Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1962)

lease later in 1962. Being produced by Edward A. Gollin, the picture stars Dion, the teenage recording favorite; Buster Keaton, the silent days film star, and Bert Lahr and Eddie Poy jr., from the Broadway stage. Starting in April will be two more musicals, “Bye Bye Birdie” for Columbia and Elvis Presley’s latest for Hal Wallis, “Girls! Girls! Girls!” in which he will costar with Stella Stevens for Paramoimt release. Fred Kohlmar will produce “Bye Bye Birdie” with Dick Van Dyke of the original stage cast and Janet Leigh costarred and Jesse Pearson in the title role. George Sidney will direct from the Edward Padula stage hit. BRITISH MUSICAL READY Also completed but not yet set for distribution in the U.S. is “The Young Ones,” a British musical starring Cliff Richard of “Expresso Bongo,” Robert Morley and Carole Grey, a CinemaScope-Technicolor picture made by Associated British-Pathe, which is a smash hit in London. This is the first large-scale British musical since the ill-fated “London Town,” which was never even released in the U.S. The last big musicals made by the American companies releasing the 1962 musicals were: Warners — “Damn Yankees” and “The Pajama Game,” released in 1958 and 1957, respectively; Columbia — “Pepe,” released two-a-day in December 1960 and continuous run in 1961, and Samuel Goldwyn’s “Porgy and Bess,” released two-aday in 1960; Universal-International — “The Girl Most Likely,” made for RKO and released in 1957; Paramount — Jerry Lewis’ “CinderFella,” released in December 1960, and “Li’l Abner,” released in December 1959; MGM — “Bells Are Ringing,” released in 1960, and “Gigi,” released two-a-day in 1958 and continuous the following year, and 20th Century-Fox — “Can-Can,” released two-a-day in 1960, and “South Pacific,” released two-a-day in 1958. “The King and I” was a 1956 release. Only “Pepe,” “Can-Can” and “CinderFella” were playing in 1961 while only “Porgy and Bess” and “Bells Are Ringing” were playing in 1960 and “Li’l Abner” and the continuous run of “Gigi” were the sole 1959 musicals— three very lean years for musicals in the U.S. It was in the 1930s that Warner Bros, big-scale musicals like “42nd Street,” “20 Million Sweethearts” and the like introduced such stars as Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and Ginger Rogers while such stage stars as A1 Jolson and Grace Moore reigned in Warner and Columbia musicals and Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy started their musical film careers. In the 1940s, the musical rage continued with Ginger Rogers teaming with Fred Astaire, Judy Garland coming to the fore at MGM, Deanna Durbin reigning at Universal, Bing Crosby becoming a top Paramount musical star, sometimes teaming with Bob Hope, and Kathryn Grayson, Ann Blyth and Howard Keel, as well as Gene Kelly, starring in MGM musicals, and Betty Grable, Cannen Miranda and Vivian Blaine, among many others, starring in 20th-Fox musicals. BIG GROSSES IN ’40s AND ’50s During the 1940s and the early 1950s, film musicals rolled up sensational grosses, ranging from the $16,000,000 figure for “South Pacific” and the $12,000,000 figure for “White Christmas” in 1958 and 1954, respectively, to $4,000,000 for “The Ziegfeld Follies” in 1946. In between these years were such well-remembered musicals as “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Blue Skies,” “The Red Shoes,” “Anchors Aweigh,” “The Road to Rio,” “TiU the Clouds Roll By,” “Easter Parade,” “State Fair” (1945 version), “The Dolly Sisters” and “Night and Day,” each of which grossed over $4,000,000 in the 1940s, and “The King and I,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Oklahoma,” “Gigi,” “High Society,” “Hans Christian Andersen,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Show Boat,” “Pal Joey,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “The Great Caruso,” “Love Me or Leave Me” and “An American in Paris,” released from 1951 to 1956, which had grosses ranging from $4,000,000 to $8,500,000 — no small pickings. Of these 26 big-grossing musicals, 12 were MGM releases while no other company released more than four. Now, with “Billy Rose’s Jumbo” in production, MGM is once again planning large-scale musicals, two of the company’s buys for production next year being “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” from the 1961 Broadway hit by Meredith Willson, which will also star Doris Day, and “Carnival,” from the current Broadway stage smash, which Arthur Freed will produce. MGM also made “Lili” on which “Carnival” is based. LONG-RUN HIT ON SCHEDULE Warner Bros., too, will continue making musical films, including “My Fair Lady,” now in its seventh year on Broadway as the longest-running musical of all time. For this Warners paid the record motion picture industry sum of $5,500,000 but the picture cannot be released for several years. Another Lemer-Loewe current Broadway musical hit, “Camelot,” has also been bought by Warners for a huge sum but may go into production first. And at 20th Century-Fox, the company last year acquired the screen rights to the current Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, “Soimd of Music,” which is slated for production early in 1963 as the fifth R&H work to be brought to the screen by 20th-Fox, following “Oklahoma,” “Carousel,” “The King and I” and “South Pacific.” 'The Mirisch Co., too, will put another musical film based on a Broadway hit, “L-ma la Douce,” into production in 1963 with Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon and Charles Laughton starred, also for United Artists release. In the past, Hollywood film musicals have been a typically American form of entertainment with very few being made either in England or Exirope. Now, it begins to look as if American-made film musicals will again be entertaining the world. 2. BOXOFFICE :: May 21, 1962 15