Variety (November 1954)

MISCELLANY Wednesday, November 3, 1954 By BILL DOLL With no advance fanfare from the press or treatment from the local critical fraternity, a fullscafe musical played for three near-ca- pacity performances at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, N, Y., last week (28-30). .. In spite Of its quiet arrival, credits in the playbill attested the .involvement of as many show biz rofessionais as any major Broad- way attraction could possibly boast: settings and lighting by Jo Miel- ziner, costumes by Alvin. Colt, dances directed by "Pajama Game's!’ Carol Haney, musical di- rection by Sherman prank, and. choral arrangements, by > Fred War- ihg’s Don Craig. The. director is Max Hodge and the production manager Peter Lawrence. The name of this unsung ex- travaganza is "1,000 and One,” arid stars—according to the pro- gram-—are the 1955 "Rocket” Olds- mobiles. In the. slot for second billing ‘ Richard Eastham, who last sang in the Ezio Pinza role, in the national company of “South Pacific.” Of the supporting com- pany of 35 singers, dancers and actors, all have substantial Broad- WALDORF'S DANDRIDGE SOS On an SOS call, songstress Dorothy Dandridge is hurriedly re- furbishing her nitery act for a stand at ’the Waldorf-Astoria Ho- tel. N. Y., next Thursday (ID. . She’s replacing Patachou. French chanteuse is currently bedded in Fi ance with influenza arid won’t be able to make the ‘ pre-booked Waldorf date. way cr< “l.OQO and One” is what is known as an "announcement” show produced exclusively for the bene- fit of the nation’s Oldsmobile deal- ers to acquaint them with the merits of the company’s new models.. It is the largest of about eight dealer productions which are now staged annually by industrial firms in behalf of direct sales Stimulation. To say that some 5,000 theatre (Continued on page 18) LAWYERS FOR‘FANNY- SAY FELDMAN USURPS Law firm of Fitelson & Mayers went on the warpath against film producer Charles K. Feldman last j .week, demanding in a letter, to-the I Motion Picture Assn, of America j that it "nullify and void” Feld- man’s registration' of the titles "Fanny” and “The Fabulous Fanny” or "any other titles bear- ing the name ‘Fanny.’ ” f Letter to the MPA A- was writr ten on behalf of its clients, Fanny Go., Joshua Logan,. Harold Rome and David Merrick. They're all connected with legit turier "Fanny” due Broadway tomorrow (Thurs.), Reacting to a report of the Feld- t Continued on page 62) General Motors will present the largest business closed - circuit meeting yet offered on Nov, 23 with a hookup of 65 cities, 51 via television and 14 receiving the au- dio only at civic luncheois through-; out the country. Telesessions, the commercial-meeting subsidiary of Nate ; Halpern’s Theatre Network Television, is handling the event for GM. Occasiori marks the celebration by GM of the manufacture of its 50,000,OOOIji car in the United States. Both the telecast arid the radio portion of the video 'will be piped to hotels from coast to coast Where GM dealers, staffers, and civic officials will gather. The 50. new General Precision tv projectors recently purchased by TNT will get their first airing for the GM show. It’s understood that GM’s insistence on the latest equipment prompted TNT to make the investment on the new units which are specially designed for hotel use. RCA Service Co. has been signed to supervise the in- stallation and to service the pro- jectors. Included in the lirieup of cities are seven which have been reached for the first time by direct AT&T lines. The audio outlets will be in ( Continued on page 34) Hope Leads U.S. Stars In Royal Command Click London, Nov. 2 . ROyal Command vaude perform- ance at the Palladium Monday .Cl),, although faced with ah'overabun- dance of-talent, came off very well/ Bob Hope held the final 20-minute spot, filling, half of it solo and re- mainder with a television sketch. Apart from a. few new gags, the comic mainly used material from his previous Palladium stint, but the act proved a solid laughmaker arid was enthusiastically received. Howard Keel, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine clicked ip individual vocal spots, each with a trio* of top i hits. Noel Coward and the Crazy Gang earned the top ovation, among the local contingent, former using sophisticated cabaret material and the Gang doing typical boisterous comedy; .Norman Wisdom scored in a production number from the Palladium revue. Jack Hylton re- turned. from New York today (MOri.) to appear in a sketch with Harry Green, the. Crazy Gang and other local artists.. Hope, Laine, Mitchell and Keel were among 15 performers pre- sented to Queen Elizabeth. HORACE HEIDT Bo* 472 . Nuys, California *»»♦♦»♦♦»♦»»♦»»» By Frank Scully Writers Guild of America, East, yesterday (Tues,) finalized a double slate Of executive officers nnd coun- cil members. At ..the sarrie time the new union made it clear that those Who until lately were active foes (key members of the defunct Tele- vision; Writers of America) are pot eligible for office. Voting will take place in N. Y. during the week of December 13. The nine-man WGA East Pomi-^ nating committee wrote a ballot with two men for each of the three top executive posts, president,, vice- president and secretary-treasurer, arid a slate of 32 nominees for council jobs out. of which 16 mem- bers will be - elected. Successful candidates will remain in office until next May. , Proposed for prexy were- Erik (Continued ori page.62) RULE VERSUS REDS . Hollywood, Nov, 2. The new Writers Guild of America-West lias before it an amendment to its constitution un- der which membership would be denied any individual who was either an* avowed Communist or who refused to answer the $64 question before a Congressional committee. Amendment comes up for a vote here Nov, 17. Any writer who had been a member of the Party, but who re- canted would he exempt from any penalty. Renriiniscences of One Who Eye witnessed the Debacle Among Showmen Stranded in Paris By ABEL GREEN It was just 25 years ago last week that the stock market, went j boom and Claude Binyon, a bash- j ful boy reporter at the time, came I up with the since-fdmous Variety headline* "Wall Street Lays An -Egg.” Nobody has ever charted the might-have-been of show biz; if the Subscription Order Form Enclosed find check for $ Please send VARIETY Year*. 11/3 To Street City-....... • •• *»••»••••••• # (Pleas* Print Nam*) Zone.... State. . Regular Subscription Ratos One Year^S 10.00 Two Years—-$18.00 Canada and Foreign—$1 Additional per Year f^KIETY Inc. 154 West 44th Street New York 34, N. Y, market had not broken wide open. How many producers and actors were then, and might still be, mil- lionaires? The facts by now can hardly be separated from the myths. The losses were agonizing enough, but undoubtedly gained in tbe telling. It was swankier to go broke double or triple. This Variety hand viewed the Wall Street crash from a curious vantage point—Paris. It was the year that he. went, ori Assignment from. Sirne Silverman, to organize the European foreign news service of this jburrial, a system which has ever since staled in an interna- tional flavor to these pages. What stands out, quarter of a century later, is the hectic picture of . a Paris full of stranded showfolk, un- able to get back to New York in time to cover their margi , riot knowing how complete might be the wreckage of their forturies. Most vivid is the scene in H. Hentz & Co.’s Paris brokerage branch on the rue Cainbon, oppo- site the Ritz, and at the Banque de Saint-Phalle, on the ChampS- Elysees, which did the* bulk of the Yank showmen’s Franco-American trading. Glued to the stock board Were showmen like Winnie (Win- 1 field R.) Sheehan, A1 Woods, (Continued on page 62) Palm Springs, To live and fight another day, I’ve run away. The smog, fog, grog and hog-eat-hog that is destined to make L,A. a bigger gas chamber than Dachau was after me; So I retreated to a previously prepared position, as the military say. In my case, as often in'theirs, I didn’t prepare it. It was prepared for me. Those who prefer to gamble on a grind policy and. triink that a nitery is something that operates 24 hours a day have left Palm Springs for Las Vegas. It was kind of them, for it meant, that this village has changed from the Coney Island of the Mojave to a beau- tiful haven for the family trade-—those who want their kids as well as themselves to sit' it out in the sun a little longer. Jerry Nathanson, handsomest member of the city council, now that Charlie Farrell has become the Prometheus of "Margie,” found jrist the place for us. The owner liked children, pets and people in that order* We passed as pets of our kids. The first thing I noticed was that a hand, a beautiful hand, was imprinted in cement at the driveway. The cement slab looked if it had been lifted from the front court of Grauman’s Chinese/ It bore the initials "M.C.” I examined it With a spyglass Conan Doyle had willed to me. Then I called in an, operative of the FBI (Film Booking. Institute); Between us We decided it couldn’t stand for "master of ceremonies” because it wats a feminine hand. The job. was to cherchez la fentime. As we wandered through the villa, I kept looking for signs of the owner. It was a beautiful place,, but for a woman’s home seemed singularly lacking in mirrors.- In fact there weren’t any, %gave i the medicine chests. The Great M.C. Mystery Solved Then, in a cupboard, I stumbled on a giant economy-sized scrap-- book. Pictures of a beautiful doll tumbled out of it. They were photographs of Marguerite Chapman. That solved the ‘‘M.C.” mystery. Her Absence Was explained by • the fact that she had gone back to Hollywood to scratch her way through "The Seven Year Itch” and from there into tv. . At the end of that time ,1 was only beginning to put the parts of trie Chapinan mosaic together. For instarice, that lack of mirrors. Mirrors are for models arid actresses when at Work, in her opinion. She looked hard and long at. herself ori such occasions and advised young girls to do the same, to study their posture. "But never look in one when anyone is around,” she added. Then I ran across a letter dated Sept. 12, 1951. It was from A1 Capp. Enterprises. .. “Dear Miss Chapman; it ran, "we are* delighted that you have joined the A1 Capp Fan Club. Triank you for the quarter; A1 Capp’s picture is enclosed. For a dollar, you can have a picture of Mr. Capp in *a bathing Suit.”. It had a typed signature of Li’I Abner but actually was signed in ink with an. X. This seemed sort of sappy till later I ran across Miss Chapman at a costume ball. Her partner was dressed as Li’l Abner, she as Abner’s buxom sweetie. Her partner was Greg Bautzer, vyho looked better in this part than he does in court. But that son-of-a-gun, Capp. A buck Of him; in a bathing*, suit! At most it should be half a buck since, like me, he has only one leg. The first phoney story about her related how she is alleged to have crashed her way into pictures. According to the AP (the UP will love this!) she Was coming down the steps into the living room of a Hollywood party, intent on making a grand, entrance. But like a Cinderella whose slippers Were too large for, her, she stumbled.. Right into the arms of a producer. Arid who was the producer? Howard Midas Hughes! In tennis shoes, no doubt. ' " As a child she was a toinboy raised in Chatham, N. Y., a faubourg of "White Plains, which in itself is no metropolis. She was a skinny, athletic chick With a Dutch bob and freckles! She had four brothers/ With them she played all the sport?, jumped fences instead of walk- ing to the gates, and even boxed until it became obvious to others, if not to her, that lumps were appearing Where, none had appeared be- fore and they weren’t caused by body punches because they never went away to this day. . She Was a great kid for earning pin money. She held jobs as a babysitter at 10, Later she did typing in the highschool office, &he five-and-dimed during Christmas holidays! She even worked as a milliner’s assistant until she found out. there was more money in wear- ing hats than designing them. When she, finished highschool she got a Job as a hello, girl and worked up to the long distance board. ("Call Operator 36 at. White Plains.”) By then she Was a„perfect 36 for the part and five feet seven inches tall; weight, 123/ She saved her money and took a course in modeling clothes. Trained now as a mannequin she pitched for a job With the John Bowers agency* Her height got her the job. That and her perfect posture. She landed five assignments her first day. By the time Powers told her she would soon be worth $100 ,a week to the agency,, she was mak- ing $250 on outside assignmerits. Not Big Enough For "The Outlaw” Then she saw all th§ whoopadoop George McCall, an old Variety iriugg, was making in an attempt to find a new "face” to star in How- ard Hrighes’ (I told you we’d get to him in time) idea of What con- stituted the attributes for thri moll of an outlaw. She wangled a screen- test. This looked promising. Hughes ordered his Now York office to send her west for further testing. P.S,: She didn’t get the job. She wasn’t big enough for the part, so it went to Jane Russell, who at the time couldn't act either. She then tested aL Warner’s for the hillbilly sweetheart of Sgt Alvin York, the Audie Murphy of World War I. P.S : She didn’t get. that one either. Next she tested for "Tiilie the Toiler” at Columbia. They okayed her and then dropped, the picture from the year’s product. Fortunately for Model Maggie, Charlie Eirifeld, at that time War-, her’? publicity chieftain, thought he could help Navy enlistmapts -and Warners pix by collecting some cuties under the fetching title of the "Navy Blues Sextet,” None could sing or dance jnrt they looked aw- fully cute in shorts anfr gold-braided officers’ caps; Marguerite Chap- man, who could pose at the drop of a sawbuck, became a member of these land-based water babies, Ariother was Alexis Smith, The rest have been lost to history. Because she posed and photographed so fetchingly, it didn't look as if Maggie the Marvelous Model would ever escape from the realm of casekuchen and leg art. But she slugged at learning to act in her off hours. Indeed, she worked so hard at it that her intimates dropped "Chappie” and "Maggie” as nicknames arid called her "Slugger.” But her height and imperial beauty made it hard to cast her as "the little woman,’’ the wronged orie. The best casting directors could do . was pick her for "the other woman;” This werit on until one day Bill Seiter decided to take a chance and gave her her first starring role. It was in "Destroyer,” with Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford arid Larry Parks. She was cast as Eddie’s daughter. He looked up to her and remarked/’ I must have had a pretty tall wife.” . On another occasion she . was luckier. She got Fred MacMurray as her leading mari in "Pardon My Past.” The first day cin the set she handed hirn a picture. It was one of himself, which he had auto- graphed to her when she was a teenager. "Hope you go far in your career,” he had written. ■ . . But 15 years intervened between those torch-carrying scenes. And that’s how stars are borne.