Variety (January 1953)

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ttVdnosday, January j, Forty-seventh P^SlETY ' Anniversary A. PICTURES T S| 3 S x 2 !l a s i a THE OLD MM & THE TV II From $100,000 ‘Colossals’ to Half-Billion Now Invested In U.S. Film Production Keys By AL SCHWARTZINGWAY & SHERWOOD SCHWARTZINGWAY a 2 * iih«' in' .. 1,1,111.111 uimimii*"' = 3 a ± = 3 II | Ile-was an old producer who lived alone, and he had" ne 84 days now without taking a cent at the boxoffice. Tn the first 40 days an assistant had been with him. But afLcr 40 days without a successful picture the assistant’s parents had told him that the old producer was now definitely and finally “salao,” which is the worst form of unlucky, and which in English means, “Everybody’s home watching TV.” The old producer was thin, and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the front of his neck where exhibitors had grabbed him viciously during recent months. These scars ran well up into the sides of his face, and his hands had deep-creased wounds from agents’ teeth when he refused to renew their clients’ contracts. He was old .and defeated, and he knew he was old and defeated. When the wind was in the 'east a smell came across the city from the television studios, and it made him ill. How could an industry that advertises so much chlorophyll smell like that, he thought? Suddenly, he knew he must get away, away from television, that, en- larged cigar box that had made radio, movies and vaude- ville all go up in smoke. He knew he must get away. He would go fishing. Fish- ing would relax him. The crisp salt air would clear his m ind—besides, it would get him out of town before they could put him on the board at RKO. When the old producer arrived at the dock, it was early in the morning, but already the sun was in the sky. Its bright glare reminded him of a television tube. So he reached up and shut it off. He walked across the beach down to the skiff. The wet sand felt good between his t oe s —toes that were now shoeless, but had once helped count surplus bills when his hands were overflowing with money. He sighed, and shoved the skiff out into the water. The old producer rowed steadily, and in an hour was beyond the shoals, and in albacore waters. He rested a moment. He was old and defeated, and he knew he was old and defeated. Not only that, he knew why he was old and defeated. It was because he was defeated and old. He prepared the bait. He hooked ajf.sardine between the eyes joyously imagining he was gaffing a TV writer. He threw his line overboard and sat back to wait. As he tried to relax and get his mind off television, he thought of the major leagues, and the Yankees and Joe DiMaggio. .Thinking of Joe DiMaggio made him think of Marilyn Monroe. When he couldn’t keep his mind on Marilyn Monroe, he was old and defeated and he knew he was old and defeated. Strangely enough, it was Marilyn Monroe that brought hi§ mind back to the prob- lem lie was trying to forget. Marilyn, he thought, now there were two good answers to television. Switched Lines Suddenly his thoughts were broken. His line went spinning out almost burning the flesh on his hand. Fifty yards off" the bow he could see a fish leaping out of the water. Gone was all concern over television as the fight with the sea monster began. It was a bitter struggle, and then abrouptly there was slack at the end of the line. The fish was his. , As he reeled in the fish, the old producer no longer felt old and defeated. He felt young and defeated. It was a good feeling. As the fish drew alongside the boat, he pre- t pared his harpoon for the kill. He raised the harpoon, but his hand froze in mid-air. To his chagrin it wasn’t a flash at the end of his line. It was an eel, an enormous electric eel. He was about to cut the line and throw the monster back into the deep when his eyes blinked with astonish- ment. There oh the head of the eel—a 17-inch head—was a picture of Arthur Godfrey. Arthur Godfrey was playing his ukulele and singing. Somehow this electric eel was pulling in Channel Two. And 20 miles from shore, the producer thought >to himself, in a fringe area, too. Ex- perimentally, the old producer touched the eel, and Red Skelton appeared. And then Ozzie & Harriet. So electric eels were showing television, too, eh? Well, he would destroy it. He took a battery out of his searchlight and reached forward to touch the electric’eel. This would short-circuit its A.C. from its D.C. Then a cunning look came over the face of the old producer. Electric eels! He could breed his own tele- vision sets. He could put them out on the market, and call them Pheelcos. With this eel he had the TV industry by the fins. He laughed wildly into the night. He must get this eel back to shore at once-. He secured the eel to the side of the skiff, and started rowing. It was an hour later, while he was rowing and watch- ing “What’s My Line?” on the eel when the first shark lut. It was awful. He bit Hal Block right off the panel. The old producer rowed even harder. He must protect his fantastic prize. Ten minutes later the second shark struck. It was worst than the first one. With one clamp of its mighty Jaws it separated Burns from Allen. Ihe old producer was now almost within sight of shore. Alien they came. Dozens of them. Sharks with mean yel- low eyes. They hit again and again. The Did producer vas old and defeated, and he knew he was. old and de- feated, but worst yet the sharks knew he was old and de- feated. ' When it was over, Studio One had been nibbled down fo an eighth, and evert Rod Buttons had been unbuttoned. fie only thing that remained lashed to the side of the oat was the head of the eel, and the naked spin. h J len ^ Producer finally brought the boat into the t , * , man y people surrounded the'skiff and wondered at hi 1 l I ange catch * They asked him many questions but ami r no an swers. He knew now that he was definitely I, u bfially “malao/ r which is a worse form of unlucky an ? sa lao,” an d which in English means, “May Cinerama 0 Natural Vision have mercy on our souls.” Growth of Biz; New Audiences Every 10 Years Hollywood Etiquette (Gossip Columnist Style) By MANNIE MANHEIM Hollywood. In previous surveys, my group has concentrated its efforts upon radio, television and other media affecting the entertainment world. For this occasion, we turn our re- search to the newspapers to offer a sound method for trac- ing blind items that appear in the several gossip columns. To better explain: On May 16, 1952, a Columnist (name withheld for no reason at all) wrote this item: “What is happening to the Jeanette MacDonald-Gene Raymond marriage?” That’s all there was to the item. Our research-group had little to work with—but we went about seeking the answer to this query. You will note that this appeared on May 16, and our report is being written in December of the same year—over six months have elapsed.,^. -- Our first move was the obvious one. We attempted to contact Miss MacDonald and Mr. Raymond but, of course, they don’t allow their names to appear in the phone book. We questioned various agents, actors, the cashier at Schwab’s Drug Store plus several tradesmen—but no one offered a clue as to what happened to the marriage of Miss MacDonald and Mr. Raymond. As of this moment, we have been unable to determine just what happened to the MacDonald-Raymorid mar- riage except to report that they are still married. Our next challenge occurred on May 21—just five days after the MacDonald-Raymond item. Another film colum- nist wrote this startling and mysterious paragraph: “The wife of what top masculirie star was the talk” of a social gathering the other night? She did cartwheels all over the place.” It was quite natural for us to put two and two together and- solve that one quickly—it must have been Miss MacDonald, we decided as she certainly was (and is) the wife of a masculine star. But on further thought, this sort of thing didn’t become Miss MacDonald as none of us had been able to track down any cariwheel stuff by her—in fact, we learned that her behavior at parties was beyond question—often doing nothing more than gnawing on a canape or singing a light little dithyramb for the assembled group. Besides, when we reexamined the item, we noted that it said, “The wife of what top masculine star.” Not to discredit Mr. Raymond’s standing in the realm of stardom, it certainly is quite apparent that he hasn’t attained the acting fame that his wife did—therefore, our conclusion on this one was that neither Miss MacDonald nol* Mr. Raymond were the parties to this brawl. Blind items are difficult to dissect as the language is generally obscure and vague, distracting as it does from those of us who rpake our life’s work the trailing down of v ilumnist’s queries. For the benefit of those who might care to join in our work, we shall explain the pattern of procedure by using the cartwheel item as the subject for investigation. Pinpointing It By N. J. BLUMBERG (Chairman of the Board, Universal Pictures) ,1 have been in show business nearly as long as Variety. So, therefore, Variety and I have seen a lot happen; we have lived through crises; we have seen prosperity and we have'also lived through lean days. It is my feeling that in a free de- mocracy such as our blessed country offers, the motion picture and the motion picture theatre will continue to be a fayorite form of entertain- ment. There is a decided vogue nowadays to make predictions based on current events in our business. I much pre- fer to form my opinions and beliefs on experience, assuming that the theory of “history is the best teacher” still makes sense. When I first started in the business 40 years ago, full- length feature pictures were a novel- ty. An investment of $100,000 in a picture was consid- ered a frenzied speculation. When we consider that today there is over one-half billion dollars invested in production in this country alone, we can really get some idea of our growth. But growth is a continuing process. It is most encourag- ing to note that every 10 years we have a new movie audi- ence. With the present ratio of population increase we should, within another 10 years, have 20,000,000 more film- goers. One of the biggest jobs we have to do today is to cultivate the children’s trade so that they will get the movie habit early in life. Nate Blumberg Pitch for the New Customers l Remember that May 21 was the dateline—and the columnist mentioned that the wife of the top masculine star did her cartwheel stunt “the other 'night.” Now, the other night, according to general acceptance of the phrase, might very well mean a few nights previous to May 21, which, incidentally, was a Wednesday. Therefore, for the purposes of beginning our search, we placed the time of the social gathering as May 17—a Saturday night, as Sat- urday night is party night even in Hollywood. To ascertain what masculine star is married to a babe who does cartwheels at social gatherings is no cinch. As noted above. Miss Jeanette MacDonald was finally elimi- nated after speaking to an acquaintance of a former milk- man who delivered dairy goods to the MacDonald-Ray- mond residence. In response to our question put indi- rectly via the acquaintance, the former milkman (who is now selling home freezers door-to-door) replied, that in his opinion, Miss MacDonald would be the last person in the world to do cartwheels at a social gathering. Next, we tried to determine who gave a party on May 17 where movie stars might be in attendance. Luckily, the reply to this one came easily. The movie pages of the leading Hollywood newspapers were consulted and the only one listed of any prominence was a dinner given by Groucho Marx in honor of George Jessel, who, during the previous week caught an oversized albacore off the coast of Santa Monica. Obviously, our feeling was that if any masculine star’s wife was to perform cartwheels, Mr. Marx’s social gathering would be the ideal locale. We contacted Mr. Marx by following him home from a super-market in Beverly Hills. As he was unloading vari- ous staples from his car, we approached him and said, “Pardon us, Mr. Marx ...” Our speech was broken by Mr. Marxes almost vicious attack upon us for trespassing upon his "premises. “Who are you?” he snapped as he looked at our car to note whether it was a De Soto. Meekly, we replied that we were .just a band of innocent citizens who were devoting our lives to the cause of tracing blind items and we sought his aid in identifying a lady who did cartwheels at a social gathering the other night. , “What makes you think dames cartwheel in my house?” he asked. We remarked that it just seemed logical that if he were to have a social evening it certainly wouldn’t be a run-of- the-mill affair. “After all,” we added, “you’re not the con- ventional type, Mr. Marx.” “Oh, I don’t know,” he replied, “I watched both conven- tions on TV—that makes me conventional.” As Mr. Marx turned on the lawn sprinklers we raced off his premises—^and to this day we have no idea What wife did cartwheels at what social gathering—but one thing we’re sure "of—it wasn’t Jeanette MacDonald. Our industry should,support the fine work being done by the Motion Picture Association in relation to the chil- dren’s library which, to my way of thinking, is an im- portant'agency to stimulate children’s interest in motion pictures. We at Universal are making a special point of making pictures for all age groups. We are endeavoring to attract the family trade, as this really is the backbone of our business. ... When I was an exhibitor, I always made an effort to make the theatre particularly attractive for Saturday mati- nees so that we could get an extra share of mothers and children. More of this type of activity should be encour- aged in all of our theatres. As I look back over the years and review the value of personalities in connection with pictures, I am hopeful that our industry will do a good job in bringing new stars to the screen. In this respect, exhibitors must cooperate and join with us in the promotion of new names and faces. Exhibitors should be eager to play pictures with starlets and should do everything possible in publicizing and ad- vertising them. More now than ever before must our industry unite for common purposes. If we-properly sup- port COMPO, many of our problems can be attacked with vigor and intelligence. Our company is trying to utilize television for the ad- vertising and promotion of pictures. There are great potentialities in store for the industry to collectively un- dertake a consistent TV program. If the picture’s a hit They will freely admit The studio worked with felicity. If the picture’s a flop Then the .cause of the drop Is due to the lack of publicity. If they storm at the door Though the picture is poor It’s the star who' has shown her attractiveness. Should the star be a bust Then the judgment is just Further proof of the p.a.’s inactiveness Oh, the pressagent’s lot Is best and besot As he stares at the bleak auditorium. Drop a tear in your beer At the end of the year. In your favorite friendly emporium.