Variety (Aug 1940)

BANDS Published Weekly at 154 West, 4Cth Street, New York, K. T., by Variety, Inc: , An»\ual eubscriptfon, |I0, Slngrle'coplea 25 cents. Eulered. Bs Secpna-class matter December 22, 1906, at tKa Post Office at Kew York, V., under tH« act of Maich 8, ,1879. 1 VOL. 139 NO. 11 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1940 PRICE 25 CENTS By HERB GOLDEN Itv theVfive weeks she's been In the strawhats this summer, Ann torio has broken attendance recoirds at t wo houses. Both previous itia rks, it so happens, were set by • Ruth thattertpn in 'Private Lives.' Miss "Corio, with understandable modesty, doesn't think this detracts' from La Chattertoh's reputiatioh. , 'It merely shows what a Grstring will do for you,!; she (j^bserves.. Not that she*s wearing her indis- pensable in legit. :Far f rOirii it- She's almost fully clothed, she declared. She wears a hula outfit. .Show has been 'The Barker.' . Miss Corio expatiated on her fu- ture and the' future of legit, in. her- tiriy \ dressing room in the , Eltinge, Ma* Rudnick's hurley bullpen on 42d , itreet,, N; Y., Jast week. ■ But. what Was she doing at the Eltinge in the inildst of a successfiil season of sum- iner stock? 'I had to take a week off to get new jpictures and costumesi for fall and I fligured there was no use wast- ,ing time inasmuch as the, strawhats •re such a fihanciai. sacrifice,' she ex^ plained. 'So when Mr. Rudnick bf- (Continued ori page 61) TO ARMY COIN Raze 'Oldest Playhouse' " ■ ;■ ■• Mexico City, Aug. 20. America's oldest existing play-: house, the Teatro Pn^ hereV which has been running , consecu- tively since 1752, Is to be razed and converted into an office building- The Principal operated.: as a legit until Feb. 29, 1931, when it was gutted by a fire that broke out during a midnight show, and claimed 12 lives. ^ The house has since been operated as. a cinema. CET NO CUFFO Now that the U. S.. Army has tagged the N. W. Ayer agency to handle its $250,000 appropriation for enlistment ballyhoo, the broadcast- ing industry is interested in know- ing how much of this, will be aU lotted to radio. Latter has hereto- fore given lots of free time for the same thing. Ayer received the designation last week in competition with sevieiral other agencies. ing Of 4,000 Recordings ' Billy Murray, probably the most popular of the bid-time, vocalists", has come out of a 12-year retirement to record an old favorite, 'It's the Same Old Shillelagh,', for RCA Victor's Bluebird records, Leonard Joy's or- chestra accompanies the.sihger. , Murray started in the early days of records in 1897, and between that , time and 1928 he recorded over 4,000 ;songs. Over 2,000,000 copies of his 'Casey Jones* were sold by Victor, Setting a hew high in popular rec- ords. The increasing popularity of old songs induced Victor to: bring Murray out of retirement. He may : be the prelude to a greater tise of old-tiine name favorites. Free appearances, by actors at po litical rallies, formerly a fairly com- rhon practice, will probably be barred this year. Although no offi- cial ruling on the matter has been made, it is indicated that the Asso- ciated Actors & Artistes of America executive committee in charge of benefits will nix all free appear- ances by actors, for any purpose whatsoever,, with the exception of those strlctiy for charity. Even ap- pearances for the latter will be okayed only if 15% pf the gross (Continued on page 22) JOE COOK, NOT ON SKATES, IN ICE SHOW ■ Joe Cook is virtually set for the Spnja Henle-Arthur Wirti ice show, to preem at the Center theatre, N. Y.. the latter part of September.^ Cook would be the . only' Broadway napie and the,-only member of the cast not on skates, Plan is 40 tag him 'King of the Ice' or some similar title to accentuate his in- experience on the slippery stuff. . Other talent for? the show includes Hedy Stenuf, Viennese gal now in this country, who was three times Olympic runner-.up and is making this her first appearance as a, pro; Caley Sisters, who are also, tutning, dropping tKeii; amateur status; Fptir Bi-uisers, European' male comedy troupe; • LaVetnfe- Busher7 gal who has skated • in numerous previous shows^. and Skippy Baxter, top male whizzfer. . , Leon Leonidoff .is staging and Norman Bel Geddes designing the productioi^. Peter DeRose; Mitchell Parish. Vernon Duke and Albert , Stillman writing- the tunes. .; First of Nationwide *yariety* . Surveys to P e t ermine Causes for Film Busihe^ Falling OfiF :^ DIVERS CAUSES Thirty-two million people, 'finan- cially able,' attend pictures less fre- quently than once a month,, Dr. George Gallup revealed 10 days ago. Varietv, in the interim, has had its rejwrters in- 35 key cities from coast to coast seek out representative mem- bers of the '32,t)00,000' and ask them: 'Why don't you go to. the movies?' First group of answers, in order of their importance, tote up like this: ■ .V'.; 1. Not enough good pictures. 2. Objection to double featuires. 3. Preference for sports,. both par- ticipating and as a spectator. ; 4. Preference for listening to the radio.. •.. . There are, of course, hundreds of other reasons in addition. Some a(re so specious and so seldom heard they , are scarcely worth : repeating, for even Paradise is reported to have its dissatisfied tenants. Then there (Continued on page 62) * a,,i: Of Clip Joints; Born of Bad Biz Hollywood, Aug. 20. . ■ , ZaSu Pitts makes her Broadway legit debut this autumn in 'OUr First Murder,' to be produced by RUssell Lewis from story by Torrey Chans- lor. . Robert Presnell is doing the dramatization. Miss Pitts played her first stage! role here this week at El Capitan theatre in Noel Coward's 'Hands Across the Sea.' WILLKIE'S AIR Bandleaders Hot For Americanism Songs on Platters started by the Gray Gordon-Blue- bird fecbrdirig of 'I Am An Ameri- can,' which broke the ice surround- ing putting patriotic tuneis on wax, maestros are. currently hopping oh the*bandwagon thick and.ifast arid- cutting any and all tunes with a patriotic flavor. Many, of course■ are confining thernselves to doing the current faves, 'American' and Irving Berlin's 'God Bless Arherica,' but others.are going back for World War 1-tunes and standard marches. . . Hpra has already cut-two musical: flag wavers for Co- lumbia and durfhg .the next week or so, will make four miorfe; He'll do 'Yankee Doodle Dandy,' hot ver- sion of 'Stars and Stripes Forever' with a jive pianp break by Frankie Carle, 'God Bless America' and 'I Am i!^h American:', 'Orrin Tucker made 'Your Flag and Mine' for the' same record: outfit.' Dick Robertson cut 'American' and 'Grand Old, Flag' for Decca. Barry Wood and Jack Leon- ard have made Berlin's hit ifoir pkeh. There are others still to-come, Dick Jiirgehs "will cut an anti-war tune titled 'Goodnight Mother' for Okeh. As y/eU as recording it Jur-' g6hs win attempt to Use. it; a 'a sign-- j off theme on.; his : SUstajnin.'? radio ^ broadca$t.s; The latter isn't likely to; I materialize, ,as there are. restrictions ' on the use of patriotic, tunes! oh the air. Radio circles confirm the general impression that Wendell L. Willkie as a radio personality suffers greatly in comparison with President Roose- velt. Opinions are based on the ac- ceptance speech by Willkie Satur- day (17) in El wood; Indiana; which was broadcast by all the networks. Willkie's acceptance speech, how- ever, got a rating of 37.8. from ihe Co-operative Analysis of Broadcast- ing! T.he percentage represents 21,- 000,000 homes. It's the largest, rating €iv0r recorded by the CAB^ori :a political speech. Gov. Alfred Lan- doh's acceptance spiel in 1936 gar- nered a rating of 28.5, and that was at 10:30 p.m. ' ; . CAB has never checked an accept- (Continued on page 52) CIRCUS-LOVING BANKER JOINS COLES AS CLOWN Bad biz that always accompan les clip-joints caused the clampdown; in Chicago and the police order New York, by Commissioner Lewis J., Valentihe, to fingerprint all nitery iemployes in Greater N. Y. It's been no secret around Gotham that taxi steerefs were rampant, with , more 'hostess joints* hi full swing the, past few,months. West 52d street, N. Y., the 'Moht- miartre of .America,* prides, itself 6n nothing shady in any of its more, than 20 bistros, cafes and restaurants that are jammed into the one street between 5th and 6th avenues. The 62d street bonifaces point to the ac- tion of one police captain not so long ago. He heard there was some mild clipping in one remote spot and forthwith ordered the cops to clean out the joint. In a few min-* utes the place was a shambles, with its bar, lurnitur^ and fixtures on the sidewalk and the management was ■dared' to raise a beef to any higher police authorities. That was an ob- ject lesson to the street once and for ail, just in. case the boys got careless.. ; What touched off Valentine's or- ; (Continued on page 55) Spokane, Aug. 20. Harper Joy, v.p. of a local bank ing concern, likes clowns and cir- cuses so well that he's joined the Cole Bros, show as a clown for a few stands •.', the; northwest. ■ Joy, former national prexy of the Circus Fans Assn., takes his annual vacations with one of the tent showS; A LA PKIURES Moe Gale, manager of the Cole- man Hawkins and Savoy Sultans orchestras, will borrow an angle from film exhibitors next month and offer one-night ballroom dps two bands at a time. Gale will couple the two above named crews and .send 'em on the road as a 'musical double-feature' for single dates, the outfits to alternate oh the stand. .Pair will tour the south and mid- dle west Starting Sept. 15. Both out- i-flts are. currently at the Savoy Ball- noor'n, New York, which la owned by Gale. . .■ : Horace Heidt Bobs His Schnoz For Pix • liol lywood, A ug. 20. Clark Gable i.s going to have;', nqthinjg on Horace Heidt when the ; band leader riiakes his film debut in' Jinimy Roosevelt's 'Pot .0' Gold.' | Stopover by Heidt at Chicago,, 6n ; ^ his way to the Coast, it wa.s revealed ; i upon ■hi.<; arrival here, ,was. to have . his hose bobbed. * Songplug Methods, frying Berlin's Idea Irving Berlin; as head of his own ;music publishing company, will in*, augurate a hew type, of songplugging which may become the keynote pC the general popular .music business in^ its defl j,6 the broadcasters. Ber- li states he will y recourse to Vaimctv-'s routes and enlist the plug- ging . cooperation of every, act and .band in hotqls, cafe.s, ballrooms and whatever vaudiviilC: and presenta- tion houses there are left, and - thus, in effect, go back to the yesteryear, pre-radio method of songplugging. Admitting this will.;:be a, more (Continued on page 59). i