Variety (March 1954)

Wednesday* March <*y- Eddie Fisheras ‘Jessei’ Hollywood, March 2. George JesseL Is here to discuss two picture deals with Howard Hughes, via RKO. Onfc'is the “Jessei Story,” bioplc with Eddie Fisher to play the stellar role, and the other is “Rip Van Winkle” which Jessei will pro- duce with Jinuny Durante in the title role. By GEORGE GURJAM Sao Paulo, March 2. The International (lira festival here Is over and, despite some un- pleasant after-tastes, is generally considered a success despite the fact that the quality of the entries on the whole didn’t come up to ex- pectations. The biggest attraction of the whole affair was the large Ameri- can delegation which made the trip to the festival, led by Motion Pic- ture Export Assn, president Eric Johnston who tame with the rank of an Ambassador. Until they ar- rived, things were going poorly, with plenty of squawks all around. The best-liked Hollywood entry ' was Paramount’s “Roman Holiday.” The biggest disappointment, at least from the local point-of-view, •The Glenn Miller Story,” which opened the fete. “Julius Caesar” %ot a lukewarm reception. An- other U. S. entry in the prizeless competition was “Hondo.” Among • the extra-official pix shown were ‘The Lawless Breed,” “The Sword*. , . ... . and the Rose,” “So This Is. LoVe” S Carlo,. Cannes and Nice with each and “Marching Along,” none of one ou . t . s Vf? s °^, !? oney which brought more than polite , to P * tt ” cU ? n V vl , th ft applause. ; pea!. The Monte Carlo led off the Italy’s “Pane Amore” and “Fan-; battle by using top ballet com- tasia,” on the other hand, were! P^ 1 ? 5 *“? * tars ^ L ?“ < J on s welcomed, as was the French ; Festival Ballet who featured Moira •Wages of Fear ” which, however, f Shearer, Yvette ChauviM* and coro- also wasn’t an official contender, f P an y director Anton polio. Pre- Amo ng the stars who showed up | reding them was the Roland Petit fere Irene Dunne, Rhnnria Flem- ■ ^o.. with Colette Marchand and Ing, Errol Flynn, Joan Fontaine, t Leslie Caron and to follow these Jane Powell, Ann Miller, June two *s the fuU Pans Open Ballet with ail its stars, including Serge I Lifar. * Interwoven with the ballet at the Monte Carlo Theatre is an opera season with singers Mario del Monaco, Elisabeth Schwarzhopf, Lisa della Casa, Mado Robin and Riviera Resorts Slow Biz Lures By ED QUINN Nice, Feb. 23. The winter season on the Rivi- era has brought a minor battle be- tween the holiday'resorts—Monte ( Continued on page 63; Senator Lands Folsom For “Forthright’ Stance On Gv3 Rights Law HORACE HEIDT Currently Hotel Statter, Now York Under Personal Management WALTER PLANT Statlor Hotel, Now York City, N, Y. N. Y. Theatres fit Omaha Speech Fingem 2Qth«Fox on Softening .. Script Against Soviets - 5th Are. Artie Opens Following extensive rennovatlon, the Fifth Avenue Cinema, N. Y„ formerly the Playhouse, opens March 29 with “The Diary of a Country Priest,” a French import. The house, continuing on an Art policy, is now being operated by Pathe Cinema of France. It seats 275. guest stars from the Sc ala de Milan r and the Vienna Opera House. The Washington, March 2. | opera season will conclude w ith Statement of RCA prexy Frank the world preem of “L’Opera de M. Folsom on discrimination in j Quafsous,” by Kurt WeilL l employment, made last week to a I Backing up the theatre presenta- Senafe committee in Washington.! (Continued on page 711 was characterized by Sen. Alex-! ■ . — ■ ander Smith (R., N. JJ as one of 1 the most forthright he had ever: heard on the subject. Folsom ap- peared before the subcommittee; on civil rights of the Senate Com- • mittee on Labor & Public Welfare; Tokyo, Feb. 23. to present RCA’s handling of the • Trek of Hollywood stars to Japan employment problem in coonec- in 1954, begun by Marilyn Monroe, tion with hearings on a bill to pro- recently honeymooning here, is ex- hibit discrimination because of. pected to continue with visits by race, color, national origin or either Elizabeth Taylor or Cyd ancestry. j Charisse, who will bally Metro’s In pressing for adoption of the 30th anni, according to an an- Iegislation, Folsom, declared that nouncement by Seymour Mayer, •ince the founding of RCA in 1919 ‘ chief of the studio's Oriental Divi- the company has based its hiring Other R’wood Stars May Follow Monroe to Tokyo sion. Paramount also plans to spend some of its frozen yen on a p. a. tour by Audrey Hepburn in April when its “Roman Holiday” will be roadshown here. and promotion of personnel strict ly on initiative and ability. “RCA is in no way unique among managements in practicing non- discrimination,” Folsom said, “but we are proud to be among those | ,. who have practiced it from the I More GI Shows Set start We believe such a policy is j Hollywood, March 2. both right and practical. Experi- f Hollywood Coordinating Com- ence has fully justified this belief., mittee is lining up two special Not only has RCA derived benefit .shows to entertain troops^in iso- from the improved human and; lated air force bases at Thule, community relations that result Greenland, and the Limestone from equal opportunity for all. but Base in Maine. Terry Moore and we feel that in the process we have Johnny Grant will each head one promoted the national Interest as unit. well.” CoL Joseph F. Goetz, chief, of The RCA prexy noted that the the Armed Forces Professional En- Negro market, for instance, con- 1 tertainment Branch, is in Holly- ftisting of about 14,000.000 persons, - wood to round up volunteers, not spends some $12,000,000,000 annu-, only for these two shows’ but for ally on the goods produced in this [future entertainment at air force (Continued on page 22) 1 bases in Europe, Juve Delinquents In conjunction with ifrew York City's unified drive to combat ju- venile delinquency, the film indus- try will be in the forefront of a campaign against juve vandalism in theatres. A “positive aspect campaign” is currently being for- mulated by the two N. Y. exliib organizations ■— the Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatres Assn, a i the Independent Theatre Ow ’s Assn. — in cooperation with city officials. Discussions anent 1 the program revolve around how the theatre drive can fit in with the overall city efforts to crack the whip on the wayward young. Theatre out- fits will work.closely with the Po- lice Athletic League, schools and various settlement houses. The exact program, which will consist of many special theatre activities, hasn’t been formulated as yet. It’s indicated, however, that theatres will* be ‘employed for specially su- pervised events and may involve tie-in with local major league base- ball clubs. Special film programs are also listed as possibilities. . Problem of juve delinquency, on the increase since the end of World War II, has plagued city authorities throughout the country and has been a particular thorn in the side of theatres. Increasing (Continued on page 71) 3/3 Subscription Order Form Enclosed find check for $ - Please send VARIETY for y*". To .. Street City. . <Pl«aM Print Nam«l Zone • « 4 4 Stale < Regular Subscription Rafts On# Year—$10.00 Two Years—$18.00 Canada and Foreign—$1 Additional per Year P^RIETY Inc. 154 West 46fh Street New York 34, N. Y. TT7T Crusade For Freedom Gotham Bid Lags As Show People Stay Away Difficulty in lining up sufficient numbers of show people to help in the Gotham bid for Crusade for Freedom is being faced. The Cru- sade. which raised a simulated tower in the heart of Times Square to promote Radio Free Europe, sent out a call to several person- alities, some of whom made ap- pearances there during this last week and many more of whom were either unreachable or had other commitments. Much of the work involved In the promotion has been done by the Indie Theatre Owners group, with (Continued on page 63) Arenas Seeking New B.O. Draws Arena Managers Assn, is again on the lookout for a series of new shows for the spots. The organi- zation, comprising arena and audi- torium managements, is meeting at the Statler Hotel, Buffalo, March 10-11, to study a whole series of propositions that has been offered them and some pack- ages that AMA is developing. Preliminary deals under discus- sion include negotiations with legit producer Max Gordon to restage several of his early legit hits in arena dimensions. As in former years, the AMA is looking over the products - from virtually every field in an effort to keep their halls going. This year, some ‘ important moneymaking properties have evaporated. Among them are the Roller Derby and Horace Heidt show, which used to consume a lot of time on the arena circuit. Others include the lesser playing time devoted to rodeos. Neither Gene Autry nor Roy Rog- ers is playing as many dates this season as in the past The AMA meet will scan all sub- missions in order to arrange sched- ules for as many attractions as pos- sible. The problem of getting suf- ficient shows with enough b.o. value has increased considerably over the past few years. The dis- appearance of some troupes plus the wearing out of the b.o. in oth- ers, creates a displacement prob- lem. On the other hand, there’s no paucity of submissions to AMA. Problem is to weed out the lesser layouts end what’s left is too fre- quently insufficient to meet AMA requirements. PILOT FILM DUE FOR HOLLYWOOD BUILDUP With three or four of the film studios now fully cooperating, the American Broadcasting Co. expects to have a pilot of its Hollywood tv series ready for showing within 10 days, according to Robert Weit- man, ABC v.p. Series was planned as a mutual project with the Motion Picture Assn, of America and has bogged down at various stages, mainly due to the unavailability of stars. Modesty By Tape Production Code Adminis- tration demanded 136 cuts in Howard Hughes’ “The Outlaw” when made 10 years . ago. Hughes balked -at any scissor- ing, and PCA finally approved the pic anyway. As related by Look mag in a recent issue, Hughes came up with 4,000 stills from other pictures, each showing more of other ac- tresses than was revealed by, Jane Russell in “Outlaw.” The airman also produced a university mathematician who, armed with calipers and tape measure, proved Miss Rus- sell’s modesty as compared with other well endowed femme players on the screen. Berlin, Berle Top Talent At D. C. Scribes’ Ike Feed Washington, March 2. Milton Berle and Irving Berlin top the talent list for the annual dinner of the White House Corres- pondents Association to the Presi- dent Saturday night (6) which Is being arranged for the newsmen by ASCAP, whose toppers will be present for the dinner. Also listed to entertain are the McGuire Sisters, and Jaye P. Mor- gan. Berle, it’s understood, will bring one or two acts from his NBC show. He is to emcee the per- formance. English Aids Red Probe Hollywood, March 2, Richard English, writer and ra*- dio producer, has been subpoenaed to appear before the House Un- American Activities Committee in Chicago on May 2 as a friendly witness in connection with his anti- communist NBC air shfiw, “Last Man Out.” On a recent program, English interviewed Helen Wbods Birnie, former Commie organizer, about Red infiltration in the midwest farming districts. , March 2. William Farter, a security an- alyst at Strategic Air, Command headquarter^ here, last week loos- ened a blast at the motion pic biz In general and ?0th Century-Fox in particular as a highlight of the Omaha Freedom Fonim. Parker, a civilian whose SAC assignment, is to check on Com- munists In the country, cited ex- amples of the way pro-Commies can influence what the public sees on stage and screen. “How many shows have you seen recently in which Stalin or Malen- kov have been, caricatured like they used to do Hitler?”' he asked. “They have been rare. How long has it been since you have seen a take-off on a smirking commissar?” Parker, former FBI agent, then related how BclmeiLaywiJr/^nvriter of “Twelve O’clock High ” was blocked by a20th Century-Fox big- wig in an, antl-Communist script about a Soviet atoriT bomber. The plot in brief, according to Parker, was this: American intelligence officers learned that something unusual was going on in Siberia. Chiang Kai-Shek supplied a submarine which took a landing party to Si- beria to investigate. It was learned the Russians had'Built a plane that looked like ’a B-29~and were man- ning it with men in American uni- forms. They planned to load it with an atom boipb and send it to South Korea. There it would swing to- ward North Kprea, would meet a flight of MiG’s' ahd be shot down. The resulting blast would give the Russians the propaganda claim that the United States .had tried to drop the atom bomb. However since the film had to have a happy ending, the submarine would shoot down the bomber as it was* taking off from Siberia. Parker declared Lay submitted his script to the Department of De- fense and it was. cleared. Then he took it to his Studio, 20th Century- (Continued on page 63) McCarthy TV Opens Brit. Eyes to U.S. Witchhunts; ‘Rosy PinkBlush’ to Pix London, March 2. A film record of a Senator Mc- Carthy Ihquiry shown to British audiences via BBC-TV in the “Americans at Home” series, pro- voked a strong reaction in the London press last week. The pro- grams are prepared by Aida Crew- ley, a former Labor M. p; and one- time junior minister in the Labor government. The Liberal News Chronicle headlined its frontpage story, "This Was Not Very Pretty,” and its columnist, James Thomas, thought it “hard to believe that one was watching an everyday event in the public life of a democ- racy. It is one thing to read about the witchhunt and another to see it at close quarters. Maybe it was out of context, maybe it is dif- ficult for us to understand Amer- ica’s point of view. The fact re- mains that last night’s piece of television was enough to make the black and white screen blush a rosy pink.” The Dally Herald, official Labor sheet, commented that British televiewers were able to see what a McCarthy witchhunt really means. The Senator, described as “handsome and swarthy,” did not rant. His voice wag a low, relentless monotone. The Conservative Daily Mail described the program as disturb- ing. They said it emphasized painfully the dilemma of our times—how to preserve freedom in a democracy when its enemies are using democratic institutions to destroy those institutions. Al- though the feature was disturbing, the Mail columnist, Peter Black, considered it the most stimulating in the series so far. The film televised dealt with the investigation of Reed Harris, a government official who was be- ing examined on a book written m 1932 attacking commercialism m