Variety (December 1950)

62 CHATTER f^SSRiEfr Wednesday, December 6, 1950 Broadway New York Times film critic Bos- ley Crowther broke his big toe last week chopping wood. The Hal Hornes* daughter, Bar- bara Sachs, marrying David Maf- gulies Dec. 20 at the Waldorf. Irving Berlin due back in two weeks from Honolulu where he flew to join the ailing Joe Schenck. Janet Cban resigned from pub- licity department at United Artists to join David Green’s publicity firm. Maurice Maurer, managing di- rector for Bijou, Victoria and Astor theatres, returned from 10- day trip to London and Paris. A1 B, White, ex-emcee, opening a new eatery in Freeport, L/I., tomorrow (7) night—“on the wrong side of the tracks-** as he bills it. Harry Sobol, now handling all of Billy Rose's publicity (nitery, the- arte, TV, etc.), to split up his p.r. partnership with John McClain on Jan. 1. Hy Gardner, Herald Tribune*s “Early Bird” columnist, addressed the Woman Pays Club luncheon meeting at the Warwick yesterday (Tues.). ^v. Mitchell May, Jr., who special- izes m show biz Insurance, may be associated with the Harry Brandt syndicate seeking to acquire the RKO theatre circuit. Ann Mulvey, daughter of Gold- Wyn prez James A. Mulvey, en- gaged to Ralph Branca, pitcher for Brooklyn Dodgers. Mulvey family owns 25% interest in the club. E. K. (Ted) O’Shea, Paramount’s assistant sales chief, and Mrs. O’Shea announced engagement of daughter Patricia Ann to Thomas John Worthington, of Sayre, Pa. , Airlines appear to be going for ad agencies that have been spe- cializing in film biz. All-American has given its account to Buchanan & Co.; while Colonial goes to Mon- roe Greenthal. Songsmith Irving Berlin’s daugh- ter, Mary Ellin, a Time mag re- searcher, called on contemporary songwriter Billy Rose for his story on bowing-out as syndicated col- umnist because the latter “wanted more time to relax.** Radio-TV producer Mildred Fen-- ton, sister of Mrs. Gardner (Mike) CoWles (former Fleur Fenton) mar- rying Frisco adman William Goetze in the Swedenborgian Church, S. F., next Sunday. He’s of the Elliott Goetze & Boone agency. Herbert Wilcox, British film producer-director; his actress-wife, Anna Neagle; actor Michael Wilding, thesper Clifton Webb, de- signer Cecil Beaton and music publisher Reg Connelly due in from Britain today (Wed.) on the Queen Elizabeth. Earl Blackwell, who co-founded Celebrity Service in 1938 with Ted Strong, has ^become corp’s sole owner, having bought out latter’s stock. Frances Van, with the or- ganization since its inception, re- turns in January as Blackwell’s of- fice manager, following a year’s leave. » A1 Palca, former 20th-Fox home- office radio publicity manager, getting associate producer and original screenplay credit on Co- lumbia’s upcoming “Globetrotter Storj^J.’ fihii based on the Harlem Olohetrotters’ basketball team. Sjfdney Buchmar is producer, with • Tmmas Gomez featured. John Malcolm Goldsmith (not John Schulman, who is a w.k. copy- right attorney) is marrying Betti Scliinasi, daughter of Mrs. Iluby Schinasi of the Waldorf Towers. Bridv ; o-be’S. sister Leonora (Bub- bles/ Mrs. Arthur Horriblow, Jr., wife /f the Metro producer. Gold- s’ . is with WB press dept, in turning ’em away at both shows nightly. Louis Armstrong pecking away at his typewriter between V shows at Flamingo on life story as yet untitled. Las Vegas Little Theatre switched from “Front Page’’ to “Separate Rooms” because of cast- ing snarl. Last Frontier New Year’s eve show has Jack Carson, Yvette, Hqpey Bros. Tommy Wells, A1 Doiiahue Orch, Hotel Shamrock reopened under new management with Chirp Kay Roanayne at piano alternating with Shamrock Trio. Betty Jane Watson, Jerry Austin song duo signed for Xmas. Thun- derbird show Dec. 21-28 with puppeteer Sid Kroft. Moppet Karen Emery, 5 years daughter of Spitalny’s bassist, Mary Emery, killing Frontier cus- tomers with her “Night Before Xmas” recital at every show. Hollywood Paris By Maxime de Beix (33 Blvd. Montparnasse) Iliya Lopert here from London on biz. Jacques Helian orch off on a tour of Canada. Delta Rythm Boys at Club des Champs Elysees. Bill Roach back at his desk at UNESCO after U. S. visit. Ludmilla Tcherina signed With Powell and Pressburger for a three-picture deal. Borris Morros setting production of “Last Train From Berlin” with a Henry Altimus script. Director Henri Clouzot back from South America and skedding a picture titled, “The Gods Horse,” with Brazilian locale. Songsmith Jean Rieux handed a Legion of Honor by President of France Vincent Auriol at a luncheon given at the Ely see. Odette. Joyeux is a busy film star having authored the play, “Le Chateau de Carrefour,” soon to be produced. The book, “(jote Jar- dan,” will shortly appear in a pic which Philipe Agostini will direct. Mianri Beach By Lary Solloway Art Mooney due in town to set up plans for his new property, the former La Boheme. Phil Foster, Carlos Ramirez and Mary Kaye Trio opened at Five O’clock Club Sunday (3). Casablanca hotel negotiating for a network wire to air Xavier Cugat’s music. He opens there Dec. 20 for two weeks. Lou Irwin at Roney Plaza for rest. Has plenty of offers from local niteries for Ritz Bros., Peter Lind Hayes and others of his list<- ings. Sherry Frontenac hotel signed AGVA minimum wage agreement and now has Hex Dale and Marty Allen, plus Laurette Foster head- ing show. Manor and Mignon took over dance studio at Sans Souci and are currently featured in Blue Sails room there with Jose Cur- belo’s orch. Joseph Cotten due in Dec. 11 for first offering of revived Miami Civic theatre (nee Mayfair) pro- duction of “Susan aflttf^God.” Pro- ceeds of preem hight go to Variety Tent’s Children’s Hospital. Greer Garson to Dallas. Dennis Day planed to Chicago. Milton Grossman laid up with flu. . « Marilyn Maxwell planed in from N. Y. Pat Neal, and Warners called it quits. ... Jayhe Meadows ill with virus pneumonia. ... , . Trixie Friganza celebrated her 79th birthday. Gordon Youngman hospitalized for an operation. Rufus LeMaire rushed to the hospital following a stroke. Suzanne Dalbert* returned from a three-week tour df personals. Dinah Shore and George Mont- gomery in from Palm Springs. Chill and Betty Wills celebrated their 23d wedding anniversary. Bob Hope in again for added scenes in “The Lemon Drop Kid.’* Billy Eckstine hospitalized in San iYancisco with a, gall bladder ailmentw ^ Jean Castles leaving the CBS flackery to rejoin the WACS as a second lieutenant. \ Jack Bennys moved into the Palm Springs mansion they bought from Bill Perlberg. Gene Autry starts Jan. 13 on a tour of 36 midwestern cities, open- ing in Topeka, Kans. Red Skelton takes off in two weeks for a cross-country stage tour, opening in St. Louis. Paul Douglas broke two ribs during football practice for “The Guy Who Sank the Navy.” Stewart Granger drew a vaca- tion at Metro until mid-January when “Scaramouche” starts. Everett Sloahe in from. N. Y. where he obtained his release from the cast of “King Lear.” Sam Fuller returned from Wash- ington where he huddled^ with Army brass about a war picture. Joseph Dubin appointed chief of the legal department at Universal- International, a new post on that lot. ■ Kroger Babb to Toronto fOr board meetings of his Canadian theatre and distribution corpora- tions. j . Arthur Walge, after months in Rome with the “Quo Vadis” troupe, checked out for a vacation in Honolulu. Pat Buttram returned to Gene Autry’s air show after 10 weeks in the hospital from injuries suffered in an explosion. Fire damaged the. Key theatre. North Hollywood, causing a post- ponement of the legiter, “While the Sun Shines.” < Joe MacDonald won the Septem- ber award of the American Society of Cinematograirtiers for his tens- ing of “Panic in the Streets,” Ernest Turnbull leaves for Aus- tralia this week to resump his chores as managing director of Hoyt’s, Ltd., a 20th-Fox subsid- ary. Las Vegas, Nev. By Bill Willard Dusty Brooks’ Sepia Tones at Club Bingo. Lewis R. Foster in to gather data for pic “Las Vegas Story.” Hollywood group eyeing LaS Vegas for teevee pic locations. La Rue eatery in final construc- tion, propping for Xmas opening. Gene Nelson, “West Point” hoof- ing sensash, in for rest between plX.;: . ciil Johnson, versatile hoofer- singer held over at Thunderbird indefinitely.. Mel Torme tops Thunderbirds .bill Dec. 7 with Richard airid Flora Stuart and the Romanos. headlining show at El. Rancho Vegas, with thrush Dorothy Dandridge supporting. Carmen Cavallaro inked for wMi* Last Frontier, with Willy Shore following on the 26th. ^ Phil Spitalny in k Last Frontier lor A month at $15,000 per week Palm Springs By Dorothy Gray Eddie and Ida Cantor resting here for two weeks. Linda Darnell resting at Hotel La Quinta With daughter Lola. . ‘Tee Classics of 1951” opens at the Del Tahquitz hotel Friday (8). Robert Taylor and Barbara Stan- wyck have leased a house for a month beginning Dec. 15. Jack and Mary Benny back/in their desert home; he’ll air. h^is ra- dio show from here. While Richard Whorf appears on Broadway in “Season in the Sun,” Bill Seiter and wife Marian Nixon have leased his home here. Gloria de Haven at the Racquet Club for a few days’ rest with daughter Kathy before starting “Two Tickets to Broadway/’ * Kirk Douglas resting before fi- nal retakes oh “The Travelers.” HeJeaves for New York next week to spend, Christmas With his young- sters. The Rudy Vallees back in their home Until Jan. 6. Vallee opens at the chi chi Starlite Room Xmas Eve. Nick Lucas currently packing ’em in there. Another Firehouse Five plus Two party for this Saturday (9) at the Racquet Club. The Van John- sons, Max Gilfords, Al Halls, Bill Powells among those expected to attend. toBdon Harry Alan Towers off on an- other quickie trip to New York. Yvonne de Carlo due here to star in “Hotel Sahara” to be lensed at Pinewood. Margaret Johnston and Maria Schell inked for femme leads in the “Life of Friese-Greene.” Hall, Norman & Ladd booked for pantomime dates in the Gran- ada production of “Cinderella” which opens Dec. 26 Bill Johnson doing a series of vaude dates before he opens in '•Kiss Me, Kate” next year, starting at Birmingham Christmas week. Chelsea Arts Ball is being held two days early, on Dec. 29, so that Britain’s Sunday Observance laws will not interrupt the New Year revels Lloyd Lind, of Monogram In- ternational, sailed for America, after two Weeks here huddling with C. J. Latta and looking at new As- sociated British product, “The Four Poster,” Jan Hartoes’ two character play, folds Dec. 9 Ambassador after an eight- week ruiu “Lace on Her Petticoat’^ moves in the following week. Sir Alexander Korda and Sidney Bernstein heading committee > or- ganizing a memorial to Huihphrey J ennings, documentary director who was killed in (Greece last September. Elizabeth Allan,' Margaret Leigh- ton and Merie? Forbes head, organi- zation to sell Christmas ckds for a theatrical charity designed by Lilli Palmer, Rex Harrison and Ralph Richardson. Dinah Sheridan planed out for Kenya to take up the only femme role in “No Vultures Fly,” and will spend four months in the jungle. Harry Watt is directing this for Michael Balcon. . : John Tore dickering with Holly- wobd for sale of the film rights to Golden City,” his musical which ran at the Adeiphi during the summer and is to tour next year. May come back to the West End next summer. ) Ex-Nazis In German Pix Continued. front. page 1 with initial funds of 15,000,000 marks ($3,600,000). Financial backers are the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 12,- 000,000 marks ($2,900,000), while the additional 3,000,000 marks ($700,000) are divided by the giant Qetker baking powder manufactur- ing firm in Bielefeld, Dr. Grenier, a Ruhr sugar tycoon and a promi- nent banker Latter is among the top financial supporters of chancel- lor Konrad Adenauer’s Christian Democratic party. It is envisaged that these financers will first supply 1,500,000 marks ($360,000) through a Hamburg trade bank and the North Rhine-Westphalia Coopera- tive Bank, latter representing trade union influence. On the other hand, the North Rhine-Westphalia state will supply a 5,000,000-6,000,000 marks ($1,200,000-$1,450,000) long- tenn. credit to a bank closely af- filiated with the state. The state will accept the risks and its long- term credit is expected to be the basis of short-term credits ranging between 11,000,000 -to 14,000,000 marks ($2,450,000 to $3,350,000 ). Outfit plans to distribute its pix, while a special side deal would pro^ vide for a purported“independent” exhibition, providing, of course, top priority and, possibly, exclu- sive bookings. (Allied decarteliza- tion laws prohibit the establish- ment of handling production, dis- tribution and exhibition in one company. However, two-way, pro- duction-distribution link is per- mitted). . The other phase of this opera- tion is the plan to grab, former UFA property within the state Of North Rhine-Westphalia. This in- volves 18 of the 40 first-run thea- tres, which UFA owned and which are supposed to be auctioned under the Allied High Commission’s UFA decartelization law. These theatres include the Apollo, in Duesseldorf, a 3,000-seater and biggest in Germany, into which some 1,000,- 000 marks ($240,000) have already been poured from UFA funds in that state. Additionally, they plan to acquire a studio somewhere in Western Germany. Most of West- ern Germany’s modern studios are UFA-owned and are presently only leased to the producers. Masterminding the gigantic scheme are Nazidom’s most prom- inent film personalities. Besides the aging Alfred Hugenberg, a Krupp- tycoon and former founder of UFA, generally regarded as the “grey eminence” behind both the new Combine and the UFA liquidation sabotage plan, the group includes the cream of executives who helped Hitler tick by the way of creating and running the Nazi film monop- oly. Top execs in the new combine will include such names as Dr. Ludwig Klitzsch, former general manager of UFA, who took over when Hugenberg handed the com- pany to the Nazis, and Dr. Max Winkler, former deputy of propa- ganda minister Josef Goebbels and Reich commissioner for films. Winkler wasLmprisoned in Nuren- berg for one year and another year in the Bad Nenndorf internment camp for Nazis, but he was later cleared by a British Zone denazi- “fication court in Hamburg. Also important in the group is Dr. Walter Haupt, presently Brit- ish Zone custodian for UFA prop- erty and member of the five-man German UFA liquidation commit- tee. A Nazi party member since 1933, Haupt cooperated with Wink- ler during the Hitler times. Importance of the necessity of the UFA breakup (and the terrific significance of the case if this should not materialize) is the fact that it is the biggest single pic industry asset in Western Ger- many. Beside holding the 40 first- runs and the largest studios, the 50,000,000 mark ($12,000,000) com- bine also has hundreds of pix and valuaWe assets, Stalling tactics against the break- up, which under the High Gbm- mission law must be completed by Jan. 1, 1952, were best, demon- strated at the first auction of UFA property, held at Wiesbadeh on Nov. 15. Nine “B” pix went under the hammer, but only three pros- pective buyers turned up. Two pix were sold after one bid of the minimum 5,000 marks ($1,200) for eaqh. Pix, one made in 1935 and the other in 1936, were bought by Stemverleih distribs of Hamburg. The auction itself cost 45,000 marks ($10,700). This was explained as pressure from both the new group and pro- ducers, who fear the influx of all the old pix, which, qualitatively, many times outrank the new prod- ucts. Biz side of the North Rhine- Westphalia combine seems further assured by other ex-UFA toppers, like Alfred Greven, director of German film interests (Continen- tale Filmgesellschaft) in Prance during the war. Dr. Guenther Dahlgruen, former head of the Cautio holding company (an UFA branch), which handled all propa- ganda material; Josef Hein, chief of German pic' subsidiaries during the war in .Czechoslovakia, and Bruno Pfennig, ex-essistant of Winkler. Continued from page 2 Board, Salvation Army» National Catholic Committee and Traveller’s Aid. In addition, two persons have been named to represent the public at I a r g e, and one from Camp Shows,. Inc. In the past, though it was affiliated financially with USO, Camp Shows operated independ- ently. Present aim—- which is backed by official Washington—is to com solidate all entertainment efforts under one aegis. Associated Serv- ices for the Armed Forces, group recently created to build up serv- ice entertainment, is expected to merge into the new larger organiza- tion. Camp Shows is also expected tq join forces. Idea is to cash in on, the widely publicized USO name which was built up so well in World War II. Although the USO is completely voluntary and private. Government sources have been maneuvering behind scenes to get it under way and operating.. This drive has been spearheaded by the President’s Committe- for Religion and Wel- fare for the Armed Forces, a com- mittee named by President Tru- man. Touring ‘Pacific’ Continued from page 1 cal equipment, $125 rental of sound equipment, $464 local equipment and operation, $990 railroad fares, $803 hauling, $380 publicity costs, $410. departmental expense, $900 rehearsal costs, and $840 other ex- pense, including $350 office ex- pense. . As of Oct. 28, the income from South Pacific Enterprises, which leases the use of the title and cov- ers other incidental projects, amounted to nearly $133,400. The $300,000 distribution made at that time brought the total profits to $1,295,000 up to then. There were additional undistributed profits of $143,600, a sinking fund, advertis- ing fund and oth^r assets of $61,- 200 . - The Broadway company, hitting an invariable gross of $50,800, is making an operating profit of over $11,000 a week. Media-Prockter Continued from page 9 Samuel Goldwyn.) Film is to be a eombination of live action, line drawings and animation in both^ black and white and color. House- man will produce, with John Hub- ley, United Productions veepee, as director. Filmi will integrate four Thurber stories into one Unit, in- cluding “You Could Look It Up,” “The Greatest Man in the World,” “The Battle of the Sexes”' and “The White Deer.” ; Prockter this week named Paul White, former European manager for David O. Selznick, as motion pictures veepee. First film sched- uled for productloh is “Big Story,” based on his radio and TV pro- grams of the Same titles It’S to be budgeted, according to White, at $500,000, and a 'distribution deal is currently being worked out.: Jerry Wald-Notman Krasna unit at RKO had talked with Prockter about do- ing “Big Story,” but the deal was never consummated. Prockter’s schedule of five films for 1951 in- cludes two A’s, on budgets of $500,000 or more, and three B’s, lYhite^;Said, ' I