Variety (December 1954)

MISCELLANY Phony Promise To Produce Kellys For Telethon Cost Kates CPA Job Pittsburgh, Dec. 14. ♦ A lot of innocent people were caught in the middle of a bizarre series of circumstances in connec- tion with a local charity television show last week, and the resultant headaches extended from one coast, to the other and cost at least one figure in the center of it all his job. He was Jerome B. Kates, who was dismissed by the Cerebral Palsy Association, for which he has been staging telethons over the country for the last several years. The incident came down on many heads, among them Gene Kelly and his brother, Fred Kelly; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; the Pitts- burgh Y.M.C.A.; the Dubin and Feldman advertising agency of Pittsburgh and, indirectly but only within inside circles and not to the public, the CPA, all of whom were completely blameless. Whole thing happened this way; Y.M.C.A. is out to raise $5,000,- 000 for a building fund, and when WDTV agreed to preempt a Sun- day night spectacular to give the “Y” that valuable hour to make a pitch, Joe Feldman, with WB in (Continued on page 20) Ann Sothern, Girl Producer Hollywood, Dec. 14. Ann Sothern has upped herself from “Private Secretary”.to film producer, with the formation of her own Vincent Productions. Pro- gram calls for at least two indie films. Miss Sothern will also star in the pictures, first of which will be lensed next summer when she has completed her current line-up of tv films. British Theatre Chain % In United States Okayed, But Where’s the Capital? London, Dec. 14. During his latest visit to the United States, the operating head of the J. Arthur Rank Organization, John Davis, secured approval of the U. S. Government to go ahead with the erection or purchase of a chain of film houses in America. There remains the question of Brit- ish Government unfreezing of the necessary capital. Davis holds to the view that only through consistent showcasing in downtown areas of American cities can an audience and taste for Brit- ish films be created among Yanks. So long as British films get step- child treatment from American theatre operators, the B itish prod- uct will never “catch on” and ob- tain the share of dollars Davis in- sists is proper. U. S., Finland Still Deep In Struggle Over Rights To '52 Olympics Films Although the Olympics, held once every four years in a differ- ent nation, were begun as much to cement international goodwill as to demonstrate physical prowess, there have been squabbles during (and because of) the big event that have only left international hard feelings. Latest to take place is the year-old (but unpublicized) hassle between the Finnish Olym- pic organizing committee and the U. S. Olympic Committee over film rights to the ’52 Olympics.- As a matter of fact, the problem was finally almost straightened out last month, but something happened to make both groups start “muscling” each other anew. The U. S., though few realize it, has never been treated to an official film version of the ’52 Olympics. That celluloid edition is two hours long and, according to J. Lyman Bingham of the U. S. Olympic Committee, covers nearly every event that took place in the Helsinki, Finland, games. Only film seen here has been what Bing- ham described as a shorter “boot- leg” reel by the Army. As is the case with each Olym- pics setup, the nation in which the games are held has exclusive rights for a period of one year following the event, Bingham explained. Where the ’52 Olympics are con- (Continued on page 62) HORACE HEIDT For Swift & Co. Starting Jan. 8th Offices—J. Walter Thompson, Chicago Picture Payoff In Dividends Topping 1953 Washington, Dec. 14. Film business, as reflected by in- dustry dividends, continues on the upbeat. For the fir$t 11 months of this year dividends totaled $22,- 747,000, compared with only $18,- 519,000 for the same period of 1953. The November take for in- dustry stockholders, as reported by the U. S. Dept, of Commerce, was a fat $2,533,000. more than twice the $1,018,000 for November, 1953. The November difference is re- flected in the melons cut by three companies. Columbia Pictures, which distributed $237,000 in No- vember, 1953, upped it to $787,000 this November. National Theatres, which distributed nothing in No- vember, 1953, made it $346,000 this time; and Stanley-Warner circuit paid out $619,000 this year as against a zero a year earlier. Warner Bros, paid the same $742,000 to stockholders in both years, and Loew’s Boston theatres disbursed $39,000 each year. Com- merce Dept, stresses that these publicly-reported dividends amount to only 60 or 65% of all paid out in any industry. German Producer. Snoots U.S. Money Unlike other European produc- ers who are beefing about their limited market in the U. S. and are looking for ways and means to expand it, some of the German distribs are taking a cut-off-my- nose-to-spite-my-face approach to the problem. After appraising the potential in- come from German language the- atres in the U. S., and finding it inadequate, they’re refusing to do business with U. S. importers. First such instance came to light recently when an indie made a bid for a series of German produc- tions. Along with it he submitted estimates to show that a German feature could gross approximately $14,000 in the 10 leading German- language showcases in this coun- try. It was estimated that this (Continued on page 71) American Humorist Arthur Kober has written a tiptop Tribute to Maurice (‘Splash') Evans and George (‘Brudder’) Raft * * * a bright byline piece In the forthcoming 49th Anniversary Number of Z'SkIety OCT SOON Wednesday, December 15, 1954 Farewell to a Theatre (Curtain speech by Helen Hayes at the final performance of “What Every Woman Knows” at the Metropolitan Theatre, St'at- tie, Dec. 4 . The following day, workmen began demolishing the building, which is to be replaced by a new entrance to the Olym- pic Hotel. Hereafter, touring shoios will play the Moore Theatre in Seattle.) “Dear wonderful audience: It has seemed to us all evening that there was a special emotion and feeling in response to our efforts. I believe we were not mistaken in that because, after all, for you as well as for us this is no ordinary performance—and no ordinary closing performance. “This is a very special performance, and it cannot help being a sad occasion, because this is the last time you people in Seattle wilj be able to walk into this theatre to see a play. The dying of a theatre is a very sad thing, because I suppose there is no build- ing in a community, excepting a church, in which so many people can share so many hours of such spiritual uplift . .'. "After the matinee today, I had a call from New York from an ex-citizen of Seattle—Mr. Guthrie McClintic, a great producer and the director of all Katharine Cornell's plays, and incidentally and unimportantly to that phase of their lives, her husband. Guthrie said that when he was a highschool kid "he used to stand outside the alley door—just as kids do today—and dream of some time getting through that door and getting to the center of the> stage. He asked me to kiss the center of the stage where he never stood, and so I am planting a kiss on the stage center.” ✓ (Miss Hayes thereupon kissed the palm of her hand and placed it on the staQe at dead center. Then she called the entire cast from the wings and had the bagpiper with the show play " Old Lang Syne ” as the audience filed out of the theatre.) BEST TV FILM DIRECTOR Five Nominees: Asher, Florey, Kellino, Post, Webb Hollywood, Dec. 14. Screen Directors Guild has picked five nominees for its second annual Television Film Directorial Achievement Award: William Asher, Robert Florey, Roy Kellino, Ted Post and Jack Webb. - Nominees will submit what they consider their best half-hour tv films of the year, after which the entire membership will pick the winner. Last year the award was won by Robert Florey, for “Last Voyage.” Negro-White Theme Into Ohio as State Censorship Law Is Knocked Out z Cleveland, Dec. 14. Emanuel J. Stutz, manager of the Circle Theatre here, wired Ohio newspapers he was opening "Without Pity,” an Italian picture rejected by Ohio censors four times, as “a celebration of a truly historic victory for all of Ohio”— the end of film censorship by court decree. Stutz hailed his booking as “the first picture to play in Cleveland without a censor seal since the re- cent Ohio State Supreme Court ruling against the censor law.” “Without Pity,” directed by Al- berto Lattuada, is a bilingual film dealing with the devotion of an American Negro GI (John Kitz- miller) for an Italian girl (Carla del Poggio) who saved his life. BOTKIN’S CITY SUCKER STUFF OK ANTHOLOGY By JO RANSON The absorbing folklore of the metropolis is herring-packed in B. A. Botkin’s “Sidewalks of America: Folklore, Legends, Sagas, Traditions, Customs, Songs, Stories and Sayings of Cityfolk” (Bobbs- Merrill; $5 95). Here the city asphalt aficionado will have him- self a glorious romp sampling some of the more notable essays and other writings of urban be- havior. Botkin, one of the country’s top students of folklore and the edi- tor of a flock of books, among them “A Treasury of American Folklore,” contends that the city is as rich as the country in tra- ditions, oollective symbols, myths, folkways and folk:say, and sets out to prove it in admirable style. The result is one of the few complete word pictures of city life to come off the presses in a long time. Moreover, “Sidewalks of America” contains a king-size assortment of show biz anecdota, articles, songs and appropriate illustrations. Divided into 16 sections, Botkin has researched virtually every ma- jor magazine and book. Each sec- tion carries a thoughtfully-penned introduction by the editor and from show biz literati he has chosen sections of Harry Reichen- ' bach's “Phantom Fame,” Douglas | (Continued on page 62) N. Y. Talent Reps To Actor Guilds: Toast Ain’t AH’ In addition to an agreement recently signed with the Screen Actors Guild, a group of East Coast talent agents (so far 50 out of N. Y.’s 87) plan talks with AFTRA and Actors Equity. Moves are prompted by a feeling that the unions have been doing all their gabbing with reps on the West Coast, “and although they may be acting in perfectly good faith, agents on the Coast have quite different problems from ours.” An- other factor in organizing an agent group in the East is to "insure dis- ciplinary action for refusal to fol- (Continued on page 62) Beef Brings Promise To Catch Vallee Act Again; Critic May Even Clap London, Dec. 14. Arthur Ilelliwell, columnist on the People, a London Sunday sheet, whose comment on Rudy Vallee at the Cafe de Paris, “Vallee flops,” has reportedly been picked up by the American press, has accepted a challenge from tHfe artist to catch the act a second time. In a letter to Helliwell, from which the columnist quoted last week, Vallee wrote: “Now you have completely demolished me both here and in the United-JStates, I think it only fair that you come in and catch my act again, just to see that without a mean head-cold I croak less badly and that my pres- ent selection of numbers might be more to your taste. I never pre- tended to a rich singing voice. It was only because my vocal at- tempts were fc so different that in one year I became the toast of New York.” Vallee concluded by opining that if the columnist “was really fair” he would change his mind about his reception. Helliwell com- mented: “I’ll even clap myself if you are as good as you think you are.” < Merman’s N.Y. Quickie For Pic Preem, TV Huddle Back in Denver for a brief rest after the third of her tv outings (on the “Panama Hattie” specola), Ethel Merman planed out of her home base in Colorado on Satur- day (11) for New York. She and husband Robert Six, airline topper and oil company exec, will put up at the Ritz Tower Hotel until the 19th. They’ll attend the Roxy pre- miere of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” in which Miss Merman costars, tomorrow (Thurs.). While in N. Y., Miss Merman will huddle with CBS-Chrysler Corp. on her Jan. 20 appearance on “Shower of Stars.” She’ll return to Denver for the holidays and fly back to Gotham early in January for rehearsals on “Shower.” .1.v. j i' > i