Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1961)

Revivals of Silents, Early Talkies on the Upswing By FRANK LEYENDECKER NEW YORK — Except for the occasional reissue by major companies, the film industry has done little to awaken the interest of today’s moviegoers in its glorious past and its outstanding pictures of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Only in a few of the museums, such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, or at private showings by film societies in a few key cities, could patrons see Greta Garbo, William S. Hart, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks and other great screen luminaries — that is until the major companies sold their pre-1948 backlog to television and the teenagers, as well as the mature viewers, sat up until after midnight watching the Late, Late show. REVIVE 1927 GARBO FILM Now in 1961, the centennial of the Civil War, which prompted MGM to again bring forth its 1939 epic, “Gone With the Wind,” still the greatest grosser of all time, MGM dug into the vaults to bring forth the 1927 Greta Garbo-John Gilbert romantic drama, “Flesh and the Devil,” and opened it at New York’s 8th Street Playhouse with a new musical sound track. The result was a new opening-day record, set by audiences ranging from dowagers in chauffuered limousines to beatniks on motor scooters. They all came to see the Great Garbo in the picture that made her famous. Further uptown, the west side New Yorker Theatre has been drawing increasing crowds for the past year by showing weekly change programs of such triumphs as “A Star Is Born,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Public Enemy” and even such silent pictures as Eric von Stroheim’s “Foolish Wives” and Alla Nazimova’s “Salome.” The theatre will start its third Monday night film society schedule April 24 with a showing of Eric von Stroheim’s unfinished silent, “Queen Kelly,” starring Gloria Swanson, and follow it with “The Body Snatchers” and “Curse of the Cat People” May 1. Other notable pictures to be shown through September will include: “Tol’able David,” starring Richard Barthelmess, “The Golem” and von Stroheim’s “MerryGo-Round,” all of these silent pictures, as well as “Destry Rides Again” (Marlene Dietrich), “Swing Time” (Astaire-Rogers) , “Nothing Sacred” (Carole Lombard), “The Bank Dick” <W. C. Fields) and “Oliver Twist” (Alec Guinness), most of them originally shown in the 1930s and 1940s. FOREIGN OLDIES RETURN The success of the New Yorker’s revival programs has led to the recent opening of the Bleecker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village, which has specialized in unusual revivals, mostly foreign pictures, and started a ten-week program March 31 with the original German film version of “The Three-Penny Opera,” produced in 1931, to be followed by F. W. Marnau’s “Nosferatu” (1922), Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1926) and Eisenstein’s “Ten Days That Shook the World” (1927), these latter reaching far back into the silent days. Now another Greenwich Village house, Court Rules 'Trampoline' Not Exclusive Term Des Moines — A hotly contested, twoyear court battle over use of the word “trampoline” has ended in a decision favoring American Trampoline Co., Jefferson, Iowa, over Nissen Trampoline Co , Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In a United States district court ruling, Judge Roy L. Stephenson declared the term “trampoline” was “generic and in the public domain and cannot be exclusively appropriated for trademark usage.” Stephenson further deereed the trademarks “Nissen Trampoline” and “Tramp” are invalid and canceled. The case was originally filed by Nissen on March 17, 1959. Nissen claimed trademark and patent infringement and unfair competition by American. In its counterclaim, American contended that Nissen’s trademark was fraudulently obtained and asked damages. Testimony was introduced in court from over 40 individuals, including coaches, athletes and former vaudeville performer Joe E. Brown concerning use of the word. Judge Stephenson also found American had not infringed Nissen’s patent and had not competed unfairly. The two companies are the largest manufacturers of trampolines in the world. Other trampoline manufacturers, who have shied away from using the word trampoline, are now permitted free use of the word by Judge Stephenson’s decision. the Charles, is under the management of the New Yorker Theatre and is playing such pictures as “Tom, Dick and Harry” (Ginger Rogers-Burgess Meredith), “Alice Adams” (Katharine Hepburn) and “The Big Sleep” (Humphrey Bogart), in addition to “Sunset Boulevard” and other early 1950s pictures. Continuing this trend toward showing the film industry’s “glorious past” is Robert Youngson’s feature-length compilations of great silent comedy tworeelers starring Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon and the Mack Sennett bathing beauties. The first, “The Golden Age of Comedy,” distributed by DCA in 1958, was a fair success, then “When Comedy Was King” was distributed by 20th Century-Fox in 1960 and now, “Days of Thrills and Laughter” a current release by 20th -Fox, also includes shots of silent serials starring Pearl White and Ruth Roland. Further interest in the film industry’s past has been engendered by a half-hour TV program, “Silents, Please,” which recently returned to the airwaves with Ernie Kovacs introducing the highlights of pictures starring Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, Wil liam S. Hart, and Lillian Gish in her notable D. W. Griffith films. This TV program has proved so popular that it is now being syndicated across the country. These theatre and TV showings of silent and early talking pictures are in addition to regular afternoon showings at the Museum of Modern Art, now playing “The Western Film,” based on silent pictures in the Museum’s Library collection, from “The Great Train Robbery” of 1903, through the William S. Hart and Tom Mix cowboy epics from 1915 through 1925 to “The Covered Wagon” and “The Iron Horse” of 1923-24. The Museum also has special Thursday night showings of such great silent films as Lon Chaney’s “The Phantom of the Opera” and Buster Keaton’s “The Navigator.” Another New York film society which shows great silent films regularly two or three evenings a month is the Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society, operated by William K. Everson, former publicity man for Allied Artists. His recent programs have included John Barrymore’s “Don Juan,” a 1927 epic which had the first musical sound track and featured Mary Astor, Myma Loy, Estelle Taylor, Phyllis Haver, Hedda Hopper and other Hollywood beauties of the period; “Lilac Time,” a 1928 film starring Colleen Moore and the youthful Gary Cooper, and “The Sea Hawk,” a 1924 film starring Milton Sills, Enid Bennett and Wallace Beery. While Everson’s showings attract a few old-timers who might have seen these stars in their hey-day, the majority of the viewers are in the teenage or 20-30years age bracket, proof that there is a young audience interested in the film industry’s history. A glance at the amusement page of the New York Times later in April will show first run theatres playing “Gone With the Wind” (1939), “Flesh and the Devil” (1927), “Days of Thrills and Laughter” (composed of silents from 1915-25) and “Ten Days That Shook the World” (1922), in addition to the 1961 releases — quite a wide choice for moviegoers interested in the film industry’s “glorious past.” Wilson and Shore Form Production Partnership NEW YORK — A film production partnership has been formed by Sloan Wilson, novelist, and Sig Shore, motion picture distributor, who will produce, as their first venture, Wilson’s “A Sense of Values,” current best-seller. Two previous novels of Wilson’s, “A Summer Place” and “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” were made into pictures by Warner Bros, and 20th Century-Fox, respectively. “A Sense of Values” will go before the cameras this year in Hollywood under the banner of Value Productions. . Shore currently is releasing “The Angry Silence,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best original story and screenplay. He is president of Vitalite Film Corp. which also is distributing “The Young One” and other features. Reeves Earns $328,284 NEW YORK — Reeves Broadcasting & Development Corp. has reported total revenues of $2,432,280 for the year ended December 31, with net income amounting to $328,284. Hazard Reeves, president, was active in the development of Cinerama. 12 BOXOFFICE :: April 17, 1961