Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

The annual baseball feud between Comedians and Leading Men has been set for July 17 at Wrigley Field, the proceeds of the event to go to Mt. Sinai hospital. ★ S. Charles Einfeld and Carl Leserman left last week for New York after terminating several weeks of production conferences at Warners. Gradwell Sears, also departing, was to visit Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio on his way east. "k Oscar Berlin is in from a two-months’ scouting trip. * Vic Shapiro is in from a vacation in New York. * Anita Louise’s surprise party at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove last week found the night spot decorated in Alsatian motif. ★ Ralph Forbes has returned from British Columbia, where he appeared in a picture for a Canadian company. ★ A son has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Knopf. k Director Gus Meins, Mrs. Meins and their son Gordon spent Easter at Lake Arrowhead. k Mrs. Roger Imhof celebrated her birthday by entertaining a few guests at dinner at her home. Guests, aside from her husband, included Sophie Tucker and Ted Shapiro, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Grapewin, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Spingler, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Orth and Mr. and Mrs. James Conlon. * John M. Stahl plans a vacation in Ireland following completion of a directorial assignment. k Those connected with the production of Metro’s Academy Award winner, “The Great Ziegfeld,” were honored last week by the studio at a dinner-dance at the Ambassador Hotel. Guests included executives, producers, directors and department heads of the company, led by Louis B. Mayer, Hunt Stromberg, Nicholas Schenck, E. J. Mannix, Sam Katz, William Koenig, J. J. Cohn, Ben Goetz and Lawrence Weingarten. * John Ford is in Honolulu for a quick visit with his family. He’ll return shortly to begin a new directorial assignment. k After a seven-week vacation in New York and the Bahamas, Jean Arthur and her husband, Frank Ross, have returned to Hollywood. ★ Condor’s vice-president, Frank Snell, was in for a week’s conference with George Hirliman and M. H. Hoffman. Sol M. Wurtzel sails for China April 3 aboard the President Hoover. He will vacation for three months. * His three-month leave of absence terminated, Alan Scott has returned to work at RKO Radio. k William Kaplan, assistant to Louis Lighten, Metro producer, is vacationing for two weeks in Mexico, accompanied by his wife. k Grady Sutton is vacationing at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida. k Mrs. Isidore Freling, wife of the supervisor on Leon Schlesinger’s cartoons, became the mother of a baby girl this week at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. ★ Nat Levine is on his way to New York, where he sails April 7 for a ten-week vacation in Italy, France and England. ★ His ten-day vacation in Dallas ended, Ralph Rainger returned to Hollywood this week. * James FitzPatrick, travelogue producer, has returned from a tour of South America, bringing with him footage shot on the southern continent’s west coast. ★ A three-day trip to New York and return was achieved this week by Henry Ginsberg, general manager of Selznick International, who went east on company and personal business. ★ Edmund Lowe is on his way to England to star in a picture for Alexander Korda. Grade Allen puts herself to sleep, almost, by reading a bedtime story to little Sandra, one of the Burns’s adopted children, while George Burns listens avidly. They’re in the nursery of the new home George gave Grade for Christmas. Samuel Goldwyn returned this week from a week’s vacation at Tucson, Ariz. * Scott R. Dunlap is in from New York, where he held production conferences with W. Ray Johnston, Monogram president. * Columbia University’s Dean H E. Hawkes was the guest of Herman Mankiewicz at Metro last week. * Fifty members of the Vitaphone orchestra at the Warner studio last week presented Erich Wolfgang Korngold, studio writer-composer and musical conductor, with an engraved wrist watch in appreciation of his work on the musical score for ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper.” * Harry Crocker, Francis Evans, John Anson Ford, Tandy MacKenzie and Art Tatum were honored guests at the weekly Scotch Treat luncheon of the Authors Club this week. ★ Oscar Serlin returned early this week from a talent scouting trip to New York. * Judith Allen is leaving in April for an eight-week vacation in England. She’ll catch the Coronation and the Ascot Derby. * William LeBaron and Leo McCarey, production executives at Paramount, returned from Del Monte this week. * Mitchell Leisen underwent a slight operation this week — the second in little more than a week. He was expected back at the studio Wednesday. * Louis B. Mayer is spending a few days at Arrowhead Springs, accompanied by Howard Strickling. k 20th Century-Fox’s annual studio party was held April 3 at the Ambassador Hotel, with entertainment provided by Jack Haskell’s studio tap dancing class, Dorothy Harris, script girl; Charlie Owens, office boy, and a chorus of 24. * Nat Pendleton, whose last trip abroad was in 1924 when he served as coach of the American Olympic wrestling team, is on his way to England for a film role. He will visit his brother Edmund, whom he has not seen for 13 years. * Sergi Petschnikoff, Metro unit manager, was married this week to Brita Holm in Las Vegas. * A daughter was born this week to Evelyn Venable, actress wife of Hal Mohr, at the Wilshire Hospital. k Gary Cooper returned ahead of time this week from New York and Florida, where he has been vacationing for several weeks. BOXOFFICE :: April 3, 1937. 17