Variety (Sep 1935)

R A,DIO SCREEN STAGE Published Weekly at 15i West 46tli Bt, New Cork, M. bf Varletr. Ino. Ajinual lUbscrlptKm, ft. Single coplea, It oeota. Eatered as aecond-claoi mstur December 22, ItOS, at tb* Post Office at New Tork, N. T., under the act ol M&rob t, 1871. COPTBIGHT, UI6, BK TAIUBTT, INO. ALL BIOHTS BEBEBTED Vol. 119 No. 12 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1935 64 PAGES 9 B'WAY FILMS-$380,000 Eoyd Gibbons Would Broadcast War from Neutral Tramp Steamer Floyd Gibbons may do a series ot pre-war broadcasts for either Gen- eral Foods or Colgate Palmollve Peet. Negotiations toward this end ■were still In the throes when Gib- bons sailed for Italy Saturday (31). NBC Artists Service Is serving as Bales contact for Gibbons In the pourparlers with the Benton & Bowles agency. Interest expressed by G.F, and C.P.P. in the Gibbons proposition has created a ticklish situation for Benton & Bowles, since this agency handles both accounts. Gibbons, whose prime ohjeo-t In eolncr over Is as correspondent for the Hearst newspapers, will be quartered tem- porarily In Roriie, and If war should break out with Ethiopia he will move on to Africa. Gibbons declared last week that the lack of the proper broadcast fa- cilities In Ethiopia could be over- come by originating his spiels from places outside the theatre of war. His idea is to fly on the day of the scheduled broadcasts to some coastal spot with a powerful short- wave transmitter. If this proved unpractical there would be nothing to prevent, said Gibbons, the char- tering of a neutral tramp steamer, equipping it with a shortwave transmitter, as was done in the case of the Byrd expedition, and moor- ing the boat to a convenient place on the coast of one of the Somali- lands. NEW REINHARDT SPEC AT MANHAHAN 0. H. The Manhattan Opera House, 34th street west of Eighth avenue, N. T., will return to legit during the fall. 'The Road of Promise,' a many-scened, large cast spectacle. Is slated for the spot by Meyer Welsgal, producer. Piece was written by Franz Molnar and adapted by Ludwlg Lewisohn. Has a Biblical background. Max Reln- hardt will stage. Manhattan formerly housed grand opera under the late Oscar Ham- mersteln. Among the spectacles shown there was 'Chu Chin Chow.' It virtually passed from the theatre list when the property was taken over by the Scottish Rite, a Masonic order. Rite has since disposed of the property. Extensive interior alteration will be required for the staging of 'Promise.' 'DE LAWD'S' THEATRE Lynchburg, Va., Sept. 3. Richard B. Harrison theatre, named for 'De Lawd' of 'Green Pas- tures,' has opened under Dan Wein- berg management. A portrait of the Negro actor will be unveiled in the lobby of the exclusively Negro house. Theatre scats 450, and is eqi'ipped for roaUshows in addition to films, Abyssinian *PrincessV , Yiddish Lecture Tour Princess Heshia Tarhanya, de spite recent charges that she was a Harlem housemaid well press- agented and not of royal Ethiopian lineage, is going on a lecture tour, with bookings set In Toronto, Mont- real, Toledo, Cleveland and Cin- cinnati. Tour starts in Toronto. During the past week the Abyssinian 'princess' gave two lec- tures. She has a 20-mlnute spiel in Yiddish, one of the reputed 11 languages she speaks. Both of last week's lectures were in Yiddish. Legit 'Maid's Radio Tie-Up For Road Tour Harry Moses, producer of 'The Old Maid,' figures on exploiting the road tour of the Pulitzer prize play with a paid radio campaign'. Idea would be to precede each local date with 10 one-minute announcements run olt at the rate of three a day and then on the night before the performance air a 15-minute recorded trailer in- cluding dramatic excerpts by the traveling cast. Show, with Helen Menken and Judith Anderson re- tained, leaves Broadway in Oc- tober for a coast to coast trek. Minute announcement would also be recorded and come in dialog form.' If Moses goes through with the plan, it will be the first time that a touring 'jgit production has made methodical use of radio on a com- mercial basis. $2 for a Lion The Hague, Aug. 23. Carl Hagenbeck's circus beasts were auctioned off at Haariem, near here, bringing prices that would about cover the nut for a day's feed for the animals purchased. A lion- ess went for $2 and a brown bear for $6, Next under the gavel was a sextet of polar bear.s, sold down the river for $150 to Burgers Zoo at Arnhem. Animals owned by Hagenbeck, circus man of Hamburg, Germany, were touring Holland with the Henny Circus, which rented them from owner. The-y were seized by court order at Haarlem and put on the block to settle an uncollected debt wMch Hagenbeck owed an un- disclosed firm here. Henny himself took advantage of the sale. He purchased the lioness and brown bear for coffee and cake coin. BEST WEEKEND IN SIX YEARS Rain and Chilly Labor Day Had B'way Looking Like New Year's Eve — Leg^it Shows Also S.R.O. and Nile Clubs Get Share MUSIC HALL'S $130,000 Nine pictures on Broadway this week will gross an e-stlmated total of clo'se to $380,000, bellevsd to be a record. Of this amount 'Top Hat' will garner )130,000 at the Music Hall; 'Anna Karenlna' 170,000 at the Capitol; 'Pago Miss Glory' f42,000 at the Strand; 'Two For Tonight' $28,000 at the Paramount, an^ 'Dia- mond Jim' $46,000 on its second week at the Roxy. Balance Is made up by four other theatres. A rainy and cool Labor Day turned Broadway into something closely resembling New Year's eve. In addition to the heaviest tourist trade since 1929, the bad holiday (Continued on page 53) GROPING FOR A NEW SHOW BIZ? Showmen aver that with the pass- ing of vaudeville as a staple box office Institution there is manifested some form of groping for a new type of stage show business. Just what It Is or will eventuate they don't know. The paradoxical manner In which orthodox variety entertainment is nivvlng, but rank amateurs come along and mop up, or the occasional radio name who also makes 'em shell out at the b.o.. Is enough In- dication to showmen that the pub- lic—without knowing Just what it want-s—is evidencing that it wants something on the stage once In a while if not regularly. All argument about fortunes hav- ing been built upon vaudeville are di.'<carded by practical theatre op- erators in key city situations be- cause their grosses tell the story. They can play straight plx at less admlsh and make m ^re profit than with big stage shows. Morrissey^s Plaint Will Morrlssey threatened to quit as Billy Rose's aide In readying 'Jumbo,' explaining there la no romance around the office because everybody gets paid off promptly each Satur- day, Job Golden to Bow New Play In On Sunday Despite Double Pay Colored Yaude in Balto With Ofays for Novelty Baltimore, Sept. 3. Flax Bros.' colored week-stand vaudfllmer Royal, which during summer has been straight films, re- verts to combo shows Friday (6). House will play $1,000 bills gen- erally, though will expand budget when . any colored name happens along. Regular policy will be for shows to be compose^ of colored presentations, preceded by two white acts of novelty classification. RKO Agents Now Top Book-Toters; Loew s 4 Weeks RKO franchise holders are once again the big shots of the vaudeville agency business after nearly four years in the No. 2 spot. Through a reversal of the vaudeville booking situation the RKO boys have ousted their Loew contemporaries from the top position. During the past four years, while the Loew ofllce possessed the pre- ferred vaudeville book, acts rated their Loew reps first, with the RKO book toters considered secondary or grouped with the Indle hoi pollol. The Loew agents 'owned' the acts In so far as they dictated their movements and usually selected their RKO and other agents for them. With Loew now cutting down to four weeks and RKO jumping to 12, the situation is Just the oppo- site. Acts are seeing their RKO agents first and the RKO boys are giving most of the Instructions. Thurston's Play Philadelphia, Sept. 3. Howard Thurston is planning a venture Into Broadway legit this fall. Magician says that he will back himself in a mystery-thriller called 'The Demon.' Show had a short try-out In Washington five years ago. Has a story by himself, with dialog by Seymour Brown and will require cast of about 14, two of whorn will be women. NO CONTEST Hollywood, Sept. 3. liing Crosby does not believe a crooner should be pitted against an opera Btar, Olndys .=!warthout, so he has notified Paramount he would like to withdraw from the cast of 'Jazz vs. Opera.' First Sunday legit show on Broadway, other than benefits, to be given since that type of perform- ance was legiallzed, will be the premiere of 'A Touch of Brim "♦one* (formerly 'AH Bow Down'), which John Golden has slated to debut at the Golden (formerly Royale) on Sept. 22. Manager disregarded the hurdle of double pay for Sundays set up by Equity and the stage- hands union. Golden has not decided whether the show win be given on sub- sequent Sundays but by opening on the announced date 'Brimstone' will eRcai>e conflict with other premieres, yeit will be enabled to play the full week, during which there are three or more premieres (iarded. 'Brim- stone' will not play the following (Monday) night, thereby keeping within the eight performance limit. Golden explained that he was never militant :n arguing for Sun- day shows, taking the position that such appearances were more a matter to be decided 'on by the players. He declared he asked each member ot the 'Brimstone' cast whether they had any scruples about playing Sunday and that thej; (Continued on page 63) Blind Negro Pianist Nixes Big lune Jobs For Home Town Honk Cleveland, Sept 3, Local bookers are losing sleep over Art Tatum, blind pianist and rage of the town, who doesn't care to sign a contract with anybody, at any price. Negro plano-pounder has been lionized by socialites and profes- sional musicians for the last five years, but can't be dragged away' from local Harlem honky-tonks. Boys like Vincent Lopez, Paul Whlteman, Ted Lewis, George Olsen who raved about his .ultra-modern- istic jazz rhapsodies once per* suaded him to go to New York. After a fling at the Onyx club, he got homesick and turned down every Broadway offer. Including records. '1 don't like big crowds or punch*. Ing a time clock,' Is his only an^ swer. Previewing an Act Unlriue twist and possibly an- other radio 'first' wlil be preview of The WestcrnerH, iiewcoruers managed by Ed Wolfe, on the Maxwell House Show Boat program this Thursday, Sept. 6. Act Is written into tho script fo^ the preview sfimplc, but does not be- gin regular broadcasts until Oct. 3, I'ubllc will be told 'this Is an ad- vance ta.ste of what we're bringing you.' iienton & Bowles is the agency,