Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1962)

nationwide Poll Names Screen's Who’s Who * Exhibitors, Press and Public Film Groups Make Selections POPULRRITV JL MA mencan ^auo rites of 1961 THE WINNERS Male 1. ROCK HUDSON 2. JOHN WAYNE 3. TONY CURTIS 4. CARY GRANT 5. GLENN FORD 6. KIRK DOUGLAS 7. WILLIAM HOLDEN 8. BURT LANCASTER 9. MARLON BRANDO 10. JACK LEMMON 11. GREGORY PECK 12. JAMES STEWART Female 1. ELIZABETH TAYLOR 2. DORIS DAY 3. DEBBIE REYNOLDS 4. SHIRLEY MacLAINE 5. SANDRA DEE 6. SUSAN HAYWARD 7. NATALIE WOOD 8. DEBORAH KERR 9. KIM NOVAK 10. AUDREY HEPBURN 11. JANET LEIGH 12. JOANNE WOODWARD m ESULTS of the All-American JIIaSv Screen Favorites Poll, which BOXOFFICE conducts each year, show that the familiar stars are still the most popular. Rock Hudson tops the list of male stars, crowding out Cary Grant who has been in first place for the last three years. Hudson, who began his career in motion pictures with Warner Bros, in "Fighter Squadron” (1948), had two boxoffice hits this past season: "The Last Sunset” and "Come September.” It is noticeable each year when poll time comes around that stars rate somewhere near their boxoffice scores for the season. Thus Elizabeth Taylor is at the top for female stars, reversing last year's order with Doris Day. Miss Taylor has been much in the news because of a serious illness which interrupted her work in "Cleopatra" and because she won the Academy Award for her role in "Butterfield 8,” her only picture released during the season. The petite English brunette beauty has come a long thespian way since she danced at the age of three for the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose and later made her screen debut in "Lassie Come Home." }ohn Wayne has risen to second position in the male line this year, from eighth place last year. His own epic, 'The Alamo,” in which he starred as well as produced and directed, was augmented by his work in North to Alaska.” He has maintained his own type of role in most of his pictures — rugged, he-man type — which began with "The Big Trail,” non-Hollywood production in 1931 He is often called the "exhibitor's star” because of his steady boxoffice draw. Ten years ago he was in 12th place on a combined star basis, as he was in 1957 when the poll was divided into male and female divisions. In 1959, he climbed to sixth place, after not placing in 1958, and was in eighth place last year. Doris Day, who headed the fem inine contingent in last year's poll, has been among the top three since the divided poll started and had been near the top in the combined poll before that. Starting as a radio and band singer, she made her screen debut in "Romance on the High Seas” for Warner Bros, in 1948 and has appeared largely in musicals and comedies. This season's "Midnight Lace,” psychological thriller with Rex Harrison, was a change of pace. Third among the male stars, Tony Curtis, rose one step from last year. His pictures this season were "The Great Impostor" and "Pepe” but "Spartacus" is still showing on a roadshow basis. Tony first made the poll last year but in fourth place, so he is moving up. His first picture was Universal's "Criss-Cross” in 1949. Debbie Reynolds, who headed the 1959 actress lineup, is in third place this year, which is one step higher than for 1960, perhaps due to the delightful role she had in "The Pleasure of His Company." Her career developed from the Youth High School Symphony, a beauty contest and stage appearances. Her first picture was "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" for Warner Bros, in 1950. Cary Grant's slip to fourth place in the male lineup was probably due to less activity, since his only release was “The Grass Is Greener." This was a boxoffice hit but did not have the impact of his two hits last year. The suave English actor has been a performer for a long time, starting his American career with the St. Louis Opera Co. and making his screen debut in 1932 in Paramount's "This Is the Night.” Shirley MacLaine dropped from fifth place last year to fourth in the female list. Of her two pictures this year, "All in a Night's Work” was a hit but "Two Loves” was not and neither aroused as much interest as her work in "The Apartment” last year. Still, she has done well popularity-wise. She only started as a dancer and singer, later making her first picture in 1956 — Paramount's "The Trouble With Harry." Glenn Ford, Canadian actor who has been in pictures since he starred in "Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence” for 20th-Fox in 1939, comes up from tenth to fifth place this year. His hits for the season were "Cimarron" and "Cry for Happy”— and he will be seen in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” this current season. He was in third place in 1959, the year he was teamed with Debbie (Continued on page 23) BOXOFFICE 19