The Film Daily (1945)

Thursday, June 7, 1945 -INEI DAILY: n Pix Stars Toured j\ Hospitals in May Thirty-seven movie actors toured he G. I. hospital circuit during lay and 15 already are scheduled or June trips, the Hollywood '^ictory Committee reported yeserday. All previous records for far effort traveling by entertainnent industry personalities were roken, according to the committee's rionthly report received in New York. Covering 28 states, the 37 trouprs visited 128 Army, Navy and Maine hospitals and convalescent ceners, on routes set by USO Camp Jhows. They played 283 days, in lost cases spending several hours ach day in bed-to-bed visits with rounded brought back from overeas. Eleven screen and radio names played to the armed forces overseas n May, the report states, listing oe E. Brown, Don Barclay, Charles Lutterworth, Marlene Dietrich, Sona Henie, Alan Jenkins, Boris Karoff, Herbert Locke, Fay McKenzie, •"rank Sinatra and Sid Silvers. On hospital tours were Ruthe Jrady, Charles Coburn, Joseph Coten, Irene Dunne, Dan Duryea, Frank ^aylen, Cindy Garner, Nancy Gates, lix Goldwyn Girls, Gloria Grahame, Vlarjorie Henshaw, Colleen Kenneiy, Edgar Kennedy, Patricia Kenledy, Ida Lupino, Diana Lynn, Faye Vlarlowe, Marilyn Maxwell, Wanda McKaye, Lynn Merrick, the Ritz Brothers, Gail Russell, Gale Sonder?aard, Margie Stewart, Carol Thurs;on, Sonny Tufts, Raymond Wal3urn, Virginia Weidler, Ben Weldon md Jane Wyman. On the June hospital schedule are Robert Alda, Alan Curtis, James Dunn, Don McGuire, Florence George, the Great Gildersleeve' (Harold Peary), Howard Hill, Henry O'Neill, Basil Rathbone, Ouida Rathbone, Edna Rush, Dinah Shore, Viva Tattersall and Sidney Toler. Holding Campaign Meets On "The Corn is Green" I Frank LaFalce, advertising manager for Warner Theaters in the Washington zone, and George Fishman, field exploitation man for the Warner distribution department, will hold a meeting of Warner theater managers in Hagerstown on Monday to lay out campaign plans for "The Corn Is Green" in that territory. A similar meeting will be conducted in Staunton, Va., later in the week. Um OIRTUDiV (GREETINGS TO: June 7 Jacob Wilk All in the Day's ISetvs • • • THIS, THAT AND T'OTHER: Didja note that Eric A. Johnston yesterday called for passage of pending reciprocal trade legislation as a step essential to "free communication and exchange of goods and services and lasting world co-operation and peace"? ... • Carl Re vazza has been signed by 20th-Fox to a three-year contract He will spend six months of each year as emcee and singer at the Roxy here and the other half in film work His engagement at the Roxy starts on Aug. 8. . . • There'll be no golf when the Cincy Variety Club holds its family picnic July 2; the barkerettes put their foot down, it seems. . . • All Metro field employes have signed up for an extra War Bond in connection with the company's Seventh drive. . . • Harry Martin, Universal's New Haven manager, has taken a house for the Summer in Woodbridge, and his family will come on from Boston to join him. . . • John Joseph heads for New York next month for a visit. • "Trade follows the film" at home, too When the Victory burned down in Leonard, Tex., the City Council quickly offered the use of the city auditorium to L. B. Crow that the town might have pix ▼ T T • • • CUFF NOTES: The industry's export trade association was chartered as a Delaware corporation at Dover yesterday. . . • 20thFox and Doubleday Doran have picked "But We Had Fun" by Charles Andrews Fenton, former RCAF tail gunner, as the winner of the $4,000 prize in their New Writers Contest. . . • NBC's television station WNBT, will cover the New York and Washington welcomes to General of the Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 18-19. . . • There'll be a cocktail party at the Gotham for Ed "Archie" Gardner of Duffy's Tavern. . . • After 31 months with the AAF in the China-India-Burma theater, Sgt. Eugene E. Fitzgibbons, is at the Atlantic City Re-distribution Center for a new assignment The sergeant is one of the three sons of I. J. Fitzgibbons, Famous Players Canadian president, who are serving in the United States Armed Forces As ground radio operator, he wears the Bronze Star as well as combat ribbons. . . • Spyros P. Skouras, 20th Century-Fox prexy, just back from London and Athens, will meet the industry press at luncheon tomorrow at the home office. . . • Grand Jury duty yesterday called Norman H. Moray, Warners short sales manager. . . • Speaking of Warners, the company records show that "God is My Co-Pilot" on the basis of its first 1,000 ploydates, shows the highest aggregate above average gross of any Warner pic this season Additionally, the pic scored above normal business 100 per cent. ..... T T T • • • OFF THE HOLLYWOOD WIRE: Pearl Bailey, singer, currently appearing at the Cafe Zanzibar, New York, has been signed to a termer by Metro and comes on after she closes at the New York night club. . . • James S. Burkett Monogram producer, is wearing his arm in a sling as a result of a freak accident when he became the victim of a "death gadget" designed for "Shanghai Cobra," a new Charlie Chan thriller. . . • Nunnally Johnson, who will write and produce International's "Home is the Sailor," has gone to Northern California to complete the script. . . • Anne Baxter replaces Lynn Ban in 20th-Fox' "Smokey.". . • RKO will co-star Bill Williams and Barbara Hale in "Tomorrow Is Here," Nat Holt producing. . . • John Souther has been signed to play his stage role in Columbia's screen version of "Snafu.". . • Edith King of the stage, makes her bow^ in Paraimount's "Calcutta." • Pine & Thomas have set Barbara Britton to co-star with Robert Lowery in "They Made Me a Killer.". . • Donald Woods will be seen as Dr. Ward in Warners' "Night and Day," the Cole Porter musical biography. • B. G. DaSilva is in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital with a slight heart attack Filming of "The Stork Club,' his first indie production for Paramount, will be completed Saturday ▼ ▼ ▼ • • • WE'RE AVENGING PEARL HARBOR! W: Argentina Seen as Still Bigger Market n-aslniiytou Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Zooming pix attendance in Argentina, promising a more profitable market than ever for Hollywood when American films finally get into that country in quantity again, is revealed by the Department of Commerce. Attendance up 12 per cent in 1943, advanced another 10 per cent last year. United States films make up from 75 to 85 per cent of all films imported into Argentina. With a seating capacity of almost 800,000, Argentina's 1,600-odd theaters are now of sufficient number and size for 5 per cent of all the people in the country "to go to the ' movies" at one time. The Province 1 of Buenos Aires together with the capital has 490 theaters with a seating capacity of 228,000, 190 in the city of Buenos Aires itself. Argentine film production, which is concentrated mainly in Buenos Aires and its suburbs, represents an investment, including buildings, equipment and current values, of 30,000,000 pesos, or about $7,500,000. Approximately 90 per cent of this amount comprises investments of the six principal companies. There are 1,500 persons working in the industry. Most features produced in any one year has been 56, but the companies expect to increase production to between 80 and 90 features per year following the war. Receipts from exports constitute 30 per cent of the total annual returns of Argentine producers. Copies of about 80 per cent of the domestically produced films are exported. The entrance of exhibitors' capital into the production and distribution fields has been a significant development within the past few years. As a result, domestically produced feature pictures have appeared in increasing numbers in first-run theaters which formerly showed U. S. made pictures almost exclusively. lUEDDiRG BELLS Brooks-Siegel Bernie Brooks of the Fabian circut was married on Decoration Day to Ruth Siegel. McEwan-Kirkpatrick Vancouver, B. C. — Yvonne McEwan, daughter of Bob McEwan, of the Grandview Theater, and an employe of Warners, will be married to Ernest Kirkpatrick, cameraman of Vancouver motion pictures, on June 19. Anderson-Chodorov Gwen C. Anderson, actress, and Edward Chodorov, playwright and Broadway director, have obtained a marriage license. They plan to be married by Supreme Court Justice Aron Steuer. :iii Hi I k ■I