Variety (December 1954)

Wednesday, December 8, 1954 LITERATI 61 Literati Loss of $1,000,000 Printing Bill Reader s Digest will not renew its $ 1 , 000,000 printing contract vith Rumford Press in Concord, H according to J. Richard Jackman, president of the firm, but he said the action would have no immediate effect on Rumford’s payroll or volume of business. The magazine’s new policy of earning advertising will be largely responsible for terminating the contract, because Rumford is not equipped to handle this phase of the work. Jackman said. Rumford has been printing 50% of the domestic issue of the Digest, the remainder being handled by the McCall plant in Dayton, Ohio. Although the Digest is still Rum- ford’s largest single printing order, it represents only one-seventh of the firm’s total volume of business. The current contract expires in June. Double Life for ‘Omnibus’ CBS-TV’s “Omnibus,” Sunday 90-minuter of the TV-Radio Work- shop of the Ford Foundation, hung up some sort of record in Life When that mag ran two layouts of the show within three weeks. First one in late November was of com- poser-batonist Leonard Bernstein in a podium lecture on Beethoven’s Fifth Symph. Second (current) treats the Jean Girardoux satire, “The Virtuous Island.” The 1-2 punch reportedly stemmed from individualized team- work. with “Omnibus” press rep Jack Perlis handling the Bernstein end and the web on the picket line for “Island.” Garroway’s Toy Pitch Combining a worthwhile charity drive with the general functions of public relations reps, the New York p.r. outfit of Barkas & Shalit has come up with “Operation Santa Claus,” a nationwide toy drive to be sponsored by 'the Loyal Order of the Moose and headed up by Dave Garroway, who incidentally, is a B&S client. Campaign aims at collecting new and undamaged used toys for distribution to under- privileged children on or before Christmas day. Moose, with some 1,700 male lodges and 1,300 femme chapters, comprising a total membership of 1.200,000, will conduct the cam- paign on a local level, using posters ol Garroway at all collection points. Moose will also plug Gar- roway in their magazine (circula- tion 875,000). Garroway in return will plug the drive on his NBC-TV “Today” show and his radio “Fri- day With Garroway” segment. Meanwhile, campaign has resulted in two stories in Coronet, one in the November issue announcing the drive, and a second this month, a byline piece by Garroway about his favorite Christmas story, with full credits to NBC and his shows. Everybody happy? planter, shepherd, a porter, an office boy, a tramp, a jack-of-all- trades and a singer. Of the novels, over three-quarters of them are laid in France, and half have a very pronounced autobiographical flavor. Also, 26% of the heros are writers and 26% of the books take place in the author’s own part of France. Of the publishers the two big- gies, Gallimard and Juillard, pub- lish about 100 of the books be- tween them. Usual printing of a novel of a young author is about 3,000 and average hardly sells over 1,000, but a hit touches 200,000, and one bonanza can make up for the other lags. The various liter- ary prizes handed out every year are counted on by the pubs to make that big one. General con- sensus among French crix is that the novel is in an artistic decline, since quantity has taken prece- dence over quality, and the mass production necessary has clouded the more reserved judgment of most pubs. Prizes also swell out- put and in many cases crown un- deserving works. articles and opinions by the fore- most‘practitioners today. After a historical survey of the pop song, it goes into names of j present-day cleffers and singers, and has valuable interviews with Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Charles Trenet and Catherine Sauvage on their methods of work and song choices. It also encompasses the song in literature and poetry and has a fine glossary of leading chant- ers here. It makes a good addition for the libraries of all music biz people and is profusely illustrated. This series also contains an in- formative survey on films. VIosk. Bookmen On A Binge Sixth annual presentation of the National Book Awards is to be held Jan. 25 at the Commodore Hotel in New York with Sen. William Fulbright (Dem., Ark.), sponsor of the Fulbright scholarships, as speaker, and Clifton Fadiman as emcee. Committee of five judges for each of the three categories— fiction, non-fiction and poetry—are scheduled to meet early in January to make their selections. Book Award Committee, arrang- ing the event, has scheduled other meetings to give out-of-town visi- tors a change to get more out of their trip. Publishers Ad-Club will hold a panel session on Jan. 24, with a cocktail party to follow, and the Awards winners will be feted by their publishers with a dinner party on Jan. 25. Next day, the American Institute of Graphic Arts holds a luncheon on book design, and an informal party by the Na- tional Book Award committee the night of the 26th tops things off. Lou Ruppel’s Philly Post Louis Ruppel. former managing editor of the Chicago Times and one-time editor of Collier’s mag. has been named editor of the Phila- delphia Daily News. Ruppel, wRo “retired” in 1952, to become publisher of a country weekly, the Mill Valley Record. Calif., is disposing of that property to join the News. A native New Yorker, Ruppel also served as pub- licity director for the Columbia Broadcasting System. Wolfe Kaufman's Paris Detour Longtime boulevardier Wolfe Kaufman is back to the Paris scenes of his youth, when he was on the late Erskine Gwynne’s now defunct The Boulevardier and the Paris edition of the N. Y. Herald Tribune. Kaufman plans a long- time residence abroad “just to write.” Another Show Biz Book “My Life in Show Business” by Ida Adelaide Windisch (Vantage; $2) is a warm-hearted recollection by a smalltown girl who married her “daring young man on the fly- ing trapeze.” Written without literary pretensions, the slender volume illuminates an era when it was possible for two sisters to en- ter show biz by applying for chorus jobs at the Elite Theatre in Davenport, Iowa. ''The Famous Windisch Family” (C harles, Ida, Sonny and “Dainty Idamae, the Darling of the Air”) held stellar billing at midwestern county fairs and on smalltime va- riety stages for many years. Now, Charles and Ida live in retirement in Moline, 111. Sonny, a veteran of world War II, has abandoned the flying rings, and Idamae married out of the profession. This book will appeal to show- xolk not only for the memories it evokes of the “grouchbag circuit,” but also because it depicts a thor- oughly engaging American family able to carry on a career in the limelight while sending down per- manent roots in a typical American home town.” Down. French Year of Novels Among the 10 top Parisian book Publishers, *50 novels were pub- V<»o ed this y. ear - Of this number, , , 'vere either first or second works by beginners. Further sta- tisti cs show that 15% are women, jo o are between the ages of 25 to ZT' and 5% are under 25. Of the ovelists, 41% are professionals 3 ma Je their living at it, 16% are profess^, 1Q% lavvyerS( c vu service workers, 5% en- gineers and 2% doctors, other offbeat writers are a mer- iant of heating pads, a banana Nix 25VfeG Audubon Bid An offer of $25,500 for a rare set of books, Audubon’s “Birds of America,” has been nixed by the Paisley (Scotland) Library Com- mittee. Offer was made by Wil- liam H. Robinson Ltd., of London, on behalf of a client. Four-volume set was presented to the library in 1872 by Sir Peter Coats. Offer was rejected because it was felt so valuable a work should be retained in Scotland. Robinson recently paid $21,000 for another set sold at auction. Esther Tufty’s Dutch Treat Esther V. Tufty, Washington newswoman and Capitol corre- spondent for “Today,” NBC-TV show, said Friday (3) that she was going to The Netherlands as one of the permanent judges for "William the Silent” journalism awards. She will not telecast again until the New Year. An audience with Queen Juliana is on the schedule. Silliphant’s Novel Sterling Silliphant, ex-20th-Fox publicist, now independently pro- ducing “5 Against the House” (Guy Madison-Kim Novak) for Columbia Pictures, will have his first novel, “Maracaibo,” published next Feb- ruary by Farrar, Straus & Young. As the title indicates it has a Venezuela offshore oil - drilling background and will be Silliphant’s next indie film production. Joseph’s Travel Ed Aide Franklin Siriith, travel editor of the Miami News, will take out the initial lap of Richard Joseph's “third world tour,” starting Feb. 16. and the travel editor of Esquire will join up a month or so later. This is the three-month, conducted globetrot ($5,995 per head) which Joseph formerly handled solo. His Doubleday deadline writing commitments necessitate an extra month’s leeway, hence the idea of getting another travel editor to assist on the early stages of the junket. The Magic 13 “Magic from M-U-M,” Milboume Christopher’s 13th textbook ofJ trickery, will be published Dec. 15* The book describes 26 feats culled from M-U-M, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians, which Christopher edits. French Songs & Singers Editions Du Seuil of Paris has a neat new show biz edition in their series, Collection Peuple Et Cul- ture, which comes under the gen- eral heading of Regards Neufs Sur ...(New Look At...). This one is called La Chanson (The Song) and serves as a meaty handbook and guide to the pop song in France to- day. Edited by Pierre Balatier and Chris Marker, this 300-page soft- covered book sells for $2 and has a fund of background material on the origin of the song in France, attitudes towards the chant, andi CHATTER Irish Censorship Board has banned circulation of British fan mag, Picturegoer. Author James Hilton reported In serious condition at Seaside Hos- pital, Long Beach, Cal. New York Today Inc. chartered to conduct a printing and pub- lishing business in N. Y. City. Bob White has opened a writing and publicity office in Hollywood under name of Bob White & As- sociates. Jack House profiling vet cinema millionaire A. E. Pickard in Eve- ning News, Glasgow, series, “They Struck It Rich.” Houghton Mifflin’s Dale Warren sailed Monday (6) on the SS Cristoforo Colombo for a Medi- terranean holiday. Lester A. Walker, publisher of the Fremont (Neb.) Guide & Trib- une, last week purchased land there to build a new plant. A Christmas play by mag writer Richard G. Hubler, “The Hallowed Time,” will be put on by Ojai Art Center in Ojai, Cal. Dec. 22-23. Dublin Variety rep Maxwell Sweeney planed back from London after recording radio feature on Ealing Studios for Radio Eireann. Current (Dec. 11) issue of the Saturday Evening Post profiles Frankie Laine in “The Case of the Screaming Troubadour,” by Dean Jennings. The newspaper bunch, like the N. Y. Journal-American’s Louis Sobol, wondering about Arthur Murray’s usage of “Down Memory Lane” as the title of the dance impresario’s new book. Sobol pe- riodically does syndicated columns bearing that title. Goodwill trip by Mrs. America 1954 (Mrs. Wanda Jennings) floun- dered last week in Vienna after her manager, Bert Nevins, clashed with Vienna newsmen. Reporters claimed a standup when Mrs. Jen- nings didn’t show at a press con- ference, and resented Nevins’ sub- bing. Author-Raeenttur Bennett Cerf t««s much room for humor Who’s Complaining? There’s Plenty to Laugh at These Days * * * a bright byline piece in the forthcoming 49th Annivernary Number of PfcRlETY out soon Ku Klux Remake Worries Biz Continued from pace 7 and undisguised racial animosities of that era in the middle of the twentieth century following two world wars and unparalleled prog- ress in race relations can do little except to inflame the still unin- formed... The new film versions of this inflammatory novel cannot escape being regarded as an effort on the part of some group or groups to encourage the 1876 rather than the 1955 view of Negroes as American citizens and as a roadblock to the orderly and just attainment of rights.” Reflecting a more or less general opinion, Alfred Starr, largest op- erator of Negro theatres in the country, opined Monday (6) that, while “Birth” was a great picture, a remake along Griffith’s lines would be “obnoxious” to Negro pa- trons and to many whites alike. Seen reflecting Griffith’s own prejudices—he was born a South- erner—“Birth” has been described as “a passionate and persuasive avowal of the incurable inferiority of the Negro.” Every device in the picture is aimed at stressing obnoxious qualities of the Negro and at rousing audiences against colored people. Example is the scene where Lynch, the mulatto, Script Angle Vague Hollywood, Dec. 7. Dudley Nichols is not defi- nitely signed to adapt remake of “Birth of a Nation” for the Thal-Ryan syndicate. He thinks he’ll accept but has given no thought to date on how to han- dle the racial and social sensi- tivities implicit in the Dixon yarn. Ted Thai is sole owner of Thalco, largest manufacturer of fibre glass and plastics in the far west. It is believed here he is probably at or near the 92% tax bite and that this situation influenced his inter- est in financing a motion pic- ture for possible capital gains. That group do not think of story as stirring up bad feel- ing. Although nobody has thought it through or made explicit denial, it is likely that the night rider stuff and the anti-Negro angles of the origi- nal D. W. Griffith version will be dropped. pursues the white Elsie Stoneman with his marriage proposal. Else- where in the film, a white girl throws herself over a cliff to escape the advances of a colored man. One title editorialized that the South had to be made “safe” for whites. Rise of the Klan, an organization by now thoroughly discredited, wa6 fully justified by Griffith. ^ An Early ‘Epic’ “Birth” was Griffith’s first “epic” and is today considered a milestone in the advancement of the cinematographic art. It was origfhally called “The Clansman.” Story goes that the title was changed at the suggestion of Dixon when he attended the first eastern screening of the production which, incidentally, ran 10 reels and was the longest American film turned out by that date. Prolonged and bitter protests from virtually all elements of so- ciety greeted release of the pic- ture in 1915. At least six cities at- tempted to ban it, and so did the state of Qhio. Elsewhere it was cut until it was virtually unintel- ligible. ‘‘The Crisis,” official organ of the NAACP, in 1915 denounced Dixon for falsifying history and for representing the Negro “either as an ignorant fool, a vicious rapist, a venal and unscrupulous politi- cian or a faithful but doddering idiot.” Rabbi Stephen S. Wise objected to the film as “a crime against two races.” The Rev. Dr. Crothers called it “a deliberate and skillful bit of treachery.” George Foster Peabody, in a public letter, main- tained it was “unfair to the Negro and to the white equally.” Presi- dent Eliot of Harvard deplored the pic’s “dangerously false doctrine .. that the Ku Klux Klan was on the whole a righteous and neces- sary society for the defense of Southern white men against black legislatures led by Northern white men.” Despite all these denunciations— the picture stirred up race riots I in Boston and several other cities— “Birth” ran up some astounding grosses. Griffith, stung by the criticism, issued a pamphlet, “The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America,” in which he defended his right to make and show the film which he had made at his own expense and at a cost unheard of in those days. If “Birth” was widely shown over the years, this was due large- ly to the exhibitors who brought suits and obtained injunctions against the censoring authorities. In Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, Gary, Ind., etc., the bans stuck. In Chi- cago it was lifted via legal action. In N. Y., "Birth” was revived on several occasions, the last one about two years ago. It played at the Beverly Theatre in 1950 for a six week run. In 1951 it was brought back but died at the b.o. and was pulled after one week. Zanuck Reveals Continued from page 3 the east and that they w'ould be intensified when the necessary equipment becomes available. On the other hand, the home of- fice expressed surprise at the Zan- uck disclosure of new work being done on Cinemascope. The only phase of this known in the east is the delivery of new and better lenses by Bausch & Loinb. Zanuck also made mention of the new prisms. He added that “dozens of projects” were cooking in the 20th Coast lab. It’s believed in N. Y. that the C’Scope improvement 20th has un- der wraps may be a combination of the squeeze lens and VistaVision, with two frames being exposed and “squeezed” at the camera at one time. This could lead to much greater depth and definition, it’s held. In reference to the technical fea- ture-length demonstration film which he is turning out and which is half-finished, Zanuck said most of the interiors had been done. “It’ll show us where we’ve gone wrong and it should prove a valu- able guide to other producers,” he maintained. Meant strictly for the technical side of the industry, the pic re- peats different scenes, each shot from different angles and under different lighting conditions. Asked why 20th was going to the expense of producing the test reels, Zan- uck observed that, having started CinemaScope, it was now up to 20th to make periodic contribu- tions to it. He further reported “good prog- ress” in 20lh’s drive to sign up foreign talent. Asked whether 20th was considering a talent school on the Coast, a la Univer- sal, Zanuck replied in the negative, pointing out that the studio has had success in developing new faces without such a device. ‘Waterfront’ Nix Continued from page 2 ing for an examination of the board’s members and a public an- nouncement as to the basis used for judging films. Another Col film, “Double Des- tiny” (Michel Auclair and Simone Simon) was also recently re- jected by the board, while other pictures that the film critics con- sider less socially signficant and internationally important, such as a pair of German films, “The Birdseller” and “Confession of Ina Kahr,” were recently given the board’s okay. In the light of this strong sup- port from the film industry, Co- lumbia has been granted a reshow- ing of the picture before the Board on Dec. 13. Two additional impartial judges will also sit with the group. Favorable reports of members of the Bonn government who saw the film, and the list of awards given it, will also be shown the Board. Despite the lack of approval and the resultant slightly higher tax charge on tickets, “Waterfront” is a hit in Germany. It opened Nov. 5 at Cologne and Munich and has been held over for four weeks at the key theatres there.