Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, November 3, 1954 PSSSnPF ? vaudeville 49 1 Several top niteries have let it he known that their, premises would be available for telecasts oh the Colgate . “Comedy Hour,” Sun- days over NBC-TV. Niteries ire equally interested in. the piece of change that would accrue to them hy the sponsor, as they, are in the national advertising that they would get foi^free. Tlie subtle pitches have been niade both to talent agencies and to the Ted Bates Advertising Agen- cy ever since the N.Y. Latin Quar- ter went on the tele with a portion of their show. According to the pitches that have been advanced, a lot of cafes in many cities are anx- ious to go network for an evening. Most of the spots with chorus lines are especially desirous Of get- ting into the video act; One of the needs for the show is ample pro- duction. Should lines be brought i , prospective customers would be given ah erroneous impression of the type of show at the cafe and the tele show therefore Would do lore ultimate harm than good. Video advertising of the Latin Quarter and the N.Y. Blue. Angel lias increased gates at these spots considerably, They Have alsO added to their, institutional prestige in tlie hipterlainds. The Anger had no 'line, but presented its intime for- mat on a CBS-TV series during the sum Murray, Weinger has been trying to get a ca'mera crew into the.Copa City,: /Miami Beach. The talent agencies have: also been asked to get the. networks interested in sev- eral nightclubs. It’s reported that the Latin Quarter got a mi imum $15,000 for the use of its name. The immediate financial return is seemingly hefty enough to pay 'off , lot of outstanding bills, but the gravy is expected to come later be- cause of the institutional ads the, spot jfcts bn the teleshow. Boston, Nov. 2. Although the Hub’s Mayor Hynes sounded, what was to all intents and purposes the deathknell 6$ the Old Howard several weeks ago, an- nouncing that he would oppose any application/ for a license to reopen the spot, he really pulled the rug last; week with the announcement that the famed burley house would be taken over by the city and torn down to make room for 4 parking cage. While the plan has not as yet been officially okayed, hearings start next week' and it’s expected there will be no serious opposition. Also included in the proposed plan i# the razing of the adjacent Scollay Square Olympia, once an important yaude house, which , has, been shuttered for about three ■years. Lederer’s Quickie O’Seas Hop on German Talent 0.0. Hans Lederer made one of the fastest .trips to. Europe in. local show biz history last week. Led-, erer, who is in the New York branch of the Lew & Leslie Oracle Agency of London, re- ceived a call from London on Fri- day (22), asking him to look' at an act playing the Krone Circus in Nurnberg, Germany, for possible representation in the U. S, Lederer planed out that /riing, saw the. act the' following day, spent Sunday in Paris, Mon- day in the London homeoffice and Was back at his desk on Tuesday. It cost the# office more than $1,000 to learn that it wasn’t prac- tical to import the act, the Cairo- lis, into the U. S. at this time, al- though it was worth keeping them in mind for a special situation. Transportation plus salary, of the 3 2-people-nine-horses act would put a prohibitive price tag on it. However, agency will play Krone’s Tigers in the U. S. next year.. KEY'S COAST DATES San Francisco, Nov. 2. Brent Wilson !of the Frisco MCA office has set Alvino Rey for two Weeks in Fack’s, on Market St., opening Friday (5). On Nov., 29 Bey> opens at the peLiixe Club in Eureka, Cal., for three weeks. 100G Fire at Mpls. Bistro; 8G Orch Equipment Goes Minneapolis, Nov. 2. Fire that gutted Vic’s, one of the Loop’s leading niteries, causing the bistro $100,000 damage, also de- stroyed $8,000 worth of equipment belonging to “Big Jay” McNeely’s orchestra, which was playing there. Loss included orchestra instru- ments, 30 suits, music and other items. Starting hi of the club’s basement dressing rooms,, blaze de- stroyed the'entire building, hous- ing nine other establishments, for a total loss of more than $750,000,. Fire necessitated the cancella- tion of Herbie Fields’ orchestra. Scheduled to open at Vic’s Nov. 15. Chicago Nov; 2 Balaban & Katz is announcing postively that stageghows will b ; e/ resumed at the / Chicago Theatre this season as' soon as “Star Is Born” rounds out its current solo run. House is now in process of booking a show for the Christmas ■holidays and may be seeking an earlier one as soon as “Star” shows signs of quitting. It’s understood a Thanksgiving show is being mulled if pic continues bn its pres- ent weekly decline. Future of stageshows at the house, B&K toppers let on, is practically assured as long as they Continue to pay off. Past year has been extraordinarily good for the house with attractions like Crew Cuts, Howard Miller and McGuire Sisters fetching unexpectedly lush results. When “Star” was booked sans stageshow, the management never committed itself on a permanent straight pic policy but said it 1 would follow such a plan if it were feasible, MEMPHIS SLIPPER SOLD; BIG FACELIFT PLANNED Memphis, Nov. 2. Silver Slipper, Memphis’ only frontline nitery, was sold this week to Philip Belz, furniture manufac- turing tycoon here.. Belz bought the Slipper from. Tommy. Dickens of this bity i a straight un- announced cash deal. 0 Nitery >waS one of this section’s .tops during the ’30s and attracted 1 elite of area with name talent j.Club is. located about 12 miles from downtown Memphis. Belz said that a. complete facelifting job is on the agenda, with plans to book top name talent for weekly floor shows. Club now operates with a local band in session. Query Big Tourer Draw With-Biggest Show’Fold Question of how many super- shows can be supported the road again became a major topic of discussion around talent agen- cies with the Toldo Saturday (30) in Des Moines of “The Biggest Show of 1955 ” Illnesses .of Peggy Lee l and Pete Rugolo were ostensibly the reasons for the collapse, but the layout at the. outset hit three, days of bad. Weather as a gift of Hurricane Haze! and never recov- ered from the blow. The various name and jazz units, generally, haven’t done so well on the road as they did last season. In the first place, there have been a ‘lot of them. Then; competition of the many, type large tourers, in- cluding icers, has cut down the Coin available to each show, “Biggest Show” had two more weeks of scheduled stands. Miss Lee Was willing to go along, pro-, viding she had a respite from tour- ing and Would play the dates later in the season; However, it was felt that it would be better to halt the toiir. • Skedded for Houston Houston, Nov. 2. A new $2,000,000 country club will be built here by Abe Jamail, dinner club operator. Named “Lost Horizon,” the club will be located on a 142-acre site, with lounges, cocktail areas, dining and dance floors. There will be a house band on tap 1 seven days a week and a name band once, a month. Hollywood, Nov. 2. Jack Benny, whose local per- sonal appearances in the last sev- eral years have been confined to such things as the Friars Frolic, will probably do a three-week vau- date at. the new Huntington Hart- ford Theatre here next February. Deal, now near the inking stage, would have Benny bring in a pack- aged show, much like the one he has taken on .the road in the past ■Tor dates in San Francisco and New York, among other places. Richard Skinner, managing di- rector of' the theatre, heads for New York tonight (Tues.) to settle, other booking deals which will de- termine the Benny date. Skinner wants to bring in a new produc- tion of. “Macbeth,” starring Mau- rice Evans and 'Judith Anderson, around mid-January, with Benny to follow, . Skinner also plans to finalize a deal to book the national, company of “Pajama Game” into the thea- tre early next spring. Mitchell’s North Britain Date Cues New Market Carlisle, Eng., Oct. 26. A potential market for U.S. vaude stars may be opened up . as ! a result of a visit here Nov. 8 by I Guy Mitchell. American singer Will i top a vaude show at the Lonsdale -j..'Theatre, where normal' film pro- gram will give way to live fodder for six days. Carlisle is a prosperous noirth-of- England city almost on the Eng- land-Scotland border, and has been starved for star, vaude acts.; Top price for ; the Mitchell week is $1.20. Joe Ahtmari will accompany the singer, and supporting acts in- clude the George Mitchell Singers, Chris Sands, Norman & Niki Grant; Harry Bailey, Vera Cody & Horse, Downey & Daye and ventriloquist Tattersall. ' Lonsdale Theatre is part of the Associated Cinemas circuit. Fraday to N.Y. to Finalize Deals for New Lido Show; Package Set for S.A. Tour Paris, NoV. 2: Rene Fraday, co-producer of the Lido and Bal Tabarin nitery shows with Pierre-Louis Guerin, heads for New York today (2) to finalize deals for the U. S. aspects of the new Lido show,. “Desires,” which begins Dec. 16. Fraday will also arrange for both, hew pop musife and possibly some original music While there. He returns with Don Arden, the dance director, Nov. 12 and goes into rehearsal immedi- ately. Lido will close down, in spite of solid biz, for the first two weeks in December to widen the stage for a new'’effect to be called the Lidorama. House will still have the runway, but for the big spec numbers the two orchs will slide back to either side of the new en- larged stage and both the stage and runway will be utilized. Blue- bell Girls will be brought up to a 24 line instead of the previous 18, and there Will eight Gallic nudes for the spice counterparts. IT. S. acts are the Arnaut Bros; (2) who appeared at the Lido two years ago, Sid Krofft and his pup- pets, Dijon Ice Skaters (2) singer Glen Buris, George Matson and his record mime interps of famed personages, Paul Steffens Dancer*. (8), plus four chorus hoys. Nego- tiations are also on for the Borrah Mine.vitch Harmonica Rascals (8). Among the foreign acts are The Bruxellos (2). Desire will be the theme of the spec numbers with the .various yens paced oiit by the Cast., Spec-will be changed every year in December from how on. Guerin and Fraday are also pack- aging a deal called “One Night At The Paris Lidp” for an eight- month toiir of South America starting ih April,* *55: It will play houses and be made up of old Lido numbers. Work will start on refurbishing the Bail Tabarin, in Pigalle, in De- cember and it is expected to open for: Easter in April, '55. Show will be called “Vive Montmartre’’ and be completely in the Gallic tradi- tion, without a . word of English. It will give a tourist-eye view of Paris, such as the Beaux Arts Bali, a day at the. couturiers, an art class With nude models, etc. Fra- day hopes, to get Gwen Verdon to star and build the show around her. Meccano aspects will be utilized to the. full, such as a plexiglass swimming pool, full of nudes, as opposed to. the Lido ice, and things coming from the ceil- ing oi\ from the floor with the side panels 1 also in as of yor 3 ‘ Board members Frank Richard- son and Mae Daniels, and former eastern regional director Dick Jones, were placed under suspen- sion by the American Guild of Variety Artists’ national board at the three-day confab of the group at the Henry Hudson Hotel, N. Y., last' week. Jones, wlio resigned after lead- ing a revolt in the union, is al- leged to have received aid and comfort from board members Richardson and Miss Daniels. In Jones* case, he holds a life membership conferred, upon him by the national convention, last year. Only a convention can re- move him from the roster of life members. The suspension puts him on the freeze, until his life- card is cancelled, The others were invited to dis- prove tli charges leveled at them. Miss Daniels was the only one to show up. It had been ar- rangedthat Paul Dullzell referee: the hearing, but the prexy of the Associated Actors & Artistes of America wasn’t unable to appear «ori the first day. , Miss Daniels didn't care to wait around and walked out. The major surprise of the meet was a telegram . received from Richardson, a board member, from Philadelphia, asking, the body to forgive him for his defection. Wire stated that he had seen the error of aiding Jones and had broken with him. He asked the body for its pardon, arid will have to face a hearing at a later date. + The American Guild of Variety Artists, in a three-day meeting last week at the; Henry Hudson Hotel, N.Y., really got down, to cases. The • organization, at. its lowest; financial point in many years, was sobered into one of its most successful meetings with the resignation of its national, counsel, Silverstone & Rosenthal, early in the confab. An attempt by one board member to. shrug it off was followed by series of sincere expressions of regret. The hordes of job-seekers who are actively looking for paid posi- tions didn’t get any. The union showed respect: for its impoverished state. As. a matter of fact, it’s gen- erally rumored that the union had to go to the bank to horroyv suffi- cient coin to hold this riieeting. The jobs of assistant administra- tive secretary; Coast regional .di- rector recently vacated by Eddie Rio, who became entertainment di- rector for the soon-to-be-opened Royal Nevada Hotel, Las Vegas, and Dick Jones, who resigned AGVA to go into, business for him- - seelf by founding a rival union, plus that of national counsel, were left open. Savings to the union will be considerable; . The first attempt at job-filling was made with an effort to have president, Jackie Bright put into the assistant administrative post.* The spirit of the meeting didn’t permit this to be done and the matter was dropped. However, it was agreed that Bright would serve without pay while national admin- istrative Secretary Jack Irving took an eight-week leave without pay The union stood firm in its has- sle with the American Federation of Musicians over jurisdiction of musical acts. Feeling was that to give in to the AFM invited fur- ther aggression from the musicians. The board voted not to return to the 1950 agreement that it had with the tooters, A major accomplishment of the confab was the voting of a resolu- tion to consolidate all regulations into a rule book to- be mailed to the members. Work had been done on this for some years, but job had never been completed. The . meeting also voted to be self-insuring. They had been pay- ing premiums to the Union Labor and Life insurance. Co. on a group policy giving each paid-up member $500 at the time, of his death. So far, premiums f§r outweighed the benefits. They will attempt to save coin by issuing their own f orm of insurance to the membership. H Press was barred from the pro- ceedings. PITCH TO CANTINFLAS FOR US. AREN AS, TELE Mercury Artists Corp., N. Y., Is \ negotiating with the top Mex comic, Cantinflas (Mario Moreno), for a series of U. S. appearances on television and. in arenas. It’S planned to play the Mex comic for two nights at Madison Square Gar- den. N. Y., and thence for a seizes of one-niters, i Chicago arid Los Angeles. No dates have .been set. Cantinflas, currently working on a film, has never played the U. S, previously, although he has been asked to work this country oh a concert ‘ H. B. Cantor on Board Of AGVA Welfare Fund Hi B. Cali tor, president of the Carter hotel chain, has been named to the board of trustees of the American Guild of Variety Artists Welfare Trust Fund. He will rep- resent the employers’ side of the panel along with Nick Prounis, who owns the Versailles, N. Y., in conjunction with Arnold Rossfield, and Nat Abramson, of the WQR Artists Bureau. Remai ing as representatives of the union are Rabbi Bernard Bir- stein, of the Actors' Temple, N. Y.; David Ferguson, of the Jewish The- atrical Guild, and former Congress- man William F. Brunner, Jonas T. Silverstone & Morti- mer S. Rosenthal have resigned as national cdunsel of the American Guild' of Variety Artists after 13-year.. rUn. Announcement was made at the union’s national board meeting last week at the Henry Hudson Hotel, N. Y. It’s the Sec- ond time that the attorneys have tendered their resignation, first having been made- at he Boston convention, about a year-and-a-half ago; but delegates persuaded them to remain. The attorneys have been instru- mental, in writing the present AGVA constitution, which re- stored elections and eliminated one-mian title under which the un- ion was governed for many years. Attorneys also blocked an attempt to make^tbe union a junior sub- sidiary of ActoijpEquity. They authored the present constitution,, the various forms which ai’e being used as agency agreements and employment contracts, and were instrumental in forming the pres- ent AGVA /Welfare Trusteeship. They will still be associated with the welfare fund, Attempt was made at the meet- ing by several delegates to persu- ade Silverstone & Rosenthal to re- main with the union, but they re- fused to go along. SPIKE $5,550, DENVER Denver, Nov. 2. 4n a one-night stand at the Muny Auditorium, With 2.785 seats and a $3.60 top, Spike Jones and his group* came near to filling the place, doing a big $5,550, Booked i by Hazef M. Ober- felder.