Variety (December 1950)

MISCELLANY Wediieeday^ December 6, 1950 ,Washington* Dec. 5. The Supreme Court was asked today (Tucs.) to decide whether tel- evised motion pictures are subject to censorship by states. If the High Court should accept jui isdiction, it would probably go a long way in ,its opinion toward deciding the question of whether motion pictures' shown in theatres must continue to be subject to state . and local censorship boards. Today’s appeal was brought by the Pennsylvania Board of Motion picture Gensdrs after the U. S. district court of eastern Pennsyl- vania and the 3rd Circuit court of appeals had both ruled that the State censors had no control Over video programs, even when they are films. Fighting the censorship board are five TV operators in Pennsyl- vania—Allen B. DuMont Labora- tories, Inc., with a station in Pitts- burgh; Philco, WCAU, Inc,, and Triangle Publications, ail with sta- tions in Philadelphia, and WGAL, Inc., iocated in Lancaster. Oddly enough, this is the second (Cpntinued on page 61) 33 ^ Fairbanks’ Tmman Talk Washington, Dec. 5. , Dougias Fairbanks, Jr , in Wash- ington for Several days, called on President Truman last week to make “another peripatetic report on my operations in Europe.” Fairbanks told newsmen that he comes back to Washington and re- ports to the President every few months, “after every trip.” He said he “picks up odd jobs to do from the embassies.” ; Asked on whose behalf he W’ent ; abroad, he said he was making his report as vicepresident of the United Nations Assn., Durante Gets NBC-TV Carte Blanche Deal To Allow Nitery Dates, Etc. NBC prexy Joe McConnell has given, Jimmy Durante carte blanche “to do anything you piease” as regards the number of TV monthly shows the comedian v.ill do on the Wednesday night “Four-Star Revue.” The Schnoz was committed to “eight or nine” but wants .to cut .it down, depend- ing on his urge to * do a picture, take on a nitery chore, aind the like. Diirante’s package calls for $50,000 per. The Copacabana, N. Y., is par- ticularly in need of the Schnoz’s boxoifice succor due to (1) Phil Silvers’ failure to hold up current- ly, and (2> a booking jam which Danny Thomas may be able to re- solve. Durante comes in Jan. 4 (Continued on page 61)- . ‘Search’-rWants More Time for Personal Life Interference With her marital life is causing Maggi McNellis to bow out of the Vim-Motorola “Talent Search” (NBC) after Dec. 18 and concentrate on “Leave It to the Girls,” the Sunday:night NBC show oi’ which she is moderator. “Girls” is a comparatively “easy” show be- cause it’s at 7 p.m. and permits her the ma.ior portion of the evening off. For the same reason of an ‘ “easy” hour she will take on “Say It With Acting” Jan. 6, with Bud Collyer captaining the challenging charades team, on Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. That also leaves her the major portion of the evening free. Miss McNellis will continue her thiijd show, the “Somerset Maugham Theatre” (CBS) on Wednesdays. Miss McNellis is married to Clyde Newhouse, who inherited the ..Nevvhouse Art Galleries, New York. He would prefer he to do a day- time TV show instead. She is currently talking a 3-a-weck day- time series which, if it materializes, would displace almost her entire nighttime video commitments, wliich are her personal preference. TV femcee is continuing on “Tal- i (Continued on page 61) WILL MAHONEY THE INIMITABLE Eh ' Route to Cuba . Opening Dec. 8 , Rihgling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus Havana, Cuba Represented by ASSOCIATED BOOKING CORP. All in the Family Plans have been set for Vcter- ans Hospital Gamp Shows to re- .sume its wartime status: VHCS board passed a resolution cailing for the organization to drop Veterans Hospital tag and operate as Camp Shows, Inc. With the change, it will again be possible to function wherever soldier entertainment is necessary : instead of restricting to patients j in Army, Navy and Veterans Ad- ministration hospitals. CS is still in the process of re- activization. Expansion will de- pend greatly on the Korean situa- tion, but in all events, it is hold- j ing itself in readiness. 12,6 Gilt Subscription Enclosed find check or m.o. for $....... Send Variety for T^ one year, two years... NAME ADDRESS CITY.,. ........... . ;. ZONE.... STATE ,...,.. [ Indicate if gift card desired □ NAME • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • 0 4 . 0 « ^ * • • • •. 4 • • 4 > • ft * • ft ft ft ft ii ft I ADDREJS ............ ........;. ......... CITY... ., ZONE... . STATE. One Yeqr—$10.00... .Tw« Years—>$18.00 Canada end Foreign—$1 Additional per Y*ar P^niEfr Inc. 154 West 46fh Street New York 19, N. Y. Plan Revamped USO Washington, Dec. 5. A revitalized, revamped United Service Organizations, to take over recreation and amusement for the armed forces in the current crisis, is in the making. Harvey Firestone, Jr., head of USO since its legal reactivation last January, has appointed a commit- tee of nine to study the situation and make-recommendations. Their I report is due at a meeting sched- . uled for New York 'Dity on Feb, 7. The committee, appointed last week, included one rep of each of the six USO member groups — YMCA, YWCA, Jewish Welfare (Continued on page 62) BERGMAN-ROSSEUINI TO MAKE PIC IN FRANCE Rome, Dec. 5. Marking her first film since RKO’s “Stromboli,” Ingrid Berg- man will star in a picture to be made in Paris next February, ac- cording to a spokesman for her husband, Roberto Rossellini. Dis- closure took local industry circles by surprise inasmuch as the ac- tress at one time declared that she had nci plans to resum'' her pro- fiessional'career, Picture will be called ‘Europe 1951.Rossellini Will both produce and direct. Although the venture is to be Tensed in France, it is to be an Italo-French production. Financ- ing has been arranged privately by French and Italian interests. Rossellini held confabs on the project with French associates dur- ing his recent trip to Paris, but the deal w^^srt’t consummated until last week. T HE SPORADIC TRICKLE of actors discernible in New York as of today is a pitiful remnant of the glory era. When Broadway meant my way of life I knew more performers by their first names than there are altogether now. i wasn’t stage-struck then. T didn’t court the professionals because they were especially glamorous. I, too, was “in the business,” as a playwright, a critic, a tradepaper reporter. ' Anid I reveled in a world of its own, “the stage.” There is a slight swell in employment of “flesh” actors with the rise, of televisiori. But that isn’t" perceptible in the outer reaches of the spiral which spun arid spanned out to create that agglomeration of art, ham, snobbery, temperament; egotism and cgoceritricity which we un- derstood, and which we generically called “us,” We wci'C distinctive in dress, vie\ypoint and gragarious exclusiveness. During, “the season’’ we hummed. Every infinitesimal item of gossip was magnified into vast importance. We constituted the biggest and iriost sophisticated village on earth, In summer, the members, even the poorer ones, scattered around Long Island, also in communities of their own kind. There they made believe they enjoyed resting^ a dip in the ocean, a drive through rural roads. Blit all that was boresome. What they lived for Was gathering together at night to discuss each other and the others, to plan and mull the forthcoming activities after Labor Day, to show off. before the natives in impromptu“benefit” entertainments where they could indulge all the ^vhimsical ambitions which directors and stage-managers proscribed in paid appearances. j To lay up nuts for the summer, many took so much every working I Week, bought postal money-ordersmade out to themselves with it, and ; mailed them faithfully to sonic address where they would be inviolate until the lay-off period. D URING THE BROADWAY months they fralernized in their own clubs, restaurants, speakea.sies and side-street hotels, which were myriad. No Waldorf for even the few who could afford such luxury; in that atmosphere they would have been lonesome and homesick. Even the chorus people flocked together, generally with a sprinkling of musicians. Many a cutie who was offered dates shrugged them off; she would rather hang around the drugstores, beaneries and hole-in- the-wall beer-joints where she would be among p’fessionals, where she could be understood when she talked shop-T-told what a mean so-and-so the leading lady was, and what a back-busting rehearsal schedule her “turkey” had. If she went out with a man who wasn’t in show business he was a “John,” a sucker and an alien. The weird things he thought, said and did would make material for the boys and girls next night, when they could gab with those who were in the know and shared their senti- ments. The Broadway sidewalks in the *40s swarmed with actors and their associates—writers, composers, press agents, company managers, score- arrangers, advance-men and bookers. The southeast corner of Seventh avenue and 47th street was the concentration point of the vaudevillianS; the northeast corner for bur- lesquers; Shubert Alley, back of the Hotel Astor, pet huddle-spot of the “legits.” They all streamed in and out of the Variety office, where many got their mail, and which was the heart of the Rialto. Now that sort of mingling together is past. The esprit of a sui generis world within a world has evaporated. T HERE IS NO “ROAD” to speak of, therefore ho other cities where the traveling troupes huddle together and set up little Broadways, and Where members of the sel ect circles come, and go, and are re- placed by others, who are hailed with “Da-a-iTing!” and “You old son of a gunI’V Hollywood has inherited some, but by no means all of the tradition. The colony there is comparatively small, and as the older ones die or retire, the newcomers, who have never been exposed to the inbred Broadway method of life, never adopt it. The veteran stars, most of them from New York, visit one another at their gaudy mansions and talk of Manhattan as “home.” The palms and the swimming pools still seem unreal to them, and transitory. I don’t get on Broadway a dozen times a year how. The old night- club habit 1 have long since abandoned. I ho longer write for the stage and I am determined that I never shall again. There is too much grief with it now; and scr little reward except mohey, which I can earn in more pleasant ways, in view of what the ways of old have become. Columnists still wrap their paragraphs around something they call “Broadway.” But they know there isn’t any such thing any more. (Reprinted from N. Y. Mirror, by permission.) Active Show People Wooed by Army Unit A pitch for a limited number of potential draftees in the N. Y. area, actively engaged in show business, to continue with their professions in an Army reserve unit is being made by the 306th Army Special Service unit. Enlistment in the group is also open to vets. Show business categories include per- forming, writing, lighting and makeup. Information pertaining to the operation is being supplied by Capt. Nicholas Giordano, Recruit- ing Officer- for- the division. Called Her Broadcast Destructive, Sez Hedda Hollywood, Dec. 5. Columnist-radio spieler Hedda Hopper admitted she started a tempest With Bette Davis broad- cast last Week, but claimed “only one studio executive called it de^ structive criticirin.” Her interview with Eric Johnston, prez Of the Motion Picture As.sn. of America, will be aired next week. Commenting on the Davis inci- dent, Miss Hopper said her inten- tion is to show only the belter side of Hollywood, and any studio head is invited to come on her program if he has a gripe to air. Her taped interview with Johnson was post- poned after he reportedly asked her to hold off his “important mes- sage” until the heat cooled from ' previous week’s show, when she blasted the studios for their han- dling of young stars. She avoided further criticism of film industry Sunday by taking off on gambler Mickey Cohen. AVashington, Dec. 5. Four vplunteers who have con- sistently worked to bring enter- tainment to Veterans* ho.spitals throughout the Country will be cited for their efforts by the Vet- erans’ Administration Thursday Those who will trek to Washing- ton to receive Awards of Merit from Omer W Clark, Deputy Ad- ministrator of the Veterans’ Ad- mi nistration;_are : Abe Lastfogel, chairman of the Board of Directors of Veterans’ Hospital Gamp Shows, Inc., and guiding light of USO- Camp Shows since its inception* James Sauter, prexy of Veterans* Hospital Camp Shows; Helen Hayes, head of’ the American Thea- tre Wing; and Caroline Wither- spoon, independent entrepeneur of hundreds of individual hospital stints. Awards will serve to highlight an anticipated step-up of Vet Hospital entertainment necessitated i by the irievitable increase of pa- jlients as current crop of war I casualties are ti ansferred from Tegular service medical centers. Al- I though . the VA recreational pro- i gram has been an outstanding ex- 1 (Continued on-page 63)