Hollywood Studio Magazine (June 1972)

Take it from the top News notes on the Hollywood scene by Zelda Cini There goes Oscar - his way Maybe you don’t remember, but Bing Crosby originated in the state of Washington, was graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, and won the Academy’s Oscar in Hollywood, Cal, in 1944 for playing a priest in “Going My Way,” all of which is history. But, what you may not have realized is that Gonzaga U. has a Crosby library on its campus. And the library has display cases containing all kinds of Crosby memorabilia, including Crosby’s 1944 Oscar. However, late in April of this year, the Oscar was stolen. Temporarily replaced by a 3-inch Mickey Mouse statuette, Oscar suddenly reappeared in his original shrine-like resting place, a scant week later. The motive for that was obviously not money. The gold-plated Oscar was evaluated at a mere $75, according to police. The culprit was not apprehended. Possibly, having checked out the value of Oscar, he preferred his original Mickey Mouse. He took it back, for sentimental reasons, no doubt. Another kind of award Now it’s Lunt and Fontanne who will get an extraordinary award, another “first,” this one from the American National Theatre and Academy at its Assembly of Performing Arts convention June 9-14 on the UCLA campus in Westwood, Calif. It’s called the “National Artist Award” for “unqualified magnificence in theater” and will be presented at a special all-star show and tribute dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Jack Valenti will chair the event; Jack Benny will be among the stars and Ezra Stone will produce the show. Could this be the same Ezra Stone whose gravel-voiced “Coming, mother.” was as much a part of radio history as Jack Benny’s 39th birthday? Oddball casting call No question about it, Hollywood still ranks high - and reaches high, when it comes to film-making, at least. Now it’s “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which is casting in L.A. for shooting in Israel August 7, under direction of Norman Jewison, the man responsible for guiding the brilliant performances in “Fiddler on the Roof.” That in itself is not exactly earthshaking news, but what did come as something of a shock was a recent casting call for (and we quote) “bass singers for Caiaphus, male and female dancers under 25 who can also sing, actors under 26 for King Herod and — (get this) — tenors under 25 who can sing and perform roles of Jesus and Judas!” Somehow, we just never thought of those two as being interchangeable! A weakness on our part, obviously. Japanese Cleopatra — Rated X? Couldn’t resist reacting to a last-month’s review of the Japanese-made animated version of STARS IN BLACULA - Vonetta McGee, currently starring in American International’s “Blacula,” is perhaps the busiest Negro actress in Hollywood, as she is also starring in simultaneously, MGM’s “Melinda” and United Artists’ “Black Gold.” All three producers are cooperating to make Miss McGee’s triple-play achievement possible, through special shooting schedules. “Cleopatra, Queen of Sex” — with English subtitles, rated X, and released in the U.S. by Xanadu Productions. That in itself should have been enough. But it was the review in Hollywood Variety which delighted even more. In an absolutely straight manner, the writer gave it his best, spelling out the basic storyline as “simplified . . . similar to previous versions of ‘Cleopatra’ packaged by Paramount and 20th Fox. But,” he (or she) continued, “the style is that of the low-budget Italo spectacle, with emphasis on vulgar low comedy, tattle scenes flashily edited for . . . action, blood and gore . . . lecherous Caesar . . . babbling Antony, flaming gay Octavius Caesar, effeminately whining . . . sex activity and innuendo . . .” Truth of the matter is, from the review it would appear that this film had almost all the ingredients presently being touted as devoutly-to-be-wishes for a box-office smash! He does add that “the sex scenes are not offensive.” Oh, well, everybody’s entitled to an occasional mistake. *** Disney Studios A Walt Disney Productions photographic team headed by co-producers James Algar and Dick Pfahler begins a globe-girdling tour of 23 countries in April to film “Magic Carpet ’Round the World,” a new subject for Monsanto Company’s Circle-Vision 360 attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida. Ten cameramen separated into surface and aerial units will film scenes in 35 locations for the “theatre-in-the-round” show, to premiere in January, 1973, on Circle-Vision’s 360-degree screen. Flying on a chartered Lockheed Hercules cargo plane operated by Saturn Airways will be the surface team of Danny McCauley, Robert Barclay, Richard Kelley, James Luske, Joseph Nash, William Record and Marc Robertson. Andrew Jackson, Michael St. Hilaire and Darryl Davis, the aerial team, will fly a North American Mitchell B-25 bomber with a converted fusilage housing a nine-unit camera that cap be lowered completely clear of the aircraft for 360° aerial photography. Shooting begins in Tokyo on April 8 and is scheduled to finish June 2 in Leningrad. *** 4