelt, Jr., who didn’t participate in the judges’ decision. Trade Giving Book Awards Annual awards for best works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry will be made via the National Book Award, sponsored by the American Book Publishers Council, the American Booksellers Assn, and the Book Mahufacturers’ Institute. Selections will be considered by three boards of five judges each. The awards, which will be gold medals, will be given their in- augural presentation at a Waldorf- .4storia, N. Y., baiiduet for the 1949 winners to be held March 16. manager of Mbderfi Screen, has been named western editorial di- rector of all Dell magazines. In addition to his new chores, he’ll continue his MS duties. . In celebration of the 15th arini of The American Ballet, pareht or- ganizatioh df the N, Y. City Ballet Go. j Dance /News is running a spe- cial three-page spread in its Feb- ruary, issue. ’ Burt Arthur’s “The Texan.” originally published by McBride iii 1946, being reprinted in pocket book fortri for the third time by Signet Books. Producer Harry Sherman bought the film rights last. year. Legit «pressagent Mike 0’^^ has joined the staff of Television Guide to cover legit, films, night- clubs, records and books for the “TV rioliday” column. He suc- ceeds Lart^ Roberts, who has gone ,!-.to-the'Coast:' Bill Orhstein, Metro hpmeoffice publicity staffer, has two ihore sh^t stories coming up in literary puplicatlons. First will be ‘TiOng Shado.Ws,” to be published in. the Decade of Short Stories, and the other is “Almost a Hero;,” which he sold to Literary Cavalcade, monthly supplement of Scholastic Ma^rine. ^ James £. Sauter as Chairman. As soon as it is given final approval by the Mayor, it will be enacted 1 as part, of the regulations of the ! License Dept. O'Dwyer is expect- i t ed badk from Florida in two or three weeks, at most. ; ^ ♦ f 44 ^raiiK ociiiiy ’S SCRAPBOOK ■{ ^ • ■ 4^4^ Contlliiued. from page $5. DvC: Belasca Continued from page 64 atre, and to Jeiid $3,500 to the State i Theatre of Virginia (Biarter the- j atre). Previous loans * totaling !$5;000 have been repaid by Barter, j Moni-oe Lippmany recently elected president of the National Educa- tional Theatre Assn, and a corpo- rate member of ANTA, was elected to the hoard. Sun Valley, Jam 2L ; Having read far too many of the laments as The New York Sun Went down. I’m afrmd ril have to report that if there was one dry eye in the place it was mine. How many times can a paper die? Just because I ^ publishers can juggle niastheads and call a paper by aiiother nanie nno \r V This rag that died on Jan, 4 was really The Evening Sun. Frank Munscyy the guy whose wUl H. L. Mencken wrote “sounded like the braying of a disappointedyjackass,” killed The Sun of Charles Andersoii ^ laid ^ as far bad^aa 1916. • 1 was on the paper at the time, whethor. consCiouSlv. dr not - ■thp ■- .'Like .thiS thing'that. Was, sold down-(or'up)-the river to "Rby Howards I Negro papers were relegated, to ;died m. 1916 faced Plty Hall P^rk. Bijt ItTa^d it froip ' a minor position not w'arranted by the Park Row^aidi^ ItwaS a little fiye-story b^n that had once housed their citculationS type df re'd Tammany Hall, when Tammany was a charitable institution Interested j ship and neWs coverage. " |h .Iri^m^ Who were ^rving ^due to ^ pototo famiito,. ^he \- rru i J- . buiiding was huddled between Pulitzers gold-domed World building I The chargeh_ of discrrimnation side arid Ogden Reid’s Tribune on the other. Dana had worked iXe I* • ®“"‘ I and i . <il^tors,:^am to main^^|Uwo i Miss Mike Waidton of to Pitts- ®>Shts^Q^ ^aics went straigM up Oil the third floor i hurgh . Courlei.. ^All of these afe ^ were, The Sun’s editorial rooms and. Dana s, own cubbyhole. . On the weeklies with a combined circiila- ' floor; above-were some linotype machines and the staff of The Evening lation Of over 1,000,000. 'They are ; ^tin. To get there you had to climb an iron circular stair. distributed natiorially but the bulk I Some Bull And a Moose^ of their readership is in New York,W .t i ^ j • t in;: iu;.* rpu 1 i* 4 .U TkT W. G. Henz, a sports columnist on the paper, reported m Life th.it The charges of the three Negro speed called in Mike Johhson, the defunct paper’s star reporter, press reporters were .not suppor^^ . handed him copy of Frank b’Brieri’s “The Story of The Sun,” told him ed by another_ critic, Lillian, ScotL tp lock himself in the office of the antiques editor (no kidding!) and , asserted that, she was treat^^^ ^ ^ . < ! legit presl 'ageto'^and cmild' ript: , “ be considered putrageow; h) Vaufh at su^ things, bu^^^ WImt assoeiate hdrself with to squawks l^e^me do? This ^ . nf this Npi^rn haniarc jiad workcd on an old Bull Moose sheet called The ;New York Press. Ail "u He y^as assigned to write, the story of The Sun to give prestige to All the Negro , Munsey’s desecrations. He was an outsider writing the inside stoi^ on ever, rapped most of the film com- ; j Janies for toeir brushbff of the ; . ^ i - v.- ^ u ' i .ri, colored press. Only 20th-Fox was ^ When Munsey, with the gleam in h.s eye of a houscwreckeiv saw The singled- out as a i company which ?un slipping Ae figured he could merge his handbill with a fine w consistently treated Negro news- SP tar, because The Press had an AP tranchise and The Sun didn t. paperton on an equal fbdUng with I This. top,.was ironic, .because,^ana was invitedAp be^r other members of to press The I of the original AP setup and turned it down, beeause he^ thought syn- Negro paper reps were specially ; Jwat'on; on speh a scale would kilP^^ individuality of newspapers. . burned at some companies which, i They. might have more power and^ be imp for less money, but they j in screening their entirtes in the j oertainly wpuld have less taste, in his opinion. So Bret Harte Started It „ Eh? Eire Revokes Book Ban The Irish Book Cerisorship Ap- peals Committee has revoked the ban on the Report of the Royal GommissiOn on Population in the United Kingdom, w hie h .. was banned last October by the Gene sbvship Board on the grounds of advocating the iihnatiiral preven- tioii of conception or the procure- nieht of abortion or miscarriage^” Report Was published officially b. the British Government and was the first book published by a foreign government to get a ledr light from Irish censors. Security Threatened? Washington, Jan. 24. Melvin Hildreth, wellknown Washington attorney and; chairman of R citizens qonimittee to return legit theatre to D. G,, charged over , the weekend that the . policy of I “New York interests” in keeping segregation in legit here “is having I a serious effect on our national scr curity.” In \yhat was obviously a .lab at Marcus Heiinan and the National theatre Hildreth declared; “ If a fine represcutotive of the Indian people can't see a play in Wash- ington because of this policy, that has an. effect on the Indian people- arid their manganese is essential to US. If a representative of the Haiti government is refused admittarice to bur theatre, then that has a bad effert/on Haitians, arid their bases are 4ital to the defense of the Panama Canal.” i cycle of pix with Negro theme, set ; up Jim-Crow previews for the. Ne- ; gro press. ' Contiiiued from pace 5 nerable in metropolitan New: York since its theatres elsewhere are showcases rather than a cifciiii holding down closed situations. Given three years, company could lop off many of its New York houses and 'then come to the court M'ith proof that it operates in .open ) . . j, ..l i situations throughout the country, i handle it alone. This was additionally ironic because Dana was the first publisher to foist syndication on American ipurrialism. At least, old Edward P. ; Mitchell, the paper’s editor-in-chief, wrote as far back as 1896 that I Dana bought a: story from Bret Harte in 1877 or 1878 and sold, it to a I dozeri selected newspapers across the epuhtry. Frdm there grew The I Sun News Service, which was still at it and fighting a iPsing war against 1 the AP, UP and IJ^fS up to 1916 wheri the paper gave up the ghost and ! capitulated to The PresSj which haid $22,000,000 back of its owner* , I recall at the time that The Siin staff wa.s fired ovemight. Some were hired back at 30% cuts in salaries. I personally was among those who were not hired back at all. Only a few weeks before, diie tOv.some local correspondents in New London getting drunk on the eve of the Yale-Hai*vard regatta^ and something AVhich had developed in New York which prevented Ed Hill from comjrig to New London, i got the four-man job saddled on my own well-developed shoulders With orders The Little Three list three gains in the separate decree won by them: First, Since no reference will bp made to exhibition in their decree, it automatically prevent.s! the inclusion of a ban against the-| atre acquisitions by thejge com Continued from page 64 CHATTER Gene Fowler is-huddling with his publishers about his forthcoming autobiography. Al Capp article on “The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin” in the Febru- ary Atlantic Monthly, Lindsay Durand succeeded Fran- ces Scully as president of; the Hol- lyv/ood .Women’s. Press Club. George Schaefer sold thri Comp- ton (Gal;) Journal but \Vill remaiii for a while as editorial director. John Farrow revised the format of his book,“Pageaht of the popes” for a new edition to be issued during Holy-^ar, ^ National Newspaper Syndicate is offering first exclusive tele coL Hmn to new.spapers^ v Ira JVEorton « authoring “Watching All Chan- .■■ncls;” '■ Playwright Ferenc Molnar has authored “Companibn iir Exile: ■Notes for aii Autobiography.” which Gaer Associates is bringing out Feb. 20 .: . LibrMrie Hachette, Paris pub- hslling firm, acquired French rights to “Francis,” the Arthur Lubin hovel which UnivcrsaMntcrnatinal i^ecehtiy filmed. . Harpers publishing ‘‘The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Dv Ropsevelt/’ Feb. 15, Voluble is augmented with special iriaterial and explanatory notes by Judge oaipuel L Rosenman. Sehroedert former westerii become an impossibility as all agencies are required to keep com- plete records of their exchanges. •That is, it will be possible to de- termine tlie source of the tickets sold iilegally. There are specific regulations in the code to elim- inate that situation. We will also be able to deal With the problem of ‘extras’ and what I call ‘extra extra.s.’ -That is, the tickets given by the theatre to brokers in addi- tion, to regular allotrtlents, without being recorded.” According to Murtagh, the code cart be enforced through the pos- sibility of license revocation, which would apply to theatres as Wei 1 as brokers. He believes it would preycrit a repetition of the situation in which Jack, Pearl, treasurer of the Majestic, N. Y., Avas able to avoid answering qtie.s- tioris about distribution of “South Pacific” tickets, - although he was suspended by theatre Owner Lee Shtibert fori his refusal. The commissioner also believes that the code will prevent abuses On the part of producer.s who riiight profit by illegal sales of tickets for their shows^ However, he thinks no such action will be necessary, as all groups in the the- atre are indicating a sincere dosi^’o to clean lip the evils of the situ- atiori. . The code, patterned after riile.s drafted some year.s ago by the League of N. Y. Theatres, but never, enforced, has recently been rievi.sed by a committee formed at the instigation of Mayor O’Pwyer and compri.ring various elemerits of the New York thealfe, with It was a brutal job and required the writing of several thousand words between npon and 10 p m., most df it between 6 p.m. and the deadline. I recall I worked right next to some Postal Telegraph motors, and the noise from without and the pres.tore from within brought me to within inches of a Gollapse, the only one 1 have ever felt in my life. ' pri returnirig to Ncav York I was praised from all sides fori turning ip a riiarathon race that tojpped that of Johnny Hayes in the Olympics. I panies. Second, when the decree In two weeks 1 was going to get a fat raise. 19 intiodiiccd In ^ Scully is Fired, Hoorayt the exhib anti-trust actions, it Will I . • . not include an infererice.that these In less.than twb.w.eeks. Mjm.sey,.caplurie o iir pap er with his bankroll, i three companies violated anti-trust «md his AP franchise and I was among the dozens who .were fired for' laws in the exhibition field. conduct becoming a gentleman. Thirdvno confusion becomes pos- ! What went on along Park Row at that lime makes the hi eatings from $ible in coritempt proceeding.s on.i the rnore recent demise sound like a remake of a veipr fine original claimed violation of decree stric-■ Production, The slaughter of The Siin .so inspired Munsey that he tiires on exhibition. Little Three pioceeded to kill off papers right and left. He killed The Mall, The j have always feared their being . Globe, The Herald and The Pre.ss, of course. After that I lost count, lumped together with the Big Five j Y/hen, he failed to kill off The Triburie, that was the end Of the Hitler on matters of theatre ownership | of journalism. He told The Herald to Ogden Reid instead. Disap- ! and monopoly charges stemming pointed at last, he curled up and died and left his , $22,000,000 to the I therefrom. Metropolitan Museum of Art, a hallowed mau.soleum of culture which ’ Court Mulls Govt. Proposal he had never visited in his life. 1 Court has under consideration j Before this happened I believe he buried The Evening Sun and " the Government proposal that the ; caused the Moriiihg Sun to rise in the evening, thus keeping alive, the ! defendants subniit plans for; illusion of The Sun’s continuity from September, 1833* to its .second j divorcement Witbhi-00-.day.*?- and Ldeim&e as the^Lagariig of; the pre.ss ori Jan. 4 < tout their propo.sals ivitoin 18 ; All this is tied in ■With the sanctity of the tinie-jfaefori.. ’Obvious ; months. ' Another hot point, to he wim^;c5gy The Sun to give him prestige and respectability. I decided by. the ; thiee Federal. ; judges is whether 20th, WB and j Metro Avill be permitted to acquire I houiies after divorcement. Court i gave no indication ph this question .suspect Roy Howard wanted The World for the same reason and, in time; The Sun as well. The Sun’s Man ph the Mpoii But The Sun in its early days was neither respectable rior altogether ; e.xqept fori the ^source for the | leviable. Long before it began telling readers, “If you read it in The 1 goose” remarks which tends, to ox-, gun it*s so,” U had climbed skyward in circulatipii on a hoax, R. A. tend the sRirie nghts as Parl or had .written a piece. about the inhabitants of the itipon as de^, touw have. ^ There is^ np jban s(.j ibed by some phoney knight dubbed "Sir John Herschel,” who was . Specincally set foirh in .tne, Far- ■ around the. Cape of GoPd Hope in 1836. The iriterpiarietary i RKO_ consent d<torces, and ‘he hodey sold 19,000 copies, pf The! Sun in, one day and from; there the 1 question is regarded as an dpen ■ daily climbed until it heCarrie the newpaperman’ri' newspaper^ proving that a reputatiori; however originally acquired, tends to be- come sanctified if held on to long enough. As another proof of this the curreni ^orid-Telegram and Sun could be cited. During World War j, The Evening Telegram set on a policy of tossing all Gcrriian advances into the pverset. French, British and Belgian gains, however smalL received eight-column streamer head- lines, .In fact,; if historians confined their computations to the Tele- in d nAciiinii Pri'am’s headlihes alone; the Allies Would have gone three times around i by th* tito to U. S. got into to fraeaA ! defendants. Metro is prepared to. * ,, . . ; ^ „ ^ .stand or fall on the final deter- Since the krauts eventually were pu.shed. out of France, I suppose I inination of the court” the.se accumulated errors would be considered 1,00Q years from now as t In the course of the argument, tJ’>Vhd and in no. Way affecting the general truth that the Germans lost ! court nixed a Government request ■ the war. But for reporters Working bn accuracy on a day-to-day basi.s, (to ban product splits by major a paper of such vPlatile standards can live to gobble i distri.b.s. It felt that the D of J MP papers with higherof accuracy becomes a little hard to ^case Was Weak since it was based “■‘vallow. ' mainly on anonymous complaint'^! FardPn me while I ask a makeup man for soirie glycerine and shed a- ^ filed with the department. . , synthetic tear or I one.' Both the Metro brief and Davis i on oral argument hammered away f at the thesis that the compah stands alone. In the language of the brief: “Metro is firm in the ' belief that its conduct in this in- ' dustn^ and its status a.s a theatre