Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1952)

IISIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIillllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIl by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor That Bob Hope-Bing Crosby telethon referred to in this space last week as likely to give the film theatres in this time zone their severest test of television competition to date, clipped Los Angeles Satnrday evening grosses about 35 per cent, according to the gentlemen whose theatres took the beating. Taking the air at 8 o’clock on the best of the week’s box office evenings, over both the NBC and CBS networks and supported by the greatest cast ever assembled in one telecast, the Messrs. Crosby and Hope collected $1,000,020 worth of travelling expenses for the U. S. Olympics team before calling it a night at 10:30 Sunday morning. It was a history-making event in several respects. It was Crosby’s first appearance on television, and he made it clear as day that he can make a new career of this medium if he chooses to. Brightest Stars Present It was not a television first for Abbott & Costello, who contributed their deathless and devastating "Who’s on first ?” routine to the proceedings, nor for Martin & Lewis, who took over the show in its entirety for half an hour or so and threw the nation into happy panic. (The Messrs. Hope, Crosby, Abbott & Costello and Martin & Lewis are winners of Top Ten rank in the last annual Money-Making Stars poll of exhibitors by this publication.) The telecast emanated from the El Capital! theatre on Vine Street in this city. The El Capitan, once owned by the famed and fabulous Sid Grauman, although utilized for stage show purposes in recent times, was acquired by NBC a little over a year ago and converted to TV uses at a cost resembling the down payment on a battleship. Plugged every hour on the hour by NBC and CBS for a week preceding the balmy Summer’s evening of its advent, tbe show had the theatre packed to capacity at air time. Here, bad as it was, there are exhibitors who say they expected worse. There are others in the industry who say differently. One of them is the western sales manager of a major distributing company. He says the telethon convinced him there’s no sense at all in sending his company’s percentage pictures into theatres for the period spanning the national political conventions because nobody in the television belt will leave home while that show’s going on, so he’s cancelling them out. (Non-sequitur: Most or all of the Hollywood guilds and unions, which obtained sub stantial wage increases in contracts negotiated with theatrical film producers last winter, allow their members to work for television for less money.) Eleven pictures were started during the week, five of them in color, and seven others were completed, bringing the over-all shooting level to 33. "Salome — the Dance of the Seven Veils,” Technicolor, co-stars the plentifully headlined Rita Hayworth and the almost equally headlined Stewart Granger. It is being produced for Columbia by Buddy Adler and directed by William Dieterle. MGM’s Joe Pasternak turned Technicolor cameras on “Small Town Girl,” wdth Jane Powell, Parley Granger, Ann Miller, Billie Burke and S. Z. Sakall in the cast directed by Leslie Kardos. "Equilibrium,” Technicolor, has Kirk Douglas and Pier Angeli in the cast directed by Gottfried Reinhardt and is the third segment in Sidney Pranklin’s truncated feature, “The Story of Three Loves.” Jack Cummings launched “Sombrero,” Technicolor, for MGM, with Norman Foster directing Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, Yvonne De Carlo and Vittorio Gassman. “Fair Wind to Java,” Trucolor, is being produced and directed for Republic by Producer-director Joseph Kane, with Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Victor McLaglen and Robert Douglas. Stanley Kramer Productions, releasing through Columbia, started shooting the stage success, “The Member of the Wedding,” with Kramer producing, Fred Zinnemann directing and with Julie Harris, Ethel Waters and Brandon DeWilde in principal roles. Matthew Rapf rolled “The Desperate Search” for MGM, with Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina, Keenan Wynn and Lee Aaker directed by Joseph E. Lewis. Producer-director Otto Preminger started filming “Murder” for RKO Pictures, with Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall and Barbara O’Neil. Alexander Paal Films, independent, began shooting “Man Trap” in London, with Paal producing and with Terrence Fisher directing Paul Henried, Lois Maxwell, Kieron Moore and others. Republic’s Rudy Ralston started “Desperadoes Outpost,” a Rocky Lane Western, directed by Phil Ford. Monogram’s Vincent M. Fennelly started “Hired Guns,” a Whij) Wilson western directed by Thomas Carr. THIS WEEK IN PRODUCTION: STARTED (11) COLUMBIA Salome — The Dance of, the Seven Veils (Technicolor) The Member of the Wedding IIJDEPENDENT Man Trap (Alexander Paal Films — London) MGM The Story of Three Loves (Third sequence— “Equilibrium”— T echnicolor ) COMPLETED (7) COLUMBIA Voodoo Tiger (Esskay Pictures, Prod.) INDEPENDENT The Glass Wall (Shane-Tors Prods. — U.A. release) MONOGRAM Guns Along the Border ( formerly Gun Smoke Range) SHOOTING (22) COLUMBIA .A.11 Ashore (Technicolor) INDEPENDENT Ruby Gentry ( Bernhard-Vidor Prod. — 20th-Fox release) Kansas City 1-1-7 (Assoc. Players & Producers — United Artists release) Gambler and the Lady (formerly “In the Money” — Intercontinental Films Prods. — Lippert release) The Black Pawn (Eros Films Ltd. — Lippert release) The Thief (Fran Prods. — United Artists release) MGM Naked Spur (Technicolor) I Love Melvin (Technicolor) MONOGRAM Hiawatha ( Cinecolor) PARAMOUNT Scared Stiff (Hal Wallis Prod.) The Desperate Search Small Town Girl (Technicolor) Sombrero (Technicolor) MONOGRAM Hired Guns REPUBLIC Desperadoes Outpost Fair Wind to Java (Trucolor) RKO RADIO Murder Yukon Gold REPUBLIC Tropical Heat Wave UNIVERSAL-INT'L Cattle Kate (Technicolor) WARNER BROS. Springfield Rifle ( WarnerColor) Pleasure Island (Technicolor) The Stars Are Singing (Technicolor) Road to Bali (Technicolor) REPUBLIC The Lady Wants Mink (Trucolor) RKO RADIO Blackboard the Pirate (Edmund Grainger Prod. — Technicolor) 20TH CENTURY-FOX The Farmer Takes a Wife (Technicolor) Niagara (Technicolor) UNIVERSAL-INT'L. Mississippi Gambler (Technicolor) Roughshod ( Technicolor) The Great Companions (Technicolor) WARNER BROS. The Desert Song (Technicolor) Big Jim McLain ( Honolulu) iiiBiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JUNE 28, 1952